Critique And Theory Videos
newest 100 critique and theory videos / critique and theory widgets / media rss:

The concept of appreciation

Fan fiction - the creative and legal pitfalls The adulatory, and sometimes legally risky, world of fan fiction: where readers who can't get enough of their favourite books, TV series and movies, create new stories and take the characters to new places. Timbuktu manuscripts: Rodney Hall The Timbuktu manuscripts tell a history of African trade and scholarship. They include texts about astronomy, poetry, music, medicine, religion and women's rights. Because of their significance to African history there is a joint African movement to preserve them. Rodney Hall, one of our most eminent writers, has just been to Timbuktu and describes what he found.

Lapham's Quarterly: Book of Nature From Adolf Hitler's affection for animals to Rachel Carson's warning about dangerous chemicals to Walt Whitman's ode to the city, the latest Lapham's Quarterly charts the rocky terrain of our dealings with nature. The editor, Lewis Lapham excavates the relationship between poetry, nature, morality and the future of the planet. Merlinda Bobis' message for adults In her second novel The Solemn Lantern Maker, poet and playwright Merlinda Bobis takes the reader to the shanty towns that populate the streets of Manilla in the Philippines.

Richard Mason's new novel The Lighted Rooms Contemporary writer Richard Mason is what´s known as a publishing phenomenon. In 1999 his first novel The Drowning People was bought for a large sum, became an international bestseller and won the Italian equivalent of the Booker prize while he was still a student at Oxford University. The amount of attention he received after the book's publication was the beginning of a complicated journey that he says involved some very high points, very low points, two panic attacks and a lot of learning. He also wrote two more novels. The most recent, The Lighted Rooms, is about to be released in Australia.

Cover design -- Meanjin The discovery of a cupboard full of gems from another world is reminiscent of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from CS Lewis's Narnia series. Sophie Cunningham recently had a 'Narnia moment' when she opened a stairwell cupboard at the old Meanjin office. Inside were 68 years worth of past Meanjinjournals all stacked up in rows. The Anatomist One of the most famous books ever produced is the medical text known as Gray's Anatomy, published 150 years ago. In his book The Anatomist, science writer Bill Hayes investigates the lives of the two men behind the creation of this classic, the surgeon Henry Gray and his colleague Henry Vandyke Carter, who was responsible for the drawings.

Nury Vittachi - Asia Literary Review update Nuri Vittachi, comic author and founding editor of the Asia Literary Review, talks about various happenings around the region - an edible books festival in Hong Kong, a lucrative new Asia-Australia book prize and a mass gathering of authors in New Delhi. These events have one thing in common and that's Nuri Vittachi himself - he's got a finger in every literary prize. Queen of the Wits Who was Laetitia Pilkington? The 18th century satirist Jonathan Swift called her 'the most profligate whore in either Kingdom'. This was after he had once treated her as his protege. After such a public dumping, Mrs Pilkington had nothing to lose, and turned her own savage pen on her erstwhile mentor - her memoir provides insights into Swift's strange behaviour. Norma Clarke has written a biography of the fascinating Mrs Pilkington called the Queen of the Wits.

Kieran Tapsell - a passion for translating Translating literature is not something for the faint-hearted. It's time consuming, painstaking work and it throws up dilemmas about the use of language that can tax the most highly developed literary skills. Retired Australian commercial lawyer Kieran Tapsell began teaching himself Spanish in his early fifties and, driven by intellectual curiosity, a love of language, and a desire to share good books with friends who don't speak Spanish, he's now translating the work of major Latin American authors. Julia Leigh's Disquiet In 1999, Australian author Julia Leigh won international praise for her first novel, The Hunter, the story of mercenary sent to the Tasmanian wilderness by a multinational biotech company to track down and kill the last Tasmanian tiger, in order to harvest its genetic material.

