Calum Barnes
@balumcarnes.bsky.social
melancholic resister | words Tribune, The Quietus and 3:AM | beats Shinlifter | keep cool but care
sigmaportfolio.substack.com
sigmaportfolio.substack.com
Pinned
Calum Barnes
@balumcarnes.bsky.social
· Nov 16
Alasdair Gray’s Universal Story
Poor Things is a scabrous satire of the stifling rationalism and oppressive hierarchies of class, imperialism and gender which propelled Glasgow’s rapid industrialisation in the nineteenth century. Bu...
tribunemag.co.uk
i’ve not written much recently for *reasons* but thought i should at least post a thread of recent stuff so folk know my jam. first up, the review @ewangibbs.bsky.social and i wrote of the Poor Things film. tribunemag.co.uk/2024/01/alas...
finally reunited with my now most valuable book
January 30, 2026 at 8:15 PM
finally reunited with my now most valuable book
love this for Edinburgh
January 27, 2026 at 1:06 PM
love this for Edinburgh
wearing this today for a real one
January 7, 2026 at 10:10 AM
wearing this today for a real one
gutted to hear of the passing of Béla Tarr. in tribute, here’s the time we recreated the bar scene from Werckmeister Harmonies for my 30th birthday in 2019
it was recently the five year anniversary of this event
January 6, 2026 at 4:58 PM
gutted to hear of the passing of Béla Tarr. in tribute, here’s the time we recreated the bar scene from Werckmeister Harmonies for my 30th birthday in 2019
reading thread, 2026 edition
January 3, 2026 at 9:06 AM
reading thread, 2026 edition
Chalamet must be getting wary of typecasting as that’s the second year in a row he’s played a smug but talented upstart Jew scamming his way to the top of his field in post-war NYC
December 30, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Chalamet must be getting wary of typecasting as that’s the second year in a row he’s played a smug but talented upstart Jew scamming his way to the top of his field in post-war NYC
Alasdair Gray’s sardonic definition of postmodernism now reads like a prescient description of tech bros’ AI triumphalism
December 27, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Alasdair Gray’s sardonic definition of postmodernism now reads like a prescient description of tech bros’ AI triumphalism
i did one of those ‘my books of the year’ things: sigmaportfolio.substack.com/p/cultural-h...
Cultural Hysteria, 2025 Edition
My books of the year
sigmaportfolio.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:19 PM
i did one of those ‘my books of the year’ things: sigmaportfolio.substack.com/p/cultural-h...
Reposted by Calum Barnes
Thank you all, the update than we can barely believe we get to make.
To everyone who supported us through this last month, we couldn’t have even come close to this outcome without you all.
Have a peaceful festive period, we’ll see you in the bookshop soon 🧡
To everyone who supported us through this last month, we couldn’t have even come close to this outcome without you all.
Have a peaceful festive period, we’ll see you in the bookshop soon 🧡
December 8, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Thank you all, the update than we can barely believe we get to make.
To everyone who supported us through this last month, we couldn’t have even come close to this outcome without you all.
Have a peaceful festive period, we’ll see you in the bookshop soon 🧡
To everyone who supported us through this last month, we couldn’t have even come close to this outcome without you all.
Have a peaceful festive period, we’ll see you in the bookshop soon 🧡
glad to be ahead once again
December 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM
glad to be ahead once again
dear @rianjohnson.bsky.social did i miss the Gravity’s Rainbow reference in Wake Up Dead Man??
November 26, 2025 at 11:14 PM
dear @rianjohnson.bsky.social did i miss the Gravity’s Rainbow reference in Wake Up Dead Man??
great to see national recognition for Phantom Limb at last night’s Saltire Awards!
November 20, 2025 at 7:32 PM
great to see national recognition for Phantom Limb at last night’s Saltire Awards!
Reposted by Calum Barnes
We need your help.
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
Anger as Waterstones snaps up prime site on doorstep of independent bookshop
UK's biggest bookselling chain under fire over plans for new store beside Edinburgh tram line.
www.heraldscotland.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:28 AM
We need your help.
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
@waterstones.bsky.social, without any direct communication with us, will be opening their 6th Edinburgh branch less than 100 metres from our front door at the Foot of the Walk in Leith.
Please read on for more information
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2562908...
(1/2)
happy On the Calculation of Volume Day to all who celebrate. i’m wearing my shirt to mark it
November 18, 2025 at 4:43 PM
happy On the Calculation of Volume Day to all who celebrate. i’m wearing my shirt to mark it
Tonight! Come along for what promises to be a stimulating and provocative discussion about literature and how it interrogates our dark pasts, both personal and national.
Looking forward to talking to the great Swiss novelist Christian Kracht about confronting the dark legacies of twentieth century European history in his latest book, Eurotrash, at Waterstones West End. Tickets available here: www.waterstones.com/events/chris...
