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Absolutely Revolting

April 1980, no. 19

T. Counihan reviews The Black Swan of Trespass by Humphrey McQueen
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Contents Category: Art
Custom Article Title: T. Counihan reviews 'The Black Swan of Trespass' by Humphrey McQueen
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Article Title: Through a glass redly
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Humphrey McQueen’s new book claims to give an adequate account of the emergence if not the development of modernist paining in Australia up to 1944. In particular he claims to do two things the previous writers in this area have not done or have done inadequately.
Book 1 Title: The Black Swan of Trespass
Book 1 Subtitle: The emergence of modernist paining in Australia to 1944
Book Author: Humphrey McQueen
Book 1 Biblio: Alternative Publishing Cooperative, 178 pp., biblio., $14. 95
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Humphrey McQueen’s new book claims to give an adequate account of the emergence if not the development of modernist paining in Australia up to 1944. In particular he claims to do two things the previous writers in this area have not done or have done inadequately.

Firstly, he asserts that previous writers (they remain conveniently anonymous) have been eager to chronicle only the local versions of overseas trends and as a consequence, have ignored the significance of national conditions and an indigenous culture: They have confused migration with derivation and unfairly played down authentic Australian elements in their preoccupation with tabulating the impact of largely European innovations. What their uniquely Australian features are is left unexplained. McQueen ‘s own position is to reverse this, but in turn he merely mirrors the cultural change he rejects. Indeed, his own test embodies analogous errors because of the undisputed priority given to the question: which is preferable, overseas or indigenous culture? (Answer: silly question). McQueen has not yet learned the value of disregarding badly posed problems.

Read more: T. Counihan reviews 'The Black Swan of Trespass' by Humphrey McQueen

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Phillip Martin reviews The Man in the Honeysuckle by David Campbell
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Contents Category: Poetry
Custom Article Title: Phillip Martin reviews 'The Man in the Honeysuckle' by David Campbell
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Article Title: A brave farewell
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This book came out last November four months after David Campbell died, and represents (say the publishers) ‘the very last of his poems’.

Although of late I’ve read just about everything he published, there’s no space here to sum up his work. Besides, Geoff Page (ABR October 1979) has already taken a keenly perceptive look at the past ten years development and has also foreshadowed my comments on this last collection. Quite rightly he points to those poets (Lowell, Hughes, Zbigniew Herbert, Vasko Popa), in whom Campbell found reminders of ‘some­thing he had long had to do’. Their poems, then, were like good parents, teaching their children not to imitate them but to assume their own identities. In The Man in the Honeysuckle, I especially note the influence of Popa: like him, Campbell in many poems cleans away all punctuation and yet the syntax sings clearly, so that we get a new version of the limpid poem we have always expected from Campbell.
Book 1 Title: The Man in the Honeysuckle
Book Author: David Campbell
Book 1 Biblio: Angus & Robertson, 80 pp, $5. 95
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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This book came out last November four months after David Campbell died, and represents (say the publishers) ‘the very last of his poems’.

Although of late I’ve read just about everything he published, there’s no space here to sum up his work. Besides, Geoff Page (ABR October 1979) has already taken a keenly perceptive look at the past ten years development and has also foreshadowed my comments on this last collection. Quite rightly he points to those poets (Lowell, Hughes, Zbigniew Herbert, Vasko Popa), in whom Campbell found reminders of ‘some­thing he had long had to do’. Their poems, then, were like good parents, teaching their children not to imitate them but to assume their own identities. In The Man in the Honeysuckle, I especially note the influence of Popa: like him, Campbell in many poems cleans away all punctuation and yet the syntax sings clearly, so that we get a new version of the limpid poem we have always expected from Campbell. For instance, in ‘Trumpet’:

