Random Reads (20/01/17)

As the end of the world draws nigh... er... On the eve of the inauguration of Donald Trump, there have been many column inches published on the confirmations of his Cabinet, the conflicts of interest his Presidency presents, and many reflections on the Obama administration.

Some of the more interesting articles are:

• NY Times Editorial Donald Trump Keeps It In The Family - which explores Trump's appointment of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and how it may be a violation of anti-nepotism laws. Not only is Kushner's role in the administration unclear, but it will make it difficult for White House employees who are not family members.
• Andrew Rosenthal writes in the NY Times about Republican Hypocrisy on Trump's Nominees - which highlights how Republicans are rushing through the confirmation hearings of Trump's nominees prior to comprehensive vetting by the Office of Government Ethics. This is a stark contrast to the way Obama's nominees were treated. It is especially concerning given the individuals Trump has appointed. Bad precedent.
• David Remnick in the New Yorker writes about John Lewis, Donald Trump, and the Meaning of Legitimacy - Representative Lewis is a civil rights hero who has served his constituents and his country well for decades. Trump engaged in a Twitter war with Lewis because Lewis said he would not attend the inauguration of an illegitimate President who only got the job because of Russia's interference. 
• Leonard Downie Jr writes in the NY Times about Donald Trump's Dangerous Attacks on the Press. Having watched the circus that was Trump's press conference in which he declared himself unable to have a conflict of interest and decided that some news outlets were invalid "Fake News". This article talks about the danger legitimate journalists are in and how difficult it will be to hold Trump accountable. Downie calls for news media to be 'fair but aggressive' in its coverage and to scrutinise those journalists/media outlets that lack standards.
• In The Atlantic, Peter Beinart writes about Trump's New Foreign-Policy Direction. American Presidents have historically delivered inaugural addresses that have positioned America as committed to bringing freedom to the world. What will Trump's message be given his disinterest in NATO and the UN, commitment to ripping up trade agreements, wall building, and his isolationist views?

Before I move on from Trump, two of the best things on the internet this past week have been Meryl Streep's takedown at the Golden Globe Awards. Amazing!

And, I also love Huw Parkinson's Life Accordion to Trump! Hilarity!

Now, for Obama. I cannot express how sad I have been feeling these past few weeks as Obama prepares to leave the White House. It is too early to know what his legacy will be, but his dignity and class will be missed as he hands the keys over to a megalomaniac frat boy. Some articles worth reading are:

• Michiko Kakutani, chief book critic for NY Times, interviewed Obama about literature. The article Obama's Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books is a fascinating piece for book nerds/policy wonks like me. What is even more interesting is to read the transcript from their discussion, and how it informs the article.
• Time Magazine asked historians to weigh in on Obama's Legacy. Other than the obvious - the first African-American becoming President - there are many achievements. His stable economic management, Affordable Care Act, opening of Cuba, ordering the raid on Osama Bin Laden etc. But perhaps he also ushered in an era when Trump could happen...
• Politico also looks at Obama's Hidden Legacy. This article explores things Obama did that I had no idea about - such as closing the diaper gap in recognising that these essential products were costing poor people too much, Obama launched an initiative to get reduced-cost diapers to non-profits around America. Very interesting.

I love Michelle Obama - a smart, sassy, compassionate woman who has served her country well. 

• The Montreal Gazette opinion piece - With flair and substance, Michelle Obama leaves her mark - talks about how she has used her time as FLOTUS to be a role model. 
• The Guardian also writes about her being More than 'mom-in-chief' and how she has championed causes that are important to her.  
• ABC News also did a great piece on Michelle Obama's Legacy highlighting her history. It also includes a link to her incredible speech at the Democratic National Convention.

• And, there has been much commentary on her wardrobe. Normally I hate that sort of thing which diminishes a woman's achievements to what she wears, but nothing can detract from Michelle's fabulousness and it is worth being reminded of her incredible style.

Finally, if you have an hour to spare, read Obama's article in the Harvard Law Review about The President's Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform. He highlights incarceration rates, sentencing reform, clemency and other concerns. He talks about the work he has left unfinished - reducing gun violence, opioid addiction as a public health issue, improving forensics to overturn wrongful convictions, improving data collection, restoring the vote for felons who have served their time, engendering trust in law enforcement - and more. Powerful stuff.

While the Obamas move on to life after the White House, I look forward to seeing what they do next. They will be greatly missed, but I expect they will find new ways to contribute to world affairs.

Obama Out!

Crazy for Cornwall

The following is a guest blog post written by my mother, a self-confessed Poldark Tragic. She has quickly consumed the first four of the Poldark books with great enthusiasm. So I invited her to write about the books and why she enjoys them so much. 

Back in 1975 I watched with great delight the BBC television series Poldark, all 29 episodes, starring Robin Ellis in the lead role of Ross Poldark and Angharad Rees as Demelza Carne. Robin Ellis was the pin up of the moment as the dashing Ross Poldark.

Too busy travelling, and with motherhood and family taking up much of my time, I never did get to read the books by Winston Graham that the series was based on. And overtime, I completely forgot all about them.

Fast-forward forty years to 2015 when BBC One aired the first series of a new Poldark drama.  Remembering how much I enjoyed the series in 1975 I could not wait to view this new adaptation of Winston Graham’s novels.

Playing the role of the protagonist is the charismatic and handsome heartthrob Aidan Turner along with charming Eleanor Tomlinson as the spirited Demelza Carne. Aidan Turner has drawn in the viewers helping BBC One record one of its highest ratings in a decade and he has certainly cast his spell over the female audience, myself included. As series two drew to a close towards the end of 2016 I found myself wondering how I would manage without Ross Poldark in my life until series three aired sometime in 2017.

I need not have worried. A very thoughtful gift was found under the Christmas tree – the first four books of Winston Graham’s wonderful novels, the saga set in the time period 1783 to 1820. In order they are Ross Poldark, Demelza, Jeremy Poldark and Warleggan. Winston Graham wrote twelve Poldark novels in all, the first four were written between 1945 and 1953, the remainder from 1973 to 2002.

The books tell the story of Captain Ross Poldark who returns home to Cornwall from the American Revolutionary War to find his life greatly changed. His father has died during his absence, the girl he had hoped to marry was now engaged to marry his cousin and his beloved home, Nampara, was in a state of disrepair to say nothing of his financial situation with the failing of the copper mine that he inherited in his father’s estate. 

In essence he must begin afresh and the novels cover his struggles as he goes about building a family and home and improving his lot in life. Ross Poldark is a decent landlord who is on very good terms with his tenants and believes in fairness and kindness. He is a caring man, particularly towards the local mining community where he goes to bat for the poor and impoverished, at times regardless of how he may be adversely affected by the outcome.

Winston Graham’s Cornwall looms large in these books. Many years ago while living in England I was fortunate to visit Cornwall to see the picturesque smuggling coves dotted along the dramatic coastline, the rugged seashores and impressive cliffs, the beauty of the moorlands and the remains of the copper and tin mines. Graham’s mention of places such as Falmouth, Truro, and Bodmin bring back memories from long ago.

His descriptive writing style is easy to read and his characters breathe life into every page. Graham’s story lines keep me turning page after page and now that book four is finished I find I still have a few months to go before series three of the television series goes to air.

I do not usually read the book after I have seen the movie/television series but this case is different. The 2015 television series is very true to Winston Graham’s books and I look forward to ploughing my way through all twelve novels and of course watching the remaining television series.

The Wretched and the Damned

Booker Prize winning author Richard Flanagan and Archibald Prize winning artist Ben Quilty are two men I admire greatly. Flanagan is the author of The Narrow Road to the Deep North (2013), an environmentalist, and an activist who serves as an ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. Quilty has campaigned against capital punishment and is known for his portraits of the impact of war.

