Snuff is spending a few weeks Shaolin training, so we will be without his fabulous links for a few weeks. But in other news, is Tim Tanking? Fresh from Eyrie’s embarrassing loss in the Miles Franklin, check out the missing numbat in the room with the Booker long list!
That’s right. Nothing.
Is Winton played? Has Tim tanked like oozing old septic down the back of old Drop kick Duram’s place? Where their teenage bodies would roister and fossick next to the rusted out Fordson? Has Tim tanked like the drunk tank in the East Perth lockup, outside of which Nugget Norbert blinked back his hangover as the roistering easterly hit him between the metronomic eyes like a nulla nulla thrown by a ghost aborigine?
Maybe he can now fade into obscurity. Like Albany.
The Worst of Perth 
Ben Elton was looking distinguished this morning at Tasty Delights SoFro. Comfortable in his wealth and family. Perhaps Tim feels the same way?
LikeLike
No doubt. Tim’s probably getting a “feed of crays” right now. Ben is making another foray into shit theatre this year apparently. Maybe they can write one together.
LikeLike
I like the look of The Wake, by Paul KingSNORth. I wonder if he did the deliberately?
LikeLike
No Coetzee either. Maybe it’s a fin de sicle? Which comes after a bellend epoch btw.
LikeLike
Nope, I just read the blurb…..it looks a little snorthy to me.
LikeLike
I’ve gotta say, I’m not a big fan of Winton either. I did find the two books of his that I read eons ago (dirt music and cloud st) very wanky. But i just can’t seem to bring myself to slag him off. For one it’s not in my nature, two i just don’t care enough ( and I can’t really remember his stuff) and three, you guys (some of you) really seem to hate him, not sure I want to be a part of that. I am curious though. Is it just because he writes like he rearranged a thesaurus with a few colloquialisms thrown in. Or is there something more? No judgment here, genuinely interested.
LikeLike
When a good writer turns to cheese, and cloud street is pure cheese, it’s worse than if they were bad. It’s that and the wa cliches shovelled into every sentence &cetera…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I get a good giggle out of the “Wintonings” though!
LikeLike
I get it. I was too young when I read them to really understand what I found annoying about them and I had no idea he used to be a good writer! Just kidding, I was aware of all the hype and excitement surrounding Winton, I just thought I was an uncultivated pleb because I didn’t “get” his work. I’m glad I’m not the only person to find his stuff tedious, but I can’t claim to have come to this conclusion from deep understanding or insight. I just knows what I likes, and that ain’t it.
LikeLike
Strangely, I’m inspired to go back and read some Winton with a more critical eye. Although I suspect I will find myself laughing through the whole thing because I’ll have The Wintonings in the back of my mind. Could be fun.
LikeLike
A reread of Scission will reaffirm his credentials as an excellent writer.
There are passages in Breath that are quite excellent.
The Riders is shit though – not enough that it should be burned.
LikeLike
Haven’t read Scission. It’s hard to believe he doesn’t have some retroactive self parody. Dirt Music is terrible. Can’t remember Breath.
LikeLike
I’ll have a crack at them, thanks for the tip. It’ll give me something to do when I’m supposed to be studying.
LikeLike
Which one is breath? Not the (snore) surfing one? It’s easier to note them by the fish similes. Was it the salmon fishing as coming of age one or the black arse cod as innocence lost one?
LikeLike
I think that’s the one about auto-erotic asphyxiation (Breath)
LikeLike
Reread Coud Street on the back verandah next to that unused dunny as the light filters in through the insufflating melaleucas…
LikeLike
Chortle.
LikeLike
Hmm. Nothing from either a Mantell or a Mantel
LikeLike
I might start with The Bugalugs Bum Thief.
LikeLike
Those Locky Leonard ones are also crap, if you want to go adolescent Wintoning.
LikeLike
No need, they made a crap tv series out of them. I catch them on ABC 3 sometimes when I’m supposed to be studying and am really pretending to spend quality time with my son. Actually, I was just joking about TBBT but then I remembered mum got a copy for my boy, I’m up to chapter 4. Chapter 2 was all about crayfish.
LikeLike
Oh fuck off on the Albany thing.
Then again … obscurity and and a great southern secession from the rest of the west may not be such a bad thing.
LikeLike
What an absolutely delightful blog you have!
LikeLike
There is no pilgrimage more holy than the book promotion tour.
LikeLike
I don’t recall mentioning Albany?
LikeLike
Her Plonkness, TWOPPERS will not rest until there is a cast bronze of his highness Tim Winton, done by no less a figure of renown and worth in the bronze casting field than the Smiths , looking out to sea in Fremantle with a duplicate in Albany.
LikeLike
I forgot to add that Tim would be sitting on a very attractive concrete plinth spelling out “High St ” in Fremantle and “York St” in Albany
LikeLike
Thank you Sir Bill, for clarifying.
No, you didn’t mention Albany Plonks, TLA did.
LikeLike
I rode a penny farthing in Albany. True story.
LikeLike
A velocipede?
Trooly rooly?
Makes a change from the ‘high horse’ ;)
LikeLike
There were no velocipedes, just PFs and vintage pedallers.
LikeLike
Here’s a penny for my fart things. The Smiths devotion to the third dimension is Dali-esque , so expect one leg on the Tim statue to be slightly longer than the other , with ill fitting jeans, and pony tail and crotch bulge in inappropriate places. Enjoy !
LikeLike
Snicker….. As in giggle, not chocolate.
LikeLike