The latest pleasing acquisition is a short , broken run of the above privately published Canberra produced publication inspired by the journal of the same name launched by critic and novelist Wyndham Lewis on the eve of World War l "to blow sky high the complacent insularity of the contemporary English literary establishment."
By Peter Simon
Co-editors were teacher , Canberra Times theatre critic and Melbourne Age Monthly Review writer Ann Nugent and radio broadcaster, civil libertarian and librarian Bill Tully.
In the first issue , Autumn 1987 , printed by the Queanbeyan Age , the co-editors, under the heading BLAST-Voice of the Passionate "I" , explained that the Lewis journal only ran for two issues before "its explosions were overshadowed by the extra-literary detonations of war ."
Lewis, it recalled, had later gone on to attack such literary figures of inter-war Britain as "dumb ox" Hemingway, "pseudo-believer" Eliot , " mirthless acrobat "Joyce as well as the contradictory combination of high art and liberal humanism practised by the Bloomsbury Group .
The Canberra BLAST aimed to emulate the personal temerity and oppositional stance of its namesake's editor while avoiding his nine year "flirtation " with fascism .
It planned to be a literary- political journal whose pages would express the immediacy and force of personal " I's" and critical eyes.
BLAST opposed both the mass media's processing of human voices into muffled mumblings and the way in which minority , ideologically committed journals bind the voices of individuals into blinding , strident declarations of uncritical slogans .
With allegiance to no politic party or to any programmatic ideology, BLAST was open to all iconoclastic writers who desire to expose cultural shams , social pretensions , political deceptions and all manner of hypocrisies in Canberra and beyond .
It rejected "the icons of objectivity in research and dispassionate writing" and sought contributions without the bias of these complacency-inducing myths. Poetry, short fiction , criticism , graphics , letters and comment were welcome .
Contributions on civil liberties and human rights , peace and anti-nuclear issues , the urban and rural environment and the role and performance of the media were particularly sought . In assessing material for publication the editorial committee looked for the ringing voice of the writer unfettered by ideological , political , social or cultural restraints.
Pen , Sword and Bomb
Under the above heading , by Bill Tully , he drew attention to the fact that Australia's main media in general had ignored a national first , the symposium Imaging the Real : Australian Writing in the Nuclear Age, held November 11 1986 , sponsored by organisations such as Australian Defence Force Academy , the International Year of Peace Secretariat (Department of Foreign Affairs ) and the Literature Board of the Australia Council .
Apart from speakers Ted Trainer and Alex Carey , who connected business with institutionised belligerence , most participants had stuck to select readings on humanity, ecology and hopes for a better world .
Carey's long talk had raised the question should writers contribute to a journal such as Quadrant, with its links to right wing pro-nuclear and anti worker groups. Monetary need , desire for publication, and high literary aspirations were used by writers as excuses for entering such elites, he added.
Tully said the " final contradiction " was how the Defence Academy , educating warriors , could co-sponsor a gathering against a conflict such apprentices were being prepared for .
French Connections with BLAST.
The fierce looking fish creature on the front cover of the first edition and subsequent editions, the publication's emblem , was a Volvoce , created by J.J.Grandville , pseudonym of Jean Gerard (1803-1847 ), a lithographer and graphic artist . Grandville had been the stage name of his grandparents who had been comedians in his birthplace of Nancy .
His drawings had been used in the New York Review of Books since 1963.
Readers were informed that in Grandville's world the Volvoce eats another of his creations, Voricellas, said to have been born in flowers and to have both human and flower forms. The unworldly, innocent Voricellas only realise danger when it is too late .
Grandville compared his Volvoce to the terrible cholera bacteria which halved the population of Paris in the 1833 epidemic .
The first edition included a Letter From Paris by Frederic Briot which featured a lively week of demonstrations throughout France , a student beaten to death by police , a ministerial resignation , a backdown by President Chirac... which could apply to France today .
Another French contributor , a special consultant no less, was Professor Jean Chesneaux , with interests in China , Vietnam , the Pacific , Jules Verne and radical ecology , the Australian edition of his latest book Transpacifiques about to be published.
The first edition of the publication included an advertisement for WINCH BOOKS , Canberra, run by Ron Winch . I had dealings with him when I ran the Den of Antiquity at Largs Bay , Adelaide, when he came across on book buying and valuation trips .
A Methodist , he had worked in the old Customs House at Port Adelaide in younger days, when dancing was frowned upon , and had many anecdotes .
Ron was renowned for paying for purchases with a cheque , which he often absent mindedly forgot to sign while still talking enthusiastically about books , local history , etc. Early on , I was advised by an Adelaide bookdealer to always make sure Ron signed his cheques , as otherwise it would result in phone calls to Canberra , waiting for another cheque to be sent slowly by mail .
