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When the revolution comes

When the revolution comes, it will more than likely be on a Monday. But we'll need the weekend to prepare. And a soundtrack. Here are some suggestions; feel free to add your own.

When the revolution comes – The Last Poets

Jailbreak – Yothu Yindi

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 30-04-2010, 109 user comments

On Realism in Fantasy

The CompanyToday I finished reading KJ Parker's 2008 novel The Company. And, as usual when I finish one of her novels, I wondered why the hell I had.

It's not that they're bad novels (although I felt this one was somewhat inferior to her other books), it's that they are relentlessly depressing. I've never read novels that struck me as so utterly misanthropic, where you typically end up despising every character there is. The cynicism is breathtaking, and that's even before we get to the way that they're normally about wars in one way or another. ... read more

Written by Georgia Claire on 29-04-2010, 4 user comments

Penguin Plays Rough in the sitting room

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a fiction writer in possession of a good tale must be in want of an audience. In the absence of a publishing contract or an appreciative family member/housemate, such an audience can be difficult to reach. Equally so, if Sydney's lovers of literature fancy a night out to indulge their passions, all too often an evening browsing the shelves of late-trading bookstore Better Read Than Dead is the only option on offer (perhaps with a few sips from one's hip flask if it's a Friday). But fear not courageous scribblers and fiction devourers alike, Penguin Plays Rough is at hand.

PPR is run by Pip Smith and Amelia Schmidt and takes place on the third Monday evening of each month at Ms Smith's abode in

Written by Claire Zorn on 29-04-2010, 2 user comments

Meanland extract: Numbers, numbers and more numbers – online stats, blogging stats, twitter stats, reading stats, etcetera

Although we may not always recognise our bondage, we live, in modern times, under a tyranny of numbers –
(paraphrasing) Nicholas Eberstadt

Numbers are appealing. They equate to fact and accuracy; they help us to interpret the world and its workings. We can dispute the significance of numbers but we can’t dispute they exist, nor that they possess meaning.

There was some discussion last week regarding the contentiousness of ‘the number of blogs in the world’ estimate. The figure I quoted (borrowed from Nigel Featherstone) was 112 million. So what, asked Nicko the commenter, I’d rather know how many are actually still active. (Paraphrasing again.) John Weldon offered suggestions as to where to begin tracking down these numbers, so off I went, like a diligent researcher. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 29-04-2010, Comments Off

The love that dare not speak its name: we need to talk about editing

I used to work for an order more clandestine than the Knights Templar, more invisible than the Invisible Woman, more prone to secrecy than Jason Bourne. We did our work in secret, erasing our identities before and after every job, writing confidential reports and often never meeting the human they concerned. I’m sure there are other professions that still operate with the secrecy and guardedness of a medieval guild. But I’m beginning to think the secrecy that surrounds my old profession is doing the sort of damage that’s done to anyone forced into secrecy. I’m thinking paranoia, depression. That profession is book editing.

Book editors regularly open themselves to an other, go deeply into that other’s innermost being (their text), and work to transform that text (and be themselves transformed) without touching it. And then they must let go of it all and be forever silent. I think all this secret intimacy is doing editors’ heads in. Writers are renowned for their paranoia, their swings between omnipotence and impotence, their depression and insecurity. But in my experience, editors suffer just as much if not more from these debilitating states – mostly without the upswing of omnipotence. Why? Possibly because they’re treated mostly like shit. Poorly paid and never acknowledged, always blamed when things go wrong. ... read more

Written by Jane Gleeson-White on 28-04-2010, 40 user comments

Of books and reading and timey-wimey stuff – pt 1

The interesting thing about a novel is, that like the Tardis, it’s much bigger on the inside than on the outside. Books look linear, and we are often tricked, as readers and writers, into making them linear. Novels muck about with time, and time is never as straightforward as it appears. Curre

Written by Stephen Wright on 28-04-2010, 20 user comments

Festival season

There’s supposed to be a number of ‘signs’ that the dry season has finally banished the wet season, or the build down season for another year. (There’s some argument as to how many seasons there are in the Top End. Some say the ‘wet’ and ‘dry’, others the ‘build up’, the ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ and others say there’s the ‘dry’, the ‘build up’, the ‘wet’ and the ‘build down’. Indigenous people say there are six seasons.)

One of the alleged signs is an increase in dragonflies, but I’ve seen swarms of dragonflies when there’s still a good month or so of sweaty sleep to go before the dry even looks like letting a cool breeze caress the morning air. Another signifier is said to be the increase in young backpackers cramming the supermarket isles, their foreign tongues rolling past the packets of noodles in sweet harmony. The return of yachts anchored off the sailing club after their long hibernation in the marina or up Sandgroves creek, hiding from the monsoon is said to be another. ... read more

Written by Rohan Wightman on 27-04-2010, 2 user comments

The case for workplace transparency

I’m in the market for a new job. I’m not sure if you’ve ever noticed, but there really isn’t that much information out there to help me narrow my search.

Employers generally don’t advertise what the salary is, and if you phone them they’re often coy. So I’m going to have to wait until I get to the job interview. If they don’t tell me upfront in the interview, I can ask, but I then run the risk of being perceived as having the wrong attitude. As a woman of child-bearing age, I’m certainly not game enough to ask about family friendly policies. Would the employer think I was about to run off and have babies? And I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable asking about drug tests; not because I’ve been taking any drugs lately, but because I’d be interested to know whether or not they’re going to jab a needle in me. ... read more

Written by Isy Burns on 27-04-2010, 3 user comments

The mountains couldn’t walk away – Sydney launch

A few weeks ago, I posted a review on the Melbourne book launch of Andrea Demetriou’s haunting book, The mountains couldn’t walk away. Andrea’s poetry collection is a reflection of her experiences escaping Cyprus as an eight-year-old girl when Turkey invaded in 1974. Since posting my review, I’ve received requests to post some of her poems here on the blog, and Andrea has been kind enough to allow Overland to do this.

