Backbencher

Lecture #10 was all about Clark and Sinclair. I will first start with Clark. He was born in Sydney and grew up in Victoria. He wanted to be a cricket player but he had epilepsy so that disabled him from his dream. He taught college students and had his own hat (which Professor Isern’s dog ate, which I thought was pretty funny). He wrote a 6 volume book of The History of Australia (Who writes a 6 volume book?), and was made a Companion Order of Australia (like being knighted). He visited and wrote about the Soviet Union and was given a metal from the Soviet Union and then was accused by the Nationalist side of Australia of being a communist. But before that he was being questioned on if he really cared about the Aboriginal people. He said he cared about them but he never really wrote about them. The Prime Minister feared his imagination, not his writings or his politics.

Sinclair was a published poet who had some funny quotes, He thinks about sex more than history and, he thinks is a bugger being old. Then we realized that there is no such thing as and honest writer. Everyone fibs a little bit in their writing. He was made Australian of the year and was asked to speak in front of large crowds of people. Then we were asked,”Why do we study History?” We came up with the main reason we do history is because we are looking for an identity. That is what Clark and Sinclair are writing for even though they say they are doing it for their country. We also do it for fun, and to look at our heritage, and to learn judgment. But at the end of the lecture we learned that the main reason why these authors are writing what they are writing is because they are having “regenerative behavior,” because they are scared that they have to leave something for people to remember them by. So why do we do history? They say for our county but it is really for themselves, so yes, Clark is a self indulgent egotist.