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Category Archives: Literature

R.I.P Kilmeny Niland

March 1, 2009 – 6:17 am

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 [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Art, Blogging, Books, Skeptics | Tagged , , , | Comments (6)

Welcome to our dinner party

February 16, 2009 – 12:29 pm

Our “About Us” section says, “Pull up a pew, grab a beer (or three) and join in the conversation.” Helen wrote that, and I’ve always found it very evocative. I see our blog as reminiscent of the discussions I used to have with friends at uni, frequently over a cup of coffee or a bottle [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Blogging, Internet, Media | Comments (12)

How to spot bad sci-fi/fantasy writing

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 by [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Books, Feminism, Science | Comments (12)

Recessional

January 22, 2009 – 8:50 am

As I’ve had to explain to various people today (not just on blogs) — many of them complaining about the risible quality of Obama’s inauguration poet (she really did evacuate the National Mall; they may as well’ve set off an air raid siren) – this is how you do public poetry. Below is Kipling’s ‘Recessional’, the [...]

By skepticlawyer | Comments (38)

Bangkok Hilton

January 20, 2009 – 5:05 pm

Melbourne man Harry Nicolaides has been imprisoned in Thailand for committing the crime of lèse majesté, or offending the dignity of the sovereign. Nicolaides wrote a novel in which he referred to an unnamed crown prince in a way which was deemed to be insulting. The novel had a negligible print run, and was self-published.
Read [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Free Speech, Human/Civil rights, Law, Personal liberty | Comments (38)

Katherine Wilson is not Muttiah Muralitharan

January 12, 2009 – 1:42 am

Yes, I found a cricket angle. Sad but true. The graphic at left was generated by the genius that is Tony the Teacher over at the After Grog Blog (and do follow the link; a beautiful funny awaits you there, quite apart from the picture). The cricketing point that Tony and his commenters make helps to [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Cricket, Law | Comments (17)

Quadrant Demidenkoed. That is all

January 7, 2009 – 5:12 am

I’ve got a great deal of other stuff on at the moment, so will only comment briefly. I’ll try to update this post in more detail when I’ve finished thesising. For now, a few thoughts:
1. Hoaxing only works when there is a pretension to expose/exploit. Sokal exposed the postmodern pretension to science; Ern Malley exposed [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Fark! | Comments (199)

Obscenity and the web

October 4, 2008 – 7:22 pm

A landmark case is being brought against a UK man in relation to a blog post allegedly authored by him which details his fantasy of the kidnap, rape, torture and murder of an all-girl band called Girls Aloud. I must say that I’d never heard of the band before (indeed, Wikipedia says their efforts to [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Free Speech, Internet, Law, Media, Personal liberty, Public Policy, anthony daniels | Comments (8)

Fascism Friday – Die Welle

September 20, 2008 – 9:51 am

In 1967, teacher Ron Jones conducted his very own Stanford Prison Experiment. Fed up with ‘yeah, whatever’ and the ever popular ‘but we wouldn’t do that’ student responses in his classes on fascism and Nazism, he introduced autocracy to his 15 year-old charges by doing it. He figured he’d need about a fortnight to get [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History, Human/Civil rights, Law, Politics | Comments (13)

Disturbia

September 4, 2008 – 1:31 am

Last  week, I got a letter from a postgraduate student at Melbourne University. She’s conducting research into my novel, The Hand that Signed the Paper, and wanted me to answer some questions. To date I haven’t replied, which seems churlish of me, but I get these requests – on average – about once a month, [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Popular culture | Comments (65)