Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

South Australia and the Northern Territory

Dean Jaensch
Normally, South Australia does not loom large in the contest of a federal election. With only 12 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, it is rare that the state matters. Of the 12 seats, 8 are rock-solid safe — 2 for Labor, and 6 for the Liberal Party. The four marginal seats in the 2001 election became potentially very important. With the national polls suggesting a close result, Labor needed to win all, or at least some, of the three Liberal-held marginal seats in SA, and to hold onto the equally marginal Labor seat of Kingston. In the months of run-up to the election, ...
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Network Review of Books

Shakespeare's Face (2002)

Reviewed by Sue Bond in the December 2002 issue.
I began reading this book in an ambivalent mood. It is an intriguing story; that a possible portrait of William Shakespeare, painted from life, had been 'found'. But does it actually matter? What difference would it make to our understanding of his plays and sonnets? The book is a mystery tale, and it did seduce me, at least partly. The cover features a portion of the portrait in question: a young man's face, with dark, intriguing eyes, a faint smile and a delicately embroidered white collar. Fragments of the portrait appear at the beginning of each new section, and there is a generous ... read more.

Hope: New Philosophies for Change (2002)

Reviewed by Martin Leet in the July 2003 issue.
Two discourses often surround our lives, discourses which contrast starkly with one another. One is very hopeful in its emphasis upon the unheralded possibilities for new, pleasurable experiences and for boundless opportunities for progress. The other is quite despairing in its preoccupation with rising levels of inequality and conflict, and with falling standards of political life and participation. In general, the promulgators of these discourses are separated by differences in power. The hopeful discourse is put forward by vested interests which seek to consolidate support for the existing ... read more.

The Dinosaur Dealers (2002)

Reviewed by Daniel Herborn in the September 2005 issue.
110 million years ago, a stegosaurus walked over the sandy plains outside Broome, leaving footprints which were eventually discovered in 1986. Just a decade later, they were gone. Such thefts represent a huge loss, not least to the scientific community which loses crucial information, such as the sequence of dinosaur footprints, or a complete skeleton, when items are removed from their context. The Dinosaur Dealers, however, is also valuable for its insights into the emotional and spiritual impact such crimes cause. A committed local amateur enthusiast died shortly after the footprints ... read more.

Bearded Ladies/Dreamhouse (2002)

Reviewed by Maggie Tonkin in the May 2003 issue.
This composite edition of two of Kate Grenville's early works has been released in the wake of the success of her 1999 Orange Prize winner, The Idea of Perfection. Dreamhouse was written before her first published work, the 1985 Vogel/Australian Award winner Lilian's Story, but not published until 1986. Bearded Ladies was originally published in 1984, and comprises short stories mostly written for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado. The novel and the short stories are connected through the story 'Country Pleasures' which contains the kernel of the later novel. Both ... read more.

The Enlightenment and the Origins of European Australia (2002)

Reviewed by Paul Genoni in the January 2003 issue.
By any reckoning, the foundation of European Australia in 1788 occurred at an extraordinarily propitious time. The French Revolution of 1789 ensured that the politics and governance of the western world were changed forever; Romanticism was on the verge of redefining the individual and his or her relationship with the natural world, and the incipient industrialisation of first Europe, and then the world, was becoming apparent. These transforming movements were not, of course, entirely independent. To a significant extent, they were all informed by the intellectual momentum of the ... read more.

Loose Men Everywhere (2002)

Reviewed by Jordan Williams in the December 2002 issue.
John Harms is a polytheist whose gods reside in the pantheon of Australian Football and, in particular, the Geelong Football Club. Alongside the footy faith in his memoir, Loose Men Everywhere, runs the Lutheran faith of his minister father. Harms' skill as a writer and storyteller emerges in his subtle illustration of the spiritual nature of football fandom by means of an entertaining flow of beautiful prose. That religious devotion to your football club is a normal and non-negotiable state is a given for Aussie Rules fans. I say this as a diehard Hawthorn fan and therein lies my dilemma in ... read more.

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