Now I'm imagining how nice it would be to have some cowled attendant hovering over my shoulder every time I sat down to write, hissing whenever I use the wrong age for one of my characters.

Anyways the movie was fun! Great performances and I love laughing at fascists. But weird to see so many smart people treating genuine narrative critiques as some version of "why won't this movie spoonfeed me my particular brand of politics."

Like, terrorism by leftists is such a non-entity in American life that making it the central focus of your film robs the narrative of what might have been some genuine commentary on why radical movements fail and how our descendents pay the price for it.

Actually think this was one of the movie's greatest weaknesses. Trying to imagine a group like this operating in a (presumably?) post-9/11 America so thoroughly strains credulity that it makes the whole movie kind of feel like a farce.

Lot of people seem to think it's stodgy to ask a film that drapes itself in the aesthetics of radical politics to have something meaningful to say about those politics beyond "the children are the future"??

For all the extraordinary richness of the sensory and dramatic texture of “One Battle After Another,” there’s no submerged iceberg of experience or knowledge below its majestic peak. Regardless of any ethical or historical import to the prominence of political debate and analysis in such movies as “La Chinoise” and “Zabriskie Point,” what matters is their documentary connection with experience. Both films were made contemporaneously with political action of the sorts they dramatize, and both films make documentary-like contact with real-life activists. They show the practical labor of revolution, whereas Anderson’s film emphasizes its emotional labor. In so doing, he makes a movie that’s both brilliant and hollow, an old-fashioned movie about the world of today (and maybe tomorrow), a vision of hopeful possibilities that remains unmoored from realities. Yet his film, even in its omissions, brims with strategic ingenuity and daring, cinematic and political—to fight other films’ empty fantasies with substantial ones, to battle other advocates’ pernicious myths with virtuous ones.

Actually think Richard Brody articulated the "politically muddled" elements of OBAA in his (positive) review pretty well:

Altman's "intelligence as a metered service" captures the AI moment well—it's an attempt at the formal subsumption of ever-finer microrealms of human labour embedded within capitalist production. You already have an underpaid email job but what if you also had to pay the machine to write your emails

Editing I was formerly an editor at  Quirk Books  (2021–2025), specializing in gift and lifestyle nonfiction as well as genre fiction, and the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature  (2017–2021),...

If you’re considering asking an AI slop golem for help with your writing project, why not ask me, a real person who is good at this, instead?

Once I heard the people behind Dragon Quest Builders 2 were involved I knew this game would be dangerous.

Hey, if you're feeling like life has passed you by and you're too old to start something new, remember that John Brown was 55 before he killed his first pro-slavery settler in the Kansas Territory. It's never too late to follow your dreams.

A mottled, pale E.T laying face down in a river, presumably on the edge of death

Sitting down to write, the thing I supposedly love and have dedicated my life to:

Thank you!! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. 😊

The author and their books: Shay Kauwe author of THE KILLING SPELL The book they'd love for Christmas THE GREAT WORK Their favourite reads of 2025 THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones Their anticipated read of 2026 THAT WHICH FEEDS US.

We asked @shaykauwe.bsky.social for her best book of '25, the book she'd love for Xmas & her anticipated read of '26.

Read the full article: https://geni.us/SolarisBks2025 to find out why she picked @sgj.bsky.social @kealakendall.bsky.social & @sheldoncosta.bsky.social!
https://geni.us/killingspell

Wow adding this to my list immediately

(I've been trying to write for an hour.)

"We weren't meant to live like this."
No. Every day I sit down and absorb my computer's beatific glow and immeditately know I am exactly where I need to be. My little brain wallows in infinite dopamine like a pig in its beloved mud. I am at peace.

Always been a huge fan of your emphasis on enjoying the process of writing rather than the outcomes of publishing (not that I've always been able to do that myself) so that's tremendously flattering to hear!

One Man’s Trash: Reflections on a Failed Novel I started trash bashing three weeks after it became clear to me that my first novel was not going to sell. I’d tried to be honest with myself, from the moment the manuscript went out on submission,…

New essay out with @lithub.com.web.brid.gy about how making Little Guys helped me come to terms with the publishing world

I loved this @sheldoncosta.bsky.social essay on "failure", and am excited for his novel The Great Work. "I felt an odd sort of ambivalence about whether the book would be published. Obviously I was nervous, but a rejection in my inbox no longer sent me spiraling. I’d done all I could, after all."

Thank you Matt!! I'm so happy to hear this resonated with you.

Holy shit

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it.

A photo of my novel, The Great Work, in front of a red sky at night

Northern lights book photo

Thank you!! Hope you enjoy it. 😊

#TheGreatWork by @sheldoncosta is featured in our #newbooks wrap on youtube!!

watch: youtu.be/pcox9OUZIKw
buy the books: bookshop.org/lists/n...

#booksky @Quirkbooks

It’s multiple times a week!! It’s so gross!!

Listen: Jess edited my book and it got starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly AND it was an Indie Next pick. Coincidence? I think not! If you're working on a writing project I guarantee Jess will make it better!

All the New Horror Books Coming in November 2025 November 2025’s new horror books, featuring titles from Oyinkan Braithwaite, Laurel Hightower, Christina Henry, Peter Clines, Beatrice Winifred Iker, Drew Huff, and more!

the November horror shopping list is live! feat. new titles from @laurelhightower.bsky.social @christinahenry.bsky.social @sheldoncosta.bsky.social @lormaggot.ca @peterclines.bsky.social @vlatinalondon.bsky.social @beatriceiker.bsky.social @drewhuff.bsky.social @victormanibo.com & more!

What wonderful company! Thank you for the inclusion.

Psyched for this one—Sheldon and I were MFA cohort-mates in a cohort full of genius weirdos but I was always exceptionally excited to see what came out of his weird brain and the sidelong occult grandness of its sensibilities; really delighted to roll around in that for a whole-ass book