Rhodri Lewis
@rhodrilewis.bsky.social
Literature, ideas, history, the arts | Reading & writing & teaching | Shakespeare's Tragic Art out now from @princetonupress.bsky.social | Writing a life of Frank Kermode | bit.ly/2vbBoIN
I confess that I didn't give legal theory or practice a second thought when writing my book on the tragedies--but I'm extremely glad, and grateful, that Gary Watt has made me think again
doi.org/10.1017/S174...
doi.org/10.1017/S174...
Shakespeare’s Tragic Art By Rhodri Lewis , Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024. 381 pp. | International Journal of Law in Context | Cambridge Core
Shakespeare’s Tragic Art By Rhodri Lewis , Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024. 381 pp.
doi.org
November 7, 2025 at 1:47 PM
I confess that I didn't give legal theory or practice a second thought when writing my book on the tragedies--but I'm extremely glad, and grateful, that Gary Watt has made me think again
doi.org/10.1017/S174...
doi.org/10.1017/S174...
Reposted by Rhodri Lewis
New from me in the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social: the media seem determined to mainstream the ideas of Eliezer Yudkowsky, but they can't reckon with his bizarre (and very unserious) ideas about death.
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...
The guru of the AI apocalypse
Eliezer Yudkowsky is confusing a very human obsession with death and a very modern fear of a techno-deity
www.newstatesman.com
October 28, 2025 at 11:25 AM
New from me in the @newstatesman1913.bsky.social: the media seem determined to mainstream the ideas of Eliezer Yudkowsky, but they can't reckon with his bizarre (and very unserious) ideas about death.
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...
The young David, per Vignon, looking uncannily like Helena Bonham-Carter
September 11, 2025 at 10:07 PM
The young David, per Vignon, looking uncannily like Helena Bonham-Carter
Lovely to see this in a sort of hard copy
September 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Lovely to see this in a sort of hard copy
Reposted by Rhodri Lewis
Spot-on review by @rhodrilewis.bsky.social of Chernow's frustrating Twain, chocked with facts, lacking analysis\. My upcoming cultural history of the Linotype, Hot Type, has more literary examination of Twain's work than this. "Chernow loses the signal while amplifying the noise."
Ron Chernow’s blockbusting biography tells us everything about American literature’s founding father, Mark Twain—except that which makes him interesting, writes @rhodrilewis.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine...
www.prospectmagazine...
How Ron Chernow’s biography of Mark Twain misses the mark
This blockbusting book tells us everything about American literature’s founding father—except that which makes him interesting
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
August 15, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Spot-on review by @rhodrilewis.bsky.social of Chernow's frustrating Twain, chocked with facts, lacking analysis\. My upcoming cultural history of the Linotype, Hot Type, has more literary examination of Twain's work than this. "Chernow loses the signal while amplifying the noise."
Four stages of an archive trip. 1. Excitement/fear at all the new stuff you might find. 2. Relief that all is actually quite manageable. 3. Surely there’ll be something to show for my two days sifting these uncatalogued boxes? 4. It is what it is.
July 30, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Four stages of an archive trip. 1. Excitement/fear at all the new stuff you might find. 2. Relief that all is actually quite manageable. 3. Surely there’ll be something to show for my two days sifting these uncatalogued boxes? 4. It is what it is.
So, if any of you have spotted typos in Shax's Tragic Art, I'd love to hear of them. (Am doing corrections for the paperback, and only have eight so far; there must be many more.)
July 30, 2025 at 4:06 PM
So, if any of you have spotted typos in Shax's Tragic Art, I'd love to hear of them. (Am doing corrections for the paperback, and only have eight so far; there must be many more.)
"When Adam won Eve's hand, / He wouldn't stand for teasin'. / He didn't care about / Those apples out of season." Ambushed by Cole Porter on the train. Pleasingly.
July 11, 2025 at 11:37 PM
"When Adam won Eve's hand, / He wouldn't stand for teasin'. / He didn't care about / Those apples out of season." Ambushed by Cole Porter on the train. Pleasingly.
Reposted by Rhodri Lewis
“‘Al’ is a marketing term. It doesn't refer to a coherent set of technologies. Instead, the phrase …is deployed when the people building or selling a particular set of technologies will profit from getting others to believe that their tech is similar to humans”
Excellent & uncompromising.
Read it!
Excellent & uncompromising.
Read it!
July 8, 2025 at 2:08 AM
“‘Al’ is a marketing term. It doesn't refer to a coherent set of technologies. Instead, the phrase …is deployed when the people building or selling a particular set of technologies will profit from getting others to believe that their tech is similar to humans”
Excellent & uncompromising.
Read it!
Excellent & uncompromising.
Read it!
The sheer energy that the Leavisites wasted in hating.
July 7, 2025 at 10:46 PM
The sheer energy that the Leavisites wasted in hating.
I've been lucky enough to have had some excellent discussions (podcast and otherwise) about Shakespeare's Tragic Art, but I think this set of questions may have been the best.
www.christianhumanist.org/2025/06/chri...
www.christianhumanist.org/2025/06/chri...
