Still not sure what to make of this exercise, as I feel certain that there's surely been a wealth of material for the editor to choose from over the decades, but a touch too many of them here (in my opinion) not really the quality you'd expect. And okay, the majority are in the Fairly Good to (but not enough) Brilliant, just that you'd think she would've picked better representatives of each decade. But I'll reserve final judgement until I wade through the mass of '80s and '90s. to come.
1970 to 1979
There are 10 selected for this decade, which surprises me yet again considering there's 32 coming up in the 1980s, and another 32 in the 1990s. Was the writing poorer back then? Starting to wonder now what her selections would be for the 2000s, the 2010s and the 2020s.
The main thing I noticed is how the mood and the content changes quite markedly from the "old" decades, because suddenly there's a lot on relationships, the striving for a sense of meaning, and of inner satisfaction, and all in urban settings. It's like Australians suddenly started questioning their lives. And I remember that well. We became more self-absorbed, more conscious of our "inner" life. And to make the point, have a look at what a young and naive guy wrote in .... "MY" 1960s ....compared to the very different tone of.... "MY" 1970s
Looking forward to the next two decades of this exercise, but will put it aside for a while, dive into a novel maybe. So much up there on my "I'm Still Waiting!" shelf.
Cheers....
Trev
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>