Lindqvist, Sven

Jacky was running. There was no thought in his head, only an intense drive to run. There was no sense he was getting anywhere, no plan, no destination, no future. All he had was a sense of what was behind, what he was running from. Jacky was running. The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all. This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history. This TERRA NULLIUS is something new, but all too familiar. An incredible debut from a striking new Australian Aboriginal voice.

"'During the Tang dynasty, the Chinese artist Wu Tao-tzu was one day standing looking at a mural he had just completed. Suddenly, he clapped his hands and the temple gate opened. He went into his work and the gates closed behind him.' Thus begins Sven Lindqvist's profound meditation on art and its relationship with life, first published in 1967, and a classic in his home country - it has never been out of print. As a young man, Sven Lindqvist was fascinated by the myth of Wu Tao-tzu, and by the possibility of entering a work of art and making it a way of life. He was drawn to artists and writers who shared this vision, especially Hermann Hesse, in his novel Glass Bead Game. Partly inspired by Hesse's work, Lindqvist lived in China for two years, learning classical calligraphy from a master teacher. There he was drawn deeper into the idea of a life of artistic perfectionism and retreat from the world. But when he left China for India and then Afghanistan, and saw the grotesque effects of poverty and extreme inequality, Lindqvist suffered a crisis of confidence and started to question his ideas about complete immersion in art at the expense of a proper engagement with life. The myth of Wu Tao-tzu takes us on a fascinating journey through a young man's moral awakening and his grappling with profound questions of aesthetics. It contains the bracing moral anger, and poetic, intensely atmospheric travel writing Lindqvist's readers have come to love." --Publisher description.

"The bomb shatters history into hundreds of fragments scattered throughout time in this new book from Sven Lindqvist, author of "Exterminate All the Brutes." Divided into 399 sections with 22 "entrances," or thematic ways of approaching the book, The History of Bombing moves the reader backward and forward in time, traveling from section to section as it builds a critical history of violence. Primarily concerned with civilian experiences during wartime, Lindqvist utilizes military history, pulp literature, and an analysis of international law in its capacity to mitigate wartime harms inflicted on civilians. Forming a labyrinth of events that illustrates the genocidal fantasies underlying so much conflict and the devastation wrought by aerial bombing, A History of Bombing links the total war of World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam War with centuries-past colonial warfare."--Jacket.