Comments on: Clive James: De Profundis

By: Estel

Estel — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:12:29 +0000

His sins were scarlet but his books were read.

By: Leanne Nesbitt (edelsten)

Leanne Nesbitt (edelsten) — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:22:06 +0000

Jack
Clive is a proud Austrailan and Sydneysider and father of two daughters,
In Australia Jack we tend to call things as we see them.
By your own admission you state you recall the “staged interview”
Exactly….
Having discussed with Clive his views on Polanski-he has NEVER condoned his conduct-in fact finds his justification as do I abhorrent.
There is a word we use In Australia to describe someone who doesn’t have the guts to say what he means.
Jack
Clive and I would call you a “Prick!”

By: Jack Rozycki

Jack Rozycki — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:23:57 +0000

You can the boy out of Sydney but you can’t take Sydney out of the boy. It’s a kind of cruel, tabloidy crassness. I found his interview with Roman Polanski more revealing of Clive than I did of Roman.
Recall when Clive, questioning Roman over child sex at the staged dinner/interview with the film director, camera rolling, reached over and grabbed one of the walnuts on Roman’s side of the table, and applied the crunch with the nutcracker with some relish. A sly grin followed, whereby indeed his eyes disappeared into the fleshy eyelids.

By: Leanne Nesbitt (edelsten)

Leanne Nesbitt (edelsten) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:41:46 +0000

Brian
A wonderful article.
Yes-he is all those things and more.
Remember however he is also just a man.
A man who read me Shakespeare.
A man who wrote me poetry.
A man who made me laugh.
I man who made me cry.
There is far more to our story that needs to be said.

By: John F

John F — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 01:34:53 +0000

Clive has given so much to us all; Aussies, Kiwis, Poms, the whole lot. He’s made us laugh, feel uneasy, be questioning- always with careful, skillful thought and language. Thankyou.

By: chris g

chris g — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:04:13 +0000

He exemplifies many of the good aspects of the Australian character, contrary to what many people seem to think we are not a nation of buffoons and bullies and James’ humour is very Australian.
But Ms Leanne Edelsten, her of all people. Clive may be forgiven for his poor behaviour and judgment by those he has harmed. But his poor taste is unforgivable

By: Mike T.

Mike T. — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:46:22 +0000

I absolutely adored “Cultural Amnesia” and agree with Marianne Gordon’s comment – it should be on the shortlist for anyone who wants to understand the 20th century. I’m sorry to hear that he is in such ill health, and I wish him the best – thank you, Brian, for writing this!

By: Emerald Gilmour

Emerald Gilmour — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:12:35 +0000

Clive has brought joy and laughter to my life. Thank you Clive.Unreliable Memoirs was a gem. For that I am grateful. May Prue accept his clear apology and contrition for the bad behavior.The sands of time are running…..
Nice article Mr A.

By: dave s

dave s — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:56:41 +0000

hi
i have often appreciated clive’s audio and written efforts , especially his conversations with peter porter .
so i am a clive j supporter .

however i wonder how clive feels about euthanasia these days ,
i guess i also wonder what he used to think about it years ago

at what stage is enough enough ?
maybe my life efforts would indicate my parents should have had an abotion rather than letting it get to the stage of euthanasia getting to be an option .

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:39:28 +0000

HangingModifier, please go away. It is a moving and excellently written article and the Hanging Modifier hardly creates any true ambiguity. Hanging modifiers have been used by more great writers than most pushers of precriptivist poppycock have had hot dinners. Go and prove your intellectual superiority by posting images of misplaced apostrophes on one of the Facebook pages designed for the purpose. There you will be able to mix with like-minded folk who all think they are better than everyone else because they have rote learnt a handful of zombie rules taught them by a school teacher who had never cracked a linguistic textbook in her life.