Yabbies
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Yabbies

Fragments: possession, passion and purpose

About the Book

“Yabbies. Funny little things, all in their own world at the bottom of the dam. A bit like us, ain’t they? Can’t see a thing for all the mud in the water; bits and pieces drift down, in any old order, all out of sequence, an’ we have to make sense of them as best we can.”

This unusual novel explores ideas about sustainability from a different angle: that we can’t achieve a sustainable world without a system of law that fully supports it. To make that happen, we would need truly revolutionary change in the way we see our world: a refocus of passion from possession to purpose. In some ways, as one of the characters here explains, we may not have much choice:

“The whole system is so fragile that there’s a real risk it could collapse at any time, in a really big way. Those problems are inherent in the system, so to speak, so that the whole thing is held together by little more than wishful thinking.”

But what would happen if only some countries made that change - and others didn’t? What would happen to trade, to international relations, to everyday living? How would they deal with each other’s business-visitors, or tourists? Yabbies explores these themes through story-fragments, each piece as if drifting down to us through the waters of time, different characters describing their own worlds and experiences each in their own unique voice. And perhaps a little magic, too.

Yabbies first appeared more than a decade ago as YABI - Yet Another Book Idea. Although it has taken many forms over the years, as an interactive website, screenplay, annotated text and more, this is its first time available as a conventional novel. This new edition includes a background section on the ideas and principles behind the story, and also a suggested timeline to link the fragments together.

About the Author

Tom Graves
Tom Graves

Tom Graves is probably best-known as a writer on subjects in the 'alternative' domains, such as dowsing (water-divining), earth-mysteries research and the relationship between science, technology and magic. Yet he has also done extensive research and writing on a wide range of other themes, including business-models, personal-development and gender-issues. The common theme in all of his work is explorations of how people learn new skills - the development of sensemaking, decision-making, judgement and awareness in discovering new capabilities for and of themselves.

For more information on Tom and his work, visit his personal website http://tomgraves.org or his more business-oriented weblog at http://weblog.tetradian.com . 

Table of Contents

  • About Yabbies – a novel
  • Don’s thesis
  • Steve arrives
  • Don alone
  • Steve’s diary
  • Scattered fragments
  • Don Mercer and Tony Morrison
  • Steve’s diary
  • Home Matters
  • Mercer’s law
  • Women and guns
  • Steve’s diary
  • Developing the skills
  • Steve’s diary
  • Saber-rattling
  • Language
  • Prelude to disaster
  • Topolskigate
  • Intuitive-technologies
  • Steve’s diary
  • Visas
  • A quiet crusader
  • Going independent
  • Steve’s diary
  • Emergency Management Act
  • After the election
  • Steve’s diary
  • Closed-debt contracts
  • The greater villain
  • Contract-breach
  • Steve’s diary
  • Steve’s diary
  • Mitesh
  • Steve’s diary
  • Transition – Last orders
  • Transition – Stock trader
  • Transition – Prime Minister
  • Transition – Paton’s
  • Transition – Musician
  • Shock-jock
  • Transition – Graphic designer
  • Transition – Golfer
  • Due-diligence
  • Transition – Cabinet transcript
  • Letter to Mum
  • Visitor Zones
  • Backpacker hotel
  • That big blue line
  • In Melbourne
  • Apollo Bay
  • Put it to the vote
  • Letter to Mum
  • Tipping
  • Negotiations with Ausam
  • Letter to Dave
  • Don’t drink and drive
  • Mishie
  • Letter to Mum
  • Police
  • Cutting gorse
  • Letter to Mum
  • Workshare
  • Letter to Dave
  • Lifter crew
  • At the Cannon
  • Who are you?
  • Pretty scary
  • At the airport
  • Yabbies
  • Crazy scientists
  • Witness-inhibition
  • Letter to Dave
  • Deathday
  • Lines in the landscape
  • What’s the project?
  • More’n enough rope
  • Bootstraps
  • The deep-stories
  • You’ve got to go
  • Love beyond reason
  • Music of the lost
  • A convenient untruth
  • Nothin’s no good
  • A gift from the land
  • Cargo bootstrap
  • Belonging
  • No idea who he was
  • Background
    • Why ‘Yabbies’?
    • Why Australia?
    • Sustainable law
    • Property and money
    • A problem of power
    • Transition
    • A little bit of magic
    • Yes, it’s real
  • Yabbies timeline
    • Before the present time
    • Pre-transition
    • Transition
    • Post-transition
    • Becoming stable
    • The new generation

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