Gender Violence Packaged As Entertainment: The Silent Wife

The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter

Harper Collins

Pp. 476

This is the tenth novel in the Will Trent series and comes with an expectation that the reader knows and cares about these characters. Without the prior knowledge, that’s a pretty hard sell. In an author’s note at the end, Karin Slaughter claims she writes love stories. “Really gritty, violent love stories, but still.” If love stories come with lashings of violence against women, then we might have to accept this claim, but it is depressing and disturbing for all that. The basic premise is that a man kidnaps women, leaves them drugged and immobilised, then returns to repeatedly rape them – he is found and imprisoned, but ten years later (while he is still in prison) similar crimes start up again – did they get the wrong man?

The novel alternates between times frames and returns to the cold case, which featured all the same characters but in different roles. Then, Jeffrey was investigating the case and was married to Sara. Now, Jeffrey is dead, and Will is in charge of the case with his professional partner, Faith. Will is romantically linked with Sara, the medical examiner. If there were mistakes made in the previous case, Will tries to shield Sara from errors her husband might have made. There were also glaring oversights made by Lena (such as assuming the victim was dead when she wasn’t), for which Sara cannot forgive her. Lena is still in action and pregnant, and this seems to rankle everyone, which indicates they are suffering serious trauma from a past the other books might explain if there were any interest in finding out.

In 2018 The Staunch Prize was introduced for the best thriller ‘in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered’. The founder, author and screenwriter Bridget Lawless, went on to say, “As violence against women in fiction reaches a ridiculous high, the Staunch Book Prize invites thriller writers to keep us on the edge of our seats without resorting to the same old cliches – particularly female characters who are sexually assaulted (however ‘necessary to the plot’) or done away with (however ‘ingeniously’).” It closed in 2022. Not enough entries? Some claimed it was a ‘gag order’ and the case for violence against women should be raised and addressed through fiction, even if these tropes are used as entertainment.

The Silent Wife is worth considering in this light. It begins with a woman running through the woods being stalked by a man who will brutally assault her. Rape and violence towards women are central to this novel, written by a woman. Will feels the need to point out that all rape victims are different. Might that be because they are human beings as well as ‘victims’? “Some were angry. Some entered into a fugue state. Some wanted revenge. Most desperately wanted to leave. A few had even laughed when they told their stories. He had noted the same unpredictable affects among veterans returning from war. Trauma was trauma. Every person reacted differently.”

Of course, there are plenty of police procedural tropes throughout the novel with that hard-bitten tougher-than-nails attitude Americans like to portray. One can almost hear the actors barking out the empty words on interchangeable TV programs NCIS/ CSI /SVU such as, “We don’t have bodies or crime scenes. We have guesses and a spreadsheet. The families deserve answers and this is the only way to get them.” Cops go undercover and put themselves in danger with hidden microphones seeking a confession that will result in a death penalty. They maintain that tough exterior with flippant wisecracks.

The novel is fast paced with characters superficially caring about the victims. The reader is supposed to care about the characters. It’s hard to differentiate any of them from each other, and the dialogue is written with an eye to the TV adaptation. It leaves a sensation of empty fatigue and a knowledge that as long as people are entertained by this style of violence, it will continue. The consumer may pretend to be horrified, but by treating this as a titivation, we are part of the problem.

Newspaper Analysis - The Weekend Australian Inquirer 27-28 May

When I returned to Australia after five weeks in Europe, I thought I would have a slow Sunday of reading the paper in the pub and catching up with local news and events. I forgot that the selection of Sunday papers in this country is strictly limited to a tabloid gutter-press and right-wing Murdoch-owned subsidies of an American mass-media cartel. 

So, I was stuck with The Weekend Australian from which I learned that the country is up in arms over The Voice referendum, which seeks to give Indigenous Australians representation in the constitution. Apparently it is divisive and unclear, although how they reach that conclusion is difficult to say as they also argue that the government has not released enough detail about something which will make the people 'bound in perpetuity'. 

Many other articles criticise Stan Grant, who questioned the role of the monarchy in contemporary Australia during the coverage of King Charles III's coronation on the ABC network, the country's national broadcaster, principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and  administered by a government-appointed board. Opinion pieces opine that Stan Grant is out-of-step with public opinion and this six-and-a-half-hour broadcast was not the place to raise this issue. It doesn't help The Australian's cause that the multi-award-winning journalist Stan Grant is a proud Wiradjuri man. He has since quit television-hosting duties in response to online racist abuse over his coronation comments about historic Aboriginal dispossession. The Australian does not suggest when would have been a good time to make these comments. 

Without a hint of irony or awareness of hypocrisy, other articles claim that police tactics over COVID-19 were regressive as they shut down free speech based on questionable science. The Australian thinks there should be an inquiry into why people's Twitter comments were shut down. Speaking your mind in a time of great uncertainty in the midst of a pandemic with the potential of whipping up hysteria and pandemonium is clearly fine - as long as your view is individualist and supports capitalism. 

There is much frothing at the mouth about body dysmorphia, transgender popularity, and the discomfort of listening to women when they tell their stories. Brittany Higgins (a Liberal party junior staffer who alleged that she she was raped by a Minister in Parliament House) is a particular target for villification.

According to journalist Janet Albrechtsen, Brittany Higgins had a 'strategy' to go to the media first and the police second. She is the face of the #MeToo movement and, as a role model for other women, her 'tactics' 'may be mimicked by other women'. Albrechsten claims that, "Decisions by her and those around around her to air her allegation in the media have undermined key features of our criminal justice system." She continues, "The more times Higgins gave her version of events to the media, the more likely there may be inconsistencies in what she said happened."

Of course it helps The Australian to have a female reporter discrediting the words of an alleged rape victim. Albrechsten takes pot shots with sneering comments such as, "On more than a few occasions, the normal rules and sound judgements appear to have been discarded for Higgins." And she affirms this position with, "So many people in positions of power who were caught up in the hype of the Higgins media storm appeared to have made more decisions." Albrechsten appears to pander to the notion that size matters in the hunt for more column inches, and whereas I believe we should listen to women and take their accounts of abuse seriously, this article has me agreeing with one thing at least: #notallwomen

Richard Guilliatt weighs in on the debate (how is it even a debate?) by trashing as unreliable the memories of abuse victims after recovering repressed memories of trauma through a counselling technique called eye movement desentsitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) conducted by "so-called experts." He argues that, "sexual assault allegations were no taken as seriously as they should have been in the past but the public mood has shifted towards believing an allegation must be the truth." While neatly glossing over all that messy trauma, Guilliatt is upset that, "prosecutors in the current climate appear to see their role as supporting claimants rather than assessing cases on their viability." Heaven forfend any abuse victim might actually receive support as well as justice. 

More examples of the smug, patronising, sexist, ageist, scaremongering, homophobic, racist tone of the paper follow. But that's just my opinion. 

Dangers of AI risk smothering its benefits by Natasha Bita

I'm not saying it's alarmist but, "Like Siri on steroids, AI super-intelligence is rapidly disrupting the world of teaching and learning in ways that threaten to make reading and writing redundant." OK, so I am saying it's alarmist. The danger is, according to Bita, that "AI has caught most educators unprepared for its potential to turbo-charge teaching while giving lazy students an easy opportunity to cheat." She goes on to ask, "Will AI make students so lazy that they don't learn to think for themselves? What if AI re-writes history, spouts propaganda or 'hallucinates' by generating the wrong information?" What, like certain newspapers do now? 

She warns that "schools and universities will need to change assessment methods, relying less on take-home assignments and more on supervised exams, spoken tasks, and video assessments". It's almost as if educational institutions haven't been constantly adapting and changing their assessment methods every single year anyway. While one might think that drawing attention to the digital divide is a left-wing concern and an opportunity to talk about class and wealth inequality. "All state governments have blocked ChatGTP in state schools but many private schools are embracing its use, potentially giving their students an academic headstart." However, the example used of the school that is reaping the rewards of this unfair advantage is the Islamic Collage of Brisbane, because of course, why would you miss an opportunity for ramping up a touch of Islamophobia?

Left Dangling in a climate protest crackdown by David Penberthy

David Penberthy writes about the new laws in South Australia which impose greater financial accountability on protestors, or "those causing the mayhem", His language includes describing some of said protestors as, "retiree revolutionaries", "a small but crafty band of elderly 'rebels', as the XR activists call themselves", and "XR rebel Meme Thorne, a 69-year-old actor from the hippie haven of Willunga." 

Thorne abseiled down a bridge and "dangled above the traffic" in Adelaide as part of a protest against the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference. While Penberthy makes no mention of the political motivation of this group, apart from the glib "in defence of Mother Earth", he expands upon the potential threat to the good citizens of Adelaide. "Her actions brought the city to a halt for an hour, even preventing some patients from making appointments at the Royal Adelaide Hospital".

The tone is exasperated and patronising, hiding a credible death threat behind an attempt at blokish banter. "Capturing the frustration of South Australians, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens spoke for many when he said dryly: 'The ropes are fully extended across the street so we can't, as much as we might like to, cut the rope and let them drop.'"

In response, Opposition Leader David Spiers, announced on talkback radio proposed amendments to the Summary Offences Act, increasing fines for such protests from $750 to $50,000 or three months' imprisonment. "It was a hitherto unseen moment of gut-instinct politics from the new SA Liberal leader and was lapped up by talkback listeners, many ringing in with messages of support from inside their stationary cars." Do we really want policy to be decided by knee-jerk reactions and people who lap things up like dogs and make phone-calls while driving?

Surprising life of the accidental president - review by Troy Bramston 

In an article about a new book, An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R Ford by Richard Norton Smith (in which Smith describes Ford as being "charismatically challenged"), the reviewer, Troy Bramston adds this reflection:

"You can pass judgment on Ford or any other president by any standards you want, including contemporary standards. But it seems to me that you can only understand Ford or any other president or any other difficult decision, by immersing yourself in the context of the time."

Harpy Daniels wants YOU: US military goes for woke by Adam Creighton, Washington Correspondent

US Navy Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley appeared in persona as drag queen Harpy Daniels in a TikTok video encouraging young Americans to join the service. Creighton reports that, "Republican senators, former marines and much of the American public were shocked that the navy employed drag queens, let alone endorsed them to boost recruitment." Except, it doesn't. Kelley may be employed by the US Navy but, as the articles admits, this was not a sanctioned video. "The navy, which at first defended the promotional decision publicly, later denied Kelley was part of any formal program."

It transpires that the US military is struggling to meet its recruitment targets. "The US military, which has about 1.35 million active-duty personnel spread across the navy, air force, army, marine and space forces, requires more than 155,000 new recruits this year to replace departing personnel." Apparently this tough recruitment environment is comprised of "a perfect storm of low unemployment and steadily declining patriotism, fitness and interest among young Americans. Covid-19 made all this even worse."

Many young people are rejecting active military service because they don't see a need to ask what they can do for their country. "A prominent survey of Americans published in the Wall Street Journal in March revealed a huge drop in traditional values - patriotism, religion, family, community service - since 1998, especially among young people. Overall, only 38 per cent of respondents said patriotism mattered, down from 70 per cent."

In an outstandingly hypocritical swipe at the audacity of young folk to want decent compensation for their labour, the article goes on, "The only priority the Journal tested that has grown in importance in the past quarter-century is money, which was cited as very important by 43 per cent in the new survey, up from 31 per cent in 1998, the paper said, in what was a depressing read for anyone with traditional values." Well, curse those young people for needed money to survive in a consumerist world of high rent, fuel and commodities of someone else's making.

Could it be possible that environmental factors and toxic politics have leached the sense of service from young men?  Being told what to do without rhyme or reason is unappealing. This would indicate that the conservative role model is failing to attract young folk, and the 'values' of docile following of a capitalist construct is no longer something towards which they slavishly aspire. But sure, blame the drag queen. Perhaps Kelley should change their moniker to Red Herring.

Urban planning design transformed post-COVID by Bernard Salt

It's well written and well argued, and it definitely wants to give power to the individual and wrest it away from the 'nanny state'. Might that be because individuals can be persuaded to do what they are told, while collectives can stir up trouble for corporations? It starts out well, as Salt claims, "It makes sense that Australia, a nation largely founded on immigration [once again, the Indigenous contribution to nationhood is completely overlooked, but that's a whole different Stan of Grants], should evolve as a proving ground for town planning. Since European settlement we have created new cities and accommodated urban growth on a vast scale. And there is every reason to expect our cities to grow further in the years ahead." 

