Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

Idiot Box: Mick Cameron as Yobbo Flâneur

Rebecca Johinke
Campus Lite has obtained an exclusive interview with David Caesar, who will share some insights to his film Idiot Box (1997) with us. Idiot Box is a bleak ‘coming of age’ narrative that presents audiences with a stark but humorous dose of social realism in the ‘backblocks’ in the 1990s. The film pumps with crude, frustrated energy via sharp editing and a frenetic sound track that combines urban cacophony and raw Australian music to create a high-octane feel. [Editor: Just refer them to Goldsmith].1 Idiot Box is set in a desolate and fatherless realm, and investigates ...
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Network Review of Books

The Hawke Government: A critical retrospective (2003)

Reviewed by Bobbie Oliver in the March 2004 issue.
The concept of a 'critical retrospective' to mark the twentieth anniversary of the election of the first Hawke Government is undoubtedly worthwhile, and some of the contributions to this edited collection are of a high standard, yet the book's major weakness is the uneven quality of the contributions. Perhaps this is inevitable when authorship ranges across a number of disciplines and professions, each with its own set of requirements and standards. This reviewer found the chapters written by academically-trained authors to be generally more objective, contextualised and genuinely critical ... read more.

Crowded Lives (2003)

Reviewed by Melissa Gregg in the June 2004 issue.
Lindsay Tanner thinks our relationships are in trouble. The ALP Federal Member for Melbourne and Shadow Minister for Communications argues that the demands of work and family, the rise of individualism, economic bottom lines and the liberation movements of the 1960s are all affecting our ability to form the important bonds of an earlier time. If 'we define ourselves by our relationships' and 'in many respects we exist for our relationships', Tanner asks why decision makers in government, business and wider society so rarely take them in to account (p 9) In his view, taking a 'relational ... read more.

Growth Fetish (2003)

Reviewed by Sue Bond in the July 2003 issue.
The tragedy of market economics is that if it did in fact accurately reflect the essential motivation of human life ... we would soon find ourselves living a nightmare. (105)� In the early 1990s, I often pondered on the unfortunate necessity of working in a job which I loathed but had to do in order to earn a living. It was a gross waste of time when I thought of what I would prefer to be doing with my life, regardless of the fact it would not provide me with a viable income. This conflict played itself out in my declining physical and mental health, and I was eventually forced to leave. It ... read more.

Friendly Street New Poets 8 (2003)

Reviewed by John Blahusiak in the Aug/Sep 2003 issue.
Friendly Street New Poets Eight presents three new poets, Elaine Barker, Tess Driver and David Mortimer, before the reader of Australian verse. As David Ad�s points out in his brief introduction to the volume, the term new is relative in its application, for these writers have each dedicated a large amount of time and energy towards finding their best practice for poetry. The three poets, for instance, have all been published previously, though not in collected form, and they have all collected higher degrees relating to the vocation. Reminiscences upon youth and the invocation of a ... read more.

Bacchanalia (2003)

Reviewed by Stephen Lawrence in the July 2004 issue.
Here is another in the successful Interactive Press series of emerging writers. This press produces high-quality work -- although 11-point Georgia can be an unforgiving font to the reader's eye, and an incorrect web address at the rear of this book may confuse those interested in further exploring what the publisher has to offer. Brett Dionysius' second collection has a confident tone, evident in his earlier poetry, and he chooses sometimes confrontational subject-matter without apology. We are in southern Queensland (David Malouf territory) -- and Dionysius shows us very specific parts: ... read more.

Ballads, Satire and Salt: A Book of Diversions (2003)

Reviewed by Nicholas Reid in the February 2004 issue.
Stephen Oliver's anthology of 2001, Night of Warehouses, brought together the work of a poet who combines an astonishing facility for image with a complete assurance of voice, while showing a deep engagement with the poetic tradition . Two new collections, Ballads, Satire & Salt and Deadly Pollen, will do much to extend that reputation. The former is subtitled 'A Book of Diversions' and displays Oliver's sardonic wit and verbal inventiveness, along with a fine set of illustrations by Matt Ottley. The book's light verse moves from political satire ('Think Big') to a series of reflections on ... read more.

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