The Ark

According to the bible the Ark of the Covenant was the container that held the tablets of stone which were inscribed with those Ten Commandments that we all adhere to. In reality this Ark could prove to be a fascinating historical find if in fact it did exist, but the probability of its contents having the power to melt the faces of evil Gestapo officers remains to be seen. But that’s exactly what happens in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it’s also why The Ark has made the list."

More at:

http://www.sfcrowsnest.c om/articles/news/2009/Top-ten-par anormal-artefacts-from-fantasy-an d-scifi-movies--14229.php

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The Power of One Australian Hero Award

Penguin Books Australia are publicising "a prize of $50,000 will be presented by Bryce Courtenay to the winner of The Power of One Australian Hero Award to assist that person to continue their work in the community. The Power of One Australian Hero Award is all about recognising the achievements of an unsung hero whose commitment to the greater good is an inspiration to those around them. This annual award is a joint initiative between Bryce Courtenay and Penguin Books Australia." To nominate someone you know who is making a difference in our community visit: http://www.brycecourtenay.com

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Rare Book Review report that Bloomsbury Auctions will host in London the first ever sale entirely devoted to rare memorabilia and artefacts from ‘New China’ and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1950 - 1976) on November 5.

"Exceptional exhibition pieces will be offered in addition to the renowned Little Red Books and other Mao memorabilia. The works of Senior Masters, who were able to work unimpeded without time restraints, are now considered to be amongst the finest 20th century Chinese works of art.

Bloomsbury explains that, “the complete disappearance of Maoist slogans, including architectural monuments, films, plays, sculptures and mass parades from everyday life in Mao Zedong’s China, make these artefacts amongst the few visual reminders of that unique historical period which represented the heaviest deluge of propaganda through the arts, that has ever been experienced in any civilisation at any time.”

One of the rarest pieces featured in the sale is a large porcelain vase dated 1968 decorated with Mao’s portrait in under-glaze blue with sun rays emanating from him and three sunflowers representing the ‘three loyalties’: loyalty to Mao himself, his thoughts and the proletarian revolution. The back of the vase is inscribed with Mao’s poem commemorating a guerrilla war in the autumn of 1929 (estimate £10,000-15,000.)

Other highlights include, a porcelain bust of a young peasant girl as a humble rural worker, which was made in 1960 by the Senior Master Zeng Shandong, and embodies the New China aesthetics of youth, health and materiality before the Cultural Revolution (estimate £4,000-6,000). And of course not forgetting, Mao’s Little Red Book, which was compiled and printed by the Political Department, Air Force Division of Shenyang Military Region, December 1963, prior to the formal official publication in the following year. This larger anthology is barely known and not mentioned in the standard Mao bibliographies; it has been suggested that this may be a trial specimen, created by the Air Force and used as a model and source for Mao’s better-known edition of 1964 (estimate £20,000-30,000).

The majority of items in the sale belong to the renowned connoisseurs Peter and Susan Wain, whose extraordinary collection was exhibited at the National Museums of Scotland from 2003 - 2004. Bloomsbury Auctions’ sale is timed to coincide not only with London’s Asian Art Week but also the 60th anniversary of the founding of The People’s Republic of China."

http://www.bloomsbur yauctions.com/index.php

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Margaret Atwood has another piece in the UK Guardian as a precursor to Copenhagen climate change

To support the launch of the 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions, the Guardian Review asked some of our greatest artists, authors and poets to produce new work in response to the crisis. Margaret Atwood's piece begins the section:

"1. In the first age, we created gods. We carved them out of wood; there was still such a thing as wood, then. We forged them from shining metals and painted them on temple walls. They were gods of many kinds, and goddesses as well. Sometimes they were cruel and drank our blood, but also they gave us rain and sunshine, favourable winds, good harvests, fertile animals, many children. A million birds flew over us then, a million fish swam in our seas.

Our gods had horns on their heads, or moons, or sealy fins, or the beaks of eagles. We called them All-Knowing, we called them Shining One. We knew we were not orphans. We smelled the earth and rolled in it; its juices ran down our chins.

