Zohar Jacobs

Going Underground with Alice Notley ‘The first thing you notice is the quotation marks: there are lots of them and they’re in all the wrong places.’

I read "The Descent of Alette" while going through the Channel Tunnel. Would recommend. granta.com/going-underg...

I vibe with that very hard as well - because I'm a reader and writer of both literary and genre fiction. Any disdain or exclusionary tactics from either side always rebounds on me. Being willing to exist across genre boundaries means that you're always "them."

Suddenly, its turns out that it is not smart to arrogantly shit on an ally that has learned how to down 200 Shaheds every single night and then wipe out and oil refinery or a military airfield with a handful of cheap drones.

Overheard on an Oxford bus: "so I know fractionally more than the students, probably, I think."

Digital amnesia: machine unlearning and the fragility of cultural memory - AI & SOCIETY AI & SOCIETY -

"...Today, the role is largely taken by corporations and their algorithms. Decisions about what to learn and unlearn may no longer be collective acts of negotiation between human beings, but between models, tech companies, capital flow, and governments." link.springer.com/article/10.1...

"With machine unlearning, the gatekeepers of cultural memory could shift dramatically. Historically, while cultural memory was mediated by elites or institutional actors, elders, historians, and storytellers, who embedded within the community were often also active participants..."

Operation Shylock too. But Roth definitely feels as if he's fallen out of fashion.

LOLOL

My personal theory is that all excellent books inspire some people to violently hate them. Only mediocre books don't anger anyone.

All of this is so confusing. Similarly, I know there are Labour local councillors who are doing great work on active travel in London, but in Oxford the mood is different from both local and national figures. Is it just that the UK political party system is breaking down?

Oh now I get it. Dubai is Golgafrinchan Ark B.

Yeah, we have 5 Park & Rides, I think? And new bus routes introduced, so I think they haven't done too badly. (Disclaimer: I use the buses, but not the Park & Rides.)

Not only that, but the income from the congestion charge is being used to make the P&R buses free (if you park).

A headline from GB News stating: Motorists switch to using public transport to avoid paying £5 daily congestion charge

In shock news, motorists have switched to public transport to avoid paying the Oxford Congestion Charge.
A spokesperson* said: "This is exactly what was meant to happen, and it did."

a) This sounds brilliant
b) What about Elephantine Island? Is no one thinking of Elephantine Island?

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

FFS.

that moment when you have to take a breath before you break the novel apart in revisions. purify gold in fire and all that.

Frequently bought together: Hebrew Daily Prayer Book (Singer Sacks) The Lay of Autrou and Itroun Beren and Luthien

And here, we see the hand of the mysterious Jewish-Tolkienist worldwide cabal at work. harpercollins.co.uk/products/heb...

I know maps are less popular than clickbait, but pls entertain me

🧵 We are watching two escalating conflicts at the same time:

• Pakistan–Afghanistan cross-border fighting
• Israel–Iran strikes, with spillover across the Gulf

These events may converge into a regional displacement crisis.

And yet I still think we were lucky because we experienced the prior world

Apparently this was news to Nigel Farage. bsky.app/profile/sund...

Revising a novel is sometimes like navigating a massive container ship: you can only turn it a few degrees at a time. And there's the looming possibility of running it aground and getting stuck like the Ever Given in the Suez Canal.

I feel that surely books shouldn't count as "physical media," just like artistic works shouldn't count as "content"

Immigrants vote, who'd have thought it?

Yeah, it's interesting, because I also know autistic Jews who LOVE the legal aspects of Judaism

Hello darkness my old friend...

Sinister daffodils swivel to watch you, Britain in peril: this has all the vibes of a Doctor Who episode...

Sounds like *someone* didn’t enjoy his trip to Grasmere…

🎵Hopes may rise on the Grasmere
But, honey pie, you're not safe here
So you run down to the safety of the towns...