August 2007
Poetry
Arthur Calwell & Peter Kocan
In the lead-up to a federal election, the Labor Opposition leader is shot at point-blank range as he leaves a rowdy public meeting. The...
More ...ENVIRONMENT
Embers Re-Flamed: Meg Baird’s 'Dear Companion'
Robert Forster
In the tangled undergrowth of the indie-rock scene there are certain musical genres that re-emerge with some regularity. New wave, no wave...
More ...The Nymph Calypso
Clive James
Planning to leave Calypso in the lurch,Odysseus snuck off to build a ship.He found the right-shaped boughs of larch or birch Or spruce, for...
More ...Poetry
The Velvet Shackles of a Reputation
Clive James
In Dr Johnson's little novel Rasselas, the Poet tells the Prince about the psychological requirements of a poetic career. The poet,...
More ...CULTURE
Songs of Innocence and Experience: John Carney’s 'Once' & Tony Ayres’ 'The Home Song Stories'
Luke Davies
The opening scene of the new Irish film Once (released nationally on 30 August) is an extended long shot of a busker standing on a Dublin...
More ...CULTURE
Ein Schwindel!: Norman Lebrecht’s 'Maestros, Masterpieces and Madness'
Anna Goldsworthy
Classical music is dying again. It's a morbid habit that it just can't shake, at least according to Norman Lebrecht, who has built...
More ...SOCIETY
Faith Healing: Tanya Levin’s 'People in Glass Houses'
Craig Sherborne
What a stirring notion it was, that old Christian edifier: the poor would ascend Heavenward as if on a spaceship called Getting Even, while...
More ...SOCIETY
A Husk of Meaning: What Happened to Community?
Drusilla Modjeska
Thirty years ago or so, the word packed a punch. It's hard to imagine now. In London during the '70s, I fell in with a rather wonderful...
More ...POLITICS
Pearson’s Gamble, Stanner’s Dream: The Past and Future of Remote Australia
Robert Manne
It took a decade and a half for the first positive policy to be formulated clearly. It was labelled assimilation. The postwar Minister for...
More ...WORLD
Timor's Future: Xanana Gusmão and José Ramos-Horta
Mark Aarons
Young boys stand forlornly, holding phone cards for sale. Skinny men carry bamboo poles over their shoulders, dangling fruit. Others weave...
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SOCIETY
Live Long and Prosper
Christopher Scanlon
Noam Chomsky aside, Mark Okrand is probably the world's only celebrity linguist. Okrand, whose dissertation focused on Native American...
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WORLD
The Optimist
Nicholas Brudenell
In March this year Herman Wainggai caused a problem at an ALP branch meeting in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Eltham. His speech on West...
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SOCIETY
Trunk Call
Gideon Haigh
A story is told of the young Tom Stoppard applying for a job in Fleet Street. "It says here you're interested in politics," said the...
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ECONOMICS
Throwing the Book
Alice Pung
The Old Man is sitting on a plastic chair outside the room, his hand resting on his wooden cane. His left leg cannot bend at the knee...
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POLITICS
Comment
Raimond Gaita
More even than Margaret Thatcher, John Howard is an ideologically driven prime minister. At the 2006 dinner celebrating Quadrant's fiftieth...
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The Shortlist Daily
7 February 2012
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