April 2010
POLITICS
Kissinger & Burchett
Wilfred Burchett was a tad wary when he presented his ID to the sentry at the White House on a foggy morning in October 1971. His passport...
More ...SOCIETY
'Solar' by Ian McEwan
Tim Flannery
Ian McEwan’s latest work can be read as a farce whose principal theme is Hamlet’s musing that “there is nothing either good or bad, but...
More ...'Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism' by Natasha Walter
Linda Jaivin
Swaddled in princess pink, tottering towards adolescence on their training heels, many young girls today are growing up in the plastic, not...
More ...SOCIETY
Classical Complex: The Sydney Symphony's Mahler Cycle
Anna Goldsworthy
In the summer of 1910, Gustav Mahler consulted Sigmund Freud, seeking advice on his troubled marriage. “Mahler gave me the impression of...
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As Long As It’s Black : Michael Haneke's 'The White Ribbon' and Jan Kounen's 'Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky'
Luke Davies
Michael Haneke is an unforgiving film-maker who explores suspense in various permutations without ever quite creating a thriller. Yet...
More ...SOCIETY
Nobel Calling: Les Murray's 'Taller When Prone'
Clive James
In the majesty of his years and accomplishments, Les Murray, sole author of the several increasingly massive editions of his Collected...
More ...End of History: Yann Martel's 'Beatrice and Virgil'
Inga Clendinnen
Not many people had heard of Yann Martel, the implausibly named Canadian novelist, before he won the 2002 Man Booker Prize for an...
More ...SOCIETY
The Possessed: Meeting Barrie Kosky
Peter Conrad
Expressionism has never been an Australian style. How could it be, since Australians are discouraged from expressing themselves? Mouths are...
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Known Unknowns: Influenza
Malcolm Knox
Although it is an everyday virus, there is something about influenza that inspires awe. This microscopic hard-shelled parcel of genetic...
More ...SOCIETY
Like a Virgin
Emily Maguire
The porn sites tell us that virgins are precious, rare and worth 30 bucks a month; Christian sex-ed tells us that virgins are precious,...
More ...POLITICS
Amateur League: The Game of Politics
Mungo MacCallum
In nineteenth-century Britain, politics was seen as a bit of a diversion from the real business of life: a sort of gap year (or years)...
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POLITICS
Strictly Speaking
Alan Saunders
“I’m not going to bore you with a lot of oratory, because I’m not an orator,” Sir Les Patterson once remarked. “I’m an Australian...
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SOCIETY
Plots
Debra Adelaide
The wind at Waverley Cemetery, high on the coast of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is a hair-whipping, coat-tugging, cheek-scouring wind. On...
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SOCIETY
Mortal Coil
Cate Kennedy
Rhys Gloury is checking through some large clip-lock plastic storage boxes in his shed. Except for the neatly symmetrical holes drilled in...
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SOCIETY
Bad Hotel
Anna Funder
At dusk the bats fly silently over our house in inner Sydney. Unlike birds, which coast through the air without apparent thought or work,...
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SOCIETY
Keep Calm, Buy Posters
Kirsten Tranter
“Keep Calm and Carry On” the poster orders, its message somewhat at odds with its presentation: white text set in imperious capitals in a...
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POLITICS
Comment: New Labour & The ALP
Tim Soutphommasane
For much of the last three years, the conventional wisdom has been that Britain’s New Labour was experiencing its slow death under Gordon...
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POLITICS
Comment: Health Reform
Bill Bowtell
In a bold reform package unveiled in March, Kevin Rudd proposes that the Commonwealth government should assume the dominant responsibility...
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POLITICS
Comment: National Curriculum
Waleed Aly
That’s the thing about meddling with a curriculum: it is an inescapably political, often ideological, exercise. I do not, for instance,...
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9 February 2012
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