R.J. Conlon: ‘I’m Not Bitter’
I’m Not Bitter
This is the piece that should have won. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not putting down the winner. The winner was worthy in a nice friendly way. It amazes me how the winner was able to express mediocrity with reinvigorated clichés; they were vibrant clichés; a burst of psychedelic colours just before the washing powder box appeared and the TV ad came to an end. That pretty much sums up their writing.
I’m not putting them or their writing down. I would never say their writing belongs on a supermarket shelf mixed in with the no-name brands, although I have heard it bandied about. Someone did pull me aside, just out of sight, for that quiet word and they said to me they couldn’t remember what the winner wrote or read. It was at that moment I choked on my coca cola spraying it out of my nose and I didn’t proceed to say that every time the winner comes off stage after reading, the first thing people ask the writer is, “When are you getting up to…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins