A.V. Marraccini
@saintsoftness.bsky.social
essayist + critic + art historian ⎔ book WE THE PARASITES (https://sublunaryeditions.com/products/we-the-parasites) ⎔ Critic in Residence at IDM-NYU ⎔ THESE NEW FRAGILITIES coming in 2028 from Seven Stories Press
avmarraccini.com
avmarraccini.com
I’d like to congratulate my brilliant friend Richie Hofman on his new book coming out today. The Bronze Arms is a bravura modern turn on antiquarianism, ekphrasis, and want— I’ll be writing about it on Substack since he’s a friend and I can’t formally review, but do buy it!
February 12, 2026 at 4:09 PM
I’d like to congratulate my brilliant friend Richie Hofman on his new book coming out today. The Bronze Arms is a bravura modern turn on antiquarianism, ekphrasis, and want— I’ll be writing about it on Substack since he’s a friend and I can’t formally review, but do buy it!
Reposted by A.V. Marraccini
More new translation of Rilke and a reflection on gritty materialities:
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
More Rilke ("Abend") For Dirty Snow
another new translation from the German, with a note on Romantic Genius and grittier materialities
open.substack.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:50 AM
More new translation of Rilke and a reflection on gritty materialities:
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
More new translation of Rilke and a reflection on gritty materialities:
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
More Rilke ("Abend") For Dirty Snow
another new translation from the German, with a note on Romantic Genius and grittier materialities
open.substack.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:50 AM
More new translation of Rilke and a reflection on gritty materialities:
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...
Reposted by A.V. Marraccini
This makes my reading of @saintsoftness.bsky.social book, and intended review, seem a lot more vital
With Ron Charles and Becca Rothfeld laid off from WaPo, there are now only 5 full-time book critics working in the United States.
That's down from 7 when this pubbed last year, though you may find my definition of a "full-time book critic" arbitrary.
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
That's down from 7 when this pubbed last year, though you may find my definition of a "full-time book critic" arbitrary.
worldliteraturetoday.org/2025/septemb...
Criticism Is Literature. Why Is It Vanishing?, by Adam Morgan
What do the best book reviews do? What is the current state of the critical ecosystem? Chicago Review of Books founder Adam Morgan takes stock of book reviewing in the US.
worldliteraturetoday.org
February 7, 2026 at 7:40 AM
This makes my reading of @saintsoftness.bsky.social book, and intended review, seem a lot more vital
If you were forced to suddenly pick and train for a winter Olympic sport what would it be? Obviously for me, ice dance or skating since I do ballet and they take our classes for cross-training (ankle strength for pointe helps too). Also I love a sparkly leotard. You?
February 6, 2026 at 9:11 PM
If you were forced to suddenly pick and train for a winter Olympic sport what would it be? Obviously for me, ice dance or skating since I do ballet and they take our classes for cross-training (ankle strength for pointe helps too). Also I love a sparkly leotard. You?
Cheering for countries whose literatures I like most in the Olympic opening ceremony because that is the clear criterion of choice.
February 6, 2026 at 8:31 PM
Cheering for countries whose literatures I like most in the Olympic opening ceremony because that is the clear criterion of choice.
I think one of the best parts of the Olympics is the "your country has to stage a cool giant interpretative dance show" aspect. Personally, the Oldenburg-esque paint tubes and Cupid and Psyche had me cheering in the spirit of cheesy cultural spectacle we all love.
February 6, 2026 at 8:27 PM
I think one of the best parts of the Olympics is the "your country has to stage a cool giant interpretative dance show" aspect. Personally, the Oldenburg-esque paint tubes and Cupid and Psyche had me cheering in the spirit of cheesy cultural spectacle we all love.
I had a tube of plastic abyssal deep sea creature toys, a miniature flashlight, and the sudden flash of an image come to me whole as if in a dream:
February 6, 2026 at 6:18 AM
I had a tube of plastic abyssal deep sea creature toys, a miniature flashlight, and the sudden flash of an image come to me whole as if in a dream:
You know it’s bad out there when the shift from late Roman Republican to Imperial portrait busts make you audibly sigh with recognition in the galleries.
February 5, 2026 at 8:19 PM
You know it’s bad out there when the shift from late Roman Republican to Imperial portrait busts make you audibly sigh with recognition in the galleries.
I am normal and can be trusted not to spoliate porphyry.
February 5, 2026 at 7:35 PM
I am normal and can be trusted not to spoliate porphyry.
Making undergrads count geometric period horse legs on vases until I hear an “ohhhh” sound is one of my fave gallery practices here:
February 5, 2026 at 7:18 PM
Making undergrads count geometric period horse legs on vases until I hear an “ohhhh” sound is one of my fave gallery practices here:
Reposted by A.V. Marraccini
‘We need our re-worked gods, our astray divinities, a glimpse at a frieze, a pile of unread books, a large black mark in the center panel and three to the right in the Twombly gallery in the Hamburger-Banhof Museum.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social ‘We the Parasites’, p. 35
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social ‘We the Parasites’, p. 35
February 5, 2026 at 6:23 PM
‘We need our re-worked gods, our astray divinities, a glimpse at a frieze, a pile of unread books, a large black mark in the center panel and three to the right in the Twombly gallery in the Hamburger-Banhof Museum.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social ‘We the Parasites’, p. 35
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social ‘We the Parasites’, p. 35
Museums are full of really good Creatures (these ones are Mycenaean terracotta). You are required to love them.
February 5, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Museums are full of really good Creatures (these ones are Mycenaean terracotta). You are required to love them.
