Well there’s no question that @edinburghup.bsky.social have done us some great covers. ‘Immersion’ is out today
03.03.2026 15:37
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Well there’s no question that @edinburghup.bsky.social have done us some great covers. ‘Immersion’ is out today
Programme now up! Come and join us on 30th March - register on-campus (and we’ll feed you) or online (and we won’t).
tinyurl.com/teachlanglit
25 quid for food, drink and 13 great pieces of scholarship? You’d be mad not to! Cheaper than staying at home (or you CAN stay at home and join us online)
Teaching Lit in the Lang Classroom
30 March: Uni of Nottingham
tinyurl.com/teachlanglit
We've got a new episode coming very soon and it's a really special one that has been kicked off and then carried out by two A level Eng Lang students. It's all about the language of & about neurodiversity, especially autism, and it features an interview with @jessaiston.bsky.social
Coming soon!
The references are vast (w/ such scope), so I will look through them more.
& I am yet to read the rest of the 30+ commentaries...
Wolf, M. J. P. (2012). Building imaginary worlds: The theory and history of subcreation. Routledge.
Wolf, M. J. P. (2017a). Revisiting imaginary worlds: A subcreation studies anthology. Routledge.
Wolf, M. J. P. (Ed.) (2021). Exploring imaginary worlds: essays on media, structure and subcreation.
I also like the references to Wolf, e.g.:
“Wolf (2017b) defines the ‘size’ of an imaginary world as ‘the number of world data describing it.’”
I should give them a read:
Wolf, M. J. P. (2017b). World design. The Routledge companion to imaginary worlds. Routledge.
The connection of sf & cognition has been studied in cognitive poetics, e.g., Poetics of Science Fiction by @stockwell.bsky.social is definetely a must read for those interested in the topic.
But the idea of imaginary worlds as a trend is interesting, found in, e.g., P. Bertotti's (2017) “Building science-fiction worlds.” in B. Marta (ed.) World Building. Transmedia, Fans, Industries. Pp. 47–61. doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1zkjz0m.5
Some of the ideas (& the whole interdisciplinary scope) seem v. ambitious & even farfetched & controversial, which is probably why there're 32 (!) commentaries of the article on the publisher's website some of which criticise the text harshly (though I'm yet to read them all).
“(2) more particularly, fictions with imaginary worlds should generate more and more ‘paratexts’ (i.e., information devices that surround the fiction; Genette, 1997).”
They also make some statements about the density of imaginary worlds & related hypertexts:
“(1) information background should increase in fictions with imaginary worlds, and
“(3) individuals living in more affluent environments, where exploration is less risky and more adaptive, should have higher preferences for imaginary worlds.”
“(2) younger individuals, for which exploration is less costly and more advantageous, should be more drawn to imaginary worlds compared to older individuals, and
Their main hypothesis includes the following statements:
“(1) fictions with imaginary worlds should be more attractive to people high in Openness to experience, a personality trait measure used as a proxy for exploratory preferences,
The authors argue that the SF is so popular because “imaginary worlds co-opt our preferences for exploration, which have evolved in humans and nonhuman animals alike, to propel individuals toward new environments and new sources of reward,” citing zoological, anthropological & cognitive evidence.
Never thought I'd find an article citing both M.-L. Ryan's "principle of minimal departure," animal studies & anthropology, & yet: Edgar Dubourg & Nicolas Baumard “Why Imaginary Worlds? The Psychological Foundations and Cultural Evolution of Fictions with Imaginary Worlds”
doi.org/10.1017/S014...
🎙️ Life & Language explores how language shapes the way we see the world.
Hosted by Prof. @michamahlberg.bsky.social. Now in its 5th season with 28 episodes and brilliant guests across disciplines.
Curious about how words shape life?
🎧 Join the conversation.
1 - pic of guy saying to girl "maybe you should try stepping out of your comfort zone" 2 - woman replies 'psh! i'm never in my comfort zone' 3 - she continues - i don't even have a comfort zone 4 - she looks displeased and says 'i am literally always uncomfortable'
Artist: Ryan Pequin
Do you feel like movies are DEAFENING when you go the theater? 🙉
We’re doing a story on noise and want to hear your noisy pet peeves! Call our noise complaint line at 877-472-4374.
People in the Middle Ages Slept Not Once But Twice Each Night: How This Lost Practice Was Rediscovered
very red conference poster with black and white retro style octopus tentacles: Influence, Manipulation & Seduction 3 - Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Persuasive Language, 19-20 November 2026, Tampere
🥁🥁🥁 ....and here is the final conference poster for #OctoConf3 🐙 in Tampere 🇫🇮 later this year (Nov 19-20) ❄️
events.tuni.fi/persuasion2026/
ping @coocho.bsky.social @domini.bsky.social
from reddit r/ExperiencedDevs • 21h ago Tech-Cowboy An AI CEO finally said something honest (Meta Dax Raad from anoma.ly might be the only CEO speaking honestly about Al right now. His most recent take: "everyone's talking about their teams like they were at the peak of efficiency and bottlenecked by ability to produce code here's what things actually look like - your org rarely has good ideas. ideas being expensive to implement was actually helping - majority of workers have no reason to be super motivated, they want to do their 9-5 and get back to their life - they're not using Al to be 10x more effective they're using it to churn out their tasks with less energy spend - the 2 people on your team that actually tried are now flattened by the slop code everyone is producing, they will quit soon - even when you produce work faster you're still bottlenecked by bureaucracy and the dozen other realities of shipping something real - your CFO is like what do you mean each engineer now costs $2000 extra per month in LLM bills"
someone in AI fucked up and actually told the truth
Would you like to apply for the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships at Tampere University with me as your PI and join our masterclass to prepare your app? Get in touch with me (or another prospective supervisor from @pluraltampere.bsky.social) by 27.4.
www.tuni.fi/en/research/...
Congrats Neil!! This is going to be a classic in comics studies and craft!
Neil's research is on how understanding and reading comics (or sequential imagery) is a cognitive skill and process not unlike learning and reading a language. It's interesting stuff - worth a read for us working cartoonists
Promotional image for Speaking in Pictures by Neil Cohn
Happy Book Day! My graphic novel Speaking in Pictures is finally out in the world! I planned this book for over 20 years and spent 7 years writing and drawing it, so I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I did creating it 🥳 www.visuallanguagelab.com/sip
Early career translators, get yourself a grant right here! #Translation
One more week to get yourself a grant, translators!
I've already once found myself hallucinatorily quoted in an online article about dark matter on some clickbait AI-populated "news" site, so, that's fun 😑
EUROCALL 2026 Conference: Promoting linguistic diversity through CALL
Belfast, Northern Ireland, 8-11 September
Call for Papers, available at the link below.
blogs.ulster.ac.uk/eurocallconf...
Deadline for submissions 2nd March
Learn more about EuroCALL at: eurocall-languages.org
