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Absolutely Revolting

October 2003, no. 255

Peter Sherlock reviews ‘Legacies of White Australia: Race, culture and nation’ edited by Laksiri Jayasuriya, David Walker and Jan Gothard
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Article Title: White Legacies
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When the MV Tampa entered Australian waters in 2001, the ensuing row over its 433 Afghan passengers ignited renewed debate about immigration, citizenship and national identity. The Howard government’s subsequent re-election on a platform of border protection and security coincided with the centenary of the first substantial legislation passed by the newly constituted Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Immigration Restriction Act (1901) was the centrepiece of the White Australia Policy and reflected the new nation’s desire to regulate the composition of its population and culture, free from British interference. This collection of essays, authored by some of the country’s foremost academics in law, history and politics, commemorates that anniversary. It is a timely publication, and demanding in its persistent consideration of what the Australian national project has been and what it could be in the twenty-first century.
Book 1 Title: Legacies of White Australia
Book 1 Subtitle: Race, culture and nation
Book Author: Laksiri Jayasuriya, David Walker and Jan Gothard
Book 1 Biblio: UWA Publishing, $38.95 pb, 280 pp
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When the MV Tampa entered Australian waters in 2001, the ensuing row over its 433 Afghan passengers ignited renewed debate about immigration, citizenship and national identity. The Howard government’s subsequent re-election on a platform of border protection and security coincided with the centenary of the first substantial legislation passed by the newly constituted Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Immigration Restriction Act (1901) was the centrepiece of the White Australia Policy and reflected the new nation’s desire to regulate the composition of its population and culture, free from British interference. This collection of essays, authored by some of the country’s foremost academics in law, history and politics, commemorates that anniversary. It is a timely publication, and demanding in its persistent consideration of what the Australian national project has been and what it could be in the twenty-first century.

Read more: Peter Sherlock reviews ‘Legacies of White Australia: Race, culture and nation’ edited by Laksiri...

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Donna Merwick reviews The Global Reach of Empire: Britain’s maritime expansion in the Indian and Pacific oceans, 1764–1815 by Alan Frost
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Some reviewers like to stamp their own character on a review in its opening sentences. I prefer, however, to share with you some of Alan Frost’s words:

When I was a boy, living in a village set against a beach in Far North Queensland, I was struck by two kinds of trees. Ringing the beach at intervals were great ‘beach-nut’ trees (Calophyllum inophyllum). As early photographs of the beach do not show them, these trees must have been planted by European settlers. In my time, when they were perhaps seventy or eighty years old, they were up to fifty feet high, and they spread fifty feet in diameter … And scattered about the littoral were tall hoop and kauri pines … One behind our house may have been more than one hundred feet tall. It was said that this kauri pine was a beacon for ships at sea.
Book 1 Title: The Global Reach of Empire
Book 1 Subtitle: Britain’s maritime expansion in the Indian and Pacific oceans, 1764–1815
Book Author: Alan Frost
Book 1 Biblio: Miegunyah Press, $59.95 hb, 397 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Some reviewers like to stamp their own character on a review in its opening sentences. I prefer, however, to share with you some of Alan Frost’s words:

When I was a boy, living in a village set against a beach in Far North Queensland, I was struck by two kinds of trees. Ringing the beach at intervals were great ‘beach-nut’ trees (Calophyllum inophyllum). As early photographs of the beach do not show them, these trees must have been planted by European settlers. In my time, when they were perhaps seventy or eighty years old, they were up to fifty feet high, and they spread fifty feet in diameter … And scattered about the littoral were tall hoop and kauri pines … One behind our house may have been more than one hundred feet tall. It was said that this kauri pine was a beacon for ships at sea.

The beach-nut trees met other needs. They offered shelter from the tropic sun. Their hard fruit went well from slingshots … For me, particularly, [their hanging vines] were a blind from which I might watch the sun rise over Hinchinbrook Island, and see the Endeavour pass the gaps in the screen of islands that afforded James Cook glimpses of Rockingham Bay.

Had I indeed been a naval officer like James Cook, I should of course have viewed the trees differently … I should have seen the beach-nut trees as potential sources of frame timber and plank. And, like Cook and Banks, had I visited New Zealand, I should have transformed the extensive fields of ‘flax’ into canvas, cables and cordage.

