AustLit

'In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen stood in front of Empress Maria Theresa at her court in Vienna and proclaimed to have built a mechanical man that could beat humans at chess. The mechanical man - or 'the Turk', as von Kempelen named him - was life-sized, carved from maple-wood, dressed in ornate robes and a turban, and sat behind a large cabinet, on top of which was a chess set. Von Kempelen opened the cabinet to reveal a labyrinth of levers, cogs and clockwork machinery. He then closed the cabinet, inserted a large key, wound it up, and after some ticking and whirring the Turk lifted its head, studied the board, took hold of a white pawn and moved it forward two places. News of the Turk spread, and chess masters from across the empire travelled for their opportunity to play the machine; they usually returned home defeated. For the next few decades the Turk toured Europe and America, trouncing some of the most formidable minds of the time - Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon. Legend has it that Napoleon tested the Turk by making illegal moves, but the Turk grew fed up, and swiped the board.' (Publication abstract)

'Being rich and earning a lot of money is relentless, wearying work and having to work at relationships and intimacy is a further burden on the already time-poor. When rich men engage 'the girlfriend experience' they get more than just sex (as if 'just sex' were even a thing). With the girlfriend experience there are add-ons: comfort, affection, glamorous company, intellectual stimulation, distraction, flattery, an empathic ear-or at least an authentic-seeming performance of it, which is just as good. Of course there is sex, negotiated within certain parameters, but there is also a customised form of intimacy that is obliging and undemanding. The girlfriend experience is a bespoke romantic service, tailored to individual sexual and emotional needs. It is a rarefied form of sex work for an exclusive clientele, although in many ways the woman's labour is utterly mundane.'  (Publication abstract)

'A Comedian well-known on the so-called comedy circuit for his dry tales told of a childhood lived in a small country town, in which he, the Comedian, always played the loser, having married a pop singer and aspiring actress with whom he now lived in a large house in Camberwell, could not understand why one night at a high-profile comedy venue a heckler should stand up and start repeatedly screaming the word Hypocrite! at him. Indeed, it was said of this Comedian, who, shortly after this incident, retreated behind the high walls of his Camberwell mansion, that he was never so funny as he had been before it, although in the opinion of many he had never been funny at all.'  (Publication abstract)

'I want to say this memory is vivid, but I associate the word vivid with positive feelings, so let's just say this memory is strong. Strong and soft, blunt and sharp, all of these things at all of the same time; vivid is far too simple. You see, in this memory I'm sitting on the floor of a classroom. I think I'm about eight years old and the afternoon sun is streaming through the windows. It is the late eighties or early nineties, I can't be sure, and we are learning about Aboriginal people for the first time. On the television there plays a video of an Aboriginal ceremony-corroboree it was called back then, Inma or Bungul as I know it now?and as the women on the screen start to sing, some of the children in the class begin to laugh.'  (Publication abstract)