Rohan Maitzen
@rohanmaitzen.bsky.social
English prof at King's / Dalhousie (mostly Victorian lit, detective fiction), critic, blogger at 'Novel Readings'. Essays and reviews in the TLS, LRC, Q&Q, CNQ, LARB, etc. It's pronounced "Rowan." She / her. Halifax, NS. http://rohanmaitzen.com
Reposted by Rohan Maitzen
The Paris Express is fine, but once again I find myself wishing Emma Donoghue would write fewer novels. Maybe then we'd finally get a really great one from her.
“On We Go”: Emma Donoghue, The Paris Express
Engine 721 doesn’t take it personally. She is made of wood and metal, and her temperament is stoic. Besides, she recognizes something kindred in Mado Pelletier’s iron conviction and uns…
rohanmaitzen.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:51 AM
The Paris Express is fine, but once again I find myself wishing Emma Donoghue would write fewer novels. Maybe then we'd finally get a really great one from her.
I was looking at some of my own undergrad essays and it is really amazing how little feedback I got compared to what I have come to think I owe my students. A few corrections here and there, maybe a checkmark or two, a sentence or two at the end, an A- or whatever.
November 13, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I was looking at some of my own undergrad essays and it is really amazing how little feedback I got compared to what I have come to think I owe my students. A few corrections here and there, maybe a checkmark or two, a sentence or two at the end, an A- or whatever.
“I want GenAI off my corner.”
GenAI can GTFO
Recently I had the chance to speak about generative AI in front of a mid-sized crowd of colleagues and students, along with five colleagues,...
boughtbooks.blogspot.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:15 AM
“I want GenAI off my corner.”
The Paris Express is fine, but once again I find myself wishing Emma Donoghue would write fewer novels. Maybe then we'd finally get a really great one from her.
“On We Go”: Emma Donoghue, The Paris Express
Engine 721 doesn’t take it personally. She is made of wood and metal, and her temperament is stoic. Besides, she recognizes something kindred in Mado Pelletier’s iron conviction and uns…
rohanmaitzen.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:51 AM
The Paris Express is fine, but once again I find myself wishing Emma Donoghue would write fewer novels. Maybe then we'd finally get a really great one from her.
No, MS Word, I do NOT want you to summarize the document I AM LITERALLY WRITING MYSELF. Why would I need that? God, I hate how intrusive this s--t is. I just want to make it go away and it appears that our institutional version of the software does not have any of the off switches for it.
November 12, 2025 at 2:52 PM
No, MS Word, I do NOT want you to summarize the document I AM LITERALLY WRITING MYSELF. Why would I need that? God, I hate how intrusive this s--t is. I just want to make it go away and it appears that our institutional version of the software does not have any of the off switches for it.
I just finished Emma Donoghue’s The Paris Express and I cannot believe the ending is such an anticlimax! (Sorry if that’s a spoiler for anyone.) Overall for me the novel was just OK. She’s a very competent writer but I’m surprised this book is a Giller nominee.
November 12, 2025 at 1:26 AM
I just finished Emma Donoghue’s The Paris Express and I cannot believe the ending is such an anticlimax! (Sorry if that’s a spoiler for anyone.) Overall for me the novel was just OK. She’s a very competent writer but I’m surprised this book is a Giller nominee.
I went to the gym so I was allowed to have Doritos. I don't make the rules! 😆
November 11, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I went to the gym so I was allowed to have Doritos. I don't make the rules! 😆
Reposted by Rohan Maitzen
Red Poppies
Molly Lamb Bobak
1977
Molly Lamb Bobak
1977
November 11, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Red Poppies
Molly Lamb Bobak
1977
Molly Lamb Bobak
1977
I continue to be so impressed with Mattea Roach. Here she is interviewing Ian McEwan about his new novel. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/b...
Ian McEwan has hope for humanity — here’s why
Podcast Episode · Bookends with Mattea Roach · 2025-10-26 · 35m
podcasts.apple.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:10 AM
I continue to be so impressed with Mattea Roach. Here she is interviewing Ian McEwan about his new novel. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/b...
Looks like it will be a dreary rainy week - perfect for trying this lentil and coconut milk soup.
November 10, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Looks like it will be a dreary rainy week - perfect for trying this lentil and coconut milk soup.
"If no one wants it, you might as well make whatever is in your heart": I appreciated this post on "making art anyway" from @shawnalemay.bsky.social and wish I could convince myself to do exactly that.
Live Like an Artist: On Making Art Anyway — Transactions with Beauty
— Let us begin with the comedy of artistic doubt. Granted, I have been trying to return from 8 hours into the future (jet lag), but this past week I have been in a state of artistic doubt. It’s nothin...
transactionswithbeauty.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:23 PM
"If no one wants it, you might as well make whatever is in your heart": I appreciated this post on "making art anyway" from @shawnalemay.bsky.social and wish I could convince myself to do exactly that.
