Australia Day, what does it mean?
Yesterday Squid Ink and I wished everyone a happy Australia Day, through the miracles of modern WordPress we were able to produce that the previous day. During the production of said post I stopped and thought about Australia Day and what it celebrates. It made me wonder if I really should be letting that post go through. I’ve done a little research and I’ll just see what comes out of the fingers.
26th January is the day, in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip first arrived at Sydney Cove. He was the commander of the first fleet of eleven convict ships arriving from Great Britain and also the first governor of New South Wales. As time went on some people began celebrating this date to show their love of the land they were now living in. Some felt this dinner should be restricted to those who were born there but some didn’t. There’s a lot more to the history including debate about whether Aboriginals feel included and the use of the flag but I think that should be kept for another article, possibly in another forum. I’m finding myself a little confused about Australia Day. On the one hand I’ve been brought up to believe it’s a good thing to celebrate but on the other, it celebrates white man first landing here and that is not necessarily a good thing. The Aboriginals argue white man shouldn’t be here and that us coming here was really bad for them, something I can’t argue with, but the British who came then and many who still live here wouldn’t be listening to that. I’ve been speculating if we should go back to the original meaning of Australia Day and only those who were born here should celebrate it, but then that promptly excludes all those who have chosen to come here and makes a mockery of the Citizenship ceremonies that have sprung up. What would be best is to remember the original meaning and also the current meaning and to somehow seamlessly meld the two together.
I went to the Australia Day Parade for the first time in a long time, or possibly ever. I expected to have so much trouble finding a place to stand and watch so was really worried when we got there one minute after the projected starting time. I shouldn’t have worried, we came out of Flinders Street, crossed the road to Federation Square and there was a spot, only one but my OH is tall and being behind people gave him the freedom to move around so his view was as good as mine. We had a ball, or in English, a really great time. We took photos, videos (too many videos, I filled up my SD card and had to borrow his spare), we talked to people around us, waved and basically had a fun time. When the Doctor Who Club of Victoria got to us I could see they looked good, they were walking in the unison expected of Doctors and their companions i.e. none at all. I gave my youngest a hard time for wearing my tshirt and she gave it straight back to me as we were wearing the same tshirt, it’s her drawing. They should be available for sale one day, they’re awesome!
The parade is a celebration of the people that make up this fine land of ours. There were people and cultures from all over including a very small group of Aborigines playing a digeridoo among other native instruments, way too few of them, people from Iran, India, Star Walking, Doctor Who Club of Victoria, police, military, schools, Girl Guides, Scouts and so many others. I’m told there were 77 groups in total. I haven’t any photos today as I’m typing this on my iPad over breakfast. I may insert them later or maybe just put them up on Twitpic and some videos on YouTube, I’ve got plenty of videos.
After the parade was finished we followed on and eventually found the group, had lunch and watched some of entertainment. We had James Morrison and his band, the Roulettes did a flyover and on the way back to the train wandered into the Arts Centre to see their latest exhibition, it happened to be about Reg Livermore and I was able to see how talented he is.
In summary, Australia Day is very complex and a lot of effort has gone into ensuring everyone has a great time at the parade and afterwards at Kings Domain, not to mention barbecues across the country.
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
This is a book I haven’t read for many years but I came across a mention of it here and was reminded of how vivid some of my memories still are. We studied it at school many years ago and I can’t say I understood it then, I’m not sure I want to read it again as it was really horrifying. I’d say it’s partly dystopian fiction, horror and also science fiction.
It’s set in World War II, a group of boys have been evacuated by plane which crashes on a deserted island leaving only the boys alive and no adults. They put together a society based on a conch shell and we then watch the breakdown of that society. This breakdown is the dystopian part, they end up killing some of their members in a very basic way.
The horror is all in the boy’s minds. A parachutist lands on the island, already dead, and they mistake him for something else, something that frightens them. The younger boys have also had nightmares since landing which exacerbate things.
The science fiction angle wasn’t my idea, it’s in the interview with Peter Nicholls. I’d suggest it’s with the ‘soft’ sciences, those that deal with the mind and also those that deal with society as a whole rather than those that deal with gadgets. There is a lot of psychology in this book, individual psychology and group psychology.
It is a frightening book, very well thought out and put together.
