#the environmental destruction and loss of the thylacine | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bettygemma · 6 days ago

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"I woke pitching forward as the car abruptly slew to a halt. Within moments my parents were outside searching in the weak glow of the car's headlights on that lonely road for the Tasmanian tiger-even then a mythical creature which had just crossed in front of our car. I followed, confused, feeling the wetness of fog beading on my face, seeing only puddles in the dimly lit muddy gravel...

...At some point I came to understand that I wrote from the frontlines of a war about which most have no idea. For a long time I could not understand that it was possible to be both on the side that has the power, that has unleashed the destruction, vast as it is indescribable, and, at the same time, be on the side that loses everything.

To do that you have to return to a child blinking in the rain, staring into the darkness, looking for something that his parents saw only an instant before and which has already vanished for all time, never to return.

That's life."

- Question 7, Richard Flanagan

#nothing I've ever read has been able to explain the Tasmanian experience to be as well as this book #the grief and the guilt #the legacy of poverty and violence #the dual suffering of Robinson's BLack Line and the convict system #the environmental destruction and loss of the thylacine #but also the enduring resilience of the Palawa peoples #anyway this was the best book I've read in about five years #question 7 #richard flanagan

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