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Plain and practical advice on writing IN REVIEW The Student's Writing Guide for the Arts and Social Sciences by Gordon Taylor Cambridge University Press, 1989, price $14.95GORDON Taylor, a member of the My own department, History. withLanguage and Learning Unit of which Taylor has worked closely, owesMonash's Faculty of Arts, has helped him a particular debt for his teaching andgenerations of OUT students to write advice - generously given not just tobeller.beeinning students with serious writing-'~-Biography of a Victorian Virtuoso IN REVIEW James Edward Neild By Harold Love Melbourne University Press, 1989, price $39.95 THE idea of one person in today'ssociety combining the roles of theatrecritic, doctor and coroner would seemunlikely, if not impossible.Yet during the last century's"Marvellous Melbourne" era there wassuch an individual- James Edward Neild.Neild is the subject of reader in English,Dr Harold Love's recent biography, JamesEdward Neild. Victorian Vinuoso.Born in England in 1824, Neild grew upin Yorkshire and practised as a doctor untilhe felt the lure of Antipodean gold in 1853.Securing himself a free passage as ship'sdoctor on the clipper "Star of the East" ,Neild arrived in Melbourne in October1853.But having tired of the backbreakingwork of gold mining he took up employmentas a "consulting chemist" withDavid Rutter Long' s bustling citybusiness.His role was to diagnose ailments as wellas prepare prescriptions - a combinationof professions now illegal, but greatlyvalued by the Melbourne populace of the18505.However, Neild's great love in Englandhad been theatre. He had been a professionalcontributor of verse to variousnewspapers from the age of 13 so it ishardly surprising that he left the chemistshop in 1855 to become a full-timejournalist.Neild quickly became an influence onthe growing theatrical industry of 19th centuryMelbourne, and perhaps the firstreviewer to throw off the "colonialcringe" mentality .He objected to "the belief that anythingproduced or written in the colonies must beinferior to anything produced or wrinen inEngland...Neild saw himself as " a plain spokenman of sense and a mortal enemy of cantand humbug" .MONASH REPORTEROther writers described Neild as cantankerous,condescending, malicious, orwittily extravagant; indeed, depending onone's point of view, he seems to have beenall those.Neild's aim as a reviewer - " to explainto actors how they might do bener nexttime" - did not make him the mostpopular of critics.To understand this, one must reaJise thatin those days there was a far more symbioticrelationship between theatre proprietorsand critics than there is today.Tickels for any number of peoplenominated by the newspaper were madeavailable each night and the paper was expectedto provide sympathetic advertisingand reviews.Neild threatened this cosy relationshipwith his idea of the role of the critic.Describing the expression of an operasinger reaching for high notes as displaying" the agonies of death fromstrychnine" was unlikely to endear Neildto one and all.Another of Neild's pet hates reveals himas a reviewer ahead of his time; he particularlyloathed the stylised 18th centurymethod of frequently addressing theaudience.Neild wanted actors to make the audienceforget they were in a theatre: "Ihave come to regard dramatic performancesvery much as I regard pictureswhich are painted, and to approve or condemnin proportion as they approach to thereal or recede from it".Neild felt having wizards perform led tothe theatre "being perverted from itslegitimate uses", and in his review claimedthat the wizard 's tricks relied heavily on" a concealed assislant and the complianlstooge" .This review spawned a number of unflatteringdescriptions of Neild . from"malapert apothecary" to "pill-peddlingdilettante who poses as ajournalist in orderP~edifficulties, but also to more advancedstudents (and staff) seeking to expressthemselves with the utmost clarity andprecision.The Monash community should be glad- proud indeed - that Taylor's expericnceand expertise in these vital matters arenow available to an international studentaudience in this handsome and reasonablypriced paperback.There is all the plain and practical adviceone would want here on questions rangingfrom when to use 1'1" and "we" inacademic prose to how to avoid the dread"dangling modifier", and all of it con·veyed in clear, almost conversational,prose.This is - let me hasten to add - asophisticated and stylish book which postgraduatesand