Fig Tree (Penguin) 9781905490912 March 2012 (buy paperback) review by Gabriel Ng The title of Various Pets Alive and Dead might make you think it involves lots of cute animal stories and some kind of furry genocide. Instead, it’s a very political novel about the global financial crisis and the failure of the leftist ideals, … Continue reading Guest review: Gabriel Ng on Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka
Other People’s Words
Guest review: Andrew Wrathall on 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Harvill Secker, 2011 9781846555497 (hardcover, ebook: books 1 & 2, book 3) by Andrew Wrathall Aomame is warned: ‘Things are not what they seem,’ before she leaves a taxi on a backed-up freeway in Japan and walks down an emergency stairway, which causes her to slip out of 1984 and into the alternate reality of 1Q84. … Continue reading Guest review: Andrew Wrathall on 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘unfriend’
Unfriend a new age (21st century) by David Crystal In 2009 the New Oxford American Dictionary chose unfriend as its Word of the Year. It meant ‘to remove someone from a list of contacts on a social networking site such as Facebook’. A minor controversy followed. Some argued that the verb should be defriend. But the use of un- was … Continue reading Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘unfriend’
Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘OK’
OK debatable origins (19th century) by David Crystal The little word OK has a linguistic reputation that belies its size. Over a thousand words in English have an etymology which, in the words of the Oxford English Dictionary, is ‘origin unknown’. Nobody knows where bloke comes from, or condom, gimmick, nifty, pimp, pooch, queasy, rogue or skiffle. Theories abound, of … Continue reading Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘OK’
Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘gaggle’
Gaggle a collective noun (15th century) by David Crystal I think it went something like this. A group of monks, wondering how to pass the time on a cold, dark winter’s evening in the 15th century, invent a word game. ‘Let’s think up words for groups of things’, says one. ‘What do we call a group of cows?’ ‘A … Continue reading Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘gaggle’
Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘bodgery’
Bodgery word-coiners (16th century) by David Crystal The history of English contains thousands of words that never made it – coinages invented by individual writers that simply didn’t catch on. There is just a single instance of bodgery recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary. It is from the playwright Thomas Nashe, who used it in 1599. It means ‘bungling, botched work’. … Continue reading Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘bodgery’
Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘mead’
Mead a window into history (9th century) by David Crystal Today we think of mead as a rather exotic alcoholic drink, made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water. In early history it was the alcoholic beverage of choice throughout ancient Europe, Asia and Africa. Some think it was the first fermented drink. It makes frequent appearances in the … Continue reading Etymology Monday: David Crystal on the word ‘mead’
An Emotional Landscape: Laurie Steed reviews The World Swimmers by Patrick West
ICLL, August 2011 available at selected bookstores & through the author ($25, postage free, email: patrick.west@deakin.edu.au) review by Laurie Steed Australia’s literary landscape seems scarred by an increasingly commercial approach to what constitutes quality literature. Yes, publishers need to make a profit, but in chasing said profit, publishers close the door on any number of quality … Continue reading An Emotional Landscape: Laurie Steed reviews The World Swimmers by Patrick West
Black Postcards: Kent MacCarter interviews Dean Wareham (part two)
Part one of this interview can be found here. How do you feel about TS Eliot’s (in)famous quip, 'Good poets borrow, great poets steal'? I was having a hard time figuring out what TS Eliot meant here – what’s the difference between borrowing and stealing in poetry? So I Googled that phrase (the internet is … Continue reading Black Postcards: Kent MacCarter interviews Dean Wareham (part two)
Black Postcards: Kent MacCarter interviews Dean Wareham (part one)
By Kent MacCarter Dean Wareham – musician, author, actor and a co-inventor of the ‘shoegaze’ aesthetic – is coming home to Australia. Sort of. This month, he, his partner Britta Phillips, and band will be touring Australia and New Zealand playing entire sets from seminal rock band, Galaxie 500, 19 years after their demise and … Continue reading Black Postcards: Kent MacCarter interviews Dean Wareham (part one)
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