Do you look at those airline magazines you find in planes? I usually do ... and often find something of interest in Qantas: The Australian Way. Yesterday I left Mr Gums behind and flew west for a week's work in a remote town in north-west-ish Western Australia. It was a long flight (three actually) so … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: A message from the remote west
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from our Deep South
Yes, Australia has a "deep south", though we may not necessarily call it that. It's Tasmania, an island hanging off the southeast of mainland Australia. Like Western Australia, it can sometimes feel like another country. You have to go over the sea to it - and when you get there, you sometimes find yourself saying, … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from our Deep South
Monday musings on Australian literature: The Australian bildungsroman
I know the sad truth. About everything. (Craig Silvey, Jasper Jones) In past posts, I've talked of enjoying coming-of-age novels (aka bildungsroman) and so today I thought I'd share 5 (cos 5 seems like a manageable number for a list like this - and gives you an opportunity to contribute your own!) Australian novels in … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The Australian bildungsroman
Monday musings on Australian literature: West Coast Writers
For the non-Australians among you, Western Australia is our biggest state and, for many of us, is further away from where we live than New Zealand. Moreover, its main population areas are on the coast: there is a lot of desert between the eastern states and where most Western Australians live. Consequently, it would be … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: West Coast Writers
Monday musings on Australian literature: Japan and Australia
I had another post partly drafted for today but, due to the events of last week in Japan, I've decided to postpone that idea for another time. Australia (and we are not the only country in this) has a close relationship with Japan - much of it positive, some of it negative (this latter to do … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Japan and Australia
Monday musings on Australian literature: SPUNC has spunk
Yes, come here for your wit. I bet I'm the first one to have thought of that line! SPUNC*, in case you haven't heard of them and you probably haven't, is the Small Press Network (in Australia). The acronym actually stands for Small Press Underground Networking Community. It was formed in Melbourne in 2006 and … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: SPUNC has spunk
Monday musings on Australian literature: Two Australian icons
Donald Horne (1920-2005) and Geoffrey Blainey (b. 1930) are Australian icons, not only for their body of work - which is significant - but for phrases they coined which have become part of our national consciousness. Not all Australians today will know who coined them, but most will have heard the phrases themselves. The lucky … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Two Australian icons
Monday musings on Australian literature: The triumvirate
I've mentioned Marjorie Barnard in a couple of posts recently, but I suspect few Australians and even fewer readers from overseas (except of course Tony of Tony's Bookworld) have ever heard of her. Rather than write specifically about her, though, I thought I'd talk a little about the Australian literary scene of the 1920s to … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The triumvirate
Monday musings on Australian literature: The lost child motif
In his rather notorious review (1955) of Patrick White's The tree of man, Australian poet, A.D. Hope, at his caustic best, described the requisite features of the Great Australian novel (GAN). One of these was that it must include a child lost in the bush, a reference to the prevalence of this motif in Australian literature. The tree of man … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The lost child motif
Monday musings on Australian literature: The beach
Not only do the majority of Australians live in urban areas but, given that much of Australia is dry, the majority of these urban areas are on the coast. You can guess what's coming next - yes, the majority of Australians live near the sea. And, if they don't, they gravitate to it in their … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The beach
Whispering Gums 