Wesley Osam
@mwosam.bsky.social
My site is at https://www.superdoomedplanet.com .
Some discussion around generative AI points out the most important part of making art is the process. It reminds me of one of my pet peeves—interviews with artists/writers that never ask about process, or give it only a cursory mention.
Happens all the time in interviews with cartoonists!
Happens all the time in interviews with cartoonists!
February 8, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Some discussion around generative AI points out the most important part of making art is the process. It reminds me of one of my pet peeves—interviews with artists/writers that never ask about process, or give it only a cursory mention.
Happens all the time in interviews with cartoonists!
Happens all the time in interviews with cartoonists!
Reposted by Wesley Osam
To counter AI slop writers, we need louder celebrations of the oddball writers of two weird books that each took 20 years to write, the hermits refusing to publish except via mimeographed zines, the typewriter poets, playwrights for dollhouses, short story writers who sew words into vegan vellum...
February 8, 2026 at 3:12 PM
To counter AI slop writers, we need louder celebrations of the oddball writers of two weird books that each took 20 years to write, the hermits refusing to publish except via mimeographed zines, the typewriter poets, playwrights for dollhouses, short story writers who sew words into vegan vellum...
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Our February link round-up is live!
Wow! Signal: February 2026
Jake Casella Brookins I’ve got a somewhat shorter list this month: partially because a few other venues were just flooding the zone with good articles (looking at you, LARB & SH), partial…
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org
February 7, 2026 at 10:16 PM
Our February link round-up is live!
Was thinking over why I find Star Trek's 32nd century setting so unappealing, and I think it's because although it shows a Federation that collapsed and needs to rebuild, the only real problem was a natural disaster that was nobody's fault and which is now all in the past anyway.
February 7, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Was thinking over why I find Star Trek's 32nd century setting so unappealing, and I think it's because although it shows a Federation that collapsed and needs to rebuild, the only real problem was a natural disaster that was nobody's fault and which is now all in the past anyway.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
With rare exceptions "the good stuff" can be easily experienced, with all manner of restorations, remasters, and so forth which accent its timelessness.
And that's great! But the greasy reality lives in the instantly dated knots of ephemera which no one thought were worth keeping.
And that's great! But the greasy reality lives in the instantly dated knots of ephemera which no one thought were worth keeping.
February 6, 2026 at 5:04 PM
With rare exceptions "the good stuff" can be easily experienced, with all manner of restorations, remasters, and so forth which accent its timelessness.
And that's great! But the greasy reality lives in the instantly dated knots of ephemera which no one thought were worth keeping.
And that's great! But the greasy reality lives in the instantly dated knots of ephemera which no one thought were worth keeping.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
A small but very deep thing that bothers me about generative AI as a shortcut to practice and work and skill is the basic assumption that it’s impossible to take pleasure in a creative pursuit that you aren’t very good at and I assure you that is not the case
February 6, 2026 at 7:41 PM
A small but very deep thing that bothers me about generative AI as a shortcut to practice and work and skill is the basic assumption that it’s impossible to take pleasure in a creative pursuit that you aren’t very good at and I assure you that is not the case
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Cosmic Energy
https://botfrens.com/collections/69/contents/19617
https://botfrens.com/collections/69/contents/19617
February 6, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Cosmic Energy
https://botfrens.com/collections/69/contents/19617
https://botfrens.com/collections/69/contents/19617
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Here's the full comic, from January 2, 2000. It was the last strip that featured Peppermint Patty, arguably Peanuts greatest character. Schulz died six weeks after it was published. It's perfection.
February 5, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Here's the full comic, from January 2, 2000. It was the last strip that featured Peppermint Patty, arguably Peanuts greatest character. Schulz died six weeks after it was published. It's perfection.
I've started watching the new blu-rays of Tom Baker's second Doctor Who season, and, uh, well. They really did go overboard with the AI upscaling, didn't they?
February 1, 2026 at 2:22 PM
I've started watching the new blu-rays of Tom Baker's second Doctor Who season, and, uh, well. They really did go overboard with the AI upscaling, didn't they?
The thing about reading at the moment is that I’m in that state where I need to feel like I have a Project for my executive function to kick in. The usual result is that I get one chapter into a dozen books before something catches.
February 1, 2026 at 12:25 AM
The thing about reading at the moment is that I’m in that state where I need to feel like I have a Project for my executive function to kick in. The usual result is that I get one chapter into a dozen books before something catches.
I recently read Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why, a book on the charge of the Light Brigade excerpted in a viral post on Bluesky a while back. Interestingly, it's about people who are, in Woodham-Smith's telling, very familiar types of guys.
