Podcast of session on 'Modern Dystopia' at the Melbourne Writers Festival

Back in August, I appeared with DBC Pierre at the Melbourne Writers Festival in a discussion on 'Modern Dystopia'. This session was recorded by Radio National, and an edited version was broadcast on Monday 17 January as part of their 'Best of the fests' programming. The discussion moderator was Justin Clemens. 

UPDATE: You can now download a podcast of the programme. I have also uploaded the relevant section of the audio below. 

SECOND UPDATE: There is now further discussion of the ideas raised in our discussion here.

  

N.B. I am actually talking about Five Wounds in the session, even though the presenter mentions Pistols! Treason! Murder! in the introduction.

Mornings

[Originally posted on the Melbourne Writer's Festival blog:]

At this hour of the morning,’ he said, addressing nobody in particular, ‘people who are awake fall into two categories: the still and the already.

So says a character in Italo Calvino’s story ‘The adventure of a wife’ to the protagonist, who has wandered into a cafe at six a.m. She, like the speaker, falls into the first category, since she is on her way home after being out all night.

In 1994, I was up at six a.m. almost every morning, but for the first part of the year I was a ‘still’ and in the second part I was an ‘already’. In the 'still' part of the year, I worked on the night shift as a security guard at a cardboard factory. (I think that’s what they made. I didn’t really care, so I never bothered to find out). In the 'already' part of the year, I worked as a postman, and I started work at 5.45. In both jobs I set a record of sorts: I had the longest hair of any security guard in Glasgow that year; and later I was the slowest postman in the entire city.

I became a connoisseur of tiredness during this period. The first critical distinction to be made on that subject is related to Calvino’s observation, since the tiredness of staying up too late is qualitatively different from the tiredness of getting up too early.

Melbourne Writers Festival Authors on ...

Apathy

Air Travel

Melbourne Writers Festival Authors on ...

Franz Kafka

Melbourne

Dinosaurs

Their First Computer

Listening (including my comments on the ending of Lynne Ramsay's Morvern Callar)

Melbourne Writers Festival Authors on ...

Federico Fellini

Dreams

Mornings (including my commentary on an excerpt from a short story by Italo Calvino)

Melbourne Writers Festival Authors on ...

The 1970s, Part 1; the 1970s, Part 2

Alcohol

Melbourne Writers Festival: Modern Dystopia

I shall be appearing at this year's Melbourne Writers Festival, on a panel with Booker-Prize winning author DBC Pierre, whose new novel Lights Out in Wonderland is about to be published. The panel is on Modern Dystopia, and it takes place at 4 p.m. on Sunday 29 August at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Tickets are on sale now.

UPDATE: You can now download a podcast of this session. I have also uploaded the relevant section of the audio and added some further written discussion of the ideas raised in our discussion here.