All of which reminds me that I must comment on the butchery done to one
of Australia's real classics, The Magic Pudding. Not only have Lindsay's
charming illustrations been uncharmingly Hollywoodised (though they bear
some resemblance to the characters) but the particular anarchic comedy of
the book has been completely repressed. And there's a new plot line to
"please the American market" because Americans are apparently too dumb to
understand it.
All this would be bad enough (if predictable) - but in bookshops they are
selling "the book of the film", which I had a look at in a moment of
masochism. I can't understand the point of it at all: you take a durable
classic, presumably because it has proved popular for more than half a
century, and then surgically remove everything which makes it unique.
What has this to do with poetry? Well, Bunyip Bluegum is a man of the
world and able to discourse charmingly about everything, "having read all
the best Australian poets".
Not in the film, though.
Alison
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