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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 10h

I was (and am) much more perturbed by just the idea of barely concealed malevolence behind the pedestrian that no-one else clocks than I am the most perversely grotesque or brutal horror with *rules*.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 10h

Honestly, still creeps me out. Saw Candyman around the same time (let's not dwell on that) and it didn't phase me one jot.

Angelica Huston peeling off her face in The Witches

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zhinxy and 1 other @zhinxy.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

You NEED to read Gene Wolfe. It's GOOD for you. It's IMPORTANT for your BRAIN and/or SKELETON. Get a massive library of the best of sci-fi and fantasy master Gene Wolfe! Choose what you pay, and support Alzheimer’s Research UK with your purchase! www.humblebundle.com/books/ultima... via @humble

humblebundle.com

Humble Book Bundle: The Ultimate Gene Wolfe Library by Tor Books

Get a massive library of the best of sci-fi and fantasy master Gene Wolfe! Choose what you pay, and support Alzheimer’s Research UK with your purchase!

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dan mentos @danmentos.com · 22/09/2026

[job interview] interviewer: so god killed all your kids? job: that's right

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I had to look this up to confirm it wasn't real, you sure have our number

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AiredOnTVToday @airedontvtoday.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

35 years ago on September 28, 1991, TV show 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' aired episode "Darmok"

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Rick: "Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Dr. Strange: "But perhaps...in ANOTHER WORLD...they *do*."

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Although the "Dark Horse Full Plate" was a popular form of armory in tapestries, for most soldiers a quilted gambeson of layered individual single issues--many sourced from the bargain longbox!--would suffice, able to guard against slashing cuts. Often paired with a single Absolute Edition shield."

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Have Charles Vess for my Earthseas though.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm probably a bad bibliophile in this regard but I like to read the books I have (and have the books I read) so past a certain size and weight ratio they aren't as desirable for me as a good reading copy. Comics too--I'm a sucker for good hardcovers per arc or two than VAST OMNIBUSES.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I was listening to Gene Wolfe's Latro novels, about an amnesiac mercenary in the Greco-Persian Wars. It uses the conceit of being unreliable diary entries, where characters change names and relationships and you have to piece it together at times with big chronological gaps. Hard snoozing book.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I have young kids so I've switched to audiobooks a lot to increase my "reading" time (doing dishes, driving the car, etc) and that's disconcerting because it's hard to skip back to the precise point where you fell asleep. And it seeps into your dreams.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

It is extremely immersive, and it fits the pacing marvellously well. The Folio Society edition with the Charles Vess illustrations follows the model (see below) but the slipcase of paperbacks pictured above was $5 in a discount book store and it remains an absolute all timer for book bargains.

The Folio Society Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I weirdly struggled with Strange and Norrell in BIG TOME form (I once fell asleep and dropped it on my face, which did not endear me) but I found a *three volume* copy, aping the period format of the three volume novel of the era it depicts, and I breezed through it in about a day. It is very good.

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Contexts Magazine @contexts.org · 23/09/2026

What happens when economic change feels like a threat to masculinity? In Contexts, Dan Cassino examines how men’s political preferences change when the traditional breadwinner role becomes less secure. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/1536... #Sociology #Masculinity #Gender #PoliticalSociology

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70s Sci-Fi Art @70sscifiart.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Stephen Fabian, “Rhialto the Marvellous”

Black and white art of a woman shooting lightning from her hand at a cloaked figure on a cliff, while a shadowy dark face hovers over her.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Question you're really asking of every politician

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The key to unlocking this is the positioning of marriage in the era as a social duty to the public, not the fulfilment of a personal romantic relationship, you owe wider duties to society than having what you want. Resonates aggressively with people dealing with the hardship of war.

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Ibrahim Moustafa @ibrahimmoustafa.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

So cool that people are still finding this post nearly a year later 🙏🙌

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KateW @kateweb.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

New Susannah Clarke! Fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Piranesi - this may be news to you, it was to me.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Legitimately thought this was Michael Myers

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Puzzles. Vampires. Wizards. Horrors from the Beyond. Pathos. Puns. Redemption. Folklore. John Rhys-Davies. Jennifer Hale. You wouldn't want to say there's a single definitive Ur-Text for you as a person, but--

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J.A. Prentice @japrenticewrites.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

"How well did you know Bruce Wayne?" Play it cool, don't give away your secret ID. "Slightly!" Shit, too casual. He's supposed to have just died and Gordon was his friend. "I'll miss him..." No, too much. Can't let Gordon know there's a link. "I guess!" Nailed it.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It was IIRC in Dragon Magazine as a bit

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The crab is seized and lifted aloft, held overhead and away from the body by the carapace, waving his claws in the air. The victorious waiter marches to the kitchen as if parading the vanquished. The crustacean menace removed, my screams dull to ragged breaths. I am placed back down. Diners applaud.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Maitre d' eventually hatches a plan. More waiters are summoned. Four surround me, each grab a chair leg and *hoist* me, like the groom at a Jewish wedding. The crab, deprived of his fortifications, tries to run but the reinforcement waiters are made of sterner stuff. They *pounce*. Futile snapping.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Crab, now enraged and fighting with all the fury of the condemned, resists all attempts at extraction. Grasping hands are pinched. Muffled exclamations in Cantonese. Repeat. I am still panicking, tucked up on the chair, probably in hindsight unhelpfully. Whole restaurant watching the struggle.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

The young waiter *dropped* the crap with a surprised yelp. The crab raised both claws and bull rushed through their attempts to recover it, choosing with some prudent instinct to take shelter under my chair. My legs rocket up onto the seat, and I shriek. Pianist stops playing. Diners' heads swivel.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I remember both an older maitre d' and a young waiter attending the table and presenting the crab for inspection. Probably not that large, but when you are seven, large enough. They bound the crabs' claws with rubber bands for safety...but no safety mechanism is absolute. There was a 'snap' sound.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

When I was seven(?), my parents took me to a fancy Cantonese restaurant with some friends of theirs. Very quiet, dignified, lots of tuxedo wearing waiters. Also the type of place and in the era where seafood was chosen live from tanks. My parents order a whole crab, naturally brought live to table.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There will be pearl clutching if you say this "I'd never hurt anyone, I just believe," etc., but since we have reliable medical evidence that forcing trans people to conform with their assigned gender at birth is extremely hurtful, it's a dodge. To paraphrase the master, you can kill by fractions.

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Robert Mackenzie @robertmackenzie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Jumping off this to emphasise: "Trans ideology" is that trans people exist. Trans people *do* exist. You can meet them, some are on this very app! Ergo, opposition to "trans ideology" is opposition to the continued existence of a group of people. That's, in effect, a genocidal intent.

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