Culture

The milieu through which we swim

Friday Hoyden: Joanna Russ

Guest post from Tansy Rayner Roberts: Joanna Russ is one of the mighty legends of the science fiction field that everyone needs to know about. As well as writing many important novels and short stories, she was a brutal literary critic, a brilliant academic, an unflinching feminist, and a devastatingly articulate commentator on gender, not only in science fiction but in the history of culture.

Today in Essentialist Claptrap

The footage showed the Duchess making happy faces at a baby and stroking ou’s head while ou was being held by the father, while the Duke was shown holding a baby and chatting with onlookers, yet the commentary was about how “Kate” was showing her natural motherly side. Which one of them was actually shown as being relaxed and comfortable holding a baby again?

My rant on The Hunger Games

Here be SPOILERS!!!

I’m interested in addressing it as an instance of popular culture that again has kids tearing through books, hungry for more, at the controversy and ‘moral panic’ that it seems to be creating, and in looking at the elements of what, for me, made it something out of the league of the ‘Twilights’ of the world.

Numbers in the House

Speculation abounds as to whether the Gillard minority government will have the numbers on the House floor to pass the Budget on May 8 without Peter Slipper’s vote, especially since Andrew Wilkie remains rather miffed.