Calum Barnes
@balumcarnes.bsky.social
melancholic resister | words Tribune, The Quietus and 3:AM | beats Shinlifter | keep cool but care
sigmaportfolio.substack.com
sigmaportfolio.substack.com
60. On the Calculation of Volume Book IV by Solvej Balle (tr. Sophie Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell). As compulsive and scintillating as the previous volumes while deftly weaving hitherto unexplored collective anxieties into its idiosyncratic conceptual architecture.
December 13, 2025 at 3:04 PM
60. On the Calculation of Volume Book IV by Solvej Balle (tr. Sophie Hersi Smith & Jennifer Russell). As compulsive and scintillating as the previous volumes while deftly weaving hitherto unexplored collective anxieties into its idiosyncratic conceptual architecture.
59. I Don’t Care by Ágota Kristóf (tr. Chris Andrews). I simply inhaled these strange vignettes one evening this summer and their peculiar atmospheres still haunt me.
December 13, 2025 at 2:58 PM
59. I Don’t Care by Ágota Kristóf (tr. Chris Andrews). I simply inhaled these strange vignettes one evening this summer and their peculiar atmospheres still haunt me.
58. House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk (tr. Antonia Lloyd-White). This early novel brilliantly encapsulates the themes and tropes that define Tokarczuk’s later works: eccentric religious figures, esoteric knowledge and how technologies affect our sense of self.
December 12, 2025 at 10:50 AM
58. House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk (tr. Antonia Lloyd-White). This early novel brilliantly encapsulates the themes and tropes that define Tokarczuk’s later works: eccentric religious figures, esoteric knowledge and how technologies affect our sense of self.
glad to be ahead once again
December 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM
glad to be ahead once again
57. The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova. I would struggle to add any new superlatives to this already classic collection. Reads like Bruno Schulz if he had been reincarnated in Toronto.
November 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM
57. The Doll’s Alphabet by Camilla Grudova. I would struggle to add any new superlatives to this already classic collection. Reads like Bruno Schulz if he had been reincarnated in Toronto.
56. Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (tr. Daniel Bowles). There can never be enough self-loathing splenetic monologues in the world, this time it’s the view from Switzerland. A Bernhardian comedy of exaggeration but with some more humane melancholy softening those rough edges.
November 25, 2025 at 9:58 PM
56. Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (tr. Daniel Bowles). There can never be enough self-loathing splenetic monologues in the world, this time it’s the view from Switzerland. A Bernhardian comedy of exaggeration but with some more humane melancholy softening those rough edges.
great to see national recognition for Phantom Limb at last night’s Saltire Awards!
November 20, 2025 at 7:32 PM
great to see national recognition for Phantom Limb at last night’s Saltire Awards!
happy On the Calculation of Volume Day to all who celebrate. i’m wearing my shirt to mark it
November 18, 2025 at 4:43 PM
happy On the Calculation of Volume Day to all who celebrate. i’m wearing my shirt to mark it
55. According to the Law by Solvej Balle (tr. Barbara Haveland). The most deft and effective of linked story collections that leaves all the others of the last decade in the dust. The embryo of the septology is here in this quiet investigation of the sublime in the quotidian.
November 14, 2025 at 8:51 AM
55. According to the Law by Solvej Balle (tr. Barbara Haveland). The most deft and effective of linked story collections that leaves all the others of the last decade in the dust. The embryo of the septology is here in this quiet investigation of the sublime in the quotidian.
utterly depressing to read of the plans to demolish Argyle House, another modernist jewel potentially disappearing from Edinburgh’s urban fabric after the loss of the RBS building on Dundas Street.
November 12, 2025 at 7:48 AM
utterly depressing to read of the plans to demolish Argyle House, another modernist jewel potentially disappearing from Edinburgh’s urban fabric after the loss of the RBS building on Dundas Street.
54. Transcription by Ben Lerner. I’m in awe of this work of subtle genius. A masterpiece.
November 2, 2025 at 8:59 AM
54. Transcription by Ben Lerner. I’m in awe of this work of subtle genius. A masterpiece.
53. Vilhelm’s Room by Tove Ditlevsen (tr. Sophie Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell). Nobody renders inner turmoil and affairs of the heart with such painful beauty.
October 31, 2025 at 8:50 AM
53. Vilhelm’s Room by Tove Ditlevsen (tr. Sophie Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell). Nobody renders inner turmoil and affairs of the heart with such painful beauty.
52. The Rest is Silence by Augusto Monterroso (tr. Aaron Kern). A high literary farce about a pompous literary critic in a small town that had me laughing out loud and not just out of the awkwardness of glimpsing myself in it.
