(by Karl Stevens)

“It’s obvious that artistic movements need artists. My claim is that they also need critics.” Very good essay on the decline of criticism and its cultural impact. asteriskmag.substack.com/p/is-the-int...

More covers like this, plz

Did Margaret Lanterman write this article?

Why do Americans create these portmanteaus where they obscured their meaning by putting the emphasis on the wrong place: Biographical picture: Bi-opic Anti Fascist - An-tifa

Pretend I posted this yesterday, I've just seen this photo now

honestly why do we even bother

Let's go!

I have just learnt how Americans use cutlery...

It makes me happy that Philip Roth had a Philip Guston painting of a book above his writing desk.

"AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations" is such a good sentence.

Saul Bellow nailing* the importance of physical media (cf:, lps, cds, dvds, etc) from The Dangling Man, 1944. * for me, anyways

If you were going to the Berlin for the first time, in which neighbourhood would you stay?

Just finished a novel put out by an established publisher that clearly wasn't give a final copy edit. With lines such as: - 'Dan turned off the burner and moved the pan to another burner.' - 'On the table of the small, circular kitchen table was a week-old, out of order Sunday Times

Did some performative reading of Bolano on my commute to work today, didn't I

Increasingly fascinated by these men who are all at once not reading, reading but reading the wrong things, and reading the right things but for all the wrong reasons.

Current reads

Buon Ferragosto a tutti!

"So what if the AI gives Anastasia and Christian the wrong number of fingers or penises? We'll have no kink-shaming here." I wrote a little jeu d'esprit for @theobserveruk.bsky.social about how we should give AI slop a chance: it can't be worse than some human writers.

Is it just me or is it off putting when you go round to a friend's house and they have no hand towel in their bathroom?

Indeed. I can't live without my Betamax.

I finally got around to reading 'All My Precious Madness' by @markabowles.bsky.social and what a wonderful book it is. Easily among the best I've read this year.

What's all this about

Yesterday, 10 years after starting the first volume, I finally finished the My Struggle series.

Seen in Leeds

This is the ideal male body. You may not like it but this is what peak performance looks like.

The lime bike alarm is the constant ambient background of my street.

If your work isn't what you love, then something isn't right. Just think of Bob and Judy, they're happy as can be. Inventing situations, putting them on TV.

Camilla Grudova writes brilliantly about how precarious it is to live as a successful & dedicated writer who doesn’t come from money. Recommended reading especially for publishers, institutions & funding bodies stingingfly.org/2025/06/25/t... @stingingfly.bsky.social

Which industry is slower — publishing or conveyancing?

Not sure I have a huge amount of sympathy for this 'writer'

Surely the only novel ever written to include a scene set in Thornton Heath

I really enjoyed POOR GHOST! Among other things, @gabrielflynn.bsky.social takes a nuanced look at class in the age of mass higher education, which I haven't seen much exploration of in fiction before.

Recomposed floof fragments

Egg management fee

Feel strongly that Eurovision performers and judging panel representatives should only be able to perform / speak in one of their national languages. France puts everyone else to shame in this regard.

Heard an American (on a podcast) describe Paris as cheap

An original copy of 'Blast'. It's much larger than I was expecting.

Time to bring back the anti pope

I enjoyed Perfection so thought I'd give this a go for the next book in Italian to struggle through

My new favourite word in Italian - papabile: 'pope-able'

Currently staying in one of the buildings Joyce lived in during his years in Trieste