What I'm reading now ...

Crosbie Morrison: voice of nature by Graham Pizzey

Philip Crosbie Morrison was a photographer, musician, journalist and radio broadcaster with a zest for life and a passion for nature. He was active long before environmentalism was 'in vogue', campaigning for conservation and working in environmental education.

More than anything else, Morrison was able to inspire others to look at their world afresh. This spirit of wonder is Morrison's most important legacy.

- from front endflap

What I bought today ...

Actually, more like what I bought this week. A few purchases over the last few days ...

• Arnott, Peter D. An Introduction to the Greek Theatre, 1960
• Adelaide, Debra. Serpent dust, 1998
• Aristophanes. Lysistrata and Other Plays, 2003
• Euripides. The Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides Vol 3, 1958
• Euripides. Medea and other plays, 1963
• Landesman, Peter. The Raven, 1998
• Lawler, Ray. The doll trilogy, 1985
• Moggach, Deborah. Tulip Fever, 2000
• Osbon, Diane K. (ed.) A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living, 1995
• Wietzel, Paul. The New Illustrated History Of The World: The Triumph Of The Greeks 800 B.C. - 321 B.C., 1969

Review: Nature and Selected Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Started 27 February, 2008

Finished 29 March, 2008

Larzer Ziff, the editor of this collection, credits Emerson (1803-82) with being the centre of the American literary tradition. Emerson came into a world where nature was something to be conquered. It was not valued because it did not have the 'storied associations' of the European landscape. In this view, which prevailed up to the 1830s, imagination was shaped by history - the remembered past of human events.

Emerson's writings elevated nature over history, claiming that 'American history must be the history of nature speaking through men, not of men shaping nature'. His philosophy became the single most powerful force in American intellectual life in the nineteenth century, influencing writers such as Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau.

The fifteen essays collected here give us a comprehensive cross-section of those writings, covering a period of twenty-six years, from 1836 to 1862. Although I found reading these essays tough going, having to go back over many passages two or three times before fully comprehending them, they reward perseverance. Hidden among the difficult nineteenth-century language are many gems of wisdom, which is why Emerson is possilby one of the most quoted authors.

Emerson was a popular speaker as well as writer. Indeed, he began his career as a preacher, and many of the essays here were originally delivered as lectures after he resigned his post as preacher in 1831.

Apart from the title piece, Nature, Emerson's first published essay, there are a wide range of other subjects covered in this collection: History, Self-Reliance, The Over-soul, Fate, and Experience. There are also biographical discussions on Montaigne, Napolean and Thoreau.

Despite the archaic language and style, many of the ideas expressed by Emerson seem surprisingly modern, and would probably not be out of place if written by a contemporary writer.

The introduction by Ziff gives us an excellent description of Emerson's life and times, and there are suggestions for further reading if you want more detail.

Emerson's complete works span 12 volumes, but I would recommend this book as a great starting point for discovering his writing.

What I bought today ...

Quite a few this time around, so only listing their titles and authors ...

• Elton, G.R. Reformation Europe: 1517-1559
• Granta 58, Ambition
• Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation
• Meehan, Maurilia. Fury
• Moorehead, Alan. Cooper's Creek: the story of Burke and Wills
• Probert, Belinda. Working life
• Rafaello, Carboni. The Eureka Stockade

Not new titles by any means, but stuff that I still find very interesting.

What I'm reading now ...

Nature and selected essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Through his writing and his own personal philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson unburdened his young country of Europe's traditional sense of history and showed Americans how to be creators of their own circumstances. His mandate, which called for harmony with, rather than the domestication of, nature, and for reliance on individual integrity, rather than on materialistic institutions, is echoed in many of the great American philosophical and literary works of his time and ours, and has given an impetus to modern political and social activism."

- from back cover

Started 27 Feb 2008

What I bought today ...

So many selves by Gabrielle Carey

"... a person can find that he or she is composed, not of one singular fixed self, but of many selves ..."

In So many selves, Gabrielle Carey revisits some of the critical moments that shaped and defined her life

-from front endflap

Review: The Theban Plays by Sophocles

Classic Greek drama which tells of the tragedy of Oedipus and his family.


As foretold by Teiresius, a blind prophet, Oedipus unwittingly kills his own father, then marries his own mother, with whom he has four children.



The three plays in this book, King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, show us what happens when Oedipus realises what he has done.


This harrowing tale, when read in the order above, forms a continuous narrative from Oedipus' birth, through to his tragic and horrifying act, his death, and then the consequences for his children.


I was surprised to learn though that this was not the order in which they were written. Sophocles (496-406 BC) wrote the last play, Antigone, first, in 442-441BC. This was followed by King Oedipus, the first of the trilogy in 429-420BC, and then Oedipus at Colonus in 401 BC which was released/performed in 401 BC, after the author's death.


There are some minor inconsistencies as a result of this non-sequential writing, but these do not detract from the impact of the drama.


