I had much higher expectations from this book than it reached, but still glad I read it. Bhattacharya managed a great deal of access to several of theI had much higher expectations from this book than it reached, but still glad I read it. Bhattacharya managed a great deal of access to several of the organised polygamous groups around Utah and the US desert, and with a journalist's appreciation for who, what, when, where and why, his outline of the details of the groups and their relationships with each other alone makes the book worth reading.
It focuses mainly on the smaller groups - one of my frustrations was my interest in the AUB, which Bhattacharya mentions in the context of groups who welcomed him, but never covers at all. Instead, he devotes a substantial amount of space to the Order, and some of the very small groups. The reason is partly obvious - the isolation, thoroughly wacky beliefs, and allegations of abuse can make for compelling reading. I suspect the book was originally intended to focus on the all-powerful leaders ("prophets") of these groups, but when access to them was denied, it sidestepped a bit.
Bhattacharya also deals with the political events and impact of the group over the time he was writing the book, including the raids on the FLDS Texas compound, and the resulting court cases. This was one of the best round-ups of this material I have read.
The groups he covers in detail, he covers thoroughly, explaining history, core beliefs, and what life is like for members. He's far more interested in the isolated lifestyle, and community organisation than he is in "how do they manage jealousy" which is a blessed relief from popular discourse on polygamy.
He also has some astute analysis of the political aims and motivations of the broad polygamist lobby - the "plural voices" crowd - particularly their aims to make alliances with liberals, and their use of the gay marriage debate (despite the major groups' opposition to legalising gay marraige) to do so.
Unfortunately, I found the supercilious tone of the author infuriating - he describes both anti-polygamy activists and polygamists with the same mix of sarcasm and condescension. An ever-present narrator, he muses on events in his own life as a way of highlighting his themes, but the result is just to entrench the feeling that he believes he is not only smarter and better than his subjects, but probably more interesting as well. You get the sense that he is violating the trust of those he interviewed for the sake, not of exposing abuse, but of scoring laughs. The exception is his description of some of the young people leaving the communities, or wishing to leave. Bhattacharya is clearly impressed with the courage of a couple of young Order members challenging the cult in their own way, mostly however, even these are portrayed in very patronising terms, as victims unable to own their own victimhood. It gets in the way of the analysis, as Bharttacharya's view seems mostly to be simply to be that it is individual weaknesses or situations that cause women to get into this mess, rather than examining any self-sustaining dynamics (reasons for women to stay other than fear).
Overall, I just wished he had spent more time on the communities more integrated in Utah life, who can't rely on the intense social isolation to control their members and who are the loudest in publicly repudiating the underage marriages, and domestic violence, that characterise the FLDS and the Order. The ideas and gender organisation of the Big Love and Sister Wives crowd, which has made inroads into social acceptance in the U.S. and has much more influence on LDS members and the public at large is more interesting to me than the exploration of the dynamics of cults. But I can't really blame the book for being something other than that :)
Merged review:
I had much higher expectations from this book than it reached, but still glad I read it. Bhattacharya managed a great deal of access to several of the organised polygamous groups around Utah and the US desert, and with a journalist's appreciation for who, what, when, where and why, his outline of the details of the groups and their relationships with each other alone makes the book worth reading.
It focuses mainly on the smaller groups - one of my frustrations was my interest in the AUB, which Bhattacharya mentions in the context of groups who welcomed him, but never covers at all. Instead, he devotes a substantial amount of space to the Order, and some of the very small groups. The reason is partly obvious - the isolation, thoroughly wacky beliefs, and allegations of abuse can make for compelling reading. I suspect the book was originally intended to focus on the all-powerful leaders ("prophets") of these groups, but when access to them was denied, it sidestepped a bit.
Bhattacharya also deals with the political events and impact of the group over the time he was writing the book, including the raids on the FLDS Texas compound, and the resulting court cases. This was one of the best round-ups of this material I have read.
The groups he covers in detail, he covers thoroughly, explaining history, core beliefs, and what life is like for members. He's far more interested in the isolated lifestyle, and community organisation than he is in "how do they manage jealousy" which is a blessed relief from popular discourse on polygamy.
He also has some astute analysis of the political aims and motivations of the broad polygamist lobby - the "plural voices" crowd - particularly their aims to make alliances with liberals, and their use of the gay marriage debate (despite the major groups' opposition to legalising gay marraige) to do so.
Unfortunately, I found the supercilious tone of the author infuriating - he describes both anti-polygamy activists and polygamists with the same mix of sarcasm and condescension. An ever-present narrator, he muses on events in his own life as a way of highlighting his themes, but the result is just to entrench the feeling that he believes he is not only smarter and better than his subjects, but probably more interesting as well. You get the sense that he is violating the trust of those he interviewed for the sake, not of exposing abuse, but of scoring laughs. The exception is his description of some of the young people leaving the communities, or wishing to leave. Bhattacharya is clearly impressed with the courage of a couple of young Order members challenging the cult in their own way, mostly however, even these are portrayed in very patronising terms, as victims unable to own their own victimhood. It gets in the way of the analysis, as Bharttacharya's view seems mostly to be simply to be that it is individual weaknesses or situations that cause women to get into this mess, rather than examining any self-sustaining dynamics (reasons for women to stay other than fear).
Overall, I just wished he had spent more time on the communities more integrated in Utah life, who can't rely on the intense social isolation to control their members and who are the loudest in publicly repudiating the underage marriages, and domestic violence, that characterise the FLDS and the Order. The ideas and gender organisation of the Big Love and Sister Wives crowd, which has made inroads into social acceptance in the U.S. and has much more influence on LDS members and the public at large is more interesting to me than the exploration of the dynamics of cults. But I can't really blame the book for being something other than that :)...more
Allen leans more towards travel memoir than serious analysis, bringing the reader along for a tour of her favourite queer haunts in Southern USA. EachAllen leans more towards travel memoir than serious analysis, bringing the reader along for a tour of her favourite queer haunts in Southern USA. Each chapter tackles a city/state, and a theme, but Allen puts the people at the centre of her story, making this an easy read, which largely celebrates queer survival and to some extent Southern culture (food features prominently). There are some thought provoking musings on the kind of community that is built in an unsupportive environment - Allen reflects on the inclusiveness of a town's only queer venue vs the segmentation that occurs when you have a "bar for every kind of bear". And this sense of community gives means the book delivers heartwarming feels. She doesn't shy away from covering the intensity of living with prejudice, nor does she seek overly to resolve these contradictions. The book isn't seeking comprehensiveness - so it isn't surprising that issues like managing the threat of violence are scantly covered, and Allen points to the importance of racism as an intersection (statistically, being Black and trans equates to much, much higher risk of violence, poverty and discrimination) but does not focus or explore how that intersects with Southern culture. So this is an entertaining read, and a welcome reminder that blanket disavowals of entire geographic communities is stupid and counterproductive. It isn't so much a research project, and that's ok.
Merged review:
Allen leans more towards travel memoir than serious analysis, bringing the reader along for a tour of her favourite queer haunts in Southern USA. Each chapter tackles a city/state, and a theme, but Allen puts the people at the centre of her story, making this an easy read, which largely celebrates queer survival and to some extent Southern culture (food features prominently). There are some thought provoking musings on the kind of community that is built in an unsupportive environment - Allen reflects on the inclusiveness of a town's only queer venue vs the segmentation that occurs when you have a "bar for every kind of bear". And this sense of community gives means the book delivers heartwarming feels. She doesn't shy away from covering the intensity of living with prejudice, nor does she seek overly to resolve these contradictions. The book isn't seeking comprehensiveness - so it isn't surprising that issues like managing the threat of violence are scantly covered, and Allen points to the importance of racism as an intersection (statistically, being Black and trans equates to much, much higher risk of violence, poverty and discrimination) but does not focus or explore how that intersects with Southern culture. So this is an entertaining read, and a welcome reminder that blanket disavowals of entire geographic communities is stupid and counterproductive. It isn't so much a research project, and that's ok....more
It has been a long time since I read something that made me oscillate so much between love and hate. At an early point in this book, Dabashi proclaimsIt has been a long time since I read something that made me oscillate so much between love and hate. At an early point in this book, Dabashi proclaims that his ambition is a small book which would guide readers into the beauty of Abolqasem Ferdowsi's Ferdowsi's Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. And there are moments, towards the middle of the book, where this book peeps out at you. When Dabashi talks about the Shanameh's text, even when I disagreed with him, it was compelling. I started daydreaming about studying under him, exploring the ideas further. But then, the reality, which is that 80% of the book is being ranted at about World Literature, a concept which about which I neither know nor care, and told what the book is doing, even though there doesn't seem to be any space left to actually do it. I'd still study under Dabashi in a shot if given the chance. But I'd probably skim read his books if he prescribed them :).
2019 Reading Challenge #12. A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore
Merged review:
It has been a long time since I read something that made me oscillate so much between love and hate. At an early point in this book, Dabashi proclaims that his ambition is a small book which would guide readers into the beauty of Abolqasem Ferdowsi's Ferdowsi's Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings. And there are moments, towards the middle of the book, where this book peeps out at you. When Dabashi talks about the Shanameh's text, even when I disagreed with him, it was compelling. I started daydreaming about studying under him, exploring the ideas further. But then, the reality, which is that 80% of the book is being ranted at about World Literature, a concept which about which I neither know nor care, and told what the book is doing, even though there doesn't seem to be any space left to actually do it. I'd still study under Dabashi in a shot if given the chance. But I'd probably skim read his books if he prescribed them :).
