Book Details

Demanding the Impossible

Seven essays on resistance

Sylvia Lawson

Demanding the Impossible asks what has become of the ideal and myth of resistance.

About this Title

Demanding the Impossible asks what has become of the ideal and myth of resistance. It searches for the power of ‘no’ and ‘enough’.

Combining elements of fiction, history, reportage and analysis, Sylvia Lawson examines the way the spirit of wartime resistance resurfaced in Paris in the insurrection of May 1968, when a rare unity of intellectuals and industrial workers woke a complacent society.

She chronicles moments of resistance: the story of intrepid Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered for her opposition to the Russian oppression of Chechnya; the highly contentious Northern Territory Intervention and Aboriginal dispossession; East Timorese and West Papuan resistance to Indonesian domination.

Resistance is about more than protest in the streets; it’s about writing and art-making, music and filming, and not least about the way ordinary people keep going.

As the Arab Spring unfolds and the Occupy Wall Street initiative has spread round the world, a resistant tradition has been actively inherited: the right to protest and rebel against greed and injustice, to claim public space, to recreate the active, convivial city.

About the Author

Sylvia Lawson is one of Australia’s most acute and eloquent cultural
and political essayists. Her work includes the prizewinning collection
How Simone de Beauvoir Died in Australia, The Archibald Paradox: A
Strange Case of Authorship and the novel The Outside Story, which is
centred on the Sydney Opera H ouse. She is currently film critic for the
online and print journal Inside Story.

Events

Wednesday, 14/03/2012 06:00 pm
Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
(02) 9660 2333
http://www.gleebooks.com.au/

Sylvia Lawson will be appearing in conversation with Professor Lyndall Ryan to discuss Sylvia's new collection of essays, Demanding the Impossible at Gleebooks.  For booking information, please contact Gleebooks on 02 9660 2333.   

 

Thursday, 22/03/2012 06:00 pm
Readings St Kilda, 112 Ackland St, St Kilda, VIC 3182
03 9525 3852
http://www.readings.com.au/st-kilda

Sylvia Lawson will be speaking at Readings in St Kidla on Thursday 22 March. Keep checking back for further details or visit Readings St Kilda website. 

Book Preview

978-0-522-85485-5