B. Pladek
@bpladek.bsky.social
Ben. Literature scholar & writer; Ass. Prof. of English at Marquette University. He/him. Debut DRY LAND out now from UWP: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/D/Dry-Land
website: bpladek.net
website: bpladek.net
Pinned
B. Pladek
@bpladek.bsky.social
· Dec 2
New story from me @lightspeedmagazine.com, maybe the bleakest I've ever written. It's about:
-AI’s effect on teaching literature
-what literature can (& can't) actually teach us
-trans fatherhood
-the road to hell being paved with white saviorism
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...
-AI’s effect on teaching literature
-what literature can (& can't) actually teach us
-trans fatherhood
-the road to hell being paved with white saviorism
www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/tell...
Tell Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness - Lightspeed Magazine
USER: this is a message for Milwaukee Elementary’s curator Jude Towers, I hope this is the right address. anyway thanks for the story you had RIGHTR generate for my 10th graders’ Empathy Week. it was ...
www.lightspeedmagazine.com
guess it is December so here is my single award-eligible thing this year. fuck AI slop, the baby food of fascism
screaming into a pillow
Teaching with AI: A Collaborative Workshop for Educators, Jan. 29 | Marquette Today
This interactive event is organized with support from the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute.
today.marquette.edu
January 13, 2026 at 1:48 AM
screaming into a pillow
at least my hair looks like Columbo's rn, so I might be sad & exhausted but I'm living the trans man dream
January 9, 2026 at 9:52 PM
at least my hair looks like Columbo's rn, so I might be sad & exhausted but I'm living the trans man dream
horribly exhausted this whole week, bc I guess grief and rage are tiring? (I know some folks are energized by rage; unfortunately I’m not one of them). bracing for another term of trying to find teaching energy amid all the evil
January 9, 2026 at 3:42 PM
horribly exhausted this whole week, bc I guess grief and rage are tiring? (I know some folks are energized by rage; unfortunately I’m not one of them). bracing for another term of trying to find teaching energy amid all the evil
Reposted by B. Pladek
They don't have capacity to terrorize more than 2-3 cities at a time.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
"The Department of Homeland Security plans to pause operations in Chicago — where Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, has led controversial arrest efforts — to support the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota."
Trump Administration Deploying More Border Patrol Agents to Minnesota
www.nytimes.com
January 8, 2026 at 10:17 PM
They don't have capacity to terrorize more than 2-3 cities at a time.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
Which means they rotate teams to new cities without relief.
Which means consistent resistance by fresh activists in each new city will break them over time.
Which means if you're city's not occupied, rest up and get ready.
Reposted by B. Pladek
Good morning. They're going to sell you the lie of provocateurs.
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
January 8, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Good morning. They're going to sell you the lie of provocateurs.
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/theyre-goi...
Reposted by B. Pladek
The US withdrawing from the Freesom Online Coalition, GCERF, Global Counter Terrorism Forum, ECECHT and a bunch of other international organizations and alliances, including UN agencies tonight is certainly...a move...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States
MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
www.whitehouse.gov
January 8, 2026 at 1:28 AM
The US withdrawing from the Freesom Online Coalition, GCERF, Global Counter Terrorism Forum, ECECHT and a bunch of other international organizations and alliances, including UN agencies tonight is certainly...a move...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
complicated feelings. like: I am glad you didn't die man, but that's a long time to live with wanting to
January 6, 2026 at 1:31 PM
complicated feelings. like: I am glad you didn't die man, but that's a long time to live with wanting to
still thinking abt a 1928 letter I found in the archives, where Bryher’s husband writes her abt a trans man who died by lying down on a railway & was outed in death, & then begs Bryher to go to therapy. Letter ends: "One survives grinningly." Bryher lived to be 88.
January 6, 2026 at 4:31 AM
still thinking abt a 1928 letter I found in the archives, where Bryher’s husband writes her abt a trans man who died by lying down on a railway & was outed in death, & then begs Bryher to go to therapy. Letter ends: "One survives grinningly." Bryher lived to be 88.
watching the limp responses roll in from the Chuck Schumers and Mark Carneys of the world, this is right, but idk if it's a brainwashing in favor of law > morality so much as a cowardice that can hide beneath law's cumbersome, convenient shield.
“The longer Americans indulge this preference for the language of the law over morality, the weaker their moral voice becomes. They lose the ability to say, forthrightly, that what the Trump administration has done is cold-blooded murder for which they and their partisans should be ashamed.”
The Moral Stupefaction of the American Public
Trump’s actions are illegal, yes. Worse than that, they are wrong—precisely what the legality debate is meant to obscure.
www.bostonreview.net
January 4, 2026 at 1:35 AM
watching the limp responses roll in from the Chuck Schumers and Mark Carneys of the world, this is right, but idk if it's a brainwashing in favor of law > morality so much as a cowardice that can hide beneath law's cumbersome, convenient shield.
Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz (2025). My favorite of Cañas’s yet, with a delightfully fanatic villain & crunchy historical detail.
Syr Hayati Beker, What a Fish Looks Like (2025). A huge-hearted collection about a group of queers falling in and out of love with the world and each other.
Syr Hayati Beker, What a Fish Looks Like (2025). A huge-hearted collection about a group of queers falling in and out of love with the world and each other.
January 2, 2026 at 11:51 PM
Isabel Cañas, The Possession of Alba Díaz (2025). My favorite of Cañas’s yet, with a delightfully fanatic villain & crunchy historical detail.
Syr Hayati Beker, What a Fish Looks Like (2025). A huge-hearted collection about a group of queers falling in and out of love with the world and each other.
Syr Hayati Beker, What a Fish Looks Like (2025). A huge-hearted collection about a group of queers falling in and out of love with the world and each other.
I'm biased about these last 3 bc I'm friends with the authors but they are still great!
Natalia Theodoridou, Sour Cherry (2025). A Bluebeard retelling of profound beauty and wisdom that shows us how abuse traps people in stories that help them excuse it—but also survive.
Natalia Theodoridou, Sour Cherry (2025). A Bluebeard retelling of profound beauty and wisdom that shows us how abuse traps people in stories that help them excuse it—but also survive.
January 2, 2026 at 11:51 PM
I'm biased about these last 3 bc I'm friends with the authors but they are still great!
Natalia Theodoridou, Sour Cherry (2025). A Bluebeard retelling of profound beauty and wisdom that shows us how abuse traps people in stories that help them excuse it—but also survive.
Natalia Theodoridou, Sour Cherry (2025). A Bluebeard retelling of profound beauty and wisdom that shows us how abuse traps people in stories that help them excuse it—but also survive.
a few more, to hit an even 10:
Mirha-Soleil Ross, ed. Gendertrash from Hell (2025). This trans zine's critiques remain as sharp as they were in the '90s.
Vivian Blaxell, Worthy of the Event (2025). Bravura essay on human dignity that swaggers from Spinoza to shit.
(Little Puss killing it this yr)
Mirha-Soleil Ross, ed. Gendertrash from Hell (2025). This trans zine's critiques remain as sharp as they were in the '90s.
Vivian Blaxell, Worthy of the Event (2025). Bravura essay on human dignity that swaggers from Spinoza to shit.
(Little Puss killing it this yr)
January 2, 2026 at 11:51 PM
a few more, to hit an even 10:
Mirha-Soleil Ross, ed. Gendertrash from Hell (2025). This trans zine's critiques remain as sharp as they were in the '90s.
Vivian Blaxell, Worthy of the Event (2025). Bravura essay on human dignity that swaggers from Spinoza to shit.
(Little Puss killing it this yr)
Mirha-Soleil Ross, ed. Gendertrash from Hell (2025). This trans zine's critiques remain as sharp as they were in the '90s.
Vivian Blaxell, Worthy of the Event (2025). Bravura essay on human dignity that swaggers from Spinoza to shit.
(Little Puss killing it this yr)
love 2 b continually lapped by reality: Canvas is now integrating AI and claiming nonexclusive usage rights for anything posted there, carving a pathway to reduce education to AI-generated "courses" overseen en masse by low-paid ed workers instead of teachers.
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
www.chronicle.com
January 1, 2026 at 8:43 PM
love 2 b continually lapped by reality: Canvas is now integrating AI and claiming nonexclusive usage rights for anything posted there, carving a pathway to reduce education to AI-generated "courses" overseen en masse by low-paid ed workers instead of teachers.
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
Various authors, What about the rapists? anarchist approaches to crime and justice (2015). Grapples cogently with the limits of accountability processes, mostly around capacity. (zine available for free online!)
December 31, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Various authors, What about the rapists? anarchist approaches to crime and justice (2015). Grapples cogently with the limits of accountability processes, mostly around capacity. (zine available for free online!)
Andrea Long Chu, Authority (2025). Chu knows she’s our era's Sontag, so deferentially disclaims being so in this delightful collection, anchored by a history of criticism that plants Kant at the root of liberal critics’ catch-22: the freedom to think anything & obligation to endorse nothing.
December 31, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Andrea Long Chu, Authority (2025). Chu knows she’s our era's Sontag, so deferentially disclaims being so in this delightful collection, anchored by a history of criticism that plants Kant at the root of liberal critics’ catch-22: the freedom to think anything & obligation to endorse nothing.