others will read withadvantage, but it is also one that should beaccessible to senior secondary schoolstudents. Among practical writingmanuals, which are twopence a dozen andfrequently off-putting in the extreme tostudents, Taylor's book is a very superiorexample.The Student 's Writing Guide is, however,much more than a manual of grammaticaldo's and don 'ts. hardly surtoobtain free admissions and dinnerinvitations" .But there were also many performerswho admired Neild . Foremost among themwas Dame Nellie Melba, of whom Neildsaid: "Everybody who heard her willdesire to hear her again, and everybodywho did not hear her is at the moment consumedwith regrets at not having beenpresent" .According to Dr Love it was this tributethat convinced Melba "to embrace singingas a career and seek her fortune overseas".Although his theatrical criticism was alarge part of his life, Neild also maintainedhis medical career, lecturing at MelbourneUniversity in forensic medicine and editingthe Medical Journal of Australia.He was an early advocate of sanitation, atopic on which he wrote extensively , andwas the unofficial (and unpaid) medical adviserto the theatrical profession - a neatway of wearing both hats at once.Dr Love said Neild was considered 10 bethe most influential of the AustralianMedical Association's founding fathers.Neild also spent a long period as thepreferred Government pathOlogist, a rolewhich culminated in a stint as acting coronerin 1891.Aside from his professional interests,Neild found time for a wife and severalchildren, as well as some extra-marital activites,amusingly documented by DrLove.The biography depicts Edward JamesNeild as a fully rounded character, a manof temper and passion, but also with astrong streak of sympathy. One gains someidea of the respect he commanded frommention of a special benefit performanceorganised for Neild by the theatrical professionat the end of his career.The occasion raised more than a year' 5salary as a d~tor for this man who caredpassionately about the theatre andmedicine: a Victorian Virtuoso indeed .Dr Love has written a fine biography ofthis fascinating man. His style is never dryor condescending to the reader, yet hisdocumentation is extensive.It is an absorbing book which I warmlyrecommend for anyone with an interest in acharacter who helped fashion " MarvellousMelbourne" .Julie Houghton10I prisingly because Gordon Taylor is not somuch a grammarian as a ~lOr. That is tosay, his book is about rhetoric in themedieval, renaissance and ultimatelyclassical sense of spoken and written eloquence.In a medieval Italian universily, Taylorwould have taught the ors dktom;nis, thepractical art of good writing. For Taylor.language cannot be divorced from thought," writing is not merely a skill we employ torecord our knOWledge. but the verymoment at which we confront what learningand understanding are all about"(page xi).Students often complain when we historyteachers correct their grammar, orcomment that an essay would havereceived a higher mark had it been writtenbetter. What right have historians got, theysometimes say outright, to "mark theirEnglish", as if to imply that good style ismerely the cream on the cake, or justrhetoric in the pejorative sense of theword.Gordon Taylor has heard all of this, andwill have none of it. Badly written history(or whatever) is bad history . Good historyis all the better for being written in clearand expressive prose.This excellent book is, then, as muchabout clear thinking and constructive readingin the Arts and Social Sciences as it isabout ~ritingthem well, and from thisclassical humanistic concern with theessential unity of language and thoughtcomes much of its power and importance.Now. when academic prose is oftenjargon-ridden and university administrationsfrequently write goddbledegook, wedesperately need Taylor's modest defenceof plain eloquence.There is yet another bonus in store forthe reader. Taylor is not only a metor butan anthropologist whose field of specialisationhas been the natives who flit in and outof the groves of academe.This book is as good a place as any tolook if you want to understand the implicitvalues held by Australian teachers of theliberal arts in the last part of this millennium.(I knew Gordon to be a good listener- and occasionally a speaker of measuredeloquence - over a lunch-time beer, but Ihadn't realised quite how good a listenerhe was!) His definition. en passant, of"academic culture" will be immenselyuseful to students who. when they firstarrive at university, are understandablypuzzled about what " they are reallyafter". about what "they really want".I mighl conlude that Gordon Taylor's isan essentially generous definition ofacademic culture - although we don'tescape scot-free from this gentle probingof our mores - and I for one am gratefulto him for it at this time of external attackupon universities and internal low morale.I do wish . however, that Taylor had nottold students that J.M. Keynes "worked inbed until lunch-time". That is hardly theway to academic success in the hard newworld of Mr Dawkins.Bill KentHistory DepartmentDECEMBER 1989
