y separately published work icon The West Midland Underground : Stories selected work   short story  
Is part of Paperback Prose 1972 series - publisher
Issue Details: First known date: 1975... 1975 The West Midland Underground : Stories
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Notes

  • Number 9 of the Paperback Prose Series
  • Dedication : to Sue

Contents

* Contents derived from the St Lucia, Indooroopilly - St Lucia area, Brisbane - North West, Brisbane, Queensland,:University of Queensland Press , 1975 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The West Midland Underground, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'The West Midland Underground goes from to . Or should I say went? Should I have said went? Should I be saying went? Or even will go. May go. Could go. Could have gone. Was to have gone. Is to go. Is to have gone. Is it possible to say is to have gone? Are there certain tenses that do not exist, may not, cannot, will not, did not; though now do? Perhaps the impossible tenses are needed for the impossible underground. Perhaps the hitherto impossible tense will bring into being the hitherto impossible West Midland Underground.' (Introduction)
(p. 1-13)
The Man of Slow Feeling, Michael Wilding , single work short story science fiction (p. 15-24)
Canal Run, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'I suppose I should be thankful, or pleased, or at least have some feeling of satisfaction, that my school sent me on those social-realist cross-country runs. It provided a group of feelings and sense impressions that I might otherwise have managed to avoid. I’m sure it never meant to; never meant, that is, the social-realist aspect, let alone socialist-realist. The runs themselves it meant. The runs, to me then, were further instruments of taming and torture, cruelties inflicted to show up my inabilities, inabilities I affected to despise until I did come to despise them, consider them not inabilities at all but evidence of my separateness from the bulk of people, the unpleasant mass from the bulk of boys I disliked and the attitudes I hated.' (Introduction)
(p. 25-38)
Jealous of Ali, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'That there was an outside world of prostitutes and sex was brought to me mainly I suppose by people like Alastair. Ali and the other boarders had this air of sophistication – un-provincial I would call it now, but then there was no other world but the provincial to envisage. Ali told stories of an existence different from mine, but it never amounted to a whole way of life I could ever have imagined myself in. I didn’t doubt that existence, I could picture it, with Ali’s information, vividly. But it was a world I couldn’t see myself walking through. It was Ali’s world peopled by characters and mapped by landmarks with which he was wholly familiar and which I had never encountered and which I felt I never would.'  (Introduction)
(p. 39-45)
The Words She Types, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 47-50)
See You Later, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 51-60)
Thank You, Miss, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'As the bus hurtled down the hill towards us at the stop he said, stepping from beneath the shelter to the edge of the pavement, waiting momentarily in the drizzle before climbing the steps of the as yet unstationary vehicle, ‘I’ve decided I’m not going to teach.’ It was – after seventeen years of being taught and the last few of intending teaching, to depart from the covering cap and furling gown and leap, as it were, onto the stream of, so to speak – a decision. A shuddering of the clutch and a chugging away, past the detacheds with their long drives and hedged fronts and gables and a sevenpenny bus ride; the privilege of suburbia has it tax.'  (Introduction)
(p. 61-72)
Coming to an End, Michael Wilding , single work short story
'So, there we were, for the last time again, looking at the menu which I don’t think they had in the old days, I’m sure if there had been a menu I’d have written about it, about someone sitting there, fingering it, fiddling with it, turning it over and reading aloud from it, written that for something to begin with before getting going properly. We sat there down at the back, so we could see the whole length down to the glass front and open door, see people coming in and sitting sipping their coffees or cokes, and going out, and others coming. And three years ago, then it had been new; it had just been redecorated then, given a smooth sliding surface. They’d done that well; still it showed no marks of the time, no furrows of the years.'   (Introduction)
(p. 73-81)
The Silence of the Seer, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 83-88)
Hector and Freddie, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 89-140)
Tell No More, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 141-144)
Europe, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 145-151)
An Afternoon for Political Dissidents in Texas, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 153-165)
Writing Again After a While, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 167-170)
Their Minds Keep on Working, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 171-176)
Thing for the Tentacle Ladies, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 177-179)
Bye Bye Jack. See You Soon, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 181-194)
Stuck on the Mesa, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 195-198)
The Rejection of Arthur Hugh Clough by the University of Sydney, Michael Wilding , single work short story (p. 199-205)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Paradise, Politics and Fiction : The Writing of Michael Wilding Bruce A. Clunies Ross , 1986 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 45 no. 1 1986; (p. 19-27)
Untitled Brian Kiernan , 1976 single work review
— Appears in: The National Times , 2-7 August 1976; (p. 36-37)

— Review of Inside the Wardrobe : Twenty Stories Morris Lurie , 1975 selected work short story ; The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story ; The Fat Man in History : Short Stories Peter Carey , 1974 selected work short story
Make or Fake? Some Current Fiction Fay Zwicky , 1976 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 63 1976; (p. 52-56)

— Review of The First Journey : Two Short Novels Antigone Kefala , 1975 selected work novel ; The Boarding House Antigone Kefala , 1975 single work novel ; The First Journey Antigone Kefala , 1975 single work novel ; The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story ; A Kindness Cup Thea Astley , 1974 single work novel ; Contemporary Portraits and Other Stories Murray Bail , 1975 selected work short story
Untitled Carl Harrison-Ford , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 18 October 1975; (p. 19)

— Review of The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story
Untitled S. Dawson , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian , 15 November 1975; (p. 40)

— Review of The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story
Make or Fake? Some Current Fiction Fay Zwicky , 1976 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 63 1976; (p. 52-56)

— Review of The First Journey : Two Short Novels Antigone Kefala , 1975 selected work novel ; The Boarding House Antigone Kefala , 1975 single work novel ; The First Journey Antigone Kefala , 1975 single work novel ; The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story ; A Kindness Cup Thea Astley , 1974 single work novel ; Contemporary Portraits and Other Stories Murray Bail , 1975 selected work short story
On the Occasion of Reading Seven Australian Book Length Pieces of Fiction (at least) Garrie Hutchinson , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: Makar , December vol. 11 no. 3 1975; (p. 42-51)

— Review of Johnno : A Novel David Malouf , 1975 single work novel ; A Place Among People Rodney Hall , 1975 single work novel ; The Short Story Embassy : A Novel Michael Wilding , 1975 single work novel ; The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story ; Tamarisk Row Gerald Murnane , 1974 single work novel ; A Collapsible Man Laurie Clancy , 1975 single work novel ; Contemporary Portraits and Other Stories Murray Bail , 1975 selected work short story
Untitled Brian Kiernan , 1976 single work review
— Appears in: The National Times , 2-7 August 1976; (p. 36-37)

— Review of Inside the Wardrobe : Twenty Stories Morris Lurie , 1975 selected work short story ; The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story ; The Fat Man in History : Short Stories Peter Carey , 1974 selected work short story
Untitled Lee Cataldi , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: Nation Review , 12-18 December 1975; (p. 236)

— Review of The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story
Untitled A. R. Chisholm , 1975 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 18 October 1975; (p. 19)

— Review of The West Midland Underground : Stories Michael Wilding , 1975 selected work short story
Paradise, Politics and Fiction : The Writing of Michael Wilding Bruce A. Clunies Ross , 1986 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 45 no. 1 1986; (p. 19-27)
Last amended 1 Mar 2018 13:30:16
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