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Non-fiction review: Gaza – Morality, Law, Politics

'Gaza' coverGaza - Morality, Law, Politics
Raymond Gaita (ed)
UWA Press

Philosopher and author Raimond Gaita has assembled a collection of essays drawn from a lecture series on the subject of Gaza. The contributors are all academics; international law, anthropology, political science, history and ethics are among the disciplines represented. Gaita’s project is to subject the 2008 Israeli invasion of Gaza to moral, legal and political analysis.

In his introductory essay, Gaita foregoes the customary overview of contributors but pointedly criticises the anthropologist Ghassan Hage for suggesting that ‘even to discuss whether the invasion of Gaza was justified is to diminish one’s humanity’. Gaita accuses Hage of a failure of academic professionalism and goes on to establish the ‘modest, workaday conception’ of truth around which the collection coalesces: ‘It is a guiding assumption of this book,’ says Gaita, ‘as it was of the lectures series from which its essays ... were developed, that some of the narratives are better than others because they are more truthful.’ Gaita privileges a notion of truth, ‘as it naturally associates with the belief that even in bitterly contested narratives there is such a thing – a robust thing – as trying to see things as they are rather than as they appear, often distorted, from this or that perspective.’ ... read more

Written by Boris Kelly on 31-08-2010, 2 user comments

To bed without supper

If our recent political debacle lends itself to analysis beyond Australia’s political choices being pretty dire, it may as well be two pet theories of mine. The first is pretty simple and goes like this: it isn’t enough to diss the other guy. You have to have policies, principles, and, above all, a plan for the future if you want to be elected.

The second is, Australia’s parliamentary system and our two primary parties are so utterly combative that it prevents us getting anything done.

I started hypothesising this around January and I’m a little depressed that it was proven this quickly.

I figure these two theories are argued for by the fact that Australia pretty much couldn’t be bothered to elect either party. And I do believe that’s what it was. People weren’t really torn between who to vote for. Everyone I talked to was either sticking with a party they'd always stuck to because they’d always stuck to them, or didn’t know who to vote for. Or were so mad they were handing in informal votes, which I personally gave real consideration to. Then there was the Greens vote, which I think is a protest vote as much as a ‘greenslide’, no matter how much I wish otherwise. But back to my theories. ... read more

Written by Georgia Claire on 30-08-2010, 1 user comment

Overland editors speak out

The 200th issue of Overland has arrived! Well, in the office, at least. You, dear reader, can buy it tomorrow at ‘Magazine’, a free Overland session at the Melbourne Writers Festival. It promises to be a scintillating morning filled with interviews, conversations and special guest writers with monikers like Alison Croggon, Maria Tumarkin, Kalinda Ashton and Peter Beinart. It kicks off at 10am.

This will be followed the following Saturday by Overland's grand 200 party – Saturday 4 September, Feddish, 7 pm. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 27-08-2010, 8 user comments

Fiction review: Graffiti Moon

Downtown Yarraville is, in its own right, a great place to be on a sunny winter’s Sunday afternoon – if you haven’t been west for a while, maybe it’s time. It is an especially pleasant destination if you are lucky enough to be attending the book launch of a respected Australian author.

Grafitti MoonHosted by the Younger Sun Bookshop and held in the art deco glory of the Sun cinema, the launch of Graffiti Moon, the latest YA novel from local writer, Cath Crowley, was an elegant, modest and warm affair – much like the woman herself. ... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 26-08-2010, 3 user comments

Unfinished Sympathy*

UlyssesSeveral years ago, when I was studying writing at university, a lecturer of mine expressed utter disdain when a student confessed to abandoning James Joyce’s Ulysses mid-way through. The lecturer, who was an author herself (well you’d want to hope so, wouldn’t you?), said that to give up on a book before the end was lazy and disrespectful to the author and Literature itself. This exchange took place in the first week of semester and, like the chap who asked how much a published author can expect to earn in a year, the student concerned did not return the following week. The rest of us sat nodding in agreement with our lecturer in an attempt to demonstrate that we had not only finished Ulysses, but read it several times, along with many fat books by Russian writers. I myself had to put extra effort into appearing smug to cover the fact that, not only had I never finished Ulysses, I had never started it either. (Unlike my grandfather, who started reading it under the false belief it was about motorcycle gangs.) What’s worse, I was guilty of abandoning several books – some of them ‘Classics’ – not two chapters in, but two chapters short of the end. (I tell you what: if you keep reading this post till the end, I’ll reveal what they were.) ... read more

