Posting from Maccas tonight, free wifi, wunderbar. The big move went exceptionally well - Carney and his mate Justin did the heavy lifting while I looked around for where to put tupperware containers. Internet is still forthcoming, 10 days apparently which is pretty much eternity. But in the meantime, here's an interesting not-so-hypothetical: tv or oven? We currently have a cubic metre of TV (circa 1992) and a stove top (i.e. no oven) and enough $ to purchase a new one or the other. A penny for them. At the moment it's one all - in a terribly gendered split I'm all for the oven and Carney wants the TV.
In unrelated news, last week my mum and I went to the Melbourne University ‘Festival of Ideas’. Great name, eh? Nearly as good as the Wheeler Centre’s. The theme was ‘In search of identity – landscape, history and genetics’. We saw Thomas Keneally, author of among other things Schindler's Ark (the film upon which the movie Schindler's List was based), speak. This is him in a terribly Texan hat – used as his biopic which I thought ironic given his address was on 'Australian National Identity in the 21st Century':
Thomas is pretty fascinating, same bucket as Alex Miller. He’s a living national treasure, which you may be surprised to learn, is an actual thing - the National Trust compiles a list, which I find a bit odd. When you die, you’re obviously no longer living so you become a deceased national living treasure. Unless you’re ‘disgraced judge’ Marcus Einfeld who is a former national living treasure and the lone ranger on that particular list.
We bowled up expecting to hear about ugh boots and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but instead he talked about immigration and the idea of being ‘UnAustralian’. He basically argued that the more narrowly you define identity, the more threatened you are by people who differ and that in fact, identity is quite resilient; it doesn’t need protecting. He likened the experience of migrants in the aftermath of WWII to those arriving today – both in terms of their reception and of their experience in refugee camps/war, etc. It's difficult to do it justice... Thomas has a beautiful way of putting words together and is lovely to listen to. I don’t know if I came out feeling happy or hopeful... I’m still thinking about it. It was dense.
Anyway, the podcast is here if you fancy something to walk the dog to. One ear only though or else you might get run over by a car/walk into a pole, neither of which would be very much fun.
Kitty x
Picture credits: http://www.ideas.unimelb.edu.au/speakers/thomas-keneally
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