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Keywords: Harry Potter

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A Christmas Carol and the making of a miser

    • David Halliday
    • 30 November 2023
    2 Comments

    Why another Christmas Carol and why now? This version takes a detour from Dickens’ original delving deeper into Scrooge’s past, painting him not just as a villain, but as a victim of circumstances. It suggests that behind every act we hastily label as ‘cruel’ lies a story of fear and anxiety, and a flesh-and-blood human being. And forgiveness, then, becomes an acknowledgment of our shared human frailty.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Cults, crimes and coercive control: The Running Grave

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 13 October 2023
    1 Comment

    An intricate tale that delves deep into the realm of cults, deception, and the human psyche, The Running Grave goes beyond a mere detective yarn, with a narrative that confronts society's susceptibility to manipulation and questions the very fabric of our beliefs. 

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Remembering Paul Mees, public transport academic and fellow traveller

    • Erica Cervini
    • 29 June 2023

    Ten years after his passing, the work of renowned academic and transportation activist Paul Mees continues to reverberate through our public transport systems and urban spaces. Unafraid to challenge the status quo, his advocacy for public transport and sustainable urban living continues to influence debates and policy.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Updating modern audiences for old texts

    • Kylie Crabbe
    • 29 March 2023
    2 Comments

    The recent decision by Puffin Books to revise new editions of Roald Dahl's corpus has sparked debates about the changing cultural mores of our times and the way we read older texts. Navigating the challenges of reading texts from another time must be accompanied by an awareness of the worldviews that shaped them.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The beautiful ugliness of Roald Dahl

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 27 February 2023
    13 Comments

    Roald Dahl's beloved children's books have been given a makeover, with 'sensitivity readers' rewording phrases that might offend modern sensibilities. But what has been lost in this sanitisation of Dahl's work? Do we risk losing the very essence of what makes these works so powerful and enduring? 

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The book corner: Beyond belief

    • Barry Gittins
    • 12 August 2022

    Journalist and author Elle Hardy spent 15 months researching and writing her 2021 work Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity is Taking Over the World. She notes the estimation that by 2050, one billion people around the world (one in 10 humans) will be a Pentecostal follower of Jesus (and their pastor).

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    From before the flood

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 25 January 2022
    10 Comments

    I’m not sure that my Greek grandchildren know the word antediluvian or whether they have heard of Methuselah, but they certainly consider me an ancient relic who occasionally tells tall tales and true from the legendary past, and from another land. Of course they are unable to conceive of life or domestic space without screens: even my youngest grandchild, who has just had her first birthday, knows when a Skype call is imminent, and coos accordingly.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    J. K. needs to stop Harry Potter queerbaiting

    • Neve Mahoney
    • 21 March 2019
    11 Comments

    Rowling still wants it both ways — the kudos for representation that she never explicitly included, with the benefit of no actual risk. Back then, having an openly gay character would have been taking a stand. But now, in 2019, a straight author winking at queerness is just not good enough.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The trouble with JK Rowling

    • Eleanor Harrison-Dengate
    • 26 November 2018
    5 Comments

    This is the first time so many characters with major screen time have been from diverse backgrounds in a Harry Potter film. But it’s not enough to just plonk them into an already bursting script.

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Stepping out of the way of the next generation

    • Fatima Measham
    • 01 March 2018
    10 Comments

    I've been thinking about my former students lately. Anyone who has ever spent time with young people over the past ten years would see something inevitable in the current moment over gun control in the US, where Parkland students are charging at the seeming edifice of the NRA - and leaving cracks.

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  • RELIGION

    Confessions of a literature addict

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 14 August 2017
    12 Comments

    Was Harry Potter’s 20th birthday to blame? Or the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death? Or merely the ageing process? It’s hard to decide, but in a life quite possibly ruined by literature, I have started remembering some of the books I read in childhood.  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    What writers festivals say about culture

    • Tseen Khoo
    • 08 August 2017
    6 Comments

    The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) starts on Friday 25 August. It’s a good time to consider what such a festival says about our local cultures, as well as being a perfect time to think about how you relate to that culture. 

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