tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post8573478914700371785..comments2024-03-28T21:25:08.138+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Cancelling Shakespeare.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-32231115345398650762022-10-22T14:43:36.892+13:002022-10-22T14:43:36.892+13:00An old friend who is a retired teacher of English ...An old friend who is a retired teacher of English sent me the Guardian link:<br /><br />https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/14/new-zealand-pulls-funding-for-school-sheilah-winn-shakespeare-festival-citing-canon-of-imperialism<br /><br />We fell about laughing at the sheer, blinding idiocy of it. Said old friend was appalled, but the only reaction ought to be one of derision.<br /><br />That article quotes one Nicola Hyland, who is a lecturer at Vic. I'm a graduate of that uni: I'm very pleased to have studied there while it was still a proper university. Nobody who talked the nonsense she spouts would have been employed there during my time, I'm pleased to say.D'Esterrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17611734726246647494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-4915897297140549582022-10-22T13:06:51.653+13:002022-10-22T13:06:51.653+13:00DS: ".....Creative New Zealand has also been ...DS: ".....Creative New Zealand has also been turning down $500 requests to help fund Dunedin community productions..."<br /><br />It's not so much that it has turned down the funding application, but the reasons it gave for doing so. Just bizarre.D'Esterrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17611734726246647494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-37605604810155890382022-10-22T12:58:49.624+13:002022-10-22T12:58:49.624+13:00Trev1: "Act III, a Wokester's Tale."...Trev1: "Act III, a Wokester's Tale."<br /><br />Heh! Brilliant.... Gave us here a good laugh.D'Esterrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17611734726246647494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-6298192296516994862022-10-20T19:01:45.818+13:002022-10-20T19:01:45.818+13:00Stirring words Anonymous 20.16 Brown and white let...Stirring words Anonymous 20.16 Brown and white let's stick together for our mutual benefit. <br /><br />Who would have thought that education would be our weak link. It should have resulted in more thought and understanding but it seems just another money-making venture for the neoliberal hyenas. It seems that the university educated middle-class may be our booby trap. The Brits had their academic spies who reacted against the trads and turned to Russia. Now we have the sharp minds in NZ turning to the USA. None of those countries referred to are exemplars of what we would want to aim for. More korero, more small projects from the people, not the professional speculators, more opportunities here and more successes that we hold onto will take us far. At present the sharpies can't wait to sell off our business to the sharp coves - Cockney? - wanting to hoover up the world.greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-84103647446156589502022-10-20T08:00:29.932+13:002022-10-20T08:00:29.932+13:00https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/the-sheila...https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/the-sheila-winn-saga-much-ado-about-funding/ar-AA139u0l?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a8e5c24cd18a47d290bdf821a27eb1cb<br /><br />At last – some common sense.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-87400970077768617452022-10-19T18:56:37.184+13:002022-10-19T18:56:37.184+13:00Your writing is testimony to the power of an open ...Your writing is testimony to the power of an open mind and understanding of the critical place of our histories. Culture is not a singularity . Progress comes from assimilating multiple stories. Without valuing and engaging with diverse traditions, Creative NZ will lead us into a destructive clash of cultural cul de sacs.Phil McDermotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06869744647213369964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-26522154040151280542022-10-19T18:36:02.615+13:002022-10-19T18:36:02.615+13:00Had a wee chat with a theatre acquaintance. Turns ...Had a wee chat with a theatre acquaintance. Turns out the Festival simply gets the attention because it's the biggest example of this. Creative New Zealand has also been turning down $500 requests to help fund Dunedin community productions of Shakespeares's King Lear and Julius Caesar, as well as a couple of Brecht adaptations. A mere $500! Talk about penny-pinching.DShttps://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-79107664303625301502022-10-19T18:29:27.945+13:002022-10-19T18:29:27.945+13:00"Creative New Zealand, exit stage Left, pursu..."Creative New Zealand, exit stage Left, pursued by a bear". Act III, a Wokester's Tale.