Hilarious

Congrats, Lauren! I look forward to reading.

Contents: Rachel Ablow/Introduction: Belief and Disbelief after Secularization Daniel Hack/Why Always That Dorothea? Realism and the Rise of Meaning Colin Jager/ The Suspension of Disbelief, Again Timothy Bewes/ "Things Can Always Be otherwise": Believing (in) Twenty-First-Century Fiction Deidre Lynch/Believing in Novels: Hoax, Hocus, and the Fictionality of the Gothic Ian Duncan/ Excessive Belief: Transport and Immersion in Nineteenth-Century Historical Ficton Ayelet Ben-Yishai/ "A Look She Cannot Read": Novelistic Epistemology between Genre and Narrative Mode in Paul Lynch's Prophet Song Amy Hollywood: Henry James, Minny Temple, and the 'Demon of the Why, Whence, and Whither"

In time for April Fool's Day, which may be apt, my article on Gothic fiction and #18thc hoaxing has appeared in Novel, in a banger of an issue on Belief in Fiction, co-ed by @danielhack.bsky.social & Rachel Ablow.
Take a look at this exciting t.o.c. I'm grateful to be in such great company.

I'm thrilled that this is now in the world: a special issue of NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, guest-edited by Rachel Ablow and me, on "Belief in Fiction." Wherein we are joined by a dream team of contributors: Colin Jager, Tim Bewes, Deidre Lynch, Ian Duncan, Ayelet Ben-Yishai, and Amy Hollywood.

Spent ten weeks on Middlemarch last semester. One of my best teaching experiences ever.

Join us Mon 2/9 at Noon (ET) for a free seminar: "Spatiotemporal dynamics of geographic range in seasonally migratory birds" w/ Matthew Hack, PhD candidate, University of Michigan; 2024 AOS Student Research Grant winner. #AOSmembers
americanornithology.org/calendar/spa...
#AOS_SRGS

Send me the details and I can check this afternoon.

Wait, are you suggesting that Marxist historicism is not also easily turned into a banal formula?!

B-Sides: J. L. Carr’s “A Month in the Country” - Public Books The impact of the novel’s silences and enigmas is amplified by the enigma that is Carr himself.

“But how full and lasting is this healing? We don’t know.”

New at PB: Daniel Hack on the enigmas of J. L. Carr’s “A Month in the Country.”

I’m there

You already know this, but: New Grub Street

"Exploring complex texts together, sharing our reactions and our insights, developing analyses through dialogue, and trying out ideas on one another is the best way to learn, and also the most fun."

Thanks! I had arrived at pretty much the same place in terms of policy, but was still calling it "participation," even though that seemed inadequate. I will probably blend some of your phrasing with my existing language:

Is this yours, Nathan? I want to make sure I credit the right person when I adopt/adapt this!

My university is encouraging me to use ChatGPT for my research, and I'm so glad I did. Otherwise I never would have known about @carolinelevine.bsky.social's 2004 article, "Victorian Plots and the Twentieth Century Novel: The Case of Kazuo Ishiguro"! Sounds fascinating! How could I have missed it?

This is why, despite misgivings (which I will share with the class), I am teaching a course in the fall I named “The Greatest Novel and the Biggest Question: Middlemarch and Meaning.”

Congratulations, Deidre! Why am I not shocked?

About twenty years ago, in Buffalo. Plus we had the soundtrack CD on high rotation. Great stuff.

“I am not afraid. Well, I am, but I’m still brave.”

We find reassurance where we can. They say the English major is dying and no one reads anymore, but some one left a beat-up copy of MCTEAGUE on the "free books" shelf in my department this morning and it's already gone.

powerful

More self-interrupting songs: “Wrong ‘em Boyo,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy”