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Olivia Smith

@oliviasmith.bsky.social
963 followers 453 following 718 posts

Early modernist. Thinking with literature and science about natural history, big emotions, cognition. I like working in archives, or do I mean hiding?

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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 18h
Ok, nice to glimpse everyone, I'm going back to my hermitage.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 19h
I walk past this house all the time, dusty and unattended, but very beautiful; set back from the road. It has recently been for sale. I love IM and also the quiet pace of these paintings and their magic energy all a secret for years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
'A thrill' to find unknown Iris Murdoch artwork in Oxford attic
An expert on the author describes discovering 80 unknown works by the writer in Oxford.
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Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Hell I'll take any excuse to share my favorite Gerard Manley Hopkins poem and one I have had memorized for 30 years and say to myself in bed when I'm awake at night.
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
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Chet Scoville @chesterscoville.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Never realized the Life of the Mind was a thing I’d have to pursue discreetly in the corner, like a teenager sneaking a cig.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
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Philip Clark @musicclerk.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
British and European readers go here - www.orionbooks.co.uk/titles/phili...
orionbooks.co.uk
Sound and The City
From Gustav Mahler to Laurie Anderson, from John Coltrane to Lou Reed and hip-hop, Sound and the City immerses readers in the sounds and music of New York Ci...
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The best is probably what I left out, which was his love of P.G. Wodehouse and him telling me off the record how he did little walks in LA and London to visit places Wodehouse had mentioned/visited. He was very insistent that our conversations about Wodehouse were not to be mentioned.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Does anyone nearby have spare 'eclipse glasses' I could have?
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Actual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Birdie Hatcher www.findagrave.com/memorial/765...
findagrave.com
Birdie M Hatcher (1918-1996) - Find a Grave...
Find a Grave memorial for Birdie M Hatcher born 4 Apr 1918 and died 24 Jan 1996. Buried at Nashville National Cemetery, Madison, Davidson County, Tennessee, United States of America, North America
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Matthew Sims @philosobio.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Interesting new paper on cellular memory - link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Of what is “cellular memory” the name? Perspectives across the life sciences - Biology & Philosophy
In contemporary life sciences, memory is increasingly attributed well beyond its paradigmatic uses in psychology and cognitive science.Immunological and epigenetic memory are among the best-known unco...
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
90s techno is the most effective giant spreadsheet music
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Tired lady with gsoh seeks funny thing to watch on tv… any suggestions?
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Thinking of doing a completist Shakespeare film watch (as in, all the plays). What are your favourites?
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Thinking of doing a completist Shakespeare film watch (as in, all the plays). What are your favourites?
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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Just read a commenter explaining that British children's top three fears in the early eighties were: rabies, quicksand and the Bermuda Triangle. This is TRUE.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I’ve got my jumper on and I’m so happy. Oh ye gods of the weather please never let me have to be so hot again. I pledge myself to a life of devotion to my hot water bottle.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Shall I compare thee to a summer‘s day?
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I am upstairs in the house, closing and then quickly opening each door in turn like an amdram Nosferatu. That has been proven to work, right?
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
I love these transcripts sometimes
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This was in my bag and none of the usual suspects put it there.
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Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your paws for a hundred miles through the afterlife repenting. You only have to let the soft bear of your body love what it loves.
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 17/06/2026
very sportsmanlike of England to wait until the entire nation of Croatia has arrived near the box before attempting to score
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Actual names @actualnames.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Max Sex United States, Census, 1930
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
What’s the best way to get rid off quite a lot of expensive academic books?
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Have had to reset so many passwords today. We're down to the surnames of people I once had lunch with; pets in law thrice removed; my neighbour's strimmer brand.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
When those of us with not just north-facing but north-minded, north-souled rooms can smile.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Some people perusing my ‘free please take’ are discussing how My Year of Rest and Relaxation is like The Yellow Wallpaper and I want to open the fourth wall of my front door and say ‘what a good point’
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
My cousin's theatre (she manages it) show is coming to Oxford. It's called Perfect Show for Rachel. www.oxfordplayhouse.com/.../perfect-....
oxfordplayhouse.com
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
@jacovides.bsky.social so nice to ‘see‘ you again!
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Peter Mitchell @pdkmitchell.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
We had some really cool feedback from people about our @thewhale1851.bsky.social episode on Ch 9: The Sermon, which explores the scriptural story of Jonah. It turns out this chapter means a lot to loads of people, as does Jonah - a book for prisoners, miners, exiles, people in the belly of the beast
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Moss Mimic would make a lovely poetry pamphlet title.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
How do you guys like to relax before the busy workday? Because I like to chase my long-haired cat around in a makeshift hazmat suit with a sponge and some scissors. iykyk
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
They’ve put my council tax up by 5%, argh. Just so they can buy more rats.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
What is that film, the title maybe a city name, maybe a Polish film, where a pair of people have such a queasy love bond they end up going mad. She has blonde hair and is a dancer.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Very confused listening to someone talk about a pit bull crossbred with a mollusc, until I realised it was short for ‘molossus’ — an intimidating guard dog like a mastiff.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
How is this even a thing?
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Dr Jill Whitelock @jillwhitelock.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
The smell of old books. ‘Quite a small piece of Fenugreek would make your Bible smell like a ripe cheese.’ Humphrey Gilbert-Carter, Director of @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social to Harry Creswick @theul.bsky.social, identifying a plant in a 15th-century Bible as Helichrysum stoechas. Inc.1.A.7.2[860]
A letter from Humphrey Gilbert-Carter to Harry Richardson Creswick, 3 May 1927, containing a pressed plant with yellow flowers.A letter from Humphrey Gilbert-Carter to Harry Richardson Creswick, 3 May 1927, containing a pressed plant, on top of a 15th-century Bible.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Would you be interested? Spotted by a friend in London
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Nik Gunn @nikgunn.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
New post! I take an in-depth look at Seamus Heaney's Beowulf, alongside forays into Victorian translations by William Morris and the brilliantly named Athanasius Diedrich Wackerbarth. This is based on an undergraduate lecture I gave at Oxford in 2020. nikolasgunn.co.uk/2026/02/09/o...
A copy of The Translations of Seamus Heaney on a wooden surface.
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
I haven't seen the new Wuthering Heights film, but the main thing is I'm so excited for my childhood friend, also called Olivia, whose music was used for its keynote song! www.instagram.com/oliviachaney...
instagram.com
Olivia Chaney on Instagram: "“If you had asked me which literary adaptation I would most have wanted my music to feature in, it would always have been Wuthering Heights. It’s my favourite novel. It fe...
170 likes, 14 comments - oliviachaneymusic on February 13, 2026: "“If you had asked me which literary adaptation I would most have wanted my music to feature in, it would always have been Wuthering He...
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Sarah Pyke @sarahpyke.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Happy Valentine’s ♥️
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
All Valent's Eve This knowledge is now mostly lost, but it used to be understood that when you get a Friday 13th directly before Valentine’s day (14th) a number of unusual spirits awake. These are just a few of them:
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
All Valent's Eve This knowledge is now mostly lost, but it used to be understood that when you get a Friday 13th directly before Valentine’s day (14th) a number of unusual spirits awake. These are just a few of them:
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Well, I tried the dreaded cgpt and it is worse than my worst friend's worst boyfriend for being a pathological liar wrapped up in unconvincing charm. 'Yes, I'm sure these are the only types of panther: red panther, socks panther, glue panther! Oops, I did go home with Annabel. Let me try again!' etc
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Victoria Moul @victoriamoul.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
This week I’ve written about lists in manuscripts and a previously unpublished poem from 1642 which is probably by Abraham Cowley. A full draft edition of this poem is available in a linked post for paid subscribers, with extracts for all in the main essay.
open.substack.com
With hope into the lists: Cowley on the eve of civil war
Featuring a previously unpublished poem probably by Abraham Cowley
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
'Across Europe, unnecessary lighting is being extinguished' - I love this. Let's give everything a rest from our overambitious, rhythm-warping glow. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘The normal should be darkness’: why one Belgian national park is turning off ‘pointless’ streetlights
The radical project is an attempt to preserve wildlife in one of Europe’s most light-polluted countries, but can they persuade local people they will still feel safe?
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Olivia Smith @oliviasmith.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
I always imagine men called Noah secretly enjoying this weather, subconsciously sensing a quest afoot.
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The Whale Pod @thewhale1851.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
🐳 EPISODE 1 🐳 A brand new podcast about a book about a fish is out now. @leighsus.bsky.social (who's never read a book) and @pdkmitchell.bsky.social (who's read loads) discuss Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, chapter-by-chapter. Listen free on Patreon or wherever you get your podcasts.
patreon.com
Episode 1 - Loomings | The Whale Pod
Get more from The Whale Pod on Patreon
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