July 05, 2008
Poem: The Mystic by C.J. Dennis
An "Ode to the Moon" did he indite
With his two-and-half soul-power.
('Twas the child of a starlit summer night,
Begot by a gloomy hour.)
And he vowed it was a work immense,
And he quoted it a lot,
And he published it at his own expense;
But the cold, hard world said - "Rot!"
And he wrote him ringing verse of horse,
And the stockman, and his pipe,
And the brooding bushland; but, of course,
The world just murmured - "Tripe!"
So he sat him down for another fling,
And his time-exposure mind
Evolved a topical sort of thing,
Of a gay and hum'rous kind.
And he looked to see the world go wild,
And laugh until it cried;
But the verse was poor and the humor mild,
And - "Bosh!" the tired world sighed.
Then he oiled his weird, ball-bearing mind,
In a dull, despairing mood,
And he wrote a thing of a cryptic kind,
Which nobody understood.
'Twas an ode to the "Umph" and the "Thingmebob,"
With a lilt and a right good ring,
And hints of a smirk, a snarl, a sob,
And a murky murmuring.
Nay, nobody understood a word,
Nor strove to understand;
But few dared say it was absurd,
So most agreed 'twas "Grand!"
Then he let his hair grow lank and long,
And an air intense he got,
And ever he strove to nurse in song
The cult of the "Dunnowhat."
And now he never writes in vain,
But a famous man is he,
With a ten soul-power and a chuck-lathe brain,
And an air of mysterie.
So, of his lot take heed; I wot
If you aspire to fame,
Don't waste a tune on horse or moon,
But rave of Whatsitsname;
It's tame,
But still it's Whatsitsname.
First published in The Bulletin, 9 April 1908
Posted by larrikin at 09:58 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
July 04, 2008
2008 Melbourne Writers' Festival
Some dates of interest relating to the 2008 Melbourne Writers' Festival:
July 16, Wednesday
12:30 - 1:30pm
A special preview of the program will be held.
BMW Edge, Federation Square
Corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne
July 16, Friday
Release of the festival program.
August 22, Friday to August 31, Sunday
The festival itself.
You can get further details from the Festival's website.
Posted by larrikin at 01:05 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
Born to Run
An odd little item I noticed as I was just about to throw out the racing form from today's morning newspaper: race 2 on tomorrow's racing card from Flemington is called "The Banjo Paterson". Might just be worthwhile having a flutter on the basis of that. Nothing with a name like "Matilda" is listed, however.
Posted by larrikin at 12:52 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
Tom Keneally Watch #4
Short Notices
Juhana Pettersson on Victim of the Aurora: "The interesting thing about Victim of the Aurora is that it talks about sex and sexuality, a topic completely missing from all the period accounts of polar travel in the early 20th century. The book's sense of a historical period is impeccable and the 'uncensored' vibe you get is refreshing."
The "Panorama of the Mountains" weblog reviews Woman of the Inner Sea: "The novel ... is strongly Australian. At once it is personal and as large as the continent. The gleaming cities of the coast are contrasted with the rugged towns of the outback."
"50 Book Challenge" on Schindler's List: "A stunning novel based on the true story of how German war profiteer and prison camp Direktor Oskar Schindler came to save more Jews from the gas chambers than any other single person during World War II. In this milestone of Holocaust literature, Thomas Keneally uses the actual testimony of the Schindlerjuden -- Schindler's Jews -- to brilliantly portray the courage and cunning of a good man in the midst of unspeakable evil."
Other
A new exhibition in Frankfurt celebrates the 100th anniversary of Oscar Schindler's birth.
Keneally has sold his house of thirty years, and also his vast library of books.
Posted by larrikin at 09:18 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
Low and Den by Alec Chisholm
Dave Low has got off the beam, probably through trusting to memory instead of looking up readily-available references, in regard to C.J. Dennis's "Australaise". Den certainly did not label his verses "The Austra-bloody-laise," nor did he use the adjective in any verse or the chorus; and moreover he did not write "Pull yer bloody pants on, tie yer bloody boots," but "Shift yer --- carcasses, Move yer --- boots."
"The Australaise" was first published ("With some acknowledgements to W.T. Goodge") in THE BULLETIN of November 12, 1910. Then entitled "A Real Australian Austra--laise," it consisted of four verses and a chorus, and it won its author a special prize in a National Song Competition, promoted by THE BULLETIN, which drew 74 entries.
