Letters to the Editor
Patrick White in Adelaide
Dear Editor,
In his article on the theatre of Patrick White (May 2012), David Marr implies quite strongly that White had nothing to do with the theatre between John Tasker’s production of Night on Bald Mountain for the Adelaide University Theatre Guild during the 1964 Adelaide Festival and Nei ...
Fairfax Central
Dear Editor,
We, the undersigned, wish to draw to national attention the implication of the upcoming Fairfax consolidation of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and the Canberra Times book sections. This has the potential to reduce significantly the content of the three separate sections in terms of both the ...
Overlooking Max Harris
Dear Editor,
David Marr, in his article about the premières of three of Patrick White’s plays in Adelaide (ABR, May 2012), presents Geoffrey Dutton as the principal player in this story. However, any essay about White’s Adelaide performances should acknowledge the roles of Max Harris and Harry Medlin.
...Muddying the waters
Dear Editor,
A substantial part of Peter Hill’s review of my book Permanent Revolution: Mike Brown and the Australian Avant-Garde 1953–1997 recounts the artist’s prosecution for obscenity following the visit of the head of the Darlinghurst vice squad to Brown’s exhibition Paintin’ A Go-Go at Sydney’s Galler ...
Kerr the contextualist
Dear Editor,
Andrew Sayers’s thoughtful review of The Cambridge Companion to Australian Art (February 2012) encourages one to read this book that marks ‘the maturity of a new orthodoxy for Australian art’. However, it was his last two paragraphs that really caught my attention. Sayers refers to the omission of Joan Ker ...
Oz Lit at Melbourne University
Dear Editor,
The English program at the University of Melbourne has offered courses on Australian literature every year since 1982, when it was first introduced as a full seminar subject. Stephanie Guest’s article in last month’s issue of ABR, ‘Oz Lit in the Moot Court Room: Finding Australian Literature at the ...
Before Manning Clark
Dear Editor,
Norman Etherington’s lively review of Mark McKenna’s book on Manning Clark repeats the claim that Clark was ‘the first academic (in 1946) to offer a full-length course in Australian history’ (Decemb ...
Whither anthropology?
Dear Editor,
Emma Kowal’s review of my book (November 2011) is by and large a generous one, and yet it comes to some conclusions that I must reject. My view is not the same as the ‘anti-separatist ...
No statues for critics
Dear Editor,
I am sorry that Judith Armstrong should have such difficulty following my point that criticism is in some sense bound to fail because it is a secondary exercise (October 2010). It was Bartók, I think, who remarked that no one ever erected a statue in honour of ...
Sidestepping the ‘product’
Dear Editor,
Chris Flynn’s commentary (‘Claws out for a Writing Career’, October 2011) discusses the idea that some authors of literary fiction may be considering more commercially viable practices in order to remain relevant. I am a writer, but have also practised as a visual artist for ...