Writer John Marr says that Australian writers have become stuck in mediocrity in their “exaltation of the average” and need to develop sharper voices. Marr says what is needed it to “start focusing on what is happening in this country, looking Australia in the face, not flinching, coming to grips with the fact that we have been on a long loop through time that has brought us back almost – but not quite – to where we were.” Marr suggested that political and business elites had “inverted that term and directed it towards mostly poor and marginal artists. In response, literary novelists had retreated from the sharp edge of public debate.”