Re: Lolita, but more about GOD
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Mon, 15 Mar 1999 16:31:09 +1100
It's not at all a matter of `us having caught up'! It's not as if we've
been sitting outside watching The Crocodile Man on our TVs before catching
the artistic bug about five years ago! It's all a matter of who and what is
exposed, and what isn't. We are simply lucky that examples of the quality
of our culture are finally making it into the larger world (ie America)
where before they would be confined to Australia only. Cate Blanchett and
Geoffrey Rush for example have been well known in Australia for years.
`Elizabeth' and `Shine' weren't the first jobs they ever did. What exactly
do you mean by `Australian Culture'? I hope you do not mean kangaroos
bounding across Qantas ads and the occasional Dame Edna special. It's a
real shame if that's how it seems, but it simply isn't the way it is, was,
or will be. I'm sorry but as one of the many people toiling for the Arts in
Australia you'll forgive me for being more than a little irked by the
narrow perception that we've only just learned a new skill other than sheep
shearing.
As for turfing out the Liberals, I've been trying to for three years now.
They won in '96 with a landslide but only just squeaked in in '98. The only
thing that stands in their way for next time is that the current Labor
Party is a tad feeble.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
> And now--not really about Lolita, but about culture in OZ--let me send
> Camille and all her compatriots my almost jealous praise, and that of
many
> other people who live in the big pink piece of geography on the other
side
> of the world. I used to think Canadian culture (Alice Munro, Margaret
> Atwood, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Donald Sutherland, Alanis Morisette,
the
> barenaked ladies, etc., etc...) was infinitely superior to Australian
> culture--more mature, more civilized. But it feels like you guys have
more
> than caught up in recent years. Congratulations! And keep up the good
work
> (which might mean turfing out your "Liberal" --huh?-- government. It
sounds
> like your Liberals are almost as screwed up as our "Progressive
> Conservatives"...)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul
>