Newcomers to Greek drama will find the introduction helpful, as this gives us a background on the origins and development of the dramatic form in Ancient Greece, a detailed analysis of each play, and the relevance of these texts to today's audience.


On this last note, I found one particular scene in Antigone very reminscent of recent events in Australian politics. Creon, brother-in-law to Oedipus and now the new king, stubbornly refuses to change his ruling on the burial of Oedipus' son, and the punishment for Antigone, who has defied this ruling. Despite indications that he may lose his family, his supporters, and his throne, Creon remains resolute.


I think the final words belong to Haemon, Creon's son:

"...good as it is to have infallible wisdom,
Since this is rarely found, the next best thing
Is to be willing to listen to wise advice."

If only John Howard had read this. Some things never change.

Dymocks Top 101 books

Dymocks bookstores have just released their Top 101 books, as voted by Dymocks customers. There are some good books here, but I'm embarrassed to say that I've only read five of them:

• no. 3 To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
• no. 14 Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
• no. 18 The Alchemist, by Paulo Cohelo
• no. 75 Chocolat, by Joanne Harris
• no. 83 The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck

Just about all the books on the Dymocks list are novels. I'm sure my own personal list would include a fair amount of non-fiction, which probably explains the small number that I can tick off.

What I'm reading now ...

The Theban Plays by Sophocles

A trilogy of classic Greek drama. Includes King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonnus, and Antigone


Started 18 Feb 2008
Finished 26 Feb 2008



The Memoir book by Patti Miller

From the best-selling author of Writing your life, comes this new book on writing memoir.


Started 11 Feb 2008
This was a borrowed book, that had to be returned before I could finish it.

Review: A Place on Earth: An anthology of nature writing from Australia and North America by Mark Tredinnick (ed.)

Writing about nature is in no way a new phenomena, although as the editor of this book, Mark Tredinnick, suggests, it is probably more common in America than here in Australia.

In this collection of essays and personal stories, Tredinnick explores the reason for this, and offers a comparison of American and Australian traditions of nature writing, with a discussion of authors from both countries that have helped shaped the genre.

The writers in this book are more contemporary, and many pieces have been written specifically for this collection.

But what exactly is nature writing? According to Tredinnick,

"The literature of nature has three main dimensions: natural history information, personal repsonses to nature, and philosophical interpretations of nature" (p.35)

We are given examples of all three forms in this book through the work of 26 different authors (12 Australian, 14 American). Some write about a particular place - Tasmania, Northern Australia, Oregon, Alaska; some write about natural features - wind, rain, mountains, oceans; and some about various plants and animals - pine forests, bears, fish, birds.

What we learn from each of these writers is that we are all a part of our environment, and we cannot separate ourselves from it without causing it and ourselves some damage.

As Tredinnick writes in his introduction:

'You cannot know me until you know the weather and the country that surround me, the trees and rocks and animals, as well as the people, that keep me company" (p.27)

In this age of greater environmental awareness, nature writing is bound to become a much more prevalent form in our society, and this book is a wonderful introduction to the tradition.

Review: The Cambridge Companion to Henry David Thoreau by Joel Myerson (ed.)

In this collection of essays on Thoreau's life and work, thirteen different authors discuss Thoreau's development as a writer, his social and political conscience, his committment to the natural environment, and how all this influenced his writing.

I have to confess, I had not read any of Thoreau's writing before reading this book. Although I was aware of his greatest work, "Walden", I was never really sure what it was about, and it was only a reference to this work that I read somewhere else recently that lead me to seek out books by or about Thoreau.

This was the first book I came across, and I found it a wonderful introduction to Thoreau's work. From his early writings for various literary magazines, to his first book "A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" through to Walden and his later natural history writings, we are given a detailed analysis of each piece.

There are also essays on Thoreau's relationship with Ralph Waldo Emerson, an important figure in his life; his deep connection with Concord, the city where he lived; and his reputation as a writer during his own lifetime, and as viewed through modern eyes.

What’s surprising is how relevant Thoreau’s work still is today. In recent times, environmental management has become a mainstream issue, as our concern and awareness for the damage that has been done grows. However Thoreau was writing about this almost 200 years ago. He was a pioneer of the science of ecology, even before that term was invented.

In the discussion of Thoreau’s journal, we learn more about his philosophies and methods of working. Thoreau viewed his journal as ‘possibly his most important project as a writer’, and he discusses the purpose and value of journal-keeping. This is all placed in the context of the nineteenth-century literary world, where the habit of journal-keeping was prevalent.

Reading this book made me wish that I had discovered Thoreau much earlier. He was exactly the sort of writer I needed to read when I was in my teens and early twenties, struggling with my own writing and passion for natural history.

Whether you have read any of Thoreau's work or not, I believe you will find something of value in this book. If not in the analysis, then definitely in the detailed references and suggestions for further reading. A must-read for all ‘Thoreauvians’.