2019 Reading Challenge #12. A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore...more
Straight after finishing this, I went and added Shah's Nightmarch to my already overloaded to-read list, which I am stating up front because I suspectStraight after finishing this, I went and added Shah's Nightmarch to my already overloaded to-read list, which I am stating up front because I suspect I am mostly going to criticise this book, but it is the irritation of a fan. The Incarcerations tells a vital story - the kind of story you wonder "how did I not know about this", and Shah is clearly uniquely positioned to tell it. Part of the book's challenges are just with the story - sixteen Indian figures have been charged with a conspiracy, but little about any of this makes sense. The conspiracy is bizarrely connected to a peaceful festival protesting caste, which is somehow blamed for inciting a mob attack upon Dalits the next day; and most of the accused had nothing at all to do with either, not even proximity. On top of this, the accused are also accused of being Naxalites, even though none have such connections, and there is no connection of the Naxelites to the festival or the mob violence. Then there is also an accusation the whole thing is tied into a plot to assassinate Modi. It is all a bit of a mixed up bag. In trying to tell this story, Shah weaves between elements, starting with a basic explanation and then delving into the deep biographies of some of the accused. This was some of my favourite content, as Shah manages to turn what could be a grim bit into an homage to India's varied activism, tackling Adivasi protests against land theft and dams, anti-caste activism, defense of Muslim and Kashmiri communities, and more. About a third of the way into the book, however, Shah pivots to try to tell the story of how the investigation by supporters and NGOs started to unravel evidence of extensive hacking of the technology of those accused over many years and the planting of documents purportedly linking them to Naxalite movements. Shah also tries to cover what happens to each accused, the background to the terrorist laws that allow them to be held for years with no trial (the conviction rates are under 3% for these laws)- based on clearly ludicrous evidence. She also engages in discussions around whether you could describe Modi's government as fascist, in a fundamental or technical sense. It is a lot. The book feels a lot like it morphs and changes, and it can be hard to keep all the multitude of threads straight. But it is a very important book, and each part is most engaging. It is hard to believe, really, that this was unfolding in the last few years, that something this bizarre and blatant could happen in modern, independent India, and most of all, that the rest of us could simply not notice....more
TL; DR: This book made me really, really want to read Carland's PhD - so yay? But as a stand-alone book, I found it unsatisfying. I was really looking TL; DR: This book made me really, really want to read Carland's PhD - so yay? But as a stand-alone book, I found it unsatisfying. I was really looking forward to reading this one. Carland has doctorate on the topic, so it wasn't going to be superficial; I am fascinated by the way gender debates are expressed through theology; and best of all, Carland focused on activists within the community, letting their voices speak, an approach which is all too rare on this topic. So my disappointment with this book is within a context, and I can tell already I am out of step with most readers. If you have come to this book with the assumption that feminism is a Western invention; or that there is no debate/struggle/dissent/alternatives to sexism within Islam; or that all Muslim women are submissive and/or terrified, then this book will be a nice eye-opener to a world which is far more intricate, complex, diverse and evolving/changing than you expect. Carland quickly explains the context of her subjects, then briefly lets them talk for themselves about the difficulties of being at the intersections of women's oppression and Islamaphobia; their supporters and detractors; their motivations and how they see the work they do. She doesn't avoid some of the trickier topics, about why there might be more visible activism in Australia and the US than in Muslim-majority countries, and whether the strong representation of converts among her subjects is co-incidence or hints at broader dynamics. But it is quick and brief. The books skips so rapidly over each facet Carland refers to, that I ended up feeling like I had read a lengthy outline, not a satisfying visit with these women and their world. I certainly didn't feel as if I knew any of them, and neither did I feel that any of the topics covered had been deeply explored. The rest of this review may be a rant about the issues with turning PhDs into commercial books, so I'll apologise in advance for that. The most satisying PhD adaptions I've read have taken an aspect of the PhD and covered it in detail. I'm not talking about ones that spend significant space explaining their methodology, worldview, key concepts - that is always unnecessary and irritating in a book. But rather, they have zeroed in on the richness of *their* research and what was revealed by being able to delve very deeply into a topic. Unfortunately, these kinds of books don't sell wonderfully: they require a reader to be engaged enough to follow from concept to concept, and few of us have the time to do that in topics we aren't very interested in, and limiting your audience to the already very interested means less audience. I understand the problem. It is even more challenging, I suspect, when dealing with a topic that has so many misconceptions in the public eye: Carland was reluctant, I can imagine, to reduce the number of topics covered in the book, because each is an important part of the jigsaw puzzle which is a matter of some debate. But in producing a broad work, there is a loss of specificity, of the capacity to discover the kind of insights you get from intense research. None of this would irritate me if the original theses were available to read. But this one, as is usually the case, has been restricted: probably because Carland's publisher wants - understandably - to sell more copies of the book. There is a trend here involving public research and commercial publishing that more broadly irritates me, but none of this is the fault of Carland or her publisher, so it properly belongs elsewhere. The book was good, and important, and it is a good thing that it is publicly discussed and out there. I supect Carland's research was outstanding, and I look forward to seeing more of it.
