Eckard Smuts
@esmuts.bsky.social
I teach literature at Stellenbosch University. Don’t feed the algorithms.
The Geological Sublime, by Lewis Hyde
Butterflies, deep time, and climate change
harpers.org
August 27, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
French historian Jean-Pierre Filiu has visited Gaza many times — but he had to make his most recent visit in December in secret.
Defying Israel’s attempt to control reporting, his latest book is a devastating account of the destruction of Gazan society.
Defying Israel’s attempt to control reporting, his latest book is a devastating account of the destruction of Gazan society.
A Historian Surveys the Wreckage in Gaza
French historian Jean-Pierre Filiu has visited Gaza many times — but he had to make his most recent visit in December in secret. Defying Israel’s attempt to control reporting, his latest book is a devastating account of the destruction of Gazan society.
jacobin.com
July 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM
French historian Jean-Pierre Filiu has visited Gaza many times — but he had to make his most recent visit in December in secret.
Defying Israel’s attempt to control reporting, his latest book is a devastating account of the destruction of Gazan society.
Defying Israel’s attempt to control reporting, his latest book is a devastating account of the destruction of Gazan society.
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
“It took from the invention of the photovoltaic solar cell, in 1954, until 2022 for the world to install a terawatt of solar power; the second terawatt came just two years later, and the third will arrive either later this year or early next.”
Moore’s Law eat your heart out. Jesus.
Moore’s Law eat your heart out. Jesus.
“California is so far using forty per cent less natural gas to generate electricity than it did in 2023, which is the single most hopeful statistic I’ve seen in four decades of writing about the climate crisis.”
www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...
www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...
4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment
In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.
www.newyorker.com
July 12, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“It took from the invention of the photovoltaic solar cell, in 1954, until 2022 for the world to install a terawatt of solar power; the second terawatt came just two years later, and the third will arrive either later this year or early next.”
Moore’s Law eat your heart out. Jesus.
Moore’s Law eat your heart out. Jesus.
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
Ah, good luck with that ..... thefederalist.com/2025/06/27/6...
June 30, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Ah, good luck with that ..... thefederalist.com/2025/06/27/6...
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
In the early days of Facebook I made a page that claimed to be run on AI and if you commented on a post it would auto respond. But really it was me responding to the msgs. I barely went out or slept for weeks responding to msgs hoping my page would make it big. It did not.
June 11, 2025 at 10:25 AM
In the early days of Facebook I made a page that claimed to be run on AI and if you commented on a post it would auto respond. But really it was me responding to the msgs. I barely went out or slept for weeks responding to msgs hoping my page would make it big. It did not.
Midnight reading.
Late last year, @Harpers sent me to the West Bank to report on the state of the nonviolent resistance movement. Nothing I had seen over more than a decade of reporting there prepared me for the levels of fear and devastation I encountered.
harpers.org/archive/2025...
harpers.org/archive/2025...
After Nonviolence, by Ben Ehrenreich
The end of peaceful resistance in Palestine
harpers.org
May 21, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Midnight reading.
Some interesting thoughts on genre in this conversation between Lauren Beukes and Andrew Pepper.
9.2 Monstrous Dreaming: Lauren Beukes and Andrew Pepper (RB)
What work can genre do today? And can the genre system become more than a method of reductive containment and market segmentation—can it be a generative source of imaginative chaos? Few are as qual…
noveldialogue.org
May 16, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Some interesting thoughts on genre in this conversation between Lauren Beukes and Andrew Pepper.
Fascinating. On the labyrinthine depths of American state bureaucracy, and the difficulties Trump and his stooges will face in bringing it to heel. (TLDR: Trump will likely not vanquish the “deep state”, and the ultra-rich will keep on getting ultra-richer.)
“The big question is therefore whether he can really demolish the state, or at least confirm widespread fears that he will discard democratic guardrails.”
Andrew Cockburn on Trump’s second attempt at dismantling the bureaucracy.
Andrew Cockburn on Trump’s second attempt at dismantling the bureaucracy.
Rage Against the Machine, by Andrew Cockburn
Trump’s second attempt at dismantling the bureaucracy
buff.ly
February 21, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Fascinating. On the labyrinthine depths of American state bureaucracy, and the difficulties Trump and his stooges will face in bringing it to heel. (TLDR: Trump will likely not vanquish the “deep state”, and the ultra-rich will keep on getting ultra-richer.)
A timely and well-informed piece by Cherryl Walker.
Cutting through the maze of disinformation and outright lies around land in SA
Let’s be clear: there is no provision in our constitutional order for the arbitrary confiscation of white-owned land, nor any serious suggestion that the current government plans to pursue such a stra...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
February 21, 2025 at 8:55 AM
A timely and well-informed piece by Cherryl Walker.
