This is such a fantastic book - I had a great time reviewing it for The Modernist Review. Thanks to everyone at TMR for their work on this (fab) issue 💛
12.03.2026 13:41
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This is such a fantastic book - I had a great time reviewing it for The Modernist Review. Thanks to everyone at TMR for their work on this (fab) issue 💛
![My abstract for 'Weird Modernisms', the MSA 2026 Annual Conference:
While Joyce’s first major texts are largely in the realist mode [i.e. Dubliners (1914), and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)], sections of Ulysses (1922) and the whole of Finnegans Wake (1939) might classed as texts of weird modernist literature, interested in altered states (hallucination, druggy visions, dreams), in reworking or parodying aspects of ‘alternative’ spiritual culture (esotericism, hermeticism, magic, myth, the occult, and Theosophy), and in creating techniques of literary and linguistic defamiliarization. In turn, Joyce’s texts have attracted members of what Erik Davis has termed the culture of ‘high weirdness’, especially in 1970s California, namely Terence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Anton Wilson.[1] Terence Mckenna (philosopher, ethnobotanist and advocate of psychedelic drugs), gave lectures on Joyce and took a copy of Finnegans Wake to the jungles of La Chorrera in Colombia in 1971 to read while researching and experimenting with psilocybe mushrooms. Philp K. Dick refers to Joyce’s work on a number of occasions in his gnostic science fiction VALIS trilogy (1978-82). And the countercultural figure Wilson discusses Joyce, synchronicities, and coincidences in Coincidance: A Head Test (1988) and in a number of lectures. This talk will assess Joyce’s engagement with a variety of ‘weird’ sources and examine his influence on twentieth century American weird cultures. This paper will also attempt to answer the following questions: Was Joyce serious or dismissive regarding weird experiences, sources, and cultures? What was it about Joyce’s work that attracted figures of 1970s American counter culture/weird culture? Can ‘high weirdness’ help us to understand Joyce? Can Joyce help us understand to ‘high weirdness’?
[1] See Davis, Erik. High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. Strange Attractor Press and the MIT Press, 2019.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ik3jam6cfmgvqrv5vpt6zulp/bafkreig5n523muba35v4ups5cgjaktkf444ynobla4k2bfeppclqa2ae5q)
My abstract for 'Weird Modernisms', the MSA 2026 Annual Conference: While Joyce’s first major texts are largely in the realist mode [i.e. Dubliners (1914), and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)], sections of Ulysses (1922) and the whole of Finnegans Wake (1939) might classed as texts of weird modernist literature, interested in altered states (hallucination, druggy visions, dreams), in reworking or parodying aspects of ‘alternative’ spiritual culture (esotericism, hermeticism, magic, myth, the occult, and Theosophy), and in creating techniques of literary and linguistic defamiliarization. In turn, Joyce’s texts have attracted members of what Erik Davis has termed the culture of ‘high weirdness’, especially in 1970s California, namely Terence McKenna, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Anton Wilson.[1] Terence Mckenna (philosopher, ethnobotanist and advocate of psychedelic drugs), gave lectures on Joyce and took a copy of Finnegans Wake to the jungles of La Chorrera in Colombia in 1971 to read while researching and experimenting with psilocybe mushrooms. Philp K. Dick refers to Joyce’s work on a number of occasions in his gnostic science fiction VALIS trilogy (1978-82). And the countercultural figure Wilson discusses Joyce, synchronicities, and coincidences in Coincidance: A Head Test (1988) and in a number of lectures. This talk will assess Joyce’s engagement with a variety of ‘weird’ sources and examine his influence on twentieth century American weird cultures. This paper will also attempt to answer the following questions: Was Joyce serious or dismissive regarding weird experiences, sources, and cultures? What was it about Joyce’s work that attracted figures of 1970s American counter culture/weird culture? Can ‘high weirdness’ help us to understand Joyce? Can Joyce help us understand to ‘high weirdness’? [1] See Davis, Erik. High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies. Strange Attractor Press and the MIT Press, 2019.
Really looking forward to discussing ‘Weird Joyce’ at 'Weird Modernisms', the @moderniststudies.bsky.social 2026 Annual Conference, being held with @modernistudies.bsky.social.
www.moderniststudies.org/conference/M...
#JamesJoyce #WeirdModernisms #BAMS2026 #MSA2026
@standrewsenglish.bsky.social
Very much looking forward to presenting on “weird” Forster at the upcoming @modernistudies.bsky.social / @moderniststudies.bsky.social joint conference in July!
For today’s #ModWrite I’m looking at some (slightly disturbing) 1920s wax mannequins in relation to Mina Loy’s concerns over women, the face, aging, and creativity. These ones are melting in a window on a summers day
I'm spending today's Monday #ModWrite with the latest issue of The Modernist Review - modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/t...
Making notes - taking inspiration - writing about my own reflections in response to the edition. Perhaps I will make this a regular thing!