Merged review:
TL; DR: This book made me really, really want to read Carland's PhD - so yay? But as a stand-alone book, I found it unsatisfying. I was really looking forward to reading this one. Carland has doctorate on the topic, so it wasn't going to be superficial; I am fascinated by the way gender debates are expressed through theology; and best of all, Carland focused on activists within the community, letting their voices speak, an approach which is all too rare on this topic. So my disappointment with this book is within a context, and I can tell already I am out of step with most readers. If you have come to this book with the assumption that feminism is a Western invention; or that there is no debate/struggle/dissent/alternatives to sexism within Islam; or that all Muslim women are submissive and/or terrified, then this book will be a nice eye-opener to a world which is far more intricate, complex, diverse and evolving/changing than you expect. Carland quickly explains the context of her subjects, then briefly lets them talk for themselves about the difficulties of being at the intersections of women's oppression and Islamaphobia; their supporters and detractors; their motivations and how they see the work they do. She doesn't avoid some of the trickier topics, about why there might be more visible activism in Australia and the US than in Muslim-majority countries, and whether the strong representation of converts among her subjects is co-incidence or hints at broader dynamics. But it is quick and brief. The books skips so rapidly over each facet Carland refers to, that I ended up feeling like I had read a lengthy outline, not a satisfying visit with these women and their world. I certainly didn't feel as if I knew any of them, and neither did I feel that any of the topics covered had been deeply explored. The rest of this review may be a rant about the issues with turning PhDs into commercial books, so I'll apologise in advance for that. The most satisying PhD adaptions I've read have taken an aspect of the PhD and covered it in detail. I'm not talking about ones that spend significant space explaining their methodology, worldview, key concepts - that is always unnecessary and irritating in a book. But rather, they have zeroed in on the richness of *their* research and what was revealed by being able to delve very deeply into a topic. Unfortunately, these kinds of books don't sell wonderfully: they require a reader to be engaged enough to follow from concept to concept, and few of us have the time to do that in topics we aren't very interested in, and limiting your audience to the already very interested means less audience. I understand the problem. It is even more challenging, I suspect, when dealing with a topic that has so many misconceptions in the public eye: Carland was reluctant, I can imagine, to reduce the number of topics covered in the book, because each is an important part of the jigsaw puzzle which is a matter of some debate. But in producing a broad work, there is a loss of specificity, of the capacity to discover the kind of insights you get from intense research. None of this would irritate me if the original theses were available to read. But this one, as is usually the case, has been restricted: probably because Carland's publisher wants - understandably - to sell more copies of the book. There is a trend here involving public research and commercial publishing that more broadly irritates me, but none of this is the fault of Carland or her publisher, so it properly belongs elsewhere. The book was good, and important, and it is a good thing that it is publicly discussed and out there. I supect Carland's research was outstanding, and I look forward to seeing more of it....more
"Are we alone in the cosmos? The question should have an obvious answer: yes or no. But once you try to find life somewhere else, you realize it is no "Are we alone in the cosmos? The question should have an obvious answer: yes or no. But once you try to find life somewhere else, you realize it is not so straightforward. Welcome to the world of science, which always starts with a (deceptively simple) question." Kaltenegger has arguably one of the coolest jobs on Earth - she heads a centre searching for life in the universe. Specifically, they devise and test criteria that can pinpoint planets as likely candidates for life, based on what we can see or sense. This combines work of great precision with great chaos. Kaltenegger's lab runs a lot of intensive mathematical calculations, and then they plot to build their own simulated lava world to try to understand what might be going on with the ones we can see. Much of this is, no doubt, tediously painstaking work, but in this engaging work Kaltenegger makes it sound like the most fun in the world. The book darts between topics—reminiscing segues into basic astronomical explanations, which again might turn to a heartfelt discussion about sexism in science, and sci fi references pepper the book (where *was* everyone's second shadow on Tatooine?). The book is firmly aimed at the public—it would be fine for a curious teenager. Kaltenegger wants us to feel the excitement of scientific exploration, and she largely succeeds....more
This is an extraordinary book. I can completely understand that its audience is very narrow, but that audience was apparently me. Each short chapter iThis is an extraordinary book. I can completely understand that its audience is very narrow, but that audience was apparently me. Each short chapter involves Galileo meeting a few figures, some historic, some composites, who illustrate an element of psychology, cognition or the philosophy of consciousness. He has a guide for this: in the first third of the book, dealing with the science of cognition, it is Crick - Frick to the deaf Galileo; in the second, dealing with theories of complex information processing, it is Allen Turing (Alti?); in the third, dealing with the more philosophical and fanciful things, it is poor Darwin (the bearded old man). At the end of each chapter, the voice of a critic pipes up to critique the chapter, provide historic and scientific context, and often, snark. The whole thing is peppered with high-quality reproductions of art. The book clearly has a lot going on, but the core is tightly focused on explaining and exploring the integrated information theory of consciousness. It is an unconventional approach, one which is, to say the least distracting, but the various personalities also allow various angles for problems to be debated in, and it definitely never gets dry. The first two sections culminate in an explanation of qualia, which I felt like I had a better grasp on before. The way that binary registers layer upon each other to encode a state, and then a prediction of past and future states. Then a view that the irreducible concepts from this process shine like sides on a geometric shape, creating a unique way of being in the world. There was quite a bit I didn't agree with - almost all of it in the last third when the content gets increasingly speculative. Sometimes it feels as if qualia - a construct that helps us to understand something - is treated as a proven material artefact. I would also have liked to see some exploration of the difference between consciousness and self - at one point Alti speculates that as split brains contradict each other, perhaps we have two consciousnesses. The probability that consciousness is a construct designed to keep us functional, but not our whole brain is a more appealing approach to understanding this to me. I would also have liked to see a few more woman, and well, any, scholars from non-Western traditions. I suspect if I had had less of traditional classical education, much of it would have been harder going. But while there was much I would have liked to have, what I did get made me exhilarated in a way a conceptual book hasn't in a while. Frankly, I had fun, which any good neurologist would say, made the learning deeper.
