Blog

In case you missed it: highlights from Sydney Writers’ Festival

We are gathering at a critical moment in history – with a world still reeling from the near collapse of the global financial system and threatened by the prospect of catastrophic climate change. Assembling some of the finest minds in Australia and the world provides an opportunity to understand these crises and a range of other pressing issues. It’s an opportunity to rethink the way we live.
Chip Rolley, Artistic Director SWF

The keywords for this year’s SWF program – the first for the wonderfully named Artistic Director, Chip Rolley – were change and renewal. The opening address was given by Reza Aslan who spoke of the political and social changes taking place in Iran, and set the tone for a festival which posited literature as a transformative agent of social and political change. I could only attend a handful of sessions this year but those I chose went to the heart of the artistic vision. ... read more

Written by Boris Kelly on 24-05-2010, No comments

Review – Trouble: Evolution of a Radical/Selected Writings
1970–2010

Trouble: Evolution of a Radical/Selected Writings 1970–2010
Kate Jennings
Black Inc

Kate JenningsKate Jennings suggests that the subtitle of her new book of collected writings could be regarded by some as an overstatement, and that ‘Devolution of a Radical’ may have been a more accurate choice. Jennings’ trajectory as a political activist began in 1970 with a blistering speech on the front lawn of Sydney University in which she sprayed spittle on the patriarchy and, incidentally, the Vietnam War. Throughou

Written by Boris Kelly on 21-05-2010, 4 user comments

Review – Edible stories: Wetink
Issue 18

Wet Ink Issue 18Someone once said that an artist's job is to hold the attention of an audience for as long as they require it. It may have been Oscar Wilde, but this reviewer suspects it was actually a character in The West Wing. Perhaps it was a character in The West Wing quoting Oscar Wilde – either way, it is a very sharp observation, particularly when applied to short fiction.

Issue 18 of the Australian quarterly Wet Ink is devoted largely to short fiction, with only three works of poetry. Short stories presented in a magazine format are tricky things. The challenge of holding a reader's attention is made greater because of the flicking impulse: the thumb which lurks around the edge of the pages, ready to flick the moment the reader's attention is swayed. Indeed, to borrow the wise words of Sally Field in Forest Gump, a collection of short stories is like a box of chocolates: so many tantalising options.* If one has a taste and finds they have struck a pineapple cream rather than a praline, they are free to abandon the enterprise and choose another treat. (This is less socially acceptable with chocolates.) Which only tempts the question: ‘Is Wet Ink full of pralines or pineapple creams? Com'on missy, stop stuffing your face with chocolates in the name of research, and tell us if we should buy it!’ ... read more

Written by Claire Zorn on 20-05-2010, No comments

Double cigarette sales, more food vouchers: short stories from Katherine

Recently I went on a trip up to Katherine with Barbara, from Intervention Rollback Action Group, and a few other friends to record people’s experiences of living under the Federal Intervention. These are some of the brief stories we heard as we visited Katherine, Beswick and Barunga.

  • At Bindari, a small community about 20km west of Katherine, the Government allocated $10 000 to each house as part of their ‘make safe’ program. Many of the dwellings on the community are simple tin sheds with no running water, the $10 000 for each of these ‘houses’ was spent on a paint job and hosing out the inside of the shed. When the GBM asked if there was any work going to be done to the ablution blocks, the contractors employed told her that they are community assets and they were just there to fix houses. (This after the GBM had pointed out that none of the sheds have running water and these ablution blocks are the residents’ household toilets.) The GBM quit. As yet, no new house has been built at Bindari.

  • At Ngukurr, Sunrise Health Service has seen a doubling of cigarettes purchased since the Federal Intervention. They have put this down to a result of stress and depression.

  • The Jawoyn Association, based in Katherine, has a fund set aside for food vouchers and assistance for Jawoyn people who need support. When the Intervention rolled out, the board believed in – and budgeted for – less money in food vouchers. This has not been the case. Since the Intervention, Jawoyn records show that they have given twice as much in food vouchers as they did before the Intervention.

  • In spite of the Intervention having been in place for more than two years, it is still difficult for people who are travelling interstate to access Income Management. One group of people told us that when they travelled to South Australia and went to Centrelink, the staff there didn’t even know what Income Management was.

  • Just like in Alice Springs and Darwin, there has been a rise in long grassers (homelessness) since the Intervention took place. Houses are still overcrowded, with no new houses built in Kalano, Beswick or Barunga.

  • People are finding it hard to attend funerals, as there is not enough money to pay for buses back to remote communities. This can lead to inter-family problems as people aren’t attending family funerals.

  • There are more young kids on the streets of Katherine drinking and living on the streets.

  • People living in communities in Katherine feel that since the Intervention, the alcohol problem has gotten worse. There are more people in town drinking from communities to both the east and the west of Katherine.

Written by Scott Foyster on 20-05-2010, 1 user comment

What your atheism costs you

Suddenly the world is awash in burqa suspicion and vitriol.