Unconscious Literary Gender Bias
I read this article by Tara Moss and thought to myself “I don’t need to do a survey of what I review, I read almost anything and I’m not biased”. First of all I was blown away by the fact it’s still happening and what the word ‘unconscious’ means in this situation. I read further into it and found some people totally amazed at still preferring to read male authors over female authors and not being aware they had this preference. I was still convinced I didn’t need to survey myself. Thank goodness I changed my mind today.
I just had a look at my To Be Read pile and discovered male writers outweigh female writers by about two to one. I did a survey of the books I’ve reviewed over the past twelve months and discovered I’ve read 11 female writers and 18 male writers. I was totally shocked by this. Looking at the books I’ve read and not reviewed doesn’t make matters any better as there seem to be more males than females.
Looking back at my reading when I was young and I generally preferred the books written for boys as they had more adventure and were more exciting. I did read lots of Enid Blyton but most of my authors were male, being young I didn’t know any difference and wouldn’t have been able to see what difference it would have made. Looking at the books I’ve not managed to finish doesn’t help but is interesting, they’re all males.
Just out of interest this is a list of the books I’ve reviewed since Australia Day 2011. It makes for interesting reading. I’ve got a bit of science fiction, fantasy, autobiography, war and some fiction of various sorts. There isn’t any romance but there are a couple of children’s books. I think I’m proving to myself I will read almost anything.
| The Peace Garden | Lucy Sussex | f |
| Burning for Revenge | John Marsden | m |
| That’d Be Right | William McInnes | m |
| This Boys’ Life | Tobias Wolff | m |
| Puberty Blues | Gabrielle Carey, Kathy Lette | f |
| Deep Secret | Diana Wynne Jones | f |
| The Olive Harvest | Carol Drinkwater | f |
| I Am Legend | Richard Matheson | m |
| Empire Falls | Richard Russo | m |
| After Dark | Harukai Murakami | m |
| Something Rotten | Jasper Fforde | m |
| The Hand That Signed the Paper | Helen Demidenko | f |
| The Boy Who Kicked Pigs | Tom Baker | m |
| Paint Your Dragon | Tom Holt | m |
| Split | Tara Moss | f |
| One Flew Into The Cuckoo’s Egg | Bill Oddie | m |
| Expecting Someone Taller | Tom Holt | m |
| The Mockery Bird | Gerald Durrell | m |
| Mystery | Peter Straub | m |
| Homeland Lost | Ale Liubinas | f |
| The Fallen Blade | Jon Courtenay | m |
| Circle of Flight | John Marsden | m |
| The Abbey Girls at Home | Elsie J. Oxenham | f |
| Secret Seven Wins Through | Enid Blyton | f |
| The Unidentified | Rae Mariz | f |
| Men at Arms | Terry Pratchett | m |
| Chocolate | Joanne Harris | f |
| Fanny Hill | John Cleland | m |
| The Whispering Land | Gerald Durrell | m |
Found a treasure
Sometimes it’s possible to find treasures just by reading the publishing page in a book. I did this last night with a book I listed and found it had been published specifically to commemorate The 33rd World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne August 1975. Worldcons are held in different cities around the world every year and this was the first one in the southern hemisphere.
Worldcon is a very significant event with speculative fiction fans coming from around the world. I went to Worldcon (also called Aussiecon 2010) and it was wonderful with panels on so many different features of writing and fandom.
My eldest had managed to get herself into a play. Written in the 1950s it was a very controversial play of the era focussing very closely on womens total emancipation from men. I enjoyed it very much and was thrilled to be seated with the father of science fiction fandom in Australia, Merv Binns and his wife, Helena. They are both lovely people.
I’m sure you want to know what Merv Binns has to do with the book. Apparently it was his idea to put together an anthology and so Lee Harding did exactly that. The book is called Beyond Tomorrow and is available for sale here. It has some wonderful authors in it including Ursula Le Guin who was also a guest of honour for Worldcon in 1975 and our very own Tony Morphett who has written so much for Australian television including writing the screen play of D’arcy Niland’s The Shiralee.
The Peace Garden – Lucy Sussex
Just for a bit of a change of pace I thought I’d review a book I picked up this afternoon. It’s a children’s book so didn’t take too long to read. It was Lucy Sussex’s first fiction novel.
I first heard of Sussex last year when I attended AussieCon 4, fourth World Science Fiction convention to be held in Australia, in 2010. I attended a panel and I forget the correct title but I think it was about Australian female horror writers, Sussex was on the panel. When I saw the book I knew I had to read it and see what made her so good.
