D.C McNeill
@dcmcneill.bsky.social
Science Fantasy author // Media Crit // Editor-In-Chief zeroIndent.com // Founder underInk.Press // coriander hater.
In another "logistics really are incredible" moment our copies of @ckunzelman.bsky.social's new book arrived in Australia a week ahead of schedule
November 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
In another "logistics really are incredible" moment our copies of @ckunzelman.bsky.social's new book arrived in Australia a week ahead of schedule
Perhaps more any other of Mandel's oeuvre Glass Hotel starts exactly where the story should start, with Paul's failed youth. By contrast Anton's story doesn't really find purchase until around page 30 in Singer's Gun. I'd love to write a paper comparing the deployments of the structuring device.
A book with imagery that will stay with me for a long time, even if I'm left wondering... what the hell the book was trying to do. More thoughts to come on the podcast, but yeah, boy, this book is shaped like a lock, and Sea of Tranquility is the key.
Finished Glass Hotel last night. Clearly the outer limits of what has become Mandel's "house style" of emotional time-skipping as a structuring device, I'm left with the story at once resolved and unresolved - far more complete than The Singer's Gun but nowhere near as cohesive as Station Eleven.
November 17, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Perhaps more any other of Mandel's oeuvre Glass Hotel starts exactly where the story should start, with Paul's failed youth. By contrast Anton's story doesn't really find purchase until around page 30 in Singer's Gun. I'd love to write a paper comparing the deployments of the structuring device.
A book with imagery that will stay with me for a long time, even if I'm left wondering... what the hell the book was trying to do. More thoughts to come on the podcast, but yeah, boy, this book is shaped like a lock, and Sea of Tranquility is the key.
Finished Glass Hotel last night. Clearly the outer limits of what has become Mandel's "house style" of emotional time-skipping as a structuring device, I'm left with the story at once resolved and unresolved - far more complete than The Singer's Gun but nowhere near as cohesive as Station Eleven.
November 17, 2025 at 12:56 AM
A book with imagery that will stay with me for a long time, even if I'm left wondering... what the hell the book was trying to do. More thoughts to come on the podcast, but yeah, boy, this book is shaped like a lock, and Sea of Tranquility is the key.
Finished Glass Hotel last night. Clearly the outer limits of what has become Mandel's "house style" of emotional time-skipping as a structuring device, I'm left with the story at once resolved and unresolved - far more complete than The Singer's Gun but nowhere near as cohesive as Station Eleven.
November 17, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Finished Glass Hotel last night. Clearly the outer limits of what has become Mandel's "house style" of emotional time-skipping as a structuring device, I'm left with the story at once resolved and unresolved - far more complete than The Singer's Gun but nowhere near as cohesive as Station Eleven.
Emily St John Mandel has *such* a gnack for writing slightly unlikeable but otherwise seemingly intelligent characters. She does a great job of getting beneath Melodrama with single sentences.
November 11, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Emily St John Mandel has *such* a gnack for writing slightly unlikeable but otherwise seemingly intelligent characters. She does a great job of getting beneath Melodrama with single sentences.
I took the "bullet" for ZeroIndent and tried to capture the totality of The Last of Us Season 2's fundamental failure to redress a deeply freighted source material, opting for grinning cynicism and moralism where a bold and radical story was required.
Bloody Compromise: The Last of Us Season 2
The Last of Us season 2 has to do something to elicit the same empathy from a reader, and then, hopefully, have a perspective on that empathy and what it might mean for these characters.
zeroindent.com
November 9, 2025 at 5:59 AM
I took the "bullet" for ZeroIndent and tried to capture the totality of The Last of Us Season 2's fundamental failure to redress a deeply freighted source material, opting for grinning cynicism and moralism where a bold and radical story was required.
