"Instead of being a book for grownups, 'Katabasis' flounders through a shallow stream of underdeveloped ideas while occasionally pointing beyond itself to much weirder and wilder places left unexplored." www.thebulwark.com/p/cheap-tric...

Y’all have got to stop trying to teach people magic with edh

My review of Kuang’s Katabasis is up over at the Bulwark! Thanks to @martynwendell.bsky.social for his help with this piece!

Another fantastic review on our homepage this morning from @billcoberly.bsky.social—this one is an incisive take on R.F. Kuang's buzzy fall book, Katabasis: www.thebulwark.com/p/cheap-tric...

how I came to be in the Epstein files

Book of the New Sun rules— every page is like the part of the Inferno where Dante asks Virgil what those towers in the distance are and Virgil replies that no, they're giants

I have posted a short story (or perhaps a "tale?" is that too precious?) on my substack, here: "Never leave babies alone. Nothing tastes sweeter to the Ghrivit than the fear of a child too young to understand its fate. A mother’s grief is the Ghrivit’s delight."

The far right is obsessed with Lord of the Rings and Musk keeps posting about "hobbits" because modern scientific racism owes more to fantasy worlds and gaming systems than genetic science, and they see both as effective mediums for right-wing propaganda www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Kendrick, Joyce Carol Oates, Menswear Guy, and Isaac Chotiner are the Voltron of People You Don't Want Focusing on You

"babies are born worshipping unknown gods" is one of the most incredible dwarf fortress bugs i have heard of. its poetry.

We are in Will Rogers country right now which is making me again remember his line “I do not belong to an organized political party, I am a Democrat.” Why is this still relevant about 100 years later and after the various switches in politics that have happened?

What better way to start a Friday than by listening to Joel and I talk about Mason & Dixon? on.soundcloud.com/dhLTLsFPABxW...

What if I told you prosecutors were doing this to poor folks in every single courtroom in the country?

oh my god they actually did it lmao

I have no idea what the takeaway from Mamdani’s victory actually should be; to some extent “young, charismatic guy with Big Ideas beats 70-year-old ghoul running as an Independent” is the least surprising thing in the world, so that might be all it means.

Dude opened his speech by quoting Eugene Debs!

a good thing happened, looks like! those are occasionally still possible!

I wrote about the irony of the AI bubble, a phenomenon driven by storytelling and imagination in an industry that has contempt for both

thinking about gene wolfe's coworker being driven mad by potato chips again

Dick Cheney did more than anyone else to build up expansive and destructive executive branch powers in the wake of 9/11; he lived to see another president turn those same powers against his own daughter. He should be a warning sign to the GOP today but too many of them are in the cult.

Who has a bunch of capital and wants to fund a doomed and unprofitable magazine with me as a sort of vanity project? No one? Not even some wealthy failson trying to annoy his dad? Damn.

"One of my dear friends eulogized him as a 'pleasantly bitter creature.' Another described his endealment as 'I want to be in the action but not perceived or interacted with.'" Enjoyed @billcoberly.bsky.social's remembrance of his "brave and silly" dog Theo billcoberly.substack.com/p/a-little-b...

I wrote a few words about my dog: billcoberly.substack.com/p/a-little-b...

I regret to announce the passing of Nyarlathotep, called Theo, who lived with me for more than 11 years. He was a good dog, and my friend.

[Seeing a ball stuck in a mat on TV] "You know what? I should be able to kill people with my car."

If you see this, post a vampire that isn’t Dracula

Happy Halloween, everyone. And, uh, some spooky personal news: 👀👻🏚️😱

Check your kids' candy tonight. Mine brought home a bag of small bones, fine and delicate in the extreme, which upon being disbursed to a flat surface began to assemble themselves into a sinuous multilimbed armature whose continued growth is now accompanied as if by the buzz of approaching pipers.

Today’s comic: gecko Roz introduces you to five other Democratic candidates with problematic backgrounds

you are under arrest for making me not run you over despite wanting to do that

conspiracy to make a cop go slow

Given the news about Mamdani, I feel I should come clean: There are some children in this world who occasionally call me “Uncle Bill.” I am not biologically related to these children, they are just the children of dear friends. I apologize for allowing language to be so misused. Please forgive me.

AR-PHARAZÔN THE GOLDEN: What you have to remember also is he appeared in fair form. CHOTINER: The next time the invasion of Valinor and the destruction of Númenor come up, I'll keep in mind that Sauron was handsome when it happened. AR-PHARAZÔN: He was. Not that that excuses it. CHOTINER: Right.

CNN is reporting that @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social referred to a voter he was meeting as “my man” at a campaign event today, even though the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution has made it illegal to own human beings since 1865 and remains the law in states including New York

This must be what it’s like to meet Odin when you enter Valhalla. www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/...

Instead of paying out the nose to play generative AI slop, what about a free game where you ARE the generative AI slop? direkris.itch.io/genai

four books to get to know me

Nothing like a surprise emergency vet visit to keep a fella up until 3:00 in the morning

You'll pry these Oxford commas out of my cold, dead, third thing hands

She is Being Observed

saw this clip of the NYC mayor debate and i had tears in my eyes, perhaps the most insane section of any debate ever

You're absolutely right — starting a land war in Asia wasn't just a bad call, it's 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗯𝗹𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀. Thank you for calling me out on that — really. I'll be extra-strategic from now on. Would you like me to get cracking on those 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿?

My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom

Hell. Yes.

My plans for the day

“Very good job, counsel.”

“Who was president in 2020?” remains one of the most pertinent questions in American politics—absurd, yes, but here we are—and that extends to “who was president January 1 - 19, 2021?”

Now improved with my one-take reading of it, in case you're more of an audiobook person

I have posted a weird short story up on my substack, here: