On Lara Bingle and the Media Assault on Victims of Sexual Assault

I think it’s worth commenting on the current media attention around Lara Bingle at the moment, because it’s clear that the issues at stake are much more serious than the trivial celebrity scandal that some media outlets are portraying it as.

This is particularly following articles like the one from Peter Roebuck. I was seething at it all day, but I shouldn’t have been surprised.

I continue to be astounded at the full-frontal assault the media caries out on women who stand up to sexism and sexual abuse. This is not an isolated case at all.

Lara Bingle is suing Brendon Fevola for taking photos of her naked without her consent and distributing at them. As a man, I can only imagine the humiliation she has faced as a result.

She has been accused of doing it for media attention or to save her career. She’s been accused of overreacting and not being a good ‘cricket wife’ by not shutting up and giving her unwavering support to Michael Clarke in his cricketing career.

This is similar to the assault on a woman last year who came out against Matthew Johns for an alleged rape seven years ago.

The fact that the men are at best sympathised with for their mistake and at worst defended really says a lot about sexism in our society. There is no talk of these men being punished for the vile crimes at all.

That is unless of course the men are Muslim and then they use it peddle racist bullshit about immigrants not respecting our great country that always respects women.

But this issue goes far beyond how it affects Lara Bingle. Peter Roebuck’s sexist diatribe tells women to shut up, put up and play their role as second fiddle to their male partners, supporting them in their obviously more important pursuits.

And all of the media are constantly discouraging women from speaking out against rape and sexual assault. The message being sent is no one is going to believe you anyway.

Abbott: Virginity, Gays and Babies

Tony Abbott seems to bathe in the blood of controversy and headlines. In recent months he made comments about virginity, specifically women’s. And now in recent days has caused a stir around comments made about homosexuality.

Then there’s the thing that really caught people off guard, his paid parental leave scheme that’s to the left of Labor’s. I was surprised too, but I’d argue that they’re all part of the same rotten agenda and the maternity leave scheme isn’t because Abbott cares about the needs of women.

Compared to Rudd, who seems to avoid discussions about social issues, Abbott seems desperate to reignite the old culture wars that riled up the left under Howard and solidify the hard Liberal support base. It seems to be working because anything Abbott says seems to elicit a flurry of commentary.

Rudd on the other hand is forgotten. He’s not seen as mad as the ‘mad monk.’

Attacking homosexuality and sex out of marriage coupled with some ‘thought-bubble’ around paid maternity leave is all about reinforcing his reactionary social agenda. Homosexuals threaten the ‘natural order of things,’ according to Abbott because they don’t spit out babies, or if they do, not in the institution he’s so obsessed with, the traditional nuclear family.

The economic details of the scheme aren’t guaranteed. You’d be fool for trusting a Liberal. But it’s clear to everyone that the Liberals want women to have babies – but not out of marriage or with other women.

Same-sex Marriage Rally – Saturday 13th March, 1pm – State Library of Victoria – equallove.info

[Fiction] Friday: Gregor the Rat

[Fiction] Friday Challenge #145 for 5th March, 2010:
“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.” What has your character turned into?

Gregor the Rat

When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin.

My fist flew up, smashed down. The wand sliced through and the smell of rat thickened as he bled in his bed.

Writing: What Projects Am I Working On?

I’ve been sick the past couple of days, wasting time at home, and when I’m at home I tend to do less blogging, which is weird. Anyway, yesterday, in my boredom I managed to get moving on my novella again, All Fascists are Zombies!

I was partly inspired by Jeff Sparrow’s blog post comparing writing to work. Beginning to write again after a break hurts, especially those first few paragraphs, but I think I’ve pushed through it now.

So, thought it might be useful for myself (and maybe you too) if I updated everyone on the status of my projects.

Barbarism – The 2009 NaNoWriMo novel

I haven’t touched this since the first few days of December. It’s worrying that I’ve forgotten it. Coming back to it will become harder and harder the more I leave it. But I need to push myself to get some words down for it.

