JG Ballard was one of those increasingly rare writers who actually had a life before writing. He didn’t graduate with a MFA or MA in creative writing, fresh out of school. The MFA’s and MA’s write quite well, but they’re trading on style, not substance, because they’ve never actually done anything much beyond writing. Before…
And now for state of the nation … The Australian Robo-debt scheme pursued the poorest of the poor for welfare debt and in some cases, hounded them to death. Sounds like something Asimov or Heinlein would have written. Artificial intelligence gone mad and the middle class let it happen. Robo-debt was abandoned three years ago…
Don’t get me wrong. I love bookshops but with more than 100 books published in Australia every week, it’s hard not to get the impression that books are to be sold rather than read. The publishing industry submits literature to the same market forces and homogenising values as movies, TV, streaming platforms and video games….
The Australian media is not alone in publishing the more bonkers essays, reviews and opinions, such as Jacqueline Malley’s article today from the Sydney Morning Herald. She’s having a crack at Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. It’s the story of Figaro and his fiancée Susanna and two servants of the Count Almaviva, who live in the…
If you blinked you would have missed that one of Australia’s greatest writers passed away recently. Frank Morehouse was top of the heap in the 1970s. I thought him a better writer than that bitter old crone, Patrick White. Morehouse was eclipsed by the rise of Peter Carey, Tim Winton and what I euphemistically call…
About 1000 years ago, I was a professional and creative writing programs director at RMIT. I had around 1500 students and 50 staff. I’d inherited the job from a woman who was ‘gung ho’ over all things warm and fuzzy about creative writing but left her program, Professional Writing & Editing, $250k in the red…
In a staggering volte face, the judges have awarded a first time author (although has written a play) and someone who didn’t spend $40,000 on HECS fees on a creative writing course, Australian Book of the Year. Finding herself stuck at home without a job during lockdown, Diana Reid, 26, wrote a book in five…
I sometimes use Adelaide (South Australia), as a backdrop to my stories. It is one of the weirdest and scariest places on earth. It’s known for sex crimes and where ideas go to die. The story below is par for the course. “Former Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes says he was left feeling distressed and…
OK, I’ve been hammering Australian writers for their blinkered subject matter for a while now. I make no secret that the biggest influences on my writing are American writers. Some old and some new. I’ve included a few below: Anything by Lucia Berlin, Ursula K. Le Gunn (espc ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’),…
With monotonous regularity, sections of the Australian media ‘rebirths’ a dead singer from an alternative Australian band, due to his or her ‘cult’ status. Think of The Saints (the recent death of Chris Bailey) and The Go Betweens (Grant McLennan). There’s talk of the cultish uniqueness of the lead singer or guitarist (rarely the drummer,…
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