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Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Culture. Show all posts

Climate change strikes Canberra

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Cold winters in the Canberra region? Quelle surprise!

Like a GBU-57 bunker buster, global warming turned into global boiling and then suddenly turned into weather so cold it burst pipes in Canberra schools. Using the expression that has now been put into text by our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, it must be CLIIIIIIMATE CHAAAAAAAANGE!!!

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Are you cold? Apparently burst icy pipes in Canberra are a sign of the global warming apocalypse. Don’t question it.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Lastly, Michael de Percy has an annoyance du jour. Canberra and its surrounding regions lately have been experiencing their severest cold weather for a while (but has it reached the regular minus 9s of my early 80s uni days at the ANU?), But no, the official explanation in the Stalinist Republic of the Molonglo is man-made climate change, and that rightly annoys Dr de Percy.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Climate change strikes Canberra.

Vandalising the Vietnam war memorial an act of sacrilege

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 9 RAR soldiers during their farewell parade from South Vietnam in November 1969 [Public Domain]

My letter to the editor was published in the Canberra Times today.

Today (Tuesday, March 12) I saw the photos of the vandalism of the Vietnam War Memorial in Canberra and I am livid.

How dare they. Get out of my country.

If it was not for those who served in the Australian military and the thousands of Americans who died defending Australia the freedoms the perpetrators abuse would not exist.

If they think Australia's responses to the Malayan Emergency, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War were wrong then go and live in North Korea and enjoy the paradise they must imagine exists there.

The police have to prosecute those responsible. They have crossed a line.

No leniency should be shown.

Michael de Percy, Gunning, NSW 

It’s time the ABC was privatised

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Coronation Procession at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla. Photo: Katie Chan [CC BY-SA 4.0]

In my view, the ABC no longer provides news and current affairs content that is relevant to mainstream Australians. This means that mainstream Australian taxpayers are funding the Woke, biased content that constantly streams from the so-called public broadcaster. Yet the ABC’s news and current affairs service only represents a narrow, left-wing audience. It is time the people who actually watch or listen to the ABC paid for it. It is time for the ABC’s news and current affairs service to be privatised.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator Australia's Flat White, "It’s time the ABC was privatised".

Australia's Korean War 70 years on

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At the DMZ, April 2023

As we approach the 70th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement (July 27, 1953), it is timely to reflect on Australia’s contribution to securing what is effectively the frontier of democracy.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Australia's Korean War 70 years on.

Memes: The Road to Collectivism

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As politics becomes increasingly polarised, policymakers are no longer focused on giving voters what they want, but on making voters want what they are given. Rather than presenting policies as rational choices for individual voters, policies increasingly ignore the intelligence of individuals in support of a collectivist agenda.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Memes: The Road to Collectivism:

Divide et Impera: Culture wars and the end of pluralism

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"Me trying to live my life" Tuba Meme

Pluralism – or the ‘doctrine of multiplicity’ - tends to go hand-in-hand with liberal democracy. Based on the concept of ‘freedom of assembly and association’, individuals are generally free to protest peacefully or be part of non-violent groups and to organise around common interests and promote their views publicly. This has not always been the case.

Leading Flat White, Michael de Percy believes that the ‘divide and conquer’ mentality dominating the Culture Wars is on the verge of winning. ‘Pluralism – or the “doctrine of multiplicity” – tends to go hand-in-hand with liberal democracy. Based on the concept of ‘freedom of assembly and association’, individuals are generally free to protest peacefully or be part of non-violent groups and to organise around common interests and promote their views publicly. This has not always been the case.’ He goes on to add, ‘How times have changed…’

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Divide et Impera: The end of pluralism.

What does Australia Day mean to me?

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Nothing says Australia Day like Aussie flags made in China, sold by Germans, with Mardi Gras beer. 

Tomorrow, I'm gonna wave my Aussie flag, made in China, sold by Germans, while drinking my cans of Mardi Gras-badged Little Creatures Pale Ale, because I bloody can because that's what Australia Day means to me.

