Wordsmith Lane

The (de)merits of being a no-namer

Warning: Angry/bothered ramblings of a frustrated researcher/writer ahead.

We all know that Underbelly 3: The Golden Mile debuted on Australian TV last night. If you read the articles surrounding this release, you will see that words like ‘glitter’, ‘immortalised’ and ’glamour’ are prevalent in the coverage, reportage and publicity of the show and both its happenings and storyline.

If you read my thesis proposal from two years back — you will see the same. That’s before I even knew about Underbelly 3 or heard of John Ibrahim as a matter of fact. What I did know was that there was a movie called The Combination on the horizon, and another called Cedar Boys. And in addition to the series Fat Pizza, there was also a lot of little plays and skits on everything from the cronulla riots to living life as a Lebanese ‘habib’ in Australia.

As you can imagine, all the little articles I am reading about now make me pretty mad. The notion of glorification of violence in media and pop culture is not new, but where was all this interest six months ago when I was pitching articles saying films and shows surrounding the Middle-Eastern community’s association with crime was glamorising and glorifying gang culture, crime and the seedy underworld?

If someone had paid me a little attention then, it could have been my big (research) break. Now, we have everyone, including the NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, commenting on this glamorisation and I am away at my computer gritting my teeth in bad luck.

Such is life as someone still trying to navigate the competitive and timely path of the aspiring (or in-the-making) wordsmith!