<br />Trev1https://www.blogger.com/profile/00271717267778957672noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-910391013699717062022-10-19T17:58:39.517+13:002022-10-19T17:58:39.517+13:00The Plot of MacBeth is quite literally drawn from ...The Plot of MacBeth is quite literally drawn from my clan history. <br /><br />My family have been here for 180 years.<br /><br />Creative New Zealand is saying not only that Shakespeare is irrelevant but that my Whakapapa is not relevant to New Zealand, despite those 180 years here. Does it mean that all the art made by Pakeha here, largely inspired by the history, stories, and images of its own ancestry, artistic or in fact of blood, is also irrelevant?<br /><br />Where do we draw the line?<br /><br />Does Katherine Mansfield pass muster? Her influences were in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Russia, who had little thought of New Zealand. She wrote about New Zealand but with a lens that was crafted in Europe, that she may have added a polish to here - but it was made in Europe, and to Europe she returned. And she was also from, unlike Mr Shakespeare, a period of colonial British rule, imperialism, and empire. Surely, that makes her one notch worse that Wills?<br /><br />Deep within me, this stuff stirs something ugly.<br /><br />"You know what? Fuck Maori and Maori culture. Maybe Maori don't have the right to appropriate the bard. Your interpretations are much less than even a polish on a turning of the lens, a lens that has, for centuries, now, been turned this way and that. Perhaps you only scratch it, or try to?"<br /><br />This is passing bile. But this is the direction this sort of thing encourages me in. Because I love the bard, and I care about my family history and their stories, too.<br /><br />Horationoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-79198793130852567862022-10-19T14:21:37.275+13:002022-10-19T14:21:37.275+13:00The points re post modernism hit the correct nail ...The points re post modernism hit the correct nail - talked of little but absolutely to the point. Brentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-32551694525466869762022-10-19T11:45:01.729+13:002022-10-19T11:45:01.729+13:00Kapa Haka is about culture.
Shakespeare is about C...Kapa Haka is about culture.<br />Shakespeare is about Civilisation.Brewerstroupehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13011600547966200031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-8835980409027240022022-10-18T20:16:10.421+13:002022-10-18T20:16:10.421+13:00Exactly. The Arts Council bigots have made New Zea...Exactly. The Arts Council bigots have made New Zealand and its damn fine people and culture look like fools<br /><br />To hell with them let us be proud of our whiteness our browness our newness our meritocracy and our unfaltering democracy<br /><br />How I loathe these holier than thou hacks - away with them!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-69470408353832013802022-10-18T19:06:48.249+13:002022-10-18T19:06:48.249+13:00I doubt they gave their decision very much thought...I doubt they gave their decision very much thought at all -"CREATIVE (?) NZ" (silly ass, knee-jerk, copy-cat, sycophantic 'knobs'(good one) <br />Didn't think one bit about the doubts that assailed Shakespeare's heroes. Te Rauparaha had no such thoughts as' uneasy sits the head that wears the crown,' did he, as he as he loaded up his war canoes and paddled swiftly over the strait to slaughter several thousand men women and children - or perhaps he did as he came back and later built a Christian church. Maybe there was a cultural correspondence there?<br />Macbeth was a bit of a role-model for the warmongers too - tribal, bent on annihilating the neighbours - although he is not known to have eaten them, and he did worry about things a bit. <br />They missed a trick there, in their haste to denigrate the 'colonialists'. It is not so much that they are jealous and jaundiced, these 'creative' people, it is that they are so IGNORANT, so incapable of thinking for themselves, so woke but braindead. I am ashamed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-90436996511750845722022-10-18T17:34:15.484+13:002022-10-18T17:34:15.484+13:00If Creative New Zealand are so woke, how come they...If Creative New Zealand are so woke, how come they haven't re-named themselves as Creative Aotearoa?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46085749372016224312022-10-18T11:31:11.650+13:002022-10-18T11:31:11.650+13:00“We need to understand the role of art and literat...