tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post5690281215306062464..comments2024-03-28T22:50:02.315+11:00Comments on ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly: Did Australian literary giants lurch to the right, from 1936 on?Helshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-59629097626073168492015-02-05T00:57:54.421+11:002015-02-05T00:57:54.421+11:00Joe
Pinning down Xavier Herbert is beyond me :( ...Joe<br /><br />Pinning down Xavier Herbert is beyond me :( How could a person so sensitive to the terrible treatment of Aboriginals and so strongly anti-imperialist.. be so xenophobic and often racist in his language.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-44356596422279097562015-02-05T00:46:36.259+11:002015-02-05T00:46:36.259+11:00Andrew
I thought about that too.... but Miles Fra...Andrew<br /><br />I thought about that too.... but Miles Franklin had been such a strong and committed woman. Would she have allowed herself to be used by people and causes she disapproved of?Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-34162622167862861772015-02-04T13:55:33.493+11:002015-02-04T13:55:33.493+11:00The one who shocked me was Xavier Herbert. Getting...The one who shocked me was Xavier Herbert. Getting Capricornia published in Australia was a long struggle and he had to accept back-breaking work as a miner to survive. But why did he get involved in the rightwing Australia First via his publisher William Miles and his editor Inky Stephensen? Just as well Herbert enlisted in the Australian Army in 1942 or he too might have ended up interned.<br />Joenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-46792218912310878282015-02-04T12:43:14.460+11:002015-02-04T12:43:14.460+11:00It sounds as if she may have been 'used' t...It sounds as if she may have been 'used' to put a better face on an extreme group.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-81753756035598827172015-02-04T10:17:23.436+11:002015-02-04T10:17:23.436+11:00Jane and Lance
what a great example Diana Mitford...Jane and Lance<br /><br />what a great example Diana Mitford was. Aristocratic family, married to huge wealth, a well published author of books and magazine articles, gorgeous looking. Yet in 1934 Diana and sister Unity went to Germany to attend the Nuremberg Nazi rallies. And to pledge their loyalty to Fascism and anti-Semitism.<br /><br />When does an intellectual curiosity become a firm belief? When the individual acts on that belief, even if he/she is humiliated in public and often gaoled. Mitford spent most of WW2 in gaol or under house arrest.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-395742460274752352015-02-04T01:33:29.316+11:002015-02-04T01:33:29.316+11:00Hello Helen,
We have to confess to knowing very l...Hello Helen,<br /><br />We have to confess to knowing very little about the writers you mention here and, indeed, this has sparked an interest in Miles Franklin for us now to discover more.<br /><br />The parallels with Oswald Mosley and, tangentially, Diana Mitford are interesting to consider. When does an intellectual curiosity become a firm belief?<br /><br />Whatever, we often wonder if the extreme left and far right are closer than we think?!Jane and Lance Hattatthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16831890261259302647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-75772255363855645742015-02-04T01:14:37.703+11:002015-02-04T01:14:37.703+11:00Sydneysider,
Confusing and contradictory, I agre...Sydneysider, <br /><br />Confusing and contradictory, I agree.<br /><br />"The Australia First movement was nationalist and therefore opposed to inter-nationalism . It was monarchical and scornful about democracy. Its interpretation of Pro-Australian seemed to be that Australia should be against most other countries. It thought Australians were fooled by propaganda from overseas and it derided and abused what it called the British garrison in Australia for not putting Australian interests first. It was anti-Communist and anti-Jewish and seemed at times to equate Communist with Jew. It wanted to Eradicate the Great Colonial Disease of subservience to others. It appeared to think most people in politics were fools or shysters. It was erratic, declamatory and self contradictory." <br /><br />http://static.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1070634--1-.PDF<br />Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-10878451041002182302015-02-04T01:05:38.531+11:002015-02-04T01:05:38.531+11:00Parnassus
That reminds me of Sir Oswald Mosley. H...Parnassus<br /><br />That reminds me of Sir Oswald Mosley. He was an important member of the Labour Party in Parliament who "thought his way" into the Fascist Party over a number of years. A member of the aristocracy, a good thinker, a polished writer, an ideologue... but eventually a true Fascist.<br /><br />Re Miles Franklin's first book "My Brilliant Career" 1901... it was wonderful. Proto feminist, gutsy, risk-taking... all the girls in my year at school loved reading that book.Helshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02849907428208235392noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-80776900066765012792015-02-03T23:26:26.247+11:002015-02-03T23:26:26.247+11:00The Australia First movement was anti-Socialist, a...The Australia First movement was anti-Socialist, anti-Semitic, pro-Fascist, exactly as described. But to be anti-British just before World War Two broke out was insane. And traitorous... at a time when so many Australians were about to get back into uniform on behalf of tbe old motherland. Sydneysidernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3067098918914268503.post-58683555385811045622015-02-03T20:23:34.657+11:002015-02-03T20:23:34.657+11:00Hello Hels, Sometimes famous and supposedly intel...Hello Hels, Sometimes famous and supposedly intellectual people are sucked into extreme political views. Later there is an attempt to exonerate them with the claim that they were attracted by the idealism behind the movement, but it is hard to imagine how the world will be improved by denying groups of people basic rights.<br /><br />The novels you mention sound interesting; I will try to find a few of them the next time I am in book-buying mode. (One potential warning sign I see after scanning a couple of articles is that while adjectives such as important, feminist, Australian, and political abound, there is no description of her actual writing or anyone's reaction to it.)<br />--JimParnassushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08958901307538141468noreply@blogger.com