{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"Micro.blog - Dougal McNeill","home_page_url":"https://micro.blog","feed_url":"https://micro.blog/posts/DougalMcNeill","_microblog":{"about":"https://micro.blog/about/api","id":"1910580","username":"DougalMcNeill","bio":"I teach in the English Literatures & Creative Communication programme at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Wellington. I'm a critic and literary historian, working for the most part on New Zealand literature.\n\nMy books:\n\nTe Whāriki: Reading Ten New Poets from Aotearoa (edited with Anna Jackson and Robert Sullivan, 2025)\n\nForms of Freedom: Marxist Essays in New Zealand and Australian Literature (2024)\n\n\n","pronouns":"","is_following":false,"is_you":false,"following_count":1,"discover_count":0},"author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2026/19/1910580.jpg"},"items":[{"id":"98670774","content_html":"

Reading: Hana Pera Aoake, writing in Overland, on the photography of John Miller. He “demonstrates what showing up and reciprocity looks like”.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/10/05/reading-hana-pera-aoake-writing.html","date_published":"2026-10-05T02:07:18+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-10-05 02:07","date_timestamp":1791166038,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"98442331","content_html":"

“The author is not dying a second time. The author is splitting into two distinct figures with increasingly divergent social functions. On the one side, the Administrative Author: the person who holds the institutional position, the copyright, the reputational stake, the liability, without necessarily having...

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The accountability of language: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/09/21/the-accountability-of-language.html","date_published":"2026-09-20T21:55:47+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-09-20 21:55","date_timestamp":1789941347,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"97598536","content_html":"

\"Did you ever love somebody?\": dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/09/16/did-you-ever-love-somebody.html","date_published":"2026-09-15T21:59:21+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-09-15 21:59","date_timestamp":1789509561,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"97445937","content_html":"

Uncle Vanya: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/09/13/uncle-vanya.html","date_published":"2026-09-13T03:58:35+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-09-13 03:58","date_timestamp":1789271915,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"97184083","content_html":"

End-times fascism - “with its fortressed borders, decimated foreign aid and fixation on grabbing the resources beneath Greenland’s melting ice” as “a twisted and sadistic form of climate-change adaptation.” Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor in the FT. “Now that the reality of planetary heating has become...

dougalmcneill.micro.blog","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/09/09/endtimes-fascism-with-its-fortressed.html","date_published":"2026-09-08T21:14:28+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-09-08 21:14","date_timestamp":1788902068,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"97127823","content_html":"

\"the whole point is to do things the hard way\": dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/09/08/the-whole-point-is-to.html","date_published":"2026-09-07T21:14:03+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-09-07 21:14","date_timestamp":1788815643,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"97076935","content_html":"

Dance-Floor Romance: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/09/07/dancefloor-romance.html","date_published":"2026-09-06T21:25:20+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-09-06 21:25","date_timestamp":1788729920,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"96384734","content_html":"

above all this, I wish you love: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/26/above-all-this-i-wish.html","date_published":"2026-08-25T19:24:02+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-25 19:24","date_timestamp":1787685842,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"96330810","content_html":"

One of the pleasures for me in Emma Adler’s “Every novel is boring - until it isn’t” (at Public Books) is how contrary it seems to my own experience. Adler writes of the “volta” in a novel, a turn that, unlike the sonnet’s, is much more subjective and experiential, “a shift to visceral enjoyment” after the...

dougalmcneill.micro.blog","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/25/one-of-the-pleasures-for.html","date_published":"2026-08-24T21:33:32+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-24 21:33","date_timestamp":1787607212,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95734182","content_html":"

Ways of Seeing! dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/14/ways-of-seeing.html","date_published":"2026-08-14T01:28:05+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-14 01:28","date_timestamp":1786670885,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95672404","content_html":"

good tidings for those who died stifled by unrelieved calamities: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/13/good-tidings-for-those-who.html","date_published":"2026-08-13T00:51:41+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-13 00:51","date_timestamp":1786582301,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95672021","content_html":"

