A week in the dark and a month full of books

Long time no blog...well only a month really but I currently find myself a little lost having come to the library to work on my thesis only to find I left the USB drive on which it dwells at home and it is only saved to my other laptop. Sure my house is only a couple of blocks from the library but I'm a slacker and would rather blog instead. And today my blog turns to what I have been up to over the last few weeks and what I will be up to over the next month.

It will come as little shock to anyone who knows me that if there was such a thing as Cinema Goers Anonymous that I would have to sign up and declare "Hi, my name is Clare and I watch too many movies". On average I go to the cinema at least twice at month and in some months you would push that closer to four or five times. I'm very selective in what I watch. Steering clear of the big budget blockbusters of the most part (the names James Cameron and Steven Spielberg will likely send me running in the opposite direction), I tend towards the oddball films, the indie films, the films by cult directors and the films in foreign languages. Where am I going with this? Well to the Sydney Film Festival. Growing up in Wollongong, I had this image that film festivals were somewhat beyond the reach of the common people. Sure we got the free guide to the festival with the Sydney Morning Herald once a year but still it didn't sink in. When I made the move to Sydney, I finally figured it out that just about anyone could fork over the money and rock up to a film festival (well possibly not in Cannes or Sundance, though I could be wrong about that too). Every year since then I have spent two weeks or more recently a little over one week (the film was shortened a few years ago) sitting in the dark watching films of varying quality in numerous languages. The first two years I attended I saw over 20 films (the first year close to 30 and also spent a day watching short films as part of the short film awards for the festival), then I cut it back to around 15, then last year only 3. This year I was back up at 12 films but I doubt I'll climb over 15 again until I retire- 30 films in two weeks takes a lot out of you especially if you are working full time in a job that has nothing to do with movies. Going to a film at a film festival holds a certain allure that seeing the same film at a regular screening does not and this even holds true of the films for the Sydney festival that are screened not at the gorgeous State Theatre but instead at Greater Union George St or the Dendy in Circular Quay. If you are a film nerd, you are surrounded by fellow film nerds and you get to hear snippets of conversation about the decline in quality of modern cinema from one country, the emergence of another country as a cinematic powerhouse, etc., etc. You get the feeling of power of voting for a film and knowing that your vote (be it good or bad) will come into play as part of the audience awards for the festival- this year two films I voted for quite strongly (Tucker and Dale Vs Evil and Even the Rain) finished in the top 5 for the audience award though neither took top spot. You get to see films that may not wind up getting a cinematic release on the big screen in Australia (a few years ago I saw one of the only big screen showing of Grace is Gone a very touching film which thanks to poor US box office went straight to DVD in Australia, and three years ago I feel in love with the UK film Unmade Beds, which never got a box office release here and which I only located on DVD three months ago) and you'll get to see others long before the general public (I saw the Australian film, Wasted on the Young, almost a full year before it got to the cinema here, and the brilliant US film and bigtime Oscar contender, The Kids Are Alright over three months before it was released here). Finally you might get to see someone famous- I've seen Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Bryan Brown (OK not as famous as the first two but he's just the most Aussie actor ever so I have to include him), Mia Wasikowska and (insert excited scream) Ewan McGregor, and back in 2007 I almost literally ran into Russell Crowe. As I said the films aren't all good (terrible ones included the Portuguese film Eccentricities of a Blond Haired Girl, the German made-for-TV series of films Dreileben (I left before the third of the three films, I was so bored) and several overblown period pieces from all over the place), some are down right strange (David Lynch's Inland Empire was mighty perplexing and even four years on I couldn't tell you if I liked it) and some are disturbing (Redacted is a brilliant film on the Iraq war but you couldn't watch it twice and it kicks you hard in the guts the first time- lots of people walked out at every festival it screened at and its box office was pretty poor when it got general release too). At the same time, it also has introduced me to some of my favourite films in recent years and while some like Once, Sukiyaki Western Django, Death at a Funeral, The Trip500 Days of Summer and The Kids are Alright I probably would have watched at the cinema anyway, I will be eternally thankfully to the Sydney Film Festival for showing me films like Shut Up and Sing (the wonderful doco about the Dixie Chicks), Even the Rain, Beautiful Kate (I may be Australian but Australian cinema especially set in rural climes isn't usually my cup of tea) and You, the Living which I wouldn't necessarily have looked into otherwise (especially the first one), and films like Unmade Beds and the French film, I Always Wanted to be a Gangster which I never would got the chance to see.  So I say to you, film goers of the blog world, if you get the chance get to a film festival....if audience make up during the day time seasons is anything to go by, we'll all end up going to them when we retire in any case.

Sign at the State duing the 2010 Sydney Film Festival

So that was my last few weeks, what of my next month? Back when I was a kid, I LOVED the MS Readathon- for those not in the know, the MS Readathon is an annual fundraiser for the MS Society in Australia (I'm not sure if overseas branches of the society do similar) in which primary school aged children are challenged to read as many book as they can in a month and adults sponsor them an amount per book and the funds raised go towards research into multiple sclerosis and helping individuals who suffer from it. I'm not sure if it was being asked to read for a good cause or that I was committed to raising money to help people suffering from a debilitating illness or, even, that raising particular amounts of money got you some kind of prize. I think it was a combo though shamefully the last one definitely factored in because, as my parents still remind me whenever the MS Readathon is mentioned in their presence and I'm there, I used to "cheat" including not only novels appropriate to my age but also things like Grug and Mr Men books when I was in the upper years of primary school. This week I discovered that the MS Readathon now has an adult section called the Novel Challenge and though the allure of prizes for reading has faded (in fact there aren't any) I've jumped on the band wagon. The Novel Challenge asks adults to read as many novels as possible over a 30 day period in July, August or September and to get people to sponsor them for the same- though not per books as you would a child. They even have a few recommended lists of ten books for people to aim at (I say books not novels as almost all the list they suggest contain works of autobiography or comedy or other forms of non-fiction, and therefore aren't technically novels). If people don't want to read one of their list, they can make their own. I'm doing the latter as the lists which do not contain books I've already read are heavy on the click lit or include Clive Clussler and therefore aren't my cup of tea. I encourage everyone else to join the fun and maybe one of their lists will appeal to you- though I would say steer clear of their classics list which contains both Anna Karenina and Don Quixiote either of which you'd be hard pressed to finish on its own in a month, let alone both of them and several others. My list will be as follows and I do think that there is a strong chance I won't get through all of them in a month and may have to read them over three as the MS Society website suggests is a possibility (I'm still aiming for the month though):