This came about after Telstra's CEO decided to abandon the Australia Day holiday and certify their wokeness. As a customer, I am not impressed.

So I put in a complaint to Telstra via the Telstra App. Surprisingly, the helpdesk was on to it toot sweet! Perhaps they have had enough of woke bosses, too?



Decolonising ends up where, exactly?

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Brittania Rules the Waves. Nicholas Habbe, 1876 [CC0]

Before the Christmas holidays, one of my mates jokingly said something about ‘soon you’ll be writing about the left’s war on Christmas’. I hadn’t thought about it until I noticed all of Australia’s universities, apart from two, had ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘wishing you a happy festive season’ as their Christmas messages on LinkedIn. A commenter suggested to one of our oldest universities, ‘it’s OK to say Merry Christmas, you know’. I’m all for celebrating and respecting the various religious holidays but why is it so difficult to say ‘Merry Christmas’? Christmas, it seems, like much of the great tapestry of Western civilisation, is routinely demonised. It stems from an emerging academic trend known as ‘decolonising’ and it represents a misguided attempt to undo history and the foundations of the Western tradition. But to what end, exactly?

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Decolonising ends up where, exactly?

A Grassroots Revival of Conservative Politics

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Dr Michael de Percy presenting at the Public Policy Network 2020 Conference.

John Howard and Peter Costello are right to remind the federal government that we are 'robbing the future to pay for [the] present'. With Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ warning about Australia’s ageing population setting up the scene for an 'important announcement' (which will probably mean the stage 3 tax cuts will be removed and taxes will be increased), the time is ripe for the Coalition to put forward what they do best – reforms. Coinciding the reforms required within the party (as set out in the recent review of the party) with a policy platform based on conservative values will provide a clear distinction between Labor and the government-in-waiting. But that alone will not be enough. What is needed is a grassroots revival of conservative politics in Australia.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, A Grassroots Revival of Conservative Politics:

Striking down the law to get at the devil

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Robert Bolt's 'A Man for All Seasons'. Photo: Patrick Huber [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0] 

It began when the lawns atop Parliament House were fenced off. The whole point of the design of Parliament House was to enable the physical and symbolic act of the people walking over the Parliament as a reminder that our elected representatives are beneath the people. Parliamentary sovereignty in Australia means that the people are sovereign. Since, however, Australia has been on a crash course to diminish the sovereignty of the people as technocrats incrementally grab more power. And we are letting it happen.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, The sovereignty of technocrats and rule of lawyers. The editorial read:
Australians are getting the distinct feeling that they are no longer governed over by law – but rather by lawyers, technocrats, the media, and celebrities. It’s not only the bizarre ritual of ‘trial by mob’ making a comeback in the #MeToo era – it is everything. Our institutions have lost touch with what were once binding ideas and now society has been cast adrift, left to the mercy of headlines and hashtags.

Would you fight the next war in a conventional submarine?

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CSS Hunley - a woke submarine for our times. Photo: Wally Gobetz [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

Do armchair warriors really believe our submariners should fight in obsolete diesel-electric submarines in defence of our nation? Making the performative French President happy should never come at the expense of our defence force personnel.

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, Ignore the French, the next war requires nuclear subs.

The Korean War: The Long March to Liberty

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Nuclear Missile Deterrents, Korean War Museum [Michael de Percy CC BY-ND 4.0]

I visited the Korean War Memorial on 22 September 2022. I have never seen a B-52 in the flesh. I will let these photos speak for themselves for now.















The Australian War Memorial is not a political football

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Gunning Chapter of the RSL, ANZAC Day 2022. Photo by Eliza Markert [CC BY-ND 4.0] 

Here is my latest article in The Spectator's Flat White, The Australian War Memorial is not a political football.

