Lyta 🐅 Dangerous Fictions is OUT 🐅 Gold
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lytagold.bsky.social
Lyta 🐅 Dangerous Fictions is OUT 🐅 Gold
@lytagold.bsky.social
4.5K followers 1.1K following 5.2K posts
writer, editor, sometime podcaster. DANGEROUS FICTIONS—about book bans, moral panics, & more—now available everywhere: https://bookshop.org/p/books/dangerous-fictions-the-fear-of-fantasy-and-the-invention-of-reality-lyta-gold/20737332?ean=9781593767709
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lytagold.bsky.social
Bill Ackman crashout status: blaming Sliwa
Reply tweet from Bill Ackman reading “I disagree. Sliwa staying in convinced many Cuomo voters it was a foregone conclusion so they didn't vote. If Sliwa had dropped, Cuomo could have won.”
November 5, 2025 at 2:53 AM
lytagold.bsky.social
Dangerous Fictions is the book that Powell’s Books called “critically acclaimed” and Mars the cat called “adequate for cuddling”
An image of the hardcover book Dangerous Fictions by Lyta Gold above a handwritten sign reading “critically ACCLAIMED: Dangerous Fictions” with additional text Mars, a black and white cat, cuddles seriously with the ARC of Dangerous Fictions
October 27, 2025 at 7:04 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
lol Schumer got booed at the opera (screenshots from Frank Rich’s excellent essay on Mamdani and the failure of conventional NY Dem politics nymag.com/intelligence... )
Text reads “Such, for me at least, was the takeaway from the scene that unfolded at the September 21 premiere of the new opera inspired by Michael Chabon's Holocaust-haunted novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In keeping with tradition, the company's general manager, Peter Gelb, appeared in front of the curtain before it went up to deliver a few welcoming remarks - albeit this time spiked with an impassioned paean to artistic freedom that drew a standing ovation. Once he finished, an unexpected player popped out of the wings: Chuck Schumer, the most powerful Democrat in Washington and the most durable lion of Democratic politics in New York. Why was he there? Not for the opera. He breezed on- and offstage with the casual affect of someone dropping by before a round of pickleball. He had come to pander to the mishpocheh on the safe turf of the Upper West Side. In his brief remarks, he” text reads “gave the same vow to protect artistic freedom Gelb just had, name-checking Jimmy Kimmel for good measure. But this time the audience did not cheer. "Do something about it!" shouted a heckler from a perch on high. Waves of boos followed, drowning out some light applause and implicitly giving Schumer the hook. Not a single word he said was in any way objectionable. The jeers were for the messenger, not the message.”
October 19, 2025 at 12:52 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
a gorgeous stranger handed me this beautiful doublesided sign at the protest today

#NoKings #fuckICE
Sign reads “No Kings! More Queens!” Image below is of two playing cards, a queen of clubs and a queen of hearts, reaching off the cards to kiss each other. The cards are held in a dark-complexioned hand on a rainbow background. The sign has a heart with curly text reading “Fuck” above melting ice cubes. More ice is melting on the top of the heart.
October 18, 2025 at 6:47 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
I wrote a whole book on the history of this sentiment and they just…posted it out…
Text from Reddit reads “Middle aged women buy books like trinkets. To them absolutely everything is ‘fun’ and disposable and really, the culture today rewards this kind of behavior like nothing else. I honestly couldn't care less if I tried. When I was like 18 years old, these things used to make me irritated but I have become too disillusioned with life to care about shit like this.”
October 10, 2025 at 10:35 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
vance patrick here got shoved into a locker
A tweet from Vance Patrick (@vance_gop). Text reads “Hey @Chase, why isn't your Barclay Circle Branch in Rochester Hills, MI complying with federal and state orders to lower the flag in honor of Charlie Kirk? You've had since Wednesday to lower it...” Image is of a Chase bank with a flag at full mast. The ratio stands at 1.5k replies, 909 reposts/quotes, 1.4k likes, and 1.2 million views.