In the past fortnight, headlines have been dominated by bans and proposed bans in Belgium, France and Denmark (home to only three women who wear the burqa), to our own shores, and the boorish postulating of Cory Bernardi:

In my mind, the burka has no place in Australian society. I would go as far as to say it is un-Australian. To me, the burka represents the repressive domination of men over women which has no place in our society and compromises some of the most important aspects of human communication.

As Parliamentary Secretary and spokesperson for the would-be Prime Minister and the Liberal Party, Bernardi’s comments can hardly be dismissed lightly. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 19-05-2010, 46 user comments

Rail against the machine!

The Victoria Transport Policy Institute tells us:

Transit [public transport] becomes more important as cities grow. In smaller cities transit primarily serves transportation disadvantaged riders (people cannot use an automobile), typically representing 5-10% of the population, but as cities grow in size and density transit serves more discretionary riders (people who have the option of driving), and so provides more benefits by reducing traffic problems and supporting more efficient land use patterns.

However, at the margin (i.e., compared with their current travel patterns) many motorists would prefer to drive somewhat less and use alternatives more, provided they are convenient, comfortable and affordable. Satisfying this growing demand for alternative modes can provide a variety of benefits. When all impacts are considered, improving public transit is often the most cost-effective transportation improvement.

... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 19-05-2010, 7 user comments

Pathological anti-Islam

For the last few weeks, we’ve learned, over and over again, why the burqa must be banned. A visible face is, apparently, central to Western modernity (which is why, one imagines, that new-fangled device known as the telephone will never catch on). Besides, outlawing the burqa is a feminist cause – to preserve women’s right to wear what they want, we must legislate so they can’t wear what they want. Or something.

You’d think that that the anti-burqa crowd would cheer the victory of Lebanese born Rima Fakih in the Miss USA contest. That pageant requires entrants to parade in swimsuits as well as evenings gowns. Fakih is a Muslim woman prepared to show rather more than her face. Good news, right? ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 18-05-2010, 18 user comments

The only songs that matter

When the Overland editors posted an off-the-cuff list of songs for a soundtrack for the revolution a couple of weeks ago, the comments board, which usually moves between the sedate and the lively, went berserk. Music videos were posted by the score, ranging from the Dead Kennedys’ ‘Nazi Punks Fuck Off’ to Melanie’s ‘Psychotherapy’.

Maybe for a second we all remembered something we thought we had forgotten. Perhaps all of a sudden we were back at some smoky party at two in the morning, with the music whammering out of the speakers in the next room, face-to-face with some crazy conversation about violence and injustice, and determined to stand up, come what may, in the maw of suffering and stare it down, as someone ramped the music up even louder and we refilled our glasses and plotted improbable dates with destiny. ... read more

Written by Stephen Wright on 18-05-2010, 29 user comments

The media and us

Lately when reading a newspaper I have to momentarily put it down, pick up a music magazine and flip through for something that will spark my interest such as a story on the forthcoming reissue of The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street album which I’m sure will be a good one. At these moments I let my guard down, but when I go back to the newspaper, nagging suspicions often return.

And for those of us who fit the mould of an everyday media consumer, it shouldn’t come as any surprise when picking up that newspaper, switching on the TV or jumping on the net, that we are often left shaking our collective head in wonder at what some in the political arena think of meaningful participative democracy, particularly when faced with powerful interest groups. One recent example is the unified chorus of protest from voices in the mining sector and the Federal Opposition frontbench at the announcement of an increased mining tax. Whatever the outcome, I am sure that come election day, many voters will be standing in the booth with pencil wavering above the voting form which is an increasingly likely scenario these days. ... read more

Written by Dan Bigna on 17-05-2010, 1 user comment

The joke of ‘Mother’s Day’

Two weeks ago I promised myself I wouldn’t blog till I finished the current draft of my novel. I’ve tried really hard to push this blog piece down but it keeps resurfacing in my mind, tormenting me, and so I realised the only way to get back to finishing my novel is to write the damn piece. I know that by writing this piece I am, in a way, shooting myself in the foot. But I became a writer to write so that’s what I’m doing.

Mother’s Day was the final straw. I didn’t feel like celebrating at all, and I’m a mother. I was outraged by the concept of ‘Mother’s Day’. Putting aside the obvious idea that it’s a marketing and money-making scheme, our society has allocated one day to celebrate mothers yet for the other 364 days a year we get the complete opposite. We are branded as whiny, selfish, brushed aside when we strive for success in our careers and we’re cut no slack at all. ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 17-05-2010, 27 user comments

Top blokes, totally out of character: when five white men beat an Aboriginal man to death

These are the facts, as they were agreed to by the perpetrators. After a long night of drinking, Scott Doody, Timothy Hird, Joshua Spears, Anton Kloeden, and Glen Swain left a casino at 6am in the morning of 25 July 2009. They ranged in age from 18–23. Most of them were drunk, but Kloeden, the driver, was not.