Sanity Juxtaposed – The Collection of Unpublished work from 2004 to 2009

A few weeks ago perhaps, I found someone to do my cover art for this minor project and after seeing the WIP of that last week, I feel like I need to give it more attention and upgrade it to a major project. I’m keeping details of this under-wraps because it’s just too exciting

I’m thinking of SJ like a band’s demo tape or EP and plan to sell it that way. The pieces being in chronological order will hopefully give the reader some impression of my progress as a writer over the years and a taste of my style. Hopefully the first few pieces aren’t sabotaging people’s willingness to give me a go though.

I have all the pieces from 2004 to 2008 but need to gather the 2009 pieces, mostly flash fiction but there’s a decision to be made about what’s going in this, and what good political stuff to keep for my other project, Capital Comes Dripping.

Capital Comes Dripping – The Collection of Marxist Horror

I think this is the project with the most attention at the moment, leaving me able to work on simultaneous parts of it, be it my novella or various short stories.

I’ve also thinking about adding some pages to this blog’s sidebar about ‘Marxist horror’ and what I mean by it in order to conceptualise what I want out of it.

• All Fascists are Zombies! – the novella – Like I said before, I’ve begun working on AFAZ again and am in the middle of writing a second draft, this time with a nice outline using Scrivener. I’ve become a real fan of rewrites, honing the plot and characters with each draft.
• My Boss Sucks – short story – I’ve been through so many edits of this. I think it’s time for another rewrite in light of learning more about the main character. I’m struggling to find a market for this piece though that might publish it before it’s added to the collection.
• The Homophobe – a poem – I’ve submitted this out again after making some changes that really improved the flow. I’ve gotten some promising feedback and the results mean I’ll probably work on some more poetry for the collection too.
• Evicted – flash fiction piece – I think this needs to be edited and submitted soon in order to get a feeling of what I need to do with it even if it gets rejected.
• Other short stories – I’ve got a few other shorts and flash pieces in various stages, needing edits, complete rewrites or redrafts. The main ones being one about homophobia and another set in an abattoir, which both are niggling in my head every so often.

I think Capital Comes Dripping is going to be an ongoing project overtime and I plan to submit the various pieces as they’re written in order to give them some miles so to speak. And this will certainly be the main project throughout 2010.

I’ve got a lot on and I think it’s going to be very easy to forget about things so might make these ‘project updates’ semi-regular.

How do you juggle and organise your writing projects? Do you find this kind of update interesting or useful?

Writing Goals: February to March

The plan this month was to get inspired and on my way to writing again. Certainly, whilst I didn’t get all of my goals done, I do feel the ideas swirling around and have gotten some words on paper again.

February Results

1. Do [Fiction] Friday at least twice

I did [Fiction] Friday twice this month, throwing me back into the act of writing words and I think it did me good. I’d like to make [Fiction] Friday a more regular part of my routine in future.

2. Edit My Boss Sucks and resubmit

I began editing the manuscript and making some changes, mainly to the writing and not the plot. I can’t for the life of me though, find somewhere to submit it. Looking at the piece though, I’m considering a complete rewrite.

3. Finish The Slap (Cultural Goal)

I finished this toward the start of the month. A very satisfying read and left me to be able to focus on other reading.

4. Watch at least 3 movies (Cultural Goal)

Done. Well, two movies and a TV series. Dead Set, Orphan and American History X. All satisfying and helped to inspire me.

5. Finish Sexuality and Socialism (Political Research Goal)

I barely touched it this month, which is bad. I picked it up last night and got into it before drifting off the sleep but it’s no where near finished.

6. Post at least 5 reviews (Blogging Goal)

I wrote four out of the five reviews I had planned, but that was mostly to do with not reading the book I had planned for the fifth review. I felt like some of my reviews were a little more in depth this month, though they didn’t garner that much more feedback and haven’t seen any noticeable traffic from search engines from them.

March Goals

I don’t want to shift focus that dramatically this month, just keep doing what I tried in February and move toward more words and keeping on being inspired through reading and media.

