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Nathan Pensky

@nathanpensky.bsky.social
400 followers 849 following 302 posts

Writer. / First-gen CMU Ph.D. adjuncting at Pitt and Duquesne. / Host at Third Person Limited podcast. / Columnist at The Pittsburgh Review of Books. / He/him. First book, 'Cartesian Theaters, Shakespearean Minds': tinyurl.com/2pxhu7cu

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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Paige was really fun to talk to!
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Really enjoyed talking to George about his newest novel, 'The Blue Flame'.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
So was the whole thing with Geese supposedly being a psy-op just that they're a really good band, and people are just dumb and hate good music? Because that's what it seems like.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Ishiguro's 'Klara and the Sun' is absolutely unhinged. That has got to be one of the most tonally discordant book-to-film interpretations since that recent 'Animal Farm' abomination. Taika Waititi must be stopped.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
My favorite long-running joke is when Nardwuar poses at the end of an interview, as if for a picture, and just refuses to unfreeze. It is always the best thing I have ever seen.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
There will be a Nathan Fielder / Isaac Chotiner face-off, and then the world will end.
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The Handlen, The Zack, And The Crypt @zhandlen.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
His hair was perfect.
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Here's Episode 29: "Mike Vago Talks Books as Movies". (@mikevago.bsky.social) www.thirdpersonlimited.com/episodes/epi...
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Everybody's talking about Gen AI, when they should be talking about Jenn-ai Lewis, the talented and beautiful songstress and lead singer of Rilo Kiley.
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Kill Tim Faust 💀 @tbone.malware-virus.biz · 26/08/2026
my wife has a friend who sent Dolly Parton a painting she made & a letter explaining how much Dolly's music meant to her while she was transitioning. Dolly responded to it personally & paid for her top surgery. Sounds like an urban legend but it's real. I think we're going to more stories like this.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Music is terrible now. Actually terrible. Like what the hell happened? These are not the ravings of an old man (or I mean, they are, but that's irrelevant).
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HEALTH @health.band · 15/08/2026
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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
What a great person. There are good people in this world. I sometimes forget that. I’m grateful for this reminder.
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John Self @john-self.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
My new response when anyone asks me to do anything
~ No, sir, I am not obliged to do any more. No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life for himself.
-SAMUEL JoHNSON
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Here's Episode 28 of Third Person Limited, "The Maltese Falcon". www.thirdpersonlimited.com/episodes/epi...
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Mr. Joshua @pantspants.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I have a ton of short fiction I want to submit. Where should send it?
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
theonion.com
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
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28 Days Lehner 🪦 @danlehner.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
[Homer sits backwards on a chair] let me tell you about ANOTHER giant brute who was being beaten by Nobody
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I am flabbergasted by this whole Nolan/Wilson thing. Why, again, shouldn't Wilson be allowed to pan this (pretty blah) movie in whatever terms she wants, given she's one of the foremost authorities in the world on this text?
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
T.C. Boyle talks with us about point of view and narrative structure.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Here's Episode 27: "T.C. Boyle and the Black Eyed Peas". www.thirdpersonlimited.com/episodes/epi...
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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
🤷🏼
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Gingerspiced @gingerspiced.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset" U.S. Military: *suffers crushing defeat to the Persians*
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Trying to decide if I should a) try querying another agent, or b) hit myself in the face with a cast iron skillet, cartoon-style.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
I'll take any excuse to read through all of Hammett again.
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Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Fuck reading fees. Fuck submission fees. Fuck service fees.
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Dr. Christine H. Tran @thechristinet.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
It’s his day:
dril tweet: "This Whole Thing Smacks Of Gender," i holler as i overturn my uncle's barbeque grill and turn the 4th of July into the 4th of Shit”
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fangy @jeannesfangs.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
witnessing the birth of a new all timer post is such a beautiful thing
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Philip Goff @philipgoff.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
I am a qualia freak
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Mel Brooks @officialmelbrooks.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Thank you so much for all of your happy birthday wishes. Honestly, I don’t really feel 100. I feel pretty good. I feel like I’m only 98!
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Novelist Willy Vlautin talks with us about the capacity for fiction to teach readers how to empathize.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I really love the concept of potato salad, but I don't think I have ever had a good version of it.
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Tits McGee @scientits.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
‘Say yes and never do it’ Mel Brooks knew how to deal with the studios
You have some wonderful stories of basically getting away with stuff at the studios.

