{"product_id":"emperors-in-lilliput-by-jim-davidson","title":"'Emperors in Lilliput' by Jim Davidson","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"45\" data-end=\"608\"\u003eThere’s a particular pleasure in books that document the literary worlds as if they mattered enormously, because, they do.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"45\" data-end=\"608\"\u003eDavidson reconstructs the mid-century Australian intellectual scene through the intertwined figures of Clem Christesen (\u003cem data-start=\"290\" data-end=\"299\"\u003eMeanjin\u003c\/em\u003e) and Stephen Murray-Smith (\u003cem data-start=\"327\" data-end=\"337\"\u003eOverland\u003c\/em\u003e), and their dense social ecology of editors, egos, rivalries, and fragile cultural authority. These weren’t just magazines; they were competing visions of what Australian writing could be, each shaped by personality as much as politics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"610\" data-end=\"1160\"\u003eWe see the way these minor journals in a relatively isolated literary culture come to operate like empires, with all the attendant pettiness, ambition, and ideological trench warfare. Davidson is attentive to the mechanics: funding struggles, editorial decisions, personal alliances, the slow grind of building a readership where none quite exists yet. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1162\" data-end=\"1457\"\u003eIt ends up reading like a kind of cultural microhistory with teeth. Read as an autopsy of influence in a scene small enough that every gesture lands. If you care about how literary culture actually gets made (and contested), this is quietly brutal in its clarity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1162\" data-end=\"1457\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2022 hardback, Melbourne University Publishing (Miegunyah Press imprint). Very good condition; clean throughout with minimal handling wear, tight binding and sharp boards.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44555790188627,"sku":null,"price":22.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Yourparagraphtext_36.png?v=1777608052","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/emperors-in-lilliput-by-jim-davidson","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}