He really thinks he can lie his way out of everything, even war

"The reason to cancel this book is similar to the reason you cancel a traditionally plagiarized book. There are ethical reasons, sure, but also just plain business ones." @thelincoln.bsky.social on that cancelled AI slop book: countercraft.substack.com/p/what-it-me...

Please read this tweet with the knowledge that Saxon turns 20 this year.

As usual from @thelincoln.bsky.social, a clear-eyed breakdown of what this mess might mean for the publishing industry:

“What is talkativeness? It is the result of doing away with the vital distinction between talking and keeping silent. Only some one who knows how to remain essentially silent can really talk--and act essentially. Silence is the essence of inwardness, of the inner life." ― Kierkegaard on social media

Lasted 99 years. Killed by Bari Weiss in less than 1. www.cnn.com/2026/03/20/m...

THREE Body Problem? In this economy?

I couldn't give less of a shit what excuse she comes up with. Considering all of her author photos and her interview answers also seem AI generated, I'm not 100% convinced she even fucking exists. Welcome to the age of AI.

Yeah, they messed up badly. @thelincoln.bsky.social has a smart overview in which he points out that, since the book was self-published first, it likely went through minimal editing post-acquisition by Hachette. Which turned out to be a bad call! countercraft.substack.com/p/what-it-me...

Some thoughts on what the cancelled AI novel means for publishing and writers countercraft.substack.com/p/what-it-me...

No AI writer will ever know the joy and terror of taking an edible, writing a chapter, then opening the document the next day to see if you were cooking or just cooked.

One thing I've heard is that even when the book seems human authored, agents are seeing lots of clearly AI queries (and passing on them since it may indicate the author can't be trusted)

Welp, here we go. Been expecting this to happen soon.

I suppose I almost care...

The main rule of US political media is that the Democratic party is responsible for every single thing said by everyone vaguely left of center while the GOP is never responsible for anything anyone on the right says not even the literal president.

Really appreciated this polite (but, unlike the thing it is responding to, fact-based!) piece from @thelincoln.bsky.social about what really goes on in MFA programs: countercraft.substack.com/p/mfa-vs-pub...

I've never ever had notifications on my phone (outside of texts and calls). This is the way.

lol here's a fun variation on the AI writer scams. I've been offered a 600k a year position at the NEW YORKER... but only if I reply to a random gmail account in the next 48 hours.

super power

Time to admit that hysterical realism was the only actual realism. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

Bibi obviously lobbied for this and influenced Trump, but yeah. Trump wasn't "tricked." He's always been a warmonger, spent the first administration asking who he could bomb (and being talked out of it a few times), and stuffed both his cabinets with neocons and other warmongers. No trick here.

Sigh. Weighed in on the eternal MFA debates plus LLM novels and other things countercraft.substack.com/p/mfa-vs-pub...

Was trying to google some publishing statistics and got this "helpful" AI summary...

Book slopocalypse www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Socrates [Marc Andreessen edit]: "The unexamined life...worth living!"

On one hand, LLMs seem to have progressed at least in some ways over the last 4 years. OTOH, mainstream news coverage of LLMs have failed to progress from the "bet you couldn't tell one paragraph was generated by an LLM!"

Even on the “not groundbreaking” front, it’s like in comparison to what? A Hollywood film you’ve made up in your head? The only films I think they’re somewhat analogous to were made in the New Hollywood era which was a long time ago now. Films aren’t Jacobin articles.

Interesting how much of the criticism of both Sinners and OBAA is identical. "Politically muddled without a clear and simple message, and more fun and interesting to watch than groundbreaking." I dunno, maybe you guys are going to movies for the wrong thing?

Go clank, no bank

Everything bad is now "mid," everything mid is now "next-level," and everything good is now "one of the GOATs." We are experiencing unprecedented slang inflation.

[Baby looking at a mirror]: "Well, this passes the Turing Test."

I couldn't be a part of this. Staying would just affirm what I think of as a deeply corrupt practice that is also an invasion of my privacy.

Look what they have the child in the Omelas basement up to now 😭

There's hope yet for my haters www.newscientist.com/article/2519...

Maybe we need a new theory: everyone has always been 12.

Had a great time chatting with @austinrwilson.bsky.social about novel writing, interiority, and what I’ve called “TV brain” prose. Give it a listen here: open.spotify.com/show/474sxmQ...

[Cinema slop account voice]: In TOTAL RECALL (1990), actor Marshall Bell was cast as Kuato but when dir. Paul Verhoeven saw Bell had a conjoined twin growing out of his stomach, he kept the camera rolling to capture this authentic reaction to having consciousness overtaken by a psychic mutant twin.

😱 Another Friday the 13th. With that much misfortune we need some good luck. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is on the job with his own lucky foot 🐰🦶 🍀 Luckily we've preserved some good fortune for you in our collections ⤵️ archive.org/details/@ias... #FridayThe13th #Superstitions #Preservation

Appreciate this thread and indeed agree with all these points. Even as a published author who reads quite a lot, I still have to look out for these things in my own work. (Thank god revision exists.) Something we all have to pay attention to in an age dominated by visual media.

Broke: AI are robot servants who will make your job easier! Woke: AI is your boss now, so get moving little meat servant. www.wired.com/story/ai-age...

I'm very jealous of all the non-American authors who get to publish little novellas and tiny essay collections that top out 100 pages. We gotta bring that publishing culture to the states.

A fair battle between METALLIC REALMS and THE WILDERNESS at The Tournament of the Books. Flournoy is great so can't feel bad about The Wilderness advancing. www.tournamentofbooks.com/2026/the-wil...

Interesting how much LLM discourse is a rerun of early internet hopium--"The information superhighway! A democratizing tool that will lead to less drudgery, fight inequality, and create a more informed and rational citizenry!"--without any reference to, uh, how that worked out.

Back to the drafting mines I go

"I asked AI if the unexamined life was worth living, and it told me yes!"

Could not agree more.

Andrew Martin the importance of finishing drafts and revision: countercraft.substack.com/p/processing...

Had a great time talking to Andrew Martin about writing, revising, being “drawn to stories about unhappy people making one another’s lives miserable.” countercraft.substack.com/p/processing...