When I read Richard Flanagan’s essay “Does Writing Matter?” from October’s issue of The Monthly, I was blown away — not just by the force of his argument, which I’d be a fool to try to sum up here because I’d only water it down, but also by the way he brought readers along.

Not many writers I know can craft coherence while running through (in order, in the first 1,000 words) BuzzFeed, Gutenberg, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, Kafka, Goethe and Shakespeare. He then went on to rain bile on the “great American novel” for leading to “books so huge that, like large plastic bags, they ought to be issued with warnings of death by asphyxiation if you take them to bed to read.”

Suddenly grateful (never again will I feel a need to read “The Recognitions”), I called Richard in Tasmania to discuss which pitfalls to watch out for as we expand our coverage of Australia and what to pursue with zeal. He’s far from the only person I’ve been talking to as our bureau gets going, but our conversation and his follow-up email stuck with me. His words were encouraging in terms of what we’re aiming to do, but also bracing, as he dished out a verbal shot of strong whiskey, aiming to correct the Americanist urge to assume that shared language and sunny weather signify shared history and simple commonalities.