I’d learned one very simple trick: say yes. Simply say yes. Like Joseph E. Levine, on “The Producers,” said, “The curly-haired guy—he’s funny looking. Fire him.” He wanted me to fire Gene Wilder. And I said, “Yes, he’s gone. I’m firing him.” I never did. But he forgot. After the screening of “Blazing Saddles,” the head of Warner Bros. threw me into the manager’s office, gave me a legal pad and a pencil, and gave me maybe twenty notes. He would have changed “Blazing Saddles” from a daring, funny, crazy picture to a stultified, dull, dusty old Western. He said, “No farting.” I said, “It’s out.”That’s probably the most famous scene in the movie, the campfire scene.

I know. He said, “You can’t punch a horse.” I said, “You’ll never see it again.” I kept saying, “You’re absolutely right. It’s out!” Then, when he left, I crumpled up all his notes, and I tossed it in the wastepaper basket. And John Calley, who was running [production at] Warner Bros. at the time, said, “Good filing.” That was the end of it. You say yes, and you never do it.

That’s great advice for life.

It is. Don’t fight them. Don’t waste your time struggling with them and trying to make sense to them. They’ll never understand.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Willy Vlautin is one of my favorite writers, so it was an enormous privilege to get to chat with him here.
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Taco Bell Quarterly @tacobellquarterly.org · 14/06/2026
Just actually write down the things you are thinking. That's how you do it
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Queen Sansa @queensansastark.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Wow, Trump finally got a crowd to show up at the Kennedy Center.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
We really enjoyed talking with Ed. And this is only part 1 of our chat with him. We have another episode coming up talking about Ed's most recent book, 'Writing During the Apocalypse: Reflections on the Great Unraveling'.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
One of my least favorite things is when someone wears an article of clothing that is themed after their job or obsession. Like Neil deGrasse Tyson wearing a vest with planets on it or a famous chess player wearing a checkered shirt or whatever. It just feels insulting.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Rewatching Ari Aster's "Midsommer" (which is still incredible). People joke about its flower budget, but jeez what about its sunblock budget?
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
In Alice Martin's new novel 'Westward Women', American women begin feeling an uncontrollable urge to leave their jobs and families to migrate west. In our interview, Martin likens this urge to the cultural exhaustion felt by many in America in the 1970s, when the idealism of the 60s had worn off.
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Here's "Episode 23: Alice Martin, and Is Exposition Gendered?" www.thirdpersonlimited.com/episodes/epi...
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𝙉𝙤𝙞𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙘𝙠 ♬ @noirbeachshack.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Sonny Rollins plays his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge, 1966 📷 David McLane
Sonny Rollins plays his saxophone on the Williamsburg Bridge (Photo by David McLane/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images) 1966
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Rory Blank @roryblank.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Rise of The Machines
Fred Flentstone stands, hands on his hips, looking incredulously at Barney Rubble, who is at the corner of the panel barely visible. He appears to wearing tiny sunglasses.
"C'mon Barn, what's with the getup? and what is that on your head?" Fred asks.
"oh this, Fred?"
We now see Barney is also wearing a black trench coat and smoking a cigarette. A small bird is taped to the side of his head. "Just the latest in cybernetic enhancement technology- wired right into my brain."

The background dissolves and Barney stands next to a free floating diagram of a human body with several small birds going into it and says "we're entering a new age, Fred- the synthesis of man and machine as one flesh. This is the future. It's hack or be hacked."
Fred looks incredulous. 

The bird pecks Barney.

Barney puts his hands on his head and screams "the machines are turning against us! We have built God only for him to destroy us!" as the bird continues to peck at him.
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😈™ @cooltimesonline.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Went to an anti AI datacentre protest march today and a friend of mine got a picture that summed it all up
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Here Mason talks about reading the wrong translation of 'Crime and Punishment' in a class as an undergrad.
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Isaac G. Bryan @ib2real.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Thousands are marching in Selma calling for a full restoration of the voting rights act.
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Third Person Limited @thirdpersonlimited.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
In this clip, Nina McConigley (@ninamcconigley.bsky.social) talks about her new book 'How To Commit a Post-Colonial Murder' and the overlap between environmental extraction and colonial exploitation.
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Nathan Pensky @nathanpensky.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Nina, and her book, were really great. I highly recommend checking out 'How To Commit a Post-Colonial Murder."
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