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Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Mammoth single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2020... 2020 Mammoth
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct American mastodon, Mammoth is the (mostly) true story of how the skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a pterodactyl, a prehistoric penguin, the severed hand of an Egyptian mummy and the narrator himself came to be on sale at a 2007 natural history auction in Manhattan.

'Ranging from the Pleistocene Epoch to nineteenth-century America and beyond, including detours to Napoleonic France and Nazi Germany, Mammoth illuminates a period of history when ideas about science and religion underwent significant change. By tracing how and when the fossils were unearthed, Mammoth traverses time and place to reveal humanity's role in the inexorable destruction of the natural world.'(Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Australian Fiction in the Anthropocene Tony Hughes-d'Aeth , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel 2023; (p. 289-304)

'This chapter investigates the response of the Australian novel to the Anthropocene. It considers ways in which new, speculative fictions have sought to represent deep time and planetary interconnection, and interrogates how this connects to long-standing settler-colonial relations to land. It considers such writers as James Bradley, George Turner, and Tara June Winch, and emphasizes the region of Western Australia as a place of particular environmental urgency.' (Publication abstract)

A Book That Changed Me : Siang Lu on Chris Flynn’s Mammoth Siang Lu , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , October 2022;
Creating New Climate Stories : Posthuman Collaborative Hope and Optimism Rachel Hennessy , Alex Cothren , Amy T. Matthews , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022;
'This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore
using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage
writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter
affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We
ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures
that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We
outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise
justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining
climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects
located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and
consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the
horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.'

(Publication abstract)

Animal Perspective : Breaking the Language Barrier Laura Jean McKay (presenter), Erin Hortle (presenter), Chris Flynn (presenter), 2021 single work interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 71 2021;
Book Review : Mammoth by Chris Flynn Jake Dean , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , June 2020;

— Review of Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel

'For all its fantastical elements Mammoth is a novel steeped in fact and extensive research.'

Man Verses Beast : A Witty Exploration of History and Humanity Astrid Edwards , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 421 2020; (p. 36)

— Review of Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel

'Everything about Chris Flynn’s Mammoth – the characters, plot, and structure – should not work. But it does, and beautifully so. Mammoth is narrated by the fossilised remains of a 13,354-year-old extinct American Mammoth (Mammut americanum), who likes to be addressed as Mammut. On 24 March 2007, the eve of his sale at the Natural History Auction in New York, Mammut finds himself in a room with Tyrannosaurus bataar (who prefers to be called T.bat).' (Introduction)

Chris Flynn, Mammoth Andrew Fuhrmann , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 23-29 May 2020;

— Review of Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel

'Has a whimsical conceit ever been inflated to such mammoth proportions? In his third novel, Australian writer Chris Flynn proposes that the remains of once-living creatures acquire a special sentience after they’ve been disinterred. They can observe what goes on around them and communicate with other nearby fossils. And so in 2007, in a warehouse in Manhattan, we find an American mastodon narrating the adventure of his life and afterlife for the edification of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar.'  (Introduction)

Books (Lockdown Pleasure 2) or The Dennis Callegari Column Dennis Callegari , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , November no. 104 2020; (p. 11-20)

— Review of The Alpaca Cantos Jenny Blackford , 2020 selected work poetry ; The Girl in the Mirror Jenny Blackford , 2019 single work children's fiction ; Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel ; The Sandpit Nicholas Shakespeare , 2020 single work novel ; The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey , 1948 single work novel
Book Review : Mammoth by Chris Flynn Jake Dean , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , June 2020;

— Review of Mammoth Chris Flynn , 2020 single work novel

'For all its fantastical elements Mammoth is a novel steeped in fact and extensive research.'

Think Big Stephen Romei , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2 May 2020; (p. 14)

'If fiction is the early draft of history, our love-and-death relationship with animals is about to become far more complicated, writes Stephen Romei'

Animal Perspective : Breaking the Language Barrier Laura Jean McKay (presenter), Erin Hortle (presenter), Chris Flynn (presenter), 2021 single work interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 71 2021;
y separately published work icon Live Recording : Chris Flynn on Mammoth Christos Tsiolkas (interviewer), 2020 23470490 2020 single work podcast interview

'Chris Flynn chats with fellow author Christos Tsiolkas about his new novel, Mammoth. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary) 

Creating New Climate Stories : Posthuman Collaborative Hope and Optimism Rachel Hennessy , Alex Cothren , Amy T. Matthews , 2022 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022;
'This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore
using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage
writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter
affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We
ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures
that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We
outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise
justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining
climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects
located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and
consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the
horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.'

(Publication abstract)

A Book That Changed Me : Siang Lu on Chris Flynn’s Mammoth Siang Lu , 2022 single work column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , October 2022;
Last amended 16 Dec 2021 14:21:31
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