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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019) and AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021).

Friday, July 31, 2009

The journey begins

Jenny and I have just started our six-week trip to the US and Canada. This is pretty much a pure holiday, which for us means that we'll be attending several science fiction or similar conventions, including the WorldCon (Anticipation) in Montreal next week. I'm heavily booked on panels at the WorldCon, and currently working out what on earth I'm going to say, but am fairly free of responsibilities thereafter. On the other hand, it won't be a holiday entirely even after that, since I owe work on a number of fronts. This includes consideration of a heavy load of material recently submitted to JET (much of it in reply to our call for papers responding to Stefan Sorgner's article on the relationship between Nietzsche's thought and transhumanism).

Highlights of the trip will include finally meeting Udo Schuklenk next week - Udo and I have just collaborated on editing a big (and, we hope, important) book together, but have never actually met in person! All our interaction has been via the internet. Well, we'll fix that when Jenny and I stay with him for a couple of nights in Kingston on the way to Montreal. Another highlight will be catching up with my great buddy Damien Broderick, who lives in Texas these days. We'll be headed to San Antonio from Montreal, and will also spend some time in Austin, where I'll meet Max More and Natasha Vita-More, among others. Later, we'll be visiting Jenny's publisher, Eric Reynolds, in Kansas City, as well as attending DragonCon in Atlanta, where Jenny is fairly heavily booked on the program but I'm completely free to enjoy the convention.

We're currently holed up in Atlanta, where, as I write, it's a warm but rainy summer evening; we're not seeing much of the place but will be here again for several days around DragonCon. Tomorrow we're going to fly to Toronto for a couple of days, and renew our acquaintance with a city that we're fond of.

Hope our Australian friends are all going well, and we'll see you in a month or two.

6 comments:

Eamon Knight said...

And by an odd coincidence, we're leaving Ottawa tomorrow heading for Atlanta (by way of Toronto, and several other places in between). I suppose you're not planning to hit PZ's Creation "Museum" Tour?

Enjoy Kingston; it's a lovely town. I did my undergrad there, 30 years ago. Then my son and his GF went to uni & college there, so we had lots of opportunity to re-visit the place. They took us out (well, except that we paid ;-)) to lots of places that didn't exist when I was there. I recommend the Kingston Brewing Company.

Jeff Sherry said...

Wow, it sounds like you'll be travelling on a tight schedule. If you had a bit of time it would be nice if you could sight see with your wife.

If you like dark beers, you might want to try Obsidian Stout in Kansas City. It isn't as full bodied as Guinness, but you might like it.

Russell Blackford said...

Just tried the local black ale in Toronto, which was pretty damn good.

Cinefreak said...

Hope you enjoy the your time in Toronto and the rest of your trip.

Which Black ale was it? I'm guessing Tankhouse but there are a few that are great.

Russell Blackford said...

erm, Wellington Ale? Something like that? Does that sound right.

Russell Blackford said...

Won't be getting to PZ's museum tour, I'm afraid ... but will meet PZ later in the year because we're both speaking at the Burbank AAI conference.