Thanks for the connection to Litter. Many people whose work I'm familiar
with and many others I'd like to catch up with.
The opinion piece on Neil Astley's 'elites' diatribe (alas) decribes a
phenomenon I wish I were unfamiliar with. Anti-elite discourse is
unfortunately a full-on phenomenon in Australia and it always comes from
the most remarkable of sources: a former head of the Australian
Broadcasting Tribunal nonetheless, plummy accent and all, and, at the other
end of the scale, the proponents of 'working class poetry' associated with
Overland magazine. The latter group, despite their professed ideology, seem
to have a kind of proprietorial interest in keeping the workers in their
place. Coming, as it more often does, from the other end of the
sociopolitical scale, anti-elitism seems a mask for what is in fact anti-
cosmopolitanism. Right-wing commentators speak here of 'chardonnay
socialists', 'latte drinkers' and 'the chattering classes' (but wait a
minute; wine and coffee are 'industries' and conversation is a precondition
for democracy . . .). I once suggested in an article that you wouldn't back
a barfly to win the hundred metre hurdles. Unfortunately the pseudo-
democratic philosophy inherent in the blather of these people disguises
what, in effect, is the once familiar diatribe against 'rootless
cosmopolitans'.
Thanks also for the links to West House Press. I'm looking forward to
seeing Geraldine Monk's new book (and Alan Halsey's new selection when it
comes out).
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