About Me

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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).

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Ah iz back from my talk on Thomas Pynchon

I'll have a bit more to say about this, but my talk to the Existentialist Society here (where I am at the moment) in Melbourne seemed to go well. To say the least, I didn't have an audience of people who were immersed in Pynchon's work, but I didn't expect to ... so that's okay. I thought that more would at least have read The Crying of Lot 49, but what the heck? I mainly wanted to raise wider issues about literature and what we want from it, especially from our major living novelists. This led into a wide-ranging discussion that I enjoyed very much. Hopefully, the talk and subsequent interaction with the audience (and with individuals afterwards) will not only have encouraged some folks to seek out Pynchon's novels, but also brought a few new readers to this blog. In the latter case ... welcome!

Jenny and I have a very long drive ahead of us in the morning, so I'll leave it there for the moment.

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