Keywords: Deconstruction
Handing on a tradition
Andrew Hamilton
One of the challenges facing churches today has to do with tradition. Tradition is a sometimes charged word, but it refers to an everyday social need. It has to do with how a community passes on its way of life and its understanding of authoritative writings that shape it. The word itself can refer both to what is passed on and to the process of passing it on. The challenge of passing on a tradition is perennial. Both ways of living and writings reflect the culture of their own time and so need to be translated into the changing languages of later cultures.
How political correctness kills language freedoms
The push for politically correct language may be well intentioned enough, but its consequences are often appalling. It can rob us of one of the most important of all human freedoms: the right to use words to mean what we want them to mean.
Civil War gender power games
Tim Kroenert
This is a deliberate subversion of typical, destructive Western tropes by Coppola, in which it is the male character who is objectified by the female gaze. In this she probes how this particular man either thrives under or is stymied by such objectification. John is more than aware of the sexual and romantic stirrings he has aroused among his new companions. But in his assumption that his objectification is empowering, he has utterly underestimated the emotional and psychic complexities of those doing the objectifying.
Ten movies that really got to us this year
Amid the noise of Batman battling Superman, the Avengers turning against each other, and middle aged fanboys whingeing about the Ghostbusters franchise being revitalised with an all-female lead cast, 2016 has actually been a pretty solid year for movies, both in and outside of Hollywood. We haven't had time to see them all (we have a magazine to publish, after all) but nonetheless here is a list of our ten favourite films reviewed in Eureka Street this year.
Kidnapped woman's post-traumatic love
For seven years, Joy has been held prisoner in the garden shed of a suburban maniac. During this time she has raised a son, Jack, who is now five, employing elaborate and imaginative methods to nurture and educate him, while protecting him from the reality of their existence. Room is remarkable for its capacity to transmit the bleakness of Joy's situation via the wonder-full gaze of Jack, for whom this makeshift prison is the entire world, bursting with possibilities for recreation, rest and learning.
Doomed actor's devastating ego trip
Riggan's ego is immense. The action takes place backstage during the days leading up to the premier of his latest vanity project, and onstage during a series of previews. Riggan is out of his depth, prone to humiliating blunders, including one that results in a near-naked dash through the crowds of Times Square. But his resolve to affirm his greatness in the eyes of a media and public that has dismissed him is maniacal.
Reshaping the Church with Bishop Robinson and Pope Francis
Robinson's recent book on the culture of the Catholic Church critiques the factors that have contributed to clerical sexual abuse of children. Robinson desires institutional changes, yet institutional changes are insufficient unless relationships and attitudes change. In this there is a happy conjunction between Robinson's project and the way of proceeding of Pope Francis.
Sex, drugs and Patrick White
Patti Miller
I once received a postcard from White and his partner Manoly Lascaris. It responded to a note I had sent to White telling him we had named our new baby son Patrick Manoly. Our son is now a young man who occasionally wonders if he is the only bloke in Australia to be named after a gay couple.
Renewed acquaintances: Australia and Russia
Luke Fraser
The relationship between Australia and Russia is over 200 years old. It began with great promise, but relations cooled following the Russian Revolution. The financial crisis presents an opportunity for both countries to look to each other with optimism once again.
Sex workers' drama transcends soap opera frivolity
Satisfaction takes place in a high-class city brothel, where demand is high and prices are higher. But it's more a matter of 'normalise' than 'glamorise'. The workers' everyday conflicts are exacerbated by the nature of their profession.
The Consolations of Biography
Peter Rose
Peter Rose on writing Rose Boys.
The frontier fallen
Tom Griffiths
Historians are fighting a mini war over frontier history and the number of Aboriginal dead. Tom Griffiths argues for a different approach.
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