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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'It is 1934, the Great War is long over and the next is yet to come. It is a brief time of optimism and advancement.
'Billowing dust and information, the government 'Better Farming Train' slides through the wheat fields and small towns of Australia, bringing city experts and advice to those already living on the land. The train is on a crusade to persuade the country that science holds the answers and that productivity is patriotic.
'Amongst the swaying cars full of cows, pigs and wheat, an unlikely seduction occurs between Robert Pettergree, a man with an unusual taste for soil, and Jean Finnegan, a talented young seamstress with a hunger for knowledge. In an atmosphere of heady scientific idealism they settle in the impoverished Mallee with the ambition of proving that science can transform the land.
'With failing crops and the threat of a new World War looming, Robert and Jean are forced to confront each other, the community they have destroyed, and the impact of progress on an ancient and fragile landscape.
'Erotically charged, and shot through with humour and a quiet wisdom, this haunting first novel evokes the Australian landscape in all its stark beauty and vividly captures the hope and disappointment of an era.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Notes
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For T. P. S., T. E. S. & G. R. T. and with heartfelt thanks to K. J. S.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Writing an Australian Farm Novel : Connecting Regions Via Magic Realism
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , vol. 26 no. 2 2022; 'Contemporary farming often involves more machines, access to information, and public pressure to protect or regenerate non-human nature than in the past. However, this is scarcely reflected in the farm novel, which is largely bound to an historical era. Australian farm novels include Benjamin Cozens’ Princess of the Mallee (1903), John Naish’s The Cruel Field (1962), Randolph Stow’s The Merry-Go-Round in the Sea (1965), and Carrie Tiffany’s Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (2005). Each feature realism and pre-1960s settings. In this article, I propose a major revision of the farm novel by employing magic realism to challenge Australia’s realist representations of farming as a rational, money-making enterprise. Magic realism allows me to position Australia’s dominant profit-driven approach to agriculture as fantasy and hopefully to stimulate new notions of farming and the farmer. By casting sugarcane and machines as a colonial farming alliance and humans as their marginalized subjects, I draw attention to a gradual depopulation of rural lands, subvert a persistent anthropocentric element of the settler-colonial ideology, and challenge notions of humans controlling the farm. This article is also a case study in a performance of John Kinsella’s international regionalism (He, 2021; Kinsella, 2001), in which Australia’s Wet Tropics connects with creative writing discourse.' (Publication abstract) -
Agricultural Catastrophes : Revising Settler Belonging and the Farming Novel in Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;'This article details how Carrie Tiffany’s 2005 novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living poses a series of significant challenges to both non-Indigenous Australian belonging and the teleology of the settler-colonial farm novel. I argue that Tiffany provides a conceptual space for thinking the history of Australia differently, while responding to the farm novel that emerged with different traditions in Australasia, North America and southern Africa in the first half of the 20th century (Hughes-d’Aeth 207). Specifically, I examine how Tiffany deploys agricultural catastrophes to destabilise the ideology of progress as a technology for claiming land under the dictum of proper use, consequently bringing the justifications for colonial domination into contest.' (Publication abstract)
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Explainer : 'Solarpunk', or How to Be an Optimistic Radical
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 20 July 2017;'Punks (of the 70s and 80s kind) were not known for their optimism. Quite the opposite in fact. Raging against the establishment in various ways, there was “no future” because, according to the Sex Pistols, punks are “the poison / In your human machine / We’re the future / Your future”. To be punk, was, by definition, to resist the future.
'In contrast, the most basic definition of solarpunk — offered by musician and photographer Jay Springett — is that it is a movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion and activism' (Introduction)
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Foreshadowing
2011
single work
column
— Appears in: Writing Queensland , February no. 204 2011; (p. 8-9) -
Undercover
2007
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 15-16 September 2007; (p. 30) A column canvassing current literary news including brief reports on the cover design a new edition of Carrie Tiffany's Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living and the launch of Richard Woolcott's Undiplomatic Activities.
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Harvesting a Taste for Living Off the Land
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 13 August 2005; (p. 5)
— Review of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living 2003 single work novel -
The Secret Life of OZ
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 23 August vol. 123 no. 6484 2005; (p. 68-69)
— Review of Sandstone 2005 single work novel ; Road Story 2004 single work novel ; Behind the Moon 2005 single work novel ; The Grave at Thu Le 2005 single work novel ; Fivestar 2005 single work novel ; Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living 2003 single work novel -
A Fine Crop
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , September no. 274 2005; (p. 53-54)
— Review of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living 2003 single work novel ; Road Story 2004 single work novel -
Powerful Characters Drive The Better Farming Train On A Tour Through Australia's Agricultural Heritage
2005
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 31 December 2005; (p. 6-7)
— Review of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living 2003 single work novel -
Shortlist
2006
single work
review
— Appears in: Eureka Street , January-February vol. 16 no. 1 2006; (p. 47)
— Review of Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living 2003 single work novel -
Breakthrough at Tiffany's
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 29 May 2004; (p. 6) -
A Tiffany Epiphany
2005
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 26 February 2005; (p. 6) -
Breakfast at Tiffany's
2005
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 26 February 2005; (p. 6) -
Lust in the Mallee Dust
2005
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 23-24 July 2005; (p. 12-13) -
Tiffany's Natural Order
2005
single work
biography
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 7 August 2005; (p. 20)
Awards
- 2007 longlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2006 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Fiction
- 2006 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Newcomer of the Year
- 2006 highly commended ASAL Awards — ALS Gold Medal
- 2006 winner Kibble Literary Awards — Nita May Dobbie Award
- Mallee,
- Wycheproof, Charlton - Donald - Birchip - Woomelang area, North West Victoria, Victoria,
- Country towns,
- Rural,
- 1934