iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 12m

It’s an extremely different book so I don’t think that specifically will set you back.

Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 3h

“We can’t ever really know” just doesn’t seem very exciting, original, or insightful as a governing idea but the execution of this version of that idea is meticulous.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 3h

King and court in the past - are both highly readable and elegant. I guess I don’t really get the rave reviews but as one reviewer also wonders, maybe I missed something?

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 3h

I am not sure what I think about May We Feed the King. Hmm. I mean, historiographical metafiction is hardly new, and the idea that we can’t just reconstruct the past in any absolute reliable way is not revelatory. But the tactile details are wonderful and the two parts - curator in the present,

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 5h

And at least it’s a long weekend so I can cocoon until I feel better.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 5h

Still grateful but holy smokes worst symptoms I can remember having from these (aches chills painful injection sites) - I hardly slept. Maybe getting them both at the same time isn’t ideal. 😞

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 22h

So far my flu arm is achy but my Covid arm feels fine.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 23h

Fred also goes after stray pens, although usually only if they are on the work surface I am using.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Jabbed! Grateful that the flu and Covid shots are free and accessible to everyone here.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Woke up to find that Fred had waged war against one of my spiral notebooks. (Something about them always provokes her!) It survived to fight another day but she won a battle against one page of notes. My mistake was leaving it open near one of her favorite chairs. 🙃 😬🐈‍⬛

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

But in general I strongly agree and wish there was enough recognized demand that those of us who would be willing could supply some alternative kinds of coverage.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I think Bookends has been pretty good though the books discussed vary widely.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

How am I so flattened after class that I feel like my work day should be over but it's only 1:30.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I guess since it was only official in 2025 I shouldn't be surprised that it's not all sorted in my head yet (especially after 31 years married!).

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If anyone has a magic formula for know what emotional baggage to let go of and how to let go of it after divorce I'm here for it. 🫤

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Over and over it seems to come back to confusion over the value of the “product” vs the process - here as with that sad fellow who thinks an AI agent can take over reading to his kids. The point is not “they get read to” but that you read with them.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

As someone who loves teaching "Mary Barton" I am not so easily confused. 😁

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I am fascinated by this proclaimed standard by the early Virago editors!

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

At any rate, I do not buy Susan Hill’s claim, quoted on the cover from a review (so, not just a blurb), that it is “a masterpiece .”

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

My book club chose F. M. Mayor’s The Rector’s Daughter and I’ve just finished it. Hmmm. Is this another one that, without being outright bad, falls below Virago’s “Whipple line”? It has interesting aspects but seemed quite random and awkward to me overall.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

People with power will say all the proud and admiring things and then just keep on cutting the arts and humanities.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

"Our mental business is carried on much in the same way as the business of the State: a great deal of hard work is done by agents who are not acknowledged." GE, Adam Bede

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Question period in parliament is a bit chaotic sure, but imagine if US Presidents had to go through something like it instead of sycophantic displays at cabinet meetings and press conferences with zero pushback.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Lovely colours! Ours are turning too, but something is amiss with the maple trees this year so they may not be as brilliant apparently.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I probably won't be able to resist jumping in occasionally as you make your way along. 😊

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm trying to stay out of your threads on this novel b/c I am so close to it after teaching it for decades but yes, this chapter. 😭

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Reposted by Rohan Maitzen

The TLS @thetls.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Rohan Maitzen on Rose Tremain’s reimagining of Rebecca, and a new way of seeing the terrifying Mrs Danvers; Jamie McKendrick reads his poem, ‘The Importance of Time’

the-tls.com

Manderley Revisited

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"In October, as regularly as the leaves fell, she began the winter habit of reading her favourite novels for an hour before dinner, finding in Trollope, Miss Yonge, Miss Austen, and Mrs Gaskell friends so dear and familiar that they peopled her loneliness." F. M. Mayor, The Rector's Daughter.

static.klipy.com

Taylor Swift Raises Hand: 'Yep That's Me!'

ALT: Taylor Swift Raises Hand: 'Yep That's Me!'

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thank you Lyn! You are having such a good time retired, it's an inspiration! :-)

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thank you so much, Molly! I feel irrationally upset at the thought of someone else getting to teach my favorite classes.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

It’s definitely preferable -and a privilege - to be doing this voluntarily and more or less intentionally!

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thanks, Valarie. Yes, the thought of yet more upheaval was daunting, but at least this is a choice! And I have the rest of the year to wrap my mind around it.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

A wise person suggested approaching the initial period like a "gap year" which takes some of the pressure off trying to figure it all out.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Thanks, Helen! It's so weird to imagine.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Yes, well, they really need folks to go, so they "incentivized" it.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"We believe that this is what someone should have to do" is a recipe for arbitrary and inconsistent decisions and also just plain unfair to the person making their case based on the stated policies and standards. 10 years later it still rankles!

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I had occasion to leaf back through my unsuccessful promotion application today and am furious all over again that a key committee just ignored the collective agreement and departmental guidelines for T&P and made up their own standard - and nobody higher up was willing to rule them out of order.

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Across from the VG. So the added bonus of extra sirens and helicopters very nearby!

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Superb review by Elizabeth Lowry of Hermione Lee’s new biography of Anita Brookner in the new @thetls.bsky.social (I wish they enabled gift links!)

the-tls.com

One of the happy few?

How writing freed Anita Brookner from despair

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Rohan Maitzen @rohanmaitzen.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yes I've really noticed along south st this summer. The souped up cars with their incessant backfiring, the revving motorcycles, the heavy trucks.

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