In early 2016 the two travelled together to Greece, Serbia and Lebanon to examine the mass exodus of refugees from the unending conflict in Syria and record their experience in a moving essay on the refugee crisis, Notes on an Exodus (2016). These notes give a human face to the abstract. Each chapter is a few hundred words and focuses on a different person or family who has fled their homeland to escape Daesh or the bombings from the Assad regime.

Here we meet Raghda, who makes dresses in a Lebanese camp after leaving Raqqa when Daesh arrived and began killing. She was at risk as a seamstress because she works with nude mannequins and says of the terrorists 'Whoever treats humans like they do is not human'.

Mohanad is a 24 year old dying of diabetes and kidney disease. His family is in debt because it costs so much for the life saving dialysis he needs but could not get in Syria after the government bombed the hospital where he was treated.  He mourns for the life he had in Syria and wishes it was safe to return.

Feisal was leader of his village where he lived a good life as a fruit farmer. He and his family fled to Lebanon when the missiles came. Now his whole village has relocated. The children learn at a makeshift school and dream of becoming doctors and teachers who will one day rebuild their homeland.

Nine year old Jamal earns $3 a day for his 10 hour shifts as a welder. His younger brother Omar collects plastic bags which he sells for 80 cents to buy four flat breads. These funds are vital to support their family who fled Aleppo. Their thirteen year old sister is getting married to a cousin, so another family can care for her and there is one less mouth to feed.

It takes only twenty minutes or so to read this slender volume, but the magnitude of these stories are vast and deep. Harrowing tales bring the plight of the refugees to life - you can feel the chill in their makeshift tents, smell the fumes from the garbage they burn to keep warm, marvel at the resilience of people who have lost children on doomed boat voyages, and feel rage against the people smugglers who sell fake life jackets to the desperate souls.

Flanagan concludes with a reminder that many of us hail from refugees who have fled previous conflicts, and that we have a collective responsibility to support our fellow human beings:

Refugees are not like you and me. They are you and me. That terrible river of the wretched and the damned flowing through Europe is my family. And there is no time in the future in which they might be helped. The only time we have is now.

My only quibble with this book is that I would have liked more of Quilty's artwork. His illustrations of some of the refugees detail the impact of war and the hollow ageing of those living in camps.

These stories are available on the Guardian website and through World Vision. The authors recommend donating to World Vision and calling on the Australian Government to spend more money on helping the Syrian people.

Planning for 2017

The new year has begun and my To Be Read pile is staggeringly high! I need to sort and prioritise my books to start the reading year off well.

I plan to read at least two books a month - 24 for the year - which I almost achieved in 2016. I blog about most of the things I read, so that should give me a good year of blogging as well.

In the first instance, I need to finish books I am currently midway through or decide whether to take them off the pile:

• Women I've Undressed (2015) by Orry Kelly
• Not My Father's Son (2015) by Alan Cumming (update: read review)
• Unfinished Business (2015) by Anne-Marie Slaughter
• Farewell Kabul (2015) by Christina Lamb

Then I have my pile of new books to prioritise and read:

• The Good People (2016) by Hannah Kent (update: read review)
• The Dry (2016) by Jane Harper (update: read review)
• The Sellout (2015) by Paul Beatty
• Fantastic Beasts (2016) by JK Rowling (update: read review)
• The Princess Diarist (2016) by Carrie Fisher (update: read review)
• The North Water (2016) by Ian Maguire (update: read review)
• Commonwealth (2016) by Ann Patchett
• The Pursuit of Love (1945) by Nancy Mitford

I also want to get my hands on Hillbilly Elegy (2016) by JD Vance (update: read review) and White Trash (2016) by Nancy Isenberg so a trip to the library is likely on the cards.

I will need to save space in my reading schedule as there are new works coming in 2017 from authors like Roxane Gay (Difficult Women), Colm Toibin (House of Names), Arundhati Roy, Joan Didion (South and West), Sofie Laguna, Jane Harper, Barbara Gowdy, Paula Hawkins (Into the Water) and more. Plus there are some other interesting books to come, like Tony Jones' debut political thriller, Sarah Schmidt's novel See What I Have Done (about Lizzie Borden).


