- Author
- Ted Underwood (@tedunderwood.com) on Bluesky
- Published
- 30 August 2026
- Kind
- Short social media post on Bluesky, with an image, a quoted post and replies
- Original
- bsky.app/profile/tedunderwood.com/post/3mubcq3jbd22i
- Subject
- Fiction and literature
What it is
Ted Underwood wrote the post on Bluesky. It points readers to a PDF of the essay hosted by Duke University. The image shows a book page, described in alt text.
What it says
- Underwood calls it refreshing to read Calvino's 1967 essay "Cybernetics and Ghosts".
- Underwood says the essay imagines a combinatorial fiction machine as possible, desirable and instructive.
- The image alt text quotes a passage saying writers are already writing machines.
What evidence it gives
The post offers a link and one quoted passage, given in the image alt text. Its summary of the essay is a single sentence. Replies mention Calvino's Oulipo period, tarot-based fiction and the environmental cost of machines.
Interests and limits
The post is short and gives opinion only. The essay itself was not read, so the summary rests on the post. The linked PDF was not opened. The image was not viewed, only its alt text. The replies are casual remarks from a few accounts.