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John Self

@john-self.bsky.social

Book jockey

18315 Posts9556 Follower353 Folgt
Ryan Packer@typewriteralley.bsky.social · 17h ago

George Saunders on using AI: "Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that?"

Have you spent time trying to write or revise with AI? Is there an experiment that would be interesting enough to try? I have not. Not for a second. To me, this whole idea of using AI to write is . . . anathema. A thing to be most radically avoided. Writing is the most precious way one person can communicate their essence to another person. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get better at making myself present in my writing. Why would I want to sacrifice even one iota of that? Not even in an email and certainly not in a short story or novel.Who are we ceding our authority to, exactly, when we let AI write for us? And why? Why surrender our agency (that amazing ability we have to reach across time and space, with our strange, idiosyncratic phenomenon, and land within the sensibility of another human being) to something that, by its very design, pushes the individual sensibility aside? And in the name of . . . what, exactly? Ease, I guess? Efficiency? The person who chooses to write with AI has also sacrificed, from the start, the opportunity of experiencing difficulty, of struggling to say what he wants to say, of making himself evident in his prose, of trying to find out what he believes. By this, he sacrifices a chance to know himself and his mind better. To me, that’s a shame. And it’s dangerous, because, as we are now finding out, it affects the brain and lessens our capabilities. Thanks, but no thanks, get thee behind me, etc.
John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 19h ago

Is Andy Burnham the first prime minister in my lifetime who actually likes fiction and poetry? I feel quite moved to hear him talk with genuine enthusiasm about Tony Harrison’s V.

John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 3d ago

Min Jin Lee's new novel can do succinct scene-setting, and closes in on the detail without losing the bigger picture... but it might be too much of a good thing: secondary characters take over at the expense of the central family. Me on American Hagwon:

Should you read a ginormous new family saga from the Pachinko writer?

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee follows an ambitious Korean-American family from Seoul to Sydney to California and back again. It’s accomplished but overstuffed

thetimes.com

Lance Parkin@lanceparkin.bsky.social · 3d ago

New word: CLICKWALL. (n) The opposite of clickbait. A headline so unappealing, promising so little reward even by the standards of these things, that it is physically impossible to tap the link to the article.

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John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 3d ago

Min Jin Lee's new novel can do succinct scene-setting, and closes in on the detail without losing the bigger picture... but it might be too much of a good thing: secondary characters take over at the expense of the central family. Me on American Hagwon:

Should you read a ginormous new family saga from the Pachinko writer?

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee follows an ambitious Korean-American family from Seoul to Sydney to California and back again. It’s accomplished but overstuffed

thetimes.com

John Self@john-self.bsky.social · 4d ago

Blocking roads is a great leveller, bringing everyone from union flag protestors, Just Stop Oil activists, anti-immigration protestors, or residents seeking to frustrate the rule of law into the same pool in my eyes.

Drumcree: Protests as controversial Orange Order march due to go ahead for first time since 1997

The march down the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road, which in the 1990s sparked some of the most serious disorder in Northern Ireland's history, will go ahead after a series of courtroom challenges.

bbc.co.uk

Anne Billson@annebillson.bsky.social · last wk.

Up until recently I wasn't impressed by Piet Mondrian's early pictures, but now I think they're spectacular, as well as a key staging post on the way to his more famous abstracts. I need to go back to Den Haag's Gemeentemuseum.

Evening: Red Tree (1908) a red tree against a blue background. Touches of Impressionism and Pointillism, but entirely its own thing, in which the effects of light and colour are favoured over realism.View from the Dunes with Beach and Piers (1909): a sort of flat effect in pastel shades of blue, beige and green, very light and airy. It feels like a beach - and it is! You can almost feel the sea breeze.Woods near Oele (1908): spindly, dark purple trees lit from behind by low but bright sunlight; swirls of colour and shadow. Kind of midway between Impressionism and Expressionism, but again, very much its own thing.Study for Blue Apple Tree series (1908); painted sketch of a dark green tree with a spreading umbrella of branches against roughly applied dashes of blue and turquoise.
Richard Smyth@rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · last wk.

I've been struggling for a while to read for pleasure. It's becoming clear to me that I have been reading the wrong books. It's true that you have to love the sound of your own voice to write a book like this. But the thing is you have to love the sound of everyone else's voices too.

Philip Roth's American Pastoral in paperback. My copy got caught in the rain.
Roger@rogerwithnod.bsky.social · last wk.

I'll tell you exactly what it is. Back in the 80s at School me and a few pals would regularly walk into town on our lunchbreaks. Yet on v hot summer days, on the way back in particular, a phrase was invented that we all shared to our amusement: "Do you have SBSBBS?" Sweaty Bum Strikes Back Bad Style

Hwaet@cog1.bsky.social · last wk.

I have seen Americans talking about “swamp ass” which appears to be caused by having a sweaty, overweight bottom and poor personal hygiene.