FIRST FICTIONS Festival and Academic Conference Update: 2011-01-18 9-12th June, 2011 Please note the date of the festival has now changed to: 19-22 Jan 2012 Confirmed delegates include: Kate Mosse, Jackie Kaye, Elleke Bohemer, Michael Prodger, Bryan Cheyette, Scott Pack, Nicholas Royle and Isabel Ashdown.

One of the most tedious aspects of establishing a uniquely themed Open Journal or Open Conference Systems site is in getting the CSS to work as you would like.

Just a quick publicity post to advertise a workshop I am running at the University of Sussex on the 15th of September from 11.30-13.30 on the use of Open Journal Systems to establish new, open access, academic e-journals. The workshop is open to all Sussex postgraduates and faculty and merely requires a registration email to m.eve@sussex.ac.uk Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

UPDATE 2013-06-30: I'm afraid that I've had to remove the below files as my host thinks they are a virus. Great. Anyway, this method has easily been surpassed by now. This is a break from my customary blog posts on Thomas Pynchon and my university research to present a sample of one my other research interests in the realm of computer science and information security.

I have just read the disturbing case publicised by Arianna Bove in which, she alleges, Semiotext(e) essentially plagiarised her work on Foucault's translation of Kant's anthropology. While I have not verified the claims and am in no capacity reiterating them myself, I would like to bring this to the attention of anybody considering purchasing the Semiotext(e) edition.

The following constitute a preliminary note-taking/synoptical exercise undertaken for my own benefit, but shared in case anybody finds them useful. I should probably highlight that I have not read all of Žižek's work and would in no way consider myself an expert. Slavoj Žižek's appearance last night at LSE was, as usual, a spectacular mix of fiery political polemic fused with the humour and outrageous showmanship for which he is famed.

Courtesy of Mr. Duncan Stringer, my birthday yielded me a T-Shirt with the Tristero post horn and a card with one of the following images on it. Obviously, I assume that Thomas Pynchon will receive, from some well-wishing acquaintance, a photoshopped card of one of my mugshots. My navy days with Thomas Ruggles Pynchon was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at Martin Paul Eve on June 22, 2010.

09:00-10:30 Session IX  chair: Sascha Pöhlmann Paweł Stachura (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań), Literary Spaces in Pynchon, Strugatskie, and Dukaj This was one of the more... intriguing papers, although I have enormous concerns and reservations regarding the methodology herein.

... International Pynchon Week, Day 2 (continued from previous post). 09:00-10:30 Session V

Today (June 9th 2010) marked the start of the 9th International Pynchon Week conference, a biennial event that, this time around, is hosted in Poland at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin. Having attended today's proceedings, I thought I'd put a few thoughts about the event so far online. 09:45-11:15 Session I

30575816-Columbia-University-Press-Catalog-Fall-2010.pdf (6182 KB) According to the Columbia University Press Fall Catalogue, there is a nice treat on it's way for DFW fans! Fate, Time, and Language An Essay on Free Will David Foster Wallace The late novelist's legendary, unpublished work reveals the philosophical foundations of his celebrated fiction.