Writing
Over time I’ll be building a library of links to pieces I’ve published over the years that are available online, or hosting reproductions of previously published (and some unpublished) work here on this site. Assembling that library is likely to be a slow process, but for now here are the following:
Essays, Articles and Review Essays
“We have pierced the veneer of outside things”: Four books about Antarctica
A New Type Of Conversation
Some reflections on why I started blogging and the ways the experience has affected my life as a writer and my writing. Originally published in Australian Author.
The Hugo Award for Best Novel Shortlist 2010
John Wyndham and his Plan for Chaos
Growing content: a big future for little mags
Never real and always true: on depression and creativity
Also available in pdf form from Griffith Review.
The idiot box grows a brain
A piece from the Australian Literary Review about the rise of the new television.
Great White Tale
An account of several days spent cage-diving with Great White Sharks off the southern coast of South Australia, together with some reflections on wildness, and the place of the shark and the predator in the human imagination.
Bloody Beauties: The Rise and Rise of Vampire Lit
Stealing Memory’s Thunder: James Frey and the rise and rise of fake memoir
Beyond the Break: On Surfing and Writing
The Lands Within
A discussion of the allure of fantasy, originally written to coincide with the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007.
The Final Countdown
Western culture has been waiting for the end of the world for more than 2000 years. What is it that makes the notion of the apocalypse so seductive?
Bread and Sirkuses: Empire and Culture in Peter Carey’s The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith and Jack Maggs
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Reviews and criticism
Review of William Gibson’s Distrust That Particular Flavor
Review of Lev Grossman’s The Magician King
Review of Grant Morrison’s Supergods
Review of Duncan Hohn’s Moby Duck
Review of Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker
Review of Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World
Review of Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife
Review of Sherman Alexie’s War Dances
Review of China Miéville’s Kraken
Review of William Gibson’s Zero History
Review of William Gibson’s Spook Country
Review of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition
Review of William Gibson’s All Tomorrow’s Parties
Review of Michael Cunningham’s By Nightfall
Review of Ned Beauman’s Boxer, Beetle
Review of Frederick Reiken’s Day for Night
Review of Martin Amis’ The Pregnant Widow
Review of Peter Carey’s Parrot and Olivier in America
Review of A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book
Review of Julian Barnes’ Nothing to be frightened of
Review of Thomas Keneally’s The Widow and her Hero
Review of Peter Carey’s My Life as a Fake
Review of Richard Price’s Lush Life
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