Hi Roger
I thought it was about cultural barnacles.
Here, of course, WS has a certain cultural place, but doesn't carry the
nationalistic/establishment charge he is given in England. Perhaps that's
why Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet is such a fun contemporary take on the
play; he didn't have to struggle through years of ingrained piety.
I'm not trying to persuade you of anything. I'm just puzzled. It seems
self-defeating to write him off if you're interested in what language can do
and be.
On 14/12/05 10:38 PM, "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> At the back of my head is the idea of re-inventing England as a
> Republic. S is an obstacle to me. For me Australia is one of those
> country that represents something of an inkling of what an
> English-speaking republic might be like,
Roger, you do realise Australia is still a monarchy? That politics here is
so bankrupt that the powers that be don't even pretend to hide their
contempt for the electorate? That it's been this way for years, certainly
since the early 80s, when I was an industrial relations reporter and began
to see how corrupt the system was - and this the left wing, which was very
disillusioning... There's a certain nihilism at the heart of Australia that,
every time I come home, I try to define. I have sometimes, in my
nightmares, thought that Australia is a kind of cultural/political petri
dish, which other places will follow if they're not careful. Don't get me
wrong, there are things I love about this place - but they're all the things
that seem to be getting utterly done in the neck.
One of the great freedoms of being a writer here is that we can take what we
like without being oppressed by Great Traditions (the downside of that is of
course a shallow anti-intellectualism). Which leaves us free to love
Shakespeare, if we want to.
Cheers
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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