In further comment, the judge suggested that "The Australaise" would gain "immediate popularity" because it would "go to the swing of the 'Merry Widow' waltz"; but in fact (as far as I know) that air was never adopted. Instead Den borrowed a more rousing melody - he issued "The Australaise" in 1915, in the form of a leaflet containing seven verses and chorus, as "A Marching Song," and he suggested that it be sung to the tune of "Onward Christian Soldiers." That suggestion accorded with the ideas of the lads of the A.I.F. (for whom, chiefly, the leaflet was issued), and so they learned to bawl, not only the first but the last of the verses:-
Fellers of Australier,
Cobbers, chaps an' mates,
Hear the --- German
Kickin' at the gates!
Blow the --- bugle,
Beat the --- drum,
Upper-cut an' out the cow
To kingdom- --- -come!
Neither in THE BULLETIN nor the leaflet (nor, indeed, in any of the later issues of "The Australaise") did Low's adjective appear. Discreetly enough, Den left that matter to his readers, as witness his footnote to the 1915 issue:-
Reprinted from THE BULLETIN with alterations. Where a dash replaces a missing word, the adjective "blessed" may be interpolated. In cases demanding great emphasis, the use of the word "blooming" is permissible. However, any other word may be used that suggests itself as suitable.
Because unbound publications of some few pages soon fall asunder, that one-page "Marching Song" is now very rare. Personally, I have seen only a single copy, and I considered myself lucky to locate and borrow that one for use as an illustration in my Dennis biography of 1946, The Making of the Sentimental Bloke.
Aside for Low's error regarding "The Australaise," plus a minor one touching Den's latter-day home at Toolangi (which was not "the same house, rebuilt magnificently," as his original shabby old dwelling), what surprises me in the cartoonist's narrative is the scanty nature of his reminiscences of the writers and artists of his Melbourne period.
Has David forgotten Garry Roberts and his wife, that warm-hearted couple who entertained him and his colleagues at Sunnyside, Kallista, over a long period? Has he forgotten the rich talk of Tom Roberts, Web Gilbert, and John Shirlow, to say nothing of the pranks and quick-witted quips of Hal Gye (who, with Low himself, is the only member of the Sunnyside group now living), Harold Herbert, Bob Croll and Guy Innes, as well as those of the author of "The Australaise"?
When collecting material for the Dennis biography I gathered at second-hand (for I was not in Victoria in the period under discussion) quite a lot of fruity and amusing material relating to the Sunnyside circle in general and Den in particular, and thus it was reasonable to expect from Low, as a member of the group, additional material in kind - one of the brightest literary-artistic circles known to Australia.
David has not, for instance recalled the quaint error he made when illustrating Den's Backblock Ballads. Nor, to mention just one other snappy item, has he told us about the rice-pudding, complete with basin, which he took to the Melbourne railway-station and presented to Den and his bride when, in 1917, they were starting on their honeymoon.
Is it too late for Low to do a spot of amending and amplifying? An hour of two of meditation, I imagine, would be quite worthily productive, and if memory fails on any point it could be jogged by that sprightly combination of artist and writer, Hal Gye.
First published in The Bulletin, 16 January 1957
Note: this essay was written in response to an extract from David Low's Autobiography, that was being published in "The Bulletin" at the time.
You can read the full text of the poem "The Australaise".
Posted by larrikin at 08:07 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
July 03, 2008
Over the Rise
"The Vapour Trail" website looks at the history of Richmond larrikins from the early 20th century.
Pavlov's Cat is reading a book about a middle-aged woman who's teaching a writing class, who "has a blog, and a malicious anonymous troll/stalker to go with it." PC is a bit worried about possible similarities.
D.M. Cornish reveals what he's up to.
Sophie Masson writes about her experimentation of making a book trailer for her latest YA mystery, The Case of the Diamond Shadow. She also provides a link to the end product.
"The Times" newspaper picks its best Summer Reads - for the Northern hemisphere - and includes some familiar works: His Illegal Self by Peter Carey, Mr Pip by Lloyd Jones, A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz, and The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser.
Michael Evans, Defence Editor of "The Times", picks On the Beach by Nevil Shute as one of his top six books on "nucleur (sic) war". Maybe he's taking pronunciation lessons from a certain US president.
Posted by larrikin at 05:08 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
2008 Noosa Long Weekend
The program for the 2008 Noosa LongWeekend has been released. The festival runs from July 4-13, so you'd best get organised if you intend getting there.