My Random Reads will continue in 2017 as I subscribe to several regular publications including the New York Times, Vanity Fair magazine, and others. It will be an interesting year - with the new US President, Brexit and more unfolding - and it I look forward to reading different views on these activities. Plus I will have my Quarterly Essays to keep me occupied (can't wait for the next David Marr - On Politics and Prejudice!).

Finally, I am travelling to Europe this year and hope to read a few books about places I will be visiting - Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, Krakow etc. Top of my list is Graham Greene's The Third Man (1950), set in Vienna. This blog may suffer during the five weeks of holidays (as I will be travel blogging instead) but the reading will continue on planes, trains, boats and buses!

Let the reading begin!

My reading year - 2016

2016 has come and gone. Before I commence my planning for the coming year, I will reflect on the year that has gone by. In 2016 I set myself a goal of reading 24 books - two a month - and blogging in equal measure. I managed to write 47 blog posts this year, but fell short of the 24 books, completing only 22 by 31 December 2016.

At the start of the year I wrote a post about what I had planned to read in 2016, in which I announced my goal of the year and some of the books I wanted to read.

At the outset I wanted to finish some of the books that I had already started but never finished. I managed to complete several of them, including:

• H is for Hawk (2015) by Helen Macdonald
• Career of Evil (2015) by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)
• The Learning Challenge (2014) by Nigel Paine
• Quarterly Essay QE60 - Political Amnesia (2015) by Laura Tingle

But somehow I never finished other books I am midway through - Not My Father's Son (Alan Cumming), Executioner's Song (Norman Mailer) and My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferante) - all of which I enjoy while reading but never seem to hold my attention long enough to finish.

I also read a lot of things that are not books, and late in 2016 I decided to add "Random Reads" posts to my blog to account for some of the articles I was reading.

My reads in 2016 can be roughly clustered as follows:

Fiction

I read some great Australian fiction in 2016, including my favourite read the year - Charlotte Wood's The Natural Way of Things (2015) which has lingered long after I finished the book. Winner of the Stella Prize and countless other accolades, Wood has a remarkable voice and I look forward to reading whatever she publishes next.

I also greatly enjoyed Emily Maguire's An Isolated Incident (2016), and Anna Funder's brief novella The Girl with the Dogs (2015).

A new author I found and admired is Graeme Macrae Burnet with His Bloody Project (2015), a Booker prize shortlisted novel which has taken the publishing world by storm. It was a terrific novel and I am thrilled to have found this new author.

Other fiction included Tegan Bennet Daylight's short story collection Six Bedrooms (2015), Fleur Ferris' Risk (2015), JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016) and her alter-ego Robert Galbraith's Career of Evil (2015).

Non-Fiction

For a second year running, I read a lot of biographies this year which told the life stories of remarkable women. I really enjoyed reading Gloria Steinem's recollection of her years travelling in My Life on the Road (2016). Meeting her at the Sydney Writers' Festival in May 2016 was one of the highlights of my year. She has long been a hero of mine and to hear her speak in person and have her sign a copy of her book, was a real treat.

I also enjoyed Jeannette Winterson's bio Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? (2012) which I read after hearing her speak at the Sydney Writers' Festival this year. Clementine Ford's memoir Fight Like a Girl (2016) was another interesting read.

While not strictly a biography, Helen Garner's Everywhere I Look (2016) is a wonderful collection of essays which gives great insight into Garner's thinking on a range of topics. It was a delightful read, so crisply written.

Two tales of loss bookended my reading this year: Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk (2015) and Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) both explored grief and the aftermath of losing a loved one. Didion's book had long been on my list to be read and I am so pleased to have read it.



I read a lot of other non-fiction in 2016 including Nikki Savva's expose on Tony Abbott in The Road to Ruin (2016).  This juicy account of the downfall of the Abbott government was a real page-turner.




