The Australian National University's intersectional feminist magazine.
Processing mortality is a daunting task—but it is important that we learn to digest its impact and grow more comfortable with it as a natural part of life. As this is easier said than done, consuming different forms of media that focus on death and dying is arguably one way of beginning to acquaint ourselves with these eventualities.
Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series has irrevocably proved that yes, Asian girls can have their own storylines and yes, they do in fact have personalities. Sometimes, however, media representation – particularly when it’s one of the only outlets that appears to properly reflect your identity – can be a little too influential.
“I had just sat through three movies where Sam had followed Frodo across Middle Earth on a perilous journey, and it seemed obvious to me that after everything they’d been through they would get married … How could the story now veer wildly off course and have Samwise marry a girl from the Shire?”
“Victor Mott is perchance the worst salesman to ever exist. And yet, he’s perfect.”
This is an extract from the beginning of Kathryn’s debut novel Hitch, which will be published by Penguin Random House Australia in 2019.
“She stole it. Cousin Josephina was a thief.”
My legs — they’re burning up. My throat shudders, gasps erratic. My muscles are molten with lactic acid, and the heat wicks off my skin. Behind closed eyes, I coolly watch digits and indicators rise and fall against the black. My legs stutter. I lengthen my stride along the eternal surge of the treadmill belt. …
“According to my grandparents, the squieelie would kidnap us if we were by the river at night and devour us whole. The last bit made it stick.”
“And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”
“Laura’s panic had subsided; now she just felt sad and worried about everything she still needed to accomplish. She worked slowly but persistently. She felt unproductive.”