The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith: 9780140012781 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
This history is a war story of astonishing courage and honor, of stupidity, of blood, death, agony -- and waste. Nothing in British campaign history has ever equaled the tragic farce that was the c...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
January 31, 2026 at 9:57 PM
I recently read Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why, a book on the charge of the Light Brigade excerpted in a viral post on Bluesky a while back. Interestingly, it's about people who are, in Woodham-Smith's telling, very familiar types of guys.
I'm particularly interested in the suggestion here of genre as something that can be read into a work—like, a set of reading protocols you might apply to the work whether or not that was the original idea; contemporary genre influencing how we read work from before it was codified.
And then the first of our essays: the inestimable @megapolisomancy.bsky.social on (what else?) the weird.
What is really striking about this piece is the way in which it advocates for critical reading as productive practice, for "weird reading as a way of thinking critically about the world."
What is really striking about this piece is the way in which it advocates for critical reading as productive practice, for "weird reading as a way of thinking critically about the world."
The Brackish Pool: Towards a Critical Practice of Reading Weird Fiction
The ideal reader of the weird has to embrace a kind of wilful suspension of foreknowledge or generic expectation.
strangehorizons.com
January 31, 2026 at 12:36 AM
I'm particularly interested in the suggestion here of genre as something that can be read into a work—like, a set of reading protocols you might apply to the work whether or not that was the original idea; contemporary genre influencing how we read work from before it was codified.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
📣 It's here: the 2026 @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special!
💡 A whole week of critical insight, with a new essay and new review every day. A podcast, a roundtable, an *editorial*.
📚 The weird! Anthropology! Non-anglophone SFF! Plus thoughts on fantasy series, adaptations, film and more.
💡 A whole week of critical insight, with a new essay and new review every day. A podcast, a roundtable, an *editorial*.
📚 The weird! Anthropology! Non-anglophone SFF! Plus thoughts on fantasy series, adaptations, film and more.
26 January 2026
Welcome to the annual Strange Horizons criticism special!
strangehorizons.com
January 26, 2026 at 1:41 PM
📣 It's here: the 2026 @strangehorizons.bsky.social Criticism Special!
💡 A whole week of critical insight, with a new essay and new review every day. A podcast, a roundtable, an *editorial*.
📚 The weird! Anthropology! Non-anglophone SFF! Plus thoughts on fantasy series, adaptations, film and more.
💡 A whole week of critical insight, with a new essay and new review every day. A podcast, a roundtable, an *editorial*.
📚 The weird! Anthropology! Non-anglophone SFF! Plus thoughts on fantasy series, adaptations, film and more.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Anyway this is neither here nor there, except to say that a lot of the "great literary works" of the past were rooted in, and often struggling against, their own genre conventions. Once those fall away to history, what remains can seem quite different than it does in context.
January 30, 2026 at 1:08 PM
Anyway this is neither here nor there, except to say that a lot of the "great literary works" of the past were rooted in, and often struggling against, their own genre conventions. Once those fall away to history, what remains can seem quite different than it does in context.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Literary genres-- inasmuch as they "are" anything at all-- are not absolute categories. They come and go as times change.
Often, particularly good and particularly thoughtful versions of genres outlive the aesthetic context that they were created in, and then get mistakenly labelled sui generis.
Often, particularly good and particularly thoughtful versions of genres outlive the aesthetic context that they were created in, and then get mistakenly labelled sui generis.
January 30, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Literary genres-- inasmuch as they "are" anything at all-- are not absolute categories. They come and go as times change.
Often, particularly good and particularly thoughtful versions of genres outlive the aesthetic context that they were created in, and then get mistakenly labelled sui generis.
Often, particularly good and particularly thoughtful versions of genres outlive the aesthetic context that they were created in, and then get mistakenly labelled sui generis.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Randomly thinking about how great some weird science fiction writers have been at titles. Cordwainer Smith, R.A. Lafferty, David Bunch, James Tiptree, Howard Waldrop. Just look through a list of their stories and the titles alone are poetic and often bonkers.
