Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

A Poetics of Failure is No Bad Thing: Stephen Muecke and Margaret Somerville's White Writing

Fiona Probyn
Does my story write out another story? (Margaret Somerville)1 a white man’s artifact, a book. How could I make this thing move? (Stephen Muecke)2 what language can I use to carry this story? (Stephen Muecke)3Stephen Muecke’s question, ‘what language can I use to carry this story?’ 4 forms the tail/tale end to the first chapter of No Road. These words are inevitably followed, despite their reference to the difficulties of inscription, by more writing. We are becoming accustomed to writing about the impossibilities of writing: writing about silence; noise about silence; ...
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Network Review of Books

Hill of Grace (2004)

Reviewed by Tony Smith in the April 2005 issue.
According to some assessments of the 2004 Australian federal election campaign, religion had its greatest impact on the outcome since the sectarian 1950s. The influence of new religions, described variously by critics as Pentecostal, evangelical or fundamentalist, surprised many observers, so perhaps more effort is needed to understand not just the rise of new faiths but the survival of older, smaller ones. Stephen Orr's Hill of Grace is a work of fiction, but like any good novel, it provides insights into general psychology through its characters and addresses themes that elude social ... read more.

On Suspect Terrain: Journals of Exploration in the Blue Mountains 1795-1820 (2004)

Reviewed by Paul Genoni in the March 2005 issue.
Of all Australia's significant geographical features, it is likely that the Blue Mountains come second only to Sydney Harbour in terms of their attractiveness to locals and visitors alike. And the two are of course united by geography and history. From the time the fledgling colony sprung up on the shores of Sydney Harbour, the tantalising blue barrier to the west stood between the settlers and ... well... Australia. It is little wonder that in a continent so devoid of mountainous features that the Blue Mountains have exerted an ongoing fascination. Generations of Australian school children ... read more.

Blue Moon (2004)

Reviewed by Zora Simic in the June 2005 issue.
Carolyn Van Langenberg gives good title and it's only now, having just finished her ambitious trilogy of novels -- Fish Lips (2002), The Teetotaller's Wake (2003) and Blue Moon (2004) -- that I fully appreciate this particular skill. Looking back, they tell me everything and nothing I need to know about what happens between the covers. The titles evoke the author's key preoccupations -- families, dreams, cultural encounters, passion, love, sexuality, grief, nostalgia, location, dislocation -- without giving too much away. Indeed, Van Langenberg is all about the slow unravelling of a story, a ... read more.

All the Iron Night (2004)

Reviewed by Helen Hagemann in the June 2004 issue.
Ross Bolleter's All the Iron Night is an impressive collection. This hardbound volume of forty poems is magnetic, solid and full of strength. The human fabric of home, love, and relationships is deftly conveyed. Strong images and themes of urban and country life and identities abound. His images of an outback landscape sit well with lengthy pieces that expose the saving grace of Zen Buddhism. Forms range from narrative and free verse to haiku and renga. The renga, Old Dog, is a collaborative work with Susan Murphy. Bolleter is a listener as well as a careful observer. He's not ... read more.

Radical Melbourne 2: The Enemy Within (2004)

Reviewed by Ian Morrison in the August 2004 issue.
Radical Melbourne: A Secret History (Vulgar Press, 2001) ought to have been a tough act to follow. It had everything: solid research, lively writing, well-chosen illustrations, and excellent, unobtrusive design -- and it achieved the sorts of sales that most of us who have been involved in small presses only ever dream about. It transformed Ian Syson's Vulgar Press from a part-time broom-cupboard operation into a notable independent publisher. The only sane response was psychotic jealousy. Stuart Macintyre concluded his foreword to that first installment with the remark that 'Since the ... read more.

Ancient and Modern: Time, culture and indigenous philosophy (2004)

Reviewed by Eve Vincent in the December 2004 issue.
Stephen Muecke tells of his first meeting decades ago with Nyigina elder Paddy Roe, who was to become friend, Indigenous 'informant' and colleague/collaborator. Muecke, a first year PhD student recording oral narratives, met Paddy Roe in Broome at the 'old Anna Street reserve where he was dismantling old sheds to take the materials out to Coconut Wells to build a new place'. Muecke relates: 'When I asked if he could tell me a few stories, he responded by saying, Things must go both ways. When I asked what he meant he laughed and asked if I could start by loading that corrugated iron on the ... read more.

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