He can't resist a dig, however; "Modern homes typically have water tanks which (notionally) reduce demand for municipal water supplies. Solar panels and battery storage also shift responsibility for power generation and storage from the collective to households. It's all done to help the environment, of course, but it also has the advantage of freeing up funds that in a previous era would have been directed to creating public assets." This is a hugely selfish way of looking at things that supports the wealthy individual who can, and leaves those who can't afford such modifications out in the cold.

We can make people responsible for their own amenities and claim it is all in their best interests. "Knowledge workers living and working together in the dense inner city generate a frisson that creates entrepreneurial and/or economic activity. This idea supports the argument for density. But the pandemic unleashed powerful new forces that challenge the logic of how a city should operate. The reign of the knowledge worker is giving way to new roles such as carers, who live and work mostly in the suburbs. Plus there is a proportion of people who will work from home several days a week." Yes,this doesn't mean they don;t want city amenities or public transport, and it doesn't support any user-pays theory. If you can't pay; you can't use them. That doesn't mean you don't want to. 

"I think the narrative of city life is changing in the post-pandemic era. Our priorities have shifted towards security and the home, and our tolerance for commuting has lessened... It suggests a rising empowerment of moderately skilled workers based in the suburbs and regions, who, therefore, should have a greater say in how collective resources might be allocated." In other words, keep people in their homes, don't encourage them to become involved in community enterprises, and you won't have to build any facilities or infrastructure, unless people are prepared to pay for it themselves. Sorted. 

'God's Chosen People': Tanamera

Tanamera by Noel Barber

Corgi

Pp. 736

Tanamera (from the Malay meaning ‘red earth’) is the saga of the eponymous house and all who live in her, namely the Dexter family. It is a tale of a dynasty, narrated by John Dexter, and, by extension, a novel of Singapore. Of course it is a white colonialist’s view of Singapore and contains all the inherent classism, racism and sexism one would expect to find in a novel written in 1981. It claims to be both a witness to the change in the country before and after the Second World War, and a love story, but it is so partisan that it can barely be either, especially as the women are very poorly drawn caricatures.

The descriptions of Singapore are as viewed by an ex-pat; there are tennis clubs and gin and tonic on the veranda. And it is hot, and full of insects. The Dexter dynasty, and the house, was established by Grandpa Jack who made his money through rubber (Dunlop), railways, shares in tin mines, and setting up Raffles. The novel condenses the history of rubber and those who control the price and the export of it. The colonialist attitudes are jarring but not unusual: the casual racism and exploitation of the local people is hugely unpalatable but typical of the time. This attitude of superiority extends to gender and sexuality, as the narrator says of his brother, “even though Tim’s sickness manifested itself in his trousers, it was the head that needed attention.” He also refers to Tim, as “that fairy” and “a bugger boy”.

The narrator cannot write a credible female character. Julie, his love interest, is docile, compliant and beautiful, like an ex-pat’s colonial dream of an Asian woman. She is happy for him to take her virginity and does not mind that she is not allowed in his tennis club or at his parties, saying demurely, “I’ll always be yours if you want me.” Her looks and desirability to other men raise her value in his eyes and he admits to a “fierce feeling of possession and intimate knowledge of showing Julie off. Of course Johnnie marries and has children with someone else, while claiming to retain undying love for Julie. He tries to justify his actions as Julie forgives him for sleeping around and marrying someone else because there is licence to cheat during the war, apparently. She is light-hearted and never remonstrates with him but quotes poetry instead in a parody of the accommodating oriental mistress.

It is unlikely that he appreciates a woman’s ability to enjoy herself sexually; he has sex with a friend, Vicki, when they are both married to other people and she tells him, “Every married woman secretly dreams of being raped – by a friend of course.” Later, Julie repeats this nonsense, with the exact same words. This dangerous fantasy of his displays a complete lack of respect and understanding. Dramatic scenes later in the novel linger on the prurience of a gang-rape of his wife and sister, Natasha.

