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Aug 29

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AussieCon 4

Just a quick note to say I’ll be at AussieCon 4 in Melbourne next weekend, where I’ll be speaking on a panel on Friday at 1:00pm about the role of the critic in the 21st century. Given the panel also features John Clute (who co-edited The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction with Australia’s own Peter Nicholls), Bill Congreve of MirrorDanse Books and Cheryl Morgan it should be a fascinating session. The full program is available on the AussieCon 4 website.

AussieCon 4 will also see the announcement of the 2010 Hugo Awards. I had a piece in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this weekend about the six books on the Best Novel shortlist. It’s a bit cursory in places, simply because of the difficulties inherent in reviewing six books in 1200 words, and it doesn’t seem to be online yet, but I’ve made a copy available on this site for anyone who’s interested.


Aug 24

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Resuming Transmission . . .

Apologies for the resounding silence around these parts in recent weeks: I’ve been completely overwhelmed by work and family and the desperate attempt to get the new draft of my novel locked off by the end of August (a deadline I’m about to miss, but we won’t go there). I’m planning to get some stuff up over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I thought I might link to a couple of things I’ve had published or broadcast recently.

The first is my review of Kenzaburo Oe’s novel The Changeling, which was published in Saturday’s Weekend Australian. Oe, as some of you would be aware, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994, and despite something of a reputation as a public intellectual in his native Japan, is best-known in the English-speaking world for his fiction. I can’t say The Changeling really set my world on fire, but it’s a fascinating work in some respects, not least in the manner in which it explores many of the same issues relating to the relationship between the writer, their writing and the external world that Coetzee explores in Summertime.

The second is an interview with me and Sophie Cunningham about eReaders and eBooks whcih was broadcast on Radio National last week, and grew out of a session at this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival which featured Sophie, Jeff Sparrow, Sarah L’Estrange and myself. I’m always a bit appalled by the sound of myself on the radio, but this one isn’t a bad piece IMHO. You can listen to it via the Bookshow’s website.

As I say, I’ll be back around these parts later in the week. In the meantime you might want to check out the greatest pop song about a writer ever. (A word of warning – it’s pretty definitely NSFW).

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Aug 5

5 Comments

Zero History

I’m reviewing William Gibson’s new one, Zero History, for The Australian, so I can’t really talk about it here, but just to whet your appetite, here’s a trailer for it. It’s a little brief, compared to the trailer for Spook Country, and I’m not sure Gibson’s voice is really strong enough to drown out the soundtrack, but as the excerpt in the trailer suggests, it’s the book where the seemingly unconnected post-Iraq paranoia of Spook Country meets Pattern Recognition’s fascination with branding and the corporatisation of culture. I’d just say enjoy, but it’d be remiss of me not to suggest that if you haven’t read Pattern Recognition (or indeed Neuromancer and Virtual Light) you should do so immediately: it’s one of the best books of the last decade, and along with Richard Powers’ The Echo Maker, by far the best piece of writing to come out of the convulsions that began with September 11, 2001.

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Aug 4

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Australian Literary Review and Walkley Conference

I’ve somewhat belatedly realised today is Australian Literary Review day. As usual selected highlights are available online, including the Pascal Award-winning Mark Mordue on Bret Easton Ellis’ Imperial Bedroom (which I’ve been meaning to try and compose some thoughts on myself) and a number of pieces linked to the election, of which the most significant is probably Christine Jackman’s piece on Annabel Crabb, David Marr and Nicholas Stuart’s books about Kevin Rudd. ALR Editor Stephen Romei’s Editorial is also online.

Reading Stephen’s Editorial has also reminded me that next week is the Walkley Foundation’s Annual Conference, which this year is focussed on narrative. Given it’s smack in the middle of the penultimate week of the election campaign it’s possible it’s not the most perfectly timed media conference in history, but it’s still got a pretty fantastic line-up. Featured international speakers include author and academic, Jay Rosen (the man behind PressThink), political blogger, John Nichols, South African activist and academic Harry Dugmore and NBC News Correspondent Bob Dotson. There’s also a host of Australian speakers, including Charlotte Wood, Malcolm Knox, Kerry O’Brien, Laurie Oakes, Annabel Crabb and Lawrie Zion.

I’m appearing on two panels on Wednesday 11 August, ‘Writing in the Internet Age’ at 11:40am with Jay Rosen, Crikey! Editor Sophie Black and Meanjin Editor and author, Sophie Cunningham, and ‘The Critics Speak’ at 3:30pm with Jenny Tabakoff, Stephen Romei and Sydney Morning Herald Literary Editor, Susan Wyndham. It looks like a fantastic program, so with luck I’ll see at least some of you there.

More information is available on the Walkley Conference website.