Public Address: Busytown

“Glory! Glory! There’s the salt!”

Jolisa Gracewood — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 23:05:00 +1200

The news that Margaret Mahy has written all her stories – for that is what her death means to us as readers, while for her family it is a whole other dimension of inevitable, unfathomable loss -- came to me via Twitter. At first a whisper, then a rustle, and then suddenly words and sentences tumbled down the page as we shared the shock of it. Shock turned to sorrow, which steadily transformed into tribute. People recalled not just indelible lines from life-changing books, but the circumstances of reading them. We remembered where we were, who we were with, and who…

Sons for the Return Home

Jolisa Gracewood — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:30:00 +1200

Over the years, you have all been so good to me. The last time I asked here for wisdom about moving house, it was on behalf of a two-year-old. Now I’m asking for myself, because this time, the Berenstain Bears just aren’t going to cut it. (Although if you do happen to know of a fixer-upper in Auckland that is shaped like a real tree, in a neighbourhood of friendly squirrels and bunnies, please send me the address.)
For those who haven’t caught up with the news: we’re coming home.
Now, let me be clear (as our current President is…

What was lost

Jolisa Gracewood — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:42:00 +1200

This morning, my older son said “Hey, Jojo! Watch this!” as he playfully piloted a plane into the ground, on his computer, for no reason, just for fun. Completely out of the blue.
I burst into tears. Not completely out of the blue. He had no idea why.
It does my head in: he’s a very well-informed little pitcher with exceptionally big ears, but he’s made it to the age of nine and a half without knowing the full facts of that day.
This is my theory about the long delay in Obama’s speech last night: that he was giving…

A new (old) sensation

Jolisa Gracewood — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:25:00 +1300

The piece below originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of Metro magazine, billed rather provocatively on the cover as "What's wrong with NZ novels?"
I'm grateful for the softening effect of that question mark: "A few diagnostic gestures towards a working theory of some current plot trends in the New Zealand literary novel" would have been more accurate, but probably wouldn't have helped sell copies of the magazine.
The article got a lot of feedback; most of it positive, and pretty much all of it off the record (both of which surprised me). One correspondent summed up the general…

She loves you, YA, YA, YA!

Jolisa Gracewood — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 15:29:00 +1300

Up-and-coming New Zealand author Karen Healey first caught my eye via her LiveJournal blog, the magnificently named Attention Rebellious Jezebels. One day, as a consciousness & self-esteem-raising exercise, she asked her readers to write in and explain why they were awesome. The resulting love-in made my day.
Turns out Karen herself is not short on awesome: a book-loving globe-trotting big sister of three who has spent several years in Japan, she has an M.A. (with a thesis investigating SuicideGirls.com's claim to be "empowering erotica"), and is currently completing a Ph.D. on contemporary superhero comics as fan-created text. At the University of…

A Classical Education: Chapter 4 Going On 5

Jolisa Gracewood — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:57:00 +1300

On Dialogue It is true, my child, that dialogue is how we come to understand the world. By steady question and answer, between the curiosity of youth and the wisdom of age, we approach truth. And yet though there may not be an end to your questioning, there may sometimes be an end to the answering, as when you find yourself yet again in a conversational cul-de-sac with your mother on the exact details of the demise in battle of Obi wan Kenobi, vis-à-vis the death by old age of Yoda. There are some things we do not know, or…

Front, man

Jolisa Gracewood — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:51:00 +1300

"Some people are easily offended", offered Paul Henry in the first hours after his calculated race-baiting stunt went a bit Evel Knievel at Caesar's Palace, with overtones of Fonzie-on-water-skis. Funnily enough, Henry sounded a smidge offended himself. As if he'd been aiming a bit higher, hoping to offend the people it's really, really hard to offend, instead of the usual right-thinking fish in a barrel. "I am sincerely sorry if I seemed disrespectful to [Sir Anand Satyanand]," he hazarded in his official "apology", introducing a wistful note of conditionality into the brew, as if hoping it would all just go…

Reading Room

Jolisa Gracewood — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:23:00 +1200

Even if it’s true that this photo of the University of Canterbury library shelves tumbled like dominos was by far the worst of the library damage, it’s an image that has stuck in my head these past weeks. Imagine -- as with so much else about the quake -- if it had happened in daylight, on a working day! How many students would have been flattened like so many pressed flowers in a Victorian album? OK, probably not many. But -- if it’s permissible to indulge in black humour at this stage -- they would have been the diligent ones,…

The art of seismography

Jolisa Gracewood — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 06:44:00 +1200

Seismography, n. 1. the science of detecting, measuring and recording ground vibrations, especially those from earthquakes. True enough, but I'd like to propose a new sub-definition: 2. writing about earthquakes and their aftermath. Even as the Canterbury earthquake slowly recedes from the front pages, there is some seriously excellent writing coming from the front lines. Here are a few must-reads, besides of course our own redoubtable Emma and David: Harvestbird meditates exquisitely on How To Be Brave. Cheryl Bernstein delves into the bittersweet Aesthetics of Earthquakes and shares Dispatches from an Earthquake Zone. Moata Tamaira manifests an enviable sense of…

The shakes

Jolisa Gracewood — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 08:34:00 +1200

Three hours ago, I was just about to hit “publish” on a frivolous blog post when the lateral fault under Christchurch groaned into life, rendering everything else a bit beside the point.
I am hoping that PA’s South Island correspondents will chime in once they’ve made sure everyone is in one piece and had a chance to have a cup of tea with LOTS OF BRANDY IN IT. Or if the power is still out and there's no camping stove to hand, just start with the brandy. (It's what my dear old Christchurch-raised Nana would have done).
Watching the news…