October 28, 2025 at 8:15 PM
52. The Rest is Silence by Augusto Monterroso (tr. Aaron Kern). A high literary farce about a pompous literary critic in a small town that had me laughing out loud and not just out of the awkwardness of glimpsing myself in it.
51. Art and Revolution by John Berger. A typically bracing and lucid essay examining the tension between aesthetics and emancipatory politics through the work of Ernst Neizvestny, reminding us of the necessity of a vigorous but eloquent cultural criticism.
October 28, 2025 at 8:14 PM
51. Art and Revolution by John Berger. A typically bracing and lucid essay examining the tension between aesthetics and emancipatory politics through the work of Ernst Neizvestny, reminding us of the necessity of a vigorous but eloquent cultural criticism.
we must bring these stakes back into criticism
October 25, 2025 at 11:35 AM
we must bring these stakes back into criticism
my band Shinlifter have their EP launch on Saturday and with impeccable timing our Instagram has been hacked so we’ve lost our main channel for promoting it. if anyone wanted to help share this brilliant poster by my pal Grace there, here or elsewhere we’d be very grateful!
October 23, 2025 at 6:51 PM
my band Shinlifter have their EP launch on Saturday and with impeccable timing our Instagram has been hacked so we’ve lost our main channel for promoting it. if anyone wanted to help share this brilliant poster by my pal Grace there, here or elsewhere we’d be very grateful!
50. The Devil Book by Asta Olivia Nordenhof (tr. Caroline Waight). Struggling to continue the thread of the previous book, Nordenhof’s narrative reflects on the moral compromises of living under late capitalism but alchemises its unbridled rage into hope.
October 22, 2025 at 8:10 PM
50. The Devil Book by Asta Olivia Nordenhof (tr. Caroline Waight). Struggling to continue the thread of the previous book, Nordenhof’s narrative reflects on the moral compromises of living under late capitalism but alchemises its unbridled rage into hope.
49. Alien Gods by Lee Suhyeon (tr. Anton Hur). Suhyeon crafts an engrossing and unsettling tale by taking the classic Lovecraftian arc and infusing it with Korean mythology.
October 22, 2025 at 8:09 PM
49. Alien Gods by Lee Suhyeon (tr. Anton Hur). Suhyeon crafts an engrossing and unsettling tale by taking the classic Lovecraftian arc and infusing it with Korean mythology.
48. Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett. Bennett is one of those writers that reads like she is only ever writing one book and it’s always a thrill to read a new chapter of it to experience her pushing up against the limits of what language can express.
October 18, 2025 at 9:16 AM
48. Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett. Bennett is one of those writers that reads like she is only ever writing one book and it’s always a thrill to read a new chapter of it to experience her pushing up against the limits of what language can express.
47. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon. A new minor Pynchon novel is still head and shoulders above almost all other contemporary fiction and it really is a joy to read him write about central Europe once again, tracking the shadowy forces of germinal fascism in the 1930s.
October 17, 2025 at 6:19 PM
47. Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon. A new minor Pynchon novel is still head and shoulders above almost all other contemporary fiction and it really is a joy to read him write about central Europe once again, tracking the shadowy forces of germinal fascism in the 1930s.
possibly one of the few shops in the UK with this in stock so get it while it’s hot!
October 9, 2025 at 11:32 AM
possibly one of the few shops in the UK with this in stock so get it while it’s hot!
obsessively consuming the biggest release in American pop culture this week
October 3, 2025 at 10:19 AM
obsessively consuming the biggest release in American pop culture this week
46. The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington. Starting in the deceptively humdrum environs of a Christian old folks home, soon we’re thrust into a madcap epic of global import, built upon a glorious melange of mythologies. A bonafide surrealist novel that I will treasure.
October 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM
46. The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington. Starting in the deceptively humdrum environs of a Christian old folks home, soon we’re thrust into a madcap epic of global import, built upon a glorious melange of mythologies. A bonafide surrealist novel that I will treasure.
45. Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said. A typically lucid and incisive set of lectures on the function of the intellectual that still have much to offer the present, particularly in light of events in Gaza.
September 30, 2025 at 9:40 PM
45. Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said. A typically lucid and incisive set of lectures on the function of the intellectual that still have much to offer the present, particularly in light of events in Gaza.
life achievement unlocked: visiting every poet’s grave mentioned in The Smiths’ Cemetery Gates
September 26, 2025 at 4:56 PM
life achievement unlocked: visiting every poet’s grave mentioned in The Smiths’ Cemetery Gates