Suzanne Ferriss Lost in Translation Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.
Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academic for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.
Lost in Translation is a BFI Film Classics publication aimed at ‘introd[ucing]. Interpret[ing] and celebrat[ing] landmarks of world cinema’. Suzanne Ferris has fulfilled this task in an engaging and through manner, the detailed information she assembles giving the reader a valuable analysis of the film.
I particularly relished the attention given to the screen shots and have made it a mission to return to the film with this additional information at hand. Although the film can be appreciated without it, what a wealth of understanding this analysis brings to a film that does not give the audience the ‘grander, fiercer – danger’ demanded by critic David Denby, but dares differently. Ferriss does not ignore another source of criticism, the treatment of Japan and Japanese people and culture – there is a comprehensive consideration of this feature in the last chapter which covers reception of the film. This chapter was another which I found immensely worthwhile reflecting upon. See the complete review at Books: Reviews
After the Covid update: Historical by-election result in Aston; Bob McMullan – Election reflections; publishing – The Reality behind Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women The Troublesome Woman Revealed and other publishing possibilities; Wisconsin result; defendant Trump; funding for National Institutions; The Voice and the Liberal Party.
Covid update
To the 31st march there have been 526 new cases recorded. There are 21 people in hospital, with none in ICU, and none ventilated. There has been one life lost in this period. The total number of lives lost since March 2020 is 230.
Historical Result in Aston, Victoria
Labor win Aston by-election in historic upset
By AAP Newswire
Apr 1, 2023
Labor has declared its historic by-election win a ringing endorsement of the Albanese government, while federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton has promised to rebuild following the shock result for his party.
The ABC’s Antony Green called the election for the ALP’s Mary Doyle over the Liberals’ Roshena Campbell, with the win the first time in a century that a government has won a seat from the opposition in a by-election…
Aston by-election – complete with the sausage sizzle, the ‘democracy sausage’ and ‘crucial test’ television coverage.
Bob McMullan
ELECTION REFLECTIONS
There are some important lessons for the Liberal Party to learn from their recent series of election losses. There is no necessary law of political gravity which means that a party which has entered a losing sequence needs or will continue to do so. But if you keep making the same mistakes it is most likely that you will keep getting the same result.
In seeking to draw lessons from the recent results it is important to realise that while the NSW state election was not quite as bad as it appeared on the night the Aston by-election was even worse than the “extraordinary” reports on the night. Commentators, and particularly Liberal commentators including Peter Dutton, have claimed the loss of Alan Tudge’s personal vote as a mitigating factor in their disastrous loss. However, the data shows that Alan Tudge actually underperformed compared to the Liberal performance in adjacent seats by as much as 3%. Therefore, there was a soft 3% that should have been easy for the Liberals to pick up at a by-election and yet they went backwards by more than 6%.
Much analysis will follow about appropriate Liberal responses to their current electoral plight. Some of these are policy matters and others are organizational. It is not appropriate for a life-long Labor man to offer opinions on such matters.
But there is one lesson I believe it would be in the Liberals interests and the national interest for the Liberals to learn.
They need to break out of the coalition with the Nationals!
I noticed Nikki Savva’s recent article in which she raised the possibility of the NSW Liberals dissolving the coalition in opposition. She also says the NSW Liberals believe the federal Liberals should do the same.
This would not be unique, it happens in WA, but it would be unusual. But it would also be very smart.
Anyone who takes a clear-eyed view of the political problems the Liberals face with young professional voters in urban areas, particularly young women, must accept that this problem is going to be impossible to solve while the Liberals are tied to the Nationals.
How will the Liberal candidate attempting to win back Warringah from the Teals, Brisbane from the Greens or Higgins from Labor be able to mount a credible case with Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan with their views about climate change and other issues as a potential part of any government those candidates would be seeking support to form.
This might not be the case in a decentralized state like Queensland, although I think it probably is, but in NSW, Victoria and federally it is a reality which has to be faced.
The coalition is a one-way street. All the benefits flow to the Nationals.
If the Nationals were a party to the right of the Liberals as the Greens are a party to the left of labor some form of political equilibrium might be established to the benefit of the liberals.
What are the Nationals going to do in response? Support the Labor Party? I don’t think so.
The recent NSW and federal elections saw the Nationals crowing that they held all their seats (although in fact in NSW they did not do so). This illustrates their priority, building up massive majorities and fighting off Independents in their safe seats, but showing no interest in helping the Liberals win their urban marginals.
