thewheelthing-satanswaynebow

2003-08-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

reading american poetry the next generation (costanzo, daniels). so far it seems like the poems were mainly written by one person. eric beach’s ‘weeping for lost babylon’ is a good antidote; if was doing an anthology of animal poems id put his ant & cat poems in..

trying to come up with a long form for a uni subject i thought id try a sestina (hope this horrifies someone); well it beats trying to fix iambic pentameter – not mine – first thing in the morning tho tho the night sestina worked better matt liked it a lot more– now im dealing with that military concept known as redrafting maybe id post it if it was typed (s#1 not s#2)

book title: wo/m/anthology.. its all coming out of my talk with jill j yesterday on creating portals (thanks stephanie young) between cultures aka the homosexualisation of the universe ha/ah (at work) (thankyou russell crowe). slight cough .. trying to keep in harmony with my body/community.. but a day too late ?

2003-08-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

apologies for the formalities.. i did it for uni..

2003-08-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

Review: Peter Carey The True History of the Kelly Gang

It was something of a punishment to read this book. A five-minute yarn is a long one for me. I read somewhere that a yarn is told against the teller, though from memory of grandfather yarns, they can be against someone else known to the teller. Who is The True History of the Kelly Gang against? I checked a Macquarie’s Australian Dictionary that I received for writing a long yarn about a writing teacher (to aid refugees) – I thought that was against myself, but I got a dictionary out of it. The definition of yarn given by the dictionary was ‘a story or tale of adventure, especially a long one of incredible events’. Is the dictionary to blame? What if it had said it was an obsolete term rather than a colloquial one? The yarn is a favoured style of Carey, and one that I didn’t enjoy in Illywhacker. I think an illywhacker is a tall-tale-teller, but the dictionary has no entry. In The True History Carey again has a story to sell with the sentiment turned up to 11. The bundle of letters device is pretty old akubra but he has the excuse that they are based on a real letter written pre-postmodernism. The post-modern device that dominates the book is that of pastiche: an attempt to tell a whole book in the style of Kelly’s Jerilderie letter. The consistency is impressive, only rarely did I think he pushed a metaphor too far or lost the tone e.g. when he used ‘shouted’ words in capitals; also the sudden references to ‘Australians’ toward the end of the book sounded unconvincing to me. The True History was sold under the hype of ‘the great American novel’ in the U.S., and I can only think that it means a novel in the great American tradition of syrup – or that of the fetishization of the Irish. In a newspaper article Carey defends his writing an historical novel with the notion that he is writing about a terrorist. The implied definition is someone who is forced into violence by repressive authority. Definitions are political, and if his definition of terrorist is a liberal one, then the novel demonstrates the limitations of liberal politics in that liberal expression the novel – at least the nineteenth century novel which The True History both is and isn’t. Carey’s politics are declared through his apparently unironic use of the word ‘coalface’ to describe the site of his fiction writing. He also says ‘you can’t trust a work of art’: the sort of remark for a critic to make and is bad taste in a so-called artist. Though it could be argued that the interruption of the story, and the preceding descriptions of chapter content, work as alienation effects as pioneered by the socialist Brecht, the first-person present tense and the style of the language in an impressive mimesis of voice suggest to me that Carey’s intention was to write a weepie that draws back just enough to be respectable for academics and reviewers. The ‘political’ novel is no doubt old-fashioned at the moment. What could be more contemporary (ie conservative) than a wallow in the nineteenth century? There is no attempt to question – outside of that of character – modes of repression or their effects. Carey attempts to replicate the past rather than examine it. His attempt to claim some kind of credibility by tagging Kelly a terrorist is unconvincing. The myth of Ned Kelly – like that of Jesus, Madame Bovary or Achilles is supposed to end with his death – it’s satisfying; and if it brings a tear to our eye that doesn’t make us radicals, even in thought. Carey says ‘our stories are all about failure’ – another conservative statement which elides both writer and reader as agents, (not to mention his own success story) as well as comforts his American readers. There’s plenty in Kelly’s story to make myth with, and plenty to destabilise conservative assumptions about how life should be, but Carey’s version could have been commissioned by Howard; so just wait for his Muslim or Aboriginal novel with a tragic hero that makes people weep and vote for war and health cuts blah blah. The True History is against Ned Kelly, and against us.

2003-08-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

per-so-nal ve-lo-city

i dreamed someone critiqued my palmer er jagger excitement re 'sun' also kids running around a cemetery which turned into an ad for deadheading dahlias i remember 'hairy' & there was a long word like monstrosities? i was reading the paper & laurie was playing gig some song about jesus & gig was saying thats really nice & laurie was stroking her gloved hand it sounds like some kind of desire for a poetic family?

2003-08-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

that shd be blog? have been taking part in the thrillfest (as audience natch) aka melbwriters fest, u sure missed out on trends in contemporary poetry, especially the exciting concept of the versenovel

to recover spent some hours in the rain with gig, laurie d, david maccooey & maria, where much discussion of poets hypersensitivity to reviews (canonisation of such syndrome now with the popess of the ama) & john forbes, something of a common denominator? maccooey looking slightly like a younger forbes himself.

poem of the day: the wrong kind of sentimental

oh & sorry book & readers for that error message.. they are ugly - ill get the right url now .. hmm didnt work u can try this one this one but damned if i can get the right salt page

2003-08-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

i started a blog...

“You wouldn’t treat a terrorist like that” – Cilla Black

resenting carey less now i know ill finish the book in time 4 class after spending y’day in bed. hes the same age as joni mitchell, my parents, john tranter, robert adamson, barry hill, richard burns, palmer michael, and jagger michael. am reading jaggers ‘sun’ at the mo very exciting.

how great is dan black?

word of the day: wouldf

name of the day: fezekiel

for a new review of my book on cordite

i was awake early excited thinking about writing in my blog .. u can tell ive forgotten something?

... but the joke was omni

2003-08-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

thanks cassie for you tech advice - ill try this
im on espresso
yes thats right - looks like its working

2003-08-22T04:40:00.000-07:00

oh i like hannah weiner

2003-08-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

these are the naive days the luddite days when i havent learned to use anything & they may go on infinitely & ive hardly looked at anyone elses so dont know what the go is tho theres a certain tone which seems to be coming into play & attitude which is nice to see: poets with attitude instead of mere arrogance

2003-08-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

oh the awards were last night & this is the first real posting. on the whole a tawdry affair but i cant say why. i avaneadache. mangroves won the poetry which i kind of thought it wd when i first read it. there shd be a link to the book, but everyone has to have their own primitivity. i will be going back to bed soon suffice to say ive a bump on me head from a sign & was there a sign saying watch out for signs? i am hoping to submit this for my diaries course. i do not like peter carey.

2003-08-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

fake intro: 21.08.03 1.15pm

this was going to be called harmony. why harmony? because i rely on my starsign to stop me from feeling im pathetic, and as a reminder to myself of what im doing here. some people seem to think im a smartarse or cynical, but its just one m o & might have something to do with them. ive been inspired to start this by the jetty & other west coast blogs (usa w c) i just got home from buying a raspberry benet & cheap boots so im set up sans krispy kreme for winter (usa winter). im eating the most perfumed apple in the world & am about to eat my leftover pasta & maybe visit duan & get my umbrella after failing to get flowers for steph to thank her for that amazing intro the other night. tonights the age prize night i know i havent won but hope to get some schmooze factor and at least i have new boots to wear cause i have to wear thin pants as theyre my only clean ones. so how poetic is this youre probably wondering. well it comes out of everything. no sex or cigarettes for six days & the pressures mounting, or the reasons for abstinence are fading.