As I have mentioned before, I once had a substantial collection of Meanjins. I parted company with them in the course of moving house, probably forty years ago or so, and I haven’t kept up with Meanjin‘s changing identity since. In 2021 I toyed with the idea of resubscribing, but I may have been daunted by the sheer size of each issue. I have now bitten the bullet.
Esther Anatolitis (ediitor), Meanjin Vol 83 Nº 1 (Autumn 2024)
(links are to the Meanjin website: some but not all of them are available to non-subscribers)
This issue is a doozie!
It’s as engaged with current social and political issues as Overland. There are a number of essays on aspects of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, including Sarah M Saleh’s brilliant argument for the importance of Palestinian solidarity movements to the political wellbeing of Australia as a whole. There’s a concise summary article by father and daughter team Stephen Charles and Lucy Hamilton on the role of lies and disinformation in the Voice referendum. There’s a portrait by Jack Nicholls of eco-warrior CoCo Violet. There’s Amy Remeikis on the significance of the (first) Bruce Lehrmann rape case. And more.
It’s as culturally diverse as Heat in its heyday. Editor Esther Anatolitis (Σταθία Ανατολίτη) interviews Peter Polites. André Dao gives the 2023 State of the (Writing) Nation Oration. And more.
It’s as academically challenging as Southerly. See Dan Disney’s esoteric discussion of a Korean verse form and the fraughtness (impossibility?) of translating it, or imitating it, without subsuming it into the linguistic dominance of the English language; or Ianto Ware’s account of the challenges he fac ed in writing about his mother’s life and death.
First Nations writing has a strong presence. Among other things, ‘Ilkakelheme akngakelheme—resisting assimilation‘, a powerful essay by Theresa Penangke Alice, has pride of place before the contents page, and the new poetry editor is Wiradjuri woman Janine Leane.
I learned a lot – from Renata Grossi about the law concerning wills and what happens when they are contested; from Tom Doig about the long shadow of the 2014 Hazelwood disaster; from Marcus Westbury about the possibilities of something like a Universal Basic Income.
There are memoirs, including a brief snippet by Clare Wright, which starts out from an elaborate piece of costumery in the Powerhouse Museum and takes the reader to an unexpected ugly teenage encounter.
There are book reviews, and poetry. I was delighted to read, ‘Thread‘ a new poem by Eileen Chong. Two very different poems, ‘Oomarri—coming home‘ by Traudl Tan with Kwini Elder Ambrose Mungala Chalarimeri, and ‘Dreaming in Bourke‘ Paul Magee, talk to each other across the pages about the importance of country for First Nations people.
I picked up a couple of new words. My favourite is::
- pipikism, a term coined by Philip Roth, who defined it as ‘the antitragic force that deconsequentalises everything – farcicalises everything, trivialises everything, superficialises everything’. Naomi Klein revisits the term in Doppelganger, her book reviewed in this Meanjin by Sam Elkin.
I’ll give the last word of this post to Peter Polities, whose words on page 77* in some ways speak to the journal as a whole:
I remember when I was in art school … this guy said to me: ‘I’m not political.’ And I was like: What did you say?!?’ I was just so shocked the first time I heard it, but then by the second time, I was so sarcastic: I said, ‘Yeah, what’s political about making goods for a luxury market?’ So this is what these kids wanted to be: to create work that you hang above a fucking couch for rich people. My interest in art is as a site for intervention, a site for politics, and culture is one of the most political things that we have.
I finished writing this blog post in stunningly beautiful Kuku Yalanji country, to the tune of parrots, curlews and the calls of other birds I don’t recognise.
* My blogging practice for some time has been to focus arbitrarily on the page of a book or journal that coincides with my age.
Me fail? I fly! 