Reaching for the Beyond
In his incisive biography of C.S. Lewis (sometime Professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge), A.N. Wilson approves of Lewis’s statement: “It is always better to read Chaucer again than to read a new criticism of him.” This may encourage our own, direct reading of the poets and to begin more happily from our own starting points. I also include the aphorism of D.T. Suzuki that Alessio Zanelli uses to introduce his volume. Suzuki wrote, “Fundamentally, the marksman aims at himself.” I read this as a question about the enterprise of poetry.
Oisín Breen is the most difficult or challenging of the eight poets in this review. He is an enfant terrible, as the notes on the back cover indicate. Part of his life is “rip-roaring” and another part is “lived in a one-donkey town”. One peer accords his work some of the intensity of “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg. I revisited “Howl” to test this claim and, while intense, found Ginsberg more…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins