Cirrus

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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'September 2020. Melbourne is strangely quiet, streets nearly deserted. We are suspended in lockdown. All the libraries are closed. Parcels of new books stack up inside; the usual whirr of air conditioning and photocopiers is silent. The spaces normally packed with students, the elderly, readers, children and city workers sit empty. The book-return chutes are closed, overdue fines have been waived. Library staff are working from home or have been redeployed to other jobs. Librarians are a resourceful bunch; they have adapted to lockdown by moving children’s story-time sessions and English-language classes online. Library budgets have been shuffled to buy more ebooks, films and streaming audio content to answer the exponential surge in demand. Books have been posted out to eager readers stuck at home.' (Introduction)

Notes

Epigraph: The same kind of shade and shelter that can be found in an aisle of books and an avenue of trees, and in the longevity of both, and the mere fact that both, if not butchered or burned, may outlive us. —Rebecca Solnit

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Link: Access online Sighted: 25/02/2021

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y Meanjin The Next 80 Years vol. 79 no. 4 Summer 2020 21111248 2020 periodical issue Abstract
'In December's 80th birthday edition of Meanjin, writers address the edition's theme: The Next 80 Years.

'The issue opens with reflective contributions from all of Meanjin's living past editors. Tara June Winch and Behrouz Boochani offer a conversational meditation on time and the very notion of a future. Bruce Pascoe writes on the strange relationship non-Indigenous Australians have with trees, and wonders when we will realise that the forest is a friend. Jennifer Mills encounters ... herselves ... in a future archive. Peter Doherty sees a future world of worries-many of them viral-but settles on hope and the necessity of individual responsibility. Jess Hill wonders whether existing models of policing are fit for purpose in countering domestic abuse. Michael Mohammed Ahmad writes on whiteness and the idea of 'real Australians'. Jane Rawson looks at dramatic changes in Australian nature and wonders 'who belongs here?' And Raimond Gaita writes on the moral challenges that have been presented by Covid19 and the challenge to our future presented by Black Lives Matter and the quest for Indigenous sovereignty.' (Edition summary)
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