Merged review:
This is an extraordinary book. I can completely understand that its audience is very narrow, but that audience was apparently me. Each short chapter involves Galileo meeting a few figures, some historic, some composites, who illustrate an element of psychology, cognition or the philosophy of consciousness. He has a guide for this: in the first third of the book, dealing with the science of cognition, it is Crick - Frick to the deaf Galileo; in the second, dealing with theories of complex information processing, it is Allen Turing (Alti?); in the third, dealing with the more philosophical and fanciful things, it is poor Darwin (the bearded old man). At the end of each chapter, the voice of a critic pipes up to critique the chapter, provide historic and scientific context, and often, snark. The whole thing is peppered with high-quality reproductions of art. The book clearly has a lot going on, but the core is tightly focused on explaining and exploring the integrated information theory of consciousness. It is an unconventional approach, one which is, to say the least distracting, but the various personalities also allow various angles for problems to be debated in, and it definitely never gets dry. The first two sections culminate in an explanation of qualia, which I felt like I had a better grasp on before. The way that binary registers layer upon each other to encode a state, and then a prediction of past and future states. Then a view that the irreducible concepts from this process shine like sides on a geometric shape, creating a unique way of being in the world. There was quite a bit I didn't agree with - almost all of it in the last third when the content gets increasingly speculative. Sometimes it feels as if qualia - a construct that helps us to understand something - is treated as a proven material artefact. I would also have liked to see some exploration of the difference between consciousness and self - at one point Alti speculates that as split brains contradict each other, perhaps we have two consciousnesses. The probability that consciousness is a construct designed to keep us functional, but not our whole brain is a more appealing approach to understanding this to me. I would also have liked to see a few more woman, and well, any, scholars from non-Western traditions. I suspect if I had had less of traditional classical education, much of it would have been harder going. But while there was much I would have liked to have, what I did get made me exhilarated in a way a conceptual book hasn't in a while. Frankly, I had fun, which any good neurologist would say, made the learning deeper....more
"There are a number of other immunological theories as to how the SARS-CoV-2 virus could affect the brain and the mind in the long run. One is that th"There are a number of other immunological theories as to how the SARS-CoV-2 virus could affect the brain and the mind in the long run. One is that the virus directly invades the brain. This currently looks very unlikely, and while it may happen in rare cases, autopsies have not found evidence of viral material in the brain. Another is autoimmunity – the virus triggering the immune system to continually produce antibodies against healthy tissue. Covid, like many infections, can trigger cases of autoimmune encephalitis but, again, cases of antibodies directly attacking the brain appear to be very uncommon. What is more likely is the formation of antibodies against other tissues in the body contributing to a generally pro-inflammatory milieu that indirectly contributes to inflammation in the brain."
I'm too tired to spin much of a narrative about this book, so we're trying for bullet points.
The Good: - This is the first book I've read that attempts an explanation of Long Covid (mostly quoted above) - Lyman mostly uses very recent science and is clear and precise in his explanations of how immune processes and microbes work - The case studies are memorable. They will stick with people when the nature of brain cushioning has long since vanished. - This is engagingly written, with content that both covers the how and the why and the so what Lyman clearly demonstrates that mind and body are part of the same systems and can't be divorced. He conveys the real-world impact of our inability to take a holistic view of people who are suffering. - There's great stuff on microbes and our gut health (interesting feces facts!) - The book is meticulously referenced
The bad: - The content jumps significantly from chapter to chapter, between detailed biological explanations and anecdotes and case studies. This could be seen as a strength, for variety, but I found it a bit disconcerting; - Lyman quotes and recommends Matthew Walker (on sleep) and Michael Pollen (on food) despite their being questions about the robustness of both; and - In his conclusions in general, Lyman sometimes seems to mix up what seems true with what is evidentially indicated The verdict: - This is an important book at an important time. I would strongly recommend for those suffering Long Covid or other likely post-viral illnesses like CFS. - But I also recommend further research into his recommended lifestyle changes. ...more
This is a strong and well-put-together collection of writings from the incomparable Amy McQuire. McQuire worked on landmark publications like NationalThis is a strong and well-put-together collection of writings from the incomparable Amy McQuire. McQuire worked on landmark publications like National Indigenous Times and Tracker before a more recent career as a freelancer. She includes here a range of writing, with introductions that contextualise her current approach to foregrounding Black Witnesses in truth-telling. These are the kind of stories that don't get told, at least never from the proper perspective, and the collection holds up as an evidential indictment of policing, government and reporting. But it is also just worth reading for McQuire's developing style of to the point, engaging prose. Her later pieces crackle and, despite their brevity, convey whole worlds of pain, love and struggle as a necessity of exerting dignity. The earlier, generally longer, investigative pieces chronicle a time in which this reportage created space for Blak voices. You don't want to hope for more of this writing, given the reasons it is so necessary, but if we don't want it, we certainly do need it....more
