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Absolutely Revolting

March 2015, no. 369

Welcome to our March issue – a packed one with contributions from about 50 Australian writers, several of them new to the magazine. These include distinguished journalist-editor Luke Slattery, who writes about Volume 3 of Thomas Keneally’s ‘Australians’ and finds it somewhat wanting. David McCooey offers a spirited defence of John Kinsella. Novelist Andrea Goldsmith writes about two new books on Susan Sontag – and likes one of them. We publish the first in a new series of Reading Australia essays on key Australian texts: Kerryn Goldsworthy revisits Jessica Anderson’s much-loved novel ‘Tirra Lirra by the River’. Then we have reviews by people like Glyn Davis, Joan Beaumont, Nigel Biggar, Jane Sullivan – and much more!

Jessica Au reviews Offset, No.14 edited by Angela Hryc, Hilal Kirmizi, and Anastasios Zaganidis
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A sense of suburban ugliness, occasionally undercut with twists of magic realism, runs through the latest issue of Offset, Victoria University’s creative arts journal. Like its contemporaries Above Water, Verandah, Verge, and Visible Ink, Offset is a student-run publication – a new editorial team is selected each year – and provides a vital space for both emerging editors and artists to trade work and ideas. Produced by committee, there is a yearbook-like feel to this community-driven collection. Aesthetically, 2014’s incarnation is the strongest yet, beautifully designed by Chloe Watson, with an eye for storytelling and narrative simplicity, and featuring a whimsical cover illustration by Renee Cerncic.
Book 1 Title: Offset No. 14
Book Author: edited by Angela Hryc, Hilal Kirmizi, and Anastasios Zaganidis
Book 1 Biblio: Victoria University, $20 pb, 199 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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A sense of suburban ugliness, occasionally undercut with twists of magic realism, runs through the latest issue of Offset, Victoria University’s creative arts journal. Like its contemporaries Above Water, Verandah, Verge, and Visible Ink, Offset is a student-run publication – a new editorial team is selected each year – and provides a vital space for both emerging editors and artists to trade work and ideas. Produced by committee, there is a yearbook-like feel to this community-driven collection. Aesthetically, 2014’s incarnation is the strongest yet, beautifully designed by Chloe Watson, with an eye for storytelling and narrative simplicity, and featuring a whimsical cover illustration by Renee Cerncic.

Read more: Jessica Au reviews 'Offset', No.14 edited by Angela Hryc, Hilal Kirmizi, and Anastasios Zaganidis

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Des Cowley reviews Axis, Book 1 by a.j. carruthers
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Contents Category: Poetry
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With Axis, his first full-length publication, a.j. carruthers explicitly aligns himself with the lineage of the long poem. It is a bold move, if we consider that the major exponents of the form, from Ezra Pound to Anne Waldman, had invariably produced significant bodies of work prior to embarking on their poetic marathons. But ambition is fundamental to the long poem, and Axis, comprising thirty-one extended sequences and billed as ‘Book the first’, certainly outstrips Pound’s inaugural efforts – a mere sixteen Cantos issued in 1925 – by a country mile.
Book 1 Title: Axis, Book 1: ‘Areal’
Book Author: by a.j. carruthers
Book 1 Biblio: Vagabond Press, $25 pb, 204 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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With Axis, his first full-length publication, a.j. carruthers explicitly aligns himself with the lineage of the long poem. It is a bold move, if we consider that the major exponents of the form, from Ezra Pound to Anne Waldman, had invariably produced significant bodies of work prior to embarking on their poetic marathons. But ambition is fundamental to the long poem, and Axis, comprising thirty-one extended sequences and billed as ‘Book the first’, certainly outstrips Pound’s inaugural efforts – a mere sixteen Cantos issued in 1925 – by a country mile.

Read more: Des Cowley reviews 'Axis, Book 1' by a.j. carruthers

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Simon Caterson reviews The Rich: From slaves to super-yachts, a 2,ooo-year history by John Kampfner
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Contents Category: Society
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Just how different are the rich from everyone else? F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a 1926 short story that they are ‘soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.’
Book 1 Title: The Rich
Book 1 Subtitle: From slaves to super-yachts, a 2,000-year history
Book Author: John Kampfner
Book 1 Biblio: Hachette, $32.99 pb, 479 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Just how different are the rich from everyone else? F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a 1926 short story that they are ‘soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.’

This assessment is both confirmed and challenged by John Kampfner’s history of the very wealthy since ancient times. While it is true, in Kampfner’s view, that down the centuries the super-rich have had in common the possession of a massive superiority complex, it is not the case that the great emperors, imperialist adventurers, robber barons, industrialists, oligarchs, property tycoons,bankers, and uber-geeks are the least bitsoft, though their cosseted and often troubled descendants may turn out to be.

Read more: Simon Caterson reviews 'The Rich: From slaves to super-yachts, a 2,ooo-year history' by John...

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Luke Johnson reviews Westerly, Vol. 59, No. 2, edited by Delys Bird and Tony Hughes-dAeth
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‘A father is God to his son,’ declares the father in David Whish-Wilson’s story ‘The Cook’, just a split second before he is shot dead by his drug-dealing son. Thus begins this special edition of Westerly, which marks not only the magazine’s sixtieth year of publication but also the retirement of its two standing editors, Delys Bird and Tony Hughes-d’Aeth.
Book 1 Title: Westerly
Book 1 Subtitle: Vol. 59, No. 2
Book Author: Delys Bird and Tony Hughes-d’Aeth
Book 1 Biblio: Westerly Centre, $19.95 pb, 310 pp, 9780987318053
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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‘A father is God to his son,’ declares the father in David Whish-Wilson’s story ‘The Cook’, just a split second before he is shot dead by his drug-dealing son. Thus begins this special edition of Westerly, which marks not only the magazine’s sixtieth year of publication but also the retirement of its two standing editors, Delys Bird and Tony Hughes-d’Aeth.

Fortunately, those who live by the editorial pen need not die by it (at least not with the same ruthless permanence as those who live by the .303). As the collection of histories written specially for this issue by past editors and associates of the magazine shows, they are more likely to be invited back to share anecdotes and reminisce on their time as head of the family.

Read more: Luke Johnson reviews 'Westerly', Vol. 59, No. 2, edited by Delys Bird and Tony Hughes-d'Aeth

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David Donaldson reviews Revolution by Russell Brand
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Russell Brand made headlines when he revealed in an animated interview with Jeremy Paxman that he had never voted. Fresh from guest-editing an issue of New Statesman, Brand had issued a call to overthrow the system responsible for the income disparities and environmental degradation in the world today – but refused, or was unable, to explain how this would happen.
Book 1 Title: Revolution
Book Author: Russell Brand
Book 1 Biblio: Century, $35 pb, 384 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Russell Brand made headlines when he revealed in an animated interview with Jeremy Paxman that he had never voted. Fresh from guest-editing an issue of New Statesman, Brand had issued a call to overthrow the system responsible for the income disparities and environmental degradation in the world today – but refused, or was unable, to explain how this would happen.

Revolution is Brand’s attempt to flesh out what this uprising would look like. Unfortunately, though not unexpectedly, the 100,000-word tome doesn’t outline why we need a revolution in any greater detail than the ten-minute interview. In fact, he never really argues anything in the generally accepted sense of the term – it is all so damned obvious he doesn’t need to.

Read more: David Donaldson reviews 'Revolution' by Russell Brand

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