Ursula Le Guin, Orsinian Tales (1976). I was too young for this collection the first time I read it. Now I think it’s some of Le Guin’s best work, her statement on what the twentieth century, especially the Cold War, meant to Europe. Its closest peer is Jan Morris’s masterpiece Hav.
December 31, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Ursula Le Guin, Orsinian Tales (1976). I was too young for this collection the first time I read it. Now I think it’s some of Le Guin’s best work, her statement on what the twentieth century, especially the Cold War, meant to Europe. Its closest peer is Jan Morris’s masterpiece Hav.
Angela Carter, Wise Children (1991). A virtuosic tragicomedy & larger-than-life love letter to theater in all its dirt, glitter, & excess.
December 31, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Angela Carter, Wise Children (1991). A virtuosic tragicomedy & larger-than-life love letter to theater in all its dirt, glitter, & excess.
Isaac Fellman, Notes From a Regicide (2025). A quiet, beautiful tribute to love as prosthetic, how we fill in one another’s lacks but also expand each other beyond the selves we thought possible; & how this model of care is something art articulates & state power grotesquely mirrors.
December 31, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Isaac Fellman, Notes From a Regicide (2025). A quiet, beautiful tribute to love as prosthetic, how we fill in one another’s lacks but also expand each other beyond the selves we thought possible; & how this model of care is something art articulates & state power grotesquely mirrors.
Jeanne Thornton, A/S/L (2025). A masterful, bittersweet exploration of the universes we co-create as teenagers, trans friendship, & the trap of the “good person” as an ideal; also a sharp meditation on gaming & agency. Thornton is one of our best working writers of both character and ekphrasis.
December 31, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Jeanne Thornton, A/S/L (2025). A masterful, bittersweet exploration of the universes we co-create as teenagers, trans friendship, & the trap of the “good person” as an ideal; also a sharp meditation on gaming & agency. Thornton is one of our best working writers of both character and ekphrasis.
A.S. Byatt, Babel Tower (1996). My favorite Byatt so far, a defense of artistic freedom that gives its counterarguments their full, disturbing weight, yet invites us to find in favor anyway.
December 31, 2025 at 6:09 PM
A.S. Byatt, Babel Tower (1996). My favorite Byatt so far, a defense of artistic freedom that gives its counterarguments their full, disturbing weight, yet invites us to find in favor anyway.
Various authors, What about the rapists? anarchist approaches to crime and justice (2015). Grapples cogently with the limits of accountability processes, mostly around capacity. (this zine's available free online!)
Off for lunch now; more maybe later.
Off for lunch now; more maybe later.
December 31, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Various authors, What about the rapists? anarchist approaches to crime and justice (2015). Grapples cogently with the limits of accountability processes, mostly around capacity. (this zine's available free online!)
Off for lunch now; more maybe later.
Off for lunch now; more maybe later.
Andrea Long Chu, Authority (2025). Chu knows she’s our era's Sontag, so deferentially disclaims being so in this delightful collection, anchored by a history of criticism that plants Kant at the root of liberal critics’ catch-22: the freedom to think anything & obligation to endorse nothing.
December 31, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Andrea Long Chu, Authority (2025). Chu knows she’s our era's Sontag, so deferentially disclaims being so in this delightful collection, anchored by a history of criticism that plants Kant at the root of liberal critics’ catch-22: the freedom to think anything & obligation to endorse nothing.
Ursula Le Guin, Orsinian Tales (1976). I was too young for this collection the first time I read it. Now I think it’s some of Le Guin’s best work, her statement on what the 20th century, especially the Cold War, meant to Europe. Its closest peer is Jan Morris’s masterpiece Hav.
December 31, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Ursula Le Guin, Orsinian Tales (1976). I was too young for this collection the first time I read it. Now I think it’s some of Le Guin’s best work, her statement on what the 20th century, especially the Cold War, meant to Europe. Its closest peer is Jan Morris’s masterpiece Hav.
Angela Carter, Wise Children (1991). A virtuosic tragicomedy & larger-than-life love letter to theater in all its dirt, glitter, & excess.
December 31, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Angela Carter, Wise Children (1991). A virtuosic tragicomedy & larger-than-life love letter to theater in all its dirt, glitter, & excess.
Isaac Fellman, Notes From a Regicide (2025). A quiet, beautiful tribute to love as prosthetic, how we fill in one another’s lacks but also expand each other beyond the selves we thought possible; & how this model of care is something art articulates & state power grotesquely mirrors.
December 31, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Isaac Fellman, Notes From a Regicide (2025). A quiet, beautiful tribute to love as prosthetic, how we fill in one another’s lacks but also expand each other beyond the selves we thought possible; & how this model of care is something art articulates & state power grotesquely mirrors.