#BAMS #modernism
for today's #ModWrite I'm digging around in the archives for some work on Evelyn Waugh and radio, and enjoying the number of times Waugh sent the BBC one of these pre-printed rejection postcards.
Monday is here, so you know what that means - it’s time for another #ModWrite! Let us know what you’re working on using the hashtag 📚
Apologies! We have corrected this now!
Thank you so much to all of our contributors, we hope you enjoy reading this issue! #TheModernistReview
Ending with a creative piece by Yuhan Chen, titled 'Eveline: After the Escape' which explores the various possibilities for Eveline's life, with a universal spiritual paralysis portrayed through an engagement with modernist sensibilities modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6406
Mattia De Luca www.linkedin.com/in/mattia-de... brings us a review of John G. Peters' 'Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence' (Edinburgh University Press, 2024) modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6426
Next up, Shangming Zhang x.com/ShanmingZh2ibw considers issues of form in a review of Jonathan Najarian's 'Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture' (University Press of Mississippi, 2024) modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6419
@pollyhember.bsky.social reviews Jesse Wolfe's 'Love, Friendship, and Narrative Form After Bloomsbury: The Progress of Intimacy in History' (Bloomsbury, 2023), exploring the lasting legacy and influence of Bloomsbury modernists modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6401
Next, @woganchris.bsky.social 's review of John McCourt's 'Consuming Joyce: 100 Years of Ulysses in Ireland' (Bloomsbury, 2022), an insight into the shifting response to Joyce's epic modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6397
First up, we have an article by James Rodker: 'Gilding the Glimpse: Charles Demuth and the Figure 5 in Gold' modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6392
We are pleased to share #TheModernistReview59 ! Check out our latest issue, exploring a wide range of topics in modernist studies: modernistreviewcouk.wordpress.com?p=6439 we hope you enjoy reading it!
Very happy to hear my paper "Borges's Weird Worldly Library" was accepted for the upcoming @moderniststudies.bsky.social and @modernistudies.bsky.social conference.
[Do people do these posts anymore?]
Our panel at @modernistudies.bsky.social @moderniststudies.bsky.social has been accepted!
To the weird (quite possibly) village (probably not) village of Loughborough Alice Dodds, @thehubble101.bsky.social, @mcmccluskey.bsky.social and I go…
Aimed at PGRs and ECRS, but open to all, this panel hopes to feature 3-4 speakers from a range of career stages and backgrounds, covering topics including applying for postdoctoral awards, publishing your first monograph, and careers beyond and adjacent to academia.
Please share widely!
📣Call for speakers! The PGR Reps for BAMS and MSA @moderniststudies.bsky.social are chairing a graduate panel, ‘What’s Next - Life and Work After Submission’, at Weird Modernisms. See below for more details.
If you are interested in being one of our speakers, please email info@bams.ac.uk.
The Weird Modernism of Twin Peaks • Jamie Stephenson (Independent Scholar) • Michael Shallcross (Independent Scholar • Ryan Coogan (Independent Scholar) Abstract This interdisciplinary panel explores the weird modernism of Twin Peaks, David Lynch's seminal television series (1990-91; 2017) and feature film (1992), via comparative analysis of an eclectic range of modernist and modernist-adjacent cultural artefacts: the avant-garde musical compositions of Pierre Schaeffer, the popular detective fiction of G.K. Chesterton, the poetry of Mina Loy, and the performance art of Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.
Chuffed to have had this panel proposal accepted for @modernistudies.bsky.social Weird Modernisms conference, alongside @audioontology.bsky.social and @theothercoogan.bsky.social.
I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
Looks like cannibalism will be on the program for the joint @moderniststudies.bsky.social and @modernistudies.bsky.social conference this July!
Sooo happy our panel was accepted 😁
continuing the canine theme in my new research, I'm looking forward to presenting on home turf at Loughborough for the MSA–BAMS 'Weird Modernisms' conference in July on the topic 'Modernism's Mad Dogs'
@moderniststudies.bsky.social
@modernistudies.bsky.social
The first #ModWrite Monday in March (try saying that three times fast!). We would love to know what you are working on today - share with us using the hashtag! 🌞🌷
We are thrilled to introduce our three new PG Reps, @hettiegarnham.bsky.social, @vedikaushal.bsky.social, and @xyzhao.bsky.social! Please give them a very warm welcome! 👏👏
Dancing into the weekend here at BAMS, with an exciting general issue of The Modernist Review on the horizon, and another dedicated to the latest New Work in Modernist Studies conference hot on its heels 💃
Welcome back to another #ModWrite Monday! Share what you're working on today using the hashtag 📚
and if you're looking for a break from work or *gestures wildly* the world this #ModWrite Monday, we love the responses in this thread - the muppets always & forever
Let us know what you're working on this Monday using the #ModWrite hashtag 📚
Another #ModWrite Monday! We'd love to know what you are working on today - share with us using the hashtag! ☔