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Maxine Kaplan

@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social

Author of THE ACCIDENTAL BAD GIRL, WENCH, and JULIA & LIV SAVE THEIR BAT MITZVAH (coming Fall 2027). My brand is feminist genre exercises. I collect old things and watch TV. MaxineKaplanBooks.com

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Tammy Golden@tammygolden.bsky.social · yesterday

If you're at the Edinburgh Fringe, first of all, I'm jealous, and second, go see one of the funniest motherfuckers on the planet's show. @mikedrucker.bsky.social and guests play truly bad video games. You'll thank me later!

Mike Drucker@mikedrucker.bsky.social · 3mo ago

UNITED KINGDOM! I’m bringing my bad video game show SHIT ARCADE to Edinburgh Fringe! 5-12, 23-30 August at 10:30 pm at the @gildedballoon.bsky.social Teviot Dining Room. Comedians from all over the world play terrible video games for your amusement. I also give some away! TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW:

kelly jensen@heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 4d ago

This thread is updated. "What can I do to let people know what's happening with book censorship?" "How can I change the tide of book censorship?" "What's happening with book censorship." I've got over 5 years of posts on this. I've threaded here a selection of crucial ones answering those ?s.

kelly jensen@heykellyjensen.bsky.social · 2y ago

A massive thread of resources, history, information, and material to help you not only fight and understand book censorship but protect the incredible democratic institutions of public libraries and public education. This is updated regularly!

Image of the tops of books in a herringbone pattern. They are in a rainbow gradient. The center of the image has a green textbox with the words "Resources for fighting book censorship, library challenges, and more."
Maxine Kaplan@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · 2d ago

Thank you, so much, @leahschnelbach.bsky.social and @reactorsff.bsky.social, both for giving me a very good excuse to rewatch Felicity in the year of our lord 2026 and for helping me to refine one of my perennial pop culture rants into an actual working theory of the purpose of speculative fiction!

The whole arc of Felicity is predicated on the classic axis of the love triangle. As in all effectively executed love triangles, the choice of romantic partner has more to do with the chooser than the chosen; the rivals are always metaphors for something else for the protagonist. Felicity chooses Ben. That's the conclusion that show came to after four 22-episode seasons of network television. There was a period on the end of the sentence. She chose. With the time travel plotline, the show both blew itself up and demonstrated the power of its own premise. It blew up its point to prove its point: she does ultimately choose Ben again (after a stint in an asylum, Ben starting to believe her, and Noel dying in the alternate timeline). But the conflict, the ever-present question, would have always lingered without the speculative fiction twist. Now, from the perspective of 2026, I know that this was a JJ Abrams show, and that this dude just loves a twist. But still: this story literally could not have been told without magic and time travel.
Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 2d ago

"[Felicity] was also, looking back, such a rich text—a masterclass, really—on the purpose of speculative fiction." @maxinegkaplan.bsky.social on the startling joy of Felicity's genre shift, and how we can't be surprised by TV anymore:

Maxine Kaplan@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · 2d ago

Thank you, so much, @leahschnelbach.bsky.social and @reactorsff.bsky.social, both for giving me a very good excuse to rewatch Felicity in the year of our lord 2026 and for helping me to refine one of my perennial pop culture rants into an actual working theory of the purpose of speculative fiction!

The whole arc of Felicity is predicated on the classic axis of the love triangle. As in all effectively executed love triangles, the choice of romantic partner has more to do with the chooser than the chosen; the rivals are always metaphors for something else for the protagonist. Felicity chooses Ben. That's the conclusion that show came to after four 22-episode seasons of network television. There was a period on the end of the sentence. She chose. With the time travel plotline, the show both blew itself up and demonstrated the power of its own premise. It blew up its point to prove its point: she does ultimately choose Ben again (after a stint in an asylum, Ben starting to believe her, and Noel dying in the alternate timeline). But the conflict, the ever-present question, would have always lingered without the speculative fiction twist. Now, from the perspective of 2026, I know that this was a JJ Abrams show, and that this dude just loves a twist. But still: this story literally could not have been told without magic and time travel.
Reactor Magazine@reactorsff.bsky.social · 2d ago

"[Felicity] was also, looking back, such a rich text—a masterclass, really—on the purpose of speculative fiction." @maxinegkaplan.bsky.social on the startling joy of Felicity's genre shift, and how we can't be surprised by TV anymore:

Mike Drucker@mikedrucker.bsky.social · last wk.

I’m going to insist UK people come to my show Shit Arcade in Edinburgh. We switch up comedians every show, we switch up games every show. It’s all a good time. 5-12, 23-31 August (link to tickets below)

Maxine Kaplan@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · 7d ago

Beyond everything else, this is just fucking terrible scholarship / research. There is a vast amount to be learned from the physical media itself that can’t be reduced to data. Material culture is a real thing. So is paleography. Fuck off with this (the AI people not the person I’m quoting).

Shiro Sirius@shirosiri.us · last wk.

