BOOKMARK has a lot of time for the offerings of Black Inc., last year’s Australian Small Publisher of the Year.
A recent offering is further proof.
It’s Trouble/ Evolution of a Radical/Selected Writings 1970-2010, by Kate Jennings.
Kate adorns the cover, young, languidly smoking, reflectively pronouncing. On the back she stands, hands on slim hips at some rally or other set to take on all comers.
Which inside Trouble, she reveals she did.
From the moment of her first public pronouncement, her Front Lawn Speech at a rally in 1970 she took it to the the spirit of the age:
and i say to every woman that every time you’re put down or fucked over, every time they kick you cunningly in the teeth, go stand on the street corner and tell every man that walks by, every one of them a male chauvanist by virtue of HIS birthright, tell them all to go suck their own cocks, and when they laugh, tell them that they’re getting bloody defensive, and that you know what size weapon to kill the bodies that you’ve unfortunately laid under often enough.
Jennings is a spare writer; her content rich. And she spares nothing or no-one from lovers like Philip the able cocksman to her paradoxical later love, the man she married, 25 years her senior; with whom she loved 10 good years and 7 increasingly sad and lost as he declined from alzheimers.
She claims to no regrets as she ponders her life … although sometimes swamped by extreme sadness or acute embarrassment.
But regret … I’ve always held to be a useless, piddling emotion unless you’ve caused real harm … the main reason though is an ingrown reflex, part of a pragmatic character formed from growing up on a farm. I’m not interested in yesterday’s crop, only tomorrow’s. This maybe also accounts for an ability to deal with dashed hopes, part and parcel of rural life, delivered by nature, bankers and politicians. I’ve had my share of drubbings. But afterward I shake muself loose like a terrier who’s had a disturbing encounter and proceeed to the next fire hydrant …
Ted Solotaroff, editor of the New American Review for many years, once addressed this trait – he called it ‘endurability’ – when pondering why so many gifted writers vanish: ‘It doesn’t appear to be a matter of talent itself – some of the most natural writers, the ones who seem to shake their prose or poetry out of their sleeves, are among the disappeared. As far as I can tell the decisive factor … is the ability to deal effectively with uncertainty, rejection, and disappointment.’
The latest must-read every quarterQuarterly Essay is well and truly on the bookshelves; this Waleed Aly’s take on the future of conservatism in Australia; it’spuffed as an argument that conservatives parties have backed themselves into a corner by embracing free-market exstremism, and that an illiberal social politics – including prescribing who what is Australian – is not the answer, electorally tempting though it may be.
And Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, by Bill McKibben is on its way. McKibben, founder of the global environmental movement 350.org, looks at the challenges facing the planet ‘and what these changes mean for our future’.
As the puff says: Twenty years ago, in The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he argues, we need to acknowledge that we’ve waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already underway.
Our old familiar planet is melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in ways humans have never seen. We’ve created a new planet, still recognisable but fundamentally different.
Adapting to our new home won’t be easy. It will be expensive – and the natural resources on which our economy is built have been damaged and degraded. Our survival depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back, concentrating on essentials and creating the kinds of communities that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change – fundamental change – will be our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance.
Bill McKibben will be touring Australia in May.
• The conflict between development and conservation was starkly evident Saturday night.
As Earth Hour was celebrated, and lights and resource use used to light, were turned off … there was a counter movement:
Human Achievement Hour
The Conservative Leadership Foundation has launched a campaign to recognise and celebrate “Human Achievement Hour”.
During Human Achievement Hour, people around the world will be recognising the incredible accomplishments of the human race.
Originally conceived by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2009, Human Achievement Hour coincides with the earth hour campaign but salutes those who keep the lights on and produce the energy that makes human achievement possible.
Millions of people around the world will be showing their support for human achievement by simply going about their daily lives. While earth hour activists will be left in the dark, Human Achievement Hour participants will be going to the cinema, enjoying a hot meal, driving their car or watching television.
There is really no limit to how you can support Human Achievement Hour just like there is no limit to what mankind can achieve.
Human Achievement Hour 2010 will be between 8.30pm and 9.30pm on Saturday 27 March.
Behind Human Achievement Hour: The Conservative Leadership Foundation, HERE
Stay in touch with books through Bookslut: HERE (in Links on TT)
