This isn't the time to ruminate on "what Australia means to me" at this point - I'm going back for a fortnight in January, so I feel I can legitimately dodge the question with an appeal to unfinished research. But it's actually nice to be reminded of all the things Melbourne is which I didn't get: makes it feel more real! And as for Australia more generally, I'm still reading Australian books, at present two dramatically different novels which nevertheless somehow need to be brought into relation somehow: Mudrooroo's Doctor Wooreddy's Advice on Enduring the Ending of the World and Gerald Murnane's The Plains.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Efficient
Wow, to think that the Melbourne Cup just happened. It was won by an outsider named Efficient (a news factoid which begs to be deconstructed since the Melbourne Cup is so weighted as to make everyone an equally dark horse). As I recall, racing season was when Melbourne felt most foreign to me - all these people dressing up for the races, fancy summer dresses, summer suits and hats enough to employ a hundred milliners. Even my laid-back housemate Peter showed up in a top hat and tails! It feels even stranger to be recalling it just as we're sensing the onset of winter after a late fall (and in the aftermath of the New York Marathon).
This isn't the time to ruminate on "what Australia means to me" at this point - I'm going back for a fortnight in January, so I feel I can legitimately dodge the question with an appeal to unfinished research. But it's actually nice to be reminded of all the things Melbourne is which I didn't get: makes it feel more real! And as for Australia more generally, I'm still reading Australian books, at present two dramatically different novels which nevertheless somehow need to be brought into relation somehow: Mudrooroo's Doctor Wooreddy's Advice on Enduring the Ending of the World and Gerald Murnane's The Plains.
This isn't the time to ruminate on "what Australia means to me" at this point - I'm going back for a fortnight in January, so I feel I can legitimately dodge the question with an appeal to unfinished research. But it's actually nice to be reminded of all the things Melbourne is which I didn't get: makes it feel more real! And as for Australia more generally, I'm still reading Australian books, at present two dramatically different novels which nevertheless somehow need to be brought into relation somehow: Mudrooroo's Doctor Wooreddy's Advice on Enduring the Ending of the World and Gerald Murnane's The Plains.
