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Another queer doing a science • gravitational wave cosmology ∩ trying to make academia a nicer place • aspiring infracrepidarian • my own opinions here (and probably anywhere else you find me) • pääruokavegaani🍦 • they/them (mostly) • 🇫🇮🏴🇪🇺🏳️🌈 • "functional but messy" • parent • puhun suomea n. B2-tasolla. Käytän kuitenkin pääosin englantia täällä. I generally accept follow requests (if you have an empty profile, maybe message me first!) Formerly @ davidjamesweir
mementomori.social
Another queer doing a science • gravitational wave cosmology ∩ trying to make academia a nicer place • aspiring infracrepidarian • my own opinions here (and probably anywhere else you find me) • pääruokavegaani🍦 • they/them (mostly) • 🇫🇮🏴🇪🇺🏳️🌈 • "functional but messy" • parent • puhun suomea n. B2-tasolla. Käytän kuitenkin pääosin englantia täällä. I generally accept follow requests (if you have an empty profile, maybe message me first!) Formerly @ davidjamesweir
mementomori.social
@davidjamesweir@mementomori.social
·
Mar 07, 2026
What was so obviously bad about it?
The tell which meant I lost all ability to take it seriously wasn't em dashes or three-point lists or any crap like that, it was two sentences which had a perfect meter and rhyming scheme. I can't remember what they are now (and I don't want to call it out directly anyway) but it was totally unmissable when read aloud, even by a non-native English speaker.
It broke the serious mood that the opening paragraph was trying to evoke, which was generally okay up to that point, even though there was some really cringeworthy imagery about (I paraphrase) the emptiness of space staring into a space station.
How did I spot this, and how could I put words on it? I like to think it's because I did Higher English (i.e. one year of lukio-level English philology, for the Finns reading this). For teenage David it was an awful struggle, but for fortysomething David it gave them the words and tools they need to explain why some English texts are just more interesting than others, and why large language models write such crap.
That, and it gave me a lifelong love of Norman MacCaig's poetry.
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/basking-shark/