January 28, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Randomly thinking about how great some weird science fiction writers have been at titles. Cordwainer Smith, R.A. Lafferty, David Bunch, James Tiptree, Howard Waldrop. Just look through a list of their stories and the titles alone are poetic and often bonkers.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
in response to Hamnet I’m going to write a movie about how Chloe Zhao made Marvel’s “The Eternals” to process her feelings about the time she had to fight supervillain aliens in an exploding volcano
January 28, 2026 at 5:38 AM
in response to Hamnet I’m going to write a movie about how Chloe Zhao made Marvel’s “The Eternals” to process her feelings about the time she had to fight supervillain aliens in an exploding volcano
Reposted by Wesley Osam
“I hate ai, it can’t be trusted, that’s why I trust ai to tell me when something is ai” the thought process of a ton of TEACHERS who ought to be capable of CRITICAL THINKING
Out of curiosity, I just ran a few paragraphs from The Butchering Art through an AI checker and it got flagged: 88% AI. This book was released in 2017, and AI machines were subsequently trained off it. How many writers are getting flagged for AI because of the literal theft of their work(s)? Insane.
OMG - f*ck AI for ruining the em-dash for writers. I use them all the time. Of course, what a shock that AI uses them since they were trained off my voice and other authors' voices.
January 28, 2026 at 2:48 PM
“I hate ai, it can’t be trusted, that’s why I trust ai to tell me when something is ai” the thought process of a ton of TEACHERS who ought to be capable of CRITICAL THINKING
Reposted by Wesley Osam
The vast majority of human literature actually didn’t come out in the last 3 months and it’s deeply poisonous for art if we only focus on new and upcoming releases.
January 28, 2026 at 1:57 PM
The vast majority of human literature actually didn’t come out in the last 3 months and it’s deeply poisonous for art if we only focus on new and upcoming releases.
I can't imagine a Blakes 7 reboot will keep my actual favorite thing about the series: it acts like a gritty human-centric fascists-and-rebels dystopia, but we get constant hints of a bigger, weirder, universe the Federation is simply ignoring.
‘Blake’s 7’ Reboot In The Works From ‘The Last Of Us’ Director Peter Hoar & ‘A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’ Exec Matthew Bouch
A 'Blake's 7' reboot is coming from 'The Last Of Us' director Peter Hoar and Matthew Bouch and their Multitude Productions indie.
deadline.com
January 19, 2026 at 9:45 PM
I can't imagine a Blakes 7 reboot will keep my actual favorite thing about the series: it acts like a gritty human-centric fascists-and-rebels dystopia, but we get constant hints of a bigger, weirder, universe the Federation is simply ignoring.
I finally read Moonwise… I think last year? I wish I’d gotten to it earlier; it’s one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic examples of a strand of fantasy that was important in the 1990s, and a book that asks a lot of the reader.
January 19, 2026 at 5:38 PM
I finally read Moonwise… I think last year? I wish I’d gotten to it earlier; it’s one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic examples of a strand of fantasy that was important in the 1990s, and a book that asks a lot of the reader.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
Wonderful news! Greer Gilman is an utterly unique writer. Her stories "Jack Daw's Pack" and "A Crowd of Bone" are absolute favorites of mine, works of era-defining literary artistry.
Heads up for literary fantasy readers: new Greer Gilman (and her backlist reissued) in 2027!
#booksky
#booksky
January 19, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Wonderful news! Greer Gilman is an utterly unique writer. Her stories "Jack Daw's Pack" and "A Crowd of Bone" are absolute favorites of mine, works of era-defining literary artistry.
Reposted by Wesley Osam
confident mystery
(15 mins)
(15 mins)
January 17, 2026 at 8:36 PM
confident mystery
(15 mins)
(15 mins)
Some discussion of the Zeno's-Arrow-like inability of George R. R. Martin's Ice and Fire books to reach their finish line. There's an interview with Martin I've never forgotten because in part it touches on one of my pet peeves: novels paced a certain way, written exclusively in "scenes":
George R.R. Martin Answers Our Toughest Song of Ice and Fire Questions
When we interviewed A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin at Comic-Con, we decided to drill down and ask some intense questions. Like, is this
gizmodo.com
January 18, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Some discussion of the Zeno's-Arrow-like inability of George R. R. Martin's Ice and Fire books to reach their finish line. There's an interview with Martin I've never forgotten because in part it touches on one of my pet peeves: novels paced a certain way, written exclusively in "scenes":
Caught the very end and the very beginning of Starfleet Academy while Roku was sample-streaming the premiere, and it was doing that "You endangered lives, but we're giving you a slap on the wrist because you're Special" thing. Pretty much killed any desire I had to watch further.
January 17, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Caught the very end and the very beginning of Starfleet Academy while Roku was sample-streaming the premiere, and it was doing that "You endangered lives, but we're giving you a slap on the wrist because you're Special" thing. Pretty much killed any desire I had to watch further.