Posts by Matthew Littlewood
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Muse: Monday Linky Love (With Added Geekery), in reply to Russell Brown,
I'm not sure you can call 1984 sci-fi, but I think it certainly relates to British speculative fiction's rich tradition of dystopia.
Yeah, that's true- Ballard and Burgess were of course, the two authors who took up the mantle most assiduously in his wake- although I dare say Orwell couldn't've conceived an entire novel revoling around a man getting literally trapped in an traffic island beneath an underpass, as Ballard did! ( Concrete Island, a novel so-deadpan in its execution it's utterly terrifying.).
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Muse: Monday Linky Love (With Added Geekery), in reply to Russell Brown,
Perhaps more than you think, though. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but, along with Brave New World, 1984 was a common text in 6th form English study when I was at school.
It was for me too, and I think it still is. As for its sci-fi credentials, I'm with Anthony Burgess in that it makes a lot more sense if you view it through the prism of 1948 and the social upheaval and pervailing austerity of the era--although much great sci-fi probably is rooted in the present-day neuroses in some form. Me, I just find it more hilarious when Liberterians and Randians invoke Orwell or try to "rehabilitate" him as some proto-cold warrior. Clearly they didn't read any of other novels, essays, short stories other than 1984...or anything beyond that novel's first chapter.
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Roger Ebert hits the highway to Fogey Town in Does anyone want to be "well-read?"-- but, thankfully, takes the by-pass and ends up with a rather sweet reflection on reading by inclination
I think the last thing you could accuse Ebert of being is a "fogey"- while some have laid into him for not considering computer games "art", he's long been a prosyltiser for online communication (as far as back as the early 90s in fact), and few reviewers have remained on top of the prevailing trends in cinema as he has. For all his flaws, he's still arguably the art of movie making's greatest diplomat. In a way that linked blog is merely a continuation of one of his most common musings- how do we consume information, and how does it affect how we form our opinions?
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Hard News: The Ladi is a champ, in reply to Bruce Wurr,
Bob Mould's authorised "autobio" hopefully comes out pretty soon, I believe it's written by Michael Azzerrard who wrote "This band could be your life". Saw Grant Hart last Saturday and he was ramshackley great.
Sounds promising, Our Band Could Be Your Life is a superb book, and I think Mould would be an interesting subject, certainly the Huskers were one of the bands of that scene. When the hell are they going to pull finger and remaster the catalogue tho? The Huskers records are great, but the CDs do sound pretty ropey compared to say, the Meat Puppets and Replacements reissues.
Here's a clip of Husker Du at their most incendiary
Well done to Ladi 6 for winning this year's Taite Music Prize. I would've been happy with any of the records winning, though personally I was hoping either Street Chant, Die! Die! Die! or Dudley Benson would take it out. Whatever, it shows there were some very, very strong local releases. Certainly that lineup is a lot more idiosyncratic than last year's Mercury Music Prize nominess, for instance.
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Yes, Kiwi Keith was a bit plummy. I used to think he was pompous, actually. However, his elocution notwithstanding, the speed he spoke at was rather well observed, as no doubt he’d suffered the horrors of speaker delay at meetings. Also gave him, and his audience, time to think. Or to say “rhubarb, rhubarb”.
Indeed. New Zealanders speak notoriously fast and it's getting faster. Even those from the Home Nations acknowledge it, to say nothing of those who don't speak it as their first language (for some reason, it seems to be my german friends who most frequently point this out).
I think one pretty cool thing about New Zild English is that we've got documentation of its development right from the start. That's a pretty remarkable thing to have.
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Up Front: Where You From?, in reply to Emma Hart,
One thing about the earthquake, I think it's made us a lot more conscious of our built environments. I mean, I knew I was attached to the Provincial Council Chambers. I was less aware of how much I loved the Lanes, or the Dux, or Knox Church.
Absolutely, the Dux, especially. Even when I didn't live in ChCh, I'd meet friends when I travelled up there. I've also realised how much I'll miss going to Galaxy Records and Scorpio Books as well. It was a pretty much a weekend ritual for me, shopping at those places.
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Oh God. Hall students. As someone who was a "natrualised" Dunedite before starting at Otago University, it seemed Hall students moved in packs in first year, completely oblivious to those not in the same Hall. That seemed to change in second year, mind.
Anyway, on a more serious note, this is an interesting question. I mean, I've lived in several places in New Zealand:
Auckland (1984-88)- still have lots of relatives up there, visit at least once or twice a year
Wellington ( late 1988-94)- very fond of the place, lots of my friends have moved there
Dunedin (late 1994-2007)- my formative years and experiences, lots of friends still there, very attached to the place, probably still closely identify with it.
Christchurch (2008)- obviously with my job I've been up there quite a bit, but the year at Journalism School was my favourite academic year ever, and I've become quite drawn to it. My parents have lived there for five years now.
Timaru (2009- present)- well, it's where I work and I like my job a lot.So, where am I from? I'm going to cop out and say New Zealand, but even now, the place that feels most like "home" is Dunedin. I suspect that will change the more I move, and the longer I live away from it, but it has got into me- must be the cold, or perhaps its oddly relaxed intensity. Maybe I'll go back there when I'm older.
And Emma, if you want to know what's the goss in Timaru, this was the only game in town last night. It was actually really entertaining reporting on it.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Leopold,
On looking through the Press, wonder if the whole Goff/Hughes/nekkid man inverted elephant is purely for delectation of those living in Wgtn and Akd. Having to use a chemical toilet and wondering what has happened to your job, possessions within the Cordon and CD-Brownlee stuffups does skew your persective
It is worth pointing out to non-Southerners that the Hughes story ran on page 10 on the Press when it broke, the previous nine pages were all to do with the (very comprehensive and often excellent) reporting on the earthquakes and the recovery/planning/personal stories. It's fair to say ChCh readers may well be more interested in that than Hughes.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Russell Brown,
Thing is, they were tracking for 50%+ before Corngate. Perhaps they'd have shed that vote anyway when it came to it, but it did hurt them. A no-Corngate alternative history, with the Greens holding up too, might have been a staggering result.
Yeah. I do sometimes imagine an alternative-universe 2002 election (the first I was old enough to have voted in, although I actually took a very engaged interest in the 1996 and 1999 elections, and remember a lot about 1993 due to my parents' jobs). Particularly one where Labour required the Greens in some form of coalition, with (say) Fitzimmons as Environment Minister and (perhaps) Rod Donald as Associate Education Minister (or a similarly important portfolio). Who knows how different the country might have been? Who knows, indeed what would have happened in 2005?
Then again, imagining the outcome of every election from 1975 to 1993 if they were MMP is enough to do your head in.
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Hard News: Limping Onwards, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
I’m not really sure what Williams’ point is there, because he should know Labour’s result in the one poll that really mattered was 41.26% of the popular vote, a net gain of three seats and National’s worse result in the party’s history. All that despite Labour and the Greens sniping at each other during the campaign and still increasing their caucuses when the tumult and the shouting died.
...All that, and Labour's official coalition partner (Alliance) totally imploding too. And they got 9 per cent in 1999, three times the popular vote of ACT in 2008. When you look at it that way, the sheer comprehensiveness of Labour's 2002 mandate was a pretty strange result.
(As is 2005 in a way, numbers-wise: bear in mind that Labour's percentage was more or less the same in both 2002 and 2005, the difference between the two was that National hoovered up the votes of ACT and arguably, NZ First and United, percentage-wise. The actual politics is another matter.)