Posted by larrikin at 02:21 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
Australian Books to Film #45 - Australian Rules
|
Australian Rules 2002
Directed by Paul Goldman
Screenplay by Paul Goldman from the novel Deadly Unna by Phillip Gwynne.
Featuring Nathan Phillips, Luke Carroll, Lisa Flanagan, and Tom Budge.
Posted by larrikin at 10:35 AM Permalink | Comments (2)
July 02, 2008
Review: The Poet Who Forgot by Catherine Cole
|
Catherine Cole THE POET WHO FORGOT University of Western Australia Press, 272 pp. Source: review copy Review by Michael Freedman |
The Poet Who Forgot is about a great many things -- although on one level, it is not really about anything in particular. Rather, it is the author's musings about topics as diverse as love and memory, loneliness and travel, Australia and its national identity. More fundamentally, it is about AD Hope, one of Australia's most famous and prolific poets, but it becomes clear from the opening pages that one thing The Poet Who Forgot is not is an biography. It is, I think, more accurately described as a tribute -- a loving tribute by a gifted writer and poet, who clearly had much affection for Mr Hope, and he for her.
AD Hope sadly passed away in 2000 at age 93, after suffering from dementia for many years. As a poet he won many awards, was known for his acerbic and occasionally crushing literary reviews, and in time became one of Australia's best-known poets. His mental decline in his later years was all the more regrettable, not just because a brilliant poet was lost to the literary world, but because, as Ms Cole points out, writers rely on their memory to write. Writing, particularly poetry, is far more rich and vivid and satisfying when behind the written word lurks the author's own experiences. For writers, dementia is especially cruel.
At its core, The Poet Who Forgot is about a relationship, between a mentor and an apprentice, between experience and youth. A relationship which Ms Cole could scarcely have foreseen when, as an undergraduate student, she wrote to AD Hope, expressing her admiration. That letter was a catalyst for a lasting friendship, which the book explores in the form of a series of letters between the two. If the book was only a series of letters, it would surely be of interest only to AD Hope's most diehard of fans. But Ms Cole skilfully guides the reader through an emotional and often funny journey, augmenting the letters with poetry and her thoughts on a range of diverse topics. This is stream of consciousness writing at its best. Even a reader who is not a fan of poetry, and has never heard of AD Hope, can still enjoy The Poet Who Forgot.
That is not to say that the book is not hard going in places -- when Ms Cole and Mr Hope are apologising to each other for tardy replies, when arranging when they will next meet, or during Ms Cole's ongoing treatise about the activities of her cat. If the letters have been edited for publication, it is not evident. Perhaps the author's goal was to show the mundaneness of her relationship with a famous poet. A brush with fame, after all, is not what this book is about. When rereading the letters, Ms Cole says, she was "surprised" by their "ordinariness".
AD Hope's struggle with dementia is not fully explored -- I suspect that Ms Cole intended for the reader to remember AD Hope as he was, rather than what he became -- a wise choice. While The Poet Who Forgot covers a number of themes, it's discussion of memories and the lamentable act of forgetting are the ones that come to mind most readily, and are the most interesting. Ms Cole quotes historian Paula Hamilton as suggesting that the past is continually refashioned through memory. Even if AD Hope was the "poet who forgot", books such as Ms Cole's will ensure he is remembered.
Posted by larrikin at 01:46 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
A Classic Year 15.2: Order of the Works
Back at the beginning of this year, when I started working my way through the entries in Jane Gleeson-White's Australian Classics I mentioned that I was unsure of how she had arranged them in order. They didn't seem to have been listed by publication date, nor was there any alternation of form - novel then poem then story then... and so on. So I was a bit stumped until I saw that Gleeson-White had included, on her contents list, the dates of birth and death of the first third of the entries.
And there it was. The works are listed in order of the author's birth. Which is a strange way to do things. Publication order I can understand, but birthdate seems a little odd.
I can see that publication date might cause a few problems, especially when a work has been revised a number of times over an extended period - do you chose the first or most recent date? - but I think it would provide a view of the development of Australina literature over the 135 years or so since the first publication of For the Term of His Natural Life.
I'm quibbling again. Lists of this sort always seem to bring it out in me.
Posted by larrikin at 10:35 AM Permalink | Comments (2)
July 01, 2008
2008 Port Augusta Writers' Weekend
The 2008 Port Augusta Writers' Weekend will be held from July 11th to 13th. For those not in the know, Port Augusta is about 4 hours by car north of Adelaide in South Australia; at the top of Spencer Gulf. I can't find a full program on the webpage but if you follow the links returned by this search you should be able to figure it out.
