I had a nightmare in which I attended a lecture delivered by Donald Trump on the virtues of AI. Diagnosis: too much lurking on Bluesky.

Issue #6 of Bureaucritics is out now! Catch up with the latest in art, fiction, and scholarship about bureaucracy. bureaucritics.substack.com/p/cultural-b... #newsletter #bureaucracy #administration #officeliterature #bureaucraticfiction #parliaments

Welcome to Season 7! Let's kick off a year of fan favourites and camp classics with our trashiest novel yet: Gaston Leroux's 1910 'Phantom of the Opera'. Abby has the time of her life, Daniel is checked out, and our new imaginary producer, Diane, keeps us on task. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

TOMORROW: If you thought 2026 already couldn't get any worse, our new series starts with Gaston Leroux's thoroughly stupid 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1910) - a rare example of a novel that's *more* incoherent and histrionic than its musical adaptation.

In our final banned book episode, we celebrate (?) Christmas with the inappropriately summery (but sufficiently maudlin) 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852). Turns out, everything we knew about this book we learned from 'The King and I' and was therefore wildly incorrect! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

We come out all guns blazing for our Christmas episode, and the final instalment of our banned books series, with Harriet Beecher Stowe's Civil War-causing/-winning 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' (1852) - what's more, it's crammed with sizzling Quakers... Out on Wednesday!

Happy (early) Thanksgiving, Shelfers! Don't pull a spear on or chuck a boulder at a relative. Not unless they *really* deserve it. More importantly, Happy International Men's Day: no girls allowed in our episode on William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

'Rank-and-file Francophile' - can somebody do something with that, s'il vous plait?

It's human nature to be a snotty private schoolboy - or so William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) tells us - and we got into the spirit of this message with plenty of quibbling over pronunciation. Episode out on Wednesday! 'One fly to rule them all, one fly to find them' etc.

'Deliver me from calamity; from muddy boots and whirlpools; deliver me lunch.' Another album from my dear old dad - a retelling/reimagining/detournement of 'Dark Side of the Moon'. Feat. yours truly on heavily distorted concertina in the final track: hrsmokeandrewsmith.bandcamp.com/album/mortal...

Looking to compile the definitive collection of portrayals of tyrants in bikinis. So far I've just got Caligula in 'I, Claudius' (1976) and Louis XIII in 'The Devils' (1971). Please get in touch if you have any others. Thanks.

Some of you guessed our clue correctly: For International Men's Day (19 November), we will be release the most laddish book we've ever read on the show: William Golding's 1954 anti-colonialist schoolboy castaway narrative, 'Lord of the Flies'. No girls allowed, and 'Sucks to your Auntie!'

I had a great time at the 'Files, Forms, Fictions' symposium in Bonn last week. Excellent blend of bureaucracy chat, Adenauer anecdotes, and Bönnsch beer. Thanks again to @alexandrairim.bsky.social and her colleagues for an excellent conference!

Bureaucritics #5 is now online! It brings along a busy stretch of new publications, from the just-printed to the just-planned, plus fresh calls for papers and events.

Thanks again for having me on!

Hey, ya phonies! Enjoying back-to-school? Well, our (anti)hero sure isn't! Join us for JD Salinger's 1951 ode to teen angst, 'Catcher in the Rye'. Let's all have Buckfast at Tiffany's, put on weird hats, and argue about who has it worse in winter: ducks or fish. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Episode 15 drops this afternoon, 1pm BST. It should be fun. An episode about bureaucratic utopias/dystopias featuring an interview with Daniel Jenkin Smith, author of The Rise of Office Literature and co-host of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social.

Looking forward to this - love the swish poster!

A week today we'll be putting out our next episode and you can listen to me chatting about bureaucratic dystopias (and utopias) with @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social 'fame'!... I use fame in scare quotes because I know he'd want me to!

If Dorothy didn't squash the Wicked Witch of the East, the legalistic Munchkins, still loyal to the Witch, would've subjected her and Toto to a Kafkaesque cycle of trials and appeals - all sung-through: 'The Bishop is in hock to the Lollipop Guild, but they're a front for the Lullaby League (etc.)'

"Jenkin-Smith brings to his readers’ attention authors and periodicals that literary histories have meanwhile discarded or longtime ignored." Alexandra Irimia on Daniel Jenkin-Smith's The Rise of Office Literature, from @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social: criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/alexandra_ir...

Thanks for this lovely review of the book!

Recorded, and released, during a heatwave, we discover in this episode that high temperatures can yield provocative new visions about literature and culture. Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451' (1953) - out tomorrow!

Just finished recording an interview with the super smart @dcjenkin-smith.bsky.social of @smfmspodcast.bsky.social fame on the relationship between bureaucracy and utopia/dystopia! Lots of great insight and a really fun chat. Looking forward to the episode making its appearance.

Loads of people guessed correctly! Our next very banned (and, ironically, often burned) book is Ray Bradbury's 1953 dystopia about the perils of anti-intellectualism, 'Fahrenheit 451'. Tune in on 13 August for a lot of histrionics about technology!

Physicists: we've got fission down, but will we ever perfect fusion chips?

