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CRUCIAL CULTURAL BATTLEGROUND DOMINATED
Sure, the right may rule the blogosphere. But the left have plays. Plays!
Does that guy use Austin Powers’ tailor?
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2005 06 03 at 01:00 PM • permalinkPlays are obsolete. With CG, Dolby Surround Sound, Playstation 2, broadband, widescreen TVs etc, there is no reason for any human to ever again sit and watch a play.
Posted by Drunk Fade on 2005 06 03 at 01:35 PM • permalinkMore. From the Shofar FTP archives http://www2.ca.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/d/darville.helen/press/press-summary, Judith Armstrong’s defense of Helen Demidenko, of whom, more in a moment.
Article by Judith Armstrong, “Swords cross over the terror of words”, defends the book, arguing that it “comes out of a Russian literary tradition in which the author is forced to use the novel to say the things that an oppressive censorship would not allow”. Ms Armstrong outlines the history of the period in ways sympathetic to Ms Demidenko’s theme: “Ukrainians saw the Bolsheviks making overtures to the Russian Jews and recalled that most of their own businesses were in Jewish hands. ... Demidenko poses this question: by the time they performed the horrors that turned even Nazis’ stomachs like rounding up and exterminating thousands of Jews and the infamous Babi Yar did the subjugated Ukrainians have any option?” *Age (17Jun95). Response by Professor Stephen Wheatcroft, director, Centre for Russian and Euro-Asian Studies, University of Melbourne, questioning the historical accuracy of Dr Armstrong’s arguments, and commenting sharply, “Dr Armstrong may think she is hearing the voice of the great Russian literary tradition but in fact she is hearing the voices of modern East European fascism” *Age (21Jun95)
From J.O.I.N., the Jewish Ozzies’ Inter.Net at http://www.join.org.au/articles/demidnk2.htm
Some commentators were, however, clearly influenced by anti-Semitic assumptions. One example was the Melbourne University academic Judith Armstrong. Armstrong endorsed Demidenko’s account of Jewish Bolshevik atrocities against Ukrainians. According to Armstrong, the Jews controlled Ukrainian business prior to World War One. Then following the Bolshevik takeover, Stalin used Jewish communists to crush Ukrainian nationalism via collectivization and famine.
So maybe Judith is not a hardline commie, but some sort of bitter socialist. And further down, it says:
When Helen Demidenko received her Miles Franklin Award, she claimed to be of Ukrainian origin, wore a Ukrainian peasant blouse, and made part of her acceptance speech in Ukrainian. In an earlier speech to the Sydney Writers Festival, she spoke about her grandmother’s poor English, her childhood involvement in Ukrainian youth organizations, and her embarrassment at her parent’s foreign behaviour and appearance.
Yet in August, Demidenko admitted to being a fake. Her real name was Helen Darville and she did not have any Ukrainian ancestry. She said she had taken the name of Demidenko “in empathy with the characters I was creating… This was my creative world… The persona adopted for my writing took over my life - this is the way I write”.
So Judith Armstrong, Russian literary expert, was taken in by fake-Ukrainian novelist Helen Darville aka “Helen Demidenko.” I don’t know anything about Stalin’s use or non-use of Soviet Jews against Ukrainians so I’ll leave that to others though, being Jewish on one side of my family, I’d be interested to hear about it. In any case I’d like to know whether Judith Armstrong can fairly be accused of anti-Semitism.
Mr. Bingley—My father had a suit like that. He stopped wearing it about 1973, after a family intervention.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 06 03 at 05:58 PM • permalinkBack on Thread:
“Armfield finds Bush’s born-again faith “just as terrifying as any kind of fundamentalism. This appeal beyond reason. Like whenever you have a contradiction in human terms you can justify it by saying, ‘My mission comes from God.”
Bush scary. Persecutes fellow fundamentalists. Uses God as excuse.
Bastard!
Hare is up there with Hannie Rayson as a tailor of subversion.
See also Andrew Bolt “Hannie’s Evil Brew”
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12860514%5E25717,00.htmlNow this one play I think I might just pay good money to see.
Posted by David Crawford on 2005 06 03 at 07:21 PM • permalinkThis is why when classic plays are re-staged people flock to see them - Oscar Wilde, GBS, Alan Ayckborn….&c. It seems modern playwriting has gone the way of modern music - a lot of turgid nonsense that require heavy taxpayer subsidies to get up.
If you’re a music lover you’ll notice there’s little in the catalogues (apart from musicals up to ~1980) written after about 1920. Good playwriting continued longer but puttered to a halt in the 60s. The ‘kitchen sink’ dramas were the death knell. Fact is, people want to be entertained, to escape, not hectored and lectured by idealogues about what bastards they are and how dreary their lives are. Only fellow travellers find this uplifting, which says a lot about their mindset.
Posted by walterplinge on 2005 06 03 at 09:15 PM • permalinkBy the sound of the childish insults against Bush, you’d swear they would think it more noble for him to be passed out on a Texan barroom floor, pissed as a newt, than to be clean and sober and CEO of the most powerful country in the world.
And the quote of the article is:
“It is the first responsibility of theatre and journalists, and everyone who has a voice, to tell the truth.”
Yeah, right.
Achillea — That’s pretty much Team America. Altho I remember the Victorian Bondage Sketch with great fondness.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 06 04 at 12:20 AM • permalink
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