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Baggage: Tales of Speculative Fiction
An anthology of Australian Speculative Fiction.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
3 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Polack
53 books79 followersGillian is a writer and historian, currently living in Canberra, Australia. She intends to count the books in her library soon, when they stop falling on her and otherwise intimidating her.
She was given the 2020 A Bertram Chandler Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction.
She was given the 2020 A Bertram Chandler Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 29, 2010
13 authors gathered to map the zeitgeist of a country, words bending reality in an effort to show the world through multicultural lenses. Such search for the ethos, the collective culture of a people, is the raison d'etre of Baggage, Gillian Polack's newest anthology, released late 2010 by Eneit Press.
Each and all of the authors were given free reign to discuss the process which had made Australia the place it is, and what it really means to be australian. Mapping out the cultural heritage of a people is never easy, and, in this case, doing so would mean stripping oneself out of its identity and individuality lest the big picture is lost. For many, that is a painful process; some of the stories, like Tessa Kum's Acception, come from personal experiences.
Many of the stories were given sci-fi or fantasy backgrounds. What could otherwise lend to cheesy fables where aliens represent the other works perfectly fine, as they feel sufficiently far away from our reality that we won't crumble apart during the reading process, but not so as we won't acknowledge, deep down inside, how true that is. Some stories, like Home Turf (given the appropriate suspension of disbelief) feel so real it could be happening right now, somewhere in the world.
The books comes with an afterword wherein every author gives some insight on their work, and share the creative process behind the story. However, as appointed earlier in the intro, there is not only one way to read those tales. I, for one, would often come up with a different interpretation than the author, adding layer upon layer of complexity. Or, as Gillian puts, "this anthology is not about the culture we usually think ofas Australian. Our boundaries may not be what we think they are. Death is at least as important as mateship. The shape of the city frames our lives as much as the colours of the outback. Australian cultural baggage is complex and it's dark. It's inspirational".
Each and all of the authors were given free reign to discuss the process which had made Australia the place it is, and what it really means to be australian. Mapping out the cultural heritage of a people is never easy, and, in this case, doing so would mean stripping oneself out of its identity and individuality lest the big picture is lost. For many, that is a painful process; some of the stories, like Tessa Kum's Acception, come from personal experiences.
Many of the stories were given sci-fi or fantasy backgrounds. What could otherwise lend to cheesy fables where aliens represent the other works perfectly fine, as they feel sufficiently far away from our reality that we won't crumble apart during the reading process, but not so as we won't acknowledge, deep down inside, how true that is. Some stories, like Home Turf (given the appropriate suspension of disbelief) feel so real it could be happening right now, somewhere in the world.
The books comes with an afterword wherein every author gives some insight on their work, and share the creative process behind the story. However, as appointed earlier in the intro, there is not only one way to read those tales. I, for one, would often come up with a different interpretation than the author, adding layer upon layer of complexity. Or, as Gillian puts, "this anthology is not about the culture we usually think ofas Australian. Our boundaries may not be what we think they are. Death is at least as important as mateship. The shape of the city frames our lives as much as the colours of the outback. Australian cultural baggage is complex and it's dark. It's inspirational".
August 16, 2017
This a collection of short stories on the theme of Australian cultural baggage.The most memorable for me are Kaaron Warren's story of a man haunted by a village, Yaritji Green's story of the clash between cultures that puts a soul at risk, and particularly Tessa Kum's story of those who slip between the comfortable classifications of race and ethnicity.
This collection deserves a lot more time than I'm going to give it - I'm tired, and I've been writing too long. It is a small press publication, from Eneit press, so I don't know where it is available from.
This collection deserves a lot more time than I'm going to give it - I'm tired, and I've been writing too long. It is a small press publication, from Eneit press, so I don't know where it is available from.
February 16, 2021
Baggage, published by Eneit Press and edited by Gillian Polack, explores all the different kinds of baggage we carry. Some baggage is personal, some is cultural. Some of it is hard to unpack. This collection finds ways to come at our spcoa; baggage sideways, through the filters of specfic.