Documenting writers' lives: what should be in the archives? Harvard University recently bought the personal papers of Norman Mailer´s long-term mistress Carole Mallory. Mallory herself approached Harvard and while the amount she received remains secret the acquisition is causing controversy among scholars and writers alike. Should archival material include lovers´ journals, and if so why? How is it useful in determining the critical status of the literature itself? Where should institutions draw the line as to what´s important and what isn´t when preserving the work of famous writers?

Why writers choose anonymity Some writers have gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent their names being associated with their published work. Seventy per cent of English novels published in the last three decades of the 18th century were anonymous. In the first three decades of the 19th century almost half were published either anonymously or under a pseudonym. Authors opting to keep their identities secret included Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Walter Scott and Jane Austen, whose novels were orginally attributed to 'a lady'. In Anonymity: A Secret History of English Literature John Mullan explores the reasons behind this wish by writers to keep their names from public view.

Perceptions, preconceptions and visibility We examine visibility in the media and the preconceptions and stereotyping that tag some people less than desirable and see others ignored altogether. Among our guests: Palestinian journalist Ali Abunimah.

Poetry special: The Glugs of Gosh by CJ Dennis CJ Dennis is best known for The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke but for many readers The Glugs of Gosh is a favourite. The chance to relish the political satire, to take delight in the rhyme - Gosh and Splosh, profundity and rotundity, Ogs and Podge - and to recite such full-bodied words explains the joy many this work. Once again Lyn Gallacher is our guide to this world of Gosh. A transcript will be published here within three days of this broadcast.

Poetry special: Rockpool by Judith Wright In the second in this special series dedicated to classic Australian poems Lyn Gallacher focuses on 'Rockpool', one of Judith Wright's later works. It's a dramatically unsentimental poem which is unflinching in its view of life and death. A transcript will be published here within three days of this broadcast.

Is it just us or is it getting hot in here? And where are all those snake vines coming from? In a trip deep into the jungle, trekking along some partly-worn paths whilst creating a few inroads of our own, we push aside the creepers and carnivorous plants to look what might be lurking in the undergrowth and swinging overhead. John Hughes `On Language´ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2008/2226392.htm All In The Mind: Your Inner Ape http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2008/2187798.htm Ambush, by T.A.G. Hungerford, first heard on Radio Eye http://www.abc.net.au/rn/radioeye/stories/2003/737420.htm music details: Track: Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) Artist: The Tokens Composer: trad/ilene/seeger/hellerman/hayes/gilbert CD title: Sixties Collection CD label: EMI CDRock 701543 Dur: 1´ 00" Track: Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) Composer: trad/ilene/seeger/hellerman/hayes/gilbert CD title: Greatest Hits CD label: BR music=BRCD43 dur: 1´ 00" artist: Stylistics Track: Tarzanic Suite Composer: Rogers, Shorty CD title: Shorty Rogers Meets Tarzan CD label: MGM 3798 dur: 0´ 30" artist: Shorty Rogers Track: Tarzan Eps 3 Hathaway, M.; Climpson, R Track: Jungle Jim Composer: n/s CD title: Jungle Jim Radio Series CD label: Golden Age=GA5014 dur: 2´ 20" artist: studio cast Track: Quiet Village Composer: Baxter, Les CD title: Music for a Bachelor´s Den in Hi-Fi CD label: DCC DZS 079 dur: 2´00" artist: Martin Denny Track: Back to Nature Composer: Frank Tovey CD title: CD Mutel 7 CD label: Mute dur: 3´30" artist: Fad Gadget Track: Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) Composer: trad/ilene/seeger/hellerman/hayes/gilbert CD title: The Magic of Yodelling CD label: Bluebell Records YPRX 1883 dur: 2´30" artist: Mary Schneider

Join us for a fresh look at the way finance works. Professor Niall Ferguson´s analysis draws on the work of the French Naturalist Jean Bapiste de Lamarck - the idea that organisms alter and adapt in response to a changing environment. He applies this framework to our current, uneasy financial climate and asks: are we on the brink of a great dying?

Rotten English: writing in the vernacular 'A howl, a shout, or a machine-gun, or the wind or a wave', this is how Caribbean poet Kamau Brathwaite describes writing in the vernacular.