A tradition of Buddhism in Australia IN REVIEW A History of Buddhism in Australia 1848-1988 By Paul Croucher New South Wales University Press, 1989, with the assistance of the Monash University Publications Committee. PAUL Croucher is a young AustralianBuddhist who studied Asian historyand Japanese at Monash'.He had just spent a year in Japan. Thailandand North India, when in 1984, whiledoing an Introduction to Japanese Studies,it happened that he was taught by LesOates, who was to figure prominently inhis later study which became this book.Croucber writes in part for himself, toformulate a tradition of Buddhism in Australiaas part of his own cultural heritage,and also for other Buddhists to give them aperspective of various branches ofBuddhism in Australia.The book is also no doubt aimed at anon-Buddhist readership, to serve as anapology for Buddhism. However, keyBuddhist concepts are not explained indetail for the uninitiated, although a concise(even too briet?) glossary is included.Despite Ihis insider's perspective, thebook is not narrowly sectarian. Neitherdoes it clearly espouse one branch ofBuddhism at the expense of others. Theauthor favours an eclectic approach tore ligion, or a " peaceful and dynamicBuddhist anarchism" .The history of Buddhism is hardly amajor current in Australian history. Onemight imagine that there would not beenough to fill a book, and that before thecounter culture of the late sixties and earlyseventies only a few crackpots and eccentricswere attracted to Buddhism.Croucher provides an amazing array ofevidence for a longstanding, constantthough small stream of Buddhist activity ofone kind or another in Australia, and afascinating cross-section of Australian culturalhistory.He projects the possibility of Buddhistpresence in Australia long before whitesettlement through Asian traders inAmhem Land . The first verifiable instancehe presents is of Chinese Coolie labourersin 1848.He aims to document comprehensivelyevery single instance of Buddhist activity,which he demonstrates to be part of aworldwide phenomenon, involvingBunna, Sri Lanka, England, Gennanyand, to a lesser extent. America and Japan.That is, it is related to the goo-politicalreality of the British Empire, with Englishspeakingmonks who could teach and'1ordain westerners in their own country orelsewhere, and the possibility of Englishand Germans being ordained in thesecountries.One of the surprising features of this historywas not SO much the compartmentalisationof different pockets in places likeSydney. Melbourne. Brisbane. and theschisms which arose easily within eachpocket, but the lack of awareness of AustralianBuddhists in each phase of what hadgone before them . This is a sign that it hasnot been a strong movement. but 10 adegree haphazard and sporadic. thoughnever with the same lack of continuity asbetween the Arnhem Land traders and latersettlers.Australians have been attracted to Buddhismat various times because it was seenas a rational alternative to Christianitywhich was more compatible with science;because it was pacifist; because it was ecologicallyappealing; because it espousedvegetarianism. It has consistently attractedthe educated. and originally the uppermiddle class. but since the seventies hashad a broader class base.White Australian Buddhism was fed byHawke. Ken Wriedl. poets BernardO'Oowd. Max Dunn and Harold Stewart.artist Margaret PresIOn. Aboriginalnovelist Colin Johnson. all illustratingpoints of contact with mainstream Australianculture and history.Croucher shows he has the foundationsof an excellent history writing technique;he handles a broad sweep of events, incorporatingpanicular ~haracters and themeswith considerable assurance and narrativeskill.He has an ability to bring out broadthemes within a plethora of detail, yetwithout using sweeping generalisations.He manages to surprise the reader. bycarefully withholding developments till theright moment.His use of Quotation