tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426831525923973260.post2708636432146854544..comments2022-09-18T19:08:37.669-11:00Comments on Field Stations and Outposts of Anaphoria Island: An Aperiodic dispatch from the CENTRE FOR ALPHABETICAL SEQUENCINGKraig Gradyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04234783065045199904noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426831525923973260.post-41664136894773517452010-01-24T11:22:14.281-11:002010-01-24T11:22:14.281-11:00We are not familiar with White's work. but a m...We are not familiar with White's work. but a member of our staff is going out to retrieve itKraig Gradyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04234783065045199904noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426831525923973260.post-27041079683514700272010-01-16T11:36:50.836-11:002010-01-16T11:36:50.836-11:00Not sure I got all that, but if the three single l...Not sure I got all that, but if the three single lines of the poem represent a message, then I would have to say that this is an unfair review. White is what you might call, 'and honourable conservative.' He has presented the most compelling portrait of the growth of the australian suburb - a sprawling mass of brick moving outwards from the centre, and a forgotten bush growing over from behind the back fence. In between is the utter remoteness and isolation - the neighbours peering at each other across the divide. The world culture looms fearsomely in the distance - the mock Aboriginal names (barranugli - barren ugly), the unseen chinese, the secretive Jews, the War that goes almost unnoticed, the socialites in the newspaper. White attempts to put this melancholy on another scale. In doing so, he rescues the insular and backward looking from condescension - those who had fallen off the European stage and found themselves in Australian hell.<br /><br />The broader point is that conservatives, unlike many 'progressives' or 'intellectuals,' are able to connect with the 'small master' view of the world, which allows all those who are being swamped by capitalism to see themselves as sovereign behind their front gate. As the psalm says 'I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord, than dwell in the tents of the wicked.' How can we understand this mentality?<br /><br />White's writing captures perfectly a part of Australian history which now, just 30 years later, seems almost alien to us. It is not surprising that he provoked so much disgust. Much easier to glorify a Ned Kelly or Eureka Stockade, or some other real cliche of Australian history.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com