Join us for the Brisbane launch of Immortal Gestures by Damon Young. Damon will be joined in conversation by Joanne Anderton.
This event will be opened by a selection of three Salon readers who will read from their work before the event. Salon readers include Laura Gutiérrez, Brittany Bentley and Mary Parker.
Important note: The 2025 Kurilpa Derby Day will be in full swing. Please be aware Boundary Street will be closed for the festival so please plan ahead.
There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light.
I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon.
A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship.
Our gestures do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated — or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations.
Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem — how we are much larger than we seem.
Join award-winning philosopher Damon Young — author of The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden — as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science-fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.
Damon Young is a prize-winning philosopher and writer. He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including The Art of Reading, How to Think About Exercise, Philosophy in the Garden, and Distraction. His works have been translated into eleven languages, and he has also written poetry, short fiction, and children’s fiction. Young is an Associate in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.
