Alex West
@ajw87.bsky.social
Interested in the Columbian exchange. Philology. Manuscripts. Plants. #OldSundanese #MedievalIndonesia #TupianLanguages Old site: https://indomedieval.medium.com/ New site: https://medium.com/@WestsWorld he/him
Book: https://brill.com/display/title/68202
Book: https://brill.com/display/title/68202
Pinned
Alex West
@ajw87.bsky.social
· Jul 10
Bujangga Manik: Or, Java in the Fifteenth Century
My book on Bujangga Manik has been published by Brill under the title Bujangga Manik: Or, Java in the Fifteenth Century.
indomedieval.medium.com
Hard copies of my book arrived a few days ago, and I've finally found the time to write a bit about it and why you should read it (or get your library to buy it).
indomedieval.medium.com/bujangga-man...
indomedieval.medium.com/bujangga-man...
Reposted by Alex West
On the form a British citizen and non-citizen spouse must fill in to live together in the UK you have to declare a reason you *can't* live together elsewhere. The default position of the UK government since 2012 is that a citizen who married a non-Brit should just leave.
The UK already prohibits MARRIED BRITISH CITIZENS from automatic family reunification, including my own, which is why my wife and I have to live in a third country together. Mahmood wants to further erode the Right to Family Life assured by the ECHR. This is an evil anti-family and anti-human policy
Illegal migration is ‘tearing our country apart’ and system is broken, says Shabana Mahmood – UK politics live
November 16, 2025 at 10:33 AM
On the form a British citizen and non-citizen spouse must fill in to live together in the UK you have to declare a reason you *can't* live together elsewhere. The default position of the UK government since 2012 is that a citizen who married a non-Brit should just leave.
Reposted by Alex West
I in general love how living a transnational life is arguably more common than ever but policymakers still treat your needs, desires and concerns as essentially mythological middle class nonsense
November 16, 2025 at 12:03 PM
I in general love how living a transnational life is arguably more common than ever but policymakers still treat your needs, desires and concerns as essentially mythological middle class nonsense
Reposted by Alex West
To suggest that having lived a life so grim that even an English tribunal will grant you asylum, and to have somehow managed to get here at great risk to life, is a "golden ticket" is absolutely fucking contemptible. Shame on this so-called Labour Party.
November 15, 2025 at 11:47 PM
To suggest that having lived a life so grim that even an English tribunal will grant you asylum, and to have somehow managed to get here at great risk to life, is a "golden ticket" is absolutely fucking contemptible. Shame on this so-called Labour Party.
🖕
Shabana Mahmood has vowed to end Britain’s “golden ticket” for asylum seekers by forcing people arriving illegally to wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement
Shabana Mahmood: ‘Illegal migration is tearing Britain apart’
The home secretary is planning to introduce a 20-year wait for permanent stay to end a ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers
www.thetimes.com
November 16, 2025 at 10:26 AM
🖕
Reposted by Alex West
We're stuck with it, but determining someone's legal rights based on a nebulous combination of birthplace and parentage is actually pretty fucking weird, and it'd be better if we talked about it as an unfortunate practical necessity not a natural phenomenon
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 15, 2025 at 12:30 PM
We're stuck with it, but determining someone's legal rights based on a nebulous combination of birthplace and parentage is actually pretty fucking weird, and it'd be better if we talked about it as an unfortunate practical necessity not a natural phenomenon
Reposted by Alex West
if you haven’t seen Ran, rectify that immediately
if you have seen Ran, see it again
if you have seen Ran, see it again
Ran (1985)
Akira Kurosawa's epic retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. A warlord's crimes come back to haunt him at the end of his life as he watches his family devour itself.
Hang every shot of this movie in the Louvre!
Akira Kurosawa's epic retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear. A warlord's crimes come back to haunt him at the end of his life as he watches his family devour itself.
Hang every shot of this movie in the Louvre!
November 15, 2025 at 4:55 AM
if you haven’t seen Ran, rectify that immediately
if you have seen Ran, see it again
if you have seen Ran, see it again
Reposted by Alex West
Indigenous Taiwanese, apparently not "authentic" Taiwanese, unavailable for comment
focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait...
focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait...
November 14, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Indigenous Taiwanese, apparently not "authentic" Taiwanese, unavailable for comment
focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait...
focustaiwan.tw/cross-strait...
November 14, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Alex West
seeing a lot of people talking about borders and thought i'd cut right to the quick: we have duties to those we share our lives with, those we share our communities with, and those we share this existence with. the only role of the nation is to blind us to these
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM
seeing a lot of people talking about borders and thought i'd cut right to the quick: we have duties to those we share our lives with, those we share our communities with, and those we share this existence with. the only role of the nation is to blind us to these
Reposted by Alex West
I grew up in northern NJ, so I say 'merry', 'Mary', and 'marry' with different vowels, but they're homophones for most ppl in the US. For me, 'Harry' and 'fairy' don't rhyme. I say 'cot' and 'caught' differently. 'Forest' starts with the same sounds as 'far', not 'for'.
November 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
I grew up in northern NJ, so I say 'merry', 'Mary', and 'marry' with different vowels, but they're homophones for most ppl in the US. For me, 'Harry' and 'fairy' don't rhyme. I say 'cot' and 'caught' differently. 'Forest' starts with the same sounds as 'far', not 'for'.
Reposted by Alex West
Let's talk about why "just spell it how it sounds" is actually not straightforward, especially for a large language like English. The big questions are: "How it sounds" when spoken*by whom*? And who gets to choose?
