Latest Articles
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
When Shakespeare Wrote
1606: Shakespeare and the Year of Lear
by James Shapiro
Simon & Schuster, 2015, 448 pages, $39.99
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare
by James Shapiro
Faber & Faber, 2006, 464 pages, $19.99
When my generation began teaching and studying Shakespeare we took the editions of the plays for granted. Little or nothing was taught about the Quartos that appeared in Shakespeare’s lifetime or the Folio edition of his plays published in 1623 shortly after his death. I recall one imperious English mistress proclaiming, “We are studying this text”, as though that resolved any inconsistencies in the edition her students were studying. Even less was taught about Elizabethan playing conditions.
At the height of the dominance of the F.R. Leavis doctrines imposed by Professor Sam Goldberg at the University of Sydney in the mid-1960s the emphasis was on close textual analysis leading to the “right” conclusions. This was supposed to encourage “discrimination” but was…
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
