Those of you with any interest in Australian children’s literature would be aware of illustrator Kilmeny Niland. Like her mother Ruth Park, she played a significant and ongoing role in Australian literature, and in my appreciation of the various books she illustrated. I’ve long thought her beautiful artwork ensured that some books meant more to [...]
February 18, 2009 – 10:25 pm
Muslims have complained that the Koran is often displayed on the lower shelves, which is deemed offensive as many believe the holy book should be placed above “commonplace things”. Now officials at one library have recommended keeping all holy books, including the Bible, on the top shelves. The move has come despite concern from Christian [...]
February 10, 2009 – 7:39 am
Kim at LP links to a post at Feminist SF – The Blog! which gives tips on how to spot if you’re reading bad sci-fi/fantasy: Are the characters’ names impossible to pronounce? Alternatively, when you pronounce them, do you realize that they are actually homonyms for scary-sounding English words? If the book is not written [...]
January 17, 2009 – 11:30 pm
Sometimes, politics is like dodgems. I’ve just had to thread the pushbike through what is rapidly becoming the Broad Street obstacle course. This started with the usual bunch of Animal Libbers (attempting to disrupt a graduation), and was followed by a large and somewhat pushy Gaza/Palestine/Hamas protest. The Oxfordshire constabulary are fond of using mounted [...]
September 10, 2008 – 10:20 am
J.K. Rowling has succeeded at first instance in her copyright infringement case against RDR publishers and Stephen Vander Ark for their proposed Harry Potter Lexicon. I have mentioned this case earlier. Obviously the trial judge managed to get his head around the plotlines which he initially described as “gibberish”, as the judgment shows quite a [...]
August 26, 2008 – 9:17 pm
I’m fascinated by the Harry Potter industry. We’ve already seen Warner Bros and J.K. Rowling take on a New York librarian and lexicon author for copyright infringement. Now they are taking on the might of Bollywood… The Indian movie is called Hari Puttar – A Comedy of Terrors. The Hollywood Reporter tells us: The case [...]
Illiberal, grumpy, explosive with the nationalist bombast but nonetheless truly great, Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead. The author of one of the two great short novels I have ever read – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – he distilled the fear of totalitarianism better even than Orwell (although my other favourite short novel [...]
I came across this interesting post on how to get women more interested in sci-fi writing and film. I’m probably not the best chick to ask about this – all my favourite films are sci-fi films, as well as most of my favourite television series. I also have a large sci-fi/fantasy book collection. I think [...]
The other day I was reading Ursula Le Guin’s novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. I hadn’t read it for 10 or so years; I had forgotten what an excellent book it was. Shortly, the book involves a male human diplomat and explorer arriving in a world, Gethen, where the sentient inhabitants are humanoid androgynes. [...]
I was rather amused to see that the Judge hearing the J.K. Rowling copyright infringement case has described Rowling’s plotlines as “gibberish”. To explain briefly, as outlined in this article from The Times, Rowling is asking the Manhattan Federal Court to block publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a guide to places and names in [...]