We must align our university research with Australia’s strategic intent

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Publish or Perish? (Photo: Whiskey Monday via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Academics often have lofty ideals about passion-driven curiosity in designing research projects. But these ideals are rarely practical. Changing times demand a changing focus in our approach to publicly funded research.

The ‘publish or perish’ metric drives many researchers to trendy topics that have little consequence in terms of Australia’s place in the world. In fact, the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) program has had the opposite effect, with Australian research journals rarely meeting the desired first quartile rankings that are essential for promotion in the academy.

The Prime Minister recently stated that the ‘publish or perish’ metric must give way to the commercialisation imperative. While this may be possible in some disciplines like the industrial sciences, this too is a flawed metric. And the potential for commercialisation in our current public-funded research system is a nightmare of bureaucratic red tape that will take more than good intentions to overcome.

Take the national Science and Research Priorities administered by the Department of Industry as a case in point. Third on the list is transport, which includes policy and other areas that are related to the social rather than the industrial or natural sciences. 

Health is the ninth priority. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the science is fine. But the social and political issues have caused more problems than the natural sciences can explain in any meaningful way.

To be sure, energy and other policies are underpinned by science, but the practical approaches to deploying the science are beset by politics to ‘satisfice’ rather than deliver the most efficient or effective solution.

To take the national research priorities seriously, universities need to be incentivised to align research centres that establish collaborative networks focused on publishing research not only in the best journals but in Australian journals that are open access and available for anyone to use for free. It is rather strange that publicly funded Australian research outputs are hidden behind a commercial paywall and often in overseas journals.

When I was in Canada in 2007 a Harvard professor suggested that the best way to commercialise research is for companies to hire the best PhD graduates in the relevant field and to pay them to develop the company’s own intellectual property. Partnering with universities is such a barrier to commercialisation that it is hardly worth the effort.

Australia’s track record with commercialising our own competitive advantages leaves much to be desired. Take for instance the native macadamia nut. The US produced the most of this native crop until Australia gained ground up until 2015, only to lose the title to South Africa recently.

Consider also the CSIRO’s development of ‘fast wifi’ technology. Our world-leading research organisation had to fight its way through US courts to claim fees from their 1996 patent. If a government research agency has problems commercialising, what hope have our lumbering universities?

We are entering a stage in our strategic situation that will rely heavily on the higher education system if we are to address the challenges of the future. Our submariners need PhDs in nuclear engineering or physics. We need social and political approaches to effectively deploy scientific solutions. We need a cadre of educators sympathetic to our national priorities. And we need to provide incentives to keep the best educators in the sector.

Changing trade and security relations in the post-pandemic world order stress the importance of commercialising research. But so too is the necessity for language skills in Japanese, Hindi, Chinese, and Indonesian. Australians are notoriously monolingual, and this remains a barrier to commercialisation in the region.

There is scope for passion-driven research and academic freedom, and such ideals do not have to be at odds with the national research priorities. But if we are to ensure our future prosperity and security, commercialisation is one of many approaches to address the end of free market globalisation.

Rather than force all academic disciplines to commercialise, the key to integrating our research outputs is to align universities with our national research priorities. Such research must also prioritise open access publication in Australian journals if the outputs are to be useful.

NSW ICAC Model: 'Shame culture' institution not suited to Australian democracy

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Poor timing of the announcement into the investigation of Gladys Berejiklian aside, the NSW ICAC model represents a 'shame culture' institution that is not suited to Australian democracy.

The announcement by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of an investigation into the NSW Premier's alleged "breach of public trust" the week before lockdown ends was inherently political, despite it being within the institution’s powers.

The many people who voted for the NSW Government can be justifiably upset by the timing and the fact that unelected bodies like ICAC can influence political leadership in times of crisis. What system of redress do voters have toward this unelected body? 

Citizens do not vote for ICAC, but ICAC has created a situation that has toppled the leader of the party the majority of voters in NSW wanted to be in government. 

In the context of the current crisis, NSW citizens may be justifiably confused by the over-reach of power given to ICAC. Adam Smith's ‘impartial and well-informed spectator’ would be right to question whether ICAC’s actions were politically motivated.

In addition to preventing corruption, the model for ICAC in NSW has created a situation where an unelected body can ruin a state premier's reputation by doing little more than raising a suspicion. Simply put, the model for the NSW ICAC, originally designed to root out endemic corruption in 1980s NSW, has more recently focused on a process of ‘naming and shaming’.

To be sure, ICAC has had its successes in fighting corruption, but since its founding in 1988, three NSW premiers have now been named and shamed. The first two premiers lost their positions but were subsequently found not to have broken the law.

And a third premier has been shamed initially through collateral damage from a public hearing into another person, and subsequently through a public announcement of an investigation. This resulted in her resignation.

ICAC's powers need to be reviewed. Its current model can disrupt political leadership at the whim of an announcement. Three unelected bureaucrats, one full-time and two part-time commissioners, effectively hold the power of veto over state premiers in NSW.

A similar anti-corruption body has been debated at the federal level. But rather than the NSW model, the proposed federal model would not have public hearings. Some say that this is wrong - if it is good enough for others then it is good enough for the political elite.

But imagine if a prime minister was wrongly named and shamed and the federal government imploded like the NSW government is imploding this week? There is a clear incentive for enemies of the Australian state to use this system to destabilise our national government. Arguably, a federal anti-corruption body in the same mould as NSW represents a national security risk.

The NSW ICAC requires reform. Unelected bodies that have such power over our liberal democratic system are a destabilising force. That a third NSW premier has fallen from the 'shame culture' response created by ICAC suggests the efficacy of ICAC has been compromised by this capability.

But even if ICAC finds that the NSW Premier acted unethically (as opposed to illegally), is the political instability worth the finding? Voters are best able to decide who should lead them. Finding political solutions to political problems is a basic principle of liberal democracies.

The key issue is prosecuting something versus publicly naming and shaming. ‘Naming and shaming’ creates collateral damage that cannot be undone. Public hearings that destabilise our political system do not make politicians more accountable. They distract our political leaders from doing their jobs, especially in times of crisis. 

The concept of the rule of law provides for the rights of individuals and the inherent principle of innocence until proven guilty. Nevertheless, in cases such as those relating to national security, the burden of proof can be reversed. But the point is that the 'accused' engages with the legal process.

NSW ICAC investigations, when announced, do not facilitate the concepts of 'innocent until proven guilty' or rely on the reversal of the burden of proof. ICAC announcements are a form of naming and shaming that reinforces the perception of guilt.

The NSW ICAC model represents a 'shame culture' institution that is not suited to Australian democracy. Any federal anti-corruption body would benefit from closer adherence to the accepted norms of the rule of law and avoid the naming and shaming model adopted in NSW.

Exploring Cultural References in "Mad Men"

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Mad Men: Pete Campbell, Don Draper, and Roger Sterling. Photo: MCC Current [CC BY-SA 2.0] via Flickr.

The Ultimate Guide to Mad Men: The Guardian Companion to the Slickest Show on TelevisionThe Ultimate Guide to Mad Men: The Guardian Companion to the Slickest Show on Television by Will Dean

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Recent period-drama television series closely resemble soap operas but with a twist: there is much to learn from deliberate literary, cultural, and historical references. 

I first became aware of Mad Men while reading a post on The Art of Manliness about Don Draper's haircut. Much has been written about the series on respected media websites, including the Wall Street Journal, The Conversation, and The Guardian. (Another of my favourite period-dramas, Downton Abbey, has a similar following in terms of literary, cultural and historical references.) 

I purchased this book to delve deeper into some of the cultural references appearing in the series. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the more obvious references, such as Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency, Palisades Amusement Park, the story of Park Avenue Armory, Penn Station, and other historical sites. The New York Public Library has also compiled a Mad Men reading list and a series of 1960's fashion illustrations. 