Read more: Phillip Martin reviews 'The Man in the Honeysuckle' by David Campbell

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Dan ONeill reviews Australian Conservatism by Cameron Hazelhurst, The Deep North by Deane Wells, and Illusions of Power by Michael Sexton
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Contents Category: Politics
Custom Article Title: Dan O'Neill reviews 'Australian Conservatism' by Cameron Hazelhurst, 'The Deep North' by Deane Wells, and 'Illusions of Power' by Michael Sexton
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Article Title: Politics, Power, Peterson
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It is impossible to think clearly about modern ideologies without perceiving their rootedness in class-related concepts of a better society. Nor can we understand this without seeing that class is a radical rearrangement in fact and in political discourse of the realities previously referred to as ‘orders’ and ‘ranks’. This vast shift into simpler and fewer forms of relation to the means of production is one way of understanding the enormous change in power and dynamism of western capitalist societies that we abbreviate for discussion into the familiar terms of the French and Industrial Revolutions.
Book 1 Title: Australian Conservatism
Book 1 Subtitle: Essays in twentieth century political history
Book Author: Cameron Hazelhurst
Book 1 Biblio: Australian National University Press, 337 pp, $12.50 pb
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
Book 2 Title: The Deep North
Book 2 Author: Deane Wells
Book 2 Biblio: Outback, 137 p., illus., $9. 95
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It is impossible to think clearly about modern ideologies without perceiving their rootedness in class-related concepts of a better society. Nor can we understand this without seeing that class is a radical rearrangement in fact and in political discourse of the realities previously referred to as ‘orders’ and ‘ranks’. This vast shift into simpler and fewer forms of relation to the means of production is one way of understanding the enormous change in power and dynamism of western capitalist societies that we abbreviate for discussion into the familiar terms of the French and Industrial Revolutions.

Read more: Dan O'Neill reviews 'Australian Conservatism' by Cameron Hazelhurst, 'The Deep North' by Deane...

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John McLaren reviews Toil and Spin by Chris Wallace-Crabbe
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Contents Category: Literary Studies
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Article Title: Make it new
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In a world which has lost its faith and its standards, the situation of the creative artist is both central and precarious. As Wallace­-Crabbe sees it, he must stand inside and outside society at once, be both totally involved with himself and totally responsive to his society. While doing this, he must create not only his own audience but even his own language.

In this series of essays, Wallace-Crabbe explores this dilemma in the work of contemporary English-language poets ranging from Thomas Hardy to Elizabeth Bishop, and from W. H. Auden – ‘the good Christian practices light verse’ – to Robert Lowell and Ezra Pound. The essays both illuminate the work of the writers he discusses and contribute to our understanding of the crucial problem of contemporary culture.
Book 1 Title: Toil and Spin
Book 1 Subtitle: Two directions in modern poetry
Book Author: Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Book 1 Biblio: Hutchinson of Australia, 151 pp, $9.95 pb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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In a world which has lost its faith and its standards, the situation of the creative artist is both central and precarious. As Wallace­Crabbe sees it, he must stand inside and outside society at once, be both totally involved with himself and totally responsive to his society. While doing this, he must create not only his own audience but even his own language.

In this series of essays, Wallace-Crabbe explores this dilemma in the work of contemporary English-language poets ranging from Thomas Hardy to Elizabeth Bishop, and from W. H. Auden – ‘the good Christian practices light verse’ – to Robert Lowell and Ezra Pound. The essays both illuminate the work of the writers he discusses and contribute to our understanding of the crucial problem of contemporary culture.

Read more: John McLaren reviews 'Toil and Spin' by Chris Wallace-Crabbe

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Anthony J. Hassall reviews Visitants by Randolph Stow
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Contents Category: Fiction
Custom Article Title: Anthony J. Hassall reviews 'Visitants' by Randolph Stow
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Article Title: Rich novel breaks long silence
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Visitants marks the welcome return of Randolph Stow the novelist. Stow’s last novel, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, appeared in 1965, and since then this once prolific writer has been extraordinarily reticent.

The publication of Visitants, the promise of a sequel in the near future, and, coincidentally, his selection for the Patrick White Award for 1979, may point to a decisive break in the long silence which has puzzled and indeed dismayed his admirers.
Book 1 Title: Visitants
Book Author: Randolph Stow
Book 1 Biblio: Secker & Warburg, 189 pp, $16.90 pb
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Visitants marks the welcome return of Randolph Stow the novelist. Stow’s last novel, The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea, appeared in 1965, and since then this once prolific writer has been extraordinarily reticent.

The publication of Visitants, the promise of a sequel in the near future, and, coincidentally, his selection for the Patrick White Award for 1979, may point to a decisive break in the long silence which has puzzled and indeed dismayed his admirers.

