5Exquisite glass filled with roses in 1640, by Jacob van Hulsdonck. His day is today.
sibyllacumae.bsky.social
@sibyllacumae.bsky.social
Basic Bibliographic Bitch. Antiquarian Bookseller. Renaissance Platonist.
The ABAA is hosting a brown bag about “AI” today with an “AI expert” who is really just an AI marketer. They are going to mostly talk about the destructive scanning thing, which IMO is a huge distraction from actual bad things about AI that affect booksellers.
'You'll choke too' - an aerial embroidery landscape inspired by all the wildfires happening right now... I'm upset every time I smell smoke outside and somehow we have people starting them maliciously too! But we all breathe the same air so they'll choke too (1/2 - see thread for close-ups)
You can/should read Emily Wilson's latest take on the Odyssey, but I'm logging on to convey my hairdresser's reaction. She was AGHAST that Nolan, with his million $ budget, gave Matt Damon ONLY 6 hair extensions. As a result, his hair did not blow around properly, & that ruined the film for her.
Recently I attended an exhibition tour about banned books, during which the curator described Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers as “like three’s company but you know… a little different” and every so often the memory just pops into my brain lol
Also the name Holberg uses for the Thisbe character when he rewrites Pyramus and Thisbe for cows ("Bus and Boeidion" in the Metamorphosis, 1726)
Logeion Greek-Latin@logeiongklat.bsky.social · 2d agoAnyone looking for an ancient Greek name for a frenemy? 😇
feel like there is a real and prolonged discussion to be had about the difference between gatekeeping (withholding knowledge) and expertise (having long experience or specialised knowledge that requires complex or lengthy transmission), too
Antony Johnston@antonyjohnston.bsky.social · 2d agoSeeing complaints online that authors 'gatekeep' information…! Absolute nonsense. There is no industry or craft in the world which is so comprehensively written about, studied, and discussed as fiction writing, and every author I know welcomes new writers who are serious about giving it a go.
Bet you didn't know that the Little Morton Salt Girl is an immortal being who existed before there was life on Earth.
Reaching new heights of reference book fetishism at the office, we might be creating our own “special collections” section of the reference library 😭😭😭
I’ve been making a lot of wine decisions lately based on half remembered Horace poems and it has led me to discover that I really like campanian wines.
It requires expertise to be able to say, “I do not know the answer to that question, and that is becauae thus far scholarly consensus is that we do not have the knowledge needed at this time to answer that question.” Sometimes “I don’t know” is a far more rigorous answer than people might think.
I’ve been reading more contemporary science fiction for *reasons* and the number one thing it lays bare is that all science fiction is actually fantasy and that a lot of people are suffering from this category error now in a way that is ruining the world.
Oh you want premodern robot gender and disability pop culture discourse? I think we are going to need @ertruitt.bsky.social on this when it comes out! youtu.be/UVAki9SGrlg?...
WICKER | Official UK Trailer
YouTube video by Black Bear UK
youtu.be
Just saw the free production of Hamlet in Clark Park. All I’ve got to say is. I love love love theater, I love it in a field especially, what a gift to this weary old world to be able to share art with others in a live, electric way.
Something that doesn’t affect but nevertheless really annoys me is happening adjacent to my life rn and I am clinging to a piece of advice from a friend: “sit by the river and eventually you will see the corpse of your enemy float down it.”
A delicate Lammas dress from 1902 by Gustav Beer, richly decorated with silken wheat stalks, for drinking chouchen and telling fortunes in an old country garden, as a great golden moon rises in the dark Breton sky.
Send me power I’m resisting replying-all to ex-libris with a snarky comment about the ABAA AI panel
I specialize in this. A mere selection: the Pixar movie Brave. Opposition to the passive voice and split infinitives. Jamie Lloyd theatrical productions. Hostas. Aristotelianism. The Enlightenment.
Sanjay Srivastava@sanjaysrivastava.com · 6d agoWhat is an extremely nerdy/obscure/specific thing you hate with a white-hot wrath?
Just got the date I need to have the books/carnet ready for Berlin and it’s all fine but I’m truly not emotionally ready for September planning despite it being just around the corner. Also I’ll be at the Berlin Boom Fair in Sept!!! Come say hi if you’re about!
Something that happens when you’re a bookseller is that you need to sell books to pay the rent BUT sometimes, you are not ready. It’s kind of nuts when something you poured love into goes away before you even get to show it to anybody! But it’s also literally your job!
Me, answering the phone: “McKittrick Rare Books?” Cold caller: “BRUCE?” Me: “this is McKittrick Rare Books” Cold caller: “do you own the property at xxx avenue?” Me: “Sir this is a bookstore” Cold caller: oh, do you own any property?” ???????????????
Angela Carter writes like she’s going to be executed in the morning for crimes against chastity and the last meal she ordered from the warden was an orgy
Sawmill medical assistant without, as far as I’m aware, any formal medical training
Revan@revan.eurosky.social · 7d agoEnough “what would you do on the commune questions” If you got sent back 100 years and were given your grandparent’s job, what are you doing?
I found out today that he also sent his comments to my older rare bookdealer mentor, like literally complaining about me to my MOTHER 😭
sibyllacumae.bsky.social@sibyllacumae.bsky.social · last wk.One of the most frustrating people from my life in NYC has written me a note criticizing my Grolier Gazette article because I didn’t talk to one person (I did contact them and they stopped answering my emails) and another person (who is DEAD and didn’t overlap with my subject at all).