Written by Claire Zorn on 25-08-2010, 51 user comments

Future of the Greens

Saturday evening. 21 August 2010. The function room in the Victoria Hotel is hot. Crammed in are hundreds of people. At the rear, journalists circle around television cameras. They care little for the buzzing green-clad crowd: their focus is elsewhere. They scribble notes, look at the floor. It is artificially bright in this little area: a bubble of luminosity thrown by the TV lights. Greens activists hug each other, chatter animatedly. There are several questions everyone asks: Where did you hand out how-to-vote cards? How will the Greens go? Who will win government? In their hearts, they know that tonight will be a victory for the party.

They are not wrong. Before long, it is announced that Adam Bandt – a friend of mine – has been elected as member for the seat of Melbourne. His first words are ‘Melbourne, together we’ve made history today.’ If his first words are passionate, the rest of his speech is a lesson in composure and diplomacy. The speech is not heavy on content, though he does highlight the Greens progressive policies on refugees, climate change and same-sex marriage. He finishes to a storm of applause. ... read more

Written by Rjurik Davidson on 24-08-2010, 22 user comments

On clowns, Macbeth, not voting and activism and such

My favourite cafe, where I spent the election morning, is fortunately located in Nimbin, where I live. There are many reasons to like it; it’s super-relaxed, humble, has great food, is the only cafe I know that can make decent tea, has good reading material, drawing materials, children are regarded as real people, and so on. Most of the other cafes I’ve ever been into seem to have instructed their relentlessly young staff to be uber-bubbly and call everyone ‘Guys’, as in ‘Hi Guys!!’ Also on their script is the dreaded exhortation, as the food and drinks are served up, ‘Enjoy!’ ... read more

Written by Stephen Wright on 23-08-2010, 20 user comments

Nasty but weak

Not exactly great news to wake up to but it's not as bad as it might be.

Sure, it's more likely than not that Tony Abbott will be the new prime minister, and the prospect of a conservative government propped up by sinister bumpkins like Bob Katter is pretty grim. Certainly, when Abbott became leader, I was among those who thought the move rendered the Liberals unelectable for a decade. But cometh the hour, cometh the man -- and, hello, here's Tony.

But there are reasons, if not to be exactly cheerful, than at least to put the razors away for a while yet.

Firstly, the incoming government will be unstable and weak. Given the conservatism of both parties, this can only be to the good. In the wake of that entirely empty campaign, what mandate could either party claim? An Abbott government, particularly resting on disaffected Nationals, will be very circumscribed as to what it can actually do. That doesn't mean Abbott and his crew won't be already hatching all kinds of evil schemes but it does mean that each new horror they unleash will be met with considerable scepticism, and so the prospects for resistance are better than might be expected. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 22-08-2010, 57 user comments

Don’t mention the war[s]

Gillard & Abbott

Although it is reasonable to expect any election campaign to focus predominantly on domestic issues, it is nevertheless somewhat disappointing that matters of foreign policy have been put on the backburner in this unfulfilling 2010 Labor/Liberal contest. Aside, that is, from the essentially meaningless Tony Abbott mantra ‘turning back the boats,’ and both sides affirming an Australian military presence in Afghanistan. Surely there must be more going on in the wor

Written by Dan Bigna on 20-08-2010, 19 user comments

The Library of Forgotten Books

The library of forgotten booksFor anyone who is interested, PS Publishing in the UK has recently released my collection, The Library of Forgotten Books. There’s a plain hardcover and a cool jacketed and signed hardcover. The reviews so far have been pretty positive.

