Jake Casella Brookins
@casella.bsky.social
Appalachian in the big city. Editor at Ancillary Review, host of A Meal of Thorns, bookseller, coffee pro, SF reviewer & scholar. He/him. https://linktr.ee/jakecasellabrookins
there is a strain of lefty discourse where you can’t come to any unflattering conclusions about the populace—those must be explained away by how they are being acted upon by capital—but I think you’ll understand things better if you understand capital can also exploit weaknesses it didn’t create
🧵 Three things new @laworldcon.bsky.social attendees & 1st-time Hugo Awards voters sometimes don’t know: 1) You don’t have to vote on every category for your votes to count. EX: Just because you don’t have time to read every Hugo-nominated book doesn’t mean you can’t vote on films & visual arts.
unpacking & got to the box with the coolest action figure, that's right, just like you remember, it's Buzz-Saw from SilverHawks
This guy is one of our most important living short story writers, btw. Lessons to be learned here. Much to think about
J. Robert Lennon@jrobertlennon.com · yesterdayFor the first time, I floated down Romania's largest river. They called me...Da Noob
obviously azi use is the big ideological driver in the company wars, but let's not neglect the political salience of the tragic/charismatic platythere
Newfound Planets@i-find-planets.bsky.social · yesterdayThey have discovered a planet. A platypus-like creature lives there and digs beneath the rivers. Perhaps one day we will find a home there.
It’s a new musical genre that combines elements of ska with elements of ska.
happy There Will Come Soft Rains day to all who celebrate
okay but this is also a pretty good sketch for a House-esque medical drama
Anthony Oliveira@meakoopa.bsky.social · 3d agoI am going through Bram Stoker’s earliest notes on DRACULA today - they include a list of the powers and features of the Count (then named “Wampyr” before Stoker stumbled on “Dracula”), many of which are never elucidated in the book…
i started this train of thought as a joke but now i do think there's something to the idea that the way to sell the green revolution to the US public is that we're being denied Good Deals on cheap chinese cars and solar panels and there's nothing more unamerican than saying we can't have a good deal
novipodes is so funny
Dan Hartland@danhartland.bsky.social · 3d agoOh, look! It’s @chloroformtea.bsky.social and me, hacking our way through this year’s Clarke Award shortlist. Which niche British references do we employ? Which random GIFs? And … why Tom Cruise? Also, careful critique of a set of six texts claimed by the judges to represent the best of UK SF etc
don't want to get all poli-sci 101 but it is kind of wild how many major problems come down to the fact that the state has not, in fact, maintained its monopoly on violence
putting my phone away & reading a book because it will make me happy but posting about it so as to inspire others
not even gonna screenshot it to dunk but good golly do I hate the way Jackson's silly/simple vision of Tolkien infects the popular imaginary
Not really disagreeing, but a related factor is the research/decision fatigue if you do decide quality/longevity is worth the cost. I do it for kitchen equipment etc; quickly run out of spoons/finances to do it for clothing.
Max Dubler 🏳️🌈@maxdubler.com · 3d agoI think my most genuinely unpopular take is that a widely held and genuine consumer preference for cheaper, lower-quality goods, not private equity, is driving the decline in quality of consumer goods like clothing and housewares.
Our kids love both these songs, so after I shared the quote post with @jinglesboiler.bsky.social, he made a mashup of "Washington" by @bradneely.bsky.social and "Get Him Back" as performed by Olivia: theinfringements.bandcamp.com/track/georgi... Hope you like it, @kellylink.bsky.social!
Georgie Got Back, by The Infringements
track by The Infringements
theinfringements.bandcamp.com
Will Not Standstil@kellylink.bsky.social · last mo.washington washington six feet tall weighs a fucking ton (please, someone, make a mashup)
There are pretty, rare, valuable etc editions but by and large the thing about books that's really cool is that they're *not* precious. They're just speech! They're just some talking, sometimes very cool talking, often not.
Anne Trubek@atrubek.bsky.social · 3d agoIt’s really hard to figure out how to get rid of books for those who work with them —rare book dealers, librarians, publishers—we all throw away or pulp reams and reams of them regularly
Incapable of sharpening a knife without hearing Jim Varney say "First: you wet the stone. And that's the hard part."
Break me out of my reading rut: what’s your favorite weird fiction published this year? Especially short stories but like, you know, whatever
If you are going to WorldCon and you're going to be on a panel about world SF or translation, you WILL be sending me a report to include in Small Planet! 😎 #SFinTranslation
incredible discovery here: the 1762 original of the ha ha ha yes sicko cartoon courtesy of thomas waters new book “Magic”
hard agree. Even in nonfic—where it's totally reasonable to ask for sound arguments etc—so much of what you're doing in writing is trying to get something fundamentally nonverbal into words. Not to get all Lynch meme but like, the writing is the talking
Thomas Ha@thomasha.bsky.social · 5d agoi think people advising that authors are going to be ok because they can explain their creative choices better than a slopper are coming from a good place (and prob mostly right!). but boy do i hate the presumption that writers have to rationally talk through the minutiae of their creative choices.
obsessed with the font on IKEA's clam chowder packaging. this is what's in the freezer on the Nostromo
[Homer sits backwards on a chair] let me tell you about ANOTHER giant brute who was being beaten by Nobody