Christian Kracht: Eurotrash | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones
Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Christian Kracht: Eurotrash today.
www.waterstones.com
November 17, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Tonight! Come along for what promises to be a stimulating and provocative discussion about literature and how it interrogates our dark pasts, both personal and national.
utterly depressing to read of the plans to demolish Argyle House, another modernist jewel potentially disappearing from Edinburgh’s urban fabric after the loss of the RBS building on Dundas Street.
November 12, 2025 at 7:48 AM
utterly depressing to read of the plans to demolish Argyle House, another modernist jewel potentially disappearing from Edinburgh’s urban fabric after the loss of the RBS building on Dundas Street.
Looking forward to talking to the great Swiss novelist Christian Kracht about confronting the dark legacies of twentieth century European history in his latest book, Eurotrash, at Waterstones West End. Tickets available here: www.waterstones.com/events/chris...
Christian Kracht: Eurotrash | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones
Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Christian Kracht: Eurotrash today.
www.waterstones.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Looking forward to talking to the great Swiss novelist Christian Kracht about confronting the dark legacies of twentieth century European history in his latest book, Eurotrash, at Waterstones West End. Tickets available here: www.waterstones.com/events/chris...
really sorry to hear of the passing of Peter Watkins. La Commune is easily one of the best depictions of revolutionary politics i have ever seen and i know of no one else whose work was so committed to interrogating how the media are complicit with imposing the agenda of capital
November 1, 2025 at 5:57 PM
really sorry to hear of the passing of Peter Watkins. La Commune is easily one of the best depictions of revolutionary politics i have ever seen and i know of no one else whose work was so committed to interrogating how the media are complicit with imposing the agenda of capital
Reposted by Calum Barnes
The high modernism of Glasgow novelist Alexander Trocchi has often been overshadowed by his low living. At the centenary of his birth, can we discern a meaningful literary legacy beyond his associations with existentialism, Situationism and counterculture?
tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/salt...
tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/salt...
Saltire Situationism
The high modernism of Glasgow novelist Alexander Trocchi has often been overshadowed by his low living. At the centenary of his birth, can we discern a meaningful literary legacy beyond his associatio...
tribunemag.co.uk
October 28, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The high modernism of Glasgow novelist Alexander Trocchi has often been overshadowed by his low living. At the centenary of his birth, can we discern a meaningful literary legacy beyond his associations with existentialism, Situationism and counterculture?
tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/salt...
tribunemag.co.uk/2025/08/salt...
we must bring these stakes back into criticism
October 25, 2025 at 11:35 AM
we must bring these stakes back into criticism
my band Shinlifter have their EP launch on Saturday and with impeccable timing our Instagram has been hacked so we’ve lost our main channel for promoting it. if anyone wanted to help share this brilliant poster by my pal Grace there, here or elsewhere we’d be very grateful!
October 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
my band Shinlifter have their EP launch on Saturday and with impeccable timing our Instagram has been hacked so we’ve lost our main channel for promoting it. if anyone wanted to help share this brilliant poster by my pal Grace there, here or elsewhere we’d be very grateful!
Reposted by Calum Barnes
It has been such a great honour to be one of Krasznahorkai's interpreters into English (since 2008), along with George Szirtes and John Batki. I also have to mention the visionary New Directions and my beyond stellar editor Declan Spring 🧡
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...
Laszlo Krasznahorkai Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
www.nytimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:05 AM
It has been such a great honour to be one of Krasznahorkai's interpreters into English (since 2008), along with George Szirtes and John Batki. I also have to mention the visionary New Directions and my beyond stellar editor Declan Spring 🧡
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/b...
in honour of Krasznahorkai’s Nobel, here’s a video of me and my buds at the bar recreating the iconic scene from The Melancholy of Resistance/The Werckmeister Harmonies on my 30th birthday in 2019
it was recently the five year anniversary of this event
October 9, 2025 at 9:16 PM
in honour of Krasznahorkai’s Nobel, here’s a video of me and my buds at the bar recreating the iconic scene from The Melancholy of Resistance/The Werckmeister Harmonies on my 30th birthday in 2019
when i saw László Krasznahorkai at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2012, the interviewer asked him to give some context for the reading he was about to give and he bluntly replied, ‘No, this is literature!’ then launched into a spellbinding twenty minute monologue from Satantango
October 9, 2025 at 5:18 PM
when i saw László Krasznahorkai at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 2012, the interviewer asked him to give some context for the reading he was about to give and he bluntly replied, ‘No, this is literature!’ then launched into a spellbinding twenty minute monologue from Satantango
can’t believe the Nobel went to a guy who i’ve genuinely read all the available books in English by. so pleased for László!!!
October 9, 2025 at 11:20 AM
can’t believe the Nobel went to a guy who i’ve genuinely read all the available books in English by. so pleased for László!!!