1. Do [Fiction] Friday twice – This work well last month and is good for keeping me thinking about writing. It also helped garner some support on my blog.
2. Do something with My Boss Sucks – Be it an edit and submit anywhere, or a complete rewrite I can’t let this piece go stale and just forget about it.
3. Submit something – Be it My Boss Sucks or something else.
4. Write 1,000 words toward All Fascists are Zombies! – American History X has inspired me to work on this project again. I’m part way through a second draft and need to continue with it.
5. Begin to proof read and edit piece for Sanity Juxtaposed – This year I want to release all my old stories as a self-published collection. I have most of the pieces compiled so need to begin making minor edits to the grammar and paragraphing.
6. Read 5 short stories (Cultural Goal) – Reading Angela Meyer’s piece in the latest issue of The Lifted Brow, I got a creative buzz that watching films can’t do. Whilst my reading focus this month is toward political reading, reading short stories will still give me a fiction buzz in the absence of reading a novel.
7. Finish Sexuality and Socialism (Political Research Goal) – This is the sole book I’m focusing on this month and need to finish it. It’s an easy read and really interesting. I just need to set aside the time.
8. Have two guest posts published – I have one guest posting opportunity already for a writing-related blog and think it would be a good way of driving traffic and getting my name out there. I want to line up another for a political-related blog.

Some of these goals seem lofty, particularly number 7 but I need to push myself to get focused and get things done.

How is everyone else going with their own writing goals?

365: Day 173, 174 & 175

Day 173: Amongst my cluttered desk, I sat down to actually do some writing, my ]Fiction] Friday flash piece.

Day 174: Spent the night in watching the Charity Shield, barracking for my favourite team, South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Day 175: You know the great thing about Sunday? Waking up at noon, having a beer at 1 and staying in my pajama pants for most of the afternoon.

Movie Review: American History X

American History X is a confronting movie dealing with American neo-Nazis, but beyond the violence and disturbing element that the movie is known for, I found it actually has quite deep character development.

Confronting really is the most appropriate word for describing this film. I know I use it a lot. I described Tsiolkas’ The Slap as confronting but this is even more so.

Danny, the younger brother in the film looks up to his older brother Derek, a notorious neo-Nazi in Venice Beach. The movie opens after Derek has been released from prison for killing two black men, but the movie effortlessly switches between the plot in the present and revealing backstory that shapes the characters.

The flashbacks and insight into the world of skinheads leave you seething with rage at their actions and their ideas, but as much as you hate Derek in the beginning of the film, he exits prison a changing man and the film deals with how people’s ideas can change for the better due to their experiences and circumstances challenging pre-existing ideas.

The film is known for its violence. But I think the violence is overstated. The incidents of violence are rare, which I think enhances the impact. The scene where Derek demands the black man bites the gutter almost made me look away. It is probably the most violent piece of film I’ve ever seen, and stands out for me compared to the rest of the film.

Cinematically, the film is brilliant in the way it uses colours and images. The black and white lens in which the flashbacks are viewed are well done, unlike tacky fuzzy lenses.

The film ended imperfectly, and it made it realistic by not wrapping up the plot neatly even as the characters were on a trajectory toward a happy resolution. The unfinished business of the whole thing leaves you with a bittersweet feeling in the end.

Comparing American History X to Romper Stomper and This Is England, I think this film makes the issues of Fascism, racism and how people come and go from these ideas much clearer. I think the film is stronger in a cinematic sense as well as the political points being clearer.

[Fiction] Friday: Sorry

To be honest, I’m not quite sure where I was going with this. I was very much in my characters just letting him take me where the prompt led.

[Fiction] Friday Challenge #144 for 26th February, 2010:
The bag was empty except for a smudged, slip of paper which said, “Sorry.”

Sorry

I could barely think with the whirring of the cars screaming past, just blurs metres ahead of me, making me dizzy.

I felt warm breath tickle my neck behind me. “There you are.”

Meanland: Reading in a Time of Change

Last night I was fortunate enough to go to my first event at the new Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, now known as The Wheeler Centre. The professional looking space is on the Little Lonsdale Street side of the State Library and the interior is overlaid with modern fixtures whilst not disturbing the old architecture.

It was the opening event of Meanland, a collaboration between Overland and its editor, Jeff Sparrow, and Meanjin and its editor, Sophie Cunningham. Both journals have a real reputation in Melbourne and plan to open a year long discussion into reading and literature in an age of changing technology, particularly with eBooks.

