Prof.Quayum sent me an sms around noon today asking if it were true Bruce had passed away.I told him I had not heard and asked for his source.Kirp.It must have been true and googled for the news.
True enough.Bruce Bennett is dead.
I may not know him as long as Quayum did but since Manila 2007 (or it could have been 2 years earlier in Singapore cos' I remember him joining the night safari ), I met Bruce every two years at our Asiapac conference which meets every two years in different cities.When I offered to help host the conference in KL after Manila, Bruce was one of those who was the most encouraging (even after dicucuk2 oleh someone not to give it to me.Mark,Harry,Lily and Agnes were equally supportive when I got very upset by this back-stabbing episode by another fellow academician from another uni).Bruce (and also Dennis) stood by me and said they'd be in KL to support me all the way.And true enough, both Bruce and Dennis came despite being confronted by illness (Bruce was sick himself, Dennis' wife was also very ill).
Bruce would always remain in my mind as a gentleman, sincere, committed, kind-hearted and very, very graceful scholar.He had moved the world in his own quiet ways, putting Asiapac literatures as equally important as mainstream ones.He (and Dennis) were constantly speaking of passing the torch to younger academics like Q, Kit, me, Lily, Isabela, Agnes and so on.It will be a tough act to follow, Bruce.
I'm glad I was able to meet him in Perth last December and had the opportunity to pay tribute to what he had done to literature and art in the region at our 2009 Asiapac conference in KL.
RIP, Bruce. You will be sadly missed.
True enough.Bruce Bennett is dead.
I may not know him as long as Quayum did but since Manila 2007 (or it could have been 2 years earlier in Singapore cos' I remember him joining the night safari ), I met Bruce every two years at our Asiapac conference which meets every two years in different cities.When I offered to help host the conference in KL after Manila, Bruce was one of those who was the most encouraging (even after dicucuk2 oleh someone not to give it to me.Mark,Harry,Lily and Agnes were equally supportive when I got very upset by this back-stabbing episode by another fellow academician from another uni).Bruce (and also Dennis) stood by me and said they'd be in KL to support me all the way.And true enough, both Bruce and Dennis came despite being confronted by illness (Bruce was sick himself, Dennis' wife was also very ill).
Bruce would always remain in my mind as a gentleman, sincere, committed, kind-hearted and very, very graceful scholar.He had moved the world in his own quiet ways, putting Asiapac literatures as equally important as mainstream ones.He (and Dennis) were constantly speaking of passing the torch to younger academics like Q, Kit, me, Lily, Isabela, Agnes and so on.It will be a tough act to follow, Bruce.
I'm glad I was able to meet him in Perth last December and had the opportunity to pay tribute to what he had done to literature and art in the region at our 2009 Asiapac conference in KL.
RIP, Bruce. You will be sadly missed.
Bruce was the first to arrive for the conference.Here, with a student (Shahrul)
Bruce with NZ High Commissioner's wife, Gillian at a dinner reception at the HC's home
4 comments:
From Agnes in Hong Kong:
Bruce was (so hard to write in past tense about him) that sort of person - that he would make the trip to KL just to support you and would make the trip to Perth just to see all of us again. The conference series was like his baby.
Whatever the circumstances, he was always smiling. We should remember him like that. I think that would make him happy
You are right Faridah, Bruce was not only a prominent scholar, with more than 20 books to his credit, and one of the founders of Australian Literary Studies as an academic discipline, but also a gentle, humble and an extremely kind human being. It is hard to imagine that he is no more. Most ironically, a non-smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008. In fact, when he came for our Asia-Pacific Literature and Culture conference in 2009, he was already undergoing treatment. Yet he came, in typical Bruce spirit, only to lend us support. I am told that he received proofs of his latest book, on Australian spies and novelists, only days before his death. I am not sure if and when this book will come out, but we should be proud that he shared a chapter of this book with us which we have included in the book you and I co-edited in 2011, Imagined Communities Revisited: Critical Essays on Asia-Pacific Literatures and Cultures. His departure is a serious loss for all of us, as we have not only lost a colleague and a friend, but also a mentor, and above all, an excellent human being.
Quayum,
Even reading and writing about him is painful but I'm glad we are recording him like this.Thank you for your thoughts here.We'll send Trish the book in two weeks.
From Isabela Mooney, Manila
Hi Faridah and Quayum
I'm sure the family will appreciate hearing from us. Dennis was at the funeral.
Before he died, the family was trying to put together as his birthday present (last March) an informal tribute in written form from friends and colleagues the world over. I don't know if that pushed through, but I'm one of the lucky ones and had sent him a poem which he with Trish were still able to read together and respond to.
In Perth, Bruce had asked if our circuit still had a future. But of course! He was comforted and happy to hear that. I did think then that he was saying goodbye to us all.
Hugs,
Isabela
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