Cirrus@Austlit

'It's the usual way of appreciations to speak of somebody in the past tense. In that vein, we regretfully use the verb was to describe Barry Humphries, the brilliant and fertile Australian mind that was, sadly and forever, stilled last week (his death in a Sydney hospital, at age 89, was confirmed Saturday). But, in the same breath, what better tribute can we pay him than that his greatest creation, Dame Edna Everage, is forever in present tense? Like the indelible comic characters of Dickens or Twain, she has long since escaped her author and stands now pure and unsullied by time: an Everage for the ages. As Edna herself would say: "Spooky."' (Introduction)