On the panel last night was Margaret Simons, Marieke Hardy, Sherman Young, and Peter Craven – and chaired by Sophie. They tackled the issues of the future of reading, the effect the eReader and online content will have and how these new technologies will affect reading.

I thought Sherman Young’s initial comments breaking down the question made it quite clear: How will reading by done in the future? And will we still be reading long-form text?

It’s a massive question and that’s why there’s going to be a whole year of events, articles and conversations around it. Last night’s opening only began to scratch the surface, let more questions branch out, and made me curious for more.

Margaret made the bold prediction that eReaders would be everywhere in 2010, and that in five years, most of our reading will be done on them. It’s bold because the Australian market is sadly lacking in any eReaders at the moment, in stark contrast to the United States where they’re taking off.

She also envisioned that reading and writing would become less of a private affair, where your thoughts and reactions would be broadcasted in various forms, such as Twitter-like services more frequently. ‘Crowd-sourcing’ comes to mind like with Wikis and creator’s creative control over their work seems under threat if we agree with what Margaret says. I’m not quite so sure.

Marieke Hardy was asked to speak because of her experience writing the M-book, said not to be interpreted as the Marieke-book, but the mobile book, which seems to be a craze in Japan, with ‘novels’ broadcasted onto people’s mobile phones in chapters each morning.

The example lays the basis for the future of reading on electronic devices. I wondered myself whether the birth of eReading would see the revival of short fiction, on the basis that it’s easier to read shorter texts on a screen with backlit glare.

But Marieke’s predictions don’t extend to the death of the printed book, and says that readers will maintain attachment to the printed book for reading longer texts, particularly the classics. There is a difference in the way you read something on a screen compared to a paperback, unlike the shift from records, to tapes, to CDs, to MP3 players where you essentially digest the medium in the same way.

I’m inclined to agree with this romantic attachment to the printed book, even if I do most of my reading on the screen anyway. This doesn’t mean my mind won’t change as technology does though.

When Sherman Young answered his own broken-down version of the question he was pretty straight-forward as he read his talk from his mobile phone. We would be reading from screens in the future, and yes, we would still be reading long-form text like novels.

He took the angle of arguing that contrary to what everyone else is saying, reading on screens does not determine what you read, that it isn’t inevitable that you’ll only read shorter texts.

I think I agree and disagree. Whilst I can still see that people will want to read novels and longer works, the nature of the screen as opposed to the page (as they’re currently designed) makes it difficult to read for longer periods of time. It’s mainly due to the glare of a back-lit screen placing strain on your eyes. I said this in my post about the iPad. eInk may change all of this but it’s frustrating that I’m yet to get a chance to see how it works!

But I agree with Sherman when he went on to dismiss the notion that screens and the internet are going to shorten our attention spans. I think this is mostly troglodyte hysteria.

To be honest, I didn’t take in too much of what Peter Craven said, other than his admission at being from the rare group of people to still write his work in cursive long-script with a fountain pen. I felt Peter named-dropped a little too much and was less engaging and fresh than the others, but perhaps this is some unconscious prejudice against those who don’t use technology.

The questions of economics play a big role in this whole debate I feel and as a Marxist, I see that capitalism plays a role in determining how reading and technology are going to develop and it will place limitations on the industry, given that the need for something to be profitable for publishers/other companies is going to be of prime importance to those driving the industry, and then the economic basis on which the writers survive is going to depend on how sustainable it is.

This was flagged at something to be discussed in the future and something I’m really curious about. This first event really wet my appetite for this whole discussion and I feel that by the end of the year, we will all be much clearer on what the hell is happening to the publishing industry.

Other posts:

• Fancy Goods: Our dark and private spaces
• Little Girl With a Big Pen: Meanland, Reading In a Time of Change
• Meanland: Reading in a Time of Change

365: Day 172

Day 172: Tonight I went to my first event at the brand new Wheeler Centre, the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas created after Melbourne was announced as a UNESCO City of Literature.

The event was in conjunction with Meanjin and Overland, two esteemed literary journals, on the topic of how reading is changing in the digital age.

On the Mossad Passport Scandal

It’s been revealed this morning that some of the Israeli Mossad agents that are alleged to have gone to Dubai to assassinate a senior Hamas leader may have used Australian passports, either stolen or forged.

