Ciarán Treacy
@ciarantre.bsky.social
Researcher, writer and teacher on contemporary literature and culture. Co-host @lotsplanetspod.bsky.social He/him.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT
Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’
www.vulture.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Handing back student work that’s been written by ChatGPT with a 0 followed by the comment “This essay will never stand in authentic wonder before the Beauty of God’s creation.”
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
Man Who Thought Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ Was Over In For Thrill Of His Fucking Life https://theonion.com/man-who-thought-fleetwood-macs-the-chain-was-over-in-for-thrill-of-his-fucking-life/
November 24, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Man Who Thought Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ Was Over In For Thrill Of His Fucking Life https://theonion.com/man-who-thought-fleetwood-macs-the-chain-was-over-in-for-thrill-of-his-fucking-life/
In today's Songs of Love, I desperately bolster my cool cred by talking about Sufjan Stevens at length with a passing reference to Phoebe Bridgers, and then immediately bring it all crashing down by referencing Billy Joel and Gilbert O'Sullivan.
Songs of Love 9
Today we’re in a broadly indie sphere, in a genre sense rather than distribution etc. – the kinds of songs you might hear played on radio stations that devote themselves to the nostalgia of 30- and 40...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
November 7, 2025 at 11:43 AM
In today's Songs of Love, I desperately bolster my cool cred by talking about Sufjan Stevens at length with a passing reference to Phoebe Bridgers, and then immediately bring it all crashing down by referencing Billy Joel and Gilbert O'Sullivan.
As a spooky seasonal treat, wrote about Majora's Mask and how it took up residence in my head when I was too young to understand why.
A Terrible Fate: Majora's Mask at 25
One of the first creepypastas (creepypasta? Not a word I ever expected to pluralise) I can remember sticking with me is a lurid story about a person buying a strange-looking copy of the 2000 game The ...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
October 31, 2025 at 11:13 AM
As a spooky seasonal treat, wrote about Majora's Mask and how it took up residence in my head when I was too young to understand why.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
Edward Phillips posters have produced 'Mileage Chart' - a map taking in over 200 UK and Irish locations mentioned in #HMHB songs, including a key to which album each appear on. Methodical. www.edwardphilips.co.uk/vintage-rail...
October 21, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Edward Phillips posters have produced 'Mileage Chart' - a map taking in over 200 UK and Irish locations mentioned in #HMHB songs, including a key to which album each appear on. Methodical. www.edwardphilips.co.uk/vintage-rail...
In a deeply unsurprising turn of events, I've written about Half Man Half Biscuit in this week's Songs of Love, along with Lisa Hannigan. Now there's a double bill I'd love to see.
Songs of Love 8
Some love songs, as we’ve seen, live on details, on specifics, about a particular scene or the way someone looks or similar. Others are more abstract, and that’s the case in different ways with these ...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
October 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM
In a deeply unsurprising turn of events, I've written about Half Man Half Biscuit in this week's Songs of Love, along with Lisa Hannigan. Now there's a double bill I'd love to see.
With the inevitability of Sisyphus's boulder, I wrote something about Hades 2.
Hades 2: Time Heals All Wounds?
The following will contain spoilers for both Hades and Hades 2 at least up to the end credits of both.
Hades 2 is one of those sequels that is, at base, evolutionary rather than revolutionary, to use...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
October 17, 2025 at 11:02 AM
With the inevitability of Sisyphus's boulder, I wrote something about Hades 2.
Really need to start using this as a reaction image more.
October 17, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Really need to start using this as a reaction image more.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
Hindsight is 20-20, but I really think they should have taken Maxwell's silver hammer away before the trial.
October 16, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Hindsight is 20-20, but I really think they should have taken Maxwell's silver hammer away before the trial.
This week in Songs of Love, we're at a very particular moment in the mid-90s, with two indie darlings from opposite sides of the Atlantic, in the forms of Pulp and Jeff Buckley.
Songs of Love 7
Here, two songs that came out within a year of each other, something that seems to happen more often than one might expect given that these songs are mostly chosen randomly. Both songs are from pivota...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
October 10, 2025 at 11:05 AM
This week in Songs of Love, we're at a very particular moment in the mid-90s, with two indie darlings from opposite sides of the Atlantic, in the forms of Pulp and Jeff Buckley.
It's that time again, with some returning friends this time around - Paul McCartney, noted for his silly love songs, and The Who, who very much aren't, but perhaps should be.
Songs of Love 6
Two artists we’ve already encountered here; in one case as part of a band, while the other slips between categories, offering us a B-Side where we’ve previously looked at an A-Side. So both sneaking p...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
October 3, 2025 at 11:35 AM
It's that time again, with some returning friends this time around - Paul McCartney, noted for his silly love songs, and The Who, who very much aren't, but perhaps should be.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
In this week's Songs of Love, I get to write about the Four Tops, a band I love, and the Sisters of Mercy, a band I've never been able to decide whether I love or just find absurd.
