Holiday Reading: Blogs of the Year 2023

I had a fascinating little exchange on Bluesky the other day with Gustav Holmberg (@gustavholmberg.bsky.social); I’d made a passing remark about my continuing efforts on this blog, and he observed that blogs are like the vinyl records of social media, the format that refuses to die, and might even make a comeback. But, as I replied, one less attractive implication of that comparison is that blogs become a niche hipster thing, a private passion, whereas the great thing about records in the past was the communal aspect: talking about old and new records, lending and borrowing them, anticipating new releases together and then the first to get hold of a copy invites everyone else round to hear it. Subscription Substack it wasn’t.

Well, this could be considered my regular attempt to revive that sort of collective exchange; the annual run-down of my favourite blog posts and other occasional writings (I remain completely uncertain about whether newsletters belong in this list). These are the things that I’ve tried to recommend on Ex-Twitter and Bluesky, with ever less traction; thought-provoking ideas and/or great writing, that keep persuading me that it’s worth carrying on myself. And I really hope that other people will do the same, as one of the other effects of collapsing social media is that I’m finding it harder to find stuff – there was a point this summer when it seemed as if I’d only been reading Crooked Timber posts; yes, it’s their big anniversary year, but still…

January

Luke Annesley (@jazztoad) on ‘playing with good time’ in music and music therapy: https://jazztoad.blogspot.com/2023/01/just-in-time-now-youre-here-and-now-i.html

Kate Lindsay (@KTDigital) on ChatGPT and university assessment: https://katelindsayblogs.com/2023/01/16/chatgpt-and-the-future-of-university-assessment/

Analytical philosophy really isn’t my wheelhouse, but this by @lastpositivist Liam Bright is nevertheless very interesting, reading the present intellectual moment as an echo of early third century Alexandria: http://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-new-alexandria.html, and also Eric Schliesser’s (@nescio13) response: https://digressionsnimpressions.typepad.com/digressionsimpressions/2023/01/on-the-new-alexandria.html

February

Two great posts on teaching from Harry Brighouse (@HarryBrighouse1) at Crooked Timber: Can College Level the Playing Field https://crookedtimber.org/2023/02/06/can-college-level-the-playing-field-no-it-really-cant/ and 7 Minutes from the End of Class https://crookedtimber.org/2023/02/10/7-minutes-from-the-end-of-class/

March

Foluke Adebisi (@folukeifejola) on the tension between the role of minoritised academic and activist: https://folukeafrica.com/activist-or-academic-or-both-the-quandary-of-scholactivism-for-the-minoritised-in-the-ivory-tower/

April

Mark Berry (@boulezian.bsky.social) on the first part of Tcherniakov’s new Berlin Ring – thought-provoking even for those of us left praying for a lottery win in order to see it.: https://boulezian.blogspot.com/2023/04/berlin-festtage-1-das-rheingold.html

David Polansky (@polanskydj) on Iraq invasion mea culpas: https://www.strangefrequencies.co/beware-of-false-mea-culpas/

Katherine Blouin (@isisnaucratis) on the latest Cleopatra nonsense https://isisnaucratis.medium.com/cleopatra-vii-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-f749b66c552c

Tom Hilless (@tomhilless) on ‘The Secret History’, Classics and Dark Academia: https://ekklesiamag.wordpress.com/home/april-2023/a-morbid-longing-for-the-picturesque-dark-academia-the-secret-history-and-what-it-means-for-classics-in-the-21st-century/

May

Adam Roberts (@arrroberts) on Robert Browning’s poem Cleon (no, not that one): https://medium.com/adams-notebook/robert-browning-cleon-1855-e87a637ea8a1

Spencer McDaniel (@SpenceMcDaniel/@spencermcdaniel.bsky.social) on Jordan Peterson’s ignorance of Greek, Hebrew and pretty much everything: https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2023/05/11/jordan-peterson-does-not-understand-ancient-languages/

June

Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest/@dsquareddigest.bsky.social) on how and why to lie with spreadsheets – applicable to all uses of data, not just in accounting: https://backofmind.substack.com/p/how-and-why-to-lie-with-spreadsheets?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf

An entertaining provocation from Erik Robinson at Sententiae Antiquae (@sentantiq): https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2023/06/25/against-the-aeneid/

July

Kevin Mulger on Vilem Flusser on CT: I’m open to the possibility that this is an Oulipolian joke, but wonderful either way: https://crookedtimber.org/2023/07/03/could-this-be-damnation-could-this-be-salvation/

Still not sure if Substack counts as a blog or not, but this is great; Jess Row (@row_ie_argument) on fame and money in literary fiction – conclusion could certainly be applied to academia, that it’s enough to have come up with some ideas that others found worth thinking about, rather than needing to be the Regius Professor or the best-paid ancient historian in the world or the like. https://jessrow.substack.com/p/going-nowhere

August

Reactions from Steven Salaita (@stevesalaita/@stevesalaita.bsky.social) to the advent of Chat-GPT: https://stevesalaita.com/yet-another-think-piece-on-chatgpt/?fbclid=IwAR0SuciPVqThTTDqnTixEGcX7nz7HtTGJgIoCe7GDamweyoMM8Ws40qdHKA

September

Robert Farley (@drfarls/@drfarls.bsky.social) at Lawyers Guns Money on the different career trajectories of Guns n Roses and Metallica: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/09/gnr-and-metallica

Kevin Munger at CT on Stafford Beer, cybernetics and operational research: https://crookedtimber.org/2023/09/26/the-tragedy-of-stafford-beer/

October

Ashok Karra (@akarraoc/@akarra.bsky.social) on Strauss and Caesarism, revealing the roots of the idea that decadence calls for the overthrow of the Republic: https://encouragement.ghost.io/a-quick-comment-on-red-caesarism/

Henry Farrell (@himself.bsky.social) on the modicum of shitposting that makes social media spicy: https://programmablemutter.substack.com/p/shitposting-shit-mining-and-shit

November

Crooked Timber symposium on the ideology of Silicon Valley, especially (inevitably) Maria Farrell (@mariafarrell.bsky.social): https://crookedtimber.org/2023/11/15/silicon-valleys-worldview-is-not-just-an-ideology-its-a-personality-disorder/

Shakezula on LGM on Peter Thiel, simply for glorious snark: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/11/the-t-in-watb-stands-for-thiel

Alexandra Sills (@BelovedOfOizys/@belovedofoizys.bsky.social) on the death of Classics Twitter: https://ancientalexandra.wixsite.com/domus/post/who-is-n-t-joining-ancientbluesky

December

David Klemperer (@dmk1793.bsky.social) on ‘constitutional conspiracism’; fascinating (and there’s one who lives a couple of streets over from here, as I discovered when out leafleting earlier in the year): https://consoc.org.uk/the-rise-of-constitutional-conspiracism/

Still not sure if Substack counts or is a corporate behemoth in blog’s clothing, still resisting any siren call in that direction myself, but it’s lovely to have Donna Zuckerberg back writing again: https://donnazuckerberg.substack.com/p/the-swirling-charybdis-of-motherhood

And I’m even less sure how to list an email newsletter, but have hugely appreciated the ongoing reflections on the war on Gaza from Dana Mills (@DanaNaomyMills) – thinking through anguish. https://tinyletter.com/DanaMills