Kloeden, in the words of Chief Justice Martin, then thought it would be fun to ‘take on the challenge of driving along the Todd River bed to the Telegraph Station’. Even more fun, Kloeden then ‘made the offensive and stupid decision to harass the Aboriginal people camped in the riverbed’, nearby Schwarz Crescent causeway. They drove towards a group of at least six campers. The campers fled to trees for safety, except for an elderly Aboriginal person, who was too elderly to respond with adequate speed. Kloeden drove within a metre of him, with the intention of terrifying him by narrowly missing him. ... read more

Written by Michael Brull on 14-05-2010, 89 user comments

Where’s the climax?

I have this thing. Possibly it's an issue, possibly it just demonstrates I'm fairly sane. It's this: I feel strongly that all stories should have conclusions.

That shouldn't be up for debate, right?

But seriously folks, I've read way too many books lately in which this really basic element of storytelling does not occur. Picture it: I've got the latest/oldest/most classic of all possible novels. I'm reading. I'm investing. I'm going along with it, I'm getting into it, I'm sure there's going to be some form of climax – and then there isn't. The story waffles off. Nothing is resolved.

Maybe this is postmodernism. Maybe it's art. It's definitely bloody annoying.

I recently went to the trouble of reading Neal Stephenson's 'Cryptonomicon'. For reasons beyond my understanding, this seems to be somewhat of a cult novel – everyone from my fire twirling best mate to my Mum was telling me I had to read it, so I did. It was nine hundred pages long. Normally I wouldn't tell you this, and I wouldn't care, but it was nine hundred pages of essential sameness. There was some build-up, there was some gradual progress, but the end was pretty much a continuation of the previous four hundred pages with no change in pitch or tempo. Imagine me, getting excited as I got into the last hundred pages, excited about finally knowing what it was all about and no freaking dice.

'Cryptonomicon' was the best example, but there was also the recent 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close', by Jonathn Safran Foer. Lovely book, lovely imagery, history, construction; I loved the first ninety percent and felt very let down by the last twenty pages. Not because it took some cheap way out, but because I honestly felt it didn't resolve anything. My girlfriend and I argued about it; she thought it was the only way it could have ended. I wasn't sure, but did know I wasn't satisfied.

Here's my thing. So far as I am concerned, telling stories is about understanding the world. I have an English degree and I know there are many other threads to this, but this one is important to me. I don't think we tell stories unless we intend to learn something from them. Accordingly, most stories are about simplified versions of the world; the world with more reason, less randomness embedded. Coincidences that happen in real life would never be permitted in books, as they seem cheap and tacky.

The best books, best stories, are about very complex versions of the world, things with multiple layers of meaning going on, more characters, more simulated randomness. But what these books have in common is that for us to learn, for us to gain meaning from them, they have to come to some systematic, balanced, satisfying conclusion. There has to be a message underlying the whole thing, to explain why we told the story to begin with; there has to be something that draws it all together.

And if there isn't, why are we telling the story? I honestly don't understand. If we're using stories to learn about ourselves and our world, what use is a story that can't come together to teach us some symbolic thing about ourselves/our world/the story in question? It's not as if real life isn't short on unsatisfying events, no balance and a total lack of closure; I read books precisely to feel as though there is meaning in things. And it bothers me when there isn't!

I know there's probably some deeper thing going on here. I said the best books are complex ones with many layers; they’re the ones that more closely resemble life. Maybe this latest trend to not bring books to a climax is just the logical extension of that realism; things are complicated and out of balance, the end. But I hope not. Because if nothing else, books give me hope that there is pattern and meaning in life, and I'm not willing to give that up yet.

... read more

Written by Georgia Claire on 14-05-2010, 13 user comments

Leonardo Da Vinci castrated for graffiti crimes

BanksyI came across this online Age newspaper article by Kylie Northover, ‘Graffiti is enough to give a critic an art attack’ (8 May 2010), a response to ‘Hey Banksy, graffiti is vandalism not art’ by Charles Purcell (4 May 2010). I was duly horrified.

Purcell concludes his smug, ignorant rant with the following outrageous suggestion: ... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 13-05-2010, 9 user comments

Overland 198 online

We've finally got all the contents of Overland 198 online, including the poetry. And while we're doing some self-promotion, there's a whole bunch of Overland events coming up at the Wheeler Centre, the Sydney Writers Festival and the Emerging Writers Festival.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 13-05-2010, No comments

On the case of Matthew Spencer

I applaud Matthew Spencer, I do. Here’s a kid who has enough nounce to rally 1500 signatures in his home town in aid of a cause he believes in.

The 17-year-old from Terang is out of a job because of the new retail award that now operates in his industry. He and six others used to work for one and a half hours after school. The job gave him pocket money and some petrol to put in his new car. He was learning the value of the dollar. But since the new award came into effect, his employer has been required to pay him for a minimum three hours per shift. And so, he’s been given the sack. ... read more

Written by Isy Burns on 13-05-2010, 1 user comment