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On Viewless Wings

@onviewlesswings.bsky.social
3.1K followers 5.4K following 3.7K posts

Writing, reading, running, teaching. Poetry PhD. Am actually writing. Interested in the amplification of working class voices, northern voices, & kind & talented voices. Writing, I swear. Meliorist, still.

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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 20h
I was state school to Oxbridge, mid-90s. Free; full grant. Classism was certainly there, but I had a great time. My students who have gone to Oxbridge - around 100 over the yrs - have had really positive experiences & also negative ones. I know binary opinions rule on social media, but there it is.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 21h
I have a lot of thoughts about this, both as a former state school pupil who attended one of the more 'old school' universities, and as a state school teacher whose role involves supporting students in the process of doing the same. But basically: good article. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
To state school alumni starting university, I say this: be proud of your background | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Accusations of classism chime with my experience 20 years ago. So all hail the Bristol graduate awarding state schools red plaques, says Guardian columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 23h
Yes, that's my favourite.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Typos and errors regarding author names I've encountered when marking essays today, but which I quite like: Saliva Plath F. Scott Fitzgerlad Anthony Beegees.
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Gillian Martin @gillmartin.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The book is Guards, Guards by Terry Pratchett. His description here perfectly prefigures the recruitment process for ICE agents :
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This is like Caspar Friedrich's Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (see my profile pic), except shit.
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Miranda Keeling @mirandakeeling.com · 04/10/2026
In reflection, these leaves fallen across a puddle, have found a way back into their parents’ arms.
A photo of a puddle in the woods, with leaves across the surface and reflections of the trees they fell from.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Mark Kermode's review of the film was "Eat. Pray. Love. Vomit."
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
All the best decisions I have ever made have been ones where I have initially thought: is this a really crazy idea?
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I miss Terry Pratchett
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Tig here in Yorkshire.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Tig in this corner of Yorkshire.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Tories really believe there is a straightforward relationship between how much you earn and how hard you work.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My son was once handed down from a relative what were ever known as his hammertime trousers.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Working Days, & The East of Eden letters - published editions of the diary entries/journal entries/notes to his editor he wrote during the writing of The Grapes of Wrath & East of Eden, are fascinating. He was so full of doubt, assailed by his own perceived lack of ability. It is oddly comforting.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This here atheist honestly thinks he is on basically the same page as the Pope when it comes to AI, and that the Pope articulates it very well.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Me too.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Great stuff
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
None at the moment, but whenever I encounter a Heaney poem on here or elsewhere, I just think: my God, that man could put words together.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I've long felt that the age at which we receive the state pension shouldn't be decided by people who work in offices. Also, I think we'd have a clearer sense of what to value if we saw the effect of billionaires leaving the UK & compared that with the effect of no-one emptying our bins for a year.
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Benjamin @benjaminschneider.ch · 01/10/2026
just came across this incredible picture of Terry Pratchett
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Sixth Form where I work has rolled out AI coaching. It's compulsory. Record a lesson or part of a lesson, the AI 'coach' gives feedback based on the audio, and your performance targets are based on it.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I hate this. Bloody hate it. And it and its ilk are everywhere. Enshittification. Heller's authenticator app. Kafka's are-you-a-robot. Rage against the rising of the shite.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I bloody love this film. And Postlethwaite. I directed a school production of it about 20 yrs ago, with the kids whose faces didn't fit for the big school production (Joseph or somesuch). Pared down; gritty; 5 Yr 9s playing a brass section. So bloody powerful. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oc...
theguardian.com
‘I thought Brassed Off might be popular within a 10 mile radius of Barnsley’: the director of Andy Burnham’s favourite film on its 30 year anniversary
Ahead of a live performance in the Royal Albert Hall, the writer Mark Herman explains why he’s not surprised it’s one of the new Prime Minister’s favourites and a why film like this wouldn’t get made ...
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Dustin A. Chacón @lingdustin.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:
Screenshot of a Tweet from Pope Leo XIV. It reads: 

"In this era of artificial intelligence, it is becoming urgen to distinguish human art from what machines produce. There is an ontological difference, even before an aesthetic one, between art and what a machine can generate through statistical calculation based on millions of images created by others. Algorithms lack the spark of humanity. For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity."
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I was wondering if you'd read the novella 'A Month in the Country'? If not, I think you'd really like it.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It made me think of Chatterton too.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I really like this.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Breaking news from Audible in my inbox this morning. Big if true.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I sometimes show my students McGonagall's Tay Bridge Disaster when we are discussing what we might mean by 'quality' in poetry, as an example of what is sometimes in teaching known as a WASOLL (What A Shit One Looks Like).
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Yes. The Tories were canny in agreeing to the Lib Dems' condition of a referendum on ER as part of the 2010 coalition, then made it on AV, (to my mind is less preferable than PR), but it meant that when the vote went against, they could bat away calls for PR because 'we've had a referendum on ER'.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Taught a student once whose brother was born in a different year...
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I hope gaol time is part of the Man City conversation. This is organised crime.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Could be American, so a handbag
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
On a related note, having started teaching in 2002, when will I stop drastically underestimating how long it will take me to mark a set of essays?
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
least 'hamartia' has regained its place as the answer to the question: what is the most famous 'H' associated with tragedy.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I am sad to report that, after long years of it being on the wane, when i first mention the word tragedy to my Year 12s, none of them do a little dumb show of the Steps dance move. It used to be half the class. For the last couple of years, two or three. This year: none. But at
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Which is why I said in relation to his club career. Goals scored for City, trophies won for City, and so on.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
These are the kind of stats which, in relation to his club career, are going to have a cute little asterisk beside them in the future.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
My favourite line of literary criticism comes from Empson, who wrote: "You must rely on the individual poem to show you how it is trying to be good." I use it with my students, & have also found it to be a useful piece of life advice, if you extrapolate it to a moment, or a situation, or a day.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It was rumoured for many years that cornflakes were created to prevent masturbation. It's not quite true, but Kellogg did believe a bland diet would dampen what he would probably have deemed unchristian urges.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Whenever I see people arguing against the value of arts and humanities degrees, my main takeaway is always: these people could really do with having studied an arts or humanities degree.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Coriolfuckinganus.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I think it's Man Utd fans having their own 'it's all about us' fever dream.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
#ManCity I recall a runner talking about finding out via text in Asda that she'd won a European Championship medal, because a runner ahead of her in a race 15 yrs earlier had been doping. No podium moment. No way of knowing where success might have led. There might be a lot of that about.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
True thing: people performatively enjoy saying "never heard of [thing/person]" as if it is some kind of flex. Also true thing: such people get right on my tits Also also true thing: it was only a week ago that I first heard of "choosing Texas".
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Mark Kermode's review of this film was: Eat, Pray, Love, Vomit.
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Translation: I'm a nepo baby who behaves like shit towards people who, unlike me, have actually worked to gain employment rather than having it handed to them on a plate, and I enjoy putting their employment at risk.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I keep coming back to this clip against the background of AI companies infesting higher education. And I feel like I need to show this in class to students, for them to understand why not to trust these bastards
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On Viewless Wings @onviewlesswings.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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