Sign in

John MacNeill Miller

@snarlsdickens.bsky.social
1.9K followers 954 following 1.1K posts

Writer and former English professor. Author of *The Ecological Plot: How Stories Gave Rise to a Science* (Virginia 2024). Death positive. Interested in animals, environments, and all things Victorian.

PostsRepliesMedia
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“WASPS IN TOWER” Terrify W.A.S.P. in Tower (2027)
A White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) 
within a tower expresses territor at the idea of wasps in a tower
020
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
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."
257183484848
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Undertow Publications 🇨🇦 @undertow.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Announcing a new, occasional journal - PALE GREY IDOL. I hope you'll come along with us on this new venture. Info: palegreyidol.ca
Cover for PALE GREY IDOL. Featuring black background with maori art of a tribal mask. Yelloe and grey font colors. 

Hello Undertow Family,


It's my great pleasure today to announce publication of a new journal — Pale Grey Idol.


Pale Grey Idol will be an occasional offering. The impetus behind it is to give a home to stories that don't quite fit the needs or aesthetic of Weird Horror magazine.


Some of you may recall the first journal I edited, Shadows & Tall Trees. Pale Grey Idol is very much cast in that mold. A slim journal styled after those first issues of Shadows & Tall Trees, presenting curious tales of the ineffable. Back to our roots, as it were.


An aspect of this new venture that might sadden some of you is that I am not fulfilling direct orders for the journal. I'm sorry about this but hope you'll understand and still support Pale Grey Idol.


Our most precious commodity is time. And these days life is eating away at it in unpleasant ways. I've crunched some numbers, and compared fulfilling orders through our Undertow site with sales through distribution channels. There is a modest amount more that comes in via direct sales, but when I factor in the actual time it takes to fulfill orders, well, that negates that bump. In addition, there have been a number of things that have made fulfillment of both print and eBooks...challenging and vexing.


So I've set up a dedicated website for Pale Grey Idol:


PALE GREY IDOL


There you'll find information about forthcoming issues, submissions guidelines, where to buy* the issues, the newsletter sign-up, and contact information.


I am very excited about this new venture, and I do hope that you will support it if you are able.


PURCHASE





NOTE - It appears the print edition has only propagated to Amazon, thus far. It should be up on Bookshop, and Barnes & Noble soon.


Thank you all for your continued support and good graces.
510242
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Kenny Logins @kennylogins.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Unwinder
@unwinder.bsky.social
Generative Al has helped me to understand why, in Star Wars, the droids seem to have personalities but are generally bad at whatever they're supposed to be programmed to do, and everyone is tired of their shit and constantly tells them to shut up
May 10, 2025 at 1:21 AM
2922217
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Jacob Romanow @jakeromanow.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Biology is applied chemistry is applied physics is applied math is applied logic is applied English QED
051
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Shaenon K. Garrity @shaenon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Ambrose Bierce: Not a Furry.
A fashion has recently come in among the comic artists of getting great fun out of the lower forms of life. They have discovered and developed a mine of humor in the beasts and the birds, the reptiles, fishes and insects. Some of the things they make them say and do are really amusing. But here is where they all go wrong and spoil their work: they put upon these creatures some article of human attire—boots, a coat or a hat. They make them carry umbrellas and walking-sticks. They put a lightning rod on a bird’s nest, a latch on a squirrel-hole in a tree, and supply a beehive with a stovepipe. Why? They don’t know why; they have a vague feeling that incongruity is witty, or that to outfit an animal with human appurtenances brings it, somehow, closer to one’s bosom and business. The effect is otherwise.

When you have drawn your cow with a skirt she has not become a woman, and is no longer a cow. She is nothing that a sane taste can feel an interest in. An animal, or83 any living thing, in its natural state—is always interesting. Some animals we know to have the sense of humor and all probably have language; so in making them do and say funny things, even if their speech has to be translated into ours, there is nothing unnatural, incongruous or offensive. But a cat in a shirtwaist, a rabbit with a gun—ah, me!
34711
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
We must hold the Cornell 7 accountable now because if the last ten years have taught us anything, it’s that it’ll be a lot harder to hold them accountable down the road when they are Presidents, members of the cabinet, and Supreme Court Justices.
0193
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fuck ChatGPT flyers. The future is broadsheets.
A crowded broadsheet with way too many fonts. It says:
Forget ChatGPT Flyers
Say it with 
Broadsheets
Unlimited fonts
Stretch them
Or cram a really long sentence into one line for no good reason
No whitespace
Mix capital and lowercase
Pointing hands
(They're called manicules!)
Don't be left behind
Broadsheets are the future
205189675408
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“Writing isn’t as important as we think,” he wrote thoughtlessly.
0162
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Increasingly I think of the disruptions of our current AI moment, at least in education, as in some ways analogous to the disruptions of the peak of the pandemic—that time when the situation was clearly pervasive, persistent and dire, before any vaccine was available to partially counteract it.
184
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Increasingly I think of the disruptions of our current AI moment, at least in education, as in some ways analogous to the disruptions of the peak of the pandemic—that time when the situation was clearly pervasive, persistent and dire, before any vaccine was available to partially counteract it.
184
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Oregon 🕎🎲 @oregonthedm.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Most riveting thing I've seen all week
385113243077
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Nepobabies and rich kids aren’t bad on an individual level, but as groups they’re both problematic and significantly different—and each group requires different social and political solutions. That’s what I’m trying to suggest, at least, in this thread.
010
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Lingusitically, socially & politically, this is dumb. We should be clear re: the semantics of “nepobaby.” A nepobaby benefits from massive access to a *specific* field. A “rich kid” benefits from the removal of prior barriers to success in any field. Both are privileged, but the difference is real.
wsj.com
We’ve Reached Peak Nepo Baby. Every New Artist Is Hit With the Label These Days.
The term once referred to children of A-listers following their parents footsteps. It now includes artists with any kind of leg up.
161
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
[telling people what I work on] Wow that’s so interesting Not if I keep talking about it it’s not
823621
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
noam @noamchompers.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It is sorta a funny thing about philosophy that the questions are inherently fascinating and exciting—there’s a reason people wind up talking about this stuff in dorm rooms—and the best methods we have for investigating them involve being as tedious and pedantic and boring as possible
1028625
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Hey there. Latest story now available to read online! "Jempo." A maquinista out to advance her career encounters someone with a different approach to competition. A (relatively?) light story in terms of tone, for me. Hope you enjoy!
lightspeedmagazine.com
Jempo - Lightspeed Magazine
Jempo took a deep bow on the iron platform. His body flopped forward, limbs like thick braided wire. No obvious weapons in his large and rubbery hands. Little digital eyes and a bright smile that lit ...
34322
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Stephanie Insley Hershinow @sinsleyh.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
One of the best things I’ve read in a long time, an essay by my friend Sarah. pshares.org/issue-articl...
57426
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Mr Dr Bae @dallas-taylor.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New novella imprint dropped.
0105
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Eric Williams @geoliminal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
got my contributor copy of LOVECRAFTIAN PROCEEDINGS #6, which includes my paper "Transalting Weirdness: Farnsworth Wright, World Literature, and the Creation of Weird Fiction"
1104
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Ben Wurgaft @benwurgaft.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
announcing, well, a natural sensation - the new volume "Sensoria," from @humansandnature.bsky.social collects reflections on animals, humans, sensation and the natural world, and I am honored to have an essay on natural history museums in the mix: humansandnature.org/shop/sensoria/
humansandnature.org
Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature
Buy Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature, an immersion in the sensual experiences of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.
1114
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I’m not sure this kind of reporting is helpful—it just breeds a sense of hopelessness. (If you read a disastrous student paper, you don’t spend your time tracking all its many failures. You focus on a few practical, structural changes that can make a big difference and inspire a course correction.)
theguardian.com
‘Planetary boundaries’ necessary for flourishing of life have been massively breached, scientists warn
New report shows key indicators of Earth’s health are ‘outside the safe operating space’ as climate disaster looms
010
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Enjoying the new Cory Doctorow book on AI, but the one thing discussed in the book that I feel I have some expertise in (the definition of art) is treated in such an old-school Romantic way that I’m beginning to wonder how much I should be nodding along to all the stuff I don’t have any expertise in
040
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Garth Marenghi's Catbus @catbus.phd · 19/09/2023
pov: you're a regional cryptid about to have the worst day of your life
X Files publicity still of a backlit Mulder and Scully in trenechcoats looking sternly at the camera
322430655
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Rachel Banner @ishmaelcallme.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
back in the good old days, Emerson biographers used to acknowledge that it was extra-offensive when a young wife died a painful death if she was also hot.
1155
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The weird thing about Lovecraft is he was a rabid racist but the whitest guys in his fiction are…the most evil of men? Herbert West—surname West & Aryan man incarnate—is a total monster. The villain in “He” turns out to be the Euro settler, too. Feels like HPL’s stories were often wiser than HPL was
011
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Usman T. Malik @usmantm.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ted Chiang's fav writing quote is from her essay 'Write till you drop' "There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain because you have never read it on any page; there you begin. You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment."
015065
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
some news!
Publisher's Marketplace Deal Report, Sons  of Nod by Thomas Ha Imprint: Tordotcom, Imprint: Tordotcom. Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Thomas Ha's SONS OF NOD, a novella about a group of boys laboring to build machinery for a reckless corporation on a strange and desolate island, to Avery Davis at Tordotcom, with Ann VanderMeer editing, for publication in fall 2027, by Michael Curry at Donald Maass Literary Agency (world English).