Reposted by D.C McNeill
IT Welcome To Derry does a thing with it's first episode ending that is the most a writer has ever thought "I'm either gonna get fired and blacklisted forever" or "they'll call me the coolest sexier one in the game" - jury is still out for me, but well done Fuchs, Del Carmen and Steve
November 2, 2025 at 9:14 AM
IT Welcome To Derry does a thing with it's first episode ending that is the most a writer has ever thought "I'm either gonna get fired and blacklisted forever" or "they'll call me the coolest sexier one in the game" - jury is still out for me, but well done Fuchs, Del Carmen and Steve
Reposted by D.C McNeill
Here’s Nick Cave replying to a correspondent called Valerio who was asking him about how to respond to a growing sense of cynicism - here. www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you-still...
October 24, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Here’s Nick Cave replying to a correspondent called Valerio who was asking him about how to respond to a growing sense of cynicism - here. www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you-still...
Reposted by D.C McNeill
If I may dril for a moment, you absolutely do not have to give Trump “credit” for anything, ever. The saying does not go “even a broken clock hires its own gestapo”
October 24, 2025 at 10:09 PM
If I may dril for a moment, you absolutely do not have to give Trump “credit” for anything, ever. The saying does not go “even a broken clock hires its own gestapo”
We've been working on this one for months. If you need an *almost* complete primer on the state of America's descent into fascism, this is the one: youtu.be/Ecc_nz1_jC4
Empire's Rise: How does Democracy Die? | Star Wars Video Essay
YouTube video by Darth'd
youtu.be
October 24, 2025 at 2:17 AM
We've been working on this one for months. If you need an *almost* complete primer on the state of America's descent into fascism, this is the one: youtu.be/Ecc_nz1_jC4
Reposted by D.C McNeill
This guy seems like a big problem.
"Well, I don't think we're gonna necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We're gonna kill them. You know, they're gonna be, like, dead. Okay? Yeah."
Trump has abandoned even the pretext of following the law.
Trump has abandoned even the pretext of following the law.
October 23, 2025 at 11:35 PM
This guy seems like a big problem.
This task you've honed over decades of focused craft and context to a joyful, frictional experience that helps you index yourself against the entropic void of reality? Click here to learn how our new AI chatbot can do a worse job that takes longer that boils the ocean and steals your data.
October 21, 2025 at 7:21 AM
This task you've honed over decades of focused craft and context to a joyful, frictional experience that helps you index yourself against the entropic void of reality? Click here to learn how our new AI chatbot can do a worse job that takes longer that boils the ocean and steals your data.
Reposted by D.C McNeill
Can the Manhattan Project avoid building the nuclear bomb?
October 20, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Can the Manhattan Project avoid building the nuclear bomb?
Reposted by D.C McNeill
I always enjoy my time recording with ZeroIndent. Be sure to give this a listen and share. 🙏
New ep of The ZeroIndent Review featuring the formidable Danielle frrom @levelstory.bsky.social just dropped - in this one, cats. Also, The Last of Us season 2 starts to implode: youtu.be/eRpk2WfF0Ho
Montages of Grief - The Last of Us Season 2 (2023) Ep3-5
YouTube video by ZeroIndent
youtu.be
October 19, 2025 at 6:16 PM
I always enjoy my time recording with ZeroIndent. Be sure to give this a listen and share. 🙏
New ep of The ZeroIndent Review featuring the formidable Danielle frrom @levelstory.bsky.social just dropped - in this one, cats. Also, The Last of Us season 2 starts to implode: youtu.be/eRpk2WfF0Ho
Montages of Grief - The Last of Us Season 2 (2023) Ep3-5
YouTube video by ZeroIndent
youtu.be
October 19, 2025 at 7:59 AM
New ep of The ZeroIndent Review featuring the formidable Danielle frrom @levelstory.bsky.social just dropped - in this one, cats. Also, The Last of Us season 2 starts to implode: youtu.be/eRpk2WfF0Ho
I dunno dude I'm starting to think Joel might not have been a great dude 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
October 13, 2025 at 6:12 AM
I dunno dude I'm starting to think Joel might not have been a great dude 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Looking forward to definitely not bringing up what happens in the game too much in the next episode.
