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Articles by Simon Caterson
Why we fall for literary hoaxes
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‘Auteur Theory’ for the Sub-Literate
Being consulted, earlier this year, by a concerned mother, with regard to her Year 10 daughter’s progress (or lack of it) in English at school, and with the demands of the HSC beckoning in a couple of years’ time, I asked for details of the girl’s current classroom study. The first few weeks of the term, it turned out, had been devoted to “creative writing”.
Their World, You Just Live in it
he key to understanding the global political situation at the […] Sep 22 2024 26 mins Unlike the renewables industry, its green rent-seekers and Chris Bowen, numbers tell the truth Sep 22 2024 4 mins Before Ian Fleming and all the other authors who have made heroes of the wrongly accused there was John Buchan's urbane Richard Hannay Sep 21 2024 12 mins The key to understanding the global political situation at the moment appears to be rooted in events which occurred in the late Sixties and...
The Unfixable Shortfalls of Wind and Sun
Unlike the renewables industry, its green rent-seekers and Chris Bowen, numbers tell the truth Sep 22 2024 4 mins Before Ian Fleming and all the other authors who have made heroes of the wrongly accused there was John Buchan's urbane Richard Hannay Sep 21 2024 12 mins At 75, I have achieved 'old age'.
Simon Caterson reviews 'Trust: America’s best chance' by Pete Buttigieg
Politics Peter Buttigieg’s compelling manifesto Trust: America’s best chance by Pete Buttigieg John Murray, $32.99 pb, 223 pp Politics Peter Buttigieg’s compelling manifesto Serious observers of American presidential politics will not have missed the rapid rise to national prominence of Pete Buttigieg, the thirty-eight-year-old former mayor of the small Midwestern city of South Bend, Indiana.
Burning the Books: A history of knowledge under attack
History Reviewed by Simon Caterson • Burning the Books: A history of knowledge under attack by Richard Ovenden John Murray, $32.99 pb, 308 pp History Reviewed by Simon Caterson • The store of knowledge available to humanity has never been so immense and accessible as it is today. Nor has it been so vulnerable to neglect or erasure.
The Bird Way: A new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think
Ornithology Reviewed by Simon Caterson • The Bird Way: A new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think by Jennifer Ackerman Scribe, $35 pb, 355 pp Ornithology Reviewed by Simon Caterson • One of the most bizarre as well as unfortunate deaths in literary history occurred when the playwright Aeschylus was struck by a tortoise dropped on him by a bird. Bizarre, that is, if we don’t consider what the bird involved was doing, which was clever as well as practical.
Simon Caterson reviews 'Chromatopia: An illustrated history of colour' by David Coles
Chromatopia: An illustrated history of colour by David Coles Thames & Hudson, $49.99 hb, 224 pp, 9781760760021 The story of art could be framed as a narrative of tension between the boundless creative imagination of artists and the practical limitations – including instability, scarcity, even toxicity – of their materials. As master paint-maker David Coles explains in this wonderful book, the vividness and permanence of artists’ colours have never been assured.
Simon Caterson reviews 'Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce' by Colm Tóibín
Like so many parents of great authors, the fathers of Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, and James Joyce have much to answer for. Certainly, each man had a profound influence on his son’s literary career without for a moment being conscious of the literary consequences of his words and actions. Read the rest of this article by purchasing a subscription to ABR Online, or subscribe to the print edition to receive access to ABR Online free of charge.
The Great Race: the larger-than-life rally drivers and the little known women of the Redex Trials | Daily Review: Film, stage and music reviews, interviews and more.
Whatever else readers may think of his fiction, Peter Carey clearly has an eye for a yarn that might be spun from Australia’s rich history of eccentrics, liars and desperados. Carey’s forthcoming novel A Long Way from Home was inspired by an illustrious series of extreme endurance races that criss-crossed the Australian outback in the 1950s, attracting amateur competitors with no previous motor racing experience.
How (Not) To: Pierre Bayard’s non-participatory approach to getting more out of life | Daily Review: Film, stage and music reviews, interviews and more.
Sometimes the best advice tells us to go against conventional wisdom. Pierre Bayard, for one, seems to think that not doing certain things widely assumed to be good for us might be the best way to achieve something truly meaningful, or at least satisfying, in life. Bayard is a Paris-based literature professor and psychoanalyst. He works at the University of Paris VIII, the past employer of such influential theorists as Lacan, Foucault and Cixous.
The resurrection of Morris West
According to religious belief, in order to be resurrected a person must first have died. In the world of publishing, the revival of a dead author’s body of work is rare, no matter how popular and acclaimed the books were back in the day. But that is just what is about to happen with nearly 30 books written by the biggest-selling author Australia has produced. Later this month, leading local publisher Allen & Unwin is due to release most of the work of Morris West.
Simon Caterson reviews 'Brett Whiteley: Art, life and the other thing' by Ashleigh Wilson
Notwithstanding the fact that he died alone in a hotel room following a heroin overdose at the age of fifty-three, Brett Whiteley led what for an Australian artist in particular may be characterised as a fortunate life. As Ashleigh Wilson relates in this excellent biography, Whiteley retained the capacity to astonish, despite his misadventures. A middle-class upbringing and education in Sydney and Bathurst provided him with a solid foundation.
Simon Caterson reviews 'Collecting Ladies' by Penny Olsen
We are used to modern science being conducted as a collaborative effort involving teams of researchers in laboratories, but imagine a huge research project requiring thousands of researchers and covering every corner of an entire continent (and beyond) being organised successfully with no telephone or Internet. Continue reading for only $10 per month. Subscribe and gain full access to Australian Book Review. Already a subscriber? Sign in. If you need assistance, feel free to contact us.
Simon Caterson reviews 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' by John le Carré
In describing the enduring cultural impact of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – published fifty years ago and often nominated as the best spy novel ever written – a good place to start, strange though it may sound, is James Bond. John le Carré’s squalid yet subtle world of Cold War spies may appear antithetical to the glamorous fantasy of Bond.
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