Posted by larrikin at 05:09 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
A Classic Year 15.1: Full List of Works
There have been a couple of comments posted about this series requesting details of the full set of works in Australian Classics. At first I resisted including the list on the basis that it wasn't mine to reproduce. Then I found that the book's publisher, Allen and Unwin, or the author, Jane Gleeson-White, had created a webpage showing the full contents.
I think the contents are out there in the public domain now, so I've reproduced it below. Don't, however, consider that this is all you need to get from the book. Gleeson-White introduces each of these works, putting them into context, both in terms of the author's other work and Australian literature as a whole. She uses these points to justify their inclusion, and having these introductory essays gives you with a lot more information and expertise than I can possibly provide.
1. Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood
2. Such is Life by Joseph Furphy
3. 'The Sick Stockrider' by Adam Lindsay Gordon
4. His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke
5. 'The Chosen Vessel' by Barbara Baynton
6. 'The Man From Snowy River' by Banjo Paterson
7. 'Nationality' by Mary Gilmore
8. 'The Drover's Wife' by Henry Lawson
9. 'Lilith' by Christopher Brennan
10. Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner
11. The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson
12. 'The Gentle Water Bird' by John Shaw Neilson
13. My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
14. The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay
15. Coonardoo by Katharine Susannah Prichard
16. 10 for 66 and all that by Arthur Mailey
17. Lucinda Brayford by Martin Boyd
18. A Fortunate Life by AB Facey
19. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
20. 'Five Bells' by Kenneth Slessor
21. Capricornia by Xavier Herbert
22. The Man Who Loved Children by Christina Stead
23. The Pea-pickers by Eve Langley
24. 'A Letter from Rome' by AD Hope
25. Voss by Patrick White
26. My Brother Jack by George Johnston
27. 'Woman to Child' by Judith Wright
28. Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson
29. Power Without Glory by Frank Hardy
30. 'No More Boomerang' by Oodgeroo Noonuccal
31. Storm Boy by Colin Thiele
32. The Lucky Country by Donald Horne
33. Milk and Honey by Elizabeth Jolley
34. The Acolyte by Thea Astley
35. The Glass Canoe by David Ireland
36. The Tyranny of Distance by Geoffrey Blainey
37. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
38. An Imaginary Life by David Malouf
39. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Thomas Keneally
40. Visitants by Randolph Stow
41. Grand Days by Frank Moorhouse
42. 'The Buladelah-Taree Holiday Song Cycle' by Les Murray
43. The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes
44. The Plains by Gerald Murnane
45. Monkey Grip by Helen Garner
46. Our Sunshine by Robert Drewe
47. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
48. Lilian's Story by Kate Grenville
49. My Place by Sally Morgan
50. Cloudstreet by Tim Winton
Posted by larrikin at 10:45 AM Permalink | Comments (3)
Australian Bookcovers #120 - Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally
|
Bring Larks and Heroes by Thomas Keneally, 1967
(Cassell 1967 edition)
Posted by larrikin at 09:05 AM Permalink | Comments (1)
June 30, 2008
Murray Bail Profile
As Murray Bail's first novel in ten years, The Pages, is about to be published, he is interviewed by Susan Wyndham for "The Age".
Ten years sounds like a long time between books but Bail has not been idle."This seems to be a ghastly pattern: I started another novel and spent 18 months, maybe two years on it, then I put it aside. It's not to say I won't go back to it. It was nothing but a man and woman talking and I thought, aside from the difficulty, I was sick of men and women talking anyway but there had to be more underneath.
"The same thing happened with Eucalyptus. I spent a couple of years mucking around with a book that I wasn't comfortable with. I chucked that one out."
Posted by larrikin at 01:22 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
A Classic Year 15.0: Coonardoo by Katherine Susannah Prichard
 |
Coonardoo Katherine Susannah Prichard 1929 |
This novel was co-winner of the 1928 "Bulletin" novel writing competition, and, interestingly, was submitted under the pen-name "Jim Ashburton"; which is hardly surpising given the book's subject matter. Also, oddly, the prize was shared with A House is Built, by M. Barnard Eldershaw - the pseudonym of Marjorie Barnard and Flora Eldershaw: two novels written by women winning a major literary prize in 1928, and both submitted under pseudonyms.