I chatted with some friends on ZeroIndent about the second season of The Last of Us...and may or may not have referenced what happens in the game far too often. 🙃 Give it a watch/listen and feel free to share with friends. ✌️https://youtu.be/9lP7cb04QrY?si=WSNr8OHb5hR48A2_
Terrified of You - The Last of Us Season 2 (2023) Ep1-2
YouTube video by ZeroIndent
youtu.be
October 10, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Looking forward to definitely not bringing up what happens in the game too much in the next episode.
Reposted by D.C McNeill
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.
October 8, 2025 at 10:44 PM
repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself
Reposted by D.C McNeill
I chatted with some friends on ZeroIndent about the second season of The Last of Us...and may or may not have referenced what happens in the game far too often. 🙃 Give it a watch/listen and feel free to share with friends. ✌️https://youtu.be/9lP7cb04QrY?si=WSNr8OHb5hR48A2_
Terrified of You - The Last of Us Season 2 (2023) Ep1-2
YouTube video by ZeroIndent
youtu.be
October 9, 2025 at 1:48 AM
I chatted with some friends on ZeroIndent about the second season of The Last of Us...and may or may not have referenced what happens in the game far too often. 🙃 Give it a watch/listen and feel free to share with friends. ✌️https://youtu.be/9lP7cb04QrY?si=WSNr8OHb5hR48A2_
Reposted by D.C McNeill
Types Of Souls Bosses:
- guy in a room totally freakin out
- Stomp Jomperson
- the gang is back together and they hate you
- Bumpos Palace of Tricks
- you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die
- guy in a room totally freakin out
- Stomp Jomperson
- the gang is back together and they hate you
- Bumpos Palace of Tricks
- you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die
June 17, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Types Of Souls Bosses:
- guy in a room totally freakin out
- Stomp Jomperson
- the gang is back together and they hate you
- Bumpos Palace of Tricks
- you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die
- guy in a room totally freakin out
- Stomp Jomperson
- the gang is back together and they hate you
- Bumpos Palace of Tricks
- you interrupted my dinner/mourning and now you gotta die
While I have no interest in policing what is or isn't criticism, I will die on this hill: you are not doing good media criticism if you are reviewing a novel and never talk about the prose or the style or the actual words themselves. The words are the only real thing in a novel - craft matters (2/2)
Something I continue to feel BookTok/fast fashion criticism fails to accommodate is the value in writing a cheque, and *later* doing the work to cash that cheque. Value and meaning are produced by iterative study, and close study at that - this is a particular quality of writing articles, too (1/2)
October 1, 2025 at 6:46 AM
While I have no interest in policing what is or isn't criticism, I will die on this hill: you are not doing good media criticism if you are reviewing a novel and never talk about the prose or the style or the actual words themselves. The words are the only real thing in a novel - craft matters (2/2)
Something I continue to feel BookTok/fast fashion criticism fails to accommodate is the value in writing a cheque, and *later* doing the work to cash that cheque. Value and meaning are produced by iterative study, and close study at that - this is a particular quality of writing articles, too (1/2)
October 1, 2025 at 6:44 AM
Something I continue to feel BookTok/fast fashion criticism fails to accommodate is the value in writing a cheque, and *later* doing the work to cash that cheque. Value and meaning are produced by iterative study, and close study at that - this is a particular quality of writing articles, too (1/2)
Reposted by D.C McNeill
RIP Kaleb Horton
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
September 27, 2025 at 1:01 PM
RIP Kaleb Horton
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
kalebhorton.ghost.io/2025-so-far/
Reposted by D.C McNeill
I mostly agree with this, but more so: Any time spent on saying "they have incoherent politics" is probably better spent saying "what ideology, which policies, what social strategys have produced this violent nihilism, and what analogs do they have historically?"
since a lot of ppl are discussing the ICE camp shooter's apparent lack of ideology, i would like to posit that online irony blackpill is absolutely an ideology with coherent tenets - the reason it appears incoherent is because this an ideology primarily defined by faithlessness, negative space
September 25, 2025 at 4:00 AM
I mostly agree with this, but more so: Any time spent on saying "they have incoherent politics" is probably better spent saying "what ideology, which policies, what social strategys have produced this violent nihilism, and what analogs do they have historically?"