On one occasion he came to my bookshop and I later found him stretched out full length on his side on the floor next to a box of books . What a way to exit left . He was not dead however . Being unable to bend down because of old age, he had simply lowered himself down slowly to the deck to look at interesting volumes on bottom shelves and pulled the box after him as he slid along . Glad to see he was still alive, I helped him up, dusted him off and gratefully accepted his (double checked ) signed cheque.
In Adelaide in connection with the valuation of a fabulous collection of the famous Australian polar explorer , Douglas Mawson , he rang and asked what value did I think could be placed on a sled .
Taken aback by this strange question , never having handled a sled , a large model of a Japanese battle ship , yes , but no snow transport , I suggested the Smithsonian in America and the Norwegian authorities might be able to help seeing as Amundsen won the race to the South Pole.
UPCOMING : More items of interest from BLAST , diverse contributors , a query from Mexico and a Canberra link with the Palace of Versailles .
Pen , Sword and Bomb
Under the above heading , by Bill Tully , he drew attention to the fact that Australia's main media in general had ignored a national first , the symposium Imaging the Real : Australian Writing in the Nuclear Age, held November 11 1986 , sponsored by organisations such as Australian Defence Force Academy , the International Year of Peace Secretariat (Department of Foreign Affairs ) and the Literature Board of the Australia Council .
Apart from speakers Ted Trainer and Alex Carey , who connected business with institutionised belligerence , most participants had stuck to select readings on humanity, ecology and hopes for a better world .
Carey's long talk had raised the question should writers contribute to a journal such as Quadrant, with its links to right wing pro-nuclear and anti worker groups. Monetary need , desire for publication, and high literary aspirations were used by writers as excuses for entering such elites, he added.
Tully said the " final contradiction " was how the Defence Academy , educating warriors , could co-sponsor a gathering against a conflict such apprentices were being prepared for .
French Connections with BLAST.
The fierce looking fish creature on the front cover of the first edition and subsequent editions, the publication's emblem , was a Volvoce , created by J.J.Grandville , pseudonym of Jean Gerard (1803-1847 ), a lithographer and graphic artist . Grandville had been the stage name of his grandparents who had been comedians in his birthplace of Nancy .
His drawings had been used in the New York Review of Books since 1963.
Readers were informed that in Grandville's world the Volvoce eats another of his creations, Voricellas, said to have been born in flowers and to have both human and flower forms. The unworldly, innocent Voricellas only realise danger when it is too late .
Grandville compared his Volvoce to the terrible cholera bacteria which halved the population of Paris in the 1833 epidemic .
The first edition included a Letter From Paris by Frederic Briot which featured a lively week of demonstrations throughout France , a student beaten to death by police , a ministerial resignation , a backdown by President Chirac... which could apply to France today .
Another French contributor , a special consultant no less, was Professor Jean Chesneaux , with interests in China , Vietnam , the Pacific , Jules Verne and radical ecology , the Australian edition of his latest book Transpacifiques about to be published.
The first edition of the publication included an advertisement for WINCH BOOKS , Canberra, run by Ron Winch . I had dealings with him when I ran the Den of Antiquity at Largs Bay , Adelaide, when he came across on book buying and valuation trips .
A Methodist , he had worked in the old Customs House at Port Adelaide in younger days, when dancing was frowned upon , and had many anecdotes .
Ron was renowned for paying for purchases with a cheque , which he often absent mindedly forgot to sign while still talking enthusiastically about books , local history , etc. Early on , I was advised by an Adelaide bookdealer to always make sure Ron signed his cheques , as otherwise it would result in phone calls to Canberra , waiting for another cheque to be sent slowly by mail .
On one occasion he came to my bookshop and I later found him stretched out full length on his side on the floor next to a box of books . What a way to exit left . He was not dead however . Being unable to bend down because of old age, he had simply lowered himself down slowly to the deck to look at interesting volumes on bottom shelves and pulled the box after him as he slid along . Glad to see he was still alive, I helped him up, dusted him off and gratefully accepted his (double checked ) signed cheque.
In Adelaide in connection with the valuation of a fabulous collection of the famous Australian polar explorer , Douglas Mawson , he rang and asked what value did I think could be placed on a sled .
Taken aback by this strange question , never having handled a sled , a large model of a Japanese battle ship , yes , but no snow transport , I suggested the Smithsonian in America and the Norwegian authorities might be able to help seeing as Amundsen won the race to the South Pole.
UPCOMING : More items of interest from BLAST , diverse contributors , a query from Mexico and a Canberra link with the Palace of Versailles .
