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'In today’s global celebrity culture it’s hard to imagine a word more over-used and abused than ‘genius’. It is a slippery word with a long and contradictory conceptual history. Yet, in the Land of the Tall Poppy, self-confessions of genius invariably have paved a broad road to public ridicule and denigration. Xavier Herbert’s notion of genius was not static. It changed throughout his life and it evolved through his writing. He agreed with Carlyle that the first condition of genius must always be a ‘transcendent capacity of taking trouble’ and on this foundation he built his own concept of genius, as the unending ‘capacity for loving’. This article explores what genius meant to Xavier Herbert and how it translated into his fiction, before considering how our sense of genius today influences the way we respond to his most challenging fictions of love and hate, 'Capricornia' and 'Poor Fellow My Country'.' (Publication abstract)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- Machinations of a Jinx 1933 single work short story
- Capricornia : A Novel 1938 single work novel
- Seven Emus 1959 single work novel
- Soldiers' Women 1961 single work novel
- Disturbing Element 1963 single work autobiography
- Larger Than Life : Twenty Short Stories 1963 selected work short story
- Poor Fellow My Country 1975 single work novel