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Crime or sin?

owen muirWhen I read The Ecstasy Of Owen Muir at the age of 14 what stood out was the opulence, vanity and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. How, I wondered, had it become so much bigger than its boots? And how had Catholicism become such a schmick business, such a powerful entity, such a gross version (in my mind at least) of the doctrine of Christ?

As you might imagine, and despite the comic nature of the book, the raw, ideological fury of someone so young was the catalyst for remembering the novel; that and the fact it was such a wonderful read. Ring Lardner Jr who penned the opus and other wonderful work such as the screenplay for the movie M*A*S*H, was in jail for refusing to tell the House Committee on Un-American Activities whether he was a Communist, when he researched the material for the story. But, despite his name having been blacklisted so that for much of his career he wrote under pseudonyms, it was the content in The Ecstasy Of Owen Muir that made publishers nervous. The work was rejected over and over again, one publishing house telling Lardner that parochial schools might boycott their textbooks if they released the story. Eventually it was published in Britain. ... read more

Written by SJ Finn on 10-01-2011, 3 user comments

Non-fiction review: Dissecting feminism’s dead end

palinrosieOne Dimensional Woman is Nina Power's 69-page treatise and call to arms, articulately railing against contemporary portrayals of women. Power’s anger is at the narrow confines within which women must locate themselves, and the ‘trademarking’ of feminism for a range of projects that are harmful rather than liberatory. Acutely sharp in places, and humorous in others, it speaks frankly as it winds its way through issues from vintage porn to the rise of the ‘uber-feminist’ Sarah Palin.

Power discusses some of the historical and contemporary feminist staples, such as pornography and social attitudes to the wearing of the hijab, but in doing so breathes fresh air into these questions. Her discussion about violence in pornography and its relationship to changing attitudes of young women to what is expected sexual conduct is illuminating, highlighting that issues of sexual behaviour and choice are not historically unchanging but socially constructed. ... read more

Written by Elizabeth Humphrys on 10-01-2011, 1 user comment

I’m not saying Glenn Milne’s a liar…

open_letterGlenn Milne, regularly published pontificating about his numerous anonymous sources, lowered the bar of journalistic standards yet again yesterday when he filed An ALP insider's open letter to Julia Gillard at ABC’s Drum. The piece consists of an introduction by Milne, followed by an unsigned open letter to Julia Gillard from an anonymous Labor party member – ‘one of the best Labor thinkers going around’, according to Milne.

There is so much wrong with this piece, from its origins to its argument, it’s hard to know where to begin. With the misuse of anonymous sources, political manipulation of the media and sexism, it kind of epitomises the state of journalism today. ... read more

Written by Jacinda Woodhead on 7-01-2011, 4 user comments

Fiction review: The Best Australian Stories 2010

BestStories2010The Best Australian Stories 2010
Cate Kennedy (ed)
Black Inc.

There has been a lot of discussion over the last year about the future of Australian writing and reading: Will Twitter reduce our collective attention span to that of a demented Fox Terrier? Will the novel be murdered (again) by the blogosphere? Will the next generation of writers all drown in their own navels as predicted by Ted Genoways? ... read more

Written by Claire Zorn on 6-01-2011, 3 user comments

Wanna intern at Overland?

internOverland magazine is accepting applications for its internship program.

Overland is a national literary journal, with a small staff producing a quarterly magazine and a daily website. We publish non-fiction, fiction, poetry, reviews, commentary, opinion pieces and artwork. The magazine is committed to engaging with important literary, cultural and political issues in contemporary Australia and has a tradition of publishing challenging and radical articles, with contributions from emerging writers as well as established authors. The magazine also hosts a number of events, including the regular Meanland lecture series in collaboration with Meanjin. ... read more

Written by Editorial team on 5-01-2011, 5 user comments

Relevancy is a terrible mistress

headacheRelevancy is a terrible mistress*. Not only does she seem to demand results now, now, of course now, but the bodily stress that that can cause, its very viscerality, freezes up muscles, induces heart attacks, headaches and conflict involving thumping devices.

Think of the reams of self-help books that have been bestsellers, ‘proven’ to kick off the shackles of our financially driven lifestyles, fund lifestyle choices and direct us back into the beige banality of lifestyle shops, all the while marvelling in bliss at their soporific effects. (I once sat in on a paper by a postgraduate** who started an academic research paper which was to spend 30 days following the daily mindfulness principles of a leading self-help book. It instead turned into a delightfully amusing polemic about the small-mindedness of those who are swayed by these reads, and a cataloguing of the sheer irritation of the crippling self-examination and blanket damping of all possible negativities in the dogged pursuit of ‘positivity’ that these ‘daily meditations’ caused.) ... read more

Written by Genevieve D Berrick on 4-01-2011, 2 user comments