Action at Parit Sulong, January 1942 by Murray Griffin

There is some merit within the book, however, and it is in the description of war and how it affects Singapore (as seen through a colonialist’s eyes). There is a strong ‘end of an era’ atmosphere as can be expressed when viewing it in hindsight. War, when it comes, is initially just another reason for exploitation and profiteering, as it is seen from a distance as capitalists prepare for its approach. Eventually Singapore falls and the war comes directly to the Dexters, as John fights in the jungle, and there are detailed descriptions of making bamboo bombs and the sadistic torture methods and general savagery of the Japanese. As Barber’s reflections become more political and less personal, he includes footnotes to historians’ writing as if to back up his fiction with fact. He is better at understanding the big picture than individual motivations.

As a rambling novel of a family saga with Singapore as a backdrop, this is an ambitious work. One is reminded of James A Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific. He couldn’t write women either and approached the situation from a white male colonialist viewpoint, but it won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 when that was the only perspective that mattered. Hopefully times are changing.

It's Not About the Girl: The Girl Before

The Girl Before by JP Delaney

Quercus

Pp. 406

Edward has designed a house that is minimalist in appearance, with all the modern technology to make it seem almost sentient. To rent One Folgate Street, with its open-plan features, floating staircase and clean spaces, potential tenants must answer a series of questions before gaining admittance. Once they have been accepted, they understand that he has a sense of authority over them. Everything in the house is computerised and Edward controls the computer; if the tenants don’t answer the questions to his satisfaction, he will turn off the lights or the hot water for the shower. The questions get increasingly pertinent and personal, as the house computer search engine will only respond with certain information, and it collates all the findings to provide ‘helpful hints’. The novel questions when being cared for becomes being spied on; when does being protected become being stifled?

It is clear that Edward is a control-freak. He needs to control all aspects of his – and others’ – lives; not just their living arrangements. He cooks in a very methodical manner with precisely the right hard-to-find ingredients; he admires foreign things so that he can appear knowledgeable and correct people’s pronunciation to constantly assert authority. He also likes the Japanese custom of hitobashira, which he tells a tenant is about burying dead people under buildings, but she later finds out it refers to burying the living. So far; so creepy.

But wait; there’s more. He has very similar relationships with very similar women, two of whom live in his house and narrate alternate chapters. Jane is ‘now’. She has had a stillbirth which makes her vulnerable; she has memories which Edward triggers, she thinks accidentally. Emma was ‘then’. She had been attacked and raped by burglars – her partner, Simon, adores her, but can’t live by her stringent rules or those of the house. Jane’s friend, Mia, points out how much Jane looks like Emma, the previous tenant, who died in the house, and Edward’s wife, Elizabeth, before that. Emma defends him, “Men often go for the same type. Women do too, of course. It’s just that in our case, it isn’t usually physical resemblance so much as personality.” But when does it stop being a ‘type’ and become a fetish?

Past experiences are repeated in the present; the lines Edward uses echo over each other as he says them to both women and they find themselves starting to question his past. When Jane questions Edward about his former relationship (his wife and previous tenant both died in suspicious circumstances), he tells her not to look into it. “The past is over; that’s why it’s the past. Let it go, will you?” There are heavy-handed metaphors about clean slates with faintly discernible chalk marks from previous writings, and if we hadn’t already got the point, Jane spells it out for the hard of understanding with a high-school art essay about palimpsests and pentimenti.

As with any novel including the word ‘girl’ in the title, it seems we must have sex, violence, and an unreliable narrator. It is also worth bearing in mind that it is written by a man. A policeman advises Emma, “We take cases of rape very seriously. That means assuming every woman who says she’s been raped is telling the truth. The flipside of that is that we take false rape allegations equally seriously.” This suggests they are equally common. Fact check: over the past 20 years, only 2% of rape accusations proved to be false. It’s not that men can’t write realistic female characters, but a reliance on pop psychology and simplified gender stereotypes doesn’t help.

The Girl Before is not about a girl, before, after or present. It is about a house and a man’s viewpoint of manipulation and control. It is an entertaining read, but it is not earth-shattering. Shock value isn’t everything, and its veneer wears off very quickly.