Kill your darlings N E W F I C T I O N | C O M M E N T A R Y | E S S AY S | R E V I E W S
KILL YOUR DARLINGS Publishing Directors: Rebecca Starford and Hannah Kent Editor: Rebecca Starford Deputy Editor: Brigid Mullane Online Editor: Imogen Kandel Online Marketing Assistant: Emily Laidlaw Online Assistant: Jessica Alice Editorial Assistant: Christopher Fieldus Social Media Assistant: Samantha van Zweden PO Box 166, Parkville 3052, Victoria, Australia Email: info@killyourdarlingsjournal.com Web: www.killyourdarlingsjournal.com Published by Kill Your Darlings Pty Ltd This collection © Kill Your Darlings 2013 Kill Your Darlings 14, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9874213-7-1, ISSN 1837-638X All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of Kill Your Darlings. The views and opinions expressed by individual authors are not necessarily those of the editors. Cover illustration: Guy Shield Design and layout: © Kill Your Darlings 4VMRXIH ERH FSYRH F] +VMJ½R 4VIWW Kill Your Darlings accepts unsolicited submissions. Please visit the website for all guidelines.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
CONTENTS 5
Editorial
COMMENTARY 9
Gonski-lite: Doing the Sums on School Reform As the federal election draws near, Ben Eltham examines the Gonski education reforms, exploring what is at stake for our schools' futures.
25
You Know Who You Look Like?: Being a Perpetual Face Twin Estelle Tang confronts her dubious doppelgangers and urges people to leave her face alone.
33
Water for the Skull: On River Tubing in Laos Sam Twyford-Moore on Australian deaths in Laos and the search for the Perfect Moment.
45
Weighty Issues: On Fat, Silence and Self-Knowledge S.A. Jones explores the ideas of nourishment and happiness through her experience with weight gain.
51
Much Ado About Cotton: Marlon Brando, T-shirts and Sexuality on Screen Joanna Di Mattia examines the cinematic icon's Method and the importance of costume in character.
65
Dancing the Bodyelectric: A Tale of Transcendence in Lycra Emily Weekes revisits her childhood obsessions of dance, leg warmers and Wham!.
75
Left Hand Drive: Remembering Australia's Political Past Award-winning journalist Craig McGregor on living and breathing Australian politics for the past 50 years.
93
In the Kabul Bubble: Ex-pat Life in Afghanistan Pip Newling remembers living in Afghanistan in the years following September 11. You'll be surprised what she got up to.
FICTION 103
The Art of Preservation
Kate Elkington
INTERVIEW 117
Kill Your Darlings in conversation with Sheila Heti
REVIEWS 139
'Can I Take Your Order?': Compliance and Doing As You're Told Michelle See-Tho SR 'VEMK >SFIP W PEXIWX ½PQ ERH [L] MX W FIWX XS sometimes break the rules.
148
Remaking Total Recall: Short-changing Philip K. Dick and Our Cinematic Past
&IR 3 1EVE SR XLI EHETXEXMSRW SJ XLI EGGPEMQIH WGM ½ [VMXIV W short stories.
EDITORIAL
W
elcome to Issue 14 of Kill Your Darlings. As we go to print, divisive and predictable federal Labor leadership speculation continues to rage across our nation’s media outlets. A few months from an election that will likely see Tony Abbott sweep to power, swallowing dozens of Labor seats in the process, there has been very little discussion of basic policy. Ben Eltham’s lead feature, ‘Gonski-lite: Doing the Sums on School Reform’, is an insightful examination of Labor’s attempts at educational reforms that could genuinely change the shape of education and opportunity in this country. Accompanying Eltham’s lead feature is a chapter from Craig McGregor’s fascinating memoir, Left Hand Drive. McGregor, a journalist and commentator with 50 years’ experience, reflects on Australian society since the 1960s, pondering what has gone so wrong with our left-wing politics. Elsewhere in Commentary Estelle Tang reveals her frequent (and sometimes bizarre) mistaken identity, which touches on some uncomfortable questions about racism, while S.A. Jones tackles other forms of prejudice in her personal article on weight gain and identity. In the wake of tragic deaths of young tourists in Laos, Sam TwyfordMoore remembers his own travels to Southeast Asia and the tradition of ‘tubing’. Joanna Di Mattia reads masculinity in screen icon Marlon Brando’s T-shirts, Emily Weekes gets her groove on at Bodyelectric, a popular Melbournebased amateur dance organisation, and Pip Newling
6 | Kill Your Darlings, Issue 14
remembers the ‘Kabul Bubble’ while she lived and worked in Afghanistan. In Fiction, the issue features a new story from Kate Elkington, entitled ‘The Art of Preservation’, which examines the dynamics of an unconventional couple, while in Interviews we chat with indie darling and renowned interviewer Sheila Heti about her recent books, as well as what it’s like to be on the other side of the conversation. In Reviews, Michelle See-Tho discusses the disturbing film, Compliance, which challenges our preconceptions of surveillance and authority, while Ben O’Mara discusses the art of adaption and Total Recall. There have also been several recent exciting changes at Kill Your Darlings. We’re delighted announce that Brigid Mullane has been promoted to Deputy Editor, replacing Hannah Kent who now joins Editor Rebecca Starford as Publishing Director. We’re also very happy to announce Jessica Alice’s appointment as Online Assistant Editor, replacing Stephanie van Schilt, who leaves KYD for a newly created role at The Lifted Brow. We thank Steph for her time with us and wish her all the best. Also in staff news, Samantha van Zweden has been appointed Social Media Assistant and she’s already taken to our Tweetdeck like a duck to water. We warmly welcome our new staff to the KYD fold and look forward to you getting to know them in the coming months. Rebecca Starford, Editor
COMMENTARY
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GONSKI-LITE Doing the Sums on Schools Reform Ben Eltham
I
come from a teaching family. My parents met at Burwood Teacher’s College in Melbourne in the 1960s. You can still see some of the original buildings today, where, perhaps fittingly, I now work, having recently secured a position at Burwood’s modern incarnation, Deakin University. My dad went on to a varied career in the public service, as a social work lecturer, an advisor to a state education minister, and later, in the private sector. My mum remained a teacher. Over a remarkable 40-year career, she has taught everywhere from country Victoria to Brixton in London. Now, at the age of 68, she’s about to retire as the principal of a primary school, deep in the tough outer suburbs of Ipswich, in Queensland. She’s implemented a national curriculum, secured millions of dollars of extra funding from the state and Commonwealth, and battled a devastating flood, which submerged half the school’s classrooms in a metre of Bremer River mud.