Liam Blackford

Nov 4, 2024 | overland.org.au | Dougal McNeill |Francesca Newton |Liam Blackford

“The effect of a tale,” Joseph Conrad wrote in a letter to SS Prawling, “is mostly in the telling of it” (8th Nov, 1897). The facts of Martin Edmond’s tale, in his wonderful book Marlow’s Dream, are easy enough to summarise.

Oct 27, 2024 | overland.org.au | Francesca Newton |Liam Blackford |James Hassett

Much is made of the insurmountable barrier that is meant to exist between climate activists and working people. Politicians, usually trying to justify their interference with civil liberties, frame climate protesters as a nuisance — if not a threat — to the otherwise “normal” public: environmentalists are coming for jobs, cars, and household appliances; everyone else is just trying to get by with what little they have.

Sep 11, 2024 | overland.org.au | Liam Blackford |Scott Robinson |Jon Piccini

Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys — lately in the news for its TV adaptation on Stan — is an imperfect but extremely entertaining novel that deserves its success. I argue that it is a canonically important work of Australian gay literature, a monument of eroticised and anxious masculinity belonging to a legacy including titles such as Christos Tsiolkas’ Loaded and Barracuda, or Tim Winton’s Breath.

Dec 27, 2023 | lexology.com | Sarah Turner |Liam Blackford

On 20 December 2023, the UK Supreme Court handed down its long awaited judgment in Thaler v. Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, dismissing Stephen Thaler’s appeal and upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal. While the result is not surprising, this decision is likely to be influential beyond the UK. This is one of a number of test cases brought by Dr Thaler around the world and it raises issues of some importance.