I watch very little TV these days, but I dipped my toe into this one and was profoundly moved by a wonderful piece of art. Wonderfully produced, from the script, to casting and location, to the stunning soundtrack; Its basis in truth another demonstration of the extraordinary story of Australia that we steadfastly refuse to tell coherently.
One of my favourite aspects of the TV series is how beautifully Kurzel renders the Australian upper-middle class of that period. The show feels uniquely rooted in this place. It’s refreshing to see a director I consider one of the “kings of no-comedy” turn his attention away from dour battlers in grim suburban backwaters to a gentler face of Australia.
Wonder if the surgeon not based in part on Weary Dunlop, who my surgeon father met in Melbourne after the war.
The war, WW2, both west per rotten Germany and east per Shinto Japan, pitted Old World murderous, visceral, quasi-religious nationalistic mindsets against the quasi-liberal world of the West, Europe [and colonial outliers like Oz, and NZ and Canada] and the US, yes a roundly flawed beast but where, post the 17th / 18th C Enlightenment {which really was “enlightened”!] identity-blind democracy was gestating, struggling for air, which would flower in the wake of the 2 part cataclysm of two world wars.
So it really was bad guys, good guys.
How weird it is to visit and learn of Japan, the gardens, read Basho. Then realise what psychopathic horror that military empire visited especially on China and Korea, to which the Railway was a sideshow!
“At the heart of Flanagan’s meditation on suffering and love and horror is a deep nihilism.”
Flanagan’s obviously a fine writer but hasn’t read enough history?
I've struggled with Flanagan's books (perhaps the no-irony?). I'll give this a look, though. Ta.
I've likes him…
I watch very little TV these days, but I dipped my toe into this one and was profoundly moved by a wonderful piece of art. Wonderfully produced, from the script, to casting and location, to the stunning soundtrack; Its basis in truth another demonstration of the extraordinary story of Australia that we steadfastly refuse to tell coherently.
And lovely writing Misha.
I see we felt the same way!
One of my favourite aspects of the TV series is how beautifully Kurzel renders the Australian upper-middle class of that period. The show feels uniquely rooted in this place. It’s refreshing to see a director I consider one of the “kings of no-comedy” turn his attention away from dour battlers in grim suburban backwaters to a gentler face of Australia.
Yes! Beautiful
Beutifily written sir!
Thank you!
i was left astonished by the book, will definitely check out the series
It's worth it!
V interesting
Wonder if the surgeon not based in part on Weary Dunlop, who my surgeon father met in Melbourne after the war.
The war, WW2, both west per rotten Germany and east per Shinto Japan, pitted Old World murderous, visceral, quasi-religious nationalistic mindsets against the quasi-liberal world of the West, Europe [and colonial outliers like Oz, and NZ and Canada] and the US, yes a roundly flawed beast but where, post the 17th / 18th C Enlightenment {which really was “enlightened”!] identity-blind democracy was gestating, struggling for air, which would flower in the wake of the 2 part cataclysm of two world wars.
So it really was bad guys, good guys.
How weird it is to visit and learn of Japan, the gardens, read Basho. Then realise what psychopathic horror that military empire visited especially on China and Korea, to which the Railway was a sideshow!
“At the heart of Flanagan’s meditation on suffering and love and horror is a deep nihilism.”
Flanagan’s obviously a fine writer but hasn’t read enough history?
Like Wagner in his nihilistic Ring.