7541261
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Susana Monsó @susanamonso.com · 16/09/2026
Excited BEYOND MEASURE for @edyong209.bsky.social’s new book!!
penguinrandomhouse.com
Life Beyond Measure by Ed Yong: 9780593733288 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Just as he did in his New York Times bestseller, An Immense World, Ed Yong expands our perception of nature, this time by revealing the astonishing ways living things operate at different scales. "A...
2144
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Matthew Harrison @matthewharrison.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
my mistress' dumps are nothing like a truck
194
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Dr. SkySkull @drskyskull.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is just a spectacular unintentional self-own
Dude on Threads: If you hate on ai, you better be pretty damn good at whatever you're doing
10065521391
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
’Twas Gemma, and the junk algos       Did prompt and process in the web: All flimsy were the chat windows,       And the meme stocks did ebb. “Beware the JabberBot™️, my son!       The slop that’s shite, the flaws that crash! Beware the Jubjub drift, and shun       The frumious data snatch!”
14311
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Made a band edible: Durian Durian
2112
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
introducing our revolutionary new technology. with the potential to show richer colour than any existing screen. battery life effectively infinite. it’s foldable. it’s thinner than you could imagine. it weighs next to nothing. introducing Papr™️
25919
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Agita Publishing @agitapublishing.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Our Black Ink: Pulp Stories from Black Newspapers series has been delayed until February 2027. But look at these covers! I think they'll be worth the wait. Covers by (L) Daimon Hampton, (C) Julie Anderson, (R) Maurice Buckley.
Banner at top repeats the name of the series.
12415
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Ashton Pittman @ashtonpittman.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Photojournalist Bill Biggart died when the second tower collapsed on him on 9/11, but the film he shot that day and his flash card were recovered from the debris and developed, along with his flash card. You can see his amazing photos of 9/11, the last photos he took while alive, here:
billbiggart.com
September 11th — Bill Biggart Photographer
291350524
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Discussing work all the time = shoptalk Discussing AI all the time = sloptalk
010
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Devin Garofalo @devingarofalo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Favorite collections of deep space / intergalactic / alien / sf poems? Along the lines of Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars or Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s Rocket Fantastic or even Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem? I would like some interstellar / celestial-terrestrial Earth poetry plz!
8108
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my renamed geographical features, ye Mighty, and despair!
070
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
OK, so AI can apparently solve the puzzles of the Navier-Stokes equation. But can it solve the puzzles of the universe, in the way that Einstein did? My latest news feature for @nature.com looks into the question of how far AI can go towards scientific discovery. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
The Einstein test: what happens when AI tries to rediscover relativity?
Scientists are probing whether language models trained on historical data can reproduce creative breakthroughs.
46019
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Center for Humans & Nature @humansandnature.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
We love this. Send us Sensoria photos. Dog photos, too! 📚 Happy pub day to our latest book, Sensoria! Readers in the US: www.humansandnature.org/shop/sensoria Readers outside the US: www.humansandnature.org/sensoria ⚡ Readers may also order Sensoria at bookstores via our distributor, Ingram.
humansandnature.org
Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature
Buy Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature, an immersion in the sensual experiences of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.
012
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Thomas Ha @thomasha.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
[me, playing with my kids]: fantastic raw data for novel, great foundation for world design
36210
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It’s the release day for Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature from @humansandnature.bsky.social! Tilly is excited to crack open her copy. I hope she enjoys my little contribution to the anthology…
A small brown dog sits on a white couch, perched just above a copy of Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of NatureA shot of the first page of “Our Time Is Limited,” an essay in the anthology Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature
031
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
19th Century Theatre Caucus @19ctheatrecaucus.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Hello Bluesky! This is @lerikscline.bsky.social writing on behalf of the 19th Century Theatre Caucus. We're excited to share and repost publications, events, and news of interest to caucus members and other lovers of nineteenth century theatre and performance.
099
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Elephant Mastodon @emath.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Literary fiction is coming. It is going to revolutionize the economy. We know that China has already got a start on literary fiction. We can’t afford to be left out of the literary fiction economy. Think of your kids. They might already be engaging with literary fiction.
131315349
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I wrote about being torn between academia and wilderness, scholarship and nature. And hunting deer, and Austyn Wohlers' great novel Hothouse Bloom. William Cronon and Alyssa Batistoni. And the way a river flows to the sea. www.thenation.com/article/envi....
thenation.com
How a Creative Mind Lives In Nature
Working in the wilderness could not satiate my intellectual impulses. But for the protagonist of Hothouse Bloom, the binary between mental and physical labor is what calls her.
1812134
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Academia used to be so wild. I mean, William James had no Ph.D. & had taken years off after undergrad (to be sad in Europe) & Harvard was just like “You’re pretty smart—maybe be a professor here?” WJ was like “I’ll give it a shot” & modern psychology was born. Anywho things no longer work that way
060
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
Devin Garofalo @devingarofalo.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
GREETINGS.
Cover of my forthcoming monograph, Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Cosmologies of the Human, featuring an image by John Ruskin of ferns, moss, florals, and rock in shades of sage green, teal, and lavendar.
1816030
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
THUNDER, a true and terrifying story (starring Tilly Miller)
Photo of a small brown dog huddled under a bed during a thunderstorm
1120
Reposted by John MacNeill Miller
John MacNeill Miller @snarlsdickens.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Pittsburgh-area friends! I’m very excited to be speaking at this event in three weeks celebrating the release of Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature. If you’re interested in attending, please click through to read more and RSVP! #envhum
penguinbookshop.com
Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature
023