This could be us.
(If you’re not excited about Minoan seals we can’t be friends, sorry).
(If you’re not excited about Minoan seals we can’t be friends, sorry).
February 5, 2026 at 7:07 PM
This could be us.
(If you’re not excited about Minoan seals we can’t be friends, sorry).
(If you’re not excited about Minoan seals we can’t be friends, sorry).
More late night Yourcenar (apt before taking my undergrads to the Met classical galleries tomorrow):
February 5, 2026 at 4:17 AM
More late night Yourcenar (apt before taking my undergrads to the Met classical galleries tomorrow):
Reposted by A.V. Marraccini
‘You don’t become a fig wasp on the flanks of the neo-classical tradition without having inhabited it, parasitized it yourself first as practice. This is an education.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
A wonderful insight and makes me think of @ansgarallen.bsky.social book on Cynicism and education.
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
A wonderful insight and makes me think of @ansgarallen.bsky.social book on Cynicism and education.
February 2, 2026 at 6:35 PM
‘You don’t become a fig wasp on the flanks of the neo-classical tradition without having inhabited it, parasitized it yourself first as practice. This is an education.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
A wonderful insight and makes me think of @ansgarallen.bsky.social book on Cynicism and education.
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
A wonderful insight and makes me think of @ansgarallen.bsky.social book on Cynicism and education.
Reposted by A.V. Marraccini
‘You learn to be an aesthete by honing everything out in some wilderness, where no one sees your missteps, your clumsy formation…an education in this way is good practice for being a critic, for inhabiting and bursting out of galls and personae like the psenes.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
‘You don’t become a fig wasp on the flanks of the neo-classical tradition without having inhabited it, parasitized it yourself first as practice. This is an education.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
A wonderful insight and makes me think of @ansgarallen.bsky.social book on Cynicism and education.
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
A wonderful insight and makes me think of @ansgarallen.bsky.social book on Cynicism and education.
February 2, 2026 at 6:38 PM
‘You learn to be an aesthete by honing everything out in some wilderness, where no one sees your missteps, your clumsy formation…an education in this way is good practice for being a critic, for inhabiting and bursting out of galls and personae like the psenes.’
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
— @saintsoftness.bsky.social
I can't stop thinking about: the architecture of the Palace at Knossos, as rendered by Dennis Holloway (2021):
February 3, 2026 at 6:22 AM
I can't stop thinking about: the architecture of the Palace at Knossos, as rendered by Dennis Holloway (2021):
Reposted by A.V. Marraccini
On Substack: some brief thoughts on hype, with reference to Becca Rothfeld and Dan Sinykin, and another new Rilke translation from the Book of Images:
On Hype In Brief, More Translated Rilke
the structures of capital being always pervasive, we go to the dead
open.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 7:14 PM
On Substack: some brief thoughts on hype, with reference to Becca Rothfeld and Dan Sinykin, and another new Rilke translation from the Book of Images:
I keep translating Rilke because he is an ideal winter poet to me in German. Trakl to me is firmly autumnal. Sometime I’ll go back to Mittelhochdeutsch and steal @katewagner.wehwalt.net’s valor for a little Nibelungenlied, but I need short form right now. Who are your German winter poets?
February 1, 2026 at 8:22 PM
I keep translating Rilke because he is an ideal winter poet to me in German. Trakl to me is firmly autumnal. Sometime I’ll go back to Mittelhochdeutsch and steal @katewagner.wehwalt.net’s valor for a little Nibelungenlied, but I need short form right now. Who are your German winter poets?
On Substack: some brief thoughts on hype, with reference to Becca Rothfeld and Dan Sinykin, and another new Rilke translation from the Book of Images:
On Hype In Brief, More Translated Rilke
the structures of capital being always pervasive, we go to the dead
open.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 7:14 PM
On Substack: some brief thoughts on hype, with reference to Becca Rothfeld and Dan Sinykin, and another new Rilke translation from the Book of Images:
Brrr heattech in the studio day
January 31, 2026 at 6:24 PM
Brrr heattech in the studio day
Considering writing the next book section around Boucher to make Diderot posthumously mad, because mad Diderot is frankly, kind of adorable. I love his bitchy little asides about the Salons. I love that he implies Boucher is a soft little makeup puff. I love makeup puffs?
January 31, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Considering writing the next book section around Boucher to make Diderot posthumously mad, because mad Diderot is frankly, kind of adorable. I love his bitchy little asides about the Salons. I love that he implies Boucher is a soft little makeup puff. I love makeup puffs?
This is incredibly exciting! There is no greater pleasure than seeing my book worm its way into the world. And hopefully some bloody kisses and hearts ❤️🔥🪱
Look at what came in the mail! @saintsoftness.bsky.social book about the crises of criticism, ‘We the Parasites’!
I plan to review this in Verdigris for @cloudquistador.bsky.social and @ddclaxton.bsky.social
I plan to review this in Verdigris for @cloudquistador.bsky.social and @ddclaxton.bsky.social
January 31, 2026 at 1:01 AM
This is incredibly exciting! There is no greater pleasure than seeing my book worm its way into the world. And hopefully some bloody kisses and hearts ❤️🔥🪱
I feel that Tang Dynasty poetry has adequately prepared me for the Century of American Humiliation. Never say a humanistic education isn't useful!
January 30, 2026 at 6:59 PM
I feel that Tang Dynasty poetry has adequately prepared me for the Century of American Humiliation. Never say a humanistic education isn't useful!