Read more: Donna Merwick reviews 'The Global Reach of Empire: Britain’s maritime expansion in the Indian and...

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Article Title: Advances – October 2003
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The ABR Forums move to Sydney early next month, when Peter Porter and Peter Robb will be in conversation with Ros Pesman of the University of Sydney about all things Italian – literature, music, visual arts, politics and travel. Peter Porter has written about Italy for decades; Peter Robb is the author of Midnight in Sicily and M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio. No one interested in Italy, or good talk, will want to miss this Italian colloquy. It will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, November 6. The venue is the Galleries at the State Library of New South Wales, and the cost $16.50 (or $11 for ABR subscribers and Friends of the State Library). Full details appear on page 33.
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Viva L’Italia!

The ABR Forums move to Sydney early next month, when Peter Porter and Peter Robb will be in conversation with Ros Pesman of the University of Sydney about all things Italian – literature, music, visual arts, politics and travel. Peter Porter has written about Italy for decades; Peter Robb is the author of Midnight in Sicily and M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio. No one interested in Italy, or good talk, will want to miss this Italian colloquy. It will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, November 6. The venue is the Galleries at the State Library of New South Wales, and the cost $16.50 (or $11 for ABR subscribers and Friends of the State Library). Full details appear on page 33.

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Kerryn Goldsworthy reviews Elizabeth Costello: Eight lessons by J.M. Coetzee
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Something like a double helix of dialectical thinking winds its graceful way through these ‘eight lessons’. Ideas and theories about the nature of human (and other) life and how to live it, about the workings and the relative merits of logic, reason, belief, and faith, are sketched, rehearsed, debated, and set in ...
Book 1 Title: Elizabeth Costello: Eight lessons
Book Author: J.M. Coetzee
Book 1 Biblio: Secker & Warburg, $35 hb, 233 pp, 1740512650
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Something like a double helix of dialectical thinking winds its graceful way through these ‘eight lessons’. Ideas and theories about the nature of human (and other) life and how to live it, about the workings and the relative merits of logic, reason, belief, and faith, are sketched, rehearsed, debated, and set in opposition to each other throughout these eight episodes in the life of J.M. Coetzee’s heroine.

Elizabeth Costello is an elderly and distinguished Australian novelist with a dutiful son, a hostile daughter-in-law, and a sister as distinguished and singular – though in a very different way – as herself. Her reputation rests chiefly on the book regarded as her masterpiece, The House on Eccles Street, a novel that liberates Joyce’s Molly Bloom from the confines of her author, her house, and her hero husband, and lets her loose on the streets of Dublin.

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Carolyn Tétaz reviews ‘The Anatomy of Truth’ by Kate Wild
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Article Title: Suspension Bridges of Disbelief
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At the beginning and end of The Anatomy of Truth, Kate Wild’s central character, Janey Hunter, asserts that she is ‘just trying to establish a common base from which we can communicate’. The Anatomy of Truth suggests bold investigations into vexed issues, so I will follow Janey’s lead and begin by establishing a common definition of the title of this brave first novel. For the purposes of this review, the science of anatomy is the artificial separation of parts of the human body in order to study their structure and relationship. In a more figurative sense, it is a detailed examination or analysis of the structure of an organisation. And truth is the matter as it really is, a fixed or established standard, pattern or rule that conforms to fact and accuracy, with a hint of allegiance and loyalty.
Book 1 Title: The Anatomy of Truth
Book Author: Kate Wild
Book 1 Biblio: Picador, $22 pb, 251 pp
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At the beginning and end of The Anatomy of Truth, Kate Wild’s central character, Janey Hunter, asserts that she is ‘just trying to establish a common base from which we can communicate’. The Anatomy of Truth suggests bold investigations into vexed issues, so I will follow Janey’s lead and begin by establishing a common definition of the title of this brave first novel. For the purposes of this review, the science of anatomy is the artificial separation of parts of the human body in order to study their structure and relationship. In a more figurative sense, it is a detailed examination or analysis of the structure of an organisation. And truth is the matter as it really is, a fixed or established standard, pattern or rule that conforms to fact and accuracy, with a hint of allegiance and loyalty.

Read more: Carolyn Tétaz reviews ‘The Anatomy of Truth’ by Kate Wild

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