The first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature was not Ernest Hemingway or that progenitor of Southern Gothic, William Faulkner, but a relatively obscure writer, namely Sinclair Lewis, in 1930. The statue to Huey Long in the capital Louisiana, Baton Rouge Some books last, developing a life…
Life is a many-sided thing, and good stories find a way to explore more than one side. They tap into that which entertains, but also that which sparks thought, and that which sounds the depths of our souls. Dory The stories need not be a complete success to do this, and different stories do this in different ways. Pixar is especially good at such storytelling, so much so that even those movies it makes which are not awe-inspiring are still worthy explorations of deeper things. In Finding Dory Pixar has returned to the depths of the ocean, to add…
One of the best questions that can be asked of any composer is, what is their approach to balance? For perhaps the same reason that there is so much symmetry in nature – two sides of the human face, for example, or the two halves of most animals’ bodies – balance is key to effect in music. John Tavener It is perhaps the most prominent feature of Mozart, for example. His ability to achieve extraordinary balance in his melodies and counterpoint elevates his music into a sublimity that no other composer can match. The Olympian expositions of Bach would…
The Chinese language has many proverbs, called chengyu. A favourite chengyu is “Sai-weng shi ma” (“Sai-weng lost his horse”). To cut a long story short, it means that when one door closes, another door opens. This could well sum up the Chinese experience in Australia. The 1963 edition of The Golden…
