I agree Bri, it’s too soon to try to make sense of it. I also want to add that in my mind it doesn’t really matter what his motivations were if he was psychotic at the time. It doesn’t matter because if he was in psychosis then it’s completely nonsensical anyway.
My brother had schizophrenia (he died by suicide when he was 26) and when the Bondi attack happened and “mental health issues” were mentioned I just knew it would end up being paranoid schizophrenia that this person suffered from. When my brother died one of the may feelings I felt at that time was that I was so relieved that he didn’t kill anyone else. In the last year of his life (in particular) he became very violent. He attacked (but didn’t make contact, thank god) my Mum with a knife and multiple other violent incidents. I loved him so much but I was really afraid of him in the end. His obsessions were about the army and sexual assault and he 100% believed his thoughts/the so called “voices” in his head. He was so convincing that sometimes I believed him too and I would help him write letters to the army(!) etc. All of this to say that I also completely believe the family when they said that he would have been devastated about what he did if he was in his right mind and hadn’t “lost touch with reality”. And one of the “bollard men” commented on how his eyes looked like he “wasn’t there”. I know that look intimately. I am not excusing what he did in any way. Not at all. It is absolutely tragic and it really really upset me, I was paralysed with sadness and grief for all involved. Including his family when they said, heartbreakingly, that the officer did the right thing shooting him. I could so relate to them feeling this way. We have a huge mental health crisis in this country and this incident shows how easily those with really severe illness just don’t get the support they need. And nor do their families.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a N&R reader must be in want of a Lally cocky 🍸🫐 Oh thoughtful af gin gifter please show yourself!!!! Haha fangin for the recipe Bri! Serious Q: what would SOPHIE’s cocktail be?!
Sam from Fiction Distilling here. I've just spotted this on instagram and made my over to subscribe. It's beautiful here!
The cocktail is based on a gin sour but of course...we had to add blueberries!
Comtesse Lally cocktail:
About 1 tbsp of blueberry jam
60ml Pride & Prejudice gin (it's a really subtle herbal/floral gin with a nice citrus note)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (1tsp if you like vanilla)
20 ml lemon juice
1 egg white or aquafaba
All in a cocktail shaker (or the jam jar) and shake - good to get the usual day to day aggressions out.
Pop some ice in, shake some more.
Double strain, the jam will make it tricky so don't bother straining if you don't mind chunky cocktails)
It's absolutely delicious. Enjoy!
Bri, thank you for such absolutely stunning writing. I can't get enough. I feel like I completely bumbled my words when meeting you, I don't think I've ever been star struck before but you blew me away.
I just KNEW your writing of Lally's migraine was a deeply felt experience. Hello from a fellow migraine experiencer. I think migraines are a Bad Review.
Thank you for your nuanced take on the Bondi stabbings. I've been struggling to articulate in my own mind how I feel about the coverage of the situation and the responses that have been making the rounds on socials. It was carthatic (by proxy? vicariously carthatic?) to read.
Thank you and I agree with your comments on Bondi. I've been really disappointed by some of the takes from people who I enjoy reading. I've worked as a mental health nurse witnessing these lives and the lives of their families. It's entirely possible to hold all sides of this horrific tragedy at once.
I was in the crowd in Adelaide - thank you so much for coming! Your talk was so funny and kind, and passionate and supportive, all the things! My big take away was not do it alone, to gather an army of people who feel the same.
On an unrelated kinda thing.. Knife by Salman Rushdie was probably not the "right" book to have arrive on my desk two days after the Bondi and the church stabbings, but I'm so glad it did.
He writes on why he didn't do anything to stop his attack: "Children going to school, a congregation in a synagogue, shoppers in a supermarket, a man on the stage of an amphitheatre are all, so to speak, inhabiting a stable picture of the world. A school is a place of education. A synagogue is a place of worship. A supermarket is a place to shop. A stage is a performance space. That's the frame in which they see themselves.