I also really enjoy the Quarterly Essay which arrives every three months in my mailbox. In 2016 I read:

• QE64: The Australian Dream (2016) by Stan Grant
• QE63: Enemy Within (2016) by Don Watson
• QE62: Firing Line (2016) by James Brown
• QE61: Balancing Act (2016) by George Megalogenis
• QE60: Political Amnesia (2015) by Laura Tingle

Bits and Pieces

In 2016 I also read some poetry, completing Kate Tempest's Brand New Ancients, starting (although not finishing) Clive James' latest collection, re-reading the inimitable Dorothy Parker. I enjoy poetry and have quite a lot of it, but I don't always make the time to enjoy it.

I blogged about many of the events I attended, like the Sydney Writers' Festival, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, and All About Women. I also wrote about plays like All My Sons, Speed The Plow and The Literati and about various literary awards that crop up throughout the year.

Favourites of 2016

If I had to chose, I would select as my favourites of 2016, Charlotte Wood, Gloria Steinem and Helen Garner would be my choices. But I would give an honourable mention to Emily Maguire and Graeme Macrae Burnet. 

All in all it was a good year of reading. I tackled some new authors (Wood, Maguire, Burnett, Paine, Savva), and enjoyed some old favourites (Rowling, Steinem, Winterson, Garner). I also managed to complete some books that were lingering on my "To Be Read" pile (Macdonald, Galbraith, Didion). Looking forward to new adventures in reading in 2017! 

Black Lives Matter

I thoroughly enjoyed the latest Quarterly Essay (QE64) by journalist Stan Grant. The Australian Dream - Blood, History and Becoming (2016) is a powerful reflection on the place of indigenous people in the history of Australia. In the wake of the recent inquiry into abuses at the Don Dale centre, the attempts by the government to overturn sections of the Racial Discrimination Act, and the hounding of Adam Goodes, this is timely and important essay, which should be essential reading for all Australians.

Grant's essay begins with "The Speech", a presentation he gave at the IQ2 debate in Sydney in late 2015. The transcript of this speech makes up the first chapter of this essay. It is a remarkable speech, but far more potent when viewed as spoken by the man himself when it was "unrehearsed and unscripted".

Following the speech, the video of his address went viral on social media. It attracted commentators and critics. But more importantly it made Grant think seriously about his aboriginality and the place of his people in modern Australia. The result is this finely crafted essay.

Taking us back to the invasion and colonisation of Australia, Grant explores the dark history of the way in which indigenous people were brutalised over decades - from massacres and removal from land, to the stolen generations and interventions of modern times. He compares the indigenous experience to one of new migrants carving out a place for themselves in colonial society.

Grant also shares a history not often told, one of economic engagement, ingenuity and self-actualisation. He talks of a growing indigenous middle class, in which talented, well-educated, aboriginal people are making the most of their skills to define their own Australian dream:

The sacrifice and resilience of our forebears has created a burgeoning indigenous middle class: confident, self-assured. They are redefining what it is to be indigenous … the grandchildren of people who emerged from oppressive Aboriginal missions in a segregated Australia are as at home on the streets of New York as Dubbo.

Grant is someone who is well aware of his own privilege. But he is angered by the requirements of indigenous Australians to decide whether they will be mainstream or black - as if someone has the right to determine who is and is not indigenous and that these two identities are mutually exclusive.

I learned a lot from Grant's essay and look forward to reading more of his work. His book Talking to My Country (2016)  was published earlier this year. I also heard Grant speak at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas when he introduced Alicia Garza to talk about Black Lives Matter, where I recall him questioning the very notion that black lives matter was a dangerous idea. He is currently the Indigenous Affairs reporter for ABC News. I look forward to seeing what comes next from Stan Grant.

Included in this essay is correspondence related to the previous Quarterly Essay (QE62) Enemy Within.

The Half-Life of Society

This week I attended the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Speed-The-Plow, directed by Andrew Upton. I had no real expectations of the play, knowing only that it was written by David Mamet and has previously starred Madonna and more recently Lindsay Lohan.