C.K. Stead: poet, novelist and literary critic Christian Karlson Stead is one of New Zealand's most distinguished literary figures. He is an eminent poet, literary critic, novelist and academic. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1985 for services to New Zealand literature, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1995, and received an honorary doctorate in letters from the University of Bristol in 2001. His most recent book of poems is The Black River and he has also published a collection of essays and reviews called Book Self.

Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books Robert Silvers talks about a new book from writer, naturalist and co-founder of The Paris Review, Peter Matthiessen. It´s called Shadow Country and revolves around the real-life, although somewhat mythological, figure of Edgar J. Watson. Plus a man whose writing is an adjunct to his view of the world and his philanthropic ambitions George Soros is a billionaire who sees making money as having meaning only when it can make positive changes in the world around him. Zacharey Jane and the sense of self Washing up on a remote shore without memory, without a past and with nothing but a stranger for company that's the fate of two characters in The Lifeboat, a new book from novelist Zacharey Jane. The Lifeboat asks whether we are who we are because of our accumulated experiences, or is there some intrinsic core that defines us?

Writing about fear: Gabrielle Lord Gabrielle Lord says she writes about children being abused by grown-ups either consciously or unconsciously because when she was at boarding school she discovered what it's like to be defenceless at the hands of angry adults. It's a lesson she's never forgotten and one that has influenced her writing.

A criminal conversation - Ruth Rendell and Ian Rankin At the 2007 Edinburgh International Book Festival one of England's best-selling and most awarded crime novelists, Ruth Rendell, joined Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin to talk about her work. In this recording they discuss where she finds ideas for plots, how her characters have developed over the years and how she manages to keep up with 3 different strands of writing: the Wexford series, her psychological crime stories and the novels she writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine.

Lewis Lapham looks at past thinkers on money Lewis Lapham is the editor of Lapham's Quarterly. The second edition of this new enterprise focuses on the history of money and what people have said about it. Restoring the Montefiascone Library One imagines that anyone working with rare books must harbour a private fantasy about one day stumbling upon a collection of books that has remained hidden, or at least unrecognised for its true historical value. And the grand fantasy must surely be the discovery of an entire library that has been forgotten, neglected or ignored.

On the US campaign trail Two US journalists on the campaign trail give us their take on the Obama-Clinton stoush and claims of media favouritism... and the Minister for Communications who doesn´t communicate.

What animals mean in fiction Dr Philip Armstrong, associate professor of English at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, looks at what animals mean in fiction. He argues that animals should not simply be treated as metaphors or mirrors for human meaning, as they often are in literary studies, but should also be granted meaning in and of themselves.

Mark Davis - the health of Australian literary publishing Mark Davis is a non-fiction writer and lecturer in Publishing and Communication at the University of Melbourne. In an article in Overland magazine he discusses evidence that, despite gloomy predictions, Australian publishing is surprisingly healthy and he argues that small independent publishers are playing a crucial role in keeping literary publishing alive. Linda Grant and the humanity of monsters In her new book The Clothes on their Backs British novelist and journalist Linda Grant explores the humanity of people cast as monsters, like her character Sandor Kovacs. He was brutalised by the Nazis in Hungary, but when he went to England he became a social pariah for being a slum landlord with an army of thugs.

Ian McEwan at the Sydney Opera House Recently novelist Ian McEwan was a guest at the Sydney Opera House in the International Speakers Series. In his humorous address he explores the boundary between fact and fiction, he talks about the engagement of readers with ideas and characters and he reads from some of the marvellously cranky letters he has received, correcting facts in his novels.

Memoirs - distinguishing fact from fiction The misery memoir has become the 'sexy' genre of the new century, but how much of what we're being told happened to the authors is made up or exaggerated? The American writer James Frey is about to publish his first novel. Frey first came to public attention with his memoir A Million Little Pieces, about his addiction to drugs and alcohol, his incarceration and rehabilitation; a memoir later found to be suspect. Margaret B Jones, author of Love and Consequences, has admitted that she's not of mixed race and was not involved with the Bloods gang. She's a caucasian woman from Los Angeles by the name of Margaret Seltzer. So how far can we trust a memoir to be accurate?

