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When writers festivals began to take off big time about a decade ago, popping up like mushrooms in leaf litter after a warm autumnal rain, those with a conservative bent criticised them as wanky talkfests for worthy leftist ladies. When that cresting wave turned out to have behind it an even bigger, foam-tipped swell, it
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Suddenly, for a moment, everyone’s an expert on writers festivals; how they’re run, how they should be run, and what’s at stake if they’re not thus run. Certainly, uninviting people as well-known as Germaine Greer and Bob Carr – which is what the Brisbane Writers Festival did recently – is a puzzling and even brash
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When an art gallery is busy, full of young people, noisy, active and with a huge range of things to see and also to do, that’s a success, apparently. Even on a weekday, the National Gallery of Victoria’s free Triennial is packed. You can stick a flower on a wall, you can sniff street smells,
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Excellent! Manchester Art Gallery has taken down the excruciatingly gorgeous and silly Hylas and the Nymphs painting by pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse, because of the way it depicts women. Does this mean we can expect a purging of the walls? Down comes Gauguin’s Tahitian Women from the walls of the Met for starters. Manet’s
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“There was a wall” begins Ursula Le Guin’s 1974 novel, The Dispossessed. “It did not look important. … it degenerated into mere geometry, a line, an idea of boundary. But the idea was real.” This visionary writer, who died in Portland, Oregon, on January 22, aged 88, understood the power of ideas – for good
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Charlotte Wood writes wonderfully well about the avalanche of women’s anger we are currently witnessing. Trying to understand why anger is dangerous, in an essay published in The Guardian, she moves towards a conclusion that seems both right and natural. She suggests that creative people – women in particular, are able to turn anger into
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Those who would like to see less money spent on stuff that’s thrown away, and more spent on education, health and creativity, need to get better at making friends and influencing people. No point in getting angry and shouting, economist Richard Denniss seems to say. His cheerful, pleasant, informative approach will give hope and encouragement
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A few years back Mt Alexander Shire council in Central Victoria sent a letter to residents, seeking input into the choice of name for a little road created to give access to a bush block. It was a nice letter, worthily suggesting that residents’ opinions mattered and would be taken in to account. Bloke next
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In the library, at the reserve shelves, I found myself standing next to a child of about six, as he went through the books one by one. When he got to the end of the shelf, he hadn’t found a book reserved in his family name, so he started again. Patience, thy name is Rosemary:
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Ellen van Neerven’s poem upset some students sitting the NSW Higher School Certificate English exam this week. They were asked “how does the speaker convey delight?” Some were not delighted by the poem, the question or the poet. The ensuing “controversy” may well become a footnote in the history of our Culture Wars. *** Mango by Ellen
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