David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


23 August 2010

New masks for old

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The voting is done, the result is unclear.

Unmasking voter despair
Shaun Carney
THE AGE today

The structures that have underpinned Australian politics are fractured.

Australian politics as we know it is broken. The structures, debates, policy frameworks and funding arrangements that have prevailed for the past 20 years, throughout Coalition and Labor periods of government, have stopped working.

This is the judgment rendered by voters in the 2010 election; they did not want either side to win and they want something else...

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