| Title | : | Meanjin 2018 Vol 77 No 2 Winter |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0522873634 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780522873634 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 212 |
| Publication | : | First published June 1, 2018 |
"Clementine Ford wonders whether the #metoo movement represents a turning point for women, Anna Spargo-Ryan thinks ‘In the wake of #MeToo, when women said ‘this time it will be different’, it wasn’t.’ Joumanah El Matrah picks over the idea of religious freedom, Liz Conor recalls the section 18C case against cartoonist Bill Leak, and an earlier race controversy over the work of Eric Jolliffe. Clare Payne argues that women are entering a new age of economic empowerment. Timmah Ball brings an Indigenous perspective to the home ownership debate, Hugh Mackay offers calm reflections on the madness of Year 12, Carmel Bird ponders her many connections to Nobel prize contender Gerald Murnane and Harry Saddler listens to the world with the ears of a dog.
There’s new fiction from Randa Abdel Fattah, Beejay Silcox, Laura Elvery and Vogel Prize winner Emily O’Grady.
The editions poet’s Fiona Wright, John Kinsella, Kevin Brophy, Kate Middleton and Hazel Smith."
Meanjin 2018 Vol 77 No 2 Winter Reviews
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This was slow progress - I'm not sure if that's a consistent feature of having switched to the online subscription, or just that I don't have the attention span for lit journals right now. I enjoyed Colin Bisset on
the beauty of brutalism; I did not enjoy but was utterly moved by Christine Hill on working as a psychologist with
children in detention. I was surprised to find myself bored by Kali Myers' 'What's in a Girl' (although her quoting outdated historical theory didn't help). Julia Kindt on
nostalgia, politics and change is worth a read.
In the memoir section, I found myself infuriated by Catherine Deveney's ramblings re her son moving to Japan to finish /his/ memoir. He had, apparently, a bad experience as a high school student on exchange and is writing a memoir to exorcise that and repair his love of Japan. Which is such that he wanted to 'be japanese'. And Deveney seems to have no concept of the /huge problematics/ in that, ho hum.
I was, however, very pleased with Kelly Cheung's
Children of the Tall Ships, which takes issue with Shannon Burns' valorisation of the 'bad white working class' and rips into the endemic misogyny of the environments Burns is nostalgic for. Cheung notes but doesn't address the problematic of Burns' easily excusing racism, but still. After four Meanjin issues straight featuring Burns as some kind of working class spokesman, this was a nice change.
I liked most of the poetry this edition, but MT Cronin and Peter Boyle's
Lit Up Magnificently was a stand-out. -
As usual, an excellent collection of Australian writing. I most appreciated Kelly Cheung’s memoir, ‘Children of the Tall Ships,’ which said everything I wanted to say in response to Shannon Burns’ memoir ‘In defence of the bad, white working class’ published in an earlier issue.
“Burns’ depiction of a world of masculine working-class violence is a slap to all of us who have lived and breathed and flinched in that space.” p. 179
“As a woman I know none of this - class, home, economic certainty, social security - is guaranteed.” p. 182.
In his memoir Burns appeared to deny that working-class men had ‘male (or white) privilege’ because of their class oppression. Cheung points out how false that is. I cheered her on as I read.
