…making contact with authentic Spain, which I only defined negatively as an American-free space
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Entries Tagged as 'Literature'
An American Free Space – “Leaving the Atocha Station”, Ben Lerner
November 8th, 2012 · Comments Off on An American Free Space – “Leaving the Atocha Station”, Ben Lerner · American, Culture
Tags:Authenticity
On Scott Fitzgerald – “A Moveable Feast”, Ernest Hemingway
October 31st, 2012 · Comments Off on On Scott Fitzgerald – “A Moveable Feast”, Ernest Hemingway · Description, Literature, Writing
His talent was a natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he […]
The Population of England in Shakespearean Times – “Shakespeare” – Bill Bryson
May 3rd, 2012 · Comments Off on The Population of England in Shakespearean Times – “Shakespeare” – Bill Bryson · Australian, Australiana, History
William Shakespeare was born into a world that was short of people and struggled to keep those it had. In 1564 England had a population of between three and five million – much less than three hundred years earlier, when plague began to take a continuous toll. So Australia should never use our population as […]
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Tags:Australia·Population
Asian and Australian Values – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson
March 23rd, 2012 · Comments Off on Asian and Australian Values – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson · Australian, Australiana, Culture
We were not Asian and did not seek to be. But then we were not European or American either. We could only be Australian. Yet many values often declared to be ‘Asian’ were also ‘Australian’: family, work, education, order and accountability, for example. And the word used to describe the core value of Australia, ‘mateship’, […]
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Tags:Asia·Australia
Menzies and the Red Ensign – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson
March 15th, 2012 · Comments Off on Menzies and the Red Ensign – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson · Australian, Australiana, Communism, Conservative Politics, History
No-one manipulated symbols better than Menzies, including the Australian flag which he made official by an act of parliament without referendum or public debate. In the half century preceding, three flags had flown in Australia’s name in peace and war—the Union Jack, the Defaced Red Ensign and the Defaced Blue Ensign. The Blue Ensign had […]
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Tags:Australia·Australian Flag·Australian History·communism·conservatives·Flags·Liberals·nationalism
Offense as Defence – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson
March 14th, 2012 · Comments Off on Offense as Defence – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson · Australian, Australiana, War, WW2
It has been proved over and over again that a straight out defensive will always be defeated by a bold offensive and the best and only defence is attack. H. GORDON BENNETT, WHY SINGAPORE FELL
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The Australian and American Continents – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson
March 12th, 2012 · Comments Off on The Australian and American Continents – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson · Australian, Australiana, History
(Keating) made the point that Australians and Americans had both inherited continents, the ‘gift outright’ as the American poet Robert Frost called it. ‘[A]t first we were still England’s colonials. In time we gave ourselves to our new countries and the people and the land became one,’ Frost wrote. There was in there an echo […]
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Tags:Australia·Australian History·USA
Australia’s National Parliament – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson
March 10th, 2012 · Comments Off on Australia’s National Parliament – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson · Architecture, Australian, Australiana, Politics
AUSTRALIA’S NATIONAL PARLIAMENT is interred in a vast lawn beneath a giant rattling aluminium Hills Hoist of a flagpole on a hill, an elephantine expression of the suburban dream, yet wanting only a few sheep and a Southern Cross windmill on it to also represent the rural rump. Little tractors with flashing lights incessantly mow […]
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Tags:Architecture·Australia·Australian Politics·Politics
Don’t Apologise for A Small Population – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson
March 9th, 2012 · Comments Off on Don’t Apologise for A Small Population – “Recollections of a Bleeding Heart” – Don Watson · Australian, Australiana, Philosophy
Australians apologise for themselves by saying that they do not have the 230 million people that the US has, (Keating) said; but ‘they weren’t 230 million when Thomas Jefferson was sitting in a house he had designed for himself in a paddock in the back end of Virginia writing the words, “Life, Liberty and the […]
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Tags:Australia·nationalism·philosophy