2. In the second age we created money. This money was also made of shining metals. It had two faces: on one side was a severed head, that of a king or some other noteworthy person, on the other face was something else, something that would give us comfort: a bird, a fish, a fur-bearing animal. This was all that remained of our former gods. The money was small in size, and each of us would carry some of it with him every day, as close to the skin as possible. We could not eat this money, wear it or burn it for warmth; but as if by magic it could be changed into such things. The money was mysterious, and we were in awe of it. If you had enough of it, it was said, you would be able to fly.

3. In the third age, money became a god. It was all-powerful, and out of control. It began to talk. It began to create on its own. It created feasts and famines, songs of joy, lamentations. It created greed and hunger, which were its two faces. Towers of glass rose at its name, were destroyed and rose again. It began to eat things. It ate whole forests, croplands and the lives of children. It ate armies, ships and cities. No one could stop it. To have it was a sign of grace.

4. In the fourth age we created deserts. Our deserts were of several kinds, but they had one thing in common: nothing grew there. Some were made of cement, some were made of various poisons, some of baked earth. We made these deserts from the desire for more money and from despair at the lack of it. Wars, plagues and famines visited us, but we did not stop in our industrious creation of deserts. At last all wells were poisoned, all rivers ran with filth, all seas were dead; there was no land left to grow food.

Some of our wise men turned to the contemplation of deserts. A stone in the sand in the setting sun could be very beautiful, they said. Deserts were tidy, because there were no weeds in them, nothing that crawled. Stay in the desert long enough, and you could apprehend the absolute. The number zero was holy.

5. You who have come here from some distant world, to this dry lakeshore and this cairn, and to this cylinder of brass, in which on the last day of all our recorded days I place our final words:

Pray for us, who once, too, thought we could fly."

More at:

http://www.guardian.co.u k/books/2009/sep/26/margaret-atwo od-mini-science-fiction

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Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals is now out in Australia

I will be reviewing the book for the Canberra Times Literary pages. In the meantime, Terry's US publishers have made the first 77 pages of Unseen Academicals available on their website at:

http://discworldmonthly. co.uk?redir=UNSEEN150

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The Sounds of Britain in the 1980s

Previously unpublished recordings of Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) talks from the 1980s went online last week at the Archival Sound Recordings website of the British Library at <>.

"Fe aturing talks and debates with top cultural, artistic and political figures of the day, this latest addition the archive offers a chance to explore in detail cultural directions in the UK from 1981 to 1994. The talks comprise over 880 recordings, over 1000 hours of audio, on subjects including art, literature, performance, fashion, film, music, philosophy, psychology, biology, feminism, AIDS and politics.

Kristian Jensen, Head of British Collections at the British Library, said:

“Anyone interested in cultural, artistic and political change in contemporary Britain will want to listen to this collection of talks from the ICA. The British Library’s Sound Archive is in many ways like a Tardis - this new collection transports us back 20 years through cyberspace to the meatiest debates of the 80s - at the mere click of a button.”

The recordings feature a kaleidoscopic range of leading cultural figures debating the social and artistic currents of the 1980s, such as:

- Salman Rushdie and Tariq Ali discuss Rushdie’s novel 'Shame' and swap improbable anecdotes from Pakistan.

- Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London and head of the Greater London Council (GLC), describes the GLC’s radical approach of involving women’s groups, ethnic minorities and gay, lesbian and bisexual groups in the governance of London in the 1980s.

- Socio-biologist Richard Dawkins defends the more controversial aspects of sociobiology which attempts to explain human behaviour in terms of genetic make-up (1984)."

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Ten of the best tattoos in literature

John Mullan picks his favourite literary tattoos, from Moby-Dick to The Electric Michelangelo in the UK Guardian.

http://www.guardia n.co.uk/books/2009/sep/26/prison- books-ten-best

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Odd Book Title of the Week

Pernicious Pork or Astounding Revelations of the evil effects of eating swine flesh. William T Hallett. New York. Broadway Publishing Company. 1903.

Debbie Campbell of the National Library records the Worldcat record at www.worldcat.org/oclc/14805044.