Through their engagement with the varied content of Home (1920–42), The BP Magazine (1928–42) and MAN (1936–72), the authors argue that representations of travel functioned as a means for these magazines to both construct and negotiate what it meant to be modern in interwar Australia, particularly at a time where, they argue, ‘the Pacific was at the fore of the nation’s consciousness and imagination’ (18). Organised across three parts – Geography, Cultural Value, and Temporality – the book endeavours to show that it was not just physical travel that was so crucial to interwar ideas of modernity but imagined travel as well. Indeed, the authors engage with the concept of ‘geographical imaginary’ and the ‘outward gaze’ to contend that, as cultural texts, magazines enabled readers to forge a connection to a world beyond Australian shores and understand themselves as on the cutting edge of global fashion, cinematic, literary, and artistic trends – even if they never left their armchairs. There is much to commend in the book. The authors’ commitment to taking seriously the ways in which consumers of knowledge, through the act of reading, actively understood and negotiated complex ideas demonstrates the continued need to engage with cultural texts, especially Australian print culture. The Transported Imagination is indeed noteworthy precisely because it brings attention to magazines, which remain a desperately overlooked source of cultural activity. The focus on glamour, fashion, excitement, and pleasure – which follows Jill Julius Matthews’ work on international modernity in interwar Australia – helps to challenge enduring understandings of the 1930s in particular as inescapably miserable and Depression-riddled (although this point should perhaps have been made earlier than in the conclusion). Additionally, the recognition that the act of imagining travel (as well as actually travelling) was an important means through which Australian readers understood their position in the modern world allows space to acknowledge the hopes, desires, and fantasies of those readers who could not afford trips to the Pacific, Europe, or North America. Readers’ fantasies and desires were invoked and catered to in the three magazines not just through explicit coverage of travel, but also through representations of the modern world in book and film reviews, fiction, fashion coverage, and advertisements. The authors thus employ the category of the ‘middlebrow’ to reconcile not only the intersection of high and popular culture, but also of art and consumerism, which in turn approaches readers as intelligent consumers of cultural meaning. This is especially important given that the magazines each explicitly targeted quite different audiences. The authors place a lot of emphasis on the Pacific in the introduction to the book, not only as a place where interwar travellers were visiting, but also as an imagined concept which helped shape Australian ideas of modernity in the period. However, while they claim to ‘[discover] a number of simultaneous “Pacifics”’ in the three magazines, I found treatment of these multiple Pacifics to be uneven and at times underwhelming (20). This is a small but important critique, given the space provided in the introduction to discussions of the complex, contentious Pacific that the authors claim was represented in these interwar magazines. Overall, The Transported Imagination is a welcome addition to the small field of the study of Australian magazines and would also be of interest to scholars of travel, modernity, and interwar Australia.

中文翻译：

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污泥：维多利亚金矿的灾难

通过他们对 Home（1920-42）、BP 杂志（1928-42）和 MAN（1936-72）的各种内容的参与，作者认为旅行的表现是这些杂志构建和协商的一种手段在两次世界大战之间的澳大利亚，现代意味着什么，特别是在他们认为“太平洋处于国家意识和想象力的前沿”（18）的时候。这本书分为三个部分——地理、文化价值和时间——努力表明，对于两次世界大战之间的现代性观念来说，不仅仅是身体旅行如此重要，而且想象旅行也是如此。事实上，作者们使用“地理想象”和“向外凝视”的概念来争辩说，作为文化文本，杂志使读者能够与澳大利亚海岸以外的世界建立联系，并了解自己处于全球时尚、电影、文学和艺术趋势的前沿——即使他们从未离开过扶手椅。书中有很多值得称赞的地方。作者致力于认真对待知识消费者通过阅读行为积极理解和协商复杂想法的方式，这表明继续需要参与文化文本，尤其是澳大利亚印刷文化。运输的想象力确实值得注意，正是因为它引起了对杂志的关注，而杂志仍然是一种被极度忽视的文化活动来源。专注于魅力、时尚、兴奋、和快乐——继吉尔·朱利叶斯·马修斯 (Jill Julius Matthews) 在两次世界大战之间的澳大利亚研究国际现代性之后——有助于挑战人们对 1930 年代的持久理解，尤其是对 1930 年代不可避免的悲惨和大萧条的理解（尽管这一点或许应该早于结论提出）。此外，认识到想象旅行（以及实际旅行）是澳大利亚读者了解他们在现代世界中的地位的重要手段，这使得有空间承认那些负担不起的读者的希望、愿望和幻想。前往太平洋、欧洲或北美。读者的幻想和欲望在这三本杂志中被唤起和迎合，而不仅仅是通过明确的旅行报道，还通过书评和电影评论、小说、时尚报道和广告中对现代世界的表现。因此，作者运用“中庸”这一范畴不仅调和了高级文化与流行文化的交集，也调和了艺术与消费主义的交集，从而使读者成为文化意义的智能消费者。鉴于每本杂志都明确针对不同的受众，这一点尤其重要。作者在本书的引言中非常强调太平洋，这不仅是两次世界大战期间旅行者访问的地方，而且是一个想象的概念，帮助塑造了当时澳大利亚的现代观念。然而，虽然他们声称在三本杂志中“[发现]了许多同时发生的“太平洋”，我发现对这些多个太平洋地区的处理不均衡，有时令人印象深刻（20）。考虑到作者声称在这些两次世界大战之间的杂志中所代表的对复杂、有争议的太平洋的讨论的介绍中提供的空间，这是一个小而重要的批评。总的来说，The Transported Imagination 是澳大利亚杂志研究这一小领域的一个受欢迎的补充，也会引起澳大利亚旅游、现代性和两次世界大战期间的学者的兴趣。