Lee Konstantinou

I teach contemporary literature at @UMDEnglish. I wrote "Pop Apocalypse," "Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction," and "The Last Samurai Reread."

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

My review of @RobertTally's great book on Tolkien's Orcs. This one was fun to write.

[Spectre Journal @JournalSpectre]

"Orc Marxism" by @LKonstan is a meditation on the significance of the orc as a literary figure, and an allegory for the masses.

Check out The Mismeasure of Orcs by @RobertTally out now with McFarland press.

https://t.co/u0OTkwi5IE

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

My main moviegoing excursion this weekend will be not to The Odyssey but to Minions & Monsters! Which, if you think about it, would make a good alternative title for The Odyssey too.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

https://t.co/W58kGElYK8

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

It is a crisis. How do we get that number up to 95% where it belongs?

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

@muttgomery My teaching evaluations are always stellar.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

The obvious solution is mandated universal English majoring. I promise you, once we’re finished, your child will understand A Clockwork Orange.

[The Atlantic @TheAtlantic]

Americans were once members of a proudly literate society, but today, reading has declined across age groups, gender, and education levels. For The Atlantic’s August issue, @rosehorowitch explores the reading collapse—and its effects on civilization: https://t.co/AWuYlYRts1

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

@isanchezprado Ithaca is gorges!

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

@atonofbricks @fowlinghantod Thanks!—I will say I was much more ripping off William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition! 😅

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

@jamacintosh Teach the conflicts!

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

Can’t wait till Sam Altman sees this one…

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

First trailer for Taika Waititi's ‘KLARA AND THE SUN’, starring Jenna Ortega & Amy Adams.

The film follows a robot who bought by a family to help them heal physically & mentally in a dystopian future.

In theaters on October 23.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

Weird how much the complaint is that literary prize judges don’t read AI writing in sufficient quantities to discern obvious slop rather than, say, that they have terrible taste.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

@saintsoftness QAQQGQA!

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

I’m old enough to remember when “postmodernism” was critiqued and superseded by all manner of post-postmodernisms.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

Obviously the idea is that you’re not truly Not Cheating unless someone makes it Maximally Easy to cheat, thereby tempting you with the Ultimate Marshmallow Test. It’s all about Cultivating Character.

[Tyler Austin Harper @Tyler_A_Harper]

Genuinely, can someone give me the steel man version of the rationale behind the new “give everyone AI” university strategy? What is the theory of the case here? Do universities think it’s sustainable to ask students to pay over $90k per year to cheat their way through college?

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

A party primer…

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

Am reminded that Bay Area summers are, fairly literally, bone-chilling.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

This Commonwealth Short Story Prize situation is not a scandal—it’s an omen.

[Spectre Journal @JournalSpectre]

ICYMI: @LKonstan 's review of @RobertTally 's The Mismeasure of Orcs ( @McFarlandBooks ) is still live on our website.

Up the Orcs!

[Spectre Journal @JournalSpectre]

https://t.co/u0OTkwhxT6

[Spectre Journal @JournalSpectre]

Thanks to all our authors from April: Elaine Wik, @robabvaziri, @JohnClke , Kim Moody, and @LKonstan.

Links to all of these pieces in the comments.

[Lee Konstantinou @LKonstan]

After spending my career studying the end of irony, I now predict and call for the return of irony, the only rhetorical device that can save us from the Machines.