A short Delicious Description today from Kim Scott's That deadman dance, but an important one because it attempts to convey to we non-indigenous people just how closely indigenous people relate to their environment. It comes from the same expedition as my previous Delicious Descriptions post: Sometimes Wooral addressed the bush as if he were walking … Continue reading Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Kim Scott on Indigenous connection with the land
Monday musings on Australian literature: Five fascinating fictional fathers
This week's Monday musings has a personal, sentimental, genesis. Last Friday, my 91-year-old father underwent his third major abdominal surgery in 6 years. It's a big ask for an older body but he's hanging in there. My parents, not surprisingly I suppose, were instrumental in my becoming a reader. My mother introduced me to Jane … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Five fascinating fictional fathers
Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Kim Scott on confronting the new
Here is the first of two or more (depending on how the spirit moves me) Delicious Descriptions from Kim Scott's book That deadman dance. My first one presents two excerpts which describe people confronting the new. First, the British settlers during their expedition to find land: They found a path, rocky and scattered with fine … Continue reading Delicious descriptions from Down Under: Kim Scott on confronting the new
Kim Scott, That deadman dance
(Image courtesy Picador Australia) About a third of the way into Kim Scott's novel That deadman dance is this: We thought making friends was the best thing, and never knew that when we took your flour and sugar and tea and blankets that we'd lose everything of ours. We learned your words and songs and stories, and never … Continue reading Kim Scott, That deadman dance
Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from South Australia
In the decade from the late 1960s to the late 1970s, South Australia, under premier Don Dunstan, was Australia's most progressive state. I won't list all the achievements - you can read them in the Wikipedia article linked on his name - but there were big social justice ones including the recognition of Aboriginal land … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Writers from South Australia
On pathologising fictional characters
Was Mr Darcy autistic? Phyllis Ferguson Bottomer, a Canadian speech pathologist, suggests that he was in her book So odd a mixture. Her theory has not been taken seriously, but it throws up an issue I've confronted before, the pathologising of fictional characters. Take M.J. Hyland for example. I have read two of her novels … Continue reading On pathologising fictional characters
Weekends with T.S. Eliot (2)
We are all everyone and everyone is us. (Fiona Shaw, talking about The waste land) Last weekend I finished the Perspectives section of The waste land app, by listening to Fiona Shaw, Frank Turner and Jeanette Winterson. The fascinating thing is that they all say the same things, albeit in slightly different ways. Timeless, universal, undated Shaw … Continue reading Weekends with T.S. Eliot (2)
Monday musings on Australian literature: eBook publishing in Australia
First off, the disclaimer: I don't know a lot about what is happening with eBook publishing in Australia, so my goal here is as much to find out more from readers of this post as it is to impart knowledge. I thought a good place to start would be the Australian Publishers Association (APA) but didn't … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: eBook publishing in Australia
Jane Austen, The Watsons (Unfinished)
In one of those coincidences that we often bother about in fiction, my local Jane Austen group scheduled Jane Austen's unfinished novel, The Watsons, for our July discussion. A coincidence because, if you are an Austen fan, you'll know that just this week the manuscript was sold at auction for nearly £1 million. Thank goodness … Continue reading Jane Austen, The Watsons (Unfinished)
Willa Cather, A Wagner matinée
Willa Cather's short story, "A Wagner matinée", was Library of America's "Story of the Week" back in May. However, I was busy then, but I like Cather, so I put it aside to read later. And later has finally come! I've reviewed another Cather short story here, "The sentimentality of William Tavener", which was published in … Continue reading Willa Cather, A Wagner matinée
