240. Jack Frawley | No literature on a dead planet

29 June – 3 August

Jack Frawley is a man. He’s a wise and observant man. A teacher of teachers, who gently reminds us that our first responsibility is to our planet. And he’s a punter, whose totem is the jockey, which doubles as the logo of Muruntani Books. That’s - Whitefeller Books, the publisher of these not so fictitious adaptations of classics drawn from the high school English reading list.

For me these gentle puns, through their elegant precision conceal in plain sight a gravitas that is entirely appropriate to the issue they address. Climate change. And by inference the exceptionalism that permits our politicians, our so-called leaders to avoid addressing, this all to burning issue. That when it isn’t burning, is washing us away in persistent floods.

The dead pan absurdity of these works matches the incredulity of the climate change deniers who present, term after term for election with spurious assertions - that we can’t afford to close down coal fired power stations or that we must wait until 203???????? for an alternative or that a grove of wind turbines is somehow a blight on the landscape. It is obvious that we must reverse climate change. It was obvious when I was in high school ploughing through the English reading list.

It is as obvious as these puns and as obvious as the fact that without a planet there is no need for literature, or any art for that matter.

Jack’s wry sense of humour prods our consciousness in the kindest of possible ways to the clear realisation that our first responsibility is to our planet.

240. Jack Frawley | No literature on a dead planet

29 June – 3 August

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