This should be interesting

I’ll be making a rare NYC public appearance this week (they’ve become rare because of the duties of fatherhood), engaging in a conversation with author Daniel Pinchbeck, who was recently contextualized as something of a Burning Man apocalyptic guru in a Rolling Stone.

Emails from friends and readers (who know my bias against guruhood and fundamentalist prophecy of all kind) have been pouring in asking if I’m going to “square off” against him. All I can say is that while our views on the role and reality level of prophecy and psychedelic experiences may differ, I’m not the combative type, and see less value in dialectic or fiery rhetoric than in the honest quest for common ground and shared objectives.

So while our methods of investigation and idea dissemination might not be compatible, many of our views on what needs to be done to fix civilization’s messes are the same. I expect nothing more and nothing less than conversation aimed at determining the appropriate application of prophecy in our times, however it may have been dislodged from the noosphere.

Here are the details. My next scheduled NYC appearance will be at Barnes and Noble Astor Place, at the end of February, when the second collected edition of my comic book, Testament, is released.

September 28, 2006, 7 p.m.
McNally Robinson Booksellers
50 Prince Street
New York City, NY
10012-3325
Phone 212-274-1160

Post-Modern Prophecy: Urgent Myths for Urgent Times?
A dialogue between authors Daniel Pinchbeck and Douglas Rushkoff
Daniel Pinchbeck is the author of “Breaking Open the Head” (Broadway Books), and “2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl” (Tarcher/Penguin). His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Village Voice, Arthur, and many other publications.

Douglas Rushkoff’s titles include Cyberia, Media Virus, Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism, Coercion (winner of the Marshall Mcluhan Award), and Get Back in the Box. The first collection of his Bible-based comic book, Testament, came out this year from DC/Vertigo.