{"product_id":"heat-16-9781922725158","title":"HEAT 16","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur issue opens with \u003cem\u003eDream Geographies\u003c\/em\u003e, an important essay by Alexis Wright that covers the many aspects of writing her most recent novel \u003cem\u003ePraiseworthy\u003c\/em\u003e. In her expressive, allegorical style, Wright discusses the importance of writing on a large scale in an imperilled world, the state of Aboriginal self-determination, and the value in thinking off-key to conjure humour. She also describes the collection of notes (\u003cem\u003emany scribbled quickly to catch the flow of thoughts\u003c\/em\u003e) and treasured objects that helped fire her vision of the book (\u003cem\u003erandom gifts from a windfall: a feather from the local birds, or a perfect bird's nest that had floated down from the highest tree in a night storm, and fallen undamaged into the garden\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe pleasures of words and wordplay are threaded throughout the issue. Fleeting sights and sounds are objects of desire in the poetry of Wen-Juenn Lee, who collects scraps of archival information, notes on domestic interiors, and observations on light: \u003ci\u003eWooden floors \/ blue kitchen \/ yellow walls \/ this is how light encounters me \/ unadorned.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn a short story by the renowned Hungarian writer Edina Szvoren (translated by Erika Mihlycsa with Peter Sherwood), a neurotic and deadpan narrator incapable of wonderment is resigned to playing the part of one who wonders. In \u003cem\u003eEverything Solid is Vibrating in Place\u003c\/em\u003e by Chris Ames, a character by the same name is building a house for his family, and also for everyone in the world named Chris.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\"I could run a hundred yards and I could swim. That was all,\" recalls Nicholas Jose as he examines the qualities of monotony through the lens of his boyhood in 1960s Adelaide. \u003ci\u003eBeing hopeless at sport, I needed other skills to survive... I learnt the lesson that I now recognise as wuwei in Chinese, the way of least resistance.\u003c\/i\u003e Jose later observes in his elegant, digressive essay: \u003ci\u003eBeneath the surface flicker of change, monotony can still be a mirror, hard and unchanging, no matter who might be watching from out at sea—a cargo ship, an enemy submarine, a boatload of refugees.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd in \u003cem\u003eThe Whole Cannot Be Understood Without Reference to its Holes\u003c\/em\u003e, by Tom Cho, a young scholar imagines a lover appearing in his studio and, reflecting on the spaces that are created and left behind by his presence, comes up with the term 'hole-ism'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47463100547308,"sku":"9781922725158","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781922725158-heat-16.jpg?v=1775028706","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/heat-16-9781922725158","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}