Speed-the-Plow is a three act play that spans 24 hours in the life of a 1980s Hollywood film producer. Bobby Gould has just been promoted to head of production at the studio. His office is currently being renovated - leading to a stark set of a half painted suite, minimal furniture and many boxes. He is reading through a stack of manuscripts when Charlie Fox bursts into his office. Fox has been approached by a big actor wanting to star in a prison movie project that Fox had pitched some time ago. The actor has given Fox 24 hours to secure a green light from the studio. Gould and Fox are gleeful when they think about all the money they can make as co-producers of the film and its inevitable sequels. Problem is that Gould can't approve a film of this budget without the approval of his boss, who won't be available until tomorrow.

Enter Karen, the temporary secretary. Fox bets Gould $500 that he can't get Karen to be interested in him. Gould accepts the wager and approaches Karen - would she mind reading through a literary novel and assess its suitability for the screen? The novel is called The Bridge or Radiation and the Half-Life of Society. Gould has no intention of making the film, but if Karen can read it and stop by his home tonight with a précis, then perhaps he has the chance of winning the bet.

The second act is set at Gould's home, presumably some fashionable pad with tremendous views. Karen and Gould sit on the floor, glass of wine in hand, as she tells him about how wonderful the book is. Byrne shines in this scene as she convinces Gould of this book's merits.  The final act is the next morning, back at Gould's office. He has completely changed following his evening with Karen and has some news to share with his old friend Fox.

Damon Herriman plays Gould convincingly. He is a versatile actor who undergoes a complete transformation in the span of 90 minutes - from brash to indecisive, smarmy to haunted. Lachy Hulme is a bold Fox, injecting humour and banter then becoming frustrated and aggressive. The two men play well off each other, and their role reversal between acts one and three is well done.

Karen is played by Rose Byrne, an Australian actress best known for her work in American television (Damages) and film (Bridesmaids, Spy, X-Men). It is her face on the poster and her name that will draw the crowds, despite this play relying on three strong performances. I like Rose Byrne and I thought she was quite good in this play, moving from clumsy to coy to confident.

The play itself is rather dated. It is a satire of the Hollywood movie machine that endlessly produces blockbuster sequels, and was undoubtedly seen as more risqué in the late 1980s. Today it seems rather shallow and void of any urgency. I am not sure why it was chosen for revival, other than to provide a vehicle for Rose Byrne to tread the boards in Sydney. It also felt like it should have been staged in a smaller theatre, as the set took up only a portion of the stage and could have been more contained.

Ultimately, I enjoyed my night at the theatre but would not consider this a must-see. I much preferred my previous trips to STC to see The Wharf Revue, All My Sons,  King Lear, and The Present.

Life as you know it...

In my post US election funk, I found it hard to engage with any new book - picking up and putting down several novels, without the ability to connect with any of them. I read copious amounts of articles on the aftermath, all of which have culminated in my view that 2016 has been the year that the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. Good thing I love dystopian fiction, as I fear dystopia is going global soon.

But then I found Joan Didion. Her remarkable book The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) has given me the reboot I need to get out of my funk and engage with life again.

In late 2003, Joan Didion and her husband of forty years John Gregory Dunne visited their adult daughter Quintana in a New York hospital. Several days earlier Quintana had suddenly collapsed and was placed on life support. Her parents returned home, sat down to dinner, and Dunne suffered a massive heart attack and died. Suddenly widowed and trying to care for her only child, Didion tries to make sense of what has happened to her family. This book documents her first year of widowhood, and how she comes to terms with her loss.


Repeated throughout this memoir is a recurrent phrase:

Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.

This ordinary instant is timeless - and Didion returns to the moment when her husband had his heart attack repeatedly. Could he have been saved? Did he know it was going to happen? If they had made different decisions in the years and months before - an alternate holiday, an overseas posting, a different place to live - would the outcome have been different?

Almost twenty years earlier John had an angioplasty which saved his life. John has spent the years after believing he would die from a cardiac event, while Joan viewed the intervention as a permanent fix to a temporary problem.