I don’t want to be too sensationalist about this but also I’m the least violent person in the world and I think if someone said this to my face I’d hit them

Maxine Kaplan@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · 7d ago

Seriously, do not test me. I lost my mind at the fictional characters in Ted Lasso writing in a Jane Austen first edition. Had to lie down for a full 10 minutes. I have a well of murderous rage churning within me. You do not want to be the person to confirm its trigger to release.

Shiro Sirius@shirosiri.us · last wk.

I don’t want to be too sensationalist about this but also I’m the least violent person in the world and I think if someone said this to my face I’d hit them

Shiro Sirius@shirosiri.us · last wk.

I don’t want to be too sensationalist about this but also I’m the least violent person in the world and I think if someone said this to my face I’d hit them

"A physical book is a delivery mechanism for information," it continues. "Once that information has been extracted and encoded into an Al model, the delivery mechanism has served its purpose. What remains is paper, ink, and binding material. The book is not destroyed. Its value has migrated. The paper returns to the material cycle; the knowledge enters the intellectual one."
Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele@drdragases.bsky.social · last wk.

No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.

Maxine Kaplan@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · last wk.

Clearly nobody who ever attended Harvard has room to improve their written communication skills. They went to Harvard, so they're already perfect, right? We have had ample opportunity to observe this Harvard-affiliated perfection in the public discourse of the last 20 years. This is fine.

Mary Lewis@profmarylewis.bsky.social · last wk.

It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

Maxine Kaplan@maxinegkaplan.bsky.social · last wk.

Mike Flanagan doing Warhammer is insane & awesome. What’s next, Karyn Kusama’s “Where the Sidewalk Ends”? Lesley Hedland reboots Fraggle Rock? Katie Dippold writes A Hunchback of Notre Dame? I’d watch all of these, to be clear. Better than them trying to make Defenders happen for the third time.

Mike Drucker@mikedrucker.bsky.social · last wk.

United Kingdom! Next week I'm be bringing my bad video game show Shit Arcade to Edinburgh Fringe! Different games every show, different comedians every show, and I even give a few away to the audience (games, not comedians). 5-12, 23-31 August!

Shit Arcade

5 - 12, 23 - 31 AUG 22:30 Shit Arcade is a comedy show in which a panel of comedians are forced to play and roast some of the worst games of all time live on stage. From ET for the Atari 260

tickets.gildedballoon.co.uk

Mike Drucker@mikedrucker.bsky.social · 2w ago

UNITED KINGDOM! In two weeks I'm bringing my bad video game comedy show Shit Arcade for a run at Edinburgh Fringe. Each show is different and the tickets are cheap! Tickets below.

Poster for Shit Arcade, featuring the logo (in a Tron-like format) and a fat guy in a Tron-like suit. The poster says: Shit Arcade: Comedians Play Bad Video Game Hosted by Mike Drucker (Tonight Show, MST3K, Nintendo) Different bad games every show! Different comedians every show! Maybe take some games home! 5-13 & 23-31 August 22:30 Gilded Balloon Teviot Dining Room
Mike Drucker@mikedrucker.bsky.social · 2w ago

ME: “We gotta work right now. There’s a lot to do and it’s hard out there. Time to get it together and focus.” MY BRAIN: “The Beast from Beauty and the Beast got cursed because he didn’t follow Zeus’s law.”

Rachel Grant/R.S. Grant@rachelgrant.bsky.social · 2w ago

This will be devastating for cultural and heritage preservation. Cultural Resources Management - the work I did for a decade and they type of work the vast majority of archaeologists in the US do, will be gutted.

Exhausted archaeologist-exhausteologist@hknorton.bsky.social · 2w ago

🧵It's been a tough few days for #Archaeology and #HistoricPreservation in the US. ACHP released proposed regs changes to S106 on FRIDAY EVENING. They have betrayed all committments to an established timeline or collaboration with preservation partners. The proposed changes subordinate NHPA to NEPA;

Bruno Dias@brunodias.dev · 3w ago

it's funny how for decades the RIAA would carbomb teenagers for downloading one (1) song yet now these dudes are just allowed to do this shit like it's nothing

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 3w ago

Scoop: The AI music generator Suno was hacked. Hacker shared source code that shows how the tool was made and part of the music and podcasts that were scraped to create it. Decades worth of music, lyrics, and podcasts from YouTube, Deezer, Genius & more www.404media.co/hack-reveals...

# youtube_nusic: ~l.5h runtine # 113,879 hours of youtube_rusic 12,287 hours of youtube_rusic_lyrics 16,843 hours of youtube_rusic_lyrics_for genius_hg: -1.3h runting 17,615 hours of genius_hq 41, 544 hours of genius_hq lyrics 17,387 hours of genius ha_lyrics_ foreign freesound: -B.2h runting 410 hours of freesound # insip: -B.2h runtine 19,514 hours of insip # jamendo: ~B.1h runtine 3,726 hours of janendo * ponds_music: ~1.1h runtine # 62,117 hours of ponds_music # deezer: -8. 5h runtine 12,287 hours of deezer 10,175 hours of deezer_lyrics 6,699 hours of deezer_lyrics_foreign * ytn_tagged: ~2h runtine # 152,162 hours of ytn_ tagged # musescore: -B.1h runtine 183 hours of nusescore_lyrics