'LGBT community' lie

Before buying the notion that LGBT people are a community make sure you read this by an author who identifies as G:

"But it is worth bearing these internal frictions and contradictions in mind when people talk about the LGBT community, or try to co-opt it for any political purpose. It barely exists even within each letter of its constituent parts. And each has little in common with the others. Before decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1960s things were arguably slightly different. But the L’s don’t need the G’s today, and the G’s don’t much care for the L’s and almost everybody can be united in suspicion of the B’s. And there is tremendous dispute over whether the T’s are the same thing as everybody else or an insult to them. Still nobody is any the wiser about where any or all of this comes from. And yet it remains the means by which people are willing to identify vast swathes of the population, and build one of the defining justifications and bases for the liberal society."

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, Douglas Murray, 2019

Elsewhere in the book Murray identifies how T's seek society to hold two competing 'truths': "You can not understand me" & "You must understand me".

Shalom,

Ozhamada

Note: I borrowed the book from City of Sydney Library.

Note: Pastor Doug Wilson also believes that there is no such thing as a LGBT community: 

Review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (novel)

Great story, good plot development, credible characters, yet……around the three-quarter mark the book took on too many characteristics of a mass-market, airport bookshop novel. Indeed, at that mark the book started to have a made-for-movie feel about it. Then there was the trashy sex - with the main male character loose in bed; trading up and down the age range. 

** spoiler alert ** Summary of book: disgraced Swedish journalist is employed by ageing industrialist to solve a family mystery. The mystery is solved and a family secret uncovered. Some people die, some get a pleasant surprise, lots have sex, and Australia features.

Unbelievable element: that anyone would want to leave Australia for a cold place like Sweden after becoming engrossed in the Australian countryside.

Lowpoint: rape incident, poorly quoted Bible verses.

Highlight: Australia, Australian flower

Plot hole: despite the disgraced Swedish journalist attendance at the local newspaper office (to look through the archives) a staffer at that newspaper office later wokes to the presence of the disgraced Swedish journalist in the town.



Shalom,
Ozhamada

Review of a novel 'Bloke' by Bruce Pascoe

“At last Bob ambled into the yard to take a piss

 at the base of the lemon tree.

As you do.

Scratched his napper, rearranged his balls.

I could see the thought of a cup of tea cross his mind.”

The above quote neatly summarises everything I enjoyed of the language of the novel 'Bloke'. The language makes images jump from the page. The reader is in the yard. The reader can see Bob scratch his head. Oddly, the reader can also see the thought of a cup of tea cross Bob’s mind.

This was the first of Bruce Pascoe’s fictional works that I had read. I first read Pascoe’s non-fiction work Dark Emu. Pascoe writes fiction in a manner like Tim Winton; both engaging the reader in the colour and spectacular of the Australian environment.

I particularly enjoyed the use of metyonmy; so swim-fins where referred to as slippers.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

[242 words] #darkemu #blackseeds #brucepascoe #indigenous #aboriginal #Australians #heritage #culture #custodians

Review of ‘Table’, a play

It was a big theatrical week with Biloxi Blues a marvelous Neil Simon play on Wednesday night at Castle Hill’s Pavilion Theatre & then Table at Seymour Centre.

The Best family’s dining table handed down through six generations. As the play opens we are at first in modernity as two characters ponder the various scratches, scuffs, discolourations and leopard claw marks upon the table surface. Each distinctive mark is a different story. The next scene, based in the cathedral town within Staffordshire; Lichfield, takes the audience back to the start of the six-generation family heritage when the table was first crafted – as a wedding present from husband to wife. In the scenes that follow the story of each of the table’s distinctive marks is revealed. The table is transported to and from Africa; the Christian mission of one of the family’s women.

It is in Africa that the table dramatically obtains the leopard claw marks.

We were fortunate to see the play last night at the first preview.

The play was special in that our household has it’s own table - a table that has a story. That story started on buying it from a couple at cost of the purchase of their new table. It may seem odd that we bought them a table, however, the exchange worked in that they found the table too large for the nook they had placed it in. Our table comfortable sits sixteen, weighs a tonne, and is well crafted in Australian timbers. The table we purchased for the couple was also finely crafted yet twelve placing settings proved to have greater utility to them.

The acting was grand. The few actors adept at managing the transition of role as each new scene took the audience to a new generation of the family. The set and props are minimalist so there is a degree of pressure on the actors to survive without any distractions to the eye.

One actor remarks:

“I hate this table”.

Yet, the audience recognises the sentiment at odds with the table’s history.

We travelled by public transport with buses to door. The plays runs 26th July to 17th August, 2019 and you can book here: https://www.seymourcentre.com

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#theatre #sydney #seymourcentre

Review of Neil Simon play Biloxi Blues

A heady mix of laughter, latrines, marches through Mississippi swamps, sleepless three-day train journeys and basic army training all come together in Biloxi Blues a marvelous Neil Simon play. It is 1943 and the jumble together crew of army recruits need to shape-up before shipping-out to an unknown war zone.

We were fortunate to see the play last night prior to Friday opening.

The acting was grand and yet I feel the need to first comment on set design and costumes. 

The authenticity of both sets and costumes is very sound. It is a credit to the set designers that they move so much staging materials in so little time. The audience had a real sense of the actors being in the cramped train carriage; the light passing by the window and the set rocking pushed by hands unseen. The costumes were authentic through to accuracy of the dance dresses worn by the convent girls.

As to the acting - I best loved the in-play consideration of journal writing. As one of the recruits made entries in his journal, and as the journal was read out, one could sense the playwright’s own comprehension of the power of the written word. There is a great line that is salient for today’s age of false news:

“Just because something is written down doesn’t make it true”.

Then, there was also the intriguing completeness of one character's Talmudic logic.

Pavilion Theatre is not much to the eye as you approach and yet it is a warm and inviting theatre inside. Seating is comfortable with good legroom and an elevation to each row to offer easy viewing.

Thank you to Ticket Wombat and the Pavilion Theatre for the freebie double tixs. Car parking was a breeze in the ample showground parking spaces and the coffee at interval was free and hot. We’d considered catching NSW’s shiny new thing, the Metro, with Hills Showground station within a 500m walk of the Theatre, however, buses were running instead of trains. The plays runs 26 July 2019 to 17 August 2019 and you can book here: https://www.facebook.com/events/378002956186611/

Shalom,

Ozhamada

#theatre #castlehillplayers #ticketwombat