#linguistics
#linguistics
Incidentally, this is why I’m against strict spelling. Words should be spelled the way they sound & we spell words as if we’re speaking Middle English for ridiculous class reasons
In ME you’d pronounce the k in “knight” but some dumbass needed to prove he was cool & now we have a literacy problem
In ME you’d pronounce the k in “knight” but some dumbass needed to prove he was cool & now we have a literacy problem
ever since I learned about three-cueing I've developed infinitely more patience for replies on social media. mfers literally do not know how to read. people are walking around conjuring random meanings into words they don't know, and they don't know a lot of words. it's crazy
November 12, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Let's talk about why "just spell it how it sounds" is actually not straightforward, especially for a large language like English. The big questions are: "How it sounds" when spoken*by whom*? And who gets to choose?
#linguistics
#linguistics
Frankenstein's pretty good, but the Guillermo del Toro cartoonish colour saturation thing works more effectively in Hellboy and Blade II more than it does here. Not exactly my cup of tea. Still, much more fun than your average blockbuster.
November 11, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Frankenstein's pretty good, but the Guillermo del Toro cartoonish colour saturation thing works more effectively in Hellboy and Blade II more than it does here. Not exactly my cup of tea. Still, much more fun than your average blockbuster.
Back in the day, if you moved to the UK, say, with your spouse, and you were British or European, you'd be able to live with your spouse without applying for any further visas or permits. You had to pay a small admin fee (£20, I think?) and that was that. And it was similar elsewhere.
November 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Back in the day, if you moved to the UK, say, with your spouse, and you were British or European, you'd be able to live with your spouse without applying for any further visas or permits. You had to pay a small admin fee (£20, I think?) and that was that. And it was similar elsewhere.
Reposted by Alex West
I live fairly near the Assembleia da República, the Portuguese Parliament, and went past it yesterday. Facing the building, there was a huge billboard bearing the words "ISTO NÃO É O BANGLADESH" ('this is not Bangladesh') next to André Ventura's face.
November 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
I live fairly near the Assembleia da República, the Portuguese Parliament, and went past it yesterday. Facing the building, there was a huge billboard bearing the words "ISTO NÃO É O BANGLADESH" ('this is not Bangladesh') next to André Ventura's face.
The sadness and anger has died down for now, which is good, and we've been taking a few practical steps forward. Doing better today.
November 6, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The sadness and anger has died down for now, which is good, and we've been taking a few practical steps forward. Doing better today.
But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
November 5, 2025 at 2:53 PM
But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
I went through the incandescent-with-rage phase of accepting our situation yesterday, and there was an extremely violent storm over Lisbon last night—constant thunder and lightning, a flash every second or so for ten minutes. Felt a bit on-the-nose.
November 5, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I went through the incandescent-with-rage phase of accepting our situation yesterday, and there was an extremely violent storm over Lisbon last night—constant thunder and lightning, a flash every second or so for ten minutes. Felt a bit on-the-nose.
I wrote up a blogpost about the immigration situation and why we're leaving the country, mostly to get it all out of my head:
We’re Leaving Portugal
My wife is a US citizen, and I have both British and Irish citizenships. We live in Lisbon, Portugal. We really like it. Lisbon is the…
medium.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I wrote up a blogpost about the immigration situation and why we're leaving the country, mostly to get it all out of my head:
The feeling in our flat today is, basically, grief. We don't really want to leave but it makes no sense to stay now. There's nothing we can do. I suppose we just have to go through it and see what there is on the other side.
November 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The feeling in our flat today is, basically, grief. We don't really want to leave but it makes no sense to stay now. There's nothing we can do. I suppose we just have to go through it and see what there is on the other side.
Reposted by Alex West
Pulling this back into TLs to be sure that all who can will stand as witnesses for him (and for me and so many others too).
we had a good run while it lasted, academia, and you let me write a few books, dozens of articles etc., win prizes, secure a million and a bit more of funding for research projects, and you let me work as a professor in 4 cities for the the last 11 years, but you never invited me to stay for good.
November 2, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Pulling this back into TLs to be sure that all who can will stand as witnesses for him (and for me and so many others too).
Yesterday I suddenly got hundreds and hundreds of views, but almost no reads, on my old blog (indomedieval.medium.com). This has happened a few times in the last months. Not sure what's going on with it.
November 2, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Yesterday I suddenly got hundreds and hundreds of views, but almost no reads, on my old blog (indomedieval.medium.com). This has happened a few times in the last months. Not sure what's going on with it.
Well, the news has taken the wind out of my sails. I had planned on starting a project this weekend—a new book project—but I've found myself flitting between articles, videos, and posts online instead of doing anything productive.
November 1, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Well, the news has taken the wind out of my sails. I had planned on starting a project this weekend—a new book project—but I've found myself flitting between articles, videos, and posts online instead of doing anything productive.
Reposted by Alex West
It is both uplifting and heartbreaking to learn that one shares one's woes with E. G. Pulleyblank (1922-2013), even 65 years after he wrote these words in Orientalism and History (ed D. Sinor, Cambridge 1954, 57).
November 1, 2025 at 6:55 AM
It is both uplifting and heartbreaking to learn that one shares one's woes with E. G. Pulleyblank (1922-2013), even 65 years after he wrote these words in Orientalism and History (ed D. Sinor, Cambridge 1954, 57).
It now takes ten years of legal residence in the country to be eligible for Portuguese citizenship. New law. It used to be five.
November 1, 2025 at 8:55 AM
It now takes ten years of legal residence in the country to be eligible for Portuguese citizenship. New law. It used to be five.