• The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Maya by Jostein Gaarder
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
• Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship
  by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit (I'm worried this one might get a bit chick lit like but it sounds interesting nonetheless)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

I've read none of them (I know some will be shocked that I haven't read the last one) and I think it is wide spread of genres by a diverse group of authors. If you decide after reading this post to participate in the Novel Challenge you are welcome to steal some or all of my list if you want- though I will say it is a very Clare list. If you don't want to join but would like to back me as I attempt the task of getting through these in a month, you can donate at http://register.thenovelchallenge.org.au/The-Novel-Challenge/clarewoodley . I started yesterday and currently I'm around a third of the way through The Twenty-Seventh City which I'm loving even though it is quite different from what I was expecting after having read The Corrections. I will update on here as I go so blog may become increasingly book focused in the next month.

The pile of books for the MS Novel Challenge- all but the last two books which I only decided on today and one of which I don't have as yet.

What is it with male academics/novelists and D.H.Lawrence?

Here's a question that I'm sure barely anyone out there will be interested in but why is it that male academics/novelists seem to think that D. H. Lawrence is one of the greatest novelists to ever breathe? I was watching The First Tuesday Bookclub on Tuesday and watching male writers praise Lawrence's Women in Love whilst Marieke Hardy and Jennifer Byrne declared it dreadful. I mean there are lots of authors out there who are supposedly more geared to one gender or the other but none is as clear cut as Lawrence. I know men who love Jane Austen and the Brönte sisters, and women who love Thomas Hardy and  Bret Easton Ellis. Personally I was told during my honours year that women prefer the poetry of T. S. Eliot to the poetry of Ezra Pound, and as it turned out that in my all female honours class, I was the only exception to this assumption.

There is always an exception but not with D.H.Lawrence it seems.

Universally I have found that women abhor his writing noting that it is dreary and largely unreadable, and that his female characters that are poorly drawn to say the least- I've also found some men feel the same. I read Sons and Lovers for Yr 11 and it remains one of my least favourite books, and at uni, I gave up on The Plumed Serpent after a couple of chapters. I even had a connection with Lawrence. I grew up in Thirroul which is where Lawrence lived during his years in Australia and when he was younger, my brother had a friend who lived in a house on the property Lawrence once lived (the garage is all that remains from Lawrence's time and it is heritage listed). Being as he was a temporary son of Thirroul, I felt I should have tried harder to like his work but I cannot do it.

So the questions I pose to the people of the internet are:

- Women- Is there anyone out there who is willing to come the defence of the dreadful Lawrence? I've heard rumours that some women like Lady Chatterley's Lover but I've seen no evidence. Give me a reason to even give the man a second chance....

-Men- If you have read  and liked Lawrence, why do you think he is so good? How can you get past the dreadfulness?

Youth ministry is wasted on the young

I'm feeling I might need to get a bit more regular with blog posts again. Sorry about the gaps to my few loyal readers.

So last you heard from me, I promised a blog on my recent (now a month ago) trip to Katoomba but that it wouldn't be of the travel variety...in fact Katoomba is just a jumping off point. 

For those out there in blogland who aren't Christians living the Sydney or thereabouts, Katoomba is often code for a Christian conference .In this case that conference was KYCK, a conference for teenagers which is held every April. The last couple of years at KYCK and any other youth ministry event I am often struck with the same idea. The older I get, the more I stand out. At any large gathering of Christian youth groups, you can see that the average age of the youth leader is 18-22 and youth groups like the one I'm involved in are increasingly odd (until last year I was the youngest member of our youth leadership team when I was 27, now it's our new Director of Youth Ministry who is 25- we are truly an old fogey team in terms of youth ministry). 

The attitude of many churches towards youth ministry seems to be a) that it is the logical next step after you stop being a youth group kid and b) that it is something you do until something better or bigger comes along e.g. you finish uni or you get a full time job or, in most cases, you get married. In some ways this is good strategy as it ensures you have an energetic youth leadership team who often have plenty of spare time but at the same time it creates not just a burn out factor but a burn out assumption, it often means there is little consistancy in youth leadership style and regular overhauls (many unneccessary) of group focus, and it creates the assumption that youth ministry is a less important ministry than the "grown up" ones you are involved in as an adult with a uni degree, a full time job and a spouse- the same is also often true of children's ministry. No-one thinks that it might be vauable to have some inter-generation ministry in action and that it might be good for teens to have people in their lives who aren't their parents or teens like them.

Youth ministry needs to be vital and alive and, in an ideal world, it also contains imput from people with a little more life experience than the average 18-22 year old. I don't mean to discourage younguns from becoming involved in youth ministry but if you are 18 and just finished high school and someone asks you to become a youth leader, I pray that your first thought is "would I have asked to be involved in this ministry if someone hadn't asked me to do so?". I pray that you consider the option before you prayfully before giving anyone an answer and if you end up concluding that if you were involved it would because it was assumed you should be and not because you wanted to be, that you have the strength say no and to opt to get involved in another ministry instead ( the same goes for those who are in their teens who are asked to be involved in kid's ministry). If you pray about it and you feel that youth ministry is where you want get involved, jump in with your full heart and join those of us for whom a free Friday night during school time is a dim memory and try and stick with it and see its importance. Youth ministry does need your young blood and without an injection of it now there wouldn't be any lifers in youth  ministry teams in 10 or so years time.