Violence smashes that picture. Suddenly they don't know the rules - what to say, how to behave, what choices to make. They no longer know the shape of things. Reality dissolves and is replaced by the incomprehensible. Fear, panic, paralysis take over from rational thought. "Thinking straight" becomes impossible, because in the presence of violence people no longer know what "thinking straight" might be. They - we - become destabilized, even deranged. Our minds no longer know how to work."
No wonder we standing on the sidelines are so confused and lost and cannot make sense of it.
I'm watching Shogun at the moment (Disney+) and it's so so so good. Worth the hype. Last episode drops next week and I'm waiting with bated breath. It's pretty violent... but the violence is relatively quick.
Can relate to the glasses dilemma. Have had to have mine express posted to me before! And really respect your comments on what the Bondi tragedy is all about. Such a week for reflection. All the best for the rest of your trip xx
Love your comments on Bondi tragedy and your refusal to add to the unnecessary hype. Thank you and Rick for a totally engaging and entertaining book launch in Brisbane. It was so different to see that venue used for a real listening event, it's usually full of people stuffing their faces! I really want to comment on A Crabb's observation about "bipartisan" something on the Lehrmann judgement. I haven't read her comments, so am I even entitled to say anything? I don't know, but here goes. To me it is a way off the mark comment because there are much larger more important takeaways than that, she lives in a limited bubble.
And I recommend "My Monticello" by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. Her first novel, 2021. African American writer, echoes of Toni Morrison to me. Incredible insights into US race history and repeating devastating stories.
I just watched Captain Fantastic (movie) on Netflix. I loved it. Beware the first 3 minutes is a bit full on but the movie itself isn't violent. It's beautiful.
I agree Bri, it’s too soon to try to make sense of it. I also want to add that in my mind it doesn’t really matter what his motivations were if he was psychotic at the time. It doesn’t matter because if he was in psychosis then it’s completely nonsensical anyway.
My brother had schizophrenia (he died by suicide when he was 26) and when the Bondi attack happened and “mental health issues” were mentioned I just knew it would end up being paranoid schizophrenia that this person suffered from. When my brother died one of the may feelings I felt at that time was that I was so relieved that he didn’t kill anyone else. In the last year of his life (in particular) he became very violent. He attacked (but didn’t make contact, thank god) my Mum with a knife and multiple other violent incidents. I loved him so much but I was really afraid of him in the end. His obsessions were about the army and sexual assault and he 100% believed his thoughts/the so called “voices” in his head. He was so convincing that sometimes I believed him too and I would help him write letters to the army(!) etc. All of this to say that I also completely believe the family when they said that he would have been devastated about what he did if he was in his right mind and hadn’t “lost touch with reality”. And one of the “bollard men” commented on how his eyes looked like he “wasn’t there”. I know that look intimately. I am not excusing what he did in any way. Not at all. It is absolutely tragic and it really really upset me, I was paralysed with sadness and grief for all involved. Including his family when they said, heartbreakingly, that the officer did the right thing shooting him. I could so relate to them feeling this way. We have a huge mental health crisis in this country and this incident shows how easily those with really severe illness just don’t get the support they need. And nor do their families.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a N&R reader must be in want of a Lally cocky 🍸🫐 Oh thoughtful af gin gifter please show yourself!!!! Haha fangin for the recipe Bri! Serious Q: what would SOPHIE’s cocktail be?!
Hello all,
Sam from Fiction Distilling here. I've just spotted this on instagram and made my over to subscribe. It's beautiful here!
The cocktail is based on a gin sour but of course...we had to add blueberries!
Comtesse Lally cocktail:
About 1 tbsp of blueberry jam
60ml Pride & Prejudice gin (it's a really subtle herbal/floral gin with a nice citrus note)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (1tsp if you like vanilla)
20 ml lemon juice
1 egg white or aquafaba
All in a cocktail shaker (or the jam jar) and shake - good to get the usual day to day aggressions out.
Pop some ice in, shake some more.