Coonardoo, the title character, is a young Aboriginal girl living on a cattle station, Wytaliba, in the north-west of Western Australia, in the early part of the twentieth century. Hugh, the young son of the station's owner, is sent away to school and while the early part of the novel sets the scenery, and foreshadows some of the personal conflicts that will arise later in the story, it is only when Hugh returns from school that the novel really gets going. Hugh's mother dies and he is left, in his early twenties, single and with a station to manage and run. The first of these problems is dealt with when Hugh returns from a holiday in Geraldton with a wife. The second will prove harder as drought and the tough countryside combine over the years to wear him down.
But these are just a backdrop to the real story of this novel: the relationship between a native woman and a white man. Much play is made early in the piece about Hugh's commitment to leave the Aboriginal women alone and find a white wife, a commitment thta is at odds with the bulk of the European men in the district. He sticks to his promise in the main, except during a moment of disease and weakness when he seeks physical comfort in the arms of Coonardoo. As seems to always be the case with fiction, a child is born of this single liaison, and while Hugh doesn't openly claim Winni as his own, the affection he shows towards the boy is plain for all to see. Coonardoo stays mainly in the background of Hugh's life, managing his household and helping when and where she can. A succession of female children are born and Hugh's wife becomes more and more disenchanted with the hard, lonely station life until the two agree to a mutual separation. At this time, Coonardoo rightly believes she will become a more important part of Hugh's life, but, remembering his earlier promise, he avoids her physically and emotionally.
The great thing about this novel is that, apart from its convincing portrait of station life, it puts an Aboriginal character into a prominent position in an Australian novel. There is no sense of judgment from the author at any time: Coonardoo is shown as being both weak and strong, confused and emotional, but with a dignity that sustains her through a life of hardship and heartache. It must have come as something of a shock to most Australians who read this book when it was first published in 1929. It is an important book in the development of Australian literature and rightly deserves its place in this list.
Notes:
The full text of this book is not available as it it is still under copyright.
Katherine Susannah Prichard Wikipedia page.
Photo of the author.
The next four works in this Classic Year:
16. 10 for 66 and All That by Arthur Mailey (1958)
17. Lucinda Brayford by Martin Boyd (1946)
18. A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey (1981)
19. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1967)
Posted by larrikin at 12:15 PM Permalink | Comments (6)
Chloe Hooper
Chloe Hooper hit the big time back in 2002 with her debut novel A Child's Book of True Crime, which was shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Orange Prize. Now she returns with The Tall Man, a non-fiction account of the death of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island in Queensland.
In "The Courier-Mail" she is interviewed by Benjamin Law.
Hooper was on Palm Island at the invitation of Andrew Boe, the lawyer who flew out to represent the Palm Island community pro bono. She'd given Boe her word that if she were invited in by the community, she would stick with the story."I didn't know it would take so long, (but) I got hooked," she says. "What made me immediately so angry was that such a low price was put on Cameron Doomadgee's life. You can't help thinking: 'What if this were my family?'"
And "The Age" has published an extract from the new book.
Posted by larrikin at 08:49 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
June 28, 2008
Poem: Ballade of Frustration by Alan B.
I quail beneath the jursidiction
Of all my creditors unpaid,
Whose ineluctable restriction
Chains Poesy to sordid Trade.
Where is the chant of pool and glade,
The splendid things I ache to utter?
Wait, Fortune, wait -- ah, fickle jade,
This is a song for bread and butter!
Where is my book of deep prediction,
Such as the thoughtful Wells portrayed?
The philosophic contradiction
That puts old Nietzsche in the shade?
Where are injustices inveighed,
Setting my readers in a flutter?
These calls I haven't obeyed;
This is a song for bread and butter.
Then there's a book of glowing fiction.
The stuff by which men's hearts are swayed,
A masterpiece of thought and diction,
Warm with the love of man and maid,
But still undone; and I'm afraid
'Twill have to wait, what time I stutter
In quip and foolish pasquinade;
This is a song for bread and butter.
L'Envoi.
And lyrics, too, I might have made:
Fine, flowing verse, sans halt or splutter;
But there's a butcher to be paid ....
This is a song for bread and butter!
First published in The Bulletin, 12 August 1920
Posted by larrikin at 08:08 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
June 27, 2008
Reviews of Australian Books #89
Dean, of the "HA" weblog, reviews Barcelona by Robert Hughes and opines that this book "may be the culprit when it comes to allocating blame for the almost endless series of cultural histories that ushered in the new millenium". He means "endless histories of clocks, salt, cod, and everything else made or consumed by humans".
Jan Hallam finds the humour in Debra Adelaide's novel The Household Guide to Dying in her review of the novel in Perth's "Sunday Times": "There are no two ways about it: death is a difficult subject. We deny it, we don't talk about it, we rage against it or flinch from it when it comes near, bury our heads or lose our words...For Australian author Debra Adelaide, death is a subject to be confronted head-on and laughed at. In her hands it's a curious thing, a funny thing and, ultimately, a poetic thing...Never does Adelaide's tone become sentimental for sentimentality's sake, but after all the lightheartedness and bravado throughout most of the book, the heartbreak surely comes."
In "The Australian", Alan Gold looks at a fictionalised account of Errol Flynn's later life, The Pirate's Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson, and finds it "an awe-inspiring work of fiction."
In the same paper, Barry Oakley thinks that Tom Gilling might be struggling a bit with his third novel, Dreamland: "The second novel is supposed to be the hardest for someone who has made his mark with his first, but with Gilling it's his third. Dreamland keeps much closer to the ground. We've gone from magical realism to the ordinary garden variety, though we still have the Gilling touch. Topically, in these days of identity theft, the novel's protagonist decides to give his up and become someone else."
In "The Sydney Morning Herald", Tony Wilson is a bit disappointed with Boned by Anonymous, and even takes a wild guess at the identity of the author.
Short Notices
Amanda Kendle reviews Tuvalu by Andrew O'Connor, on the "Suite101.com" website, which she says "is a fast-paced novel, more than a coming of age and sandwiched between modern life in Japan and Australia, all seen through the eyes of Australian narrator Noah Tuttle. Andrew O'Connor won the 2005 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award for this novel."
Robert Black on Australian Nightmares, edited by James Doig, on the Oz HorrorScope website: "I was [...] excited when I first read Australian Gothic: An Anthology of Australian Supernatural Fiction by James Doig. He had uncovered an amazing array of 'missing' stories and forgotten authors. We not only received some uniquely top class fiction, but stories set within the Australian environment. It was also a joy to be introduced to authors long since forgotten, authors whose work was of exceptional quality yet somehow had slipped through the pages of history."
The WordCandy.net website reviews Genius Squad by Catherine Jinks: "I really enjoyed Catherine Jinks's novel Evil Genius, but its little-kid-friendly cover art and gimmicky opening failed to prepare me for the story that followed—it was tough to recover from the shock of finding such hardcore creepiness in a book with a cover that looked like a Saturday morning cartoon. Genius Squad, the sequel to Evil Genius, is almost as dark as its predecessor, and its cover art is just as cutesy, but at least this time I knew what I was in for...Jinks has written an excellent series installment, building upon her previous story's foundation while setting up material for a sequel. (Unlike many middle books, I never felt like I was just clocking time.)"
Posted by larrikin at 01:38 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
Extract from Low's Autobiography by David Low
I did not pack my bags to go [from New Zealand] without sorrow at leaving many friends. As a small boy the opinions, too often contemptuous, of outsiders on my choice of a profession had driven me into a defensive solitariness. As a youth, although I became gregarious enough to be socially at ease in the world, I had continued to cultivate a private self-sufficiency and was wary of complicating loyalties and dependent friendships. In my early twenties, when not in the window so to speak, I could stand my own company for long stretches without discontent. But for all that, in those black depressions which follow over-concentration, when all work seems fruitless, bad, waste of time, when the mind rattles like a pea in a hollow drum, and confidence is replaced by despair, I imagined with longing a second self that could know what one was at and estimate truly the success or failure of the attempt. At such times what a priceless boon would be a clear-headed outside judge, to whom one could toss one's piece with 'Good or bad?' and accept the verdict with confidence as from one familiar with the conditions of creation.
In Melbourne I was fortunate enough to count two. I shared a studio with Hal Gye, caricaturist, and C. J. Dennis, poet, was our inseparable. Before settling in Melbourne I lived as a fellow-lodger with Den for a space and finished my cartoons by night on his wash-stand while he read proofs aloud in bed. After that, Hal and I took our studio, and Hal arranged to illustrate Den's book. Thus the association was confirmed.
