Pseuds Corner No 13

. . . an occasional column devoted to meaningless, self-important, euphemistic, contorted and plain weird prose from throughout the media-sphere. Send you favourite examples to pseuds' HQ: pseudsaustralia@yahoo.com.au [Ed]

Writing the second novel is supposed to be hard, because you write into expectation. . . This, now, is the matter most at hand for me. And if in some ways that deadens the passion, it certainly invigorates the experience -- the vividness of it all. Because it is located more in the work, the voyage, the journey (insert your own platitude), and less in the ethereal destination of arrival, success, ego, fame, some killer whale of need (insert your own platypus).
Sisyphus (sisyphus, platypus, tomayto, tomato) springs to mind. What would Sisyphus have done if he'd ever got that rock to the top? How would he have felt? Don't we need the struggle, even if we struggle with it? - So in this way, every novel is a first novel. All the uncertainty, even if they're different uncertainties. All the investment. But mostly, the same shackling to the fundamental experience the novel takes place in: your life. (John Bauer, "Another first novel")

In the case of classical music, record companies and entrepreneurs appeal to our hedonistic responses when they decide to package all Mahler's slow movements in one box set - that's over 150 minutes of contemplation, melancholia and metaphysical yearning with proportional profit margins to match. But, far away from the profit dollar, what we are contemplating here is the texture of time. Mahler, through his seemingly immobile phrases, elongated compositional lines and heady climaxes, teaches us that our thoughts and ideas can be short or long, that there is no right or wrong to slow versus fast. (Xenia Hanusiak compares the slow food movement to the slow movement of Mahler's Fifth Symphony, The Age 25/01/2011)

The gospel references don't intrude with a reverberant or religiose rhetoric, but Steele often gives chapter and verse at the start of a poem, as if a religious vision were the gnomic precondition of this swirling erudite talk that has been made artifactual and poetic without losing the implication of a moral dimension. . .
It's a sense of the fated journey that makes the book moving for all the bric-a'-brac of its referencing and erudite innuendoes and inflections. There's a beautiful sombre line in a poem that is among other things a tribute to the high and hairy language of the Irish: "The road to Heaven is well enough signed,/ but it's badly lit at night." Yes, we know not the day nor the hour, though this book of poems is luminous with the sense of a mortality costing not less than everything and the light that darkness is configured by. (Peter Craven reviews Peter Steele's The Gossip and the Wine, The Age)

"We're seeing younger consumers and younger members of society re-evaluate their role within wealth creation in often very, very social ways. That lies at the heart of "betapreneurialism"; your reason for doing something isn't necessarily just about making yourself wealthier. There is an implicit consideration of those who are part of that journey with you. . . Baby boomers were all about self; self-pleasing, self-actualisation, and finding value in self. What you now see when you look at a younger generation is people who are re-evaluating the reasons why you do something. And I think there is less of an inclination to think that it's really about fiscal generation; it's about value generation." (Chris Sanderson, "guru trend-spotter", in conversation with Michael Short in The Zone)

"Sustainability at the University of Melbourne is evolving beyond an operational focus to a philosophy underpinning all that we do. . . The University has a long-term commitment to reducing the environmental impact of our operations, while developing opportunities for students and staff to be informed and empowered as advocates for a more sustainable world. . . The growing importance of 'Education for Sustainability' is reflected in our graduate attributes, enabling graduates to become 'active global citizens' and to 'be advocates for improving the sustainability of the environment'." (Chris White in conversation with Shane Cahill about the myriad ways in which a philosophy of sustainability is being practised in the operations of the University of Melbourne's Property and Campus Services, The Melbourne (University) Voice, March, 2011)

Vintage Pseuds

Many areas in the arts still need financial stabilisation. Others need consolidation and some need growth. A redefinition of the Australia Council's "Key Organisations" should be undertaken. At present the category is too large and indistinct, with a massive variance occurring within its spectrum. There is a need for a new platform of support for "flagship" organisations across the art forms. Flagship organisations are those that commission ambitious new works and engage with multiple audiences. They need differentiation from the incubator groups catering to niche and cogniscenti clusters. These flagship organisations already exist, but are buried in the morass of "Key Organisations". Their leading role in creating national cultural assets and setting the national cultural agenda needs to be recognised and supported. Funding these organisations will assist the arts to flourish, make them more accessible, and by extension create an adaptive, innovative society.
The "small to medium" performing-arts sector was analysed in 2002, but no particular financial action was taken. These are urgent issues. Artistic and professional outputs have already plateaued in this vital part of the arts sector. We need government funds to increase our capacity, to bring human resources up to an acceptable professional level. . . (Juliana Engberg, "The Arts" in Dear Mr Rudd: Ideas for a Better Australia, 2008)