The Circular of Life
Tiffany Tsao • 4 March 2022
'What’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die,' observes the titular spider of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. This week’s selection of writing takes us through life’s stages. We begin in childhood: Anna Roscoe’s eight-year-old self visits the cave where her older sister dwells, and Angelina Hurley humorously recounts getting hauled to church by her grandma.
Sar Fegan takes us through the magic of being young and in best-friend love – and the agony of having to part.
We move into parenthood, or rather, the violent disruption of it. Elfie Shiosaki shares from her research into the letters written to chief protector A.O. Neville by Noongar parents pleading for the return of their stolen children. Shiosaki includes letters written by her own great-great-grandfather, who campaigned for more than a decade for his four children to be returned.
Greying W<J>P Newnham gathers with The Boys to pay final respects to their mate Kenny. 'Each of us had signed the guest book and taken a memorial card on which Kenny-G was immortalised in all his OG glory...grinning at us from the hereafter.' Vivian Blaxell reflects on her lifetime of disappointments in the context of the bigger picture: the disappointments scattered throughout human history and the wider world.
We round off this week’s selection with a retrospective of a whole life lived. Shu-Ling Chua pays tribute to the life, work, and legacy of the great writer Eileen Chang in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Chang’s birth.
And we end with an invitation to shape the future. Have a great idea for an edition of The Circular? Read through to the conclusion. We’re seeking three guest editors for later this year.
Offerings
When I was eight, my sister moved home and transformed the games room into a cave. The couch became a bed and Mum tucked her in with her old teddy bear. In my memory, my sister stayed in the cave for a hundred years. Dust spread over her skin and spiders spun her a garland of webs.
The Gospel According to Angelina
'Don’t swear,' said Mum.
'Did ya tell that kid to piss off?' asked Dad.
'You have go to Sunday School,' said Mum.
'You don’t have to go to Sunday School,' said Dad.
'God is real,' said Mum.
'Nooooo he isn’t,' said Dad.
(Recommended supplementary reading: Hurley's essay for The Conversation, 'It's not funny to us – an Aboriginal perspective on political correctness and humour')
dot dash
A friend is going to move for love. And we will stay in touch. And things will be different but just as important. But then the world goes on pause for a while. And I? I am guilty of holding the remote close, begging not to have the channel changed. I feel safe in staring into the picture, however glitchy it may be.
Hand on heart
Many Noongar parents wrote letters to Neville, pleading for the return of their children. Some children even wrote to him, pleading to be returned home. These letters restore some humanity to the inhumanity of those periods, a time of stolen children and stolen futures.
One of these histories belongs to my grandmother’s grandfather, Edward Harris. He campaigned for more than a decade, between 1915 and 1926, for the return of his four children, Lyndon, Grace, Connie and my great-grandmother Olive. Harris corresponded with Neville on numerous occasions. Often his emotions linger in his words, or in the handwriting, or in other marks on the page.
![The Funeral [Farewell Kenny-G]](https://images.prismic.io/thecircular/9e97aeb6-68e2-4e32-9f83-aa91bca2594a_Newnham%20The%20Funeral.png?ixlib=gatsbyFP&auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&q=50&w=617&h=371)
The Funeral [Farewell Kenny-G]
Older now with greying hair, we were heavier and slower, looking more than ever like defendants awaiting the dock. We chatted quietly amongst ourselves as we waited for the ceremony.
Music was piped into the chapel as they played Kenny’s favourite: Tupac, Do for Love.
The disappointments
At my age, the dust of my own mortality falls upon me from dark and waiting stars and there could be much to be disappointed about...I could be disappointed that, even now, most of my writing goes down like a lead balloon, that I do not own my own home, that I am not yet a critically successful novelist, that The Drum does not invite me to share my senseless opinions with other senseless opinions, that This American Life has never called to tell me Ira Glass wants my life, that I have forgotten what it is to live in the countryside...
A Lifelong Romance: Reflections on Eileen Chang’s life, work, and legacy
In her oft-quoted essay 'Writing of One’s Own' (自己的文章), she responded to her critics, laying out the aesthetic principles that would underpin her life’s work...'Although they [Chang’s characters] are merely weak and ordinary people and cannot aspire to heroic feats of strength,' Chang contends, 'it is precisely these ordinary people who can serve more accurately than heroes as a measure of the times.'
The Circular Seeks Guest Editors
Exciting news! We’re seeking three guest editors to curate the following editions for the first weeks of September, October, and November 2022:
- An audio edition that brings together compelling non-fiction audio recordings according to an organising principle of the guest editor’s choice.
- A graphic edition that brings together compelling graphic non-fiction according to an organising principle of the guest editor’s choice.
- An open edition, curated according to any organising principle of the guest editor’s choice.
Guest editors will be paid. Head to the open call on our website for further details.