Public Address | Cafe | Muse: Worthwhile Literature, Worthless Newspaper

Joe Wylie

Tue, 08 Sept 2015 00:07:15 +1200

who'd be the Johnny Rotten/Joe Strummer of literature?

There's no lack of YA-lit contenders out there, Melvin Burgess has been doing a pretty good job for around two decades now. If they got out more, Family First would probably have kittens – or more properly puppies – over his hilariously…

Craig Ranapia

Mon, 07 Sept 2015 21:39:49 +1200

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Shit.

Jimmy D

Mon, 08 Jul 2013 14:12:04 +1200

Ted Dawe was my english teacher for several years at Dilworth School in Epsom, one of his sources for life at boarding school (he certainly would have had some rich material from that environment.)

He was a superb English teacher that inspired a real love of literature in me, but…

Lucy Telfar Barnard

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 12:33:21 +1200

More kids will read it precisely because of this flurry of interest from the old farts. I think that is the outcome to dwell upon.

Reminds me of my mother sending her books to Patricia Bartlett in the (fruitless) hope Bartlett would call for them to be banned. Can't buy…

JacksonP

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 08:06:26 +1200

Michelle Hewitson interviews Ted Dawe.

I couldn't give a rat's ass about the hoopla over the book, but I do feel for the guy and his personal tragedy. Also, if I'm going to read something, or have the children read it, I'd just as soon it was born of genuine…

Kumara Republic

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 02:12:32 +1200

I predict that the next big controversy will be books that are perceived to egg on the nation's youths to subvert the powers that be. The Sex Pistols and The Clash managed to pull it off in 1970s Britain – who'd be the Johnny Rotten/Joe Strummer of literature?

Matthew Littlewood

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 12:44:38 +1200

To say both novels were shocking, in the best sense of the word, to a teenage gay boy at a single-sex boarding school was a considerable understatement. So were Maurice Gee’s “children’s novels” – particularly the Halfmen of O trilogy, which also appeared in the mid-80’s to this SF/fantasy geek’s…

Kumara Republic

Fri, 05 Jul 2013 00:35:37 +1200

There's enough sex and violence in the news already – for the simple fact that it keeps the newsagents and people-meters going – so the pot is calling the kettle black.

Rob Stowell

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 21:51:58 +1200

A few more adults, too, I reckon :)

slarty

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 15:53:24 +1200

I almost wished I'd bought the thing occasionally so that I could stop. But I prefer a softer lavatory experience, so have never bothered. I did respect the integrity they demonstrated by at least presenting as a tabloid from the start...

I think it's best just to recognise that it's…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 09:43:08 +1200

Wills was such a sleaze — or a commercial playwright who had a perfectly sound understanding that fucks, fights and smut paid the bills.

Rich Lock

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 09:37:54 +1200

a bad working assumption for humanity in general, at that

Humanity is a sex joke? Yeah, sounds about right.

There's an old Irish joke that says that God invented sex as a joke. When nobody laughed, He made it a sin.

I've just re-read my comment on Emma's thread

I…

Lucy Stewart

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 03:23:59 +1200

(There was even some swears and fanny jokes, if you had the patience to parse the footnotes. You’d be surprised how many did.)

My working assumption with Shakespeare is that if it's meant to be a punchline and I don't get it, it's probably a sex joke. (Not a bad…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 02:01:10 +1200

Testy!

Public Address

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 02:01:10 +1200

Discussion from blog post.