Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

Ferals: Terra-ism and Radical Ecologism in Australia

Graham St John
In its most recent edition, The Macquarie Dictionary recognises as ‘feral’: ‘a person who espouses environmentalism to the point of living close to nature in more or less primitive conditions and who deliberately shuns the normal code of society with regard to dress, habitat, hygiene, etc’.1 A familiar persona dwelling on the edges of Australian culture is now ‘on the record’. Though more silhouette than profile, we are presented with a verification of the presence of young radical ecologists disenchanted with the parent culture’s predacious impact ...
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Network Review of Books

Greeniology: How to live well, be green and make a difference (2003)

Reviewed by Lisette Kaleveld in the July 2003 issue.
In meeting the demands of modern living, some of us feel hopelessly constrained, and utterly ineffective at reducing our impact on the environment, which is both good reason to avoid and good reason to embrace a book like Greeniology: How to live well, be green and make a difference. Author, Tanya Ha, is a campaign development and media manager for Planet Ark, a well-known non-political environmental group that is supported by the proceeds of Greeniology. Tanya Ha, featured on the front cover in a friendly pose that is reminiscent of her semi-celebrity as a regular TV - show guest, has been ... read more.

Sexing it Up: Iraq, Intelligence and Australia (2003)

Reviewed by Daniel Fazio in the March 2004 issue.
Sexing it up provides a lucid account and analysis of the revelations of how the Bush Administration, and the Blair and Howard governments used imprecise and manipulated intelligence information and political spin to procure public support for the war against Iraq. Barker discusses how and why this was possible and the consequences and lessons that need to be drawn from this. His study raises some important questions about the honesty and integrity of these three governments. The issues Barker discusses reflect the current state of Australian politics where public apathy and political cynicism ... read more.

En Passant (2003)

Reviewed by Stephen Lawrence in the June 2003 issue.
In grey, the sea forged between my thighs gasping for blue sky... ('Cumberland Island')Zan Ross' poetry is characterised by a wild precision. Part of the pleasure in reading her new book is peeling the rinds of association�that spin off the poems in all directions. Like Neo in flight, she flames across her landscapes--as much for dirty fun as from a sense of civic duty. 'En Passant is sex, sex, sex...' writes MTC Cronin -- but it is more than this. The multiplicities, speed-hump syntax and jazz-riffing had me revisiting and re-returning to (and re-arriving at) many of Ross' poems. And ... read more.

Caldera: Narrative Excursions (2003)

Reviewed by Deborah Jordan in the September 2004 issue.
Caldera: narrative excursions is a finely produced selection of writings, theoretical and creative, and as the editors hope, with an 'excursive' approach to their subjects, digressing from the paths, ranging widely, inclined to stray and going beyond. Similar to the format of a little magazines and subtitled art culture literary theory fiction history memoir politics, the collection, we can hope, is the first of many such occasional publications. Caldera narrative excursions contains some real gems, intimate, vivid and finely crafted; most include some self-reflective notion of the writer ... read more.

Alas, for the Pelicans! Flinders, Baudin and Beyond (2003)

Reviewed by Katrina Gulliver in the October 2003 issue.
The bicentenary of Matthew Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia----and his encounter with the French captain, Nicolas Baudin----saw the release of a flurry of books and articles about him and the voyage. Alas, for the Pelicans! is one such book, and its editors take an interesting approach to the Flinders and Baudin expeditions, and their famous crossed paths. It contains narrative history, poetry, and essays on topics tangential to the two captains. The title refers to a remark made by Flinders about the pelicans of Kangaroo Island, and their fate in the wake of the arrival of European ... read more.

Mr Felton's Bequests (2003)

Reviewed by Gillian Dooley in the June 2004 issue.
The cover of John Poynter's Mr Felton's Bequests is adorned with an adapted quotation from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: 'The good that men do lives after them'. Even if we disregard the disruption of the bard's flawless iambic pentameter caused by substituting 'evil' with 'good', this tag sits oddly with this book. Mark Antony, in his 'Friends, Romans, countrymen' speech, plays with many layers of irony when he says, 'The evil that men do lives after them / The good is oft interred with their bones'. In this worthy, solid work, on the other hand, there is little irony. Still, the point is ... read more.

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