Members of church communities who are not involved in youth ministry make sure you support your youth ministry teams. Pray for them regardless of whether you have kids in the group or not. Get to know who the members of the youth ministry team are and NEVER make the assumption that just because someone is involved in youth (or kid's) ministry that they are younger than you would normally think there are. I have often been spoken to by other adults as if I was in my late teens or early 20s, or gone through the embrassment of explaining to someone that when I say something happened awhile ago, I didn't mean 5 or less years, I often mean 10-15 years. People often are shocked to hear that I'm not an undergraduate or that I work full time or that I'm enrolled in a PhD because they assume I'm at least 5 years younger than I am. It often not flattering - I know I look like I'm in my late 20s/early 30s not my late teens/early 20s and it sounds like people think I look old for my age- and it also is often very embrassing to have to explain that I'm older than assumed. If more older people were encouraged to get involved in/ continue being involved in youth ministry, this painful need for explaination would hopefully go away so if you hear that someone who isn't 18-22 wants to get involved in youth ministry (or you as someone who isn't in that bracket want to) encourage them to do so and don't think for a second that there is an age limit on understanding teens- I've been involved in youth bible studies with the parents of individuals in the group and often their teens didn't find this remotely daggy or embrassing (sometimes they did but it can work).

For those who read this and realise that you also belong to the crew that has been chillin' with the teens for longer than most, keep going strong. Don't ever forget that most Christians become Christians as teenagers and the ministry you are doing will shape the church in years to come. I don't know what Christ would have made of the concept of teenagers being as they are the invention of the 20th century but the Bible is pretty sure on how to treat Christians who are "young" in their faith and the support and nurture these should be given to these individuals by whole Christian community not just those Christians who happen to be close to their young and having of more time than most. Also don't forget that the church was fonded by people who were just like us, who were messed up and sinful, and often the teen years are often when people are most messed up and sinful. So never forget who important youth ministry can be.

As we as a society treat teenagers as children don't forget, don't forget that Christ says of children "And whoever welcomes a little child in my name, welcomes me" (Matt 18:3).

OK so not real teens but all google image gave me when I searched teens was photos of clearsil ads who were WAY too cheerful. I think the turtles are more realistic on many counts.

This too must pass- the longest awaited wrap up travel blog

So it's been several months of empty promises and finally I'm delivering. A wrap up of the ultimate highs and lows of my recent trip. I think I was just thinking that the longer I waited the less I had to admit the trip was over. In part this is to stop people asking about them so first the low lights and then the high and just to end off some crazy wacky food notes.

The worst of times

As is apparent of those who have been reading along as I travelled, Lisbon was the low light in terms of locales, but what of other happening:

• Worst country- I was only there for a couple of hours but Slovenia wins. It was more than a bit too Soviet for my liking
• Worst food- no surprises here, the China Airlines vegan "food" with its mystery textures, mystery smells and non-food-like taste.
• Worst hostel- Lisbon, hands down. Just not clean and in non safe part of town and not a fun place to be trapped when it was storming outside but at least the people were OK
• Worst dorm mate- Though there were close runners up in the Brazilian girls who stayed out all night and made tonnes of noise at 6am in Barcelona, woman in London in her fifties who was in the bottom bunk of my triple bunk wins. She complained LOUDLY every time someone spoke in the dorm even when it was after 7am and therefore kosher for the talking- they were speaking quietly and as they rightly pointed out to her one morning she was waking up more people than they were. The day I left her phone when off at 3am and she had a very loud conversation but then when I had to jump out of bed from my top bunk of the triple bunk (with the lack of ladder and all) to leave at 6am she screamed at me, "I can't believe you are waking us all up again, you already woke us up in the middle of the night!"- Considering I was in bed at 10pm and asleep before she came into the dorm (and in fact was asleep before she was every night I was there), I have no idea what she was talking about.
• Worst time- The first French train trip when no-one spoke English and all the trains were delayed and/or cancelled and I ended up in tears...not a fun
• Worst tourist attraction- it wasn't bad but the Eiffel Tower is a little too crawling with peddlers of random junk for my liking
• Dullest church- St Stefan's Dom in Vienna. It was very dark and there isn't much to look at in it.
• Worst airport- Lisbon! Just for the baggage loss and the amount of time I had to spend there.
• Most unpleasant person- the bloke in a Post Office in Berlin who screamed at me when I was sick. The conversation went something like this:
• Him (in German with much snappiness in his voice)- Can I use this pen?
• Me (confused look of sick person)
• Him (in German with even more snap) - Can I use this pen?
• Me- I'm sorry? (switching to German) I only speak a little German
• Him (switching to English)- Pah! If you are going to live in this country, you need to learn to speak the language.
• Me (in quiet sick voice)- I don't live here. I'm on holiday
• Him- Still, if I came to your country, you would expect me to speak your language
• Me (in sick almost whisper)- No I wouldn't

          After this I came up with a massive speech in German about how I was just visiting Germany and that I was sick and that I did speak German and how it was lucky other Germans weren't like him or they'd have no tourist industry. Thankfully he was long gone by then as he was aggressive and had I screamed back at him thing may have ended badly to say the least.

• Biggest rip-off- It is a tie- Czech cabs and Malaysian tours! Just a note if the money is profoundly different to what you are used to, do the maths!
• Biggest language issues- For all the French train confusion, I think my biggest issue with language came in Spain when I arrived at my hostel and found their night desk guy only spoke Catalan which I don't speak at all. It was much fun.
• Ugliest locale- Jesenice in Slovenia. I was only there for a few hours but it was very Soviet and very bleak looking
• Worst weather- Though Ireland's icy and dirty streets do rate a mention for their danger factor, this is yet another award in the category of worsts for......LISBON!