The Peace Garden is a fairly ordinary patch of land in a fairly ordinary town in Australia surrounded by ‘interesting’ people. Holly is shuffled between her separated parents, it’s currently the holidays and she’s with her mother and step-father. Despite being only 11 she’s left on her own a lot of the time and finds her way to The Peace Garden. It doesn’t remain peaceful for long as two people decide they want to lease it for their own purposes. Holly finds herself in the middle of all this, bringing together the misfit children in the town and helping find a resolution that suits almost everyone.
I like the writing, I found it very easy to read. Some of the misfit children seem to be misfits more because of their parents rather than due to their own behaviour and Holly seems to bring out the best in them. The language is uncomplicated and the concepts are easily understood by someone with a reading age of about 11, but if they’re reading above their age I’d still recommend it.
There are lessons in this book. Never judge a book by it’s cover being the biggest. One of the children, Gawaine (he prefers Gary) has a mohawk and ‘intriguing’ clothes but he turns out to be the nicest person, Bridie is in a wheelchair and can’t speak but when Holly starts talking to her we find she is lovely, bright and quite capable. Another lesson is that there’s always a better idea, one that can include many more people.
One thing I found quite interesting, I waited the whole book to see if it would be followed up, were a couple of possible horror motifs. They weren’t followed up. Sussex had the choice to make it into a horror story but chose, instead, to make it into a lovely story about children helping the whole town to win in the nicest possible way.
Because I loved this book so much I’m going to give it away. I reread that sentence and it doesn’t really make sense but that’s tough. It’s too young for my kids so I want someone else to have it for theirs. Tell me your favourite childhood book and why you liked it so much. You have until 5pm Tuesday 21st January. Your time starts…now!
Puddin’ today and puddin’ tomorrer
Squid Ink meets his match
The Magic Pudding was originally written in 1918 and has been enjoyed by countless generations since. Now Squid Ink has read it…sorry, devoured it.
Seriously though, The Magic Pudding by artist Norman Lindsay is one of those iconic children’s books, the ones everyone wants to read to their kids and if they don’t they then should. It’s a book that excites the imagination and makes every child want a pudding like that, a pudding that talks, walks and doesn’t get any smaller no matter how much you eat.
FilmLife Blogger Challenge
I don’t do many challenges but this one spoke to me on a very deep level. It’s about organ donation and the desperate need for it.
I’m a big fan of organ donation. A friend almost had his heart chipped out so they could replace it with a new one, we suspect he wouldn’t have lasted much longer. He went from having trouble walking from his front door to his letterbox to being able to do the shopping with ease. At the time he had children and grandchildren.
A few years later I saw a lovely man talking on the Andrew Denton programme about organ donation, not from older people but from children under the age of 16. His story is very sad and you can read more on Zaidee’swebsite, it’s one that pulls at the heartstrings. Zaidee was seven when she died suddenly of a brain aneurysm, the whole family was on the organ donor list and her donations helped a number of people have a better quality of life. There are very few children listed as organ donors. This is sad as children generally can’t take adult organs, they are just too small and the adult organs are too big. I can’t imagine the strength Zaidee’s parents much have to be able to make the decision to save others with their daughter’s organs at a time when they’re so bereft. It’s a very emotional discussion to have but a very necessary one. I still have some shoelaces left after buying a box to help their fund raising.
Zaidee's Rainbow Shoelaces
I’m on the list for organ donation of any kind. I’d give blood but they don’t seem to want me for a while. This is a discussion we’ve had in the family and thank goodness my kids are older than 16 so we don’t have to go through the same experience as Zaidee’s family.
I challenge you! Visit FilmLife, answer their questions and write your own blog. If you don’t have a blog please feel free to comment here.
Do you love to read?
2012 is the National Year of Reading, it was kicked off last year with a fabulous website and a number of awesome ambassadors. The ambassadors range in age and skill, from actors, comedians, illustrators, sports people and politicians, there’s someone to please everyone (and I’m sure you can find someone to upset you as well, but that’s your prerogative). You can see the ambassadors here, my favourite is William McInnes, I can’t write what I think about him as I’m sure it’s unprintable.
There’s a list of What’s Happening around the country. Don’t look at it as there’s so much to do you’ll get nothing else done…I warned you not to look at it, now your diary will be full the entire year! Anyway, I’m happy to try and source some books for you if you find any old ones you want to read. I have a good stock here and lots of friends who also sell books, some of them even sell romance.