ATTENTION ALL PERVS: our 69th episode, covering John Cleland's 1749 erotic novel 'Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure' (AKA 'Fanny Hill'), is out now! Expect strapping footmen, polite applause during orgies, and plenty of red-hot turtlebilling! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

Join us on Wednesday for our episode on John Cleland's seminal (heh) erotic work, 'Fanny Hill' (1748). In addition to lots of strange euphemisms for body parts, be prepared to learn about some bizarre sex acts, like (the maybe less dirty than originally thought) 'turtlebilling'.

Happy Pride, everyone! Today we look at Tennessee Williams's slutty 1947 play, 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. We talk po'boys, suffer through a massive recording equipment failure, and Daniel reveals himself to be both the podcast's Brando AND a thriving gay man. 🌈 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

TOMORROW: We cover the first installment in Tennessee Williams' highly popular Historic Tramways of New Orleans Extended Theatrical Universe™: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' (1947). FEAT: the bleeping out of the word 'tosser'. Tune in!

'Hildegard? It's Marvin -- your cousin: Marvin of Bingen. You know that new sound you're looking for? Listen to this!'

Just overheard an English language purist ordering a 'cheese burgess'.

YESTERDAY: Ulysses Part 2 just dropped! Tune in for the shocking, explosion-laden, hostage situation-ridden conclusion to the 16 June 1904 with yet more of our coverage of James Joyce's magnum opus. Yes you said yes you will yes. Pprrpffrrppffff: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...

1969-74: The Age of Ketchup Accidents in US Cinema. Spilling ketchup is an everyday hazard, but the directors of the 'New Hollywood' raised this instance of trivial frustration to a symbolic level:

'Who hit my car at McDonalds? -- You fucked up my mirror.' Another dose of quotidian ennui set to music by enigmatic singer-songwriter, H.R. Smoke. Listen now!: hrsmokeandrewsmith.bandcamp.com/album/i-coul...

Gird your loins, everyone! Today we cover the first half of James Joyce's 800-page Modernist Irish masterpiece and light retelling of 'The Odyssey' (with far more poop and possibly more sex, if you can believe it): 'Ulysses' (1922). Will we go mad in the process? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Tune into part one of James Joyce's 'Ulysses' (1922) on Wednesday, a work that inspired all manner of discussions philosophical, psychological, linguistic, theological, cinematographical... and scatological.

So many people guessed our next episode that we don't need to tease it: We two 'lunatics', as we've been rightly called, will be doing James Joyce's 800-page incomprehensible Modernist masterpiece, 'Ulysses' next month. Why not in June? Because Abby thought Bloomsday was in May, like a numpty.

Not since our episodes on 'Pamela' and 'Ivanhoe' have the hosts of this show been so annoyed! Tune in today for the emotionally manipulative banned book, 'The Kite Runner' (2003). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

While we weren't *especially* fond of Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner' (2003), one of us at least was willing to succumb to its emotional manipulation. Tune in for a right royal roasting on Wednesday!

A few people guessed correctly! The next banned book we'll be covering is the 2003 sentimental war/redemption/brotherhood extravaganza, 'The Kite Runner'. Hoooo boy, we had a lot of thoughts and feelings about this one! Find out what those thoughts and feelings are on 16 April.

We haven't had any correct guesses for our next text (the original clue was that it VERY prominently features a spring or summertime activity). Here's an additional clue: It's a modern 'classic', published sometime between 2000-2025.

It's time to guess the clue to our next episode! We have previously asked you to guess texts which include a classic wintertime activity in a major scene. Our next text much, MUCH more prominently features a classic spring/summertime activity. What are we reading?

The 3rd issue of #Bureaucritics is out! From groundbreaking monographs to provocative exhibitions, this issue compiles scholarship and art engaging with administration that caught our eye in 2024 (some of it coming up in 2025). Read / subscribe here: bureaucritics.substack.com/p/latest-in-...

Time for another thread in honour of publication day: top 5 articles of office paraphernalia! In the office, objects appear to have powers of their own ('bureaucracy' itself can be translated as 'rule-by-the-desk'), a theme that recurs in its literary portrayal:

Publication day: 'The Rise of Office Literature' is out now! Every time I look inside I find something new to quibble with. Thanks to the team at @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social for all their hard work! Here it is in its natural element:

A new entrant in the hotly contested category of 'best incredibly short 19th-century clerk scene in cinema'™: Powell and Pressburger's 'Tales of Hoffmann' (1951). Love the ink stains on the lens - although slightly weirded out by the 'Far Side'-style glasses.

For our season on banned books and for International Women's Day, we've picked an EXTREMELY banned book--Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' (1985). Atwood predicts the Men's Loneliness Epidemic™, recalls Orwell, and gives some beautiful meditations on an egg. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Tune in on Wednesday to hear us explore the legacy of George Orwell in Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' (1985). Pigs, men - I can't tell the difference!

Another listicle in advance of 'The Rise of Office Literature'! Pranks and jokes are a timeworn office tradition - but what are their philosophical underpinnings? Let's peel back the jelly from the stapler and journey to their dark heart...