object-oriented hauntology

“There is no real reason for Antipodeans to be here, & no real reason for the Germans to take an interest in us. But sometimes it is the unreal that generates the conditions fit for literature” @ajbwells.bsky.social’s keynote in Berlin earlier this year - now online! stadtsprachen.de/de/text/home...

... and then an investigation into the weird, precocious, maybe sui generis dioramas of the early-nineteenth-century Surinamese artist Gerrit Schouten. publicdomainreview.org/collection/g...

I have two new pieces up at @publicdomainrev.bsky.social this week: first, about the human-animal hybrids of Louis XIV's court painter Charles le Brun... publicdomainreview.org/collection/l...

tomorrow >>>

quick everyone repost your Krasznahorkai essays!!!! newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Berliners! Next Wednesday (15/10) at @curiousfoxbooks.bsky.social: hear @brookfiles.bsky.social talking about his new Magnus Hirschfeld bio, The Einstein of Sex, and me re my translation of Hirschfeld’s Berlin’s Third Sex, moderated by @ajbwells.bsky.social www.curiousfoxbooks.com/events

Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says UN inquiry

Rally to save Meanjin magazine Thursday 11 Sept 9am 715 Swanston St Carlton A number of Australian writers, editors and academics will speak in support of this vital cultural institution

"I once met someone who takes a photo of the borrower with the book in their hands, so they know exactly what’s where..." @ajbwells.bsky.social on book borrowing/lending www.the-berliner.com/books/whos-g...

Latest column for The Berliner mag aka who has my bloody book??? www.the-berliner.com/books/whos-g...

the only good social media is comments section for disco music on youtube

Unrechtstaat BRD

Some pics from the launch of Poor Ghost! on Weds. Thanks to everyone who came out and to @lettretage.de for hosting, @curiousfoxbooks.bsky.social for selling books, and @ajbwells.bsky.social for being his very charming self and asking great questions.

quick reminder that this symposium-festival of wonderful Australian and Aoteoroa/New Zealand authors will be on next Saturday in Berlin!! just check out that line-up 👀👀....... stadtsprachen.de/de/event/par...

My debut novel, Poor Ghost! is out today with @sceptrebooks.bsky.social It’s about class, mourning, love, fathers, Manchester, and lots of other stuff. I’m proud of it and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

funny when you're in an archaeology museum and the wall text soberly informs you that a certain weird object "was likely used for rituals, potentially of a sacred or religious nature". it's ok mate just admit you don't know !!!

This legend's book launch is at Lettrétage tonight >> www.the-berliner.com/books/gabrie...

Looking forward to crossing multiple time zones to join this starry program of writers, next week, in Berlin.

quick reminder that this symposium-festival of wonderful Australian and Aoteoroa/New Zealand authors will be on next Saturday in Berlin!! just check out that line-up 👀👀....... stadtsprachen.de/de/event/par...

Thanks @ajbwells.bsky.social for my first ever interview!

Interesting @ajbwells.bsky.social interview with @gabrielflynn.bsky.social ahead of the release of his debut novel: “if you were born in the late 1980s or early 1990s, you’ve…grown up expecting a world that then disappeared right as you were coming into it.” www.the-berliner.com/books/gabrie...

yes. also it's despicable

Da mit Lars Klingbeil gerade mal wieder ein Politiker von den „normalen Leuten“ spricht, nochmal mein Text zu diesem leeren und in Konsequenz sogar gefährlichen Begriff. Es gibt keine „normalen“ Leute, es gibt nur die Idee davon, die Menschen für sich beanspruchen und dadurch andere ausschließen

Köln #Liegenddemo #MECFS

This is disturbing… a single ChatGPT query uses 10x more energy than using a search engine. One 100-word email drafted by ChatGPT-4 uses about a water bottle’s worth of H2O, and enough electricity to power 14 LED lightbulbs for an hour.

I will never understand how people who advise the govt to do and say nothing about this look at themselves in the mirror without throwing up. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

One may think why go to a book launch or event when I can just read the book? Some go to see the author, but foremost for me it is like going to a performance or concert. I get ideas and inspirations sideways which unexpectedly feel pertinent and allow different perspectives on my own work.

Book launch in Berlin tomorrow >>> www.lettretage.de/Termine/berl...

The problem here is not so much the answer as the posing of the question itself: making the post-war division of Germany into a sporting match is a foolish reproduction of the worst of the Cold War and does little to actually further our understanding of East Germany.

Die AfD droht mit »Krieg gegen die Regierung«, beklagt einen »Messer-Dschihad« auf deutschen Straßen und überwies Hunderttausende Euro an Rechtsextremisten. Was der Verfassungsschutz der AfD in seinem 1108 Seiten langen Gutachten vorwirft. Die SPIEGEL-Recherche. www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...

treat yourself to some back issues of the world's best magazine

FT EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. The US and European countries that tout Israel as an ally that shares their values have issued barely a word of condemnation. They should be ashamed of their silence, and stop enabling Netanyahu to act with impunity.” @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/f5fd...

My latest Berliner column – why I believe in live book events, and also, while I've got you, please come to my festival >>> www.the-berliner.com/books/down-u...

„Two million Palestinians in Gaza, nearly half of them children, are now surviving on a single meal every two or three days.“ www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/o...

This is incredibly powerful from the WHO’s Emergencies Director, Dr Mike Ryan, on the world doing nothing as the children of Gaza die. “This is an abomination.” (🎥 Middle East Eye)

"...although the Down Under presence in Berlin is noted by anyone who enjoys Nick Cave or avocado toast or Berlin Atonal (or deals ketamine in Neukölln), one seldom finds explicit discussions about what this long-distance relationship means" @ajbwells.bsky.social www.the-berliner.com/books/down-u...

We're launching The Bee magazine today because the UK publishing and writing industries have a bit of a class problem.

great piece here >>>

New miniseries on the history & memory of WWII @revdem2020.bsky.social & @eurozine.bsky.social thanks to Camilo Erlichman and @sjgarnett.bsky.social! I was given the most fraught task: to cover CEE under conditions of grave uncertainty www.eurozine.com/a-clash-of-r...

Frightening coda: Maria Schmidt, longstanding director of the House of Terror & anti-totalitarian nationalist, has now openly endorsed the conspiracy theory that the Bucha massacre was an inside job by Ukrainians

Heute wurde die AfD als gesichert rechtsextremistisch also verfassungsfeindlich eingestuft. Der ÖRR, besonders die ARD muss mind. jetzt den Umgang mit der Partei verändern. Keine Bühne bieten, stattdessen überlegen, wie das eigene Programm zur Normalisierung beigetragen hat. Und dann heute das:

No surprises to guess where I'll be in a few weeks time: the inaugural "PARATAXE SYMPOSIUM XVI = Antipodes: Down under in Berlin – the Australian & NZ authors of Berlin", curated by the irrepressible @ajbwells.bsky.social (& organised by @berlitak.bsky.social)! stadtsprachen.de/de/event/par...

AfD jetzt auch offiziell „gesichert rechtsextremistisch“. Eine Entscheidung, die Folgen haben muss, insbesondere für den ÖRR. Eine „Gleichbehandlung“ von Rechtsextremisten verstößt gegen den Programmauftrag. Verfassungsfeinden darf keine Bühne gegeben werden. Nicht in Talks, nicht in der Tagesschau.

FULL LINEUP for our little festival of Australian and Aoteoroa/New Zealand literature in Berlin on May 24th!! Come see professors, poets, artists, & novelists (& me); come hear about Weiss & Bismarck's bastards & Sebald in the desert & multidirectional war memory >> stadtsprachen.de/en/event/par...

"Our fight is a fight for love, for democracy, for humanity." ❤️

Oooh this looks so good!

FULL LINEUP for our little festival of Australian and Aoteoroa/New Zealand literature in Berlin on May 24th!! Come see professors, poets, artists, & novelists (& me); come hear about Weiss & Bismarck's bastards & Sebald in the desert & multidirectional war memory >> stadtsprachen.de/en/event/par...

Tony Blair is literally being paid by a man with one of the highest carbon footprints on the planet - Larry Ellison. The founder of Oracle is his biggest funder & these techsolutionist remarks have to be seen for what they are: tech lobbying www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

www.the-berliner.com/books/vilay-... COME TO CURIOUS FOX TONIGHT TO SEE THIS LOVELY MAN BUT LESS IN MUD @berlinbooks.bsky.social