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'Reflecting, however briefly, on the state of the world in this year of Patrick White's birth centenary (2012), his view that, "we live in black times," rings more true than ever. There is not a single country unaffected by neoliberal economic globalisation and imperialism. Some regions of the world seem to live in a state of perpetual war. If technological advancements and economic mobility have enabled greater international and global interactions, they have also intensified parochial nationalisms and gross inequities between nations and between people within a single nation. Immigration is a contentious issue, the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen, governments arc openly influenced by corporations, there is increasing gloom about rising costs, unemployment, and lack of housing and healthcare even in the more prosperous nations of the western world.' (Introduction)
Notes
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Epigraph: Unfortunately we live in black times with less and less that may be called good, and I suppose I must reflect the blackness of those times. I tried to write a book about saints, but saints are few and far between. If I were a saint myself I could pmject my saintliness, perhaps, endlessly in what I write. But I am a sensual and irritable human being. Certainly the longer I live, the less I see to like in the human beings of whom I am one. (Qtd. in Man 1991, 453)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 7 Jun 2017 12:09:04
125-140
Patrick White and Australia : Perspective of an Outsider