9.13.2005

Arthur is done

The day has arrived when Arthur Chrenkoff will no longer post to his blog.

I mentioned it last month, and I'm bummed out about it again. He is an excellent writer and intelligent thinker (see his explanation of Post-Totalitarian Stress Disorder). It's a shame that he didn't end up in the print media anywhere. If I ran the world, he would be given a well-paid job as a columnist and commentator.

I wish I could name some people who are in those positions and don't deserve them, but I may meet them one day and I don't want to get into trouble. Actually, I have seen a columnist a couple of times in a cafe, sitting right next to me, and I wanted to ask how the heck they got their vapid words published in one of the nation's top newspapers, but I just accepted it as another example of L.I.F. (Life Isn't Fair).

He writes better than most native English speakers, but he didn't know much English when he emigrated to Australia from Poland:

I came to Australia seventeen years ago, knowing maybe 50 English words. I did not expect any "Polish focused" institutions to keep me in a linguistic ghetto; I wanted to learn the language of the land so I could make the most of the opportunities that Australia could offer me. It's the love of books that got me where I am. I'm looking now at an old notebook, where I wrote down all the words that were new to me together with their translation and phonetic pronunciation.

Hopefully he'll keep his archives up at his blog and his Metrofiction page.

No comments: