Medieval History, Pop Culture, Swearing
Unfortunately, though I have made the world’s best booty shorts and deployed them with great skill and aplomb, there are still those in our society who refuse to heed my message, and also to learn basic history. This fact was brought to my attention once again this past month when a terrible take floated across Continue reading "On contrarian history"
Recently I, like a lot of people who make their living by creating things, have been thinking a lot about so-called AI. I have been forced to do this because so many companies have been stealing the output of people like me in order to train their large language models, despite the fact that we Continue reading "On AI and the golem"
I think about Crusades a lot because that’s my job. I also think about them a lot because, well, there were a lot of them which is pretty wild when you consider they didn’t exist as a phenomenon until the high medieval period and yet they still managed to do way too many of Continue reading "On Crusades, or, how not to identify with losers"
Being a medieval historian is weird, in general. I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about a thousand years of history which is largely ignored. When I do manage to then attempt to share my love (or obsession, if you want to be a dick about it) I am often met very specifically Continue reading "On what Americans know about medieval history"
I was lucky enough to get to see a production of Christopher Marlow’s (1564 – 1593) Edward II at the Royal Shakespeare Company this week, and as with any good piece of art I come across, I have been thinking a lot about it since. Edward II (1284-1327) is one of those historical figures that Continue reading "In praise of difficult histories, or, I saw Edward II at the RSC and it was so so so good"
The other day I had the pleasure of ducking into the Temple Church here in London. I’ve been by a number of times, but never actually in, and so I was looking forward to being a little history nerd in a cool old space. Obviously, I am very aware of the fact that the Temple Continue reading "On what we choose to remember"
I’ve been thinking a lot about ghosts lately. No, not because it’s October. That sort of seasonal interest in ghosts is for amateurs, and your girlie is thinking about ghosts 24/7 365. I don’t get ready for spooky season, I am spooky season. Regardless! I was once again enjoying the delights of the Byland Abbey Continue reading "On spooky animals"
I am adamantly opposed to the conception of grind culture. I swear to god, if you 💯💯💯 me, I will consider it a hate crime, and will report you to my local self-governance group for a reparative harm process. This isn’t to say that I do not understand that work is often required of us Continue reading "On side hustles"
I’m not really on twitter that much anymore because of all the generalised unpleasantness. I mostly go to let people know I have done something that they can go read, watch, or listen to, and then I scuttle away to fritter my time on other useless pursuits. And yet, at times there is a post Continue reading "On body count"
So over at my cute little podcast We’re Not So Different we are currently running a book club for patrons. As a part of this I am rereading the classic The Name of the Rose, which has made me realise one of the arcane pieces of knowledge I possess as a powerful mage medieval historian Continue reading "Let me explain something to you: the mendicants"