Double strain, the jam will make it tricky so don't bother straining if you don't mind chunky cocktails)
It's absolutely delicious. Enjoy!
Bri, thank you for such absolutely stunning writing. I can't get enough. I feel like I completely bumbled my words when meeting you, I don't think I've ever been star struck before but you blew me away.
Good luck in the blueberry jam hunt!
I just KNEW your writing of Lally's migraine was a deeply felt experience. Hello from a fellow migraine experiencer. I think migraines are a Bad Review.
Thank you for your nuanced take on the Bondi stabbings. I've been struggling to articulate in my own mind how I feel about the coverage of the situation and the responses that have been making the rounds on socials. It was carthatic (by proxy? vicariously carthatic?) to read.
Beerenberg make a fab Blueberry Jam FYI.. hopefully your lovely mystery gifter makes themselves known.
In absolute agreement to everything you’ve mentioned about the horrific Bondi stabbings and the media coverage.
Thank you and I agree with your comments on Bondi. I've been really disappointed by some of the takes from people who I enjoy reading. I've worked as a mental health nurse witnessing these lives and the lives of their families. It's entirely possible to hold all sides of this horrific tragedy at once.
I was in the crowd in Adelaide - thank you so much for coming! Your talk was so funny and kind, and passionate and supportive, all the things! My big take away was not do it alone, to gather an army of people who feel the same.
On an unrelated kinda thing.. Knife by Salman Rushdie was probably not the "right" book to have arrive on my desk two days after the Bondi and the church stabbings, but I'm so glad it did.
He writes on why he didn't do anything to stop his attack: "Children going to school, a congregation in a synagogue, shoppers in a supermarket, a man on the stage of an amphitheatre are all, so to speak, inhabiting a stable picture of the world. A school is a place of education. A synagogue is a place of worship. A supermarket is a place to shop. A stage is a performance space. That's the frame in which they see themselves.
Violence smashes that picture. Suddenly they don't know the rules - what to say, how to behave, what choices to make. They no longer know the shape of things. Reality dissolves and is replaced by the incomprehensible. Fear, panic, paralysis take over from rational thought. "Thinking straight" becomes impossible, because in the presence of violence people no longer know what "thinking straight" might be. They - we - become destabilized, even deranged. Our minds no longer know how to work."
No wonder we standing on the sidelines are so confused and lost and cannot make sense of it.
I'm watching Shogun at the moment (Disney+) and it's so so so good. Worth the hype. Last episode drops next week and I'm waiting with bated breath. It's pretty violent... but the violence is relatively quick.
Oh gosh that Olympic uniform. Also basically the cut of the Australian Defence Force issued bathers from when I arrived at ADFA in 2011!
Can relate to the glasses dilemma. Have had to have mine express posted to me before! And really respect your comments on what the Bondi tragedy is all about. Such a week for reflection. All the best for the rest of your trip xx
I couldn’t see any spelling or punctuation mistakes so you did good! x
Halfway through The Work and less than 2 hours until I see you! So excited and the book is so so good!
Love your comments on Bondi tragedy and your refusal to add to the unnecessary hype. Thank you and Rick for a totally engaging and entertaining book launch in Brisbane. It was so different to see that venue used for a real listening event, it's usually full of people stuffing their faces! I really want to comment on A Crabb's observation about "bipartisan" something on the Lehrmann judgement. I haven't read her comments, so am I even entitled to say anything? I don't know, but here goes. To me it is a way off the mark comment because there are much larger more important takeaways than that, she lives in a limited bubble.
And I recommend "My Monticello" by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. Her first novel, 2021. African American writer, echoes of Toni Morrison to me. Incredible insights into US race history and repeating devastating stories.
For an escape-watch I IMPLORE you to head directly to Irish Wish. It is just the wildest garbage, I loved every moment. You won't regret it!!!
I just watched Captain Fantastic (movie) on Netflix. I loved it. Beware the first 3 minutes is a bit full on but the movie itself isn't violent. It's beautiful.