Read more: Anthony J. Hassall reviews 'Visitants' by Randolph Stow

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Contents Category: Publishing
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Article Title: Bookshapes – April 1980
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I hope to write about the ABPA’s 1979–80 design awards in this issue, but my deadline has arrived and news of the winners has not. From the eligible titles that I have seen, my own choice as Book of the Year is Emily Hope’s The Queen of the Nágas, published in an edition of 500 copies by Nomad Press, of Melbourne, and distributed by William Collins.
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I hope to write about the ABPA’s 1979–80 design awards in this issue, but my deadline has arrived and news of the winners has not. From the eligible titles that I have seen, my own choice as Book of the Year is Emily Hope’s The Queen of the Nágas, published in an edition of 500 copies by Nomad Press, of Melbourne, and distributed by William Collins.

This story of ancient Asia, illustrated with twenty large paintings by the author, was made into a book by that queen of designers, Alison Forbes. It was set in Palatino by Meredith Trade Lino and printed by C.S. Graphic Reproductions, of Melbourne. I cannot tell in how many colours the illustrations are printed, but they are as rich and strange as anything I have seen, with their washes of crimson, gold, purple, and blue – and even white, dammit, laid down on the cream paper. Some may feel that it is a triumph of production more than of design; but the book has a perfect simplicity and elegance. Alison Forbes’s choice of type and her leading and placement of it are such that every page looks like a message from the gods.

I admire all the details of The Queen of the Nágas: the generous landscape format, the cream Andorra text pages, and the gold Glastonbury endpapers, the subdued brown of the printed paper case beautifully chosen to highlight the glowing illustration on the front board. Three picas.

Marjorie Tipping’s Ludwig Becker (Melbourne University Press in association with the State Library of Victoria) is a magnificent monument to the artist and naturalist who went with Burke and Wills in 1860. Len Trenkner designed it, Dova Type Shop did the setting, Wilke and Co. were the printers, and Carlton & United Breweries provided financial assistance, which must have been substantial.

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Don Watson reviews The Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 7 1891–1939, A–Ch edited by Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle
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Contents Category: Biography
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Article Title: Everything But the Warts
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Custom Highlight Text: In his uncommonly long life, Mahomet Allum, a native of Afghanistan, combined the vocations of camel driving, herbalism and philanthropy – not in Kabul, but in Adelaide. Allum believed himself ‘God’s messenger’, but a Crown Prosecutor described him as a particularly deceitful and cunning ‘quack’ and brought about his conviction under the Medical Practitioners Act.
Book 1 Title: The Australian Dictionary of Biography Vol 7 1891–1939, A–Ch
Book Author: Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle
Book 1 Biblio: Melbourne University Press, 647 pp, $25.00
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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In his uncommonly long life, Mahomet Allum, a native of Afghanistan, combined the vocations of camel driving, herbalism and philanthropy – not in Kabul, but in Adelaide. Allum believed himself ‘God’s messenger’, but a Crown Prosecutor described him as a particularly deceitful and cunning ‘quack’ and brought about his conviction under the Medical Practitioners Act.

The Afghan had the last laugh: a twenty-year-old patient he had married at the age of eighty-three bore him a daughter, and when he died, aged 106, the funeral procession from the mosque was more than a mile long.

Few of the entries in the latest volume of The Australian Dictionary of Biography are as exotic as that concerning Mahomet Allum, but, as dictionaries go, the ADB is remarkably readable. The new volume features the eminent A-Ch’s in the period 1891–1939, and is therefore marked by soldiering and socialism.

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John Hepworth reviews The Deadly Element: The Men and Women behind the Story of Uranium by Lennard Bickel
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Contents Category: Non-fiction
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Article Title: The affair of the undecided atom
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Uranium is a word which has become so highly emotive in this country that it is embedded in the national psyche; but not one person in 10,000 who would react instinctively and dialectically to the word knows anything about the element itself apart from connotations of Doomsday … the world on fire or the seeping shroud of radiation sickness laying waste the entire earth in sterile despair.
Book 1 Title: The Deadly Element
Book 1 Subtitle: The Men and Women behind the Story of Uranium
Book Author: Lennard Bickel
Book 1 Biblio: Macmillan $12.95, 312 pp
Book 1 Author Type: Author
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Uranium is a word which has become so highly emotive in this country that it is embedded in the national psyche; but not one person in 10,000 who would react instinctively and dialectically to the word knows anything about the element itself apart from connotations of Doomsday … the world on fire or the seeping shroud of radiation sickness laying waste the entire earth in sterile despair.

