Eureka Street

Keywords: Scrooge

ARTS AND CULTURE

Easterwards
- John Kelly
- 28 March 2024
Dante and Hopkins named it lavishly: Christ’s vita nuova, shared to Easter in us; Ignatius of Loyola called it: magnanimity . . . How could we then, receiving, hoard or dispense it stintingly, like Scrooge before his Christmas haunting?
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ARTS AND CULTURE

A Christmas Carol and the making of a miser
- David Halliday
- 30 November 2023
2 Comments
Why another Christmas Carol and why now? This version takes a detour from Dickens’ original delving deeper into Scrooge’s past, painting him not just as a villain, but as a victim of circumstances. It suggests that behind every act we hastily label as ‘cruel’ lies a story of fear and anxiety, and a flesh-and-blood human being. And forgiveness, then, becomes an acknowledgment of our shared human frailty.
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MEDIA

Editors' Picks: Best of the Decade
- The Editors
- 20 December 2019
6 Comments
Our team of editors have dug through the past ten years' worth of Eureka Street articles to nominate their favourite pieces published between the start of 2010 and today. Check out our list and then jump into the comments to tell us what are your picks of the decade and why.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Dickens and Christmas as we grow older
- Gillian Bouras
- 13 December 2019
5 Comments
Dickens was a prolific writer, and one of patchy quality: the threat of sentimentality was never far