The best of times

• The best country- It will come as a surprise to many what with my complaining about their train systems but the hands down winner was France. It had some of the best food, the best hostels and staying at the hostels some of the nicest people.
• The best city- I'll exclude London as I'd been there before and as mentioned in my blog on Amsterdam is my favourite city in the world. When I was in Amsterdam, I mentioned that Amsterdam was now clocking in number 3 on Clare's list of favourite cities after London and Sydney. Sadly for Amsterdam, it is now number 4 and Sydney is now number 3. My favourite city on the trip, aside from London, was ultimately Paris especially the Monte Martre
• Best food- Just so France doesn't cloud out all the bests (though the food in Nice was amazing), this isn't another tick for France. Italy also should rate a mention as the pizza in Venice was awesome as was the Indonesia meal I ate in Amsterdam and both the food and coffee at Queen of Tarts in Dublin. Ultimately though the best food was in Malaysia as by the time I got there I was craving spice like nothing on this earth. To add to this, dahl for breakfast is about the most genius idea ever.
• Best hostel/hotel- And back to France....Both hostels in France were great but hands down the best hostel of this trip and in fact any trip I've taken was in Nice. Quality food, quality people, free wi-fi, clean, cheap alcohol and pretty location.
• Best dorm mate- There were many good dorm mates (and in Scotland I stayed with friends) so I can't really pick for this one. The funniest was crazy Russian guy in Prague.
• Best time- Wasting time chilling and wandering in Park Guell in Barcelona in the perfect Spanish winter weather with the sound of quality buskers in the distance.
• Best tourist attraction- Again too many good ones to pick just one. The forerunners were the British Library, the van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank's House, Topography of Terror, Venice (the whole city is a tourist attraction really), anything Gaudi related in Barcelona and the Decorative Arts Museum in Paris.
• Most exciting church- St Paul's in London, Roslin chapel, and Norte Dame all rate a mention but no surprises here. The most exciting church was by far and away the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona....everyone must visit it!
• Best airport- Singapore....what with its butterfly park, cactus farm, free movies, chairs for sleeping and free foot massage machines- what more could you want? A food court, it has several. Lots of shops, them too. A pool, yep. A games room, more than one. You can tell its a transit hub.
• Biggest bargain- Most of these were food related like pizza in Venice and the meals at the hostels in Berlin and Nice. Also worth of mention are the free walking tours in Prague, the Paris Museum card and the I <3 Amsterdam card, and the free wi-fi at many of the hostels and airports around Europe.
• Fewest language issues- Well being as I speak English and so do people in the UK and Ireland, and also most people in the Netherlands and Malaysia, I'll leave them aside. I think my biggest language break through was walking through a museum in Nice and managing to understand a lot of the French on the signs even though I don't speak it.
• Prettiest locale- Sintra in Portugal and Blarney in Ireland tie for this one. Both so pretty and so worth the visit.
• Best weather- Barcelona where it was sunny with a light breeze and about 12-13 degrees for the entirety of my stay.
• Best Christmas Market- none were bad but for sheer tackiness this goes to Hyde Park in London

So there you have it and you can stop asking about the bests and worsts. To end some random notes on food in its bizarrity and entertainingness, which I was making as I travelled albeit intermittently:

Spotted/Eaten in the UK

•          Fair trade kit kats- isn’t fair trade and nestle in the same sentence oxymoronic
•          Cooperative food- the co-op supermarkets have their own brand so you can pay co-operative eggs or co-operative sausages. It makes me laugh though others could really understand why

•     Bovril posters- now I don't drink Bovril for obvious reasons but it comes from Roslin so we went to a cafe named after it (Bovril Johnstons....very good cafe with great hot chocolate and giant brownies BTW). On the walls of this cafe are Bovril adverts from the past which in an odd slightly sadistic all include cows who are encouraging you to drink Bovril.

Ireland  

•          Crisps- aside from the Bloody Mary crisps without alcohol in them and the Buffalo crisp which are suitable for vegetarians, both of which are odd in their own right, what is the deal with the Irish (and the British for that matter) and crisps?!?! Instead of potato chips on the side of meals, they often come with crisps which I find bizarre especially when I was given favoured not plain crisps with a sandwich in Cork.

Zurich

 

•   Maccas vouchers- what to get the person who has everything! Adverted as a great Christmas present for grandma in the railway station in Zurich

Amsterdam

•          Olives in Caesar salad- enough said really. That was plain weird and unexpected

Berlin

•                     Would you like potatoes with those potatoes? Germans love their spuds it seems. They were on offer at every dinner often in various forms i.e. mashed, chips, wedges and boiled all at one meal.

Prague 

•                 Ketchup on everything. It showed up with pizza one day and pasta (which had a pesto sauce already) the next

Train between Prague and Vienna

•                  Broccoli soup with sweetened whipped cream in it. Much like the olives in caesar salad, enough said there. But unlike the olives in caesar salad, this combo was not that tasty.

        Everywhere

•                Chocolate muesli or cereal with cocoa on the side. Can I say gross? Muesli is the healthy option and adding chocolate kills it- be warned if you're in Europe and you pick up muesli you may find chocolate chunks. And the cocoa in cereal thing, just buy coco pops if that's what you want, people! I fail to understand why so many European were into the cocoa on cereal thing
•                 Finally just because it can't be said enough, can someone PLEASE teach the people of Europe (especially the UK) to make decent coffee?!?!? The most horrifying thing I saw on the trip was that while the good Australian coffee makers stay in Sydney and Melbourne, Gloria Jeans has now spread its hideousness to Ireland and the Czech Republic. Baristas of Australia, Europe is calling.

        

       OK so done now, I'll be back soon with some thoughts following my recent trip to Katoomba though travel related they won't be.

Unreadable, odd or academic....or maybe all three

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the internet....

Bringing you a new and strange post on the poor forsaken unread novel and that the university curriculum isn't the best way to save it, as inspired by two recent experiences. 

