James Farson
@jamesfarson.bsky.social
Writer. Will try and post about my reading and other projects and then just tweet about Arsenal. He/him. Peterborough based and becoming increasingly obsessed with it. No AI, ever. Longer form thoughts here: https://ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com/
Pleased to finally announce... Abdication, the last Southern Reach novel! "There will come the days of the watcher, the drowned woman and the shadow of a man who keeps falling apart with each step, but first comes the moment the birds appear at night from the gaps between the stars, far from home."
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
Most typically English performance I've seen for a while. Play some good stuff and go a goal up, decide to try defend a 1-0 lead to the death for no good reason, the moment you go behind just start leathering it with no plan.
‘Say yes and never do it’ Mel Brooks knew how to deal with the studios
![That’s probably the most famous scene in the movie, the campfire scene.
I know. He said, “You can’t punch a horse.” I said, “You’ll never see it again.” I kept saying, “You’re absolutely right. It’s out!” Then, when he left, I crumpled up all his notes, and I tossed it in the wastepaper basket. And John Calley, who was running [production at] Warner Bros. at the time, said, “Good filing.” That was the end of it. You say yes, and you never do it.
That’s great advice for life.
It is. Don’t fight them. Don’t waste your time struggling with them and trying to make sense to them. They’ll never understand.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:yvbszlkc7d75ixkid5g2zmw7/bafkreiar4z6n6pfk7wob2gznv6l6euw7ltxbetgto5drfd4wqzjalldp5m)
Tesco is extending its Kids Eat Free scheme to 7 days a week over the summer, where children get a free meal with an adult purchase, but honestly, this detail about how small the adult purchase can be broke my heart.
M. John Harrison is a master, and he's at it again. My review of his his new novel, The End of Everything!
The Vibes are Off: Some Thoughts on The End of Everything by M. John Harrison
The End of Everything captures better than anything else I’ve read that sense of casual nihilism that seems to pervade public life at the moment
ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com
I've been reading some slower, weirder books recently. I certainly enjoyed my time with Joseph Joubert's Notebooks! ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com/2026/06/13/t...
The World is a Drop of Air: Some Thoughts on The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert
Like Daedalus, I am forging myself wings. I construct them little by little, adding one feather each day. I think collections of aphorisms, epigrams, and maxims are the form for today. They are lik…
ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com
Fellow ghost story aficionados, I need your help. I read a short story years ago that I *believe* dates to the very early 20th c about a skeptic who goes to a seance and ends up being haunted by an invisible entity that feels like a hairless animal and has a musky smell. I can't find it anywhere.
I am all there for Linux on the desktop, but you should know that I installed a media player the other day that *did not have a volume slider enabled by default*. I had to click through two separate options menus to enable one. Incredible software.
Project Gutenberg is so cool because you can be randomly browsing for something else and then find an old concordance going over every reference to a plant, garden, or flower, in the works of Shakespeare. www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2...
The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
Title: The plant-lore & garden-craft of Shakespeare
gutenberg.org
I've been thinking again about what it means to be trying to create things in an era where a machine can just do it for you. New post here: ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com/2026/04/04/i...
I Hate Almost Everything That I See
If you were getting AI to compose music for you, would it ever put a belch in the second verse?
ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com
KIM KITSURAGI - “You need to get your shit together.” YOU - “But I don't wanna get my shit together!” KIM KITSURAGI - “Then the world will turn away from you, and leave you behind.”
0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself *sad*. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov *fucked him over* personally with his socio-economic theory.
A Lithuanian equivalent to “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” is nemokamas sūris tik pelėkautuose. It means “the only free cheese is in a mousetrap”
really tired of conversations about how we need to get people to spend more time offline that don't acknowledge that one of the reasons people ARE online is their access needs aren't being met in physical spaces. This is especially true for queer people and disabled people.
Dan Simmons died. Weird feelings about this. On the one hand Hyperion was a defining reading experience for me & absolutely holds up & the first half of his career was incredibly strong. On the other his personal politics were horrid & eventually infected his work to its obvious detriment.
Hyperion author Dan Simmons dies from stroke at 77
I went into Hyperion blind, decades ago, knowing almost nothing about it. I was never the same.
arstechnica.com
Just had another acceptance. That's three so far this year!
Thank you for sharing! (Rebecca's novelette is so unique and arresting and I still haven't stopped thinking about it. I am cringing at how dismissive my "walking simulator" comment looks out of context but I meant it genuinely.)
Rebecca Gransden@rgransden.bsky.social · 6mo agoJames Farson @jamesfarson.bsky.social takes a look at Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group on his blog The Word Hoard: ifearthosebigwords.wordpress.com/2025/12/07/w... Lose yourself: www.thetangerinepress.com/FICTION/RG-F...
A friend of mine has been putting together some really excellent zines recently. I am lucky enough to have a couple pieces in Under Their Paw but her work on Ragin' has been stellar, as well. Check it out and order a copy through her insta! www.instagram.com/reel/DS3S26T...
Seems a bit silly to be tinkering with poetry subs with everything else going on today but I've got three sent and few more in the pipeline and I am feeling pretty good about it.
I say this often but it bears repeating: if you make your money from creating art then you NEED to find an art or craft where you just do it for fun and don't try to be perfect or make any money from it, and when anyone tells you to monetise it you say 'No', because otherwise your soul will die.
Jay Hulme@jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 7mo agoHave needle. Have thread. Have scraps of paper. Have free will. Have made a notebook.
online has ruined the beautiful circumstances that created JINGLE ALL THE WAY