"The almost one thousand cases in Australia’s history of breach of promise of marriage are not a historical curiosity or an anachronism but fundamenta"The almost one thousand cases in Australia’s history of breach of promise of marriage are not a historical curiosity or an anachronism but fundamental to our feminist past and instructive of a feminist future." I don't think I really bought into Simmonds main contention in Courting, and yet somehow this didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of this very absorbing read. Simmonds has a gift as a storyteller, choosing focal cases of Breach of Promise to build an analysis of changing expectations around dating, romance, sex and marraige in Australia from the 19th Century to the interwar years. Simmonds tries, in my unsuccesfully, to build a case that legally recognising the injury of intimate betrayal could advance equality of women. That she raises the topic at all is interesting - it is such a given in our current society that private means private, and that the law recognises only contractual breaches of a more professional nature than romance. It is of course, surprising that it is surprising, given that until a century ago, such cases were common. I think it is largely unsuccesful because Simmonds doesn't really establish that breach of promises cases were ever not about the loss of financial gain, even as they were entangled with real emotional distress. This is illustrative in that the only case she covers in which a man sued, was an inter-racial couple in which the usual sexist power relations were inverted by racism. In all these cases, Breach of Promise is a suit bought by the relatively less powerful, in an attempt - frequently successful - to recognise the loss of financial and social security and advancement that would be gained by a marraige. The subtext, which Simmonds certainly explores, is that the loss is often of opportunity - that to chase one marraige, a candidate must by necessity ignore or fail to pursue others. It seems hard therefore to argue that in a modern world, where such advantages have been diminished to almost invisibility, Breach of Promise could remotely resemble what it was, even with attempts to link it to catfishing and other difficult-to-define romantic deceit. But the fun is not in the conclusion, but the journey. Simmonds is not afraid to let her readers reach different conclusions, and is so deeply intellectually engaged with the meaning of these cases, that she brings you in. When combined with the natural high court room drama inherent (of course you keep reading to find out who won!) this is a highlight read, a great addition to Australian history....more
This is a moving collection of writing from those who have suffered from police violence. This includes Aboriginal people targeted by racist police viThis is a moving collection of writing from those who have suffered from police violence. This includes Aboriginal people targeted by racist police violence, partners of abusive police officers or their friends, and those who were police officers themselves. The pages quiver with anger, and the stories are impossible to look away from....more
Saddler explains towards the end of this set of essays, why he chose to use the official name of Melbourne's muddy river rather than its traditional nSaddler explains towards the end of this set of essays, why he chose to use the official name of Melbourne's muddy river rather than its traditional name, Birrarung. What we have now, he says, is that what we see is a misunderstood river - that the words the Yarra evoke scorn when it should be wonder (my paraphrasing) and only perhaps if we change our perspective could we see Birrarung. It is also an acknowledgement that Indigenous perspectives are absent from this book. But it is the first intent which I wanted to focus on to start. This book has been suggested a couple of times to me, but only when it popped up on the PM Literary Awards shortlist did I decide to read it. In full disclosure I tried asking my partner to read it instead. "Do you want to read a book on the Yarra?", I asked. He looked at me perplexed. "It's supposed to be quite good", I added helpfully. "Why don't you want to read it?" was the obvious question. "I'm just not very fond of the Yarra", I pointed out, "You like Melbourne a lot more than I do.". "Well, but I don't really like the Yarra", he said. "I mean, I don't think anybody really likes the Yarra". (He did not read the book, hence I did) This inescapable reputational problem is confronted pretty directly by Saddler (I think now the subtitle, "A Clear Flowing River" was likely supposed to be provocative, but just implied to me unreasonable rose-tinted perspectives) at the start. The Yarra, he points out, is more a sight of jokes about its terribleness than love. People are more likely to joke about dead bodies floating in it than they are to actually swim in it (which to be fair, is not safe for much of the length). Saddler, however, takes us to a different side of the river (quite literally at times), focusing on the marsupials, birds, mammals and occasional reptile who make the banks and waters their home. The essays largely chronicle a pandemic and post-pandemic discovery journey for Saddler (and the book is highly reminiscent and evocative of the pandemic years), as he explores the river on foot, bike and eventually, by flotation. His Yarra is an abused beauty, a natural ecosystem beset by pollution, weeds, rubbish dumping and climate change, but still operating as a lifeline for species that have lived in the region for millennia. This book is largely nature memoir, less languid than Thoreau, but in the same tradition of writing about how nature makes you feel by writing about it. Saddler also profiles the various defenders of the river, those Melbournians who devote their time and energies to restoration, rubbish clean up, swimming groups and advocacy. Through interviews, he sketches the complexity of solutions, the frustration with work which must be done carefully and slowly and with a long-term eye, in the face destruction which is often swift and unbalancing. Nevertheless, he imbues this with a hope, based on the small successes, a glimpse, which is very pandemic-like, of a different way of life within our reach. Having said that, for much of the book, as someone who lives in a bush-rich environment, I had my superior eye rolling moments about Melbourne. The sheer excitement at seeing marsupials just an hour's travel away highlights how very alienated our cities are from our ecosystem. This is a vision of how we could live, but it is a long way from how most Melbournians do live, and the sheer exhilaration at seeing other species go about their lives uninterested in humanity and our stuff, is a reminder that an experience which should be commonplace has become exotic....more