Christian Humanist Profiles 271: Shakespeare’s Tragic Art
Living among human beings gives an observant person plenty of occasions to think about delusion. Whether one watches the young revolutionary or the aging politician, the conspiracy theorist or the…
www.christianhumanist.org
July 6, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I've been lucky enough to have had some excellent discussions (podcast and otherwise) about Shakespeare's Tragic Art, but I think this set of questions may have been the best.
www.christianhumanist.org/2025/06/chri...
www.christianhumanist.org/2025/06/chri...
Pleasing to learn that when Stephen Spender went to Paris to investigate the 1968 student revolt (staying with his friends the Rothschilds), he was repeatedly mistaken for Marcuse.
July 1, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Pleasing to learn that when Stephen Spender went to Paris to investigate the 1968 student revolt (staying with his friends the Rothschilds), he was repeatedly mistaken for Marcuse.
Good to have reason to be back in here for a day.
July 1, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Good to have reason to be back in here for a day.
Trying to figure out who this character from Kermode's autobiography was. "Paul H-F", undergrad at Liverpool in late 1930s. Ends up directing a molecular biology lab at Yale (or similar, I suppose, as Kermode may have been shielding). Have drawn a thoroughgoing blank. Thoughts?
June 18, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Trying to figure out who this character from Kermode's autobiography was. "Paul H-F", undergrad at Liverpool in late 1930s. Ends up directing a molecular biology lab at Yale (or similar, I suppose, as Kermode may have been shielding). Have drawn a thoroughgoing blank. Thoughts?
Reposted by Rhodri Lewis
“Muriel Spark led an implausible life,” writes @rhodrilewis.bsky.social.
Does Frances Wilson’s new biography, ELECTRIC SPARK, manage to capture the author’s complexity?
www.prospectmagazine...
Does Frances Wilson’s new biography, ELECTRIC SPARK, manage to capture the author’s complexity?
www.prospectmagazine...
Confronting the enigma of Muriel Spark
The novelist’s 1940s and 1950s resonated with mystical echoes of her past and future. Can a new biography capture this complexity?
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
June 18, 2025 at 8:22 AM
“Muriel Spark led an implausible life,” writes @rhodrilewis.bsky.social.
Does Frances Wilson’s new biography, ELECTRIC SPARK, manage to capture the author’s complexity?
www.prospectmagazine...
Does Frances Wilson’s new biography, ELECTRIC SPARK, manage to capture the author’s complexity?
www.prospectmagazine...
I enjoyed the chance to revisit Muriel Spark while reviewing Frances Wilson's new life of her for @prospectmagazine.co.uk.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7009...
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7009...
Confronting the enigma of Muriel Spark
The novelist’s 1940s and 1950s resonated with mystical echoes of her past and future. Can a new biography capture this complexity?
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
June 11, 2025 at 11:36 AM
I enjoyed the chance to revisit Muriel Spark while reviewing Frances Wilson's new life of her for @prospectmagazine.co.uk.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7009...
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/7009...
Am amused by Kermode's response to being informed of E. H. Gombrich's opinion that a renaissance specialist he planned to hire at UCL was "not a scholar and never will be".
June 5, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Am amused by Kermode's response to being informed of E. H. Gombrich's opinion that a renaissance specialist he planned to hire at UCL was "not a scholar and never will be".
NYC looking good yesterday evening.
May 31, 2025 at 2:40 PM
NYC looking good yesterday evening.
Reposted by Rhodri Lewis
It’s publication day for Thomas More: A Life and Death in Tudor England with Michael Joseph @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social!
Pop by your local bookshop or order now - uk.bookshop.org/a/12264/9781...
Pop by your local bookshop or order now - uk.bookshop.org/a/12264/9781...
May 29, 2025 at 9:14 AM
It’s publication day for Thomas More: A Life and Death in Tudor England with Michael Joseph @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social!
Pop by your local bookshop or order now - uk.bookshop.org/a/12264/9781...
Pop by your local bookshop or order now - uk.bookshop.org/a/12264/9781...
Another excellent new book delivery
May 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Another excellent new book delivery
Looking forward to these.
May 26, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Looking forward to these.
Lovely to see this in hard copy, too
May 23, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Lovely to see this in hard copy, too
Should have added that the Secret Life of Books podcast that my interviewer does with Jonty Claypole is fabulous, and has lots of Sydney Writers' Festival content. Well worth a download from wherever you do your downloading: @slobpodcast.bsky.social.
Had a really excellent time banging the Shakespearean tragic drum at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
May 22, 2025 at 3:18 AM
Should have added that the Secret Life of Books podcast that my interviewer does with Jonty Claypole is fabulous, and has lots of Sydney Writers' Festival content. Well worth a download from wherever you do your downloading: @slobpodcast.bsky.social.
Had a really excellent time banging the Shakespearean tragic drum at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
May 21, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Had a really excellent time banging the Shakespearean tragic drum at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.