I’ve been finding elegant ways to procrastinate this year. Several months ago, I arranged my bookshelf according to read and unread. In a particularly sociopathic gesture, I grouped the read books by colour. A surprising number of covers are bright orange, even if you discount all the popular Penguins. The unread books huddle at the top of the bookshelf, waiting to be chosen. I look around for a way to separate the two sections. The box containing my mother’s ashes fits perfectly. It marks the threshold between past and future. As the unread pile grows smaller on the shelf, the… [Read more]
Spelling Bees and Solitude
O-C-C-I-P-U-T—Awesome! +7 points flashes the New York Times Spelling Bee app. A little smug smile. That’s a good one. It started with a lot of four-letter words back in the Autumn months of lockdown—Good! +1 point. Now the Spelling Bee is clapping letters and the daffodils are smiling golden. Go slow, they say. Be kind on yourself, they say. And then … Stay connected, they say. Reach out, they say. Another virtual meeting to make sure everyone is doing ok? they say. Join our online pilates. Participate in our online forum. Enjoy the company of friends through online wine parties…. [Read more]
What I’m Reading
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling distressed—the book I’d been reading, The White Girl by Tony Birch, lay open on the bedside table. Odette Brown, an Indigenous woman and the protagonist of the story, must try and protect her granddaughter from the welfare authorities that threaten to remove her. Odette is no stranger to the perils of living under white rule; she has lived on the fringes of society all her life. Tony Birch’s story is set in post-war Australia, when Indigenous people were treated as less than human. Were controlled by the state. Not counted… [Read more]
Harold Thomas and the Legacy of Albert Namatjira
When thinking about the Aboriginal flag and copyright and the desire of the government to intervene to overturn the copyright protections owned by the flag’s creator, Luritja elder Harold Thomas, let us consider the case of Albert Namatjira. Albert Namatjira, a Western-Arrernte man, was perhaps the first Aboriginal visual arts superstar. Painting in the European watercolour style he quickly became a celebrity and was able, at the peak of his fame and artistic power, to financially support huge numbers of close and distant family; a number estimated at around 600 during his life. He was not wealthy but his support… [Read more]
#Meanjin280 Pandemic Edition: The Winning Tweets
Two weeks ago, we announced a new Twitter competition: tweet a piece of pandemic-themed fiction with the hashtag #Meanjin280. We were amazed at the high quality of the entries, and struggled to choose just ten. Instead, we’ve selected 12 to each win a 12-month digital subscription to Meanjin, as well as publication right here on the blog. Thank you to everyone who entered for making us think, laugh, and feel less alone during these isolating times. See below for the winning tweets. The Top Tweets Search… [Read more]
Hysteria as Object as Archive
I’m not sure if other writers feel this way (if this is ‘normal’ or if it’s created or intensified by the conditions of my illness) but the thought of my book being released has been met with a swell. I can’t be still; I feel I’m not doing enough for it. How can I fail an object I wrote? I’m itching, and not eating enough of the ‘right’ foods. I’m consumed with wanting it to be read widely, but also scared of it being read at all. Hysteria was originally going to be published in May. But, the pandemic happened…. [Read more]
What I’m Reading
A Tasmanian beach in February 2018. Unprompted, a woman I barely know recites Seamus Heaney’s Postscript to me as we stand on the sand; bodies, hair wet after a swim. It is a grey day, not cold but not warm either, the wind pushing the water towards the sand. At the dinner table a week later, she cries as she reads excerpts of her dead daughter’s diary to me. The last pieces she has of her. Her grief hides from her like the spiders in her study, creeping out from behind blinds, from under paper until you can see all… [Read more]
On Looking It Up
Australian editor and noted science fiction enthusiast John Bangsund died this week from COVID-19 complications. He was a man of many dictionaries …
The Flag Is Art, Art Is Copyright
There has been much reporting over the past weeks on the ‘free the flag’ movement, and their professed desire to force the Aboriginal flag licensing agreement to be changed. (A Change.org petition is titled ‘Change the licensing agreement around the Aboriginal Flag’). The AFL and many of their clubs have become involved in this movement though what their motivations are is not completely clear, unless it’s the desire to place the flag on their Indigenous round jerseys without permission. This has been misreported by the media as a ban on the flag being flown at the games; it is legal… [Read more]
What I’m Reading
As soon as I began to think of what I might write here, the phrase for a long time came to me. I always have numerous books on the go, ‘open’ all at once and sometimes for a long time. This is, of course, the opening of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. I imagine a thin, shimmering abstract-expressionist veil of paint between have read or reading or no longer reading or about to read. The first time I read Swann’s Way was in India in 2006, but I’ve been slowly moving through the original translation by Moncrieff and the… [Read more]