of primary sources- diaries. letters. newspaper reports.Buddhist newsletters and journals - isalways vivid. He traces the establishmentof bookshops such as Theosophical Bookshops,as well as Buddhist societies., showing the kinds of reading mattermaterial that was available to people in anera when this was the main access toBuddhism. He also details the contactswith qualified teachers. This solid methodologyis supplemented by extensive use oforal histories and interviews.One of the major themes which emergesin the book is that of acculturation ." Buddhism is a universal religion and thusessentially transcultural. but ... AustralianBuddhism will only have found itsown identity when it gives rise to a largernumber of authentic. home-grownteachers" .It needs to adapt its practices to somedegree for its new environment. An excessivedegree of compromise was responsiblefor many years of stagnation. as whenJackson and Knight in Sydney playeddown ritual and meditative practices. butobviously some adaptation is necessary.He is optimistic that Buddhism will acquirea secure place in Australian life. and that a"synthesis between Buddhism and westernhumanism" will emerge.Croucher emphasises the dangers ororganisations and committees. and favorsanarchism . This is a danger common to allreligions . How can Buddhism alone avoidthis']This more readable and compelling historyis al so an essay on the nature ofBuddhism in an Australian context. andwill be of interest to Buddhist and nonBuddhist Australians alike. for revealing anew aspect of Australian history andculture.Alison TokitaJapanese Studies Departmentliterdture - such as the translations of thePali canon by E.F. Woodward - and byvisiting European speakers. many ofwhom had spent time in Buddhistcountries. and by qualified native teachersfrom Sri Lanka. Burma etc. who were professionalworld tourers of Englishspeakingcountries.It is remarkable that there was no strongfoundation in the form of links with anestablished mother church in a Buddhistcountry. This is no doubt partly to do withthe fact that Buddhism is sometimes seenas not being a religion so much as a philosophy.The book is studded with mini-biographiesof people significant in thedevelopment of Buddhism in Australia.People like Marie Byles and Leo Berkeleywho stressed meditation and were amongthe founders of organised Buddhism inSydney. were thwarted by Natasha Jacksonwho is portrayed as having had adestructive. schismatic influence, with beridolisation of the American Buddhist nunSister Dhammadina. The discreditation ofthe latter as a charlatan is one ofCroucher's major tasks.In Melbourne around the same period ofthe fifties, the atmosphere was moreeclectic and tolerant. under the influenceof Les Oates. The Buddhist Society of Victoria,founded in 1953, had close ties withSri Lanka and Burma, that is, with TheravadaBuddhism. The influence of theMahayana faith of Japan and America wasto come later.The major criticism to be broughtagainst the book is the system card typeflipping over of a myriad of apparentlyinsignificant characters who do not haveany clearly drawn personality or salientcharacteristics. In later chapters the detailis sometimes overwhelming. like a compendiumof every Buddhist in Australianhistory. so that no one might feel left out.However. there are also some vivid portraitsof fascinating characters. The systemcards bring before us an array of person• way for the past . . . the museum in the Classical Studies Depanment had tobe rearranged following the recent arrival of several valuable pieces of ancient pottery,on loan from a Melbourne collector. The pieces date between the fifth century Be andthird century AD and include Attic vases, south Italian pots, Etruscan heads. a Helleniststatuette and two sarcophagi. And more pieces will follow after new display cases haveages who have had contact - fleeting or been installed . Surveying the recent additions to the collection - and wondering wherelasting - with Buddhism: people like the the extra furniture is going to fit - is senior lecturer in Classical Studies. Dr Saulactor Peter Finch. the novelist George Bastomsky. The museum, on the sixth floor of the Menzies Building (South Wing), isJohnston , politicians Alfred Deakin , R.J .open every Wednesday between 12.30 and 2 pm.MOl'ASH REPORTER Page JI DECEMBER 1989
Page 1 and 2: Structure of the new university. be
Page 3 and 4: Bruce awarded natural history medal
Page 5 and 6: Universities unite on resources Wil
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