Hal was a fantastic chap, thin, with long hair parted in the middle, a way of waving his arms about and an irresistible wit. When he wasn't drawing theatrical caricatures for the Bulletin, or illustrating Den, he was painting water-colour symphonies with a dreamy effect which he produced by losing his temper with them and putting them under the tap. After the second jet of water the picture almost disappeared leaving plenty to the imagination, which pleased mightily those who had the imagination. Den's chief claim to fame at first was that he was the author of the "Austrabloodylaise", a vernacular piece known far and wide in Australia, of which the opening stanza gives the flavour:
Fellers of Australia, blokes and coves and coots,
Pull yer bloody pants on, tie yer bloody boots.
But he was then deep in the planning of a volume, The Sentimental Bloke, which was to bring him wide fame and an honoured place in Australian poetry. Meanwhile Den filled in as a civil servant complete with two-inch starched collar and vest slip, an effect quite unsuited to his bony-nosed Roman face.
Here were a couple of characters in whose company I found rest and understanding. We could laugh, shout, sing, exult, mourn, curse the wrongdoer in the open, as we wrestled with our work. (I was always one to talk to my work as it came out on my old drawing-board perched on a broken arm-chair.) Our trio expanded into an odd mixture of fellowship. Painters, poets and writers, of course, actors, farmers, civil servants, business men, politicians, an occasional Cabinet Minister, and on one red-letter day even Melba herself, the immortal song-bird. All I remember of her was that she was a bullying woman who ate a good deal and swore a lot. It was all one. Even on the blackest days I found relief in that pool of goodwill. In no other company could I ever have tried the experiment of sharing a studio. I have had many since, but all by comparison have had a touch of loneliness.
From Low's Autobiography by David Low, Michael Joseph 1956, pp78-79
Posted by larrikin at 11:17 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
June 26, 2008
All I'm Thinkin' About
Pavlov's Cat continues her run with the Miles Franklin Award by successfully picking this year's winner.
I'm stating to think I should set up a separate category for posts about all the prizes and awards that Shaun Tan has been nominated for. The latest is "The Harvey Award". Forbidden Planet has the details.
Tracey Rolfe is a writer, editor and teacher of writing and editing at Victoria university (TAFE). On her weblog, "Speculating about Fiction" she contemplates the role of writer as celebrity.
In an article titled "Workplace Wisdom Found in Fiction" in the "U.S. News & World Report", Michael S. Wade includes Max Barry's novel Company in the category of "Insane Workplaces". Also listed along with Barry are Something Happened by Joseph Heller, and Catch-22 by Heller. Impressive.
Posted by larrikin at 01:43 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
Words Out and About - Janette Turner Hospital
 |
Dorrigo National Park, NSW.
["Under the matted canopy the sun becomes furtive, it flickers, it advances by stealth, it hides, it is coy, it sneaks down through the tangle of treetops, creepers, leggy bird's-nest ferns, lianas, orchids, battling its way earthwards through layers of aerial clamour, slithering below ground fungi to breed green yeast. The rainforest smells of seduction and fermentation and death." 1992]
Posted by larrikin at 08:16 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
June 25, 2008
2008 Crime & Justice Festival
The 2008 Crime & Justice Festival will be held at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, from Friday July 18 to Sunday 20th, 2008. Tickets are now available, information about which you can get at the festival's website. There is also a full program available [PDF file].
Posted by larrikin at 08:31 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Helen Garner Watch #3
Reviews of The Spare Room
Kerryn Goldsworthy writes a long piece about the novel, concentrating on the concept of "Friendship". She has indicated she intends a follow-up posting about "Faith".
Marion McLeod in the "New Zealand Listener".
Helen Garner came to Writers and Readers Week at the New Zealand International Arts Festival in Wellington in 2006. She arrived late because a friend in Sydney had died.The Spare Room is the story of that friend's dying, or rather of the time she spent staying with "Helen" in Melbourne while undergoing treatment for advanced cancer.
The Spare Room is billed as Garner's first novel in 15 years. So I'm wrong to make this assumption, though the dates certainly fit. And for all I know, much of the detail is invented, though I don't believe that for a minute: this prose has the ring of "reality fiction". Let's just note that similarities between author and narrator abound. Let's call it autobiographical fiction.
Interviews
Kerry O'Brien spoke to the author for ABC TV's "7:30 Report".
KERRY OBRIEN: With everything that you now have behind you and with what you still have to look ahead to, are you content? Has yours been a life not wasted?HELEN GARNER: I hope. I tell you one thing that makes me feel I haven't wasted my life and that is I've got some grandchildren. You can't overestimate the kind of opening to the future that gives a person, I think. You sometimes think, "Well, OK, that's something I've done and they're walking around over there and when I die they're going to be still walking around over there, God willing" and that's a wonderful feeling of freedom.
