Hi Alison and list,
A certain Mr Patrick McCauley is at it again in the latest Quadrant, responding
to your last letter to that journal.
It is predictable, the kind of rhetoric he relies on in criticising Emma
Lew's 'process' and your response -'integrity' is a catchword he starts with
(as you'd expect, I suppose). Some other gems are 'the only medium available to
the poet is language, and the purpose of language is communication', or 'how a
poet lives their life requires and authenticity which will certainly affect
their poems'.
He then, interestingly, goes on to berate arts bureaucrats for giving grants to
people he considers are not 'authentic' or even, 'grass roots'. He obviously
has no idea how the process operates in this country. It's not exactly a
secret. The Australia Council uses artistic peers to make decisions regarding
grants to artists, not bureaucrats. He's very rude, and categorical, about us -
'their life experiences are very limited' (so he knows what about me or my
colleagues? I don't ever recall meeting this man) - but we are used to being
spat upon. And it goes on, at length.
I suspect any reponse will elicit more of the same (sigh). But just thought you
might like to know.
Cheers,
Jill
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