Fred's Sunday morning routine is going great. ❤️🐈⬛
November 9, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Fred's Sunday morning routine is going great. ❤️🐈⬛
All I really have to get done today is one. last. sentence. to really firm up my point of view on and elegantly conclude my review of this novel. How hard can that be, right? Sigh.
November 9, 2025 at 2:24 PM
All I really have to get done today is one. last. sentence. to really firm up my point of view on and elegantly conclude my review of this novel. How hard can that be, right? Sigh.
Oh dear somehow my old "is Cormac McCarthy a terrible writer" post is getting noticed again. (Spoiler alert: the answer for me was no! but what interested me at the time was how easily I could imagine answering yes instead, on the same evidence.)
November 9, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Oh dear somehow my old "is Cormac McCarthy a terrible writer" post is getting noticed again. (Spoiler alert: the answer for me was no! but what interested me at the time was how easily I could imagine answering yes instead, on the same evidence.)
I have one episode left in my rewatch of Happy Valley S2 and BRITBOX IS DOWN - this is not the thrilling Saturday night I had planned. 😠
November 9, 2025 at 1:01 AM
I have one episode left in my rewatch of Happy Valley S2 and BRITBOX IS DOWN - this is not the thrilling Saturday night I had planned. 😠
Bill Nighy's podcast is ridiculously charming. I mean who could resist an episode headlined "You are not a weirdo' that makes you feel better about strugggling to socialize?
November 8, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Bill Nighy's podcast is ridiculously charming. I mean who could resist an episode headlined "You are not a weirdo' that makes you feel better about strugggling to socialize?
Today in 'adventures in student evaluations' I find that someone last year thought I had "very poor media literacy" and while that may or may not be true (I honestly don't know?), I'm curious what it was about my class on 19thC fiction-or maybe detective fiction-that made it a conspicuous issue. 🤨
November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Today in 'adventures in student evaluations' I find that someone last year thought I had "very poor media literacy" and while that may or may not be true (I honestly don't know?), I'm curious what it was about my class on 19thC fiction-or maybe detective fiction-that made it a conspicuous issue. 🤨
I guess I think it would be better to put cacophonous new music into its own program instead of insisting on putting some of it into every program. Then people who like that sort of thing can enjoy it and the rest of us can enjoy our Beethoven without a medicinal dose of modernity. 🙃
November 7, 2025 at 12:23 AM
I guess I think it would be better to put cacophonous new music into its own program instead of insisting on putting some of it into every program. Then people who like that sort of thing can enjoy it and the rest of us can enjoy our Beethoven without a medicinal dose of modernity. 🙃
Wait, you mean Symphony NS plays at night? Like, when it's dark? I have to go out *after dinner* if I want to go to the concert? Inconceivable. 😂 (I'm going!)
November 6, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Wait, you mean Symphony NS plays at night? Like, when it's dark? I have to go out *after dinner* if I want to go to the concert? Inconceivable. 😂 (I'm going!)
Help Fred is mewing SO piteously because she just does not understand about the time change so my attempts to get her stomach clock to adjust by holding off on feeding her may fail . . . (Tbf, it's my own fault that before the change she already had pestered me into fairly early "evening" meals.)
November 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Help Fred is mewing SO piteously because she just does not understand about the time change so my attempts to get her stomach clock to adjust by holding off on feeding her may fail . . . (Tbf, it's my own fault that before the change she already had pestered me into fairly early "evening" meals.)
Women Writing: Tove and Toews
Two Women Writing: Ditlevsen and Toews
I made my way to the end of Tove Ditlevsen’s Copenhagen Trilogy without ever deciding if I was enjoying it or not. Enjoying might be the wrong word in any case: it’s not really a fun or…
rohanmaitzen.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Women Writing: Tove and Toews
I regret to inform you that going to the gym (or otherwise moving your sad, tired body around) will in fact make you feel better.
November 5, 2025 at 7:41 PM
I regret to inform you that going to the gym (or otherwise moving your sad, tired body around) will in fact make you feel better.
Reposted by Rohan Maitzen
we're still shipping all over Canada for only $5 and we now have a tugboat to help us spread the word! how do we do it? that's really none of your business
November 5, 2025 at 7:35 PM
we're still shipping all over Canada for only $5 and we now have a tugboat to help us spread the word! how do we do it? that's really none of your business
When did we agree that the “holiday season” would be two full months? We used to at least wait until after Remembrance Day and now it’s already all over Christmas. It’s oppressive. You can’t escape it - which is especially grim for those of us made sad, not merry, by it all.
November 4, 2025 at 4:23 PM
When did we agree that the “holiday season” would be two full months? We used to at least wait until after Remembrance Day and now it’s already all over Christmas. It’s oppressive. You can’t escape it - which is especially grim for those of us made sad, not merry, by it all.