I awoke to Kevin Rudd’s stern and serious face on ABC News this morning. It was a bit perplexing actually.

Of course he prefaced all of his comments with, “I say this is a friend of Israel.” And he went on to state that this was a serious issue, not something to be put aside.

Is he being honest or is this grandstanding like when Obama says he’s serious about freezing settlements in West Bank?

States do take their official documents like passports seriously, but it seems obvious to me that intelligence agencies would do dodgy things like this all the time. Suppose it’s just anger at being caught.

Someone rightly pointed out on Twitter this morning that if this was Iran, we’d quite likely be at war already.

I honestly don’t know what’s at play here. But I do know that this isn’t likely to change Australia’s overall unwavering support for the apartheid state.

Update: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has been quoted in an ABC News article as saying: “I’ve made it crystal clear to the ambassador that if the results of that investigation cause us to come to the conclusion that the abuse of Australian passports was in any way sponsored or condoned by Israeli officials, then Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend.”

These are pretty strong words. I find them surprising, but the stronger the Australian government makes their feelings known, the more I feel like it is a giant fraud. Breaking with Israel over such a thing would be contrary to the interests of Australian capitalism, bringing into the question the alliance with the United States. This is just too much to lose for them.

365: Day 171

Day 171: Saw AFI at Festival Hall tonight, who were supporting Faith No More, who took over the headlining spot from them a while after the show was announced. Davey Havok was amazing.

365: Day 170

Day 170: After work, I ran out to Bourke Street to march with tens of thousands of other music fans marching against liquor licensing laws that have been crippling live music in Melbourne.

The War on Terror, Anti-Muslim Racism and the “Islam isn’t a Race” Defence

Last week, 5 Muslim men were jailed for what amounted to thought-crimes under anti-terrorism legislation. Acts like this would have George Orwell jumping up and down screaming, “I told you so!” but it seemed to pass by the Australian media without much fanfare, which is in stark contrast to when these men were first arrested on the eve of one of the WorkChoices protests in 2006.

So whilst the government and media seem less confident to use Muslims and the threat of terrorism as a way to distract us and create this fear in society, the war on terror is far from over.

This morning The Age reports that Rudd has named 10 countries whose citizens will be screened with fingerprints and facial imaging upon applying for a VISA to enter the country.

Far from targeting everyone “just to be safe,” it should come as no surprise that besides Cuba, all of the countries are predominantly Muslim. This is all part of linking the war on terror with ant-Muslim racism. And I use the word ‘racism’ specifically.

One of the biggest debates here on my blog has been around the issue of the Muslim prayer room that was taken away at RMIT University here in Melbourne. Some commenters took exception to my use of the term ‘racism’ claiming that Islam isn’t a race and Muslims come from a variety of countries.

But as Rudd’s top 10 list of terrorist countries show, Islam is so tied up with a geographical area from North Africa to Indonesia that has been the target of imperialism and there is a need to confuse the religion with a racial group to make it stick.

The nature of racism and racist ideology has changed over decades. No longer is it acceptable to say the brains of black people are smaller than whites, or even attach behaviour to a racial group. It’s all cloaked as inherent within someone’s culture or religion, something people argue that can be changed or isn’t fixed. It ends up in the same conclusions though.

And even if you call it anti-religious bigotry rather than racism, the bigots need to tie their ideas to same racial group as it’s far easier to identify the ‘problem.’ The image of the Muslim in Western racism is so bound up with the image of the Arab Muslim.

And if you look at this concretely, people entering from these countries are not going to be asked their religion before being searched. Christians from these countries are often still targeted by the same vile ideas.

The Cronulla rioters used attacks on Islam to justify their racist frenzy whilst many of the Lebanese beaten were probably Christian.

So it is almost undeniable that attacks on Islam are racist and are bound up with racism towards Arabs, as well as toward North Africans and people from Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

Racists will often try to use the argument “Islam isn’t a race” to hide their racist ideas and we shouldn’t let these vile ideas off the hook.

365: Day 156 to 169

Day 156: Got home really late and this is possibly the closest I came to missing out on taking my photo.

