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Aran Ward Sell

@aranws.bsky.social

Contemporary Irish lit, modernism, weird fic, environmental lit. "Streams of Damaged Consciousness" coming 2027, @syracuseup.bsky.social Writer & critic. Music: Writhe & Succumb, Prophet Rossi. Cite as Ward Sell, not Sell.

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Aran Ward Sell@aranws.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Polling really is just name recognition eh. Justice for Allosaurus. I think -- and would be genuinely fascinated to know -- that Diplodocus would score significantly higher in the UK, due to the former star exhibit of the London Natural History Museum.

David H. Montgomery@dhmontgomery.com · 4mo ago

A shocking new poll result: Many Americans somehow don't have a favorite dinosaur. And only 6% give the correct answer (triceratops). Check out YouGov's new polling on Americans and dinosaurs: yougovamerica.substack.com/p/whats-your...

A split bar chart of YouGov polling data with the headline: "Americans are most likely to say T. Rex is their favorite dinosaur, but many don't have a favorite." The chart has the sub-headline: "Which of the following is your favorite dinosaur? (%)." The chart has the note: "Note: "Other" includes responses of archaeopteryx, spinosaurus, plesiosaur, ankylosaurus, allosaurus, parasaurolophus, dilophosaurus, diplodocus, iguanadon, and pachycephalosaurus, as well as responses of "other." We know pterodactyls and plesiosaurs aren't dinosaurs. Opinion about dinosaurs comes from the question, "How much do you like or dislike dinosaurs?""
sean guynes@guynes.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"You did it! You crazy son of a bitch, you did it!" An essay in which I write about James Gurney's illustrated utopian adventure fiction novel DINOTOPIA: A LAND APART FROM TIME and tell you why it's pretty fucking awesome. Plus, images of lots of Gurney's art, including his sff covers from the 80s!

Reading “Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time” by James Gurney (Dinotopia 1)

James Gurney’s Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time (1992) is an incredible illustrated utopian novel of an adventurer’s arrival and education in a land where dinosaurs and humans live sid…

seanguynes.com

Aran Ward Sell@aranws.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The phrase "stick a fork in me, I'm done" expresses the ethos of sceptical inquiry: the listener is not invited to believe the speaker's central assertion, but to immediately test it for themselves.

Aran Ward Sell@aranws.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I said lately, after seeing True Detective Night Country ep.1, that I must have a low CGI Animal Tolerance (CGIAT). See also The Green Knight: I struggled to look past that odd, glossy fox. Theory: CGIAT is a cilantro-gene where artists don't realise how much it sticks with certain viewers.

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I really liked Starfleet Academy. Good throughout, sometimes even great. Classic trek themes with some welcome refreshing new stuff. But that humpback whale in episode 2 is the worst CGI I’ve seen in the 21st century and I can’t get it out of my head.

Aran Ward Sell@aranws.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Belatedly and delightedly caught up on this exceptional discussion of style in science fiction from @strangehorizons.bsky.social / @danhartland.bsky.social . Great stuff. (props for including a transcript; I didn't have to stop walking every five minutes to take note of my new favourite bon mot.)

Strange Horizons@strangehorizons.bsky.social · 5mo ago

NEW PODCAST ALERT! This week we have a new episode of Critical Friends for you! This time out Dan Hartland discusses style in SFF with Paul Kincaid and Dawn Macdonald! What do you think about style? Why does SFF have such a fraught relationship with it? Link ⬇️ strangehorizons.com/wordpress/po...

Critical Friends The Strange Horizons SF/F Criticism Podcast
Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 5mo ago

good morning to @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social in @chicagorevbooks.bsky.social on the art & science of criticism! "Paying attention to something is a form of love... Criticism makes you slow down and stay and reflect, just like art does." chireviewofbooks.com/2026/03/11/w...

