Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Tale Of A Mad Night

In Don Quixote's case, the auspicious community of the wise and the sane took it upon themselves to judge his books and to burn them. Cervante's chilling parody of the Spanish Inquisition is echoed by our own contemporary experiences with forces of Law and Order and by the current and recent Administration's attempts to protect us from dangerous ideas and information, for our own good.

In a subtler way, the collective efforts of the self appointed sane influence the whole field of psychiatry and psychology. The clinical diagnosis of psychopathology is too often a form of social control. If other people make us nervous by the foreignness of their queer talk and odd behaviour, we give them tranquilizing drugs and lock them away in custodial institutions."

~ Sheldon B. Kopp
from
If You Meet Buddha On The Road, Kill Him!


Monday, September 5, 2011

Wednesday is Indigenous Literacy Day


...And I'll be book-busking on the forecourt in front of Abbey's Bookshop at 131 York Street, Sydney (opposite the Queen Victoria Building) at 3pm.

Abbey's are only letting me read from their "Vintage Classics" Collection, so in order to avoid buying a book from Random House/Abbeys I had to choose one that I already own from that list. I'll be reading from Thomas Pynchon's wonderful novel "V". Any money raised will be matched by Random House (McPublishing) and donated to the Indigenous Literacy Fund. Come and see me and donate a wee bit'o'somethin for Indigenous book-learnins!!