Welcome to Issue Two of Kill Your Darlings, a new assortment of fiction, commentary, essays and reviews.
First of all, thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate the release of our inaugural issue, launched in March. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and encouragement we received, and we are much indebted to those who supported us by stocking, subscribing, reviewing, reading and spreading the word about Kill Your Darlings.
Keeping in tune with our agenda to publish literature that bites back, we kick off Issue Two with an examination of Germaine Greer and The Female Eunuch, from writer Monica Dux. ‘Temple of The Female Eunuch’, while ostensibly responding to recent additions to the ‘Parsnip School of Greer criticism’, is more a reflection on the book’s impact (and problems associated with Greer’s arguments) from the time of publication to now, along with Greer’s changing influence as a feminist, writer and public intellectual.
We also have commentary from Benjamin Law on coming late to music trends, and Michaela McGuire on being ‘a writer’. Emilie Collyer writes about her ambivalent feelings towards being a quasistepmother, while Ruth Starke describes the decadent pleasures (and dubious honour) of being wooed by Mills & Boon in London. And Gideon Haigh returns to our pages to comment on the enduring public fascination with and ambivalence about Australian biography.
Perhaps it’s the winter weather, but Issue Two’s fiction has taken a decidedly sinister turn. We have new stories from Virginia Peters, Pierz Newton-John, Leanne Hall and Samuel Rutter, and they each explore the darker sides of human nature.
Kill Your Darlings interviews Philip Pullman, acclaimed author of His Dark Materials trilogy and all-round controversialist. And we’ve included retrospective review articles on the True Blood phenomenon, South African writer Barbara Trapido, the Australian television series Love My Way, and how the Internet has killed mystery in the music industry. Our cheeky cartoon on page 8 comes from Polly Dedman, and Jeremy Ley has once again brought us our cover illustration.
It’s been a pleasure putting this issue together. We hope you enjoy it.