Due to the success of the Melbourne launch, The mountains couldn’t walk away is being relaunched in Sydney on Thursday. This is an event I highly recommend to poets, or anyone interesting in engaging with the refugee voice. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 26-04-2010, No comments

Sick of arguing with white dudes on the Internet

What can you expect from a couple of musicians – albeit, ‘well-schooled, culture-crossing MCs drop[ping] nuggets of sharp social commentary’ – with a self-described style of ‘deconstructionist’, who cite Edward Said and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as their influences?

If you were thinking: possibly a critique of race, class, ethnicity and pop culture framed through a theoretical lens resulting in irreverential hip-hop, you may be close.

Das Racist also gives us

• 'You Oughta Know':

... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 25-04-2010, No comments

From ‘sex kitten’ to educating the sexes

In 2009, a choreographer from the television programme So you think you can dance said his routine involved ‘a bit of a peep show’ explaining, ‘They’re such hot looking girls, why wouldn’t I portray them as sex kittens?’ I then pulled the face that causes my teenaged daughter to exclaim, ‘I hate watching television with you!’ And because she was not interested to hear my speech on a soapbox, and because despite a ‘long history of advocating for social change, equality and the disadvantaged’, Bronwyn Pike (Minister for Education in Victoria) has not significantly mentioned the gender issue as part of her platform for Victorian education reform, I bring my concerns here to you.

Did the public express outrage at this blatant sexism? The show’s online opinion forum suggests, no, it did not. Would there have been a response had he said, ‘They’re so African-looking, why wouldn’t I portray them as American slaves?’ ... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 23-04-2010, 31 user comments

Review – The Yellow Wallpaper

Driving through the golden, locust-infested centre of New South Wales on Sunday, Radio National broadcast The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilmer. It was first published in 1892 in the New England Magazine.

The story is a series of journal entries told in first person by the narrator, a woman locked in a room, after being diagnosed as ‘nervously depressed’ by both her husband and brother, physicians. The journal entries describe her descent into psychosis with the wallpaper, and toys with the reader and notions of the ‘female condition’, ‘hysteria’ and ‘freedom’. The ending of the story oozes a sort of oxymoronic yet feminist triumph. ... read more

Written by Sally Atkinson on 23-04-2010, 6 user comments

Canine country

My friend Cadie, a Garawa woman, and I are on a six-month road trip. We’ve been staying in Woorabinda for the last week with Cadie’s friend Ida, a nurse. Woorabinda (‘kangaroo sit down’) is an Aboriginal community of approximately 1000 people. Situated between Blackwater and Rolleston, about two hours’ drive from Rockhampton, Woorabinda came into being in the 1920s when the Queensland Government ordered the Aboriginal people living at Taroom to move, ostensibly because they were planning to build a dam. The dam was never built. These people – who weren’t just locals, but came from all over North Queensland and the Gulf country – were required to walk to their new home. The road between the two points on the map these days covers about 200km.

For years, the only house that existed was that of the superintendent. The Aboriginal people lived in humpies. In the town, there was strict segregation between black and white. The Aboriginal children were put in dormitories off limits to the rest of their families. Aboriginal people who walked down the main street of the town without permission were put in jail – 20 days on bread and water. If they left the town without permission, they were arrested and put in jail. Corroboree was permitted but speaking in language wasn’t, effectively making the former permission redundant. If Aboriginal people spoke in language, they were put in jail. Often that meant being sent to Palm Island. Strict curfews were employed. Bells rang for wake up time, go to work time, get off the street time, go to sleep time. Regular parades were held in which all residents were required to line up and salute the flag. Punishment for missing parade was also 20 days in jail. If an Aboriginal person attempted to run away and was captured, they were required to pay for their own capture. That is, if they had a bank account. ... read more

Written by Stephanie Convery on 22-04-2010, 6 user comments

Meanland extract – So you’re writing a blog post?

Writing for the Internet is not like writing a novel. Seriously, they’re galaxies apart. Writing an essay and writing a blog post aren’t galaxies apart; more like the distance between the nearest open cluster of stars and me.

Clearly, I’m referring to non-fiction here, rather than fiction or poetry or experimental writing. I’m not talking about writers who are using blogging tools to serialise their novels or continue to ‘journal’ blog (the origins of the Internet weblog) because journalling is different – a more intimate form and less reliant on other people’s input and interactivity.

Much has been said of late – what with the Miscellaneous Voices launch, Jessica Au’s post at Spike last week about where blogging is at as a literary form, and the recognition writers (a category in which I include bloggers because they write) receive – about the nature, purpose and style of blogging. And while that is all worthy of debate, this is more a question of how to write for the digital medium. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 22-04-2010, 2 user comments

Wog – why whisper it?

I am a wog, and I’m proud of it. I don’t call myself an aussie and I was born in Australia. This may be difficult for some to digest, but that’s how I feel, and I’m not alone is saying it either.

A few weeks ago, I emailed a review of the George Michael concert to the Overland editor, and was politely asked to remove the line ‘every wog and his brother was there’. I thought the editor’s concern that it may offend was understandable, even though I meant it endearingly, so I removed the line without complaint, but it got me thinking about the word ‘wog’ and whether it’s appropriate to use it today. Are the words ‘aussie’ and ‘wog’ just terms my parents tackled back in the 70s and 80s where immigrants from southern Europe were arriving in their droves? Is it a non-issue today, or is it still there but that nobody talks about it? Is it okay to say the word ‘wog’? ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 22-04-2010, 59 user comments