We’re still here in Melbourne
where we held our breath and forgot how to exhale
What I’m Reading
I am reading books about how to murder my family. I blame Australian author SL Lim. They started it. About two, maybe three weeks ago, I was idly Googling books about murdering close family relations, when I came across Revenge: Murder in Three Parts. Lim’s novel tells the story of a truly vile brother and his wonderfully awful sister whose relationship fatally plays out in Malaysia and Australia. I then read How to Kill Your Family, a novel by Irish author Bella Mackie. The book has an entertainingly cold-hearted, female narrator and some very satisfying murder set-ups, one of which… [Read more]
Bodies of Light and the Opera of Trauma Writing
Months before the release of Melbourne author Jennifer Down’s third book, Bodies of Light, the local literary scene was baited with breathless assessments of the book’s impact. Those fortunate enough to get their hands on Down’s tome shared poignant missives from their experiences reading what had come to be known as ‘The Big, Sad Book’. My favourite review comes courtesy of Down’s younger sister, whose text message Down shared on Twitter back in July: [https://twitter.com/jenniferdown/status/1414734955075096578] ‘bro…. this book is fucking sad as’ Bodies of Light, which is Down’s second novel (her second book, Pulse Points, comprises fourteen piercing short stories),… [Read more]
Footy Should Come With a Trigger Warning
AFL is unavoidable in Melbourne. The state’s pastime, it’s a sport that transcends class and social boundaries, weaving its way into almost every community. Anyone from the shit-kicker to the CEO, from the tradie to the poet, can apparently get behind it. Everyone’s got a team, and if you don’t, you better choose one quick. Since moving to Melbourne in 2020, I’ve felt accosted by AFL culture. Unlike country NSW, where I moved from, footy-talk is everywhere. My first week in Melbourne a woman in a café remarked ‘you bloody tigers’ fan’; carelessly, I’d worn a black and yellow scarf… [Read more]
Politics and politics
Two weeks ago, former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally officially announced that she will nominate herself to be Labor’s candidate for the seat of Fowler in Sydney’s south west at the next federal election. Her announcement effectively ended the political ambitions of a young Vietnamese-Australian lawyer named Tú Lê from Fairfield, who was campaigning to be Labor’s pick for the seat. The news that Kristina Keneally will be Labor’s candidate to represent the people of Cabramatta, Fairfield and Liverpool, has been received with much backlash, not only from young Vietnamese-Australians but also from fellow Australians with culturally and linguistically marginalised backgrounds…. [Read more]
Melbourne Prize for Literature 2021: Read The Writer’s Prize Essays
We are delighted to publish the four finalists of the Melbourne Prize for Literature’s The Writer’s Prize 2021. Congratulations to Vivian Blaxell, Eloise Grills, David Sornig and Ouyang Yu. You can read the essays below. Nuclear Cats Vivian Blaxell The Fat Bitch in Art Eloise Grills Thirteen Men at the Sack of Troy David Sornig The Case for China or a Self-obituary Ouyang Yu Cast your vote at https://www.melbourneprize.org/vote-now/ for one of the finalists in the $15,000 Writer’s Prize or $60,000 Melbourne Prize for Literature 2021 to win the $3,000 Civic Choice Award… [Read more]
What I’m Reading
Reading Like a Mother Recently, I gave birth. To be more specific: recently, I almost gave birth in a carpark, because when I telephoned the midwives at the hospital to let them know I needed to come in, they didn’t believe I was in labour. ‘If you were really in labour,’ the first one said, ‘you wouldn’t be able to have this conversation.’ I hung up, wondered about the reality of my own existence for a moment, and tried to sit quietly with my heat pack and watch a re-run of Frasier. I called back twenty minutes later, when the… [Read more]
Australia Should Have Seen France’s Hurt Coming
It’s not just about what was done but the manner in which it was done. Could we not have seen it coming? Political commentary over the scrapped submarine deal with France has pointed to its significance for France’s regional ambitions, particularly in light of the ongoing process of decolonisation taking place in New Caledonia. On social media memes from Monty Python’s Holy Grail are coming in handy. People are having fun joking about how over the top the French have been, scorned like a jilted lover (recalling their ambassadors! Sacre bleu!). Stereotypes about the French as dramatic and easily excitable… [Read more]
The Shaggy Dog, Clipped
Norm Macdonald—seal clubber, deeply closeted homosexual, comedian—has died after drawing with cancer, following a nine-year battle that he seemingly kept secret from everyone but those closest to him. The news was met online by a tidal wave of shock, grief, and laughter as people shared clip after clip of Norm Macdonald being, impossibly, the funniest man alive.
Sales Is Right About Twitter, But It’s Not The Full Story
It is difficult to disagree with Leigh Sales’ opinion piece. The hostility on social media is out of control: [T]he bullying and harassment now comes, not in an occasional phone call from a real person, but at a furious pace on social media from politicians’ acolytes, lackeys, fans and proxies, mostly — but not always — operating anonymously. It is non-stop, personal, often vile, frequently unhinged and regularly based on fabrications. It has the effect of an angry phone call from a politician magnified thousands of times over. Sales complains correctly that ‘it is overwhelmingly left-leaning Twitter users who are… [Read more]