What I didn't know was that most of this book is available on The Guardian's website. The book itself is formulaic, and only covers the first three seasons. Aside from some interesting essays on the various sociological aspects of the show, the general format is a description of each episode, commentary on the social and cultural references, and comments by a number of the participants on the original blog. 

It wasn't riveting stuff, and at times I felt that almost anyone with the right institutional backing could produce such an easy (lazy?) book. Having said that, I discovered much that I had missed on my several viewings of the series. 

Like Downton Abbey, so much of the background research that went into writing the drama is far from self-evident, and there is much to be gained from lifting the lid on the research. Even the anachronisms and historical errors (usually stemming from poetic licence) are sources of fascinating knowledge. 

Matthew Weiner's work is first-class, and I must admit to a tinge of envy that someone could know so much and write for the screen. Of course, this is no ordinary person, but it was interesting that one of the blog commentators noticed in the credits that a mental health expert had been employed in the making of one episode. I took some solace in the fact that such big productions are the work of many people. (Until I discovered that Matthew Weiner has written a novella, too. Now I will have to read it - and that's how my reading process works!) 

I have often struggled with the idea of not finishing books that I do not like, but then I often end up discovering something interesting in even the worst of books. Not that this book is so bad, but when the formula for the final episode of the book ends, so does the book. It is followed by a list of the music featured in each episode. (Check out Spotify's Mad Men playlist - the soundtrack is great!) 

I often get a bit snobbish about the value of a television series in comparison to literature. But the same could be said of my favourite computer game, Sid Meier's Civilization, which has been referred to as a form of "edutainment". 

In many ways, I find television series, particularly period-dramas, a useful form of Netflix bingeing with a mild excuse of having some educational value. For example, after finishing both Mad Men and Downton Abbey, I looked for the "best" television series to start on next. Consistently, Breaking Bad rated as the best television series of all time. But after a few episodes, I found the show rather empty and I abandoned it soon after. 

Recently, Grimm had me hooked, and it has sent me off to learn all about the Black Forest and the Grimm brothers. I daresay learning from Breaking Bad would not lead to the type of education I am seeking! But I digress. 

I learnt much from this book, but it is obviously dated, and I am in no rush to read up more about Mad Men any time soon. But I will continue to delve into the many literary, cultural, and historical references from the series (and this book), but I really must be a little more critical with my reading choices and not rely on a brand name (no pun intended) when going off the beaten track.




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Learning Italo Calvino's Literary Oeuvre

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Il Duce. Mussolini in Mailand, May 1930. Photo [CC-BY-SA 3.0] via Wikimedia.

Into the WarInto the War by Italo Calvino

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Calvino wrote these three short autobiographical stories despite his criticism of autobiographies. The works were written in Italian in 1954, and only translated into English in 2011. 

The stories tell the tale of Calvino's youth in Mussolini's Italy at the beginning of the Second World War. Calvino was too young to serve when war broke out, and by the time he was of age to serve, he avoided the Fascist draft and become a partisan. 

A few things stand out for me. Life in the early period of the war seems to have been quite mundane, especially for a teenager. The usual goings-on of teenage life seem to fit, relatively unchanged, into the backdrop of war. Even a trip to the newly conquered French town of Menton provides mostly a backdrop for what a teenage boy might do. 

At the same time, a subtext of the Fascist movement is ever-present, and subtle hints at the Fascist's glorying in their conquering as if re-imagining a Roman past appear in the actions and words of the adults who direct the boys in their guard and sentry duties. 

In his translator's introduction, Martin McLaughlin mentions Calvino's relationship with his father, and how the father concludes the three short stories by walking off with his dog to do his normal duties as if nothing else was going on. While the likes of Mortimer Adler have suggested not reading introductions before embarking on a new book, I find it increasingly useful when I am in the early stages of reading an author's works. 

This is only my fourth Calvino work, and I am yet to grasp the nature of his oeuvre. I found the same when first reading Hemingway, but after learning more about his life and other non-literary background readings, I came to better appreciate his work as I read it. 

I found the introduction useful with Calvino and I was able to follow the subtle hints to the backstory of his father that I may have otherwise missed. The translation seems to work well, and if anything is lost in translation I can only imagine how brilliant Calvino's work must be in the original (if I could read Italian, that is). 

Already, I am surprised by the diversity of Calvino's work, especially when compared with Hemingway, where almost all of his work (except perhaps Garden of Eden, although it is somewhat the antithesis) is a variation on a theme. I am intrigued by Calvino. 

Whether it is reading someone other than an Anglophone I am not sure, but I have the same experience of reading Walter Benjamin or even Harold Bloom. This makes me think that Calvino's literary work is brilliant. And that's it.



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On Taste, Sound, and Smell: Calvino's unfinished business

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Skunks rayé ou mouffette. Photo by Tomfriedel [CC BY 3.0] via Wikimedia.

Under The Jaguar SunUnder The Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My experience of Calvino is quite limited, but after reading his Why Read the Classics, learning more about Calvino's influence from Harold Bloom, and more recently purchasing The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Novel, I have decided to immerse myself in Calvino's work. 

In Under the Jaguar Sun, Calvino begins what was planned to be a novel on the five senses. Unfortunately, Calvino died before he was able to complete sight and touch, but the three short stories on taste, sound, and smell survive and work as stand alone pieces, or pieces on a theme. 

The first story (the title piece) covers taste and tells the story of a couple of gastro-tourists discovering the link between taste and ancient Central American human sacrifice and cannibalism. 

The second piece, "A King Listens", had me shivering with imagery so vivid as to be on the edge of surreal. 

The third piece, "The Name, the Nose", was my favourite, although I can barely work out what was meant to have happened. This is, so far, the most gritty of Calvino's work I have read. 

It reminded me of Bukowski crossed with Thomas Mann. The language seems suited to the 1980s (when it was written), but after mostly reviews of classic works and Marcovaldo, I wasn't ready for Calvino to be so grunge. 

Cynthia Ozock's review in the New York Times of 23 October 1988 suggests "The Name, the Nose" was not a success. 

But I found it interesting in the way it echoes Arthur Schnitzler's Dream Story. Or rather, having previously thought of Calvino as a late-nineteenth early-twentieth century writer, "The Name, the Nose" is more like Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, where you get the sense that the characters and setting are of another time, but not as in the "on steroids" Baz Luhrmann version of Romeo and Juliet. 

I am often amazed at how good short stories can fire up the imagination in such a way that the work takes some time to digest. "The Name, the Nose" has left its residue, and while it may not be regarded as one of Calvino's best, I am pleased to discover that his range is not as limited as I first thought.



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You were in a Big City and there were Bright Lights

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West 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues (1984). Photo by TedQuackenbush [CC BY SA 3.0] via Wikimedia.


Bright Lights, Big CityBright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I "discovered" Jay McInerney when I watched the BBC2 documentary Sincerely, F. Scott Fitzgerald. McInerney's first novel remains a winner. 

Set in Mahattan in 1984, the story covers how almost everyone felt in the 1980s. That time when you were done with nightclubs, but there was nothing else to do. You kept going back, but all you wanted to do was something else. 

This is the first novel I have ever read in the second person. McInerney makes it work. Apparently it was turned into a film starring Michael J. Fox (I never saw it) and also an Off-Broadway rock musical from 1999. 

I often listen to music while reading and writing, usually minimalism and John Adams in particular. The trouble is I have been listening to the same music over and over for more than ten years and sometimes I have to change. 

Lately I have been in the habit of listening to music from the time the book was written or from the country of origin of the author. Most of the books I read tend to be older, so listening to 1984 was never going to happen. 

I typed "bright lights big city" into Spotify, and hey presto! There was the rock musical version of the book. This was the funniest experience I have had with music and reading. 