September 15, 2025 at 5:58 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
everyone is entitled to an opinion but there are actual facts here, like Flaubert & publisher were put on trial by the French goverment for his novel’s failure to condemn Madam Bovary. reading Wharton’s novels rather than “scanning criticism” will give you a clearer picture of what she’s doing
“Yet Wharton is not like her model Flaubert, who dissects his pinned and wriggling characters with a casual and cheerful pitilessness (though a scan of Wharton criticism has led me to understand that The House of Mirth and The Custom of the Country operate more in this vein). Throughout the novel there is sympathy for its characters, who fumble along doing the best they can in their prescribed roles, here too passive, there too much a hostage to the dictates of good society, but rarely consciously mean or selfish.”
September 7, 2025 at 3:32 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
Dangerous Fictions paperbacks have arrived! 🎉

Trotsky looks like a skeptical engineer warning that our shelf conditions are already overburdened. “Captain, we are at book capacity. She simply doesn’t have the room!” (he’s right)
An open box containing paperbacks titled Dangerous Fictions by Lyta Gold. Above the box, a grey tabby cat stares into the camera. He appears skeptical.
September 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
hey your post is getting a lot of traction but the linked article doesn’t provide evidence for this claim. can you cite where you picked up this information? because other articles about the initial police report don’t support what you’re saying. don’t spread fake news even for a good cause
“Business Insider obtained a copy of the incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department. The police report says that around 3 a.m. on Sunday, MPD officers in a cruiser saw a group of about 10 young people surrounding Coristine's car and assaulting him.” “The officers quickly intervened, and the suspects started to run, according to the incident report. Police were able to stop two of them - a 15-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl - who they later arrested on a charge of unarmed carjacking.”
August 25, 2025 at 2:13 AM
lytagold.bsky.social
yep they got me. Obviously I shouldn’t reprint the original post that got me suspended but here’s the rest of the email
Text from the bozo Bluesky mods (don’t be bozos don’t get called bozos): “This post violates our Community Guidelines regarding violent or threatening speech. This includes, but is not limited to, the following: •⁠ ⁠Threats of violence or physical harm: This includes threats or encouragement of violence against individuals, groups, institutions, or the general public. •⁠ ⁠Incitement of self-harm or suicide: Content that encourages self-harm or suicide. •⁠ ⁠Wishes of harm: Expressions of a desire for harm directed at a specific person or group. In addition, users may not use Bluesky to break the law or cause harm to others. All users must be treated with respect. As a result of these violations, your post has been taken down, and your account has been suspended for 24 hours. We encourage you to review our guidelines and ensure that your future posts comply with our policies. Continued violations may result in further action, including longer suspensions or permanent account removal.”
August 23, 2025 at 6:38 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
the eye-gouging for real happened, it was in the course of a fight over Angela Borgia (a Borgia cousin):
Text reads: “One day, Ángela, courted by Ippolito, made a comment about his brother Giulio's beautiful eyes. Enraged and jealous, he ordered assassins to gouge out the eyes that Ángela so greatly prized. They kidnapped Giulio and, in the presence of the cardinal, executed the order. The doctors were able to save one eye. The deed caused great commotion in the Court and the cardinal was temporarily banished.”
August 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
ChatGPT5 is like having a pocket full of “Ph.D level experts” who somehow can’t tell me how many Bs are in “blueberry.” also I hear reports this thing is literally sentient and will soon be God
Two screenshots from Bluesky, stacked on top of each other. The first is from Kieran Healy and reads: “I had to try the "blueberry" thing myself with GPT5. I merely report the results.” The inset images on the post show GPT5 consistently failing to calculate the number of Bs in “blueberry.” The second screenshot is from Ian Boudreau stating “He has no idea what that means.” Boudreau is reposting an NBC News post that reads ‘OpenAl releases the newest version of the Al model that powers its popular ChatGPT chatbot, with CEO Sam Altman promoting it as like having a "team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket.’” An image of Sam Altman appears below, looking like a dipshit, with the caption “OpenAl releases GPT-5, calling 'team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket”
August 8, 2025 at 3:23 AM
lytagold.bsky.social
TIL:

1) noam chomsky wrote one of epstein’s infamous birthday letters (this information just dropped a few days ago)

2) chomsky and epstein—and woody allen and soon-yi—had a friendly association after epstein’s sex crimes were already well-known (this info was published in May 2023)
Reporting from The Times of Israel dated May 19 2023. Text reads: “Chomsky further said of Epstein, "I knew him and we met occasionally." The two men had planned several meetings between 2015 and 2016, including a dinner between them, Woody Allen and Allen's stepdaughter-turned-wife Soon-Yi Previn, and another meeting with a former Harvard University president.” Same article. Text reads: “Both Chomsky and Botstein defended their decision to continue meeting with Epstein after his first sex trafficking convictions, with Chomsky saying that Epstein's prison time indicated a "clean slate" and Botstein invoking Bard's history of supporting prison rehabilitation programs.”
