‘Character is fate, said Novalis, and Farfrae’s character was just the reverse of Henchard’s, who might not be inaptly described as Faust has been described – as a vehement gloomy being who had quitted the ways of vulgar men without light to guide him on a better way.’
Thomas Hardy,
The Mayor of Casterbridge,
P. 131
While reading The Mayor of Casterbridge this morning, I saw something that I did not like: myself.
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What’s it about?
What amounts to a terrorist cell in mid-nineteenth century Russia and its effect on a small fictional town of Dostoyevsky’s invention.
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At the gym – working on the gun show.
Rodney Hall is one of Australia’s greatest living writers. He has been nominated for the Miles Franklin Award seven times and if he wins this year, it’ll be the third time he’s gone home with the prize.
I have known him for eighteen years and he never fails to deliver on the subject of literature. He has been kind enough to wax lyrical at the Theme Park on matters literary and a few others that happen to intersect within his purview.
T.P: I’m guessing that if the Miles Franklin Award was predicated on biceps, you’d win that. Continue reading
There is something confronting about the disembodied voice of a stranger on the telephone, particularly when it’s someone you may fall in love with. Continue reading
Final
I don’t believe in threats. A threat is specific, and knowable. It comes from you, and it’s contained and bordered by words. Fear, however, is personal. It’s amorphous and endless. Like a gas, it expands to fill a space.
“You’re done! You’re done!” said the others.
“I’m done when I say I’m done,” I replied, trying to find his eye. Continue reading
3.
Jester Mitolo Cabernet Sauvignon from McLaren Vale, South Australia.
She never loved you.
Further down, Kaysler Cabernet Sauvignon, Barossa Valley.
She never loved you.
In the next rack, Saltram’s Barossa Shiraz.
She never loved you.
I opted for the Kaysler. Continue reading
2.
Maybe she didn’t love me. Worse, all those times we lay in each other’s arms at night, she may have just been doing that so I’d keep paying her registration fees and mobile phone bills. Continue reading
1.
Night. A depthless, crystalline dark. I was lighting candles when the phone rang.
“Hey Monkey,” I said, “How’s it going?” Continue reading
4
“What happened to your knee?” asked Rush.
“I fell out of a helicopter.”
“Really?” Continue reading
3.
“Do you want to come in the ambulance with your partner?”
“Fuck no! He’s not my partner. He’s my housemate.” Continue reading
Theme Park at its Darkest 