Day 157: Have I ever mentioned I hate spreadsheets?

Day 158: Played the new version of the popular board game, Risk.

Day 159: Went to work with only a short t-shirt so had to go out and buy another shirt to go out over the top. This is me attempting to take a ‘MySpace’ style profile pic.

Day 160: This is me air-guitaring during my (attempted) rendition of ‘Prisoner of Society’ by The Living End at Karaoke.

Day 161: The day before, I went to a demo against the Northern Territory Intervention and bought this t-shirt. I wish I had it at the Big Day Out.

Day 162: You’ve heard of Nando’s Peri-Peri, right? Well, Masterfoods has made a spice called Piri-Piri. It tasted pretty good, kind of like the Nando’s original.

Day 163: After finishing The Slap the night before, I weighed up which books to read next.

Day 164: The day before pay day, and I was flat broke.

Day 165: Tonight, after a bit of a lazy sick day, I finally motivated myself to work on a revision of my short, ‘My Boss Sucks.’ Read more ›

Movie Review: The Orphan

On Friday night I watched the horror/thriller Orphan after hearing some good things about it, despite it coming across of typically Hollywood. Without expecting anything but some easy entertainment, I was pleasantly surprised.

Isabelle Fuhrman plays the charming, polite and (perhaps too) mature orphan, Esther who’s adopted by a couple, Kate and John, with two kids after their third child dies whilst still in the womb. From Russia, Esther makes a big impression on the parents until some strange things begin happening and Esther creates rifts in the family, particularly between the parents.

The plot begins in a typical Hollywood fashion but I didn’t find this boring. I’m a pretty easy audience and was hooked by the character of Esther. She’s certainly a unique character but as the plot developed I could see similarities with other child-villain moves such as Hide and Seek with Dakota Fanning and The Good Son with Macaulay Culkin.

Aside from Esther, the mother Kate was one of the more interesting characters. I sympathised with her the most as her family turns against her due to Esther’s manipulative antics. This was the real tension in the movie.

Without giving the twist away, the ending and the revelation was very satisfying and genuinely unexpected and clever. The clues left behind at the beginning and the movie were very well placed, so perhaps smarter viewers could’ve picked it but I certainly didn’t.

And in light of the twist, I have enormous respect for Isabelle Fuhrman, the 12-year-old who played Esther. She did well to play such a complex character that goes beyond playing an ordinary girl.

I think this is well worth watching if you’re not a total movie snob that needs some extra unique, because whilst it was a bit Hollywood-esque and more of a thriller than in the horror genre, it did provide enough of something new to be interesting.

Rating:

Book Review: The Slap – Christos Tsiolkas

After finishing Christos Tsiolkas’ powerful novel, The Slap last night, I’m left wondering whether I need to leave more time for it all to sink in. The Slap is confronting and deep, full of contradictions and messiness. It is easily one of the novels I will remember for a long time.

It’s very much a character driven story, rather than something driven by plot. It tells each chapter from the point of view of a different character, with their own actions and reactions to the events.

It all stems from an incident in the beginning where a man slaps another couple’s child, causing riffs in families and friendships but it would disingenuous to say the debate over slapping a child is what the novel is about. To me, it merely provided the base for characters and their values to interact and clash with each other.

The family, relationships and issues of sexism are front and centre. And the trivial moral debates to me seemed almost a distraction to the deeper issues, and the subtext of the novel.

Where they positioned themselves on the debate over the slap didn’t really determine how I felt about the characters. But almost every character had some form of prejudice, such as racism or sexism. I found many of the characters, particularly the men, unlikable, though this was in no way a bad thing and was all part of the honest and ugly aspects of the novel.

The younger characters, Connie and Richie, were the most likable, perhaps because they were the closest to my own world view but even they had flaws and made mistakes.

The contradictory nature of many of the characters ideas, how some were likable but had values I’d disagree with, brings to mind the Marxist idea of mixed-consciousness. The idea that people can have varied levels of progressive political ideas, whilst at the same time having reactionary ideas and these seeming to come into conflict.

The fact that the characters didn’t have pure morals, nor absolute prejudices portrayed a realism to me. Though it brings into question the legacy of post-modernism, that ‘every opinion is valid’ etc. and that whether or not writer are compelled to insert grey areas and contradictions into their characters for the sake out of it.

I found many of the scenes quite in your face. They have left a lasting impact on me, particularly a scene with Connie. The sex scene, told through Connie’s point-of-view, came complete with her internal thoughts that brought everyday experiences of sexism to the fore.

Not wanting to spoil the ending, I agree with Angela Meyer when she said that it could’ve ended much darker. For a novel that was so dark and uncomfortable, I was feeling uplifted and hopeful for the majority of the characters in the end.

The Slap really stands out to me compared to many of the novels I’ve read. It is so unique and strong that I found myself talking about it, dying to discuss it, even before I’d finished it. I really recommend it.

Rating:

For more on The Slap, Angela Meyer’s interview with Christos Tsiolkas at LiteraryMinded is amazing.

Equal Writes Raises $400 for Equal Love and NaNoWriMo

Some of you may remember my idea to have people sponsor me during National Novel Writing Month last November. Well, it took me a lot longer than I’d hoped but I finally collected most of the donations that were pledged to me.

I sent $200 to The Office of Letters and Light, organisers of NaNoWriMo and $200 to Equal Love, the Melbourne group campaigning for same-sex marriage rights.

Thanks everyone who donated and cheered me on last November. I may do this again this year, and might use the Facebook group, Equal Writes, to rally writers for same-sex marriage in the future.

[Fiction] Friday: Inheritance

This return to Write Anything’s [Fiction] Friday and Twitter’s #FridayFlash also coincides with my first bit of writing in a few months.

[Fiction] Friday Challenge #142 for 12th February, 2010:
A family’s life changes dramatically after they are bequeathed an old painting in the will of an obscure relative.

Inheritance

The moment that thing entered the room, revealed to us all, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, piercing and direct.

I walked out of my home that day and never returned. I never returned their calls. I wonder if they see how serious it is now.

Writing: Overcoming Slumps and Blocks

As I said in my writing goals post for this month, I’m aiming get back on track, to get writing and inspired in the wake of a bit of a dry spell.

I’ve become used to slumps in enthusiasm for writing, and what sometimes I call writer’s block; I’ve often spent inordinate amounts of time making excuses for lack of writing but now I think it’s happened enough for me to be prepared for slumps, why they happen and how to deal with them.

These are some of the things I’ve learnt and am doing to turn this around.

The first is to expect slow periods, interruptions and such. I noted late last year, after NaNoWriMo, that I felt I was heading into a more ‘political’ mindset and I’m used to shifting focus between writing and politics. I’ve just learnt to go with it.

I don’t believe in the whole ‘forcing yourself’ to write thing, like it’s a job. I don’t want it to feel like a chore or a job, because I think that will make it worse. Sure, sometimes you have to push yourself but realising you’re uninspired and have nothing much to say is sometimes what you need to do.

Instead, becoming immersed in other activities, like political activism in my case, allows me not to stress so much about lack of writing and just enjoy the things that will often inspire me to come back to the page. Also, I’m a fan of socializing instead of staring at an ominous blank page and cursor all night.

But there are also some things that I’ve learnt to help me recharge and come back to the page quicker and far more willing than just forcing myself.

And reading is the key thing. I’ve said before and it was only last year that I really came to this realisation. I have been focussing more on reading at the moment and I’ve been feeling better ever since.

I have to constantly remind myself to read, even if it’s just a short story.

Another thing I’m trying is to saturate myself in media; Books, but not just books; Movies and music are great for triggering emotional responses, inspiration and images.

I’m really making it a priority to watch as many movies as possible this month, hopefully some horror films especially.

Also, I kind of include certain types of conversations as part of this saturation thing. Discussing the books and movies I’ve been watching, as well as how my writing is going is useful as well as for me, debating out political issues.

These get my brain working much like other forms of media would.

So hopefully these few methods will inspire some writing soon, but as I said at the start, I’m not going to panic.

The one thing that hasn’t really lapsed though is blogging and I think it’s good that during my slow periods writing fiction, blogging keeps my brain working, the chains greased and in good shape so it’s not like hitting a brick wall when I come pack to working on my novel or those short stories.