True or false: the phrase ‘Easter egg’ describes something ‘new.’ That is, sign systems (literature or otherwise) have always engaged in complex acts of signification (allusion, symbol etc) but the referent that rewards a tiny in group (fans) is distinct and therefore, we need a theory of the egg.

Finally

Every Film Now@everyfilmnow.bsky.social · 3w ago

Final trailer for ‘COYOTE VS. ACME’ has been released. In theaters August 28. #CoyoteVsAcme

This is cool.

Bloody Disgusting@bloody-disgusting.com · 3w ago

The original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE is being reimagined with a hand-drawn animated version, brought to life with old school rotoscoping. Every frame will be illustrated by hand, with artists tracing the live-action footage. From Art Director Paul Beck (A Scanner Darkly).

Learned today that Northrop Frye was on the founding editorial board for Science Fiction Studies. And Le Guin was a contributor to issue 1.

rn you can't own tv stations that cover more than 39% of the country (by pop). The Trump FCC calls that "outdated" and wants to replace it with a "case-by-case" review (i.e., cronyism and corruption, as is their wont.) It might seem intuitive that with instant global streaming availability,

Gotta be Chinatown, right? Except for Sunset Blvd, all other contenders seem to live in its shadow somehow, no?

Josephine "beckbook.com" Riesman@josie.zone · 4w ago

Okay, prompt time: What is your favorite iconic _L.A. Movie_ that isn't HEAT (1995)? Define "iconic" however you like

In need of a good scare, my teens and I turned off the lights and cranked up the volume and tried out the Backrooms game for the Switch. A+ for scream factor. Just escape rooms plus jump scares

Finally got to Bolaño’s the Savage Detectives. Wow. Not as superior as 2666, but still ambitious in its stretching of the novel’s form, and has maybe one of my all time favorite endings.

Five living writers that you've read five books by each: -Kazuo Ishiguro -Colson Whitehead -Stephen Graham Jones -Thomas Pynchon -Elena Ferrante

Jay Shelat@jshelat1.bsky.social · last mo.

Five living writers that you've read five books by each: -Helen Oyeyemi -Jhumpa Lahiri -Colson Whitehead -Lauren Groff -Jesmyn Ward And so many more!

I will not make ad hominem attacks I will not make ad hominem attacks I will not make ad hominem attacks I will not even mention the sunglasses

@yblent.bsky.social · last mo.

When this inevitability-thesis guy came to an institution I teach at, he said said he does 120+ paid speaking engagements per year. Anyone know of a single skeptic who has even one admin-invited symposium, workshop, etc? news.ufl.edu/2025/10/ai-i...

My life is a hamster wheel of complaining about universities outsourcing services to private, for profit companies (who make everything worse) instead of allowing the brilliant minds from within to build and maintain things that work for us.

Jessica Pressman’s bookishness meets Baudrillard’s simulacrum.

Hari Kunzru@harikunzru.bsky.social · last mo.

The $400m flying bribe has shelves of fake books, some titled “Library”.

A Kalshi ad featuring Chalamet and Nickleback is my hell

I’ve been struggling with Schattenfroh by Lentz. Keep petering out around 100 pages in. Should I push through? Will the language start to stick to my brain and make meaning?

I contribute a a section on US high education. I argue that the sector should be reformed along for principles. 1. Equitable participation 2. Democratic self-governance 3. Local responsiveness / global openness 4. Cost sustainability Check it out: storage.ghost.io/c/b6/39/b639...

Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · last mo.

The Reconstruction Papers provides an ambitious but achievable path forward beyond the Trump era, but also beyond the decades of institutional decay that preceded it. Buy a print copy or download the PDF (or both) today www.liberalcurrents.com/the-reconstr...

As our bargaining committee sits down with uni lawyers to advocate for me and lots of other workers, I’m at the Carnegie (named after a strikebreaker) admiring this representation of the Pinkerton riot of 1892

Finished Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. It you’re unfamiliar, I highly recommend. A wholly original, brilliantly crafted, and devastatingly brutal allegory for grief and loss. Literary horror at its finest.

Here’s the essay I’d like to write: In 2022, Jordan Peale made an alien flick about the difficulty of being a Black creator of blockbusters in the shadow of Spielberg (opening scene is ET, rest of film is Jaws, starting with rodeo=beach, digestion scene=WarWorlds) In 2026, Spielberg responds. /2

If you haven’t read this yet, fix that as soon as possible: it’s a beautifully crafted response to a great album. And if you teach literature, you might want to consider using the second and third paragraphs as an example of how close reading works.

Money on the Left@moneyontheleft.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I Think You’re What’s Wrong With Me: On Influence, Absorption, and Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love’

Is the character Babs Bunny from Tiny Tunes an homage to Barbara Streisand’s character in What’s Up, Doc? Has to be right?

This is exciting. The Buried Giant is my favorite of his later ‘genre turn’ novels. Klara and the Sun was ok. But I’ll still read anything by Ishiguro.

Lit Hub@literaryhub.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Nobel laureate behind Never Let Me Go and Remains of the Day has announced his next novel.

The follow up to Tender Is the Flesh, The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica (trans. Sarah Moses) hypnotized me with its first words. Came out a few hours later. Its brevity leaves you wanting more; its harrowing world makes you feverish.

If you haven’t read it yet, get yourself a copy.

Stephen Graham Jones@stephengrahamjones.com · 2mo ago

Whoah, wow: thrilled, floored, and honored for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter to have somehow won both a Bram Stoker Award and a Nebula Award last night! Thanks, all. Signed, a horror writer stumbling around Edinburgh, Scotland.

Five years ago today I defended my diss on zoom and later popped a bottle of champagne with my family and a few friends (outside, social distancing)

Finished Hell House by Richard Matheson. I knew that somewhere in the mass grave of paperback pulps was the missing link bw Shirley Jackson and the Shining. Didn’t know how directly Matheson borrowed from Jackson and King from Matheson.

Finished Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts. A pretty fun, original take on the possession narrative. Also, second book I read recently that has a minor character full out named Stephen Graham Jones, which made me laugh both times. The other is the Bewitching by Moreno Garcia.

Update: Pitt is officially the #1 destination in the world for horror archives

Sean DiLeonardi@sdileonardi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

StokerCon is in Pittsburgh this week. I’m pumped. Going to see the pulp archives at Pitt, check out some panels on contemporary horror, and try to meet some cool people.

This was my first StokerCon panel ever and it was illuminating. The dos and donts of working with influencers in the horror sphere

Alma Katsu (pre-order INCARNATE now!)@almakatsu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Influencers panel at #Stokercon is PACKED

Just finished Hurricane Season, the English-language debut of Fernanda Melchor. If 2666 is disturbing in the way it turns mass violence into an unsaid, unseen secret, then Melchor is inversely disturbing, putting extreme depravity on full display. Reminded me too of Mónica Ojeda’s Jawbone.

StokerCon is in Pittsburgh this week. I’m pumped. Going to see the pulp archives at Pitt, check out some panels on contemporary horror, and try to meet some cool people.