2 Oct 2010

KSR Down Under, Part IV

Submitted by Kimon

Continuing the series of articles on Kim Stanley Robinson's series of talks and panels in Australia last month, as more material surfaces in the new Big Brother entity that records everything called the Internet...

Rjurik Davidson, who interviewed Robinson a few years ago, wrote a new article for the Australian cultural magazine Overland, on Robinson's panel for the Melbourne Writers Festival on August 29th:

Robinson was a critic of cyberpunk. ‘I didn’t like It,’ he explained, because it was the literary equivalent of the neoliberal dogma that ‘There is No Alternative’. Cyberpunk sought to celebrate and revel in a free market future. For Robinson, optimism is not optional. We need an ‘optimism of the will’ he explains (paraphrasing Gramsci), because ‘to be pessimistic now is to let down our children and generations to come.’

In his latest novel, Galileo’s Dream, Robinson examines the relationship between science and capitalism and, as he explained, relied on Raymond Williams’ concept of a ‘structure of feeling’ to capturing a sense of sixteenth-century consciousness. In this novel, Robinson examines the nature of science as a project to liberate humanity. For him, the traditional left critique of science is a ‘category error.’

Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci's quote is: "I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will."

Monash University, which organized the conference on "Changing the Climate: Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe", August 30th to September 1st, has now posted online podcasts of its panels:

PhD student Zachary Kendal has written passionate reports on the three days of the conference:

  • Day one: Clute & Robinson colloquially discuss Gene Wolfe
  • Day two: Stan's panels
  • Day three: More panels and more Wolfe fannishness

A final Oz-related report should follow on KSRi, stay tuned...