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
Welcome to Vol. 8, Issue 4 of The Johannesburg Review of Books—the Stranger than Fiction Issue! Dive in here:
johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2024/12/19/t...
johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2024/12/19/t...
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 8, Issue 4 (December 2024)—the Stranger than Fiction Issue!
Yewande Omotoso • Mandla Langa • Karen Jennings • Simon van Schalkwyk • Masiyaleti Mbewe • Wamuwi Mbao • Werner Pretorius • Niq Mhlongo • Finuala Dowling • Makhosazana Xaba • Saaleha Idrees Bamjee • I...
johannesburgreviewofbooks.com
December 19, 2024 at 5:10 PM
Welcome to Vol. 8, Issue 4 of The Johannesburg Review of Books—the Stranger than Fiction Issue! Dive in here:
johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2024/12/19/t...
johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2024/12/19/t...
Graham K. Riach is a remarkably perceptive reader of South African short fiction. I learned a great deal from his excellent monograph, "The Short Story after Apartheid: Thinking with Form in South African Literature." Here's my review for Safundi: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
September 10, 2024 at 1:13 PM
Graham K. Riach is a remarkably perceptive reader of South African short fiction. I learned a great deal from his excellent monograph, "The Short Story after Apartheid: Thinking with Form in South African Literature." Here's my review for Safundi: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
A wonderful review and tribute by Mark Greif. harpers.org/archive/2024...
Glimmers of Totality, by Mark Greif
Fredric Jameson at ninety
harpers.org
September 3, 2024 at 6:14 PM
A wonderful review and tribute by Mark Greif. harpers.org/archive/2024...
I built myself a blog! Here's the first post. www.eckardsmuts.com/blog/ministr...
Reading Notes: The Ministry for the Future
Kim Stanley Robinson's hard sci-fi climate novel The Ministry for the Future is part of an Honours course I teach on utopian literature. When I first read it, I made a brief note for each of the book'...
www.eckardsmuts.com
May 1, 2024 at 2:37 PM
I built myself a blog! Here's the first post. www.eckardsmuts.com/blog/ministr...
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
this week's column is on the IPL's age of carnage, late-stage capitalism and four-pint pitchers of aspall's www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2...
IPL’s age of carnage may relent but cricket’s future can be seen amid the content | Jonathan Liew
The tournament has turned into an arcade-style hitting competition because that is what the market wanted
www.theguardian.com
April 30, 2024 at 10:50 AM
this week's column is on the IPL's age of carnage, late-stage capitalism and four-pint pitchers of aspall's www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2...
This really is a very nice review.
“Central Maine, where he lives, furnishes him with all kinds of half-ugly, half-beautiful subject matter. ‘I found some good clouds near a Chipotle restaurant,’ he writes, contentedly summing up all of contemporary America.“
“Central Maine, where he lives, furnishes him with all kinds of half-ugly, half-beautiful subject matter. ‘I found some good clouds near a Chipotle restaurant,’ he writes, contentedly summing up all of contemporary America.“
Ways of Seeing
Nicholson Baker learns to draw – Lisa Borst
www.bookforum.com
April 12, 2024 at 12:58 PM
This really is a very nice review.
“Central Maine, where he lives, furnishes him with all kinds of half-ugly, half-beautiful subject matter. ‘I found some good clouds near a Chipotle restaurant,’ he writes, contentedly summing up all of contemporary America.“
“Central Maine, where he lives, furnishes him with all kinds of half-ugly, half-beautiful subject matter. ‘I found some good clouds near a Chipotle restaurant,’ he writes, contentedly summing up all of contemporary America.“
Insightful.
Israel’s War Within, by Bernard Avishai
On the ruinous history of Religious Zionism
harpers.org
January 28, 2024 at 7:15 AM
Insightful.
Reposted by Eckard Smuts
‘Out with the references to “self-defence”, bandied around as an excuse for the inexcusable; in with the cogently argued case that the US and UK’s greatest ally in the Middle East is committing genocide.’
Selma Dabbagh on the International Court of Justice ruling:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ja...
Selma Dabbagh on the International Court of Justice ruling:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ja...
Selma Dabbagh | The Case against Israel
Finally, something shifts. The ruling by the International Court of Justice is said by public international lawyers to...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 26, 2024 at 8:19 PM
‘Out with the references to “self-defence”, bandied around as an excuse for the inexcusable; in with the cogently argued case that the US and UK’s greatest ally in the Middle East is committing genocide.’
Selma Dabbagh on the International Court of Justice ruling:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ja...
Selma Dabbagh on the International Court of Justice ruling:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/ja...