The Hall of Uselessness : Collected Essays

Originally published: Collingwood, Vic. : Black Inc., 2011.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 513-562) and index.

Quixotism. The imitation of our Lord Don Quixote -- An empire of ugliness -- Lies that tell the truth -- Literature. Balzac -- Victor Hugo -- Chesterton: the poet who dances with a hundred legs -- Portrait of Proteus: a little abc of Andre Gide -- Malraux -- The intimate Orwell -- Terror of Babel: Evelyn Waugh -- The truth of Simenon -- The sins of the son: the posthumous publication of Nabokov's unfinished novel -- Cunning like a hedgehog -- The experience of literary translation -- On readers' rewards and writers' awards -- Writers and money -- Overtures -- China. The Chinese attitude towards the past -- One more art: Chinese calligraphy -- An introduction to Confucius -- Poetry and painting: aspects of Chinese classical aesthetics -- Ethics and aesthetics: the Chinese lesson -- Orientalism and Sinology -- The China experts -- The wake of an empty boat: Zhou Enlai -- Aspects of Mao Zedong -- The art of interpreting non-existent inscriptions -- Written in invisible ink on a blank page -- The curse of the man who could see the little fish at the bottom of the ocean -- The Cambodian genocide -- The sea. Foreword to the sea in French literature -- In the wake of Magellan -- Richard Henry Dana and his two years before the mast -- University. An idea of the university -- -- A fable from academe -- Marginalia. Prefer reading -- A way of living -- Tell them I said something -- Detours -- Memento Mori.