Firstly reading the truly brilliant One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde and now already you've confused because you could never label Fforde's books as unread- you can tell people read them because when they are first released they come out in jumbo size with an expensive price tag and if you haven't read them and you are a fan of things book like, I recommend you join the rest of us and read them. The thing about this novel that got me thinking is the way it talks about unread or unreadable books. Now it is the fifth in a series so I won't plot spoil at you, just to say go and visit a few second hand book stores or garage sales and you'll notice that there are literally millions of books out there that no-one is reading and that no-one has read for quite a while, and just think what if the world inside books was real and interactive what would happen to them.

Secondly was me once again doing a self deprecating and deferring explanation of my PhD thesis. That's right people of the blog world (those who don't actually know me in reality which I think is probably very few, if any, of you), I'm an Arts PhD student...you know those slightly awkward creatures who cling to walls at social gatherings occasionally latching onto an innocent bystander in order to talk a plethora of isms at them and explain why people should be interested in talking about social paradigms in order to justify the government letting them study for free. Worse than that, I'm an English lit PhD student which in most people minds translates as a person without the gumption or talent to be a writer. The reason that gets me thinking of unread books is that I'm writing my thesis on one. 

During my honours year, I wrote my thesis on George Eliot's Daniel Deronda which not many people have read and I tried endless to explain to many people why they should read it. I mean if you are judging a book by its opening line - the first chapter epilogue opens with "Men can do nothing without the make-believe of beginning" which is just brilliant (OK it's no "A single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife" but I think it is better than "Miss Dalloway bought herself flowers"). Even with very good BBC miniseries of it made a few years before I started honours, people usually stared at me blankly and told me that either Middlemarch was brilliant but it was enough Eliot for them or that someone had thought forced them to read Silas Marner and they were never touching Eliot again or, sadly more often than either of the above, they said that 19th century lit wasn't their thing and they had no idea who this Eliot guy was anyway. So many hours wasted explaining to people the brilliance of book and also that George Eliot was a WOMAN, that when I started my PhD and found myself researching a book even fewer people have read I gave up and stopped trying to convince people to read. When people ask what my thesis is on, I say "Oh it's on Mary Shelley but not Frankenstein" and half the time they don't even follow with by asking which of her other novels it is on (needless to say most of them don't think she wrote anything but Frankenstein so it's all confusing from the outset). Those who do ask the follow-up question are told that The Last Man is one of those books not many people would be interested in and that it isn't shocking that no-one has read it. I'm starting to think I've been a bit mean to The Last Man (which don't get me wrong, I personally do love). It too has a good opening- "I am the native of a sea-surrounded nook, a cloud-enshadowed land, which, when the surface of the globe, with its shoreless ocean and trackless oceans, appears only as an inconsiderable speck in the immense whole; and yet, when balanced in the scale of mental power, far outweighed countries of larger extent and more numerous population"- and it, like Frankenstein, is an interesting study of the human condition. You sold on it yet? Maybe not, maybe it will die an unread death or maybe it will be put on a uni curriculum and English lit undergrads of the future will be whinging about it. Then again it isn't bad enough of some uni curricula.

And that is the problem with a book that is largely unread by the general public, the decent ones often die a quiet death but the bad ones might be controversial and that might get them put on a uni curriculum . High school curriculum novels somehow maintain their dignity- lots of people love To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby  and Catcher in the Rye despite having studied them in high school. Uni novels don't fare as well especially as they are often on a course to illustrate a point and not for their quality. This means I have suffered through many a terrible novel, many of which I hated so much after a chapter that I put them down and left them there. This was the case with Silas Marner- one of the most boring books out there and I'm yet to find someone who liked it- and D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent- I had Sons & Lovers forced upon me in high school and while I know some (especially male) academics think Lawrence was profoundly talented, but to my mind his misogynistic, deary prose makes me wish he was alive so I could beat him about the head with a large shovel. That said I couldn't drop them all. Luckily people in most parts of the world can avoid the works of Richard Harland who was one of my lecturers, but I'm sure that some others were forced to read Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness which is put on curricula for being an early depiction of lesbianism and a banned book. It is truly dreadful and being banned is not a reason for now being read (listen up also those who would read Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover for this reason). There is this brilliant story about it wherein Virginia Woolf visited Radclyffe Hall and said she and her Bloomsbury chums would protest the banning of the novel because censorship was wrong and Hall responded that if they were going to protest the banning, it should be on its literary merits not as part of large protesting of censorship, and Woolf replied in that case we cannot protest. I often thought that my lecturers were doing the same thing a friend of mine did with The da Vinci Code. He hated the book but instead of telling everyone how bad it was, he ranted on and on about its brilliance. After I read it, I was like what the deal, that book sucked beyond the telling of it. He laughed and said yes isn't it painful, I just felt others should share my pain. I think a few too many lecturers out there were forced to read a bit too much D.H. Lawrence and personally I'm also plotting my pay it forward revenge. Or maybe I should be more positive and start new traditions with better books that no-one reads and resurrect the brilliance that is rotting in garage sales.

Hmm no I like the first idea better....

A more colourful shade of pale

Back from travel and still owing people one wrap up blog from my trip, the recent turn of events in the Australian political landscape has meant that blog will have to wait until I've ranted at length on something else.

For those of you living overseas or in a cave, back in December over 30 refugees died while trying to reach Australia and the right wing of the media and politics exploded when the government funded the funerals of the refugees and the transport of their family members of the identifiable victims from where they were housed at Christmas Island Immigration detention centre- the funerals were held last week. Aside from the issues that this raises with regards to Australia's immigration policy and the lack of compassion of some individuals in the politics and the media, it has lead to discussion of the "negatives" of multiculturalism and, more terrifying, the re-emergence of the One Nation Party. For those unfamiliar with this debate or just wanting a catch-up on its current status, check out the February 21 2011 episode of ABC's Q&A while it is still available online on iView (www.abc.net.au/iview - it'll be available there until March 7 2011- sadly it is geolocked but if you are overseas maybe you can find it on YouTube). Last night as I watched it, I felt the urge to add my thoughts to the multiculturalism debate and oddly today a lot of people I've spoken to have raised the issue again so clearly it has edged its way back into the collective consciousness.