Why Criticism Continues to Matter: Book Reviews and Our Literary Community - Chicago Review of Books

My neighborhood in Chicago has a delightfully high density of Little Free Libraries. Inside one of these late last year, I stumbled upon a reissue of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence P...

chireviewofbooks.com

Aran Ward Sell@aranws.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Bennett here says that Waiting for Godot "would carry more credence if one of the characters cut short the runic wisdom and made a bolt for the bushes." Not the best choice of target; this does, explicitly, happen in Waiting for Godot.

Waiting for Godot script extract: ESTRAGON: An Englishman having drunk a little more than usual proceeds to a brothel. The bawd asks him if he wants a fair one, a dark one or a red-haired one. Go on. VLADIMIR: STOP IT! Exit Vladimir hurriedly. Estragon gets up and follows him as far as the limit of the stage. Gestures of Estragon like those of a spectator encouraging a pugilist. Enter Vladimir. He brushes past Estragon, crosses the stage with bowed head. Estragon takes a step towards him, halts. ESTRAGON: (gently.) You wanted to speak to me? (Silence. Estragon takes a step forward.) You had something to say to me? (Silence. Another step forward.) Didi... VLADIMIR: (without turning). I've nothing to say to you.
Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 5mo ago

"When I sit down and write something, I feel I’ve got somewhere. I feel better after doing it. Also, Rupert says I’m intolerable if I’m not working so if I wasn’t writing it would drive him insane." - lovely interview with Alan Bennett by @emmavj.bsky.social:

Alice Averlong 🏳️‍⚧️@alice.averlong.com · 5mo ago

Outer Wilds, if you haven't played it yet, is one of the best games of all time. It's a fun space exploration game with a timeloop twist, and 90% of all game progress happens in your head, as you learn things about the universe and your situation. Absolutely play it if you haven't yet.

Mobius Digital Games@mobiusdigitalgames.com · 5mo ago

PSA Outer Wilds is 50% off on Steam till Thursday! This is the biggest discount it's ever gotten; usually sales max at 40%. store.steampowered.com/app/753640/O...

Aran Ward Sell@aranws.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Deleted my account a while back and I can't say I've noticed its absence. "Academia" sounds important to sign up to when you're just starting to publish but it's just an online CV which sends you annoying emails. If you have an OrcID, that's already better.

Hilary Davidson@fourredshoes.bsky.social · 6mo ago

FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

tamara nopper@tamaranopper.bsky.social · 6mo ago

In 1993, Octavia E. Butler wrote a defense of public libraries. “Public libraries in particular are the open universities of America. They're free; they're accessible to everyone… I'm a writer at least partly because I had access to public libraries.“

On April 29, 1986, I stood on the corner of Fifth Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles and watched black smoke pour from the windows of L.A.'s Central Library. The big library, which I loved, and in which l wrote my first novel, was a victim not only of arson, but of years-decades-of neglect, political bickering, and short-term think-ing. Ironically, by the time of the fire, the building's long-needed renovations had finally been scheduled. This year, those ren-ovations, made all the more urgent by the fire, will be com-piete-Just in time for another, broader library crisis. All over the country now, public libraries are in as much danger from shortsighted budget cuts, political expediency, and neglect as the old firetrap Central Library ever was from fire. The L.A. Library fire was a metaphor for what's happening to libraries in Some libraries have al- ready been closed. Others have had to cut hours, staff, services, and acquisitions. This is not sensible! We Americans of the 1990s are sending our unskilled and semiskilled jobs away to low-wage countries just as fast as we can. We're hoping that the long-term result of this will be to stimulate enough of an increase in trade to create new, better-paying jobs. Of course new workers will need more education to get those jobs, and displaced workers will need job-market information and retraining. But meanwhile, we're saving money by cutting school budgets, closing school libraries. raising university tuitions and fees, and diminishing or closing public libraries In my most recent book, my main character, who lives in a poorer, dumber near-future time, writes, "Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability." And "Civilization is ... a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptability." Just so. And in the present time of great change, public libraries, like public schools are among the best tools of adaptation and civilization that our society has. Public libraries in parti…