Firth excels at using the graphic format to convey complex ideas - unsurprisingly, I guess, given she works creating graphic records of workshops. TheFirth excels at using the graphic format to convey complex ideas - unsurprisingly, I guess, given she works creating graphic records of workshops. These essays explore aspects of being alive in this time and place - from our connection or disconnection to moment and place (throughout, Firth uses an effective series of light nodes to indicate humans focused on the internet); to sexuality and shame; to how to keep living with joy in the face of a grim future. Firth's curiousity, love of a good story and a good factoid, bring these essays to life as much as her considerable artistic skill. This is a great, stimulating read, which shows how graphic non-fiction can convey things in ways prose can't....more
Foulkes is a academic psychologist, and this is a reflection, based largely on studies into Western teenagers, on how adolescence in WEIRD countries wFoulkes is a academic psychologist, and this is a reflection, based largely on studies into Western teenagers, on how adolescence in WEIRD countries works. Coming in, I was hoping for something more focused on how adolescence has evolved, which would have required a different approach. Instead, this is an in-depth look at how teens navigate risk taking, first loves, sex, and other common new experiences. Foulkes mostly concludes that teenagers take physical risks to avoid taking too many social risks, and that much of teenage behaviour is driven by a strong desire to fit in. She also notes how powerful social, including romantic, bonds are during this period, and looks briefly at impulse control. The most interesting research was into the social network functions of high school, including the researchers' dilemma of how to describe the "popular" kids when it turns out, consistent across studies, nobody actually likes them (as opposed to actual popular kids, who tend to have social capital but not the high status of 'popular' kids). It was readable, and surprisingly emotional - Foulkes notes how much we all have still unpacked from our own adolescence, which tends to continue to evoke shame, embarrassment and sadness - as well as joy - in adults throughout their lives. For action, she advocates against an approach which tries too hard to de-risk adolescence through surveillance, noting that an important developmental stage involves learning to survive challenges, trust in your own resilience and endure bad choices, as well as learning to make better ones. I just wish that had been based on a broader range of evidence....more
Brought together originally for an exhibition, this poetry and art collection translates well to the printed book, reflecting on the pandemic years wiBrought together originally for an exhibition, this poetry and art collection translates well to the printed book, reflecting on the pandemic years with Saunders' characteristic direct and resonant lines. Divided into sections, I found the Kin and Country and then the Rage and Grace most compelling. There's something about how Saunders writes about our world that sings "a smattering of sunsetting colour holding space for the stars" or "I bend to the ashen rubble of the earth". It did still feel, ultimately, though, like a shadow of something else. I wish I'd seen the exhibition....more
"It’s possible that all history-writing has an element of soul-stealing. I have tried in this work, nonetheless, to inject as much detail and subtlety"It’s possible that all history-writing has an element of soul-stealing. I have tried in this work, nonetheless, to inject as much detail and subtlety into Bennelong’s life story as my sources could yield. I have done so not only to reverse common misunderstandings about Bennelong (most of them invented in the early 1800s), but also to revise prevailing assumptions about Aboriginal society being simple or ill-fated through the initial period of colonisation."
Fulluger's entwined reverse histories of Bennelong and Phillip is a provoking and intriguing read. Fullager takes the two figures together, noting that Bennelong is never discussed without Phillip, and that Phillip increasingly rarely is viewed without Bennelong. However, she reverses the order of the telling: we start with an examination of their graves, and trace backwards to their births (and a little beyond). Interestingly, this simple switch causes a very different narrative to emerge in their lives, as our impressions form from their later life actions, not their former. It is an interesting trick, and one which reveals how important the process of storytelling becomes to history, and how it can distort our perspectives. With Phillip, Fullager uses his later years to emphasise the military leader's commitment to British expansionism, and to position his time in Sydney as a part of a British career, not a break with it into a new country. With Bennelong, her contention is more around a differential reading of sources, which she uses to argue that his later years have been consistently misrepresented as being divorced from his culture, when they demonstrate the opposite. In reality, much of Fullager's portrayal rests on this differing interpretation, rather than the revelation of viewing history backwards. Fullager makes a strong case for her read on both men, and this book will undoubtably shift the needle in the stories we like to tell ourselves. However, while there was new detail here for me, mostly on Phillip (the account of what appears to be collusion in facilitating a lesbian relationship through a marriage of convenience was the most intriguing) the main impact on me of the narrative was to cause me to wonder again at how history can reflect the times and beliefs of the historian more than the subject. So much of our sense of self can rest on whether Phillip was a villain or a hero, a beset humanitarian in an impossible situation or a conqueror with little care for the humans he conquered. None of these have ever felt fully human to me, or respecting that as much as founding our nation might be important to us, it may not have been so important to those who did it. With Bennelong, I am reminded again how much we interpret from so little. I appreciate this book in challenging held beliefs but can subscribe less to its fervent arguments for new ones. We have a richer understanding of Yiyara cultures now, and this can inform those readings. However, I feel there is still danger in making him into who we want him to be, being unwilling to acknowledge how much of him remains unknown, and in this way, fill in blanks with who we want him to be....more