“We need to understand the role of art and literature… and stop thinking about it as an option. It’s not an option. What is it said?” ‘Man does not live by bread alone’… that’s exactly right. We live by Beauty. We live by literature. We live by art… and LITERALLY… not metaphorically. We cannot live without it.” — Jordan Peterson<br /><br /><br />Millions of people live without it – at least high culture art. They live without Jordan Peterson too – they've missed a bullet there, he's completely lost the plot. Gaga. Doesn't make sense – well let's say makes even less sense than he used to.Guerilla Surgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03427876447124021423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-85847666940774996502022-10-18T09:06:22.254+13:002022-10-18T09:06:22.254+13:00A magnificent column Chris, you clearly have a dee...A magnificent column Chris, you clearly have a deep understanding of Shakespeare's timeless art which speaks directly to the universal human condition. I am glad there has been so much pushback against the wretched "decolonization" argument advanced by Creative New Zealand. I fear however we are witnessing a highly orchestrated "ethnic cleansing" of New Zealanders' European heritage by the elites enabled by this government. As Martyn Bradbury observed, it's the kind of thing you might expect from ISIS, demolishing one culture to make their own appear superior. It is certainly morally equivalent.Odysseushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04745489060434244478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-46458872755669424452022-10-18T08:01:54.417+13:002022-10-18T08:01:54.417+13:00What is really going on here? The promotion of art...What is really going on here? The promotion of art as propaganda?<br />That idea was perfected by the totalitarian Soviets and that is what we are seeing I believe - art proscribed by ideology is no longer art but propaganda. Jordan Peterson has spoken about this a lot and describes the psychological and sociological processes involved in art's sublimation to ideology- such is his interest he has a large collection of Soviet era art.<br /><br />“We need to understand the role of art and literature… and stop thinking about it as an option. It’s not an option. What is it said?” ‘Man does not live by bread alone’… that’s exactly right. We live by Beauty. We live by literature. We live by art… and LITERALLY… not metaphorically. We cannot live without it.” — Jordan Peterson<br /><br />The Role of Artists, 6 minutes https://youtu.be/b56xdYB_8WkDavid Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04883628159193125307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-84890895816211262682022-10-18T06:08:30.688+13:002022-10-18T06:08:30.688+13:00Well said, never lost for words which is the whole...Well said, never lost for words which is the whole point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-83732717027493504972022-10-18T00:49:14.210+13:002022-10-18T00:49:14.210+13:00No one is going to promulgate and encourage cultur...No one is going to promulgate and encourage cultural diversity by suppressing cultural diversity. This is starting to look a whole lot like fornicating for chastity: to achieve a certain goal, undertaking a policy that defeats that goal. <br />Cheers,<br />Ion A. DowmanArchduke Piccolohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15533325665451889661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-54950837895549540412022-10-17T23:29:58.646+13:002022-10-17T23:29:58.646+13:00Easy- translate the bard into Māori. Besides those...Easy- translate the bard into Māori. Besides those Tangata whenua who agreed to te tiriti mostly understood that English culture came with some baggage, much of which they could use when not denied the opportunity. If bilingualism is the goal, promote one but don’t try to stamp out the other. Bongohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05332482427099330092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-82253874129901686292022-10-17T20:51:31.678+13:002022-10-17T20:51:31.678+13:00Spot on Chris! Spot on Chris! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-28907977117670072332022-10-17T19:57:58.837+13:002022-10-17T19:57:58.837+13:00I know a few young Maori actors who have pretty mu...I know a few young Maori actors who have pretty much made it on TV & film... guess where they got there start? yup the good olde local school give-it-a-go kiwi-as Shakespeare in School comp. I didn't see much colonial stress on their faces..just joy in taking the stage for the first time. FFSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-4906248056594702002022-10-17T19:46:36.881+13:002022-10-17T19:46:36.881+13:00Certainly, no such proposition has been placed bef...Certainly, no such proposition has been placed before, or ratified by, the New Zealand electorate<br /><br />Chinese WhispersJohn Hurleynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-47615923145341605712022-10-17T19:01:19.418+13:002022-10-17T19:01:19.418+13:00While I agree with your sentiment, I would make on...While I agree with your sentiment, I would make one nitpick: England did have an Empire in Shakespeare's time. It was Ireland.DShttps://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-73782086741128625672022-10-17T17:35:03.514+13:002022-10-17T17:35:03.514+13:00I went through the 60 plus comments on the site wh...I went through the 60 plus comments on the site where originally published. Not one supportive one or an explanation. <br />I note NZ has made overseas papers yet again on this issue. Hard to have pride in being a laughing stock. Chris Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10557217407223228656noreply@blogger.com