Curiously, for the Europeans who came to this country 200 years ago, this land has always been alien and a little frightening. As a society, we (non-Indigenous Australians especially) have found the land alarming and strange. Depictions of the desert, the bush, the light, showed us as small and fragile against a harsh and indifferent environment. Recent natural disasters – floods at one end of the country, fires at the other – continue to put most of us at odds with the country we inhabit.
This uneasy relationship makes specfic the perfect medium to explore issues of migration, white settlement and societies pretty much creeped out by their home soil.
Every story has some unique and often disturbing take on the theme. Particular standouts for me are:
~Kaaron Warren’s story of a man haunted by a lost village, Hive of Glass is gentle and creepy but with a logical solution that might even pass for a happy ending.
~Acception by Tessa Kum also resonates, with elements of its dystopian future (reached by a dark extension to attitudes towards ethnicity and Australianness) set in parts of Melbourne I know so well.
~Laura E Goodwin’s An Ear For Home taps into the longing for familiar things from home, which I experienced myself while living overseas. The evocation of homesickness, manifested through the very physical longings for the tastes and smells of home, is nicely handled.
~Home Turf explores homelessness, freedom and a different idea of belonging. Writer Deborah Biancotti (she of the wonderful The Book of Endings) shows, as always, a subtle and unsentimental human touch.
~Kunmanara – Somebody Somebody is especially evocative, exploring as it does an Indigenous perspective of belonging and the weight of cultural baggage. Yaritji Green’s portrait of grief and acceptance is touching.
Curiously, for the Europeans who came to this country 200 years ago, this land has always been alien and a little frightening. As a society, we (non-Indigenous Australians especially) have found the land alarming and strange. Depictions of the desert, the bush, the light, showed us as small and fragile against a harsh and indifferent environment. Recent natural disasters – floods at one end of the country, fires at the other – continue to put most of us at odds with the country we inhabit.
This uneasy relationship makes specfic the perfect medium to explore issues of migration, white settlement and societies pretty much creeped out by their home soil.
Every story has some unique and often disturbing take on the theme. Particular standouts for me are:
~Kaaron Warren’s story of a man haunted by a lost village, Hive of Glass is gentle and creepy but with a logical solution that might even pass for a happy ending.
~Acception by Tessa Kum also resonates, with elements of its dystopian future (reached by a dark extension to attitudes towards ethnicity and Australianness) set in parts of Melbourne I know so well.
~Laura E Goodwin’s An Ear For Home taps into the longing for familiar things from home, which I experienced myself while living overseas. The evocation of homesickness, manifested through the very physical longings for the tastes and smells of home, is nicely handled.
~Home Turf explores homelessness, freedom and a different idea of belonging. Writer Deborah Biancotti (she of the wonderful The Book of Endings) shows, as always, a subtle and unsentimental human touch.
~Kunmanara – Somebody Somebody is especially evocative, exploring as it does an Indigenous perspective of belonging and the weight of cultural baggage. Yaritji Green’s portrait of grief and acceptance is touching.
February 12, 2011
4.5 stars.
Beautiful, beautiful anthology of short stories with an sff element to each. Highly recommended. I particularly enjoyed the stories by Kaaron Warren, Lucy Sussex and Jennifer Fallon, but they were all good - occasionally harrowing, maybe, but also courageous, quirky and fun in many instances.
What does it mean to be an Australian, or a New Zealander? There are no easy answers presented in this anthology, just a refreshingly unique take on themes of displacement and belonging.
Beautiful, beautiful anthology of short stories with an sff element to each. Highly recommended. I particularly enjoyed the stories by Kaaron Warren, Lucy Sussex and Jennifer Fallon, but they were all good - occasionally harrowing, maybe, but also courageous, quirky and fun in many instances.
What does it mean to be an Australian, or a New Zealander? There are no easy answers presented in this anthology, just a refreshingly unique take on themes of displacement and belonging.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews