The cover of The Monthly’s July issue has two photos plucked from a family album. One of them shows a bear strolling past a cabin, in no particular hurry but a menacing presence nonetheless. The second picture shows the author of our cover essay, Anna Funder, at age five. The photographs capture a moment in time that forms the basis for a set of recollections and reflections on the nature of writing in the present moment. Funder’s career has been defined by her interest in humanity in the face of systems of unbridled and monstrous power, so her thoughts on the age of the oligarchs that we find ourselves in are, unsurprisingly, insightful, thoughtful and searching. An essay about memory and empathy, and about the role that writing can – and must – play in any ideas about resistance.
Elsewhere in the magazine, Anthony Ham offers a deeply concerning analysis of the current prospects for the Beetaloo Basin, with the relatively new NT government opening the door to levels of fracking that present an existential threat to the region. Dennis Glover places Anthony Albanese’s mantra of “progressive patriotism” in a tradition going back to George Orwell. Christine Kenneally attends the Melbourne flower show and asks what the current state of floristry looks like. And Beejay Silcox assesses two recent novels that reconceive and re-energise the tradition of the American boxing novel.
There is also more politics, culture, reviews, criticism and great reads.