Sunlight and Gumtrees: The Australian Reading/Listening/Watching List

[joe_pike_junior]

I was asked by namasteyoga to recommend some books on Australia, and I thought, why not do a reading list instead? This is not a definitive list of Australian literature. Nor is it a definitive list of Australian writers. Rather, it's a list of books that I feel capture a certain feeling or mood about Australia and Australians -- our experiences, our people

Comments

[daasgrrl]

Hee, you are clearly much, much better versed in Australiana than I am. Personally, I feel the movies MUST include The Castle. (And Picnic at Hanging Rock, but you have that one. Proof is just a great movie; it doesn't make me feel particuarly 'Australian', it's just a great movie.)

I hate Patrick White. Sorry. Fine, I was forced to study one of his plays, and I hated it so much I actually boycotted class while we were doing it. And I don't do that kind of thing. I found The Slap very contrived; good read, but with characters crafted to represent an unlikely microcosm of Australian society, which ime is very tribal.

Music: a big yes to Flame Trees. Down Under is kitsch as hell, but it's one of those things that makes you homesick when you're overseas. As does that bloody Qantas anthem, and Tenterfield Saddler. But my absolute must-hear would be This is Australia. And the entirety of Keating!, but we're getting obscure now :)

[joe_pike_junior]

I think some of this is down to working in the bookshop. I got a sense of what was important to people, what they felt was truly representative, etc etc. And after reading a couple of "must-read" Australiana lists as research I feel much less well read -- I haven't read Eucalyptus for example, or Capricornia, or Poor Fellow, My Country...

Was the Season at Sarsparilla? I LOVED THAT. :D I was talking to my dad the other day about how Patrick White was quite catty, and how that comes across in his writing. I wouldn't blame you at all for not finding him likeable.

Yeah, I feel like my feel for Australian music is more willing to tolerate cheesiness than my music taste in general. I was going to add a few Slim Dusty songs, because he's Slim Dusty and my mum listens to him occasionally, but I don't know how he'd come across to someone from overseas. Probably not favourably. Down Under I associate with pubs. Beds are Burning's probably my all-time top Midnight Oil song. This is Australia too! And Light on the Hill I love -- you only get

[daasgrrl]

It was a play, Signal Driver. I've mostly blocked it out, but from vague memory, it's two hoboes on a nature strip talking about life and waiting for a bus, that I'm not sure ever comes. I don't know if it's meant to be an Antipodean Waiting For Godot or what. Maybe I might appreciate it more now, but at the time I was all, 'wtf, dude, really?'. I just found it Completely Pointless XD

[joe_pike_junior]

Speaking of which - LOL, Chaser boys. I haven't been watching the Hamster Wheel, even though I keep meaning to.
I'm so out of touch with television. I'm not sure if I will watch that -- I occasionally found the Chaser gang deeply annoying.

INXS! Yes! And Powderfinger also. Keating! is one of those things that's just suffused with the whole Australian sensibility that's difficult to explain. Man, I've gotta see it sometime. There's a DVD, right? My parents saw it and loved it, but I didn't because... I dunno, I was six or seven when Howard was elected (doesn't that sound like the beginning of some epic tragic novel?), so I kind of thought I'd have less of an understanding of the culture behind it all. Have you ever seen the Wharf Revue? I love that.

[daasgrrl]

Yeah, I don't watch...any TV really, at least on TV...except very occasionally the news. I still like the Chaser, though - they never reached annoying for me :)

There is a DVD somewhere of Keating!, yep. I tend to agree that if you weren't around during the Hawke/Keating years, it probably won't mean anywhere near as much to you. But still, good for history, and all XD

Have never seen the Wharf Revue, although it's virtually an institution now.

[joe_pike_junior]

I think the last thing I watched on television was the Royal Wedding (FEEL FREE TO JUDGE). Although two of my ex-flatmates pretty much had the TV on 24-7. This was just after digital TV started so I remember being surprised at all the documentaries that were on! And how I was going to watch all the things! But that excitement faded quickly.

Have never seen the Wharf Revue, although it's virtually an institution now. I love it! It usually goes to Parramatta and Penrith as well. Must-see IMO.