I read a bunch and edit Seize The Press Magazine. Probably posting about stories, art, and the derangement of neoliberal capitalism.https://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3mlt5sm67n22nReading an Iain Banks lit novel from the 90s where the characters watch a video and mean a VHS tape. A missing uncle leaves clues to his whereabouts on a floppy disc. They forget the name of a hotel they stayed at and can’t google it - they remember by finding a hotel-branded matchbook in a drawer.14 May 2026 15:42 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlt5sm67n22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3mlqx7yqsdk2dAs the editor of an anticapitalist genre magazine, I've been crystalising my thoughts over the years about the kind of anticapitalist fiction we look for. I've never been able to adequately articulate it before, but this Zach Gillan essay gets really close. It's about form, not content. https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/05/02/reading-weird-fiction-in-an-age-of-fascism/13 May 2026 18:39 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlqx7yqsdk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3mlgv3f4vmk2hSo appreciative of eco-horror like Tiffany Morris' "So Full of the Shining Flesh", stories that lean into the bleakness of ecological collapse without offering 'hope'. 'They hadn't seen much point in trying not to die' is such a grim line, and I'm glad it just lets me wallow in how bad it feels.09 May 2026 18:34 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlgv3f4vmk2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3mlgu74dazc2hI think this is important to remember when talking about reviewing as criticism and analysis - we're engaging with art, and art isn't always fully translatable to formal communicative language. Arguably not being able to do so is a quality of great art. [contains quote post or other embedded content]09 May 2026 18:18 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlgu74dazc2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3mler4jlxe22nIn the last newsletter I wrote about how much I love Amélie, so no one gets to say I don't like happy endings anymore. In all seriousness though it's genuinely a fantastic film, and I wrote here about how I thought it intertwined with one of my favourite novels, Sartre's Nausea. [contains quote post or other embedded content]08 May 2026 22:17 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3mler4jlxe22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3ml7g42iz5s24Re-reading Zach Gillan's essay on reading weird fiction and realised I had this rare experience reading "The Cave" for the first time. A beautiful thing. [contains quote post or other embedded content]06 May 2026 19:17 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml7g42iz5s24https://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3ml6newkvps2n@danhartland.bsky.social I'm listening to the first episode of Critical Friends from 2022 and the consensus among the hosts from that time is that genre criticism was in a lull. Wondered what you think of the general state of the field four years on and how it compares?06 May 2026 11:55 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml6newkvps2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/misterbloat.bsky.social/post/3ml24b3zvjs2eI rewatched Amélie for the first time as an adult recently and thought it was a genuinely fantastic film. It got me thinking a lot about the act of experiencing our lives which prompted me to come home and reread Nausea. This is what came out of that. [contains quote post or other embedded content]04 May 2026 16:38 +0000at://did:plc:5ttuckdebg3ze4w7zcsu3ack/app.bsky.feed.post/3ml24b3zvjs2e