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Studs And Nogs: Essays 1987-1998
218 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1999
2 people want to read
About the author
David Foster
24 books15 followersDavid Manning Foster (born 15 May 1944) is an Australian novelist and scientist. He has written a range of satires on the theme of the decline of Western civilization, as well as producing short stories, poetry, essays, and a number of radio plays.
Foster writes in an Australian tradition of idiosyncratic satire and comedy that may be traced through the work of Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin, Xavier Herbert and David Ireland. His novels are the most wide-ranging and fearless of the Australian novels that have contributed to the late twentieth-century re-examination of Western ideologies and the literary forms in which they are expressed. ('Foster: The Satirist of Australia' by Susan Lever)
Foster writes in an Australian tradition of idiosyncratic satire and comedy that may be traced through the work of Joseph Furphy, Miles Franklin, Xavier Herbert and David Ireland. His novels are the most wide-ranging and fearless of the Australian novels that have contributed to the late twentieth-century re-examination of Western ideologies and the literary forms in which they are expressed. ('Foster: The Satirist of Australia' by Susan Lever)
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December 8, 2015
An uneven collection by a colossally unfashionable writer. Foster is alive, I believe, and is quite willing to say things that are not but will appear to be racist. He believes in natural differences between men and women, though he's quite willing to say that women should not be stopped from doing anything they might want to. He refers to gay men as inverts. You get the picture.
He also has interesting things to say about literature, particularly literature in an age of tolerant conformism. Foster sets himself up, as few now do, as a satirist, and embraces what that means. No surprise, it is at least in part saying things other people won't. The best essays here restrict themselves to literature, where his larrikin persona does the most good (he calls Rushdie, for instance, a coward, because he intentionally offended the Islamic world but refused to fight--literally, like with fists--the people he insulted), and the least harm. The travel writing and the quasi-political interventions in the terribly complicated question of how/if to help indigenous Australians, on the other hand, aren't very interesting, and could do harm.
He also has interesting things to say about literature, particularly literature in an age of tolerant conformism. Foster sets himself up, as few now do, as a satirist, and embraces what that means. No surprise, it is at least in part saying things other people won't. The best essays here restrict themselves to literature, where his larrikin persona does the most good (he calls Rushdie, for instance, a coward, because he intentionally offended the Islamic world but refused to fight--literally, like with fists--the people he insulted), and the least harm. The travel writing and the quasi-political interventions in the terribly complicated question of how/if to help indigenous Australians, on the other hand, aren't very interesting, and could do harm.
Displaying 1 of 1 review