...in 1936 Alan Turing submitted "On Computable Numbers" for publication, a seminal work about mathematics and computing. Turing pioneered computing and quite possibly saved the world with his work in breaking German codes during WWII. He was eventually jailed for his homosexuality, forced to take female hormones to suppress his libido, and eventually ate an apple laced with cyanide. If only I were making this up.
...in 2003, Rev Peter Hollingworth was forced to resign as Governor General of Australia for failing to look as hang-dog as Sir William Deane.
...it is the anniversary of the birthday of Australia's only Nobel Laureate for Literature, grumpy old Queen, Patrick White. The Nobel Prize had a major impact on booksales with thousands of unfortunate schoolchildren thence being forced to read his novels against their will. Like Kevin Rudd, he had occasional infatuations with Australian actresses.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
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Reading Patrick White left me with a profound suspicion of a) the Australian literati and b) the Nobel selection committees.
At 19 I found The Tree Of Man totally beyond me, but vowed I would try again with another White novel. Which was, as it turned out, The Vivisectionist when I was 27.
I've been White-free ever since. And no regrets.
SwinishCapitalist.
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