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so that was the subscriberthon that was

The inaugural Overland subscriberthon has now come and gone. After a somewhat shaky start, it proved a remarkable success, showcasing the snazzy new site and pulling in the subs. Thanks to everyone who subscribed or renewed; thanks, too, to all the sponsors, the bloggers, the commenters and everyone here at Overland HQ. Prizes will be drawn and announced over the next week, so stay tuned.

Of course, even without subscriberthon, it’s always a good time to become a member of the Overland community. Most of the essays from the current edition are now online – click here to read Darshana Jayemanne on the art of video gaming, Lizzie O’Shea on opera in the occupied territories and Liz Thompson & Ben Rosenzweig on the market in education. The fiction, poetry and reviews will be up soon. Again, if you like what you see, don’t feel shy about getting that credit card out. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 9-12-2009, No comments

Subscriberthon guest post: Mark Bahnisch on the era of magical thinking

Mark Bahnisch is the person (or at least one of them) behind Larvatus Prodeo, the biggest and most lively Left-leaning blog in Australia. Here he contributes a guest post on Australia's years of magical thinking.

Politics, under the sign of postmodernity, increasingly resembles an ethereal realm, floating free of any grounding. It’s become almost trite to remark that symbol trumps substance; that the arts of campaigning and governing are now inextricably linked. The former is a constant, and the latter is the realm of a machine of policy wonkdom which seems to have only a tenuous and occasional relation to the sphere of the demos.

But the symbolism characteristic of political discourse in the twenty-first century, the mediated messaging and the mellifluous mendacity, is only a part of the story. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 8-12-2009, 1 user comment

if Π.O. said to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

As Subscriberthon shudders to a close, it's time to bring out a selection of Overland's nearest and dearest – including a cavalcade of former editors – urging you to dig deep in support of Australia's only progressive literary journal. There's still time to do the right thing.

As the space for independent media contracts and the mainstream print media turns into an ever bigger joke, like one of Stephen Murray-Smith's lighthouses Overland stands tall in a tsunami of literary mediocrity, political bankruptcy, and intellectual dishonesty. Subscribe, the cultural life it saves might be your own!

Ian Syson

Overland is a magazine of deep thinking, a bastion against the distractions that pass for alternatives. It's a continual source of vital, original and unexpected ideas. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 8-12-2009, 4 user comments

Subscriberthon guest post: Guy Rundle on Ruddism and the progressive patriots

Guy Rundle is one of the most versatile writers in Australia. He provides daily commentary for Crikey, has long been associated with the political tendency around Arena and has just finished the forthcoming Max Gillies' show Godzone. He's also written the lead essay for Overland 197, a comparison of Ruddism and British New Labour, in which he argues:

When it comes to reversing liberatory potential into a system for administering social and psychological life, Rudd Labor has thus gone one stage further than Blair. Rudd's latest intervention - an attempt to end the ‘history wars' by courtly fiat - is a similar attempt to draw the untidy processes of debate into service to the nation. Ruddism is a mode of post-social democratic labour adapted to Australian conditions and history, one that displays no real interest in challenging an atomised neoliberal social order and must therefore explore increasingly specific coercive measures in the management of a population. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 8-12-2009, 2 user comments

Am I committing murder with this writing?

2-inala-cross1Here's Francesca Rendle-Short's extraordinary essay about her relationship with her fundamentalist father, a deceptively simply and very moving piece of prose. It should be read alongside Francesca's earlier essay about her mother, morals campaigner Angel Rendle-Short.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 8-12-2009, No comments

sleeping beauties

Ever wondered what Zoe Dattner and Lou Swinn, co-Publishers-in Chief of Sleepers, reckon about Overland?

'It's just like Lenny Kravitz said: Baby it ain't over till it's Overland. And what he was really trying to say was that as soon as Overland arrived in his letterbox, he was gonna drop everything just to be with that magazine. And I know how he feels.'

Zoe Dattner, General Manager SPUNC inc.

'Is "life's pretty straight without Overland" too derivative?'

Lou Swinn, Publisher @ Sleepers

Couldn't you just eat 'em up with a spoon?

... read more

Written by Karen Pickering on 7-12-2009, No comments

Subscriberthon Prize Announcement

If you subscribe today, you could win this:

FUTURESprints1

A complete set of A3 colour prints comprising Matthew Dunn’s illustrations of the SF series Melbourne Futures in Overland 196.

No, I’m not kidding.

... read more

Written by Karen Pickering on 7-12-2009, No comments

Subscriberthon guest post: Matthew Dunn on the creative process behind Melbourne Futures

You might remember that Overland 196 included a colour supplement showcasing the work of the graphic artist, Matthew Dunn, to accompany a series of SF works imagining our city in the future. It was a dark and beautiful little collection, enhanced considerably by the quality of the artwork. Matthew Dunn guest blogs for us today on the creative process behind commissioned works that will necessarily be in dialogue with the written word. We’re pretty excited to welcome him now ...

THE STEP BY STEP PROCESS OF CREATING SOMETHING

1. Read the story (in this instance being ‘Heart Of Dockness’ by Andrew Morgan).

2. Read the story again, this time making note of anything that could be represented in a literal sense.

3. Work through the literal ideas to see which of them has a naturally emotional and/

Written by Karen Pickering on 7-12-2009, No comments

TESTIFY

oh, by the way … you know john pilger, right? well, he reckons you should subscribe too. i quote:

“Australians are wilfully denied a diverse and decent media, which makes Overland all the more crucial for the preservation of our sanity and freedom.”