I feel the urge first to say that multiculturalism is a misnomer. When most people says "multiculturalism", what they mean is not just being made up of many cultures but also being made up of either many races or many faiths so technically they are also speaking about multiracialism (I don't think that is a word but it should be) and mutlifaithism (again not a word but it should be). "Culture" is a word so misused that people have almost forgotten its root definition- it is about having a shared identity and experience so when you talk about multiculturalism you could just as easily mean the difference between different generations within the same racial and faith community. Semantics I know but still it slightly annoys me.

Australia as a country has always had a difficult relationship with the idea of being a society composed of many cultures, races and faiths. Australians have a reputation (and in some ways a deserved one) of being at least mildly racist. As most primary school aged children know, the one of the first policies passed at the Federation of the Australian Parliament in 1901 was not a resounding "All men are created equal", it was the White Australia Policy (not to applaud the US as "all men" didn't include women or African American men who were counted as 1/8 of a white men at the time). The White Australia Policy is the profoundly racist immigration policy that was part of Australian politics which officially still on the books until 1973 (though it was progressively watered down following World War II). It favoured the immigration of white immigrants from Western Europe especially the British Isles. Not surprisingly in persecution of breaching of current immigration policy, refugees from the Middle East, Africa and South East Asia who arrive by boat are placed in detention while Western Europeans and Americans who overstay visas but arrive by planes are usually not. While Australia was one of the first countries to give women the vote, Indigenous Australians were not allowed their democratic right to vote until 1966. We may have a better record than South Africa but compared to most other Western countries we are way behind and that's even without factoring in hideous events like the Cronulla riots. In America, race division in society may have been part of law until 1960s but racial divisions in terms of voting rights were abolished in 1870 by the 15th Amendment (almost 30 years before we even had a parliament independent from the English one). Canada and New Zealand both have much more progressive and solid multiculturalism policies than we do- both like us with the combo of a distinct indigenous culture/s and an immigrant community from all around the world to incorporate in their policies. We need to better on this issue...in fact I'd go as far as to say we must.

The irony of the myriad issues some Australians have with multiculturalism is that Australia has for most of its 70000 year history between multicultural by the strictest definition and also to a certain extent multi-faith. The Australian Indigenous community- like many indigenous communities- was and is divided into small grouping of individuals which formed their own distinct and geographical distant cultures with slight different interpretations of faith or belief, and their own languages. This is something the white community often completely fails to understand or respect but in recent years people have been slowing opening their eyes to this. With European invasion, not only did we became multirace but also we added several more cultures to the mix (the culture of a Irish convict is very different to the culture of an English soldier). Before the introduction of White Australia, we also had waves of immigration from various countries adding to the mix such as Chinese immigration in the late 19th century during the Gold Rush and middle Eastern and Indian immigration especially in the Northern Territory as part of the camel trade starting in the late 19th century. There are many Australians of non-Anglo Saxon descent who have been in Australia for many more generations than the three generations that the paternal side of my mother's family have been but to those who decry the notion of multiculturalism my white skin would give me a right to be Australian while Australians of Chinese or Middle Eastern descent who are four or five generation Australian on both sides of the family they would not. The oddity of it boggles the mind.

Getting slowly to my main point, if you are of British descent, Christian (nominally or actually practising) and you speak English by your blood, by your religion and by your language you are more multicultural and multiracial than you think! You are probably more multicultural than the individual from the Middle East, Africa or Asia that you sit next to on your morning bus or train.

To start why if your ancestors are form the British are you multicultural? Well to quote Alf Stewart from Home and Away, we are "flaming mongrels" and I'm proud of it. Most racial, cultural and religious groups in many parts of the worlds, especially in Africa and parts of Asia, were for many generations very self contained- people lived their entire live within the cultural group and very rare did outsiders join this cultural group. On the other hand, Western Europe and especially the British Isles were less self contained. The indigenous communities of the British Isles- the Picts or Woads, the Celts, etc- were first invaded by the Romans many of whom, after initial wars, stayed and intermarried as they had across Europe. Later they were invaded by Vikings and the Normans and the Saxons who also often stayed and intermarried after a fight. So at this point, the "British" blood line contained not only that of the indigenous community but also that of people from Italy, Scandinavia, France and Germany, and that hundreds of years before anyone thought of sending prison ships to a giant island far across the sea. Also this means that all people of British descent are the great (multiplied by hundreds) grandchildren of illegal immigrants who overstayed there welcome...think about it!

What about Christianity? What is multicultural about it? Firstly it is a religion from the Middle East so that any Anglosaxon people practice it at all means that there has been multiculturalism in action to get to that point. Secondly if you read the bible you will see that nowhere are Christians told to lock themselves within their own community. In fact they are told the opposite, Christ tells his disciples to "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:10 NIV translation- bold text my addition). Before the first major public address by one of Christ's followers following his death, resurrection and ascension (Peter in Acts 2), the followers of Christ are heard to be talking myriad languages by visitors to Jerusalem. Christianity as spoken of in the New Testament does not speak of walling the Christian community off nor does it speak of the abandoning of cultural specific languages in order to worship God, it speaks of being a religion for the world regardless of language. If you are going into all the world, by extension you are meeting, mixing with, trying to understand and reasonably debating with people of all cultures, races and faiths.

Finally the English language, what is multicultural about it? Well like the people of the British Isles it is a bit of mongrel. To paraphrase a confused former US president, "The English have no word for entrepreneur". We don't it's a French word. We also don't have words for doppelganger (that is German), vice versa (Latin) or kamikaze (Japanese). There are thousands of words in common use in English which are not Anglosaxon words. It is a language that steals from so many others. If you look at other languages you will see minor theft from English (e.g. the t-shirt in German is "das t-shirt") but overwhelmingly it is in the case of very recent additions to the lexicon. English is great master multicultural thief of language!