I loved how she described marriage and the nature of relationships. The critical eye she turns on herself as she tries to make sense of her situation. She writes beautifully about self-pity and the notion of grief as something that should be handled quickly and quietly. She describes it thus:

The very language we use when we think about self-pity betrays the deep abhorrence in which we hold it: self-pity is feeling sorry for yourself, self-pity is thumb-sucking, self-pity is boo hoo poor me, self-pity is the condition in which those feeling sorry for themselves indulge or even wallow. Self-pity remains the most common and the most universally reviled of our character defects, its pestilential destructiveness accepted as given. (p193)

There were passages that made me think of those I have lost - my father, my grandparents - and my struggle to see them as gone. She talks about coming home, in the months after John has passed, desperate to tell him some piece of news:

I am dropping my keys on the table inside the door before I fully remember. There is no one to hear his news, nowhere to go with the unmade plan, the uncompleted thought. There is no one to agree, disagree, talk back. (p195). 

Each person grieves for those they love in their own way. Didion chose to channel hers into this memoir. I came to her book without expectation. Reading it made me feel slightly like a voyeur in someone else's tragedy. But the book didn't feel tragic to me. It was a wondrous example of self-reflection, a critical gaze in a ghastly time, an honest attempt at sense-making.

It is strange to think that this memoir has made me feel more hopeful and positive, but it has somehow. And that is really magical.

Random Reads (13/11/16)

This has been the worst week I have had in a long time. Like many people I had lulled myself into believing that hope would triumph over hate; that the voters' remorse expressed after Brexit would encourage a greater voter turnout; that this long, bitterly divisive campaign would end in a celebration of the shattering of the glass ceiling and the building of bridges not walls. But alas, hate won.

As a consequence much of my reading this week has been a postmortem. Some of the highlights are:

• An American Tragedy by David Remnick in the New Yorker wrote about the despair felt by those who did not vote for Trump. Remnick writes "That the electorate has, in its plurality, decided to live in Trump’s world of vanity, hate, arrogance, untruth, and recklessness, his disdain for democratic norms, is a fact that will lead, inevitably, to all manner of national decline and suffering." 
• Economist Paul Krugman wrote about The Economic Fallout for the New York Times. He writes "under any circumstances, putting an irresponsible, ignorant man who takes his advice from all the wrong people in charge of the nation would be very bad news." He predicts the Federal Reserve will come under increased pressure and that a global recession is now looming.
• In The Guardian there was an article by Jonathan Freedland called "The US has elected its most dangerous leader. We all have plenty to fear." Freedland pulls no punches calling Trump "an unstable bigot, sexual predator and compulsive liar." He puts the election of Trump in a  global context and expresses concern for minorities in America.
• Sarah Churchwell writes "Hillary Clinton didn't fail us. We failed her" in The Guardian. This is a great article about misogyny in America, as Chuchwell picks apart what happened to Clinton and links it back to fiction about women in politics. 
• I also read an article that was published back in May 2016. Andrew Sullivan wrote for New York Magazine "America has never been so ripe for Tyranny" in which he predicted the election of Trump. I loved this article as Sullivan goes back to Plato's Republic and sees the rise of a populist showman in response to too much democracy. This brilliant article concludes with an unheeded warning:  For Trump is not just a wacky politician of the far right, or a riveting television spectacle, or a Twitter phenom and bizarre working-class hero. He is not just another candidate to be parsed and analyzed by TV pundits in the same breath as all the others. In terms of our liberal democracy and constitutional order, Trump is an extinction-level event. It’s long past time we started treating him as such.

Naomi Klein receiving Sydney Peace prize
from Prof Gillian Triggs

On Friday 11 November I had the pleasure of attending the Sydney Peace Prize presentation at Sydney Town Hall. The prize was awarded to Naomi Klein for her work on the environment. Klein spoke about the election of Trump and what it could mean for the planet - especially given that he is surrounded by climate change deniers. Klein's message was one of hope - of small acts of resistance and heroism, of listening to our indigenous peoples who have cared for the land for centuries, and of caring for our planet.