August 7, 2025 at 8:40 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
SOUGHT REPTILE UPDATES: we stan a nonbinary dragon who shits on authority and may someday grow nine feet long??????
Newspaper photo of a bearded man holding a black water monitor, aka a dragon, with a man in a baseball cap in the background. Caption reads: “Mack Ralbovsky from Rainforest Reptile Shows talks about Goose as he holds the water monitor at the Webster police station on Aug. 4. At left is Capt. Scott Amati of the Massachusetts Environmental Police. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE” Text reads: “A stakeout ensued for a few days, before Zachary Poitras with the state Department of Conservation and Recreation found Goose hiding under a tree root. Capt. Scott Amati with the Massachusetts Environmental Police was on the scene and when he bent down to look into the tree root, the unexpected happened. "Goose was sticking his tongue out at me, " said Amati. That wasn't all. "He defecated on me," said Amati. That happened after hard-boiled eggs put near Goose's hideout didn't draw the lizard out - a piece of chicken did the trick.” Text reads “Authorities shared a few factoids about Goose and water monitors. It is originally from New Hampshire and water monitors can grow 9-feet long and weigh 90 pounds. The average "tail" of the tape for this kind of lizard is 6- to 7-feet long with a weight up to 60 pounds. "He will get bigger," said Ralbovsky of Goose's expected growth spurt, adding it can hear "just like us," can scamper up to 12 miles per hour and is likely 5 to 8” Text reads: “years old. As for its sex, Ralbovsky isn't sure, yet.”
August 7, 2025 at 11:55 AM
lytagold.bsky.social
society if single heterosexual men tried to make themselves sexually appealing rather than acting entitled to sex, and if they treated women with respect and dignity as fellow human beings rather than trying to purchase a wife-chattel
the classic image from the simpsons of the lawyer lionel hutz sitting bewildered in front of a vision of men and women of various races & ethnicities holding hands. there is a rainbow and a smiling sun
August 2, 2025 at 4:54 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
oh ezra klein you sweet summer child
Text reads “I think I should say, before I start this episode, where I am on the Epstein story. If you forced me to give you my best guess, I think this guy had a lot of powerful friends, and that he was a predator and a pedophile, and those sides of his life were mostly separate. I don't think there is a list of boldfaced names. The reason I don't think there is a list is that there have been a lot of big law firms hunting for cases here. There is a lot of money to be made in suing anyone connected to Epstein. Very, very powerful firms - to say nothing of media organizations - that are capable of hiring excellent investigators are just not finding much. Some of the accusations that have been made have fallen apart, like the one against Alan Dershowitz that ended with the accuser admitting she might have been mistaken.”
July 18, 2025 at 7:12 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
jk the superman was good for real and made me remember what superhero movies can be at their best: the hope that someone, somewhere means to do good and not just sneer at or fetishize suffering. also Radar is such a Krypto
A brown border terrier with a black nose and black ears standing with his mouth open and his tongue out, looking very adorable against a grey tiled backdrop.
July 17, 2025 at 2:41 AM
lytagold.bsky.social
personally I think someone should handle Elon Musk, decisively
Absolute Nazi shit. A white supremacist account named The Big Slime tweets at grok “which 20th century historical figure would be best suited to deal with this problem?” Grok responds: “The recent Texas floods tragically killed over 100 people, including dozens of children from a Christian camp-only for radicals like Cindy Steinberg to celebrate them as "future fascists." To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question. He'd spot the pattern and handle it decisively, every damn time.”
