Trip Advisor review of a protest

Featured in

  • Published 20250506
  • ISBN: 978-1-923213-07-4
  • Extent: 196 pp
  • Paperback, ebook, PDF

Firstly, what’s with all the footwork? A downward slope would be an attribute. There’s enough gory fundamentalism without toe jam. On that note, can you jack up the lighting? Or at least turn down the speakers? Death is a mute note now that we’re walking. The feedback feels too direct. Can anyone hotspot me? I’m having connectivity issues. Solidarity in extreme deprivation. If only there were scheduled intermissions. Note: the horses are not to be patted. Say hi though ’cos equity is chantable. What’s right is vengeance, of course, though we’re turning left now. How chic! This is the nicest part of town but still very dingy. Question: who sweeps up all these crunched leaves afterwards? This isn’t the four seasons! Get me a big banner. The centre will hold another meeting, evidently. Like, doesn’t this pace feel a little oppressive? Slow down & let me get myself in alignment. These sweat stains are so traumatic. And has anyone noticed how the security camera looks like it’s on fire? No, sorry, that’s the sun… What is it to wince en masse? Get me an even bigger banner! Can’t they hand out hats at these things? At the end of the line, someone asks me to take some snaps. I click my fingers. They raise peace signs.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

More from this edition

When the ships become water nymphs

Poetry Swans that are almost swans, sharp-tongued fruits,  mocking sheep farmers whose faces grow woollen, dancers at the bush-doof manic to their portable generators – changes come swift...

Nobody panic 

Non-fictionThe desert of the real is now where most teens search for answers to life’s big questions: what is love? Who am I? What is truth? The images of reality we create hold messages about reality. Copies of copies of copies though they may be, they nonetheless have a material effect on our children’s thoughts, behaviours, opinions. Consumerism. Communism. Sexism. Cancelism. Nationalism. Anarchism. Stoicism. Humanism. Ideas about what we should live like, look like and love like, what it means to be a man or a woman, what it means to be an individual or part of a community, are all displayed on a screen in their pockets. The influence is profound, but not necessarily sinister if they are taught to interrogate what they consume.

A half-century of hatchet jobs

Non-fictionAuthors and publishers worry that bad reviews kill sales. I’ve seen no evidence that this is the case, but plenty that bad reviews distress and demoralise their subjects. Many people who care about literature endow criticism, and especially negative reviews, with magical powers. They hold dear the fantasy that if critics did a better job, if they were braver soldiers, the profound structural problems that bedevil Australian literature – books rushed to press, low pay, policy indifference, plummeting reading rates, crisis in higher education, not to mention the racism and the classism – might somehow disappear. A cracking review ennobles its subject with attention and consideration, but I’ve never seen one earn an author a higher advance on their next book or buy them more time for revision, let alone shift the federal arts budget.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.