News, Events and Updates
A smorgasbord of Machine-shaped things
Hello all. I’m back home in Ireland, having got over my jetlag but not quite got over the chest infection that knocked me out during the last couple of days of my recent US tour. I apologise to any readers who had hoped to come and see me in Washington DC. I had to cancel the event, and spend the evening in bed with some antibiotics instead. Less fun, but more sensible.
Still, it was a successful trip, and I met many Abbey-ites along the way, which helped confirm my suspicions that I have an exceptionally high quality of reader. This was exemplified by some of the gifts that people brought me after my talks, which included home-made sourdough bread, hand-carved wooden spoons, signed chapbooks of poetry, icons, T-shirts, drawings, cards, bottles of tincture to keep me alive (it worked), and plenty more. What a nice bunch you are.
People bought books too, in quantities sufficient to nudge Against The Machine onto the New York Times bestseller list, much to my surprise, where it sat for a week above Steven Pinker but below Kamala Harris. A week is probably long enough in that company.
Anyway: it couldn’t have happened without you. Thank you to everyone who came along. Soon enough I hope to be up and running here again, but for now, here’s a roundup of news from the US, plus a foretaste of my forthcoming events on this side of the pond, in Britain and Ireland.
Subscribers’ online Q&A
Before I get started though - this coming Saturday I will be holding court at an online event for paid subscribers who pre-ordered the book. I’ll be answering as many questions about the book as I can manage. If you are coming to this, you will already have been notified about it. If you’d like to submit a question in advance, you can fill in this form to do so.
Upcoming events
This month I’ll be doing a final round of Against The Machine-themed events, this time on this side of the Atlantic. The schedule looks like this:
Thursday 30th October - that’s next week, folks - sees me in one of Ireland’s best bookshops, Charlie Byrne’s in Galway. I’ll be talking about the book with my friend and fellow writer Mark Boyle, as well as signing copies. If that wasn’t enough incentive, the event is free and there will be cake and wine.
On the weekend of 15th-16th November I’ll be in Walsingham, Norfolk, with Martin Shaw on his ‘Merrie Pilgrimage.’ I’ll be talking with Martin about the Machine, as well as selling and signing books.
On Tuesday 18th November I’ll be in Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford. This event is sold out but there might be a waiting list.
On Thursday 20th November I’m in Cambridge, in conversation with Mary Harrington and Dr James Orr. This event is free but you need to get a ticket in advance.
Finally, on Saturday 22nd November, I’ll be speaking at the ‘Responding to the Rebirth’ conference in London, in which various speakers will be tackling the sudden and suprising upsurge of interest in Christianity.
Talks and podcasts
A number of talks and book-related podcasts from my recent Stateside trip are popping up across the Interweb. Paid subscribers already have access to my talk about reactionary radicalism at the Wendell Berry Center in Kentucky, as well as my talk at Grove City college about how to refuse the Machine. Both of these can be found in the Chantry.
In addition, there are lots of new conversations on my YouTube channel. I’m never entirely happy with this stuff, if I’m honest. I’m a writer, not a public speaker, which means that I like to take about half an hour over a sentence to make my meaning clear, or to create a certain sound or feeling. You can’t do this on a stage or a podcast, and so the quality of my output varies. There are plenty of questions I’d like to go back and answer again better, or differently, in retrospect.
Still, maybe there are enough interesting thoughts in this mix to make it worth somebody’s time:
My talk to this year’s Touchstone conference in Chicago about the birth of AI and its relation to the Christian story.
A conversation with Freddie Sayers of UnHerd, about the themes of the book.
A conversation with Eric Metaxas of Socrates In The City, in which I wonder what advice Screwtape would be giving to his nephew in the age of the Internet.
A conversation with my friend Nicholas Kotar, writer and Deacon, at Jordanville Monastery in New York state, about my journey, the work of the Christian writer and … well, AI again, and what it means.
A conversation with Demetri Kofinas on the Hidden Forces podcast about my journey, covid, the apocalypse, and how to survive the Machine.
An appearance on Christianity Today’s Russell Moore Show. More AI. It’s all everyone wants to talk about right now.
Media and Reviews
Reviews of the book have been popping up all over the place, some more interesting than others. Some of my favourites are:
A profile of me that appeared in the New York Times. I mainly like this because it’s surprisingly good considering it was in the New York Times, although the headline writer should clearly be fired.
John Gray has some smart things to say in the New Statesman, though he mistakenly believes that I think a post-collapse world would look like News From Nowhere rather than Mad Max, when in fact the opposite is true.
The Spectator sets me up against Peter Thiel as two ends of the tech-spectrum. I get to be the Hermit, while Thiel is the Magician (hint: he’s Saruman.) I also get called ‘a mix between Frodo Baggins and Ted Kaczynski’ which is not entirely wrong.
First Things digs deep beneath the bonnet/hood, in a thoughtful review by Michael Hanby, who wonders whether I am a dentist or an electrician.
In Compact magazine, Leighton Woodhouse writes a better summary of the book than I could manage. This is well worth a read, though it is paywalled.
Finally, a special mention to Ben Christenson’s review at Living As Creatures, mainly for the illustration and the comparison to Brad Pitt, which is a first. He thinks I’m in my ‘Tyler Durden era’, but he’s a bit late: that was when I was running Dark Mountain, about ten years ago. I like to think I’m entering my Tom Bombadil era now.
Best wishes to you all.
I’m reading Machine right now, having not preordered it but ironically grabbed it off Mr. Besos’ conveyor belt. I am much in your debt for the clear history you give of this thing. My own circumscribed resistance, in the form of poems often roughed out in paper notebooks, and a greater reliance on real books and disc recordings rather than streaming, goes on. I have already stated on my Substack that I would not use AI in my creative process, ever, and I’ll put your logo for that up as soon as it’s available. My other resistance, of course, is going to a real Church and receiving the true Body and Blood as often as I can. Thanks for all you do. Check out my books, especially Still Points, on the conveyor belt! I wish I could have gone to your presentation and given it to you personally!
The book is on my ever increasing pile of books to read, hopefully we get lots of rain this winter in Southern California, so I don't spend all time outside in my garden. Glad you are feeling better. Make sure you get enough Vit D, it is really good for the immune system. Finally, I really loved the Orthodox coffee shop you recommended in Kalispell. Apparently so do a lot of people there, it was packed every time I went.