Trevor Cook

Do you want to travel Class "Losers"?

 

Tired and grumpy at Charles de Gaulle, it would be easy to misread this translation

The blight of middle-brow aspirationals

Urban Intellectual Fodder is the prozac of the American intelligentsia.

It's studiedly smart; it's properly elliptical; it's quite self-aware and often very meta; it is extensively footnoted, either actually or mentally; its distance from its material is either ironically remote or uncomfortably close-up; it is intensely minimal or wordy or effects-ridden, in either a refined or extravagant way; it specializes in conceits, and sometimes its conceit is to be devoid of one; and it makes its small points, and sometimes its big obvious ones, in either a very guarded or rather grandiosely ironical way.

Critic James Wood coined a name for it: “hysterical realism.” Dale Peck had a name for it, too: “recherche postmodernism.” Both ain't half bad.

You know who and what I mean: everyone you imbibe by book, CD, movie or artwork creates Urban Intellectual Fodder.

All it does is put a sheen of high-brow smarts on art that is actually middle-brow. And comes out bloodless.

via www.3quarksdaily.com

I agree largely, but so what? Isn't it up to each of us to keep searching for the real stuff (the stuff that does challenge us and not just reassure us that we are smart and sophisticated). There's a lot of people (unfortunately a growing list) that I just don't read or listen to because as I get older, and realise how finite life is, I ask myself should I read this or re-read Ulysses or the Great Gatsby, or listen to Dylan, one more time? Sure it's annoying that the world is full of pretentious nonsense parading as serious art, but so what the choice is ours each and everytime. If you're truly discriminating it is hardly a problem.

Gladwell on the strengths and weaknesses of social media

At four-thirty in the afternoon on Monday, February 1, 1960, four college students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. They were freshmen at North Carolina A. & T., a black college a mile or so away.

via www.newyorker.com

Interesting and insightful. Gladwell points out that 'activism' on facebook and twitter is not the same as 'activism' in real life (ie on the the lunch counter in Greensboro). He also points out that networks are good for somethings but strategy is not one of them. He pours cold water on the twitter revolution in Iran and other much celebrated but somewhat overblown case studies.

McGahern photos part 3: Nature

Nature is critical to McGahern and his descriptions provide many highlights of his writings, so here are a few images on nature around where he lived most of his life:

 

A district view from the churchyard in Fenagh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun rising on a field near Ballinamore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A view of Laura Lake near Fenagh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A view of the Shannon from behind the Barracks in Cootehall, Co. Roscommon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The canal near Ballinamore in the early morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, finally another view of Laura Lake

 

 

 

 

 

 

MOVING APART: POLITICAL STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY UNIONS AND THE ALP TO MANAGE THEIR DIMINISHED RELATIONSHIP

Off to Melbourne tomorrow for the annual Australian Political Science Association conference, and on Wednesday I deliver my first ever peer-reviewed! You can Download the full paper  and here's the introduction:

In Western democracies during the twentieth century the nature of the links between unions and political parties of the left have helped to shape national politics. Valenzuela (1991) argued that social democratic relationships encouraged corporatist political cultures and modest, incremental approaches to economic and social reform. Valenzuela’s description of the social democratic relationship centres on the creation of a single, national political party by a united, national union movement, which allowed for the early emergence of a stable wage-bargaining process. With some qualification, this description clearly covers Australia, as well as the UK and New Zealand. The USA is the major example of Valenzuela’s pressure group model where there is no formal affiliation and both the national union movement and the Democrat party value their independence and is wary of the risks of a closer relationship.

In social democratic relationships, unions seek to influence outcomes predominantly through internal party structures by playing a significant role in the selection of parliamentary candidates and through party policy deliberations that are to some extent binding on MPs. Under the pressure group model, there is a much greater emphasis on the use of public campaigning and lobbying techniques to influence the party and encourage it to support agreed positions in parliament. In addition, unions and parties put a much greater emphasis on their independence, and are much more sensitive to the perceptions of that independence held by their core constituencies, members and voters respectively.

Throughout its long history, the unions-ALP relationship has been marked by tensions and episodic crises. Nevertheless, the formal, organisational relationship between unions and the ALP remains. While there is no real prospect of these organisational links being severed in the immediate future, there is evidence that the relationship is undergoing profound change.  The successful Your Rights at Work (YR@W) campaign, run by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) against the Howard Government’s WorkChoices legislation, was a new political strategy for the Australian trade union movement in terms of its scope, scale and impact. Never before had Australia’s unions spent so much money over a protracted period (2005 to 2007) to directly influence political debate and electoral outcomes, alongside the ALP but not through it. It is generally believed that unions spent between $20 million and $30 million to ensure the election of an ALP Government in 2007 (Muir 2008), compared with just $17 million the ALP received in public funding for the 2004 election (Mayer 2006). YR@W can be seen as an expression of a newly emerging relationship that has some similarities with the pressure group model.

The research discussed in this paper seeks to understand the dynamics of the changing relationship from the perspectives of participants. Do they perceive a permanent change in the relationship? What are the broader implications of that change, if any, for the political behaviour of unions and the ALP?

The Book Depository: Book prices fall again for Australians

One of the most outrageous decisions of the Rudd Government was its anti-intellectual, protectionist stance on book publishing. I have long used Amazon to buy my books, saving hundreds each year, but I have found a site, the Book Depository, a UK outfit, that makes books far cheaper again by offering free delivery worldwide. Sometimes with Amazon and other internet booksellers, the cost of postage to Australia is almost as much as the book itself.

Not anymore. For instance, one of the first books I got on the Book Depository arrived this morning, seven days after I ordered it. The newly released hard cover "Bob Dylan in America" by historian Sean Wilentz cost me $A22.79 delivered to my door. Abbey's in Sydney can get it from their supplier for you for $A68.95. Readings in Melbourne have it for $42.95 - more reasonable but still nearly double the price. Say you wanted to read Blair's memoirs; the Book Depository are offering it for $A33.61, Readings have it on special for $44.95. 

Sure, you say, but its different for Australian literature? Breath by Tim Winton (a passionate advocate of protectionism) in paperback $24.95 at Readings, on book depository $12.19.

But hey, it's your money.

McGahern photos part 2: memorials

Interest in John McGahern, including through the annual Galway University summer school held in Carrick each July, seems to be leading to a growing number of 'memorials':

 

In accordance with his wishes, McGahern was buried with his mother at St Patrick's church, Aughawillan, a few miles from Ballinamore. Susan McGahern taught at the nearby national school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This memorial, erected by the McGahern family, is on a block of land adjoining the Barracks in Cootehall Co. Roscommon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great example of McGahern's great simple prose. You can see a short video of the unveiling of the plaque here. Unfortunately, the sound quality is not good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a library in the Lough Rhynn Castle hotel near Mohill Co. Leitrim. There is a short video of the opening on youtube, including comments by Bertie Ahern and Madelaine McGahern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In response to visitor interest, the Glenview Folk Museum near Fenagh has created a McGahern corner featuring his old wood cooker, the barbeque I mentioned in part 1 and some other items. Some of this material has been loaned and some donated by Madelaine McGahern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A memorial bench has been erected in Ballinamore, at the top of the town across the road from the Shah's business and near where McGahern's aunty had her shop and where the road leads off to Lisacarn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bench incorporates one of my favourite McGahern quotes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just near the bench on the footpath ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BTW I stayed in Ballinamore at Hamill's B&B, it's just near the Shah's business and the proprietess has been on the McGahern summer school tour of nearby 'sites' several times and is well versed. She generously took me on a drive out to Lisacarn.

Photos from my recent visit to McGahern territory (part 1)

 

 

The ruined church at Fenagh near where McGahern lived, and which provides the graveyard scene (and the novel's title) in 'Rising Sun' where Johnny Murphy is buried. It was built on the site of a 6th century monastery and which prior to that had been a Druid site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A barbeque made by McGahern's uncle, Patrick McManus (The Shah in 'Rising Sun'), to be used on an internal fireplace after McGahern commented that he loved to barbeque but the weather was so often unfavourable. The BBQ gets a mention in 'Rising Sun' when the Ruttledges use it to cook dinner for the Murphys' son and his family when they are on a visit from Dublin. The BBQ is now in the Glenview Folk Museum in Fenagh.

 

 

 

 

 

The Barracks in Cootehall, Co. Roscommon, where McGahern's father lived and worked in the Gardai. It is in disuse and Cootehall is virtually a suburb of Carrick now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick McManus's business in Ballinamore. His local nickname is 'patmac'. McGahern called him the Shah because during a time of petrol rationing he carried on like some oil baron presiding over a huge business. The business is still run by McManus's offsider, John Fox (Frank Dolan in the book), now about 80. He was serving petrol the day I met him in late August.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laura Lake, near Fenagh, where McGahern lived. Presumably it provides much of the inspiration for the magnificent nature descriptions in 'Rising Sun'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lane around Laura Lake. McGahern writes about these lanes extensively, of course. They are everywhere in this part of Leitrim. Around Aughwillan and Lisacarn where McGahern lived as a small child there are even more dramatic examples where the trees join up overhead to create a sense of a tunnel. When McGahern was a child they would have still been grass underfoot. In high summer with the perfumes of many flowers and wild herbs they would have been truly intoxicating.