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Even as We Speak

Page 44

by Clive James


  I thought the Aboriginal ensemble Yothu Yindi was the best thing, but really it was no occasion for critical analysis. The maturity that Australia is right to be nervous about is cultural maturity, which can’t be had by wishing, but only through achievement – through creativity in all walks of life, from high art down to the small change of civil discourse. In that respect, the inspired contribution of the 45,000 white-hatted volunteer workers, many of them older than I am, was perhaps the most original feature of the whole jamboree. They were all charmingly helpful and some of them were outright funny. The visitors loved them. Small groups of Chinese would follow them around, confident that they were going somewhere interesting.

  The Sydney Olympics, by synthesizing and highlighting what we already possessed, put us on our own map. We were already on everyone else’s, as a destination, a refuge, an ideal and (whisper it) a dream. The opening ceremony brought Australia together. The closing ceremony might have tried to show a united world, but it would have mocked the global tragedies that have given Australia its unique life and have made it the good place where all the earth’s agonies come to be assuaged, the last garden. The full story is too terrible to be told in a night. Better to let your hair down, and to camp it up.

  The Olympics began with Cleopatra’s arrival in Rome, and they ended with Elizabeth Taylor’s departure for the airport. Next day I did the same. I have done so many times, but never with such regret.

  EVEN AS WE SPEAK

  CLIVE JAMES is the author of more than twenty books. As well as verse and novels, he has published collections of essays, literary criticism, television criticism and travel writing, plus three volumes of autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England and May Week Was in June. His most recent novel was The Silver Castle. As a television performer he has appeared regularly for both the BBC and ITV, most notably as writer and presenter of the Postcard series of travel documentaries. He helped to found the independent television company Watchmaker, and is currently chairman of the Internet enterprise Welcome Stranger. In 1992 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia and in 2003 he was awarded the Philip Hodgins memorial medal for literature.

  BY THE SAME AUTHOR

  AUTOBIOGRAPHY

  Unreliable Memoirs

  Falling Towards England

  May Week Was in June

  Always Unreliable

  FICTION

  Brilliant Creatures

  The Remake

  Brrm! Brrm!

  The Silver Castle

  VERSE

  Peregrine Prykke’s Pilgrimage Through the London Literary World

  Poem of the Year

  Other Passports: Poems 1958–1985

  The Book of My Enemy: Collected Verse 1958–2003

  CRITICISM

  The Metropolitan Critic (new edition, 1994)

  Visions Before Midnight

  At the Pillars of Hercules

  The Crystal Bucket

  First Reactions

  From the Land of Shadows

  Glued to the Box

  Snakecharmers in Texas

  The Dreaming Swimmer

  On Television

  Reliable Essays

  TRAVEL

  Flying Visits

  First published 2001 by Picador

  This edition published 2004 by Picador

  This electronic edition published 2012 by Picador

  an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

  Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Basingstoke and Oxford

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-0-330-52667-8 EPUB

  Copyright © Clive James 2001

  The right of Clive James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.

 

 

 


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