Songs of Love 5
Performance is everything on all of these records, of course. These aren’t poems, they’re songs, and they demand to be experienced and analysed as such, as holistic pieces of art wherein the distinct ...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
September 26, 2025 at 10:03 AM
In this week's Songs of Love, I get to write about the Four Tops, a band I love, and the Sisters of Mercy, a band I've never been able to decide whether I love or just find absurd.
Wrote about Expedition 33, a game I have not been able to get out of my head for the last few weeks.
Clair Obscur Expedition 33: Painting with Sorrow
This falls very much under the “other ephemera” category as far as this blog goes. As with popular music, and perhaps even more so, I like to make a case for video games as art, contra Roger Ebert’s f...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
September 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Wrote about Expedition 33, a game I have not been able to get out of my head for the last few weeks.
New Songs of Love, tackling Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, two icons of cool remove. Right? Right?
Songs of Love 4
This time, two songs from only a couple of years apart, from two of the great male voices of the 20th century. Two singers heavily associated with each other, but also very much associated with ideas ...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
September 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
New Songs of Love, tackling Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, two icons of cool remove. Right? Right?
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
BBC News captures Doctor Who himself Sylvester McCoy at the Trump protest seemingly unaware of who they're interviewing.
September 17, 2025 at 6:29 PM
BBC News captures Doctor Who himself Sylvester McCoy at the Trump protest seemingly unaware of who they're interviewing.
Got ambitious with Songs of Love this week and tackled the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. Because nothing substantial has ever been written about those two bands.
Songs of Love 3
This week, it’s perhaps two of the most famous bands in the world, from the respective decades with which they’re most associated. Like last week, the A-side this time is an album track while the B-si...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
September 12, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Got ambitious with Songs of Love this week and tackled the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. Because nothing substantial has ever been written about those two bands.
Entry 2 in Songs of Love covers The Who and Queen, because I am up to the minute and down with the kids as always.
Songs of Love 2
Two songs here from bands often grouped under the nebulous and occasionally suspect label of “classic rock.” Two bands, moreover and indeed relatedly, who are not typically known for extremes of emoti...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
September 5, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Entry 2 in Songs of Love covers The Who and Queen, because I am up to the minute and down with the kids as always.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this.
I hope it endures.
I hope it endures.
Melvyn Bragg has decided to stand down as host of In Our Time, the BBC says.
September 3, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this.
I hope it endures.
I hope it endures.
I'm starting up a new project, documenting some of (what I think are) the most interesting love songs; how they work and what they speak to. Here's the introduction:
Songs of Love: Introduction
The love song is the basic unit of the song, we might even say the default form. In the same way that the novel has become the dominant prose form since the 18th century, the love song dominates the a...
infinity-or-zero-or-nonsense.ghost.io
August 29, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I'm starting up a new project, documenting some of (what I think are) the most interesting love songs; how they work and what they speak to. Here's the introduction:
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
Faretheewell, Tom Lehrer, often reluctant musician - whose descendants down one branch include Randy Newman and maybe Lou Reed (viz "The Masochism Tango"), and down the other Weird Al. Ninety-seven years and dozens of whipsmart songs, a pretty good record. Inevitably one thinks of this tune.
Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go
YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel
www.youtube.com
July 27, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Faretheewell, Tom Lehrer, often reluctant musician - whose descendants down one branch include Randy Newman and maybe Lou Reed (viz "The Masochism Tango"), and down the other Weird Al. Ninety-seven years and dozens of whipsmart songs, a pretty good record. Inevitably one thinks of this tune.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
New episode! Turns out Enlightenment is really very, very good, and The King's Demons... isn't. Who knew? soundcloud.com/lotsofplanet...
Episode 13: Season 20 - Part 2
In this episode, the Eternals have some distressing contemporary resonances, the Master is smoked paprika, and Terminus has an obvious reading that somehow neither of us have encountered before (do ge
soundcloud.com
July 16, 2025 at 9:18 AM
New episode! Turns out Enlightenment is really very, very good, and The King's Demons... isn't. Who knew? soundcloud.com/lotsofplanet...
Very good thread on the OfS guidance. Really, the *fundamental point* of academia is being able to defend your ideas, and subject them to rigour. That should be extremely basic for anyone with a PhD, or who has ever presented a paper.
"wah wah wah I couldn't say every thought that popped into my head" you're supposed to be an INTELLECTUAL
June 19, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Very good thread on the OfS guidance. Really, the *fundamental point* of academia is being able to defend your ideas, and subject them to rigour. That should be extremely basic for anyone with a PhD, or who has ever presented a paper.
Reposted by Ciarán Treacy