So if you are a white Australian who thinks of themselves as Christian, you are the king or queen of multiculturalism in your neighbourhood so give the other cultures, races and religions a fair go and stop listening to One Nation and the pundits of right wing talk back radio! Like "white" light coming through a prism, we Anglosaxons can be spilt into many colours. Still not sold on the idea, well think about this. We are all genetically human and, regardless of your views of the creation and evolution of the human race (whether you believed that there was an Adam and an Eve or whether you believe in the Out of Africa theory that links us all back to six common mothers or a combo of both), we originally come from a very small pool of genetic stock. This may not be a happy thought on the dating scene but when thinking of multiculturalism just try thinking about everyone as your distant cousin and think about whether you really want to treat your family member that way. Also remember that genetics demonstrates that white skin can come from black without the original genetic markers for white skin being present but not vice versa. This means that the original humans were black not white so what right do white people have to declare that they are the "best" race?

So what do I think? If you want to live in Australia in my opinion, to quote the genius that was Michael Jackson, "It don't matter if you're black or white"- or Asian or Middle Eastern or any other race for that matter.

Land of shopping malls, butterflies, humidities and decent food

Sydney's recent heat wave seemed to be acting as a reminder that I am yet to write my promised post about my time in South East Asia. Time to rectify that problem me thinks....

Mall Theme Park

So when I left you, I had just made a madcap night time dash from Paris to London in order to get an early morning plane from Stansted. Not being a morning person, having to drag myself out of bed at 4.30am and crawl from central London to Stansted having to take one tube and one actual train to get to my 8am plane was less than my idea of fun. People may wonder why I was catching flights so early in the morning and why I was flying from London to KL instead of straight to Sydney. The reason for this lunacy is Air Asia. Air Asia is a budget airline based in Malaysia which was offering A$420 flights from London to KL (it had been offering A$480 flight from London to Melbourne but I missed out on those), and so it turned out that I could fly with China Airlines to London then on the way home fly Air Asia to KL and send some time in KL and then fly Jetstar home, and even with having to pay extra for food on both Air Asia and Jetstar, it would work out much cheaper than buying a return ticket. It is good advice for budget travellers who don't mind spending a few days in a random city- buying flights for individual legs can work out much cheaper. I was expecting Air Asia (which with being so cheap) to not be a very good airline so though I had paid for food, I decided not to pay for entertainment and just to sleep/read for the 12 hour flight. It turns out Air Asia is actually quite a good airline. There was more leg room (slightly) than there was on Jetstar and the food was not just edible but also not bad (quite the step up from China Airline who couldn't deliver edible let alone good).

I tried to prep for the shock to the system to I knew Malaysian humidity would be after European snow but nothing can really prepare you for the combo of jet lag and the change from below 5 degrees 8am dry winter in London to 25 degree 100% (or close to) humidity 5am summer in KL. Malaysian summer feels like walking/living in a sauna and  to the unprepared body it hits you like a falling grand piano. I felt like I could barely stand and then discovering that KL is actually 80km from its airport and I would have to take hour and a half bus ride and then two train lines before the four block walk to my hotel was quite the depressing idea. I was barely with it enough to notice the great change in my surroundings and was just lucky that the hotel let me check in several hours before the permitted check in time so I could crash into my bed at 10am and sleep for the next 8 and a half hours. That night I got just enough energy up to explore the hotel. I was staying at Citris Hotel which is 3 and a half star hotel in budget hotel part of KL, and booking it through Wotif netted me not just a decent room but also a special deal with access to the hotel's privileged guests floors. The privileged guests got fruit on day of arrival (was expecting tropical fruit but was still happy with the two apples and an orange that arrived- decent fruit was a thing I had greatly missed in Europe), access to the special privileged guest room where there was free food and drink and computers for internet access all day (as well as a great view of the Petronas Twin Towers), and cheap laundry/ironing services (I didn't use either but it was there if I had decided I needed it). The hotel, though cheap, was quite good and its restaurant, though not as cheap as others in the area, served very good food at cheap prices (I ate there every night and the cost of a large meal with a drink and on a few occasions a dessert was between 7 and 12 Australian dollars).

Petronas Towers

First actual morning in Malaysia and I was faced with the excitement of Asian breakfast. People had warned me that what with never having been to Asia before I might to shocked when greeted with dishes I would consider lunch or dinner dishes at breakfast time- people in Asia don't really eat cereal they told me. Instead of this freaking me out, I thought it was awesome. I love Asian food (the complexity and freshness of Asian spices was something I had greatly missed in Europe) and am not the biggest fan of cereal. So when I arrived to be faced with a breakfast of dahl, fried rice, noodles, chicken curry, porridge with savory sides, dim sums and freshly cooked Asian style omelettes, I was psyched. I will say my hotel did have cereal, croissants, pancakes, French toast, fresh fruit and regular bread/toast- some of which I ate though not the cereal or regular toast- so you could have had a typical Western breakfast if you wanted (I never did and instead embraced the combo). This first morning I also got to take in the differences in my surroundings to the European winter I had left only a little over a day early. I got see the tropical vegetation and hear the flies and watch