Blowing away hot air - this is an episode of TNA which combines exploration and exhalation. We do our best to get to grips with the actual properties of the air around us. We sail on a summers breeze, up into a rising thermal, through the weathering effects of wind and water and turn up in an atmospheric event which starts out as a willy willy and ends up a roaring vortex. Also, there's a survey of the wind which makes music, Aeolian sounds which fill the Hollow Mansions of the Upper Air. Track Details Part One Track: Fearsome as Odd Danger Artist: Evolution Control Committee Composer: Gunderson CD title: Plagiarhythm Nation CD label: ECC no number Track: Slow Hot Wind Artist: Sarah Vaughan Composer: Mancini/Gimbel CD title: Sarah Vaughan Sings the Mancini Songbook CD label: VERVE=558401-2 Track: I Am the Brother of the Wind Artist: Sun Ra and His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra Composer: Ra CD title: Soundtrack to Space is the Place CD label: Evidence ECD 22070 2 Track: Wild is the Wind Artist: Nina Simone Composer: Tiomkin/Washington CD title: The Best of Nina Simone CD label: PHILIPS= 822846-2(1969) Track: When It Blows It Stacks Artist: Captain Beeheart Composer: Van Vliet CD title: The Spotlight Kid/Clear Spot CD label: REPRISE=926249-2 Track: A Boy Artist: SJD Composer: Donnelly CD title: Lost Soul Music CD label: Round Trip Mars/Creative Vibes CVCD 034 Track: Colin Meccano Artist: SJD Composer: Donnelly CD title: Lost Soul Music CD label: Round Trip Mars/Creative Vibes CVCD 034 Track: 5000 BC Artist: Evolution Control Committee Composer: Gunderson CD title: Plagiarhythm Nation CD label: ECC no no. Track: Dinner Artist: Evolution Control Committee Composer: Gunderson CD title: Plagiarhythm Nation CD label: ECC no no. Track: ChaccoâEURTMs Cybalom Interlude Artist: Eva Be Composer: Be/Meinhold CD title: Moving Without Travelling CD label: Sonar Kollektiv SBCD007

The phenomenon of mobile phone novels The New York Times and The Japan Times recently reported that half of the best selling novels in Japan last year were originally composed on mobile phones. That tiny device is apparently responsible for books that are outselling everything else, including a recent Japanese translation of Dostoevsky´s classic The Brothers Karamazov. Is it a fad or is it a revolution? The Cellist of Sarajevo In his new novel The Cellist of Sarajevo Canadian writer Steven Galloway looks at the extraordinary stresses that war, and particularly siege warfare, place on ordinary people. The story is based on the real-life figure of Vedran Smailovic and his very moving response to the massacre of people queuing for bread outside his apartment.

Damien Wilkins New Zealand novelist, short story writer and poet Damien Wilkins has received the Whiting Award for promising young writers and his work is winning wide praise. He's also known for his astute literary reviews and critical essays. Damien Wilkins talks to Ramona Koval from the New Zealand Post Readers and Writers Festival in Wellington.

Tim Parks: The Fighter Tim Parks is a novelist, journalist and essayist. His most recent collection of essays covers topics from DH Lawrence to Thomas Bernhard to Mussolini.

CLASSIC LNL: William Gass Originally broadcast on 24/12/2002. William H. Gass is one of America's most distinguished and best known writers, thinkers, and scholars. A bibliophile and a lover of words, his most recent novel is also one of his earliest. 'The Tunnel' drew an empassioned critical response, both positive and negative, took him 30 years to write, and won him an American Book Award. Gass is also a collector of books - and has over 15,000 in his home in St Louis. He's also written copious essays and literary criticism, four other novels, and six books of non-fiction. Among his many literary awards is the 2007 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, which he received for his 2006 collection of essays, 'A Temple of Texts.'