For example, recent polling shows that young voters in WA support the Voice referendum 71/29 and yet the Nationals were quick out of the blocks to oppose the proposal, and it looks like they might lead the Liberals by the nose to do the same.
Furthermore, the Nationals are a declining force. As Australian population continues to grow in the major cities and sea-change trends weaken the Nationals’ hold on coastal seats their influence on electoral outcomes will inevitably continue to decline.
In addition, there is real political mileage for the Labor governments at all levels to pursue the question of the secret agreements between the Liberals and the Nationals in forming a coalition. This secrecy cannot survive in the 21st century and any attempt to do so will only weaken the Liberals further.
The idea of ditching the coalition in opposition makes good sense. If the Liberals have the courage to do it, they may find that it will be easier to ditch the “Skynews after dark” crowd and resist the religious fundamentalists infiltration of their party.
And then they may find that they don’t need a coalition to form a government in future. Confidence and Supply agreements with the Nationals would be enough.
It may seem strange that I am giving advice to the Liberals. I could say that as a democrat I want to see a stronger opposition.
The reality is I feel safe in providing this advice because I am so confident that the contemporary Liberal party is not capable of acting on such advice.
Celebrating a birthday and publication of my book about Barbara Pym: The Reality behind Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women The Troublesome Woman Revealed
Publishing this book has been a positive experience, although one entered with much trepidation. I was the happy recipient of an invitation to publish with Cambridge Scholars Publishing and the result was the book pictured above. I shall write about the experience in future blogs. It is one experience with publication, and I have nothing but praise and appreciation for the support I received, and, of course, the brilliant outcome.
However, while I was living in London, I attended a Guardian Seminar on the various types of publishing available to writers seeking publication. One talk was by Joanna Penn whose story was a great incentive to move beyond the trade publishers; another was by the representative of a trade publisher.
Joanna Penn
Joanna Penn spoke about her experience publishing through a trade publisher which resulted in a garage full of unsold books. She then turned to her experience publishing with Amazon Publishing which she found a more positive experience. She now teaches writing, publishing and marketing through presentations and published works.
She says, ” I’m an award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with 35+ books, with almost a million sold across 169 countries and 5 languages”.
But she also acknowledges mistakes which she discusses on her website, blog, and in pod casts as well as publications.
At the seminar we were presented with her Author Blueprint. The update is available through her site.
https://www.thecreativepenn.com
Wisconsin voters are deciding control of state Supreme Court in most consequential election of 2023
Congratulations Wisconsin voters – Judge Janet Protasiewicz won!
Story by Eric Bradner •
“The race between Democratic-backed Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz and Republican-backed former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly could both break a decadelong era of Republican dominance in one of the nation’s most important swing states and prove pivotal in the fight over the future of abortion access. It’s the most expensive state judicial race ever.”
Defendant Trump
Other American political news – Former President Trump was arraigned in the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Legal experts on MSNBC have contributed to excellent debate on the charges and reactions to them. Republicans have supported the former president – as they did before the charges became clear.
Some excellent news on the Australian cultural scene
Funding lifeline thrown to cultural institutions
$535m has been allocated to arrest decline in infrastructure and service provision, but efficiency dividend to remain.
by Jason Blake on 5 April, 2023
Limelight
Nine major cultural and historical institutions in Australia will receive an extra $535.3m in federal government funding over the next four years.
The Australian National Maritime Museum, Bundanon Trust, Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House), National Archives of Australia, National Film and Sound Archive, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia and National Portrait Gallery of Australia will all benefit from this funding boost, according to the announcement ahead of next month’s budget.
The funding package includes a previously announced $33 million earmarked for the National Library’s digital archive Trove.
Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House, Canberra. Photo Flickr.
The government has flagged that the institutions will receive indexed funding beyond the four years, allowing institutions to meet their current financial obligations and invest for the future.
The government has pledged to establish “a clear line of sight” over future capital works and improvements to ensure the institutions do not fall into disrepair in the future. The efficiency dividend requirement, which was first imposed under the Hawke government in 1987 and requires Commonwealth entities to reduces budgets each year in anticipation of efficiencies being found, will remain.
Arts Minister Tony Burke criticised the former government for allowing major cultural institutions to fall into “a shocking state of disrepair”, adding that the extra funding would help them “back to where they should be – where the government delivers strong core funding and philanthropists take them to the next level.”
The Voice to Parliament
The Voice to parliament was a key recommendation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, which was a 12-paragraph document written and endorsed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders in 2017 to change the Constitution to improve the representation of Indigenous Australians.
Liberal Party has decided not to support The Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Robin's Room 