disassociated

Speaking of Australian writer Anna Spargo-Ryan, her new book, a memoir this time, titled A Kind of Magic (published by Ultimo Press), which explores her mental health journey, arrives in bookshops in October 2022.

Anna’s always had too many feelings. Or not enough feelings – she’s never been quite sure. Debilitating panic. Extraordinary melancholy. Paranoia. Ambivalence. Fear. Despair. From anxious child to terrified parent, mental illness has been a constant. A harsh critic in the big moments – teenage pregnancy, divorce, a dream career, falling in love – and a companion in the small ones – getting to the supermarket, feeding all her cats, remembering which child is which. But between therapists’ rooms and emergency departments, there’s been a feeling even harder to explain … optimism.

The Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) is calling for reform to higher education fee structures, which appear to be skewed against students wishing to study humanities, arts, and social sciences degrees. DASSH says recently released statistics show the cost of arts degree is up to three thousand dollar more per annum (PDF), compared to medicine or dentistry courses.

81 per cent of the nearly 14,000 Year 12 students interviewed for the report said passion would guide their choices for further study. The Universities Admission Centre Student Lifestyle Report shows only 35 per cent of students consider the cost of education when choosing their degree, and only about 40 per cent consider employment outcomes. These statistics fly in the face of the face of claims fee increases would guide student preferences under the former Government’s ‘Job Ready Graduates Package’.

Given many students are making study choices based on their passion, or what they’re really interested in, rather than the cost, or potential employment outcome, of tertiary education courses, DASSH wants to see more equitable degree course pricing.

I know nothing about baseball, let alone who the legends of the game are, or were, but after seeing Field of Dreams, I learned of one, Shoeless Joe Jackson, an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player one hundred years ago.

Shoeless Joe, depicted by late American actor Ray Liotta in the film, is the first player to appear in the baseball pitch Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) cleared part of his cornfield to create. Following news of Liotta’s death last week, Costner posted a scene of Kinsella pitching to Shoeless Joe, which includes a moment that was not scripted, but ultimately included in the final cut.

Some of the best moments are unscripted.

Six of the titles named on the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award longlist were published by members of the Small Press Network, a Melbourne based organisation representing more than two hundred and fifty small and independent publishers across Australia, and include one self-published title.

• One Hundred Days, by Alice Pung, published by Black Inc
• After Story, by Larissa Behrendt, published by University of Queensland Press
• Grimmish, by Michael Winkler is self-published
• Bodies of Light, by Jennifer Down, published by Text Publishing
• The Magpie Wing, by Max Easton, published by Giramondo publishing

In much the same way small businesses are a vital component of the Australian economy, so too are small and independent publishers to Australian literature.

Like it or not, as a species we are eventually going to take control of our evolution. Unless we destroy ourselves first, that is. The early steps towards what some call a transhuman future however will doubtless be mired in difficulty and uncertainty.

Still it’s a topic that’s always fascinated me, and while I’m not the biggest reader of non-fiction books, Future Superhuman Our transhuman lives in a make-or-break century (published by UNSW Press, May 2022) by Elise Bohan, a senior researcher at the Faculty of Philosophy, at the University of Oxford, is one title I’m looking forward to reading.

We’re hurtling towards a superhuman future – or, if we blunder, extinction. The only way out of our existential crises, from global warming to the risks posed by nuclear weapons, novel and bioengineered pathogens and unaligned AI, is up. We’ll need more technology to safeguard our future – and we’re going to invent and perhaps even merge with some of that technology.

What does that mean for our 20th century life-scripts? Are the robots coming for our jobs? How will human relationships change when AI knows us inside out? Will we still be having human babies by the century’s end? Elise Bohan unflinchingly explores possibilities most of us are afraid to imagine: the impacts of automation on our jobs, livelihoods and dating and mating careers, the stretching out of ‘the-circle-of-life’, the rise of AI friends and lovers, the liberation of women from pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, and the impending global baby-bust – and attendant proliferation of digital minds.

A recent survey of people working professionally in the Australian music and live performing arts industries makes for grim reading. Conducted in March by Support Act, a charity assisting artists and workers in the Australian music industry, the findings reveals many are fearful for their livelihoods and mental health:

• 66% of participants had high/very high levels of psychological distress, more than four times the general population
• 59% experienced suicidal thoughts, which is over four and a half times the proportion of the general Australian population
• 29% reported having a current anxiety condition and 27% reported currently having depression, both more than twice that of the general population
• Over one third of participants reported incomes from their work in music/live performing arts as less than $30,000 per annum, which is below the poverty line
• Just 15% said they felt safe at work all of the time, with 35% saying they were exposed to unsafe working conditions in the last year
• Over 47% lost their jobs due to the pandemic

The full summary of survey findings (PDF) can be read here.

The recent change of Federal government in Australia has raised hopes the arts sector will receive more economic support, with incoming arts and industrial relations minister Tony Burke keen to address insecure work and unreliable pay issues.

Burke has also long advocated for addressing issues of insecure work and unreliable pay, claiming Labor would launch a senate inquiry into insecure work if elected. The arts and cultural sector has the dubious title of being an industry leader in insecure work. And it is at the intersection of cultural and industrial relations policy where our new arts minister could dramatically reshape the sector.

I think Burke has a task and a half before him, but a closer focus on the arts is long overdue.

Sydney based Australian artist, writer, and refugee advocate Safdar Ahmed was named winner of the Book of the Year award in the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, for his graphic novel Still Alive (published by Twelve Panels Press, April 2021), which explores the experiences of asylum seekers in Australia’s Immigration detention system.

Those seeking asylum in Australia due to war, strife and violence in their home countries face extraordinary challenges both during their journey and upon arrival. Ahmed’s book focuses on people who arrive in Australia by boat. For these people, a long, perilous journey ends with the often equally perilous obstacles they face when dealing with Australia’s legal processes, with the privations of onshore and offshore detention centres, and with inadequate health and psychological support.

The Melbourne Rare Book Fair returns in 2022 after a COVID enforced break, and takes place at the University of Melbourne, from Thursday 7 July 2022 until Sunday 9 July.

With books being banned or burned, or both, in some parts, Toronto based Canadian poet and author Margaret Atwood has published a fireproof limited edition of her 1998 novel The Handmaiden’s Tale, which is, surprise, surprise, among titles banned in some jurisdictions. Coated with a fire retardant material, the book is able to withstand the fiery force of a flamethrower.