Many of the songs use the exact words from the book and I had to change the music when I found myself reading the exact words of the book while listening to them at the same time in the musical's soundtrack. 

The song "Coma Baby" had me cacking myself. 

Part of the story reminds me of Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami sans the cocaine. But it finishes a bit like Tom Cruise's Risky Business or Matthew Broderick's Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It reads like a young person's novel but there is certainly genius there. 

I am yet to read another McInerney, but it is worth exploring more of his work. But the most memorable thing for me was the incident with the music and the book. Not to take away from the book, but the experience fitted right in with the tone of the novel. 

What it must have been like to be so young and write so well.



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Lenny: Mahler, Pedagogy, Leonard Bernstein, and My Cat

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Leonard Bernstein rehearsing with Benny Goodman, 1940s. [Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia]


Dinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard BernsteinDinner with Lenny: The Last Long Interview with Leonard Bernstein by Jonathan Cott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A brief look at Jonathan Cott's profile at Rolling Stone magazine reveals a long list of interviews (including dinners) with some of the greats of music, literature, and film, including Bob Dylan, Susan Sontag, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Henry Miller, Richard Gere, and Francis Ford Coppola. I found this book, which was originally meant to be an article for Rolling Stone, refreshing. During the course of some twelve hours, Jonathan Cott interviews the conductor and composer most famous for West Side Story, but is not allowed to ask questions such as "What is your favourite book/composer/music (etc)?" The interview was conducted in 1989, and within a year, Bernstein, a heavy drinker and smoker, was dead. There are some great reviews that cover the basics of the work, including Amanda Mark's review in the New York Journal of Books. I agree with Mark's criticism of the interviewer injecting a little too much of himself into the interview, but it is clear that "Lenny" was taken with him. Suzy Klein's interview in the New Republic captures more of Lenny's sassiness.

But for me, two things stand out most. First, Leonard Bernstein was a great conductor. And not just because others say so, but now I am armed with more knowledge of his work as a conductor, I have been able to compare the works conudcted by Bernstein with that of others. For example, I have taken a keen interest in Mahler. This interest stems from a number of coinciding interests. I first "discovered" Mahler after reading Thomas Mann's Death in Venice. This led me to watching the movie starring Dirk Bogarde, where Mahler's music forms a major part of the soundtrack. (This led me to discover the literary work of Dirk Bogarde.) Around the same time, I was fortunate enough to attend the inaugural performance of John Adam's Saxophone Concerto at the Sydney Opera House, where John Adams conducted the work. Despite a non-existent microphone, Adams held the audience captive as he spoke to the audience about Mahler (among other things). I have never heeard such silence from such a large crowd. John Adams is easily my most favourite composer (of any genre), but there is clearly a connection here with Mahler. So I was surprised to learn that Bernstein fits into the theme of things I enjoy, and I have been comparing recordings of Mahler's work conducted by Lenny with other conductors. There are clearly interesting differences that I would otherwise have missed.

Second, I had no idea that Bernstein had a clear pedagogy. He is credited with teaching a new generation about classical music with the 1950s television series Omnibus. Suffice it to say that Bernstein had a way to lift the lid on education, to inspire, entertain, and really teach. I like West Side Story, but I was never really enamoured with it, as many others seem to be. But reading this book has given me a glimpse of the great man. Finally, and despite my initial reservations about the interviewer, I have a new appreciation for Jonathan Cott's work, and will investigate some of his other published works. I am not sure how I stumbled upon this book, but I have a suspicion it was from Maria Popova's wonderful blog, Brain Pickings, which is easily one of my favourite blogs. And by way of an aside, we named our cats Karl and Lenny (of The Simpsons fame), but interchangeably refer to them as Karl Marx and Lenny Lenin. But now I can only think of my cheeky cat as Lenny Bernstein. And, based on Cott's interview, reincarnation was not something that Lenny took lightly.



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