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The Castaways of Disappointment Island
In the 1970s and 80s, Ōtautahi Christchurch was home to a small publishing company called Capper Press. They reprinted significant cultural New Zealand works, and The Castaways of Disappointment Island was one of them. My pop, himself a Southlander born in the 1920s, had grown up with this story, and was very pleased to get…
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The Symbolism of Tea in Literature
COLONISATION AND IMPERIALISM Get Out (2017), a film by Jordan Peele An Australian example: “We were slaves to white families,” she said. Aunty Lorraine worked as a servant in rural New South Wales, from age 15. “The final part of your training was how to serve high tea to white families that you going to…
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Disgust
Why would a storyteller or artist want to elicit disgust in their work? And if they want to do it, how do they typically do it?
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Writing Consumer Book Reviews
What is the function of consumer reviews? Should we feel bad for posting negative takes on other people’s books? Do consumer reviews have a real impact on sales? To what extent? Is a review a work of art in its own right?
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Getting Lost And Storytelling
Stories that scare me the most often involve getting lost. The scariest Australian stories are, to me, the ones where a little boy goes out into the wilderness and dies in the heat, unable to find his house.
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The Happy Lion by Fatio and Duvoisin
The Happy Lion picture books were written by Swiss author Louise Fatio (1904-1993) and illustrated by Swiss-born American artist Roger Duvoisin (1900-1980).
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Overcoming Perfectionism
Perfectionism can be a superpower but can hinder us in getting things done. Framing perfectionism as fear is one way to harness it.
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Evangelical Christianity: Non-mainstream concepts
Aotearoa New Zealand elected an Evangelical Christian Prime Minister. Relying on stats a decade old, in 2013, there were only 15,000 evangelical Christians in a population of 4.4 million (~0.34%).
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Material by Alice Munro Short Story Analysis
“Material” is a short story by Canadian author Alice Munro. Find it in Something I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You (1974
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Petunia’s Christmas by Roger Duvoisin
The first of Duvoisin’s Petunia series was published in 1951. Petunia’s Christmas came along the following year.
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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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I Stand Here Ironing by Tillie Olsen Short Story Analysis
“I Stand Here Ironing” is a 1950s short story by American feminist and activist author Tillie Olsen (1912 – 2007). This is one of those stories which will likely hit differently if you’re a parent, especially a mother.
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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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Children of the Corn by Stephen King Short Story Analysis
What is it about corn? Sure, Stephen King can make anything creepy, and so he does in “Children of the Corn”. But long before Stephen King filled his first diaper, humans have been very wary of… yes, corn.
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In Praise of the Sloth
Of all the deadly sins, slothfulness is the least problematic. In fact, most people would benefit from becoming more like a sloth, not less.