After all this I made the cliched decision and decided to do what Westerns do in South East Asia...SHOP. Shopping in KL takes two forms- street shopping and mall shopping. I have haggling-a-phobia and so I was not up for the street shopping but supposedly there are awesome deals to be had especially in the China town district of KL. Mall shopping in KL is still cheaper than buying the same goods in Australia but be warned if you are averse to haggling or super pushy sales people, steer clear of the open areas in malls as there are often stalls of the same kind as street stalls in these areas in malls and if you step too close, the vendors will forcible try and drag you in to their stall- I'm not kidding, one woman grabbed my arm and tried to pull me into a cosmetics stall to look at fake eyelashes, fortunately I was stronger than she was so was able to pull free of her hand but not without light scratches from her talon like fake nails. By the end of my time in KL, I had spent several days in various malls which was mainly due to the fact I was too tired to do anything else. I've seen all kinds of malls from the high end, designer mall next to the Petronas Twin Towers (Towers themselves sadly closed for maintenance for exactly the week I was in KL) to the mid range malls near the classier hotels to the low rent malls near my hotel. I discovered two awesome things- firstly the coffee shop chain, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, which is found in Malaysia and Singapore and serves the best chain store coffee EVER (so much better than the swill served at Gloria Jeans or Starbucks and cheaper than both, but that said it is more expensive than a lot of other drink options in KL), and secondly theme parks in malls!! I actually only found one of the latter but for A$11 I could ride a roller coaster in a shopping mall and if you offer me a roller coaster I'm there. I also discovered that malls aren't a good view of Malaysian culture as they are too full of Western and that dodgy shops on main streets have more interesting stuff for cheaper.

On my second day in KL, I found the KL Butterfly and Bird Parks. Getting to both of these, which are in the quite beautiful gardens on the outskirts of the city, is a bit difficult at first glance as none of the city's train or monorail lines go that close to them. However I discovered the benefits of the KL Hop On Hop Off Tourist Bus- usually I hate Hop On Hop Off buses, but the one in KL is about 30MR (A$10) for a 24 hour ticket and does the loop of all of the tourist sites many of which aren't that close to buses, trains or monorails- I used it to get to the Butterfly and Bird Parks and back one day, and to the Craft Complex the next (the latter isn't that exciting so skip it if you aren't up for a lot of shopping)- I'd say it is definitely a must for those travelling with kids and wanting to see these and other sights particularly the KL Museum and the National Mosque. The Butterfly Park was very pretty, even if you are not an insect lover like me, and the Bird Park (the World's Largest Outdoor Aviary- it is topped with a net) is a lot of fun though the peacocks are posers and try and get into all your photos. On the walk between the two, I angered a mother monkey by accidentally scaring her baby so keep an eye out for monkey rage! 

Butterfly on hand

I didn't get to the National Mosque or the Islamic Craft and Textile Centre which are quite close to the Bird and Butterfly Parks as I felt I wasn't dressed appropriately for either when I was out near them (in my singlet and shorts) - I was astounded at how few Westerners realised that their summer dress style was not culturally appropriate for a Mosque as I watched a family pile off the bus with the women in short dresses and/or shorts and singlets, and everyone wearing sandals and thongs (though this was nothing on the cultural inappropriateness I saw a few days later of a woman in a short see through dress- she wasn't visiting a Mosque but still not the best clothing choice in a Muslim country)- I shocks me that people can't put two and two together when visiting a Mosque. Note to everyone out there, if you are visiting a Mosque- covered shoes (regardless of gender) and, for women, long sleeves, long pants and covered head...How hard is that to figure out?!?

My biggest disappointment in Malaysia came a few days later. Sucked in by the lure of getting to ride an elephant, I signed up for a tour out to the country which was supposed to include visiting an elephant conservation park and Batu Caves. It cost 240MR (A$80)- which was a rip off to beginning with- but that wasn't the worst of it. It was Hindu New Year that weekend so Batu Caves was packed out and the tour guide said that we would skip it in the morning because of the crowds and get back to see it in afternoon- ultimately it was late when we got back and so we stopped for 20 minutes and didn't even have time to climb into the caves- by the afternoon I was feeling so ripped off that, had I not been brain numbingly tired, I would have screamed at all involved. Having skipped Batu Caves, we went to the next two stops a pewter factory and a Bitak factory- I was thinking we'd get to see a demonstration of both but no it was all sales pitch. After that it was an over an hour awkward car trip of silence (I slept though most of this as brain was telling me it was 2am back in London) to a Deer Park (not to be confused with the free range deer park near the Bird and Butterfly Parks in KL). Now I have mixed feelings about animal parks and zoo at the best of time and I think that they can be done profoundly badly, this was possibly the worst one I've ever seen. It was 10MR (A$3.33) on top of the original cost of the trip to go in- rip off again. When the tour guide said you could hand feed a sun bear at this park I was like "But Sun Bears can be quite vicious that doesn't seem right", the sun bears in question had had all the bite willed out of them by being stuck into cages that were barely big enough for them for most of the day. The other animals (aside from deer which ran wild) were mainly domestic animals and all in tiny cages. It was hideous and I just wanted to run around and free them all. After this we stopped for lunch- the one thing that seemed to be included in the cost of the tour (aside from petrol and tolls) but as it was only 3RM (A$1) a plate, I'd like to know where most of my 240RM went! The elephant conservation centre was worth a visit (though not the cost of my tour) and ride an elephant I did, but I had not been forewarned that I would be charged another 10RM to get in there- the tour guide said he would cover the cost as I had no cash by this stage and hadn't been forewarned but then subsequently demanded the money back when we returned to the hotel. I didn't complain to the complain to the people selling the tours but one of the hotel staff asked me about and when I told me about the joke that the tour was, the look on his face said that others had been sucked into this trap before. If stay at Citrus Hotel, steer well clearly of the tour people in the foyer!

Elephant Time

Most of the rest of the time in Malaysia was spent in malls and lazying in the hotel as my body refused to get on Malaysian time. The free pay TV in my hotel turned out to be mainly in Chinese or copious amounts of reality TV repeated on a seemingly endless loop and nothing makes jetlag worse than having only the same episode of the Bachelorette to watch night after night at 4am when you can't sleep and aren't awake enough to read. The good thing though was even with jetlag I could enjoy the awesome Malaysian food and laugh the waiters warned me that food listed in the menu as spicy was well spicy...clearly they hadn't met a Woodley before and didn't realise that some Westerners do like to try the spiciest dish on the menu.

I feel that I've pretty much experienced most of what there is to see in KL- including the jungle in the airport- but people tell me that further afield Malaysia has tonnes more to offer.