War
A Policy of Splendid Isolation
The tension between British and Australian publishers has long been a central thesis of antipodean print culture histories.
Expended in An Hour, Gallipoli!
While Australians and New Zealanders acknowledge Anzac Day, it is important to look beyond modern perceptions and to review what our ancestors thought about the events which ultimately led to this national annual remembrance.
Just A Little Conflict Investment
I’m growing very tired of the superhero genre lately and its rather repetitive instances of urban gang warfare between chemical, genetic, extraterrestrial, supernatural or technologically-enhanced freaks. As Theodor Adorno might say, contemporary cinema is certainly providing the public with an “unconscious canon of what they do not want, that is, something different from what they are presently being fed”. How many times should we endure the same narrative structures and sequences, the same beats, the same super-augmented character battling it out with another super-powered character in a city or highway setting, throwing cars and people about like raging toddlers with their toys? It was innovative the first time in Superman 2 (1980) but after Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men 3, and now Ironman (and Edward Norton’s soon-to-be-released The Incredible Hulk), it seems probable that road rage is becoming the metaphor of our times and the lazy conflict device of contemporary cinema.
Australia, the Failed Idea?
The question on my mind this evening, the night before the Australian people evict John Howard from his seat of power, is: did the fake “Islamic Australian Federation” leaflet damage John Howard’s re-election campaign? For the record, I don’t really think so and certainly not anymore than say Pauline Hanson did in the late 1990s or the “Children Overboard” affair might have in 2001. After all, Mr Howard has eloquently side-stepped alleged links between himself and racist forms of thinking, via a kind of plausible deniability, while at the same time benefiting from the support of those voters who peddle a broad-spectrum racist sentiment. Given his election win in 2001 and subsequently in 2004, I’d wager that’s a lot of people who do. Sure, Mr Howard dissociates himself from the recent example and claims the leaflet is not part of his campaign. He even “condemned it” and “was appalled about it” while avoiding “some kind of personal responsibility”.
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