Sick at heart: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/13/sick-at-heart.html","date_published":"2026-08-13T00:37:00+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-13 00:37","date_timestamp":1786581420,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95672022","content_html":"

The Cutting Edge: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/05/the-cutting-edge.html","date_published":"2026-08-05T05:07:37+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-05 05:07","date_timestamp":1785906457,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95111397","content_html":"

next to god of course america i: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/03/next-to-god-of-course.html","date_published":"2026-08-03T09:20:10+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-03 09:20","date_timestamp":1785748810,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"95000874","content_html":"

Vale Ian Jamieson: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/08/01/vale-ian-jamieson.html","date_published":"2026-08-01T00:23:40+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-08-01 00:23","date_timestamp":1785543820,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94830651","content_html":"

Like Lachlan Brown: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/29/liking-lachlan-brown.html","date_published":"2026-07-29T04:28:52+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-29 04:28","date_timestamp":1785299332,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94704590","content_html":"

Anti-social media: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/27/antisocial-media.html","date_published":"2026-07-26T21:35:03+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-26 21:35","date_timestamp":1785101703,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94620910","content_html":"

You can't lie still, pretending those are dreams: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/25/you-cant-lie-still-pretending.html","date_published":"2026-07-25T03:52:52+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-25 03:52","date_timestamp":1784951572,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94129945","content_html":"

Euchred, Eclipsed: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/17/euchred-eclipsed.html","date_published":"2026-07-16T21:18:51+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-16 21:18","date_timestamp":1784236731,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94082622","content_html":"

Paul V. Brock writing in Commonweal:

\n

“The National Catholic Reporter called out Vance’s cafeteria Catholicism in January 2026, when he responded to a fatal shooting involving a federal agent with what NCR’s editor described as “gaslighting and agitation,” contradicting the Gospel message of human dignity....

dougalmcneill.micro.blog","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/16/paul-v-brock-writing-in.html","date_published":"2026-07-16T03:38:04+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-16 03:38","date_timestamp":1784173084,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94067798","content_html":"

The “larger patterns of moral rupture” in our time. Gaza in particular, and Palestine in general, figure barely at all on the print or TV news in New Zealand anymore. ‘Normal’ life has resumed, for some at least. For others - and the article seems right to me to suggest this is a generational rupture, a...

dougalmcneill.micro.blog","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/16/the-larger-patterns-of-moral.html","date_published":"2026-07-15T21:24:44+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-15 21:24","date_timestamp":1784150684,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93361343","content_html":"

ASAL in Brisbane: dougalmcneill.micro.blog

","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/07/03/asal-in-brisbane.html","date_published":"2026-07-03T09:41:11+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-03 09:41","date_timestamp":1783071671,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":true,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93045446","content_html":"

The first episode of Head Girl on TV3 seems to me full of everything good television should have on display: the anxious, just-this-side-of-glamourous anxiety of those Devon Street shots (all of Wellington always at night!); all the push-and-pull of recognition and unfamiliarity; exciting acting; something...

dougalmcneill.micro.blog","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/06/28/the-first-episode-of-head.html","date_published":"2026-06-27T22:13:40+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-27 22:13","date_timestamp":1782598420,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"92480655","content_html":"

Evan Liu suggests that AI’s catastrophic risk isn’t rogue machines but what he calls “cognitive surrender”. It’s nice to see Frankenstein figure here. We were lucky at work yesterday to hear a thrilling presentation on the novel by Geoffrey A. Baker, author of Belief in Evidence in the Nineteenth-Century...

dougalmcneill.micro.blog","summary":"","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/2026/06/19/evan-liu-suggests-that-ais.html","date_published":"2026-06-19T07:47:35+00:00","author":{"name":"Dougal McNeill","url":"https://dougalmcneill.micro.blog/","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2026%2F19%2F1910580.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"DougalMcNeill"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-06-19 07:47","date_timestamp":1781855255,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}}]}