My name is Clare O’Farrell and I am a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. For further details about me and my work, see my main website.
The title of this blog is a reference to the 1986 film Short Circuit. The main character in this film is a defence robot that has come to life after being hit by a power surge caused by lightning. Avid for knowledge as a newly alive creature it devours books and other media and keeps begging for ‘more input’. When it finally comes across an absolutely enormous Borders bookshop, it happily declares ‘aah input!’ and rushes over to read the entire shop and finally emerges (almost) satisfied. The ‘inputs’ noted in this blog have of course all re-emerged refracted via my own personal filters.
The subtitle of the blog, ‘Sous les pavés, la plage’ (under the pavement the beach) is a famous piece of graffiti found on the walls during the events of May 1968 in Paris. The banner is a picture of the Whitsundays – islands off the Australian state of Queensland where I live.
I am also in between large writing projects and want to keep writing until I hit on something that captures my interest sufficiently for me to want to pursue it at length.
Explanation of ratings used
I am using the same star rating system that Goodreads uses. The rating refers to my purely personal appreciation of the book, film, TV series or other item, not to its intrinsic quality from a formal critical point of view. The only posts that are not rated are the Foucault news items and commentaries specifically on Foucault’s work.
* ……..I didn’t like it
** …….It was okay
*** ……I liked it
**** …..I really liked it
***** ….I absolutely loved it
