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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct American mastodon, Mammoth is the (mostly) true story of how the skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a pterodactyl, a prehistoric penguin, the severed hand of an Egyptian mummy and the narrator himself came to be on sale at a 2007 natural history auction in Manhattan.
'Ranging from the Pleistocene Epoch to nineteenth-century America and beyond, including detours to Napoleonic France and Nazi Germany, Mammoth illuminates a period of history when ideas about science and religion underwent significant change. By tracing how and when the fossils were unearthed, Mammoth traverses time and place to reveal humanity's role in the inexorable destruction of the natural world.'(Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
A Book That Changed Me : Siang Lu on Chris Flynn’s Mammoth
2022
single work
column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , October 2022; -
Creating New Climate Stories : Posthuman Collaborative Hope and Optimism
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Text : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022; 'This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore
using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage
writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter
affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We
ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures
that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We
outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise
justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining
climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects
located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and
consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the
horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.'(Publication abstract)
-
Animal Perspective : Breaking the Language Barrier
Laura Jean McKay
(presenter),
Erin Hortle
(presenter),
Chris Flynn
(presenter),
2021
single work
interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 71 2021; -
Books (Lockdown Pleasure 2) or The Dennis Callegari Column
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , November no. 104 2020; (p. 11-20)
— Review of The Alpaca Cantos 2020 selected work poetry ; The Girl in the Mirror 2019 single work children's fiction ; Mammoth 2020 single work novel ; The Sandpit 2020 single work novel ; The Franchise Affair 1948 single work novel -
y
Live Recording : Chris Flynn on Mammoth
Christos Tsiolkas
(interviewer),
2020
23470490
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Chris Flynn chats with fellow author Christos Tsiolkas about his new novel, Mammoth. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary)
-
Man Verses Beast : A Witty Exploration of History and Humanity
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , May no. 421 2020; (p. 36)
— Review of Mammoth 2020 single work novel'Everything about Chris Flynn’s Mammoth – the characters, plot, and structure – should not work. But it does, and beautifully so. Mammoth is narrated by the fossilised remains of a 13,354-year-old extinct American Mammoth (Mammut americanum), who likes to be addressed as Mammut. On 24 March 2007, the eve of his sale at the Natural History Auction in New York, Mammut finds himself in a room with Tyrannosaurus bataar (who prefers to be called T.bat).' (Introduction)
-
Chris Flynn, Mammoth
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 23-29 May 2020;
— Review of Mammoth 2020 single work novel'Has a whimsical conceit ever been inflated to such mammoth proportions? In his third novel, Australian writer Chris Flynn proposes that the remains of once-living creatures acquire a special sentience after they’ve been disinterred. They can observe what goes on around them and communicate with other nearby fossils. And so in 2007, in a warehouse in Manhattan, we find an American mastodon narrating the adventure of his life and afterlife for the edification of a 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus bataar.' (Introduction)
-
Books (Lockdown Pleasure 2) or The Dennis Callegari Column
2020
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , November no. 104 2020; (p. 11-20)
— Review of The Alpaca Cantos 2020 selected work poetry ; The Girl in the Mirror 2019 single work children's fiction ; Mammoth 2020 single work novel ; The Sandpit 2020 single work novel ; The Franchise Affair 1948 single work novel -
Think Big
2020
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 2 May 2020; (p. 14)'If fiction is the early draft of history, our love-and-death relationship with animals is about to become far more complicated, writes Stephen Romei'
-
Animal Perspective : Breaking the Language Barrier
Laura Jean McKay
(presenter),
Erin Hortle
(presenter),
Chris Flynn
(presenter),
2021
single work
interview
— Appears in: Griffith Review , January no. 71 2021; -
y
Live Recording : Chris Flynn on Mammoth
Christos Tsiolkas
(interviewer),
2020
23470490
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Chris Flynn chats with fellow author Christos Tsiolkas about his new novel, Mammoth. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary)
-
Creating New Climate Stories : Posthuman Collaborative Hope and Optimism
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Text : Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 1 2022; 'This paper considers an evolving project about climate change that will explore
using collaborative creative writing strategies to emotionally support and engage
writers, primarily focusing on how narratives of hope and optimism might counter
affective responses of anxiety, and the resultant solipsistic inertia or surrender. We
ask: what role could collaborative fiction play in helping to create positive futures
that emotionally strengthen us to manage what may come and what already is? We
outline the inspiration and background to our project and begin to theorise
justification for applying posthuman approaches to the question of reimagining
climate fiction. We review a number of collaborative climate change projects
located outside of traditional writing but still drawing on narrative storytelling, and
consider how our project – which focuses on genre fictions – might add to the
horizon point; one that is not delusional, but also does not lead to dystopian despair.'(Publication abstract)
-
A Book That Changed Me : Siang Lu on Chris Flynn’s Mammoth
2022
single work
column
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , October 2022;
Awards
- 2021 shortlisted Russell Prize for Humour Writing
- 2021 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Audiobook of the Year
- 2021 shortlisted Indie Awards — Fiction
