The Silence of the Shams

Yes, it’s me again.  Sorry!  But I’ve got something I need to get off my chest and, yes, it concerns fauxboriginal charlatan Bruce Pascoe and how, ever since his scholarship, ethics and general honesty were revealed by myself and others to be conspicuous by their absence

I guess any organisation will receive many letters that can be safely consigned to the rubbish bin with not more than a cursory glance but when I was younger, it was regarded as de rigeur to at the very least provide a polite acknowledgement of receipt of any letter that was not obviously junk mail, abusive or malicious.   That would apply even more so if the letter were accompanied by some sort of gift.  Clearly, as in so many other areas, this simple courtesy is no longer seen as necessary.  The logic seems to be ‘If we don’t reply, you can assume we are not interested’.  Admittedly, that has been the case in the publishing industry for some time – presumably for pragmatic reasons – but I cannot…