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The conditions for originality in a piece of writing.
Yggdrasil, the tree that supports the world in Norse myth, can be found in America in Neil Gaiman’s mash-up of world religion.
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American Gods imagines a US where ancient gods exist at “right angles to reality”, asking why we have mythologies and why we need them.
Children’s books were historically moralising and instructive. What’s changed?
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Children’s literature may be a modern genre, but there is a long history of writing for children with some surprisingly unchanging elements.
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Whether the ubiquity of fiction has devalued truth or enhanced morality has been in doubt for over 2,000 years.
Children may actually prefer reading books the traditional way.
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Research shows that providing children with eReading devices can actually inhibit their reading.
Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, Trouvelot figure. Photograph of electrical effluvia around a coin 1888–89.
© Musée des arts et métiers-Cnam, Paris. Photo Michèle Fava
The way writers drew on electricity to weave their stories tells us much about the history of electricity itself.
Milo Yiannopoulos addressing the media this week.
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Independent booksellers are increasingly seeing their role as, necessarily, an active, educative, political one.
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Alternative facts owe more to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World than Orwell’s 1984.
Bookplates held a special place in the heart of the Edwardians.
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Bookplates showed wealth, personality, status – and a sense of humour.
Pro-Trump supporters in Manhattan. The new US president appeals to many Americans marginalised by globalisation.
Reuters/Andrew Kelly
The world needs an alternative system, measuring economic value in face of the dissatisfaction that brought Donald Trump to the White House.
The 1998 film adaption of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, starring Johnny Depp as Hunter S Thompson, introduced millions of new fans to the world of gonzo journalism.
Fear and Loathing LLC
Hunter S Thompson’s 1971 book is a torpedo ride through some of the strangest scenes in American fact, or fiction. It’s about greed, the souring of ‘60s idealism, the failings of journalism and much more.
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What stories can teach children about the world.
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If all you know of Northern Ireland is the turmoil of political institutions, you could do worse than to pick up some of the recent flux in women’s fiction.
Real fictions: Édouard Louis.
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‘Autofiction’ has an important role to play in this new post-truth world.
In celebration of academic books.
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Virginia Woolf’s archive can be seen as a serious resource for research into the experience of hearing voices.
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Tolkien and Zamenhof are two of imaginary languages’ most successful proponents – yet their aims were very different.
Norweigian oil rig.
Black Inc. Books
Paul Cleary makes a good case as to why Australia should follow Norway as an example of how to tax miners in Trillion Dollar Baby.
Time to sink into some deep thoughts.
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Want to contemplate some big questions this summer but don’t know where to start? Here are some top picks from some of Australia’s top philosophers.
They’re still often more expensive overseas than in Australia.
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The copyright wars are set to continue, with the government releasing a Productivity Commission report arguing for a relaxation of intellectual property laws.