Loewenstein's New Low
Australian culture "defined": (You'd think Ant would have learnt his lesson from his last disastrous and racist attempt to define Australia)
"Almost 50 per cent of people believe getting drunk occasionally is part of being Australian, a survey suggests.The study of more than 1500 Australians, by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, found one in 10 reported having a problem with alcohol at some point in their lives. Three in five said they knew a friend or family member who had experienced an alcohol problem.
Germany, on the other hand - with its own myriad of problems, to be sure - recently hosted the annual Frankfurt book fair, the largest in the world:
"The other pleasant discovery was the real seriousness with which the German media treat the fair. Almost every radio network in the country (they are state-based there) had a huge outside-broadcast van parked near one of the five huge exhibition halls; television interviews with authors, critics and publishers seemed to run non-stop; the newspapers treat it thoroughly."
Hard to imagine in Australia. After all, why celebrate an "elite" artform, when you can grab a beer or ten?
Australia's cultural immaturity lives on.
posted by James Waterton at 6:45 pm
6 Comments:
Seriously, why do you waste your time with that guy? No one cares what he thinks apart from his fellow inmates.
If he could construct an argument he might be worth engaging in, but this example of his work suggests that there is no danger of that.
James, you should devote your time and energy to writing solid posts on real issues. Because you can be really excellent.
More importantly why is Tim Blair wasting his time -- and promoting the loser?
Scott - funny you should mention that. I was thinking that this would be my absolute last Loewenstein-watch rant. I have recently spent a fair bit of time over there trying to present a counter argument, but this post of his is proof of the general level of idiocy that reigns at his blog. You're right - I'm wasting my time.
No more Loewenstein watching for me.
Notice how he ignores the fact that 61 Australian publishers attended the Book Fair, which by any per capita basis is a lot of representative publishers from one little country. Notice too how he fails to mention that Australia continues to defy all predictions of “the end of the book” by continuing to be a country of vociferous book buyers and book readers.
Notice that the defending commenters on his site seem to be ENTIRELY oblivious to the nature of the Frankfurt hosted annual Book Fair. One commenter even tries to mock Australia by mentioning the Adelaide Festival, etc, which, even though it, and others mentioned, are literary festivals, not publisher fairs. Ant’s little friends would seem to be as ignorant as the man himself. They don't even seem to be aware that the Frankfurt event is unique and global in nature.
Queries:
Why does this man persist in his asinine belief that Australia has no identity?
Why does this man persist in his dim-witted belief that Australia requires his help in obtaining an apparently absent identity?
Why does this man seemingly know nothing about Australia?
Is he a recent arrival to our shores?
Why does this man, who is culturally illiterate about Australia, persist with trying to write about Australian culture?
Why does this man only ever post vapid material on his own blog? (Surely one should save one’s worst material for lowering the tone on other people’s blogs?)
Caz:
Excellent questions, one and all. You should post them in his comments section. He won't respond - but hey. I'm sure he'll check them out.
Have now done so James. FYI.
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