Eugene Smelyansky PhD 🇺🇦
@eugene-smelyansky.bsky.social
Medieval historian: religion, cities, heresy, intolerance, inquisition, environment, medievalism. Assistant Professor (Career-Track), Washington State University, Pullman. Views my own. he/him. https://eugene-smelyansky.com/
Friends, Romans, skeeters, its new episode Wednesday. CONSPIRACY THEORIES!!! @elisewang.bsky.social joins the pod to talk about medieval origins and modern myths. #medievalsky 👇 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
Medieval Conspiracy Theories with Elise Wang
Podcast Episode · American Medieval · August 5 · 56m
podcasts.apple.com
This is a good essay actually and you can think of it as a serious critique at the same time you enjoy the film, but only if you are a grownup www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
A Trojan Horse Is Supposed to Have Humans Inside It
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is full of contradictions about deceit and violence.
theatlantic.com
Got to visit Córdoba and saw this statue in person just a couple months ago. How vile and sad!
Joel S.@joelhs.bsky.social · 3d agoSomeone spray-painted a swastika on the statue of the great medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides in Córdoba, his place of birth. www.jpost.com/diaspora/ant...
A friend just told me they'd not been able to stop "seeing Rome" in different ways and different places since they read my book and if you would also like your peace of mind ruined / an extra layer of knowledge about the world around you, may I recommend you read it also? quarto.com/books/978183...
All Roads Lead to Rome
Whether you’re interested in history, contemporary global issues, or you're simply curious about why Rome remains relevant, All Roads Lead to Rome offers a fresh perspective on the lasting significanc...
quarto.com
July 30, 762 CE: The founding of Baghdad. The date and topography of the city were determined by astrologers & architects hired by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur, thus the city itself has a horoscope (such a Leo). 🌟 Read Ali Olomi’s essay on this (edited by myself and Stephanie Wong for Public Books).
Baghdad: The Once and Future City of Stars - Public Books
The city testifies to the vast intellectual curiosity of medieval Muslims, and the splendor they translated from astrology into their designs.
publicbooks.org
I see that the discourse has moved on from Bronze Age collapse to the Fall of Rome because of course, and I’d beg some of you to actually read something other than the 1000+ versions of warmed over Gibbon out there
It’s nice to see everyone’s textual analysis of The Odyssey It’s almost like the humanities give you entertainment, feelings, pleasure, and fun/interesting stuff to talk about, as well as lenses into both past and current society
Overnight Oats are an easy way to start your day with something cold and clammy, a textural nightmare, a sensory prop labeled "iced brains" in a haunted house
I wrote about the Nolan Odyssey for the LRB. I'll summarize some of my main points below, in case you don't feel like reading all that. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
lrb.co.uk
Finally saw The Odyssey and feel like Nolan tried to do too much in the film and ended with coming up short where it mattered. That said, there was a lot of cool stuff, too. Also, the dog scene(s) killed me.
TIL that Cecil Rhodes was so obsessed with Ancient Rome that he often claimed to prefer Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" to the Bible, but apparently he was also obsessed with Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations." A genocidal imperialist magnate who is also a stoicism bro? No way!
I wrote a thing! My take on Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is up at @foreignpolicy.com foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/23/o...
Odysseus at the End of Civilization
Nolan’s film confronts the betrayal of the West’s own values.
foreignpolicy.com
There is already a perfect movie about the time when Scrooge was Ebenezer. Accept no substitutes!
Sam Eagle & Gonzo: It is the British Way! - Muppet Christmas Carol
Alt: Sam Eagle & Gonzo: It is the British Way! - Muppet Christmas Carol
static.klipy.com
DiscussingFilm@discussingfilm.net · 2w agoFirst poster for ‘EBENEZER’, a new film based on ‘A Christmas Carol’ starring Johnny Depp. “Before he was Scrooge, he was Ebenezer”
"Oh no, Mr. Scrooge is my dad, you can call me Ebenezer!"
Brendel@brendelbored.bsky.social · 2w agoWhat do you mean before he was Scrooge he was Ebenezer those are just his first and last names lol
TIL that the phrase “the almighty dollar” was coined by a British author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. I always assumed it came from either Twain or perhaps O’Henry.
Having witnessed how hard the Spanish people go during a regular weekend, I cannot even imagine what the World Cup celebrations will look like.
“If students are using it to compose, which is the biggest tragedy of all, they’ll never learn to write. And their voice is stolen from them.”
Dave Eggers told OpenAI staff that ChatGPT was ‘silencing an entire generation’
He called AI writing “pastiche nonsense.”
theverge.com
What is this?! A title for cats?!?!
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · 3w agoI am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS
Slaps the roof of the movie: "This bad boy can fit so much sepia in it!"
Matt Gabriele@profgabriele.com · 3w agoLETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! youtu.be/dUT67vpW5Ms?...
Colleagues: if you do #GlobalMiddleAges work, this is an urgent case where you can use your expertise to support cultural conservation & Indigenous peoples. If you don't know Chaco Canyon, look it up. But do so quickly. The Comment period ends 29 July. #MedievalSky
Kelly Lynne D’Angelo ✨@kellylynnedang.bsky.social · 3w agoPlease blow up the public comment (included below): BREAKING NEWS (7/15) — The administration wants to destroy Chaco Canyon without consulting Tribal Nations. It’s an irreplaceable historic & cultural site with 4,700 archeological sites that could be lost to the bulldozers of oil & gas development
I don’t know if Adam Carolla is a rapist, but most guys he knows certainly are. What he describes and normalizes was, is, and always will be rape.
Asher Langton@asherlangton.bsky.social · 3w agoThe full quote is even worse.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Europe had no culture before 1500. Or maybe there was culture, but Europe didn’t exist? We’ll simply never know.
Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 3w agoI was looking at the AHA's book prizes, and if you work on Europe between 1000 and 1500, you're SoL. What's especially fascinating is that British History starts in 1485 and European Cultural History starts in 1500.