"The story you will write is obliterative. You think my story cannot coexist harmoniously with yours; because it precedes yours, and in the upward tra"The story you will write is obliterative. You think my story cannot coexist harmoniously with yours; because it precedes yours, and in the upward trajectory, everything that existed before must be silenced, disavowed, or be broken on the torture wheel. In your reckoning, I can possess no martyrdom, I am only an object of derision or pity. I am a long shadow in the early afternoon, soon to disappear as the fleeting sun tracks west, like the flocking black cockatoos, as if to roost. Your gift is persuasion. And your stories will overwhelm mine. [Wistfully] But not forever." Browning wields words with the precision of a scalpel in this collection. The knife less dissects than reveals, with Browning's critical eye on Blak art as the highlight. These essays are magnificent, and their evolution traces Browning's engagement with artists such as Richard Bell and Daniel Boyd, and the ways in which that engagement has impacted both. Also worth of note are Browning's profiles, based on interviews with people including Doris Pilkington, Archie Roach and survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home. Here, Browning's words are wielded gently, telling stories of pain and resilience. I was less enamoured with Browning's poetry than his prose. The play, like the essays, is worthy of savouring and lingering to think about what is said so precisely. In all this volume, as in his career, Browning tells stories that create spaces for Indigeneity and especially queer Indigeneity. There is a joyful sense of community that comes through these pages, admixed with justified anger. "The hereditary original sin – dispossession and the theft of the Australian land mass – is rarely if ever confronted and the barely suppressed rage of Aboriginal people is pathologised as a form of sociopathy. Let’s make this clear: Aboriginal people are entitled to feel deprived. Only the utterly delusional could suggest otherwise. But instead the popular, media and political discourse that constellates around the term ‘Aboriginal’ inheres a radical amnesia or collective delusion, if you like. In fact, if you don’t believe in it, the discourse doesn’t make sense." In this volume at least, the discourse makes all too much sense....more
"Like all myths and legends, Bee’s image continues to shift over time. She is still referenced in stories about eccentric figures or social histories "Like all myths and legends, Bee’s image continues to shift over time. She is still referenced in stories about eccentric figures or social histories of Sydney, though nowadays she is more likely to appear in a blog about dissident women or a cabaret performance. In all her various renderings as a proto hippy, a rebel, a republican, an early feminist, a victim of patriarchy and even an anarchist, her intellectual strengths and her literary aspirations continue to be submerged by her appearance, her conflicts with taxis and her flamboyant behaviour, under the ubiquitous label of eccentric."
This is an excellent biography of Bee Miles, the kind that makes you interested in someone that you wouldn't normally be that interested in. Ellis combines a history of the world that Bee emerges from and lives within with her story, giving this a quality of the story of a particular part of Sydney, from the wealthy mansions of the turn of the century, to the bohemian party world of the post-war inner city, to Depression-era Australian towns, to the world of the city streets in the 1950s and 60s. In her lifetime, Bee crossed multiple class barriers - her relative wealth inoculating her enough to enable her to live a life most are forced out of. Ellis has strong views about Bee. Ellis places her teenage bout of encephalitis lethargica at the centre of this story, painting a picture of a strong-willed young women thrown into mental illness, whose personality and illness are hence merged into a diagnosis of insanity. While it is hard to tell how different Bee's life would have been with better diagnosis, it is not hard to imagine how improved it would have been with programs to support mentally ill homeless women. So much of what is missing here is respect and dignity in treatment, and this is of a woman whose diction and memory marked her as educated and capable. But Ellis is careful never to speak for her. We see Bee primarily through others' eyes, or through glimpses of her own writing. She comes across as easier to admire than to like, and wholly resistant to the many attempts to enlist her in others' causes. This is a story of a slightly enigmatic woman who became a legend, and perhaps the most interesting story is in why that is what we needed her to be....more
It seems to be the year of ocean non-fiction, and this is a good one. Kingdon focuses on the creatures who make, and listen to, sound underwater in thIt seems to be the year of ocean non-fiction, and this is a good one. Kingdon focuses on the creatures who make, and listen to, sound underwater in this tightly focused, readable and engaging book. Inevitably, there is a lot about whales, belugas and dolphins, but a fair few fish pop up too. Kingdon brings more of a mournful quality than a furious one to the inevitable documentation of destruction. As creatures with pretty crap hearing, she demonstrates, we can vastly underestimate the damage our noisy lives are creating. Will this end the world - probably not, but it will deprive us of much of what makes the world wondrous....more
Minchinton draws on a range of sources from newspaper articles and family historians, as well as the archeological digs of the site, to sketch out detMinchinton draws on a range of sources from newspaper articles and family historians, as well as the archeological digs of the site, to sketch out details of the heyday of Little Lon's sex work district. Little Lon was a largely matriachial world, with women owning most of the businesses large and small, and dominating the housing. The book divides into sections to cover both the broader environment, the specific legal and social conditions governing sex work and, for nearly half the book, the stories of individual women. The sources she draws on are scattered, making this more opaque than I wanted it to be at times, but I also appreciated Minchinton's unwillingess to fill in the gaps with her own imagination, and hence yet again taking voice away from women. ...more
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