Comments on: What happened to Nevil Shute

By: Fiasco da Gama

Fiasco da Gama — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:54:55 +0000

Oh, yeah, Brett, if you haven’t yet indulged in the sheer proto-emo emotivity of On The Beach, you oughta.
Put your favourite motor vehicle up on blocks and disconnect the battery, unplug all of your dangerous appliances from the mains, write to all of your friends and to future civilisations in acid on indelible glass, shoot the pack mule, pour yourself a double gin and tonic, self-medicate on your favourite antidepressant, and lie back, thinking of an annihilated England.

By: CK

CK — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:35:10 +0000

Good discussion by Gideon Haigh on Neville Shute on the Bookshow podcast:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2007/1950928.htm

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:28:00 +0000

LOL! Islamofascism always makes me think of McBain’s nemesis, the Commienazis … makes about as much sense, anyway.

I must admit I’m a total sap who tends to fall for emotive guff, so clearly I must read On the Beach sooner rather than later.

By: Fiasco da Gama

Fiasco da Gama — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:46:44 +0000

Well I’ve still got On The Beach on my shelf in pride of apocalyptic place, next to the Ray Bradbury short stories and the VHS copy of Dr. Strangelove. I look at it gently, nostalgically, whenever anyone whinges about Islamofascists.
It’s dated, though, you’ve got to admit. It’s sexist, puerile emotive guff that should have been serialised in the newspaper for effect, like Dickens.

I don’t know that I agree that the subject of the ‘civilian experience of war’ was ‘very nearly taboo’.

Neither do I. Apart from the airmindedness of the 20s and 30s about which you doubtless know far more than I—Tolstoy springs to mind, as does the book of Exodus in the Bible.

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 02:48:47 +0000

But nobody would understand what that means without having it explained to them. Besides, calling Britain the anti-Antipodes emphasises that it is no longer the norm against which all else is measured: it’s just another Other now!

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:50:51 +0000

It was ever thus. By the way, it’s called the ‘podes’. Prounced ‘Po-Dees’.

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:09:15 +0000

Ava Gardner, who starred in the film, was quoted as saying “‘On the Beach’ is a story about the end of the world, and Melbourne sure is the right place to film it.’ Which is such a great put-down that it’s a shame to have to point out that a journalist made it up!

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 13:57:38 +0000

Who said “It’s a film about the end of the world. It’s set in Melbourne” or words to that effect?

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 07:27:07 +0000

I may have to take On the Beach with me to read in the anti-Antipodes -- since I read What Happened to the Corbetts in Australia, though it was written and set in Britain, it seems appropriately symmetric to read On the Beach in Britain, though it was written and set in Australia ...

By: Chris Williams

Chris Williams — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 21:32:54 +0000

I’ve always liked Shute - from the nice chemical warfare expert breaking the Hague Convention to revenge his rabbit, through the Popular Mechanics columnist outwitting the Evil Socialists, to the genius punchline of _Round the Bend_, he managed to tour the 40s and 50s zeitgeist with rare insight.

As you’d expect, he was as airminded as it gets. The second best bit of _No Highway_ is that it’s set firmly, indeed almost exclusively, in a world of corporate-state aviation. It’s a novel about bureaucracy as much as anything else. The best bit is of course the description of the accident inquiry, which brings a lump to my throat even though the punchline accidentally invokes the name of a member of Black Sabbath. Shute wasn’t to know.

Forester did the same thing even better, of course, but he had very little to do with aeroplanes, so is off topic here.