Diana Symonds on the Stage Noise website.
Q: When you write "The end" -- or the equivalent -- are you happy? Relieved? Sad? Disbelieving?A: First, disbelieving. When you're writing a book you can get lost in your struggle to make it work. You think you'll never fight your way out. The day I realized I'd finished The Spare Room I sat there staring at the screen. Then I started bawling. Then I felt as light as a feather. I jumped on my bike and rode home. All the way I thought I was going to take off, I was so free. I mean free of duty. It was glorious. It lasted twenty minutes, till I hopped off my bike on the front veranda. Then I felt ordinary again.
Other
The ... between bourke 'n' elizabeth ..." website reports on Garner's discussion with Caroline Baum at the Sydney Writers' Festival.
Garner is interviewed as she watches rehearsals of a stage adaptation of her short novel, The Children's Bach.
Garner has no involvement with the project except having given the group her permission to adapt the book and her blessing."When I walked in there this morning, I suppose I wasn't really expecting to feel anything particular," she says. "I thought that it would be an intellectual experience, but when (one of the main characters) Dexter stood up and sang, this rush of emotion came over me and it plunged me into the past.
"Because people that you've written about die. The idea that Dexter, that character that I wrote, that a young man who's young enough to be the real Dexter's son, is now getting up and singing ... that's very thrilling to me."
Slow TV has a streaming video of Helen Garner's talk about her influences and inspirations from the 2008 Sydney Writers' Festival.
"Crikey" reports on ASIO's loss of focus during the 1970s. As an example there is a copy of part of Helen Garner's file.
Posted by larrikin at 11:36 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
The Sentimental Bloke Film Adaptation
The "Filmschatten" website has available a copy of the 1919 silent film version of The Sentimental Bloke, from the book by C.J. Dennis. The quality isn't that flash, and I'm not sure if it's the full version, but it is of interest.
Posted by larrikin at 07:55 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
Australian Bookcovers #119 - The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll
|
The Time We Have Taken by Steven Carroll, 2007
(4th Estate 2007 edition)
[This novel won the 2008 Miles Franklin Award.]
Posted by larrikin at 07:51 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
June 23, 2008
Morris Gleitzman Profile
The second volume of a trilogy by Morris Gleitzman, Then, is about to be published and the author is interviewed by Jane Barry for "The Courier-Mail".
"I've always been lucky. I found out early what I was meant to do and it is never a chore," he says.Initially a screenwriter for television, Gleitzman evolved into writing for children more than 20 years ago and hasn't looked back.
He says he became conscious a few years ago of needing to "write a book about two fictitious children who were representative of Jewish kids who died in the second world war".
"I wanted to record what was the reality for so many of them at that time," he says.
Beginning his trilogy with the publication of Once in 2005 and most recently Then, the third and final book Now is planned, though is currently on hold while the author hatches another Cane Toad saga from its larvae.
Then and its counterparts are stories, he says, "that are primarily about friendship, which can transcend death and the situations people find themselves in".
Posted by larrikin at 09:29 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
2008 Locus Awards
"Locus" Magazine is the main newsletter of the sf and fantasy fields and each year runs a readers' poll of the best works. Australia has 2 (well, okay 1.5) winners this year:
ANTHOLOGY
The New Space Opera, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, eds. (Eos)
ART BOOK
The Arrival, Shaun Tan (Lothian 2006; Scholastic)
Posted by larrikin at 01:26 PM Permalink | Comments (0)
Nam Le Profile
Following the attention Australian author Nam Le has been receiving overseas, he is interviewed in "The Sydney Morning Herald" by Michael Williams.
When we talk about his literary influences and the many things he loves to read, he cites poets first of all: Auden and Rilke, Tennyson and Eliot. In fiction, he cites Moby Dick, almost sheepishly confessing that he hadn't read Melville's classic before moving to the US."I read it when I was living in Provincetown on the Cape [Cod]. There was a motel down the street called Moby Dick; another one around the corner called The White Whale. It felt like the proper place to read it."
This awareness of the relationship between place and the act of reading or writing seems appropriate given the peripatetic nature of The Boat. After all, this is a collection that takes its readers from Iowa to Tehran, Hiroshima to small-town Australia.
The playful shifting through different geographical settings came about largely by chance, as each story dictated. Setting, Le says, "depended on what happened to be squatting or taking up real estate in my head at the time".
Posted by larrikin at 09:21 AM Permalink | Comments (0)
