‘Polyamory is a claim that the heart is capable of loving more than one person deeply and intimately at the same time,’ wrote Anne Hunter in Archer Magazine. ‘Poly relationships are often sexual but may not be, and they may shift in and out of being romantic and sexual.’ In her article, she discusses the…
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Watching Lena Dunham’s Girls for the first time was an edifying experience. A large part of the show’s appeal for me—and perhaps for countless other teenagers and women in their early twenties—is its flawed and often hapless characters, who are relatable precisely because of their faults. Here was Hannah Horvath: podgy, solipsistic beyond help,…
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The vaccination debate heated up again recently when in March four-week old Riley Hughes died from whooping cough in Perth. Riley was too young to have had the whooping cough vaccine and therefore relied on the immunity of those around him to protect him from the disease. With a growing number of parents choosing not to…
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The woman behind the counter jiggles the baby on her hip. The child is red-faced and crying. Customers smile sympathetically as the woman tries to serve them and placate him. She had no choice in the matter. The daycare is closed today. There is no one at home who can care for her son. Thus…
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Miranda July sees the world askew. In her work as a writer, filmmaker and visual artist, she peeks behind exterior lives to look at the secret inner world. Though often unsettling, her work emboldens the meek and celebrates the weird. Preceded by her award-winning short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You (2007),…
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Last year, Eric Garner, an African-American man, was killed by police. Law enforcement officials had him in a chokehold, despite the NYPD prohibiting their use. This event caused a wave of protests, and the phrase Black Lives Matter. Syreeta McFadden wrote for the Guardian US: ‘We declared in 2014 that Black Lives Matter because we…
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Jill Alexander Essbaum’s debut novel Hausfrau opens with the line, ‘Anna was a good wife, mostly.’ This ‘mostly’, read like an afterthought, hints at the entire novel’s focus—the good wife as a platform for exploring patriarchy, free will and the psychology of adultery. Anna Benz is the trademark oppressed woman more commonly found in Flaubert…
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According to Martin Amis, that sharp satirist and white male English literary giant, there are two things that literature can’t do. The first is sex. Amis agrees with his father, Kingsley (that bigoted white male English literary giant), who believed that sex has the effect of de-universalising the reading experience. Good sex, Amis junior opines,…
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‘I’m losing my yesterdays…so what I have to say today is timely.’ – Alice Howland It is a brave thing to write a book about Alzheimer’s disease. The topic is heartbreaking enough in itself, as the disease has no known cure. It is also a dangerous representation to get wrong, as with all representations…
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Janice MacLeod’s memoir, Paris Letters, is resplendent with insights, humour and creativity, and has a lot to teach us about the modern attitude towards work. At 34, MacLeod was a copywriter on the periphery of career burnout. Like a numb trolleybus, being wheeled from one place to another, she was sifting from one folder to the next, without accruing…
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Fables: Queer and Familiar follows two lesbian grandmothers, their family and friends, and how the interact with the sociopolitical climate of Australia. The stories, written by Margaret Merrilees and based on her radio series Adelaide Days, deals with Australian politics, environmental issues, and LGBT literature. Set in modern day Australia, Julia and Anne are two…
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The same night Banjo walks out on his wife Jade, he is killed by a hit and run driver. But his spirit remains, and he is compelled to watch Jade slip into a depression while their daughters struggle to hold things together. Even in death, Banjo aches with love for his wife, despite knowledge of…
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‘Great Hera! I am running so late today!’ ‘Aphrodite aid me in getting through this after-lunch meeting!’ ‘Suffering Sappho I am exhausted!’ Not curses we hear in today’s world – but wouldn’t we all secretly love to make such glorious exclamations? Wonder Woman did. In Jill Lepore’s readable new book The Secret History of Wonder…
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Although a powerful form of expression, poetry remains a misunderstood and underappreciated art form. This deeply personal publication by Gwyndyn Alexander is essentially an answer to a question – put forth by a man of, in her words, the ‘scientific sort’ – querying the function of poetry. What is a poet? What is the point…
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