Thanks, John.

... read more

Written by Karen Pickering on 7-12-2009, 1 user comment

I quite like Mondays…

Well, in one short sleep the First Annual Overland Subscriberthon will draw to a close. I know, right? We can scarcely believe it ourselves. We’ve had some robust debate [not always constructive or polite but hey, you gotta break a few eggs etc.], some top quality guest posting, some dangling of prizes in front of your nose and guess what else? WE'VE HAD A LOT OF YOU SUBSCRIBE. So consider us practically in love with all of you. We’re basically married now. ... read more

Written by Karen Pickering on 7-12-2009, No comments

Radical And Progressive

The past few months have been interesting here on the Overland blog. We’ve seen a few flare ups. One of the largest was over the nostalgic racism of the black-face disgrace on Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday. And now we have a controversy regarding misogyny in music. I always find it surprising when we hear so many of the responding voices asking for moderation and counselling for acceptance. Overland is known as the most radical of the literary mags and the banner proclaims a dedication to progressive culture. Apparently many feel that should include tolerance of racial ridicule and disregard for women or their concerns.

Mainstream media is filled with these porous moral codes. There’s any number of magazines, newspapers and blogging forums where all forms of racism and misogyny are not only accepted, but surreptitiously encouraged. The Australian posted a piece regarding a suspected terrorist a few weeks ago, and there were over a hundred blog comments, suggesting everything from the deportation of entire families and communities to death sentences en masse. As repugnant as these forums are, or destructive this kind of hatemongering journalism, we need that kind of freedom of expression for a healthy culture. A counterbalance to these kinds of extremes is rarely found. Overland being tugged back to the centre does not serve mainstream media any better, nor does it benefit the breadth or health of Australian culture. ... read more

Written by Alec Patric on 6-12-2009, 10 user comments

The National Poetry Slam 2009 – guest reviewed by Mark William Jackson

Of course, another reason you should subscribe to Overland is that Overland is much more than a literary magazine, it is a community. In September this year, Overland opened the blog up for Overland Overloaded, a new partnership between the Overload Poetry Festival and Overland. A talented and dedicated team of bloggers reviewed poetry events for the duration of the two week festival, and several of the bloggers involved in the project continue to write for this blog now. It's in this spirit of inclusiveness and community that Sydney poet Mark William Jackson contributes his guest review of the 2009 National Poetry Slam Final at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday evening, his first review ever, he tells me: ... read more

Written by Maxine Clarke on 5-12-2009, 2 user comments

Art and sexism: is it acceptable?

Last night, after the heated discussion on the Nick Cave essay by Crawford, I thought I'd post some of my reflections on the debate which have left me a little confused about my own beliefs as an artist. Is art allowed to be sexist? Is art allowed to cross the line? It seems everywhere you look these days everyone is being careful to be politically correct for fear of being sued or being labeled sexist. I can understand journalism is reporting fact but what about art? Is all art considered fictional? Is music fictional? I'm a little confused about all this myself. Is fiction allowed to be sexist if we are just reflecting on the human condition and the world we live in which is, in fact, sexist? ... read more

Written by Koraly Dimitriadis on 5-12-2009, 30 user comments

Subscriberthon guest post: alicia sometimes on the potential politics of poetry

If you’ve ever been lectured by Ian Syson [in a university theatre or in a bar] about poetry, you’ll know that it is inescapably, ineluctably, indisputably political. alicia sometimes argues much the same here with her characteristic verve and whimsy and we welcome her to the Overland blog as our esteemed guest.

In a week that has seen the NSW Labor party implode and Tony Abbott rise to the giddy heights of opposition leader - despite the mention of his budgie smugglers - I think it is time to reflect on the politics of poetry. Former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo once remarked, ‘You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.’ This round of Australian political football (foosball?) line-up changes hasn’t come with the oratory grace of refined poetry, but I understand what Governor Cuomo meant. ... read more

Written by Karen Pickering on 4-12-2009, 4 user comments

Subscriberthon guest post: Antony Loewenstein on the state of the peace process

Antony Loewenstein is a prominent blogger, and the author of the oft-reprinted My Israel Question and the more recent Blogging Revolution. He also delivered, not so long ago, an Overland lecture on oil and the Middle East. Here, offers a provocative guest post on the state of the peace process under Rudd and Obama.

There are some who argue that the Middle East is a constantly evolving train-wreck. In fact, with notable exceptions, the last decades have been remarkably consistent in going in the wrong direction.

One year after the election of US President Barack Obama provides us with a perfect opportunity to assess his progress. The reality on the ground in Palestine has never been so grim. South Africa said in late November that the expansion of settlements near Jerusalem was comparable to the 'forced removals' of the apartheid era. Settlers in the West Bank have filed a petition with Israel’s High Court to demolish a nearly completed stadium near Ramallah. Some colonists are almost begging for the right to live on occupied land. 'In short, we are looking for a hill-top', one writes, seemingly hoping for sympathy. ... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 4-12-2009, No comments