Nicholas Birns
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nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns
@nicholasbirns.bsky.social
1.3K followers 2K following 600 posts

Academic, literary critic etc. teaching at NYU. Books from Cambridge UP, Bloomsbury, Broadview, Palgrave, U of South Carolina P, Sydney UP, Routledge. He/him

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Nicholas Birns is a scholar of literature, including fantasy and Australian literature. As a Tolkien scholar he has written on a variety of topics including "The Scouring of the Shire" and Tolkien's biblical sources. His analysis of the writings of Anthony Powell and Roberto Bolaño has been admired by scholars. .. more

Art 28%
Political science 22%
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pardoguerra.bsky.social
This skeet will self destruct @pardoguerra.bsky.social · 9h
Dude in the row in front of mine on a flight is literally producing the entire marketing campaign of a _________ fellowship using ChatGPT. Coolio…

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 10h
Very great scholar.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 10h
He was a very great scholar.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 10h
He was skeptical, really, only of the last one. He would have embedded, as it were, family resemblances around the other ones, but the mythic Scandinavian origin is something that is not his historically attested and he was right to argue that.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 10h
He was a great scholar who I much admired.

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phdhurtbrain.bsky.social
Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 11h
When students get to college they generally don’t know what college is and that’s an incredible pedagogical opportunity. My freshman comp class did Morrison, Pope, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Johnny Cash all swirled together in a frenzy of discovery. Education is what we make it.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 21h
Ha!

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 21h
Fight!

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lrb.co.uk
London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 22h
‘There is a disconcerting sense that something much more serious is going on, that all the hokum and stage magic might be misdirection of the sort that enables something secret to enter the room.’

Francis Gooding on Dr John’s ‘very strange record’ ‘Gris-Gris’.

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Francis Gooding · Hoodoo Man: Dr John and ‘Gris-Gris’
Beyond or beneath the theatrics there is a disconcerting sense that something much more serious is going on, that all...
www.lrb.co.uk

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kovesi.bsky.social
Simon Kövesi @kovesi.bsky.social · 2d
The problem was never that Boris Johnson studied classics...
Perennial favourite reader's letter from 2021.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 7d
Sunset near Lehighton, PA

Reposted by Nicholas Birns, John Kenneth White

robertscotthorton.bsky.social
Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 10d
A remarkable smackdown by Sen Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of the head of the Heritage Foundation

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 16d
An innovative take on the play which also got the essentials of it, Isabella was actually seeing it for the first time! And asked all the right questions of it…

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 16d
THINKERY&VERSE - 2025 Season we saw their Macbeth last night. Transposed to New Jersey in the late 17th century after the settler massacre of the Lenape. Duncan becomes Dinah, Birman Wood to Dunsinane becomes from the Piney Woods to Perth Amboy. . thinkeryandverse.org
THINKERY&VERSE
A production company dedicated to theater and film for the mind. Join us in September as we re-imagine the Hall-Mills double homicide of 1922.
thinkeryandverse.org

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 21d
www.politico.com/news/magazin...
Why the Young Republicans Felt Comfortable Saying Such Vile Stuff
Life on the internet is eroding the boundaries of decency.
www.politico.com

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drreznicek.bsky.social
Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 21d
My forthcoming book, Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale, has been selected for JStor’s Path to Open scheme where it’ll be made fully open access.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 24d
Beginning the day

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erosalie.infoepi.com
E. Rosalie @erosalie.infoepi.com · 25d
We just gave $40 billion to a country that is screwing us by selling to China, so China doesn't have to buy from or deal with the US.

That's almost the entire budget for USAID, except instead of saving one South American dude, we could have saved millions of children.

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mykahllc.bsky.social
Michael Craig @mykahllc.bsky.social · 25d
A cloudy morning here in N. California...I should've played around with the lighting.
Phalaenopsis Pure Moon 'Green Pixie'

#bloomscrolling #orchids #flowers #blooms #mothorchid #orchid
Very pale greenish, almost ivory, colored mini-phal blooms with a dark computer monitor in the background

Reposted by Diane Ravitch, Nicholas Birns, Mirya R. Holman , and 9 more

rlspang.bsky.social
Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social · 26d
And congratulations to @jamellebouie.net for winning the American Historical Association's Tikkun Olam Prize for promoting public historical literacy www.historians.org/award-grant/...
Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy – AHA
The Tikkun Olam Prize for Promoting Public Historical Literacy honors individuals whose work has promoted literacy in public culture.
www.historians.org

Reposted by Nicholas Birns

davidveevers.bsky.social
David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 26d
Just discovered that Mademoiselle de Roselan, wife of the French governor of St Lucia in the 1650s, was, in fact...Indigenous Kalinago! I've read of European men cohabitating with Kalinago in the Caribbean, but not formal marriages where Caribbean women are acknowledged by their husband's titles. 🤯

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guentheralex.bsky.social
alex guenther @guentheralex.bsky.social · 26d
think new interest in japanese ink painting is good for my brain. needs decisive strokes, can't be retouched, so just have to resolve to keep trying and not feel bad no matter what. this is day 4. can't do bamboo leaves properly yet, (i think i need to move from elbow, not wrist?) but... see above.
a not very skilled ink painting of bamboo on one a6 notebook page

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 27d
Very true

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americanstudier.bsky.social
Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 27d
Things Ben Says in Class, October 14th 2025 edition:

"There are many ambiguities about Fitzgerald's novel & especially how we read its characters. Tom Buchanan being a white supremacist domestic abuser jackassclown is not one of them."

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 28d
Cat at work

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americanstudier.bsky.social
Ben Railton @americanstudier.bsky.social · 28d
Peterborough, New Hampshire on a perfect autumn afternoon.
A view of a river and fall foliage in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

nicholasbirns.bsky.social
Nicholas Birns @nicholasbirns.bsky.social · 28d
Very true

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czedwards.bsky.social
CZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social · 29d
Psst:

A reminder for American writers: High tea is not fancier tea, it’s supper. It’s a more substantial meal with a main dish, rather than tea, biscuits, scones, little snack foods. And it’s high because it’s served on a high table — dining table height — not a low, tea or coffee table.

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kissphoria.bsky.social
grateful gwen howerton @kissphoria.bsky.social · 29d
It was an absolute joy to write about the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, a nonprofit that works tirelessly to preserve Texas' film history by digitizing tapes and film before they degrade. Their website is a treasure trove of cool state history: www.chron.com/culture/arti...
Meet the people preserving Texas history, one home movie at a time.
Your home footage may be more special than you think, the nonprofit says.
www.chron.com

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lancerichardson.bsky.social
Lance Richardson @lancerichardson.bsky.social · 29d
Early review (two days early, anyway) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"Beautifully written, insightful, and engaging, 'True Nature' is a tour de force depiction of a charismatic, restless, self-absorbed, immensely talented literary lion."
Review: The life of Peter Matthiessen
The only person to win a National Book Award for both non-fiction (“The Snow Leopard”) and fiction (“Shadow Country”), Peter Matthiessen...
www.post-gazette.com