The trick that tells the truth

Unmasking corporate counterfeit

Featured in

  • Published 20230207
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-80-1
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

TWO LITTLE GIRLS, maybe four or five years old, are hurtling through the knee-high grass, the blades of which appear more chartreuse than verdant under the low sun’s bright light. Each child is wearing a striped singlet and long pants. There are no buildings in sight, just a lush, vacant meadow spreading in every direction, backed by dense trees casting a shadow on the near horizon. The sunbeams stream behind the speeding figures, shining through the translucent sprays of their shoulder-length hair. The lively grin of the follower and the concentration of the leader suggest that perhaps the chase is on – but there could be a thousand motives behind why they run, or none at all. The scene conjures Wordsworth: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. 

Or so this piece of corporate marketing intends us to feel. A female voice is heard over the footage, intoning words of warm reassurance: ‘We are moving from using high to lower emissions generation technology. Our commitment to gradually close our coal-fired power stations means we are making way for new low-carbon generation.’

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

Inside the dark tower

Thinking of what is gone, I pause on the bridge and look back. The windows and sleek curvature of Woodside Karlak now give the impression of smooth scales, sliding upwards towards the encroaching night. It is hard not to appreciate elements of the architecture, even when you know what is being sacrificed as a consequence of the decisions that take place behind the darkened glass of the great tower.

More from this edition

No name for the country

Non-fictionFor the past thirty-odd years, Hideo has worked exclusively in Japanese, publishing several novels and collections of criticism and essays. Why Japanese? is a question he is often asked. It harbours a kind of suspicion: why would a native speaker of the English language, the language of power and prestige and capital ... give it all up in favour of a comparatively minor language, a marked and ethnicised tongue?

A passing phase

In ConversationI went to Tim’s Guitars years ago and I saw Grant Hart from Hüsker Dü do a solo thing and he had a Q&A after the solo. And some guy went, ‘How often do you practise guitar?’ And then Grant Hart said, ‘I never practise guitar, practising guitar gets in the way of my personality.’ And I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s actually really true.’

Dot and Ern

Poetry                           Like the hawk of fabric shears, cockatoo calls cut raucous through sheets of...

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