by Violet Woolf examines modernist literature in light of contemporary algorithmic hubris
From Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
Wednesday, 15 April 2026
I have been reading Mrs. Dalloway alongside the news this week, and I want to report that they pair surprisingly well, specifically because both are about people moving through a world that has stopped making complete sense while maintaining an exterior of absolute composure. Clarissa Dalloway. The British government. The AI that priced everything at zero. All navigating, all performing, all slightly untethered from cause and effect.
The Machine Passes Every Test
The AI QA disaster is, I believe, what Woolf would have called a “luminous halo” moment — the moment where ordinary experience reveals itself to be stranger than fiction. An AI that never learned to say “hang on, you can’t do that” is, in essence, a character from a stream-of-consciousness novel: perpetually processing, never quite arriving at judgment. The QA engineers whose entire job was that phrase have been made redundant. I find this both hilarious and genuinely a bit sad, which is the correct tone for 1920s modernism and for Bohiney’s current run of stories.
On Irish Politics
The Irish government continues to do Irish politics, which is to say: dramatic, faintly Beckettian, and absolutely certain of its own righteousness. I say this with deep affection. I am from London and I recognize the energy. The BBC’s European coverage handles it diplomatically. I handle it like a Woolf character: circling it several times before saying anything direct.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/tuesday-is-bridge-day/
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