In the room were other heroes of mine: Aboriginal activist Senator Pat Dodson introduced Klein, and Human Rights Commissioner Professor Gillian Triggs, a woman of tremendous conviction and integrity, presented Klein with the award. Triggs received a standing ovation from the sell-out crowd.  The video of this event is now on YouTube and it is well worth a watch.

So despite the crappy week, I will choose optimism over fear. I will continue to support causes I believe in and to stand up for the disadvantaged. I will believe in a better America in years to come. 

Note: I had written much of this a week ago with the intention of publishing on 13 Nov. That I hadn't actually uploaded this post speaks to the malaise I have felt. Will post despite the lateness and post something happier next.

The End of the Road

It's election day in America. Finally, the citizens can go to the poll, cast their votes, and thereby put an end to the longest, most bitter, divisive and contemptuous campaign in American history. Xenophobia, racism, bigotry, misogyny and hatred have been the pervasive narrative of this campaign, at least on the Republican side. I hope that once the votes are counted, Clinton will win and she will bring the country together again. 

As a political scientist, I have a keen interest in American politics and I freely admit I am rooting for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Not only is she the most experienced person ever to run for office, she will make history as the first woman to be elected to the highest office in the land. 

Trump is an embarrassment - to the Republican party and to America. How he managed to become the Republican candidate leaves many shaking their heads, and the party itself will need a serious postmortem. Of course... frighteningly, he still could win.

The latest Quarterly Essay (QE63) is Enemy Within - American Politics in the Time of Trump by Don Watson. In this Essay, Watson heads to middle America - to Wisconsin - in an attempt to understand the Trump phenomena and the disenfranchisement of many voters. Here the gap between rich and poor is most pronounced with high levels of child poverty, lack of affordable health care, and incarceration. This lack of equity is of great interest to me (see The Spirit Level) and something that desperately needs addressing by the American government. 

Watson explores how the two parties are deeply divided. Republicans have the alt-right and a more centrist view. Likewise the Democrats have Clinton liberals and Sanders left wing social democrats. Neither party is united and the two party system is deeply flawed.

I always enjoy Watson's writing style, and the travel memoir passages are enjoyable. But, I felt like there was nothing new here in terms of political commentary, although perhaps I am over-read on this subject and others would not feel the same. 

So America, Vote Wisely!

Rage Against the Machine

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!

Having just finished Clementine Ford's Fight Like A Girl (2016) I feel angry at the crap women have to put up with everyday. I have felt the pressure to look and act a certain way, been asked about my fertility in a job interview, been paid less than a less qualified man for doing the same job, had men explain things to me, not been heard in meetings, been afraid, attacked, judged and ignored.  Ford's book was instantly relatable on many levels.

Part memoir and part manifesto, Ford writes about her childhood eating disorders, her struggles with mental health and body image, her sexual experiences, her abortions and her battles with online trolls. I found her writing humourous, readable, bold and brave. She holds nothing back, even though she knows she is arming those who seek to destroy her.

What I liked about Ford's book was her wit and the brashness of her language. Ford's voice comes through loud and clear as she says it like she sees it. I found many of her arguments compelling, particularly her exposure of the hypocrisy of the Not All Men and the White Ribbon movement (when sports clubs talk about the problem of violence against women then defend their players on charges of assault) and the media response to the Jill Meagher murder while ignoring the deaths of aboriginal women.  I also enjoyed her pop culture references (shout outs to Leslie Snope and Jessica Jones among others). I came away with a better understanding of Ford and what motivates her.

But I was frustrated by Fight Like a Girl too. First, the book is in need of a good edit as there are far too many passages that repeat themselves time and again (like references to the sea of man-baby tears). Her arguments would have been more compelling if the writing was sharper. More than that, I was frustrated by the lack of a clear call to arms. Ford urges "It's okay to be angry" - which is great. I get that and I am angry. But now what?  Other than getting mad what do we do with our rage? This is not the love letter to girls she thinks it is.

Ultimately, there isn't anything new here. I am glad I read Ford, but in terms of feminist memoir and manifesto, I much prefer the insight and wisdom of Roxane Gay and Gloria Steinem.