In The Deadly Element, that elegant writer Lennard Bickel does the menacing and much misunderstood complex of compacted cores that form the uranium atom a considerable service with a popularist history of its discovery and utilisation to the sometimes dubious ends of mankind.

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Michele Field reviews The Australian and New Zealand Writers Handbook (2nd Edition) edited by Joan Clarke
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Contents Category: Non-fiction
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Article Title: Guidelines for Writers
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The greatest area of growth in the writing profession is among the group that used to be scurrilously called ‘hobby writers’.

A recent study of British authors reveals that fifty-nine per cent will write only one book in their writing careers.

Using this figure and extrapolating from the 3500 applicants for Public Lending Right here, there are at least 2100, maybe 3000, people in Australia who have written one book and either have run out of the spirit to write another, or maybe have encountered such frustrations with contracts, editors, and distributors that it is not worth it to write another.
Book 1 Title: The Australian and New Zealand Writers' Handbook (2nd Edition)
Book Author: Joan Clarke
Book 1 Author Type: Editor
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The greatest area of growth in the writing profession is among the group that used to be scurrilously called ‘hobby writers’.

A recent study of British authors reveals that fifty-nine per cent will write only one book in their writing careers.

Read more: Michele Field reviews 'The Australian and New Zealand Writers Handbook (2nd Edition) edited by...

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Contents Category: Letters
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Article Title: Letters to the Editor
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Dear Sir,

I have not so far seen a review of what I take to be a new series of Australian poets of whom only Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon have yet appeared. The publisher (Australian Heritage Books, Brisbane) is aiming to produce a cheap paperback, retailing at $2.
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Dear Sir,

I have not so far seen a review of what I take to be a new series of Australian poets of whom only Henry Kendall and Adam Lindsay Gordon have yet appeared. The publisher (Australian Heritage Books, Brisbane) is aiming to produce a cheap paperback, retailing at $2.

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Contents Category: Bookends
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Article Title: Bookends | April 1980
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It may seem callous at a time when so much human life is being wasted to spare any concern for the destruction and dissipation of the archaeological collection in the National Museum at Kabul. Yet the loss in both cases is irreplaceable, and it may even be that the loss of the artefacts is, in the long run, qualitatively more important than the loss of individual human lives.
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It may seem callous at a time when so much human life is being wasted to spare any concern for the destruction and dissipation of the archaeological collection in the National Museum at Kabul. Yet the loss in both cases is irreplaceable, and it may even be that the loss of the artefacts is, in the long run, qualitatively more important than the loss of individual human lives.

This is a claim that can be made only with the greatest caution. The most monstrous evils of this century have been due to the actions of people who have been prepared to sacrifice the rights and lives of individuals to the interests of vast abstractions and future hopes. It is this kind of moral dereliction which provides the truth behind Forster’s famous remark that he hoped that, if ever faced by the choice between betraying his country and betraying his friend, he would choose the former. No abstraction can override the claim the individual makes on each of us.

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Geoffrey Radcliffe Reviews ‘The Music of Man’ By Yehudi Menuhina and Curtis W. Davis, ‘The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium’ By Gerald Durrell, and ‘The Americans: Fifty Letters from America on Our Life and Times’ By Alistair Cooke
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Article Title: Menuhin, Durrell and Cooke
Article Subtitle: Menuhin, Durrell, and Cooke
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Irrespective of their countries of origin, books by remarkable men must command attention in the expectation that they will add to or consolidate knowledge, provide grounds for thought or useful debate or, hopefully, entertain.
Book 1 Title: The Music of Man
Book Author: Yehudi Menuhin and Curtis W. Davis
Book 1 Biblio: Methuen $24.95, 320 pp
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Book 2 Title: The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium
Book 2 Author: Gerald Durrell
Book 2 Biblio: Collins $14.95, 193 pp
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Book 3 Title: ‘The Americans: Fifty Letters from America on Our Life and Times’
Book 3 Author: Alistair Cooke
Book 3 Biblio: Bodley Head, $16.95, 323 pp
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Irrespective of their countries of origin, books by remarkable men must command attention in the expectation that they will add to or consolidate knowledge, provide grounds for thought or useful debate or, hopefully, entertain.

Read more: Geoffrey Radcliffe Reviews ‘The Music of Man’ By Yehudi Menuhina and Curtis W. Davis, ‘The Picnic...

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