Thursday, 29th of May, 2003

Just thought I’d mention that the Censorship talk wasn’t all I saw at the Sydney Writers’ Festival (dig that apostrophe! Dig it! There aren’t enough apostrophes in official titles these days, especially in that post-”s” position. This is a festival for all writers, not just one Writer!) Admittedly I didn’t go to that much, but on Sunday Ange & I and Tim & Lorana (that’s my little brother and his fiancée) went off to see the ever-delightful Robyn Williams chair a talk by Clive Hamilton of left-wing think-tank The Australia Institute. Hamilton (who I have praised before in these hallowed pages) talked broadly on the topic of his new book Growth Fetish, although he focused on issues of sex & pornography, and the odd fact that the radical liberating movements of the ’60s, while they won some much-needed battles against oppression, have strangely handed the arch-oppressors of business and marketing a whole new set of targets. Growth Fetish (which I was inspired to purchase immediately after and have signed by Hamilton) sets out to challenge the idea that unfettered economic growth is the universal salve. He points out, forcefully, that we really aren’t any happier!
As the blurb says, the book argues that “far from being the answer to our problems, growth fetishism and the marketing society lie at the heart of our social ills.” It’s a very convincing thesis, and I look forward to reading the book.
While, with Greg Egan, I’m a little wary of the worth of cover endorsements by colleagues, it’s amusing and kinda cool to note that Growth Fetish features a quote from none other than Noam Chomsky on the front: “Right on target and badly needed”. I think he’s right. And I should remark that on the one hand Hamilton is an economist, so his views are worth listening to; and on the other hand, while his left-wing credentials are uncontestable, at least in Sunday’s talk Hamilton was concertedly critical of left-libertarianism as much as the right; it’s good to hear a well-thought-out critique from the left on the current state of the left. I’m reminded of another prominent Australian left-wing thinker, Peter Singer, whose chapbook A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution and Cooperation should have been a wake-up call for exciting left-wing dialogue. I hope that in the next few years more people follow Singer and Hamilton in creating a vibrant and viable truly new true left – one that actively seeks the truth rather than trying to ignore it (see recent Pinker on Human Nature or Dennett on evolution and freedom), and seeks to educate people and change society rather than disappearing up its own arse like so much post-modernist cultural theory.
Over and out.

Just a quick note to you, my loyal readership, and oh! hi there! yes you, my transient swinging vote-er-readership – and of course a big hi to all the bots and spiders trawling these pages! Yes, this note is just to point out to you the rather spiffy new page design that’s underway at the moment – still to be further tweaked and improved – and also to note that there are a couple of new reviews in the Reading section, and hopefully a few to come any minute in Listening. Happy happy joy joy!

Note: you may want to do a ctrl-reload or equivalent (shift-reload in Mozillascape?) to force your browser to reload the stylesheet and stuff.

Friday, 23rd of May, 2003

Just back from a panel @ the Sydney Writers’ Festival on censorship. Chaired by Anne Summers, with Chris Masters and David Marr on the panel, as well as two other very erudite people – it was fantastic! Watching David Marr talk off the cuff is an awe-inspiring experience.

Saturday, 17th of May, 2003

No, not my weblog. But I am bemused to be able to announce that I am gradually, slowly but surely, upgrading and updating my various other webpages.

So go check out the new and improved Raven page, complete with new mp3 downloads and lots of stories about the tracks.

Have a look at Version 1.0 (ok version 0.44b more like it) of my revamped silly bloody homepage, still not a substitute for this blog, but containing perhaps some revealing information about the state of my mind, brain and/or nervous system. Mysteriously, the state of my armpits is not touched upon. Lucky, as I am rather ticklish there.

And, rather horrifyingly, I have been wading through that hell-hole known as my links page, and although I haven’t really added anything new there yet, I’ve managed to remove a lot of dead wood (not to mention a lot of very fucking embarrassing shit). Tomorrow (that’s today) I’ll give it some more work.

Now, all of the above still require major cosmetic surgery. At least they’re all based on the blog stylesheet now. But I’d like to work on fonts, font sizes, page layout and so on. Eventually, I’ll have something to be proud of. My little child, all grown up! Awwwwwwwwwwwww.

Thursday, 15th of May, 2003

Margo’s back! And she’s got a column on the budget. Good on her.

Thanks to Ange for that! (yes there is no webpage there, but it was fun to put a link anyway)

Tuesday, 13th of May, 2003

How could I have been ignorant of the man who fell asleep for so long? Deadpan humour – think Woody Allen’s prose for instance – with tacky animations, social commentary, you name it.
In particular, the gossip page chronicles “what peope were overheard saying on the London Underground”. Gripping. I also enjoyed the sad jokes. Disturbingly, some made me laugh out loud.

Saturday, 10th of May, 2003

I’m just reading Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Felaheen, which is very very good so far. I’ve only read a few chapters, but it’s as excellent as the previous two Arabesks and that’s a great sign. He’s a fantastic writer, very empathetic towards his characters, great at extrapolating the politics in his near-future alternate world (in which America brokered a peace that ended the First World War before it really got going)… It seems to be the last Ashraf Bey novel for now, but more will be written about this world, which I’m not complaining about!

Proper review to come when I finish it – and I know I owe a review of William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition too – oops! Sorry. Lots of music reviews need doing too; I think I might go back to short vignettes, which will make it easier to convince me to do them. Lots of well-deserving music I’ve bought by the bucket-load in the last few months after all.

Anyway, here’s a great interview with J-C G by Cheryl Morgan, who edits the e-zine Emerald City. Read and enjoy.

Tuesday, 6th of May, 2003

Terry Jones does us proud once again in the Observer. What a great passionate sarcastic writer he is.

While we’re at it, here (from a month ago) Terry tells us who the real winners of the war were.

Thursday, 1st of May, 2003

Books update!

Over at Strange Horizons is an excellent interview with Justina Robson, one of the best of the current crop of British Science fiction authors around at the moment (cf Charlie Stross, Al Reynolds, China Miéville, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, John Meaney, Ken MacLeod, and of course more established but no less radical & brilliant writers like Paul McAuley, Iain M Banks, Brian Stableford and so on… And Jeff Noon, who doesn’t fit comfortably in with anyone really).

I’ve just ordered Justina’s new novel, Natural History from Amazon.co.uk, and it looks very interesting; also ordered Felaheen, the third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood, which will no doubt be awesome. Meanwhile, reading China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station which is indeed awesome (won the Arthur C. Clarke award, accolades from everywhere…) and will garner a huge review here when done. I’ll put up my review of the wonderful new William Gibson novel sometime in the next few days. Suffice to say it lived up to all expectations and more.