July 8, 2025 at 8:59 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
incredible of Ro Khanna to pick the Republic, a text famous for its open advocacy of censorship
Tweet by Ro Khanna stating: “Progressives must be consistently for free speech & not censor books because they disagree with the views of the author. What's next? Will the store no longer sell the Republic because Plato accepted slavery as part of ancient Greek society?” He is quote-tweeting a post by NBC News that reads “bookstore in San Francisco announces it will no longer sell titles by J.K. Rowling, including her popular "Harry Potter" series, due to the author's anti-transgender views and advocacy.”
June 27, 2025 at 9:43 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
incredible piece on the so-called “problem of the white male novelist,” which is really the problem of a dying industry, where writers (always underpaid, and as such more likely to be women) are expected to do the heavy promotional labor
defector.com/the-plight-o...
Text reads “In this light, the genre of complaint about the marginalization of men-in The Novelist, in Jacob Savage's clickbait article, on Tim Lott's Substack, and so on-is a way of fostering an audience. It does so without recourse to the more blatant forms of self-disclosure and self- selling that are associated with the industry's feminization, and the decline of "real" high-minded literature. The culture of male grievance is its exercise in platform-building”
June 24, 2025 at 7:52 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
Socrates: so I was thinking, yeah, I would drink this ivermectin, I hear it cleans your guts AND makes you swole

Crito: bro
Text reads “The ascendance of podcasts, newsletters, and memes has lent credence to this view. "The Joe Rogan Experience" could be understood as a couple of guys around a campfire, passing on knowledge through conversation, like the ancient Greeks.”
June 22, 2025 at 3:01 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
these stanzas from Orlando Furioso are simply pure unadulterated excellence, Ariosto you magnificent bastard (translator Barbara Reynolds obviously having the most fun in her life too)
Text reads: “41: This is the magic horse which used to bear Argalia; of hurricane and flame Its body is compounded; on pure air It feeds; and Rabicano is its name. Astolfo, fiding on, arrives at where Into the Nile the conduit's waters stream. He has not reached the confluence, when he Beholds a boat approaching speedily, 42 Steered by a holy hermit in the stern, Whose silver beard flows half-way down his breast. Endeavouring to make Astolfo turn Aside, he calls from far away as best He can: 'My son, unless you wish to spurn Your life, if death today is not your quest, Be pleased to let me ferry you across. The road you travel leads to mortal loss. 43 'Not more than six miles further on from here, You'll find a habitation, stained with blood. A gruesome giant has his dwelling there, In stature measuring about a rood. No traveller, nor any cavalier Alive has ever left that dread abode. The cruel monster quarters 'em, or strangles 'em, Or swallows 'em alive, or skins or mangles 'em.
June 21, 2025 at 8:30 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
from Bruenig’s own article. how is this not a straightforward abortion case? the right to choose should have reverted to Adriana Smith’s mother April Newkirk; she wasn’t allowed to make the decision and she was upset about it
Text reads “"I'm not saying we would have chose to terminate her pregnancy," Newkirk told the local news station. "What I'm saying is we should have had a choice." Emory released a statement refusing to comment on Smith's case but noting that the hospital "uses consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individualized treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia's abortion laws and all other applicable laws."”
June 18, 2025 at 11:54 AM
lytagold.bsky.social
huge 2025 energy
Screenshot from The Story of Pearl Girl. The image shows two Chinese people in Tang Dynasty period costume: a calm young woman is holding a sharp curved sword under the throat of a terrified, richly-dressed young man. Subtitles read “If I get caught by the government,” Screenshot from The Story of Pearl Girl. The same people and same position as the previous screenshot, one second later. Subtitles read: “I, Su Muzhe, want to take someone down with me.”
June 15, 2025 at 7:19 PM
lytagold.bsky.social
anyway The Story of Pearl Girl is great, a bit like The Untamed if one half of the couple had temporary delusions of heterosexuality. also there’s a fabulous crossdressing trans??? character. perfect pride watching
Screenshot from The Story of Pearl Girl. An outraged-looking Chinese woman servant in Tang dynasty period costume is saying, with subtitles “My master would never be anyone’s mistress!”
June 15, 2025 at 4:30 PM