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This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen Analysis
This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen shows that toddlers can cope with the horror genre. “Jon Klassen’s darkly humorous illustrations are a joy to behold. Deceptively simplistic, the expressions and events that he captures, which range from the sublime to the sinister, are utterly wonderful.” The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal judges’…
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What happens at the end of Triangle of Sadness (2022)?
Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness is a disturbing mash-up of Lord of the Flies, reality TV series Below Deck and Alex Garland’s The Beach.
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My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes by Lynley Dodd Analysis
Written by Eve Sutton, My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes is the very first picture book illustrated by New Zealand’s Dame Lynley Dodd.
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What Is A Chronotope?
According to Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975), a chronotope is a type of image which fuses space in a time in a concrete and meaningful way. He introduced this term in 1937. The word chronotope comes by way of Russian from the Greek words for time and place. Think chronology + topography smooshed together. But when…
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How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
The narrator of “How I Met My Husband” has a different voice from most other characters by Canadian author Alice Munro.
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What is humanism in simple terms?
If you’re wondering about the definition of ‘humanism’, you’re not alone. The word has many meanings.
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Superheroes In Storytelling: Various Notes
Love it or loathe it, the superhero is an ambivalent archetype in storytelling, useful to either bolster the conservative status quo, or subvert it.
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What do floods symbolise in literature?
Think of a famous flood. You’ll likely think of Noah and his Ark from the Old Testament. We’ve never stopped telling stories about floods, in all kinds of stories across the ages.
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What is a social construct?
A social construct is an aspect of our reality which is: not determined by nature, created by human societies and context specific.
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What to watch if you LOVE Breaking Bad
Loved Breaking Bad? Fingers crossed you haven’t seen all of these recommendations already. The following descriptions are spoiler free.
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Why writing does not get any easier with practice
Does writing get easier the more you do it? Yes and no. The mechanics get easier but each project presents its own new problems.
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What architectural style is the house of Psycho?
The Psycho house is similar to what is now called ‘Second Empire Style’. What makes this style of architecture feel so creepy?
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Knot Theory: A Short Story
Mathematical knots are closed loops. Unlike a usual knot, there are no loose ends. One female Backpacker, slim build, finds her hostel by accident. Maps in guidebooks are always printed upside down and any destination lurks deep in the page binding. Murphy’s Law. Is she in Ireland now, or Scotland? It’s easy to forget these…
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What does it mean to be human?
What does it mean to be human? Dancing, music, love, sex, cooking, other people… You’ll have heard these answers. Many are problematic. We’ll talk about ‘what makes us human’ and say it must be ‘language’ or ’empathy’ or ‘culture’ or ‘the capacity for thought’ or ‘the need for stories’ — I could go on. The…
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My Year Of Reading Queer
This is an ongoing post about my 2023 reading goal of reading queer books by and about queer people. After half a lifetime of absorbing and analysing story, there remains only one sure way to find interesting and surprising perspectives and narratives: Actively seek the perspectives of marginalised voices.