An Other Self
Tiffany Tsao • 1 April 2022
This issue of The Circular is an exploration of the complexity and multiplicity of the self. Can one’s sense of self encompass other people? What happens when part of one’s self is pitted against another part, or when someone is pressured into concealing a past version of themselves? This week’s selection of writing raises these questions and more.
Sometimes you have to lose the self to find the self.
Its Not You, It's Me
Facebook often asks me 'Want to tag yourself? Yes – No' in a photo that appears to contain only Julia. No? I sometimes wonder, my hand hovering over the mouse. Yes?
Drawing on her experiences as an identical twin, Helena de Bres reflects on twinship’s potential to problematise mainstream definitions of the self.
Killing the Cop in Your Head: Forty Ways of Looking at Veronica Gorrie’s Black & Blue
In this layered engagement with Veronica Gorrie’s memoir about the ten years she spent as a Black woman on the police force, Fry places Gorrie’s book in conversation with news articles, scholarship, and personal insight and commentary to paint a portrait of a consciousness divided – a self mobilised against one’s own self and community.
Surveillance extends outward from the self, toward one’s family and friends – and then back, eventually, to the individual cop...
'You either conform to become one of them and allow yourself to be a part of the racist system and their racist ideologies about your own people, or you are in a constant battle, defending yourself.'
Travelling with the Seongs
When you’re adopted, the idea of meeting people who might have the same nose and eyes as you is equal parts impossible and thrilling. I didn’t resemble Appa at all, and it took a long time to find my resemblance to Umma, whose face is only like mine from the nose down. Quietly, I was dying to meet the rest of my family – perhaps then, I thought, I’d finally know what it was to look at a relative and understand what non-adoptees feel when they see their family.
Adoptee Ellie Freeman recounts the process of reuniting with her birth family in Korea and the range of emotions she experienced while forging a deeper relationship with them.
Archer Asks: SJ Norman, author of Permafrost
This interview with SJ Norman provides a glimpse into his different identities: as bisexual and trans, as Koori and diasporic, as a writer and artist, and as the author of a collection of stories written by a past self.
Yves Rees: You’re an artist and writer who sits at the intersection of many different identities. What are the words you use to identify yourself?
SJ Norman: My labels shift depending on who I’m speaking to. Labels are only ever useful to me as strategies to mobilise ourselves through the world and in order to be seen. That shifts radically depending on the context.
Promising Young Writer
By the time the book came out, complete with flap copy emphasising my youth, I wanted to bury it. A year later, I was handed a shovel. Some Australian publishers were interested in my short story collection and novel-in-progress...We agreed to pretend my other debut hadn’t happened.
Speaking from her experience of being a debut author twice, Woollett explores the phenomenon of marketing and applauding writers (especially female ones) for their youth.
A big thank you, as always, for reading and supporting The Circular! We appreciate how many individuals and publications have shared our newsletters with others. Our subscriber base continues to grow!
A final reminder about our open call for guest editors. The deadline for submitting an application is midnight tonight! Thank you to everybody who has already sent one in. We’ll notify all applicants by April’s end.