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Haoyi zhang's avatar

*cackles at the film clip*

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Paula Gleeson's avatar

Hello, I have just read your review of Trent Dalton's first two works and I wanted to thank you for your clear sightedness. I have been resisting reading Boys Swallows Universe until this month, and on finishing it earlier this week have been unsettled by what it is that bothers me about it. The hype around Dalton has been and continues to be extraordinary and I was left wondering whether it is just my cynicism or my feminism that prevents me from the ubiquitous admiration. Through out the book I was looking for Richard Flanagan and found only Bill Bryson. It has a fairy tale quality to it that is didactic and I could not put my finger on how it was so offensive to me. Your analysis illuminating its alignment of Scott Morrison's neoliberal, atomised world view, a world of leaners and the leaned upon is on point. I wonder if you noticed also an orientation toward the harmful ANZAC myth, where good men are heroes and good women are victims and bad men are brought to justice through extraordinary acts of individual heroism? It seems the same patriarchal settler troupe that feeds the frenzy of ANZAC celebrations and the myth of who or what Australia is. Anyway thank you again for accompanying me in this tiny group of readers who are not bedazzled by the fairy dust of Trent Dalton.

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