One of the reviewers writes: ... read more

Written by Rjurik Davidson on 19-08-2010, 4 user comments

Journal review – Kill Your Darlings Issue 2

KYD2 Kill Your Darlings stands accused of new fiction, essays, commentary and reviews and is guilty on all four counts.

I was very pleased when the July edition of Kill Your Darlings fell into my greedy hands. The editorial team have produced a chocolaty artefact of some beauty with superb artwork from Jeremy Ley. A collector’s item, I do believe, and fit for the finest bookshelf.

KYD has a reputation for wanting to sharpen the cutting edge of the literary journal: ... read more

Written by Clare Strahan on 18-08-2010, 3 user comments

Meanland – ‘No thanks, I’ve seen an old issue at the library’: on the responsibility of the reader for the decline of publishing

So you, the reader, want to save independent publishing in Australia? Go forth and buy a book. Be daring: buy an armful. The truly intrepid might add a subscription, or several, to one of Australia’s exceptional literary journals – a commitment to the health of the Australian literary scene, if you will.

This isn’t to imply that readers have money to burn, or that they should spend all of their disposable income on books and journals. Yet, readers – above all, those of the aspiring writer variety – are often reluctant to part with their cash when it comes to investing in Australian publishing. And for aspiring writers and readers alike, this is precisely how we can define purchasing local printed commodities: an investment.

Interrogation of the cultural foothold and relevancy of the literary journal aside, this appeal is directed to those who do benefit from their relationship to and the preservation of ‘the journal’. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 18-08-2010, No comments

Environmental issues – not so ‘out there’

Earlier I was doing reading for a subject for my Masters. It was about the various forms of environmentalism as they had existed in the past, and in the then-present (1996). Among the last things in the given reading was a table of environmental ideas divided up by how wacky they were considered to be.

The ‘mainstream’ ideas were dull, and are now pretty much universally adopted, as were most of the ‘acceptable’ views. Those titled ‘mildly controversial’ were ideas that now, at least for me, are no longer remotely controversial. But what I was really amused by were the lists labelled ‘Still too way out’ and ‘abandoned’. While some of them may have been fruitcake territory at the time of writing, at least some are on the way back in. And it’s interesting, to say the least, to see what was considered crazy in 1996, but is now just accepted: ... read more

Written by Georgia Claire on 17-08-2010, 1 user comment

Finally, I’m interested!

What I can say is, after all my whining, all my shunning and head-in-hands dismay, something’s caught my eye, snared my attention, caused me to contemplate – even with some degree of intrigue – the Federal Election. It’s not just the winning and losing – although that holds its own nail-biting attributions – it’s what’s going on: the personalities, the asides, the thought of what’s at stake! But regardless of the particulars – the this and the that – something has clicked into gear for me. Finally, I’m onboard. Finally, I’m taking note.

This awakening took place around the time I took a trip into a state forest where, with no electricity (which meant no light to read by), my only form of stimulation was my transistor radio. What choice did I have? I immersed myself in Radio National and got to hear Kevin talk to Phillip and Barry Jones and Rodney Cavalier reminisce about Ben Chifley and Gough. A day or two later there was the win in the High Court for GetUp!, which meant seven days reprieve for an estimated 100,000 to get on the electoral roll, and the announcement of the question and answer session for swinging voters, which gave us all an opportunity to say Rooty Hill. ... read more

Written by SJ Finn on 17-08-2010, 3 user comments

Poetry review: The Best Australian Poetry 2009 | UQP

The Best Australian Poetry 2009The Best Australian Poetry
Alan Wearne (Ed.)
UQP

Some months ago I wrote a brief critical review of Black Inc.’s Best Australian poems. Remember – the post that was met with a surprising amount of confusion, discussion etc? Well I left writing this follow-up review of the rival The Best Australian Poetry 2009, edited by Alan Wearne, published by UQP, so long, the 2010 editions must be due out pretty soon. My main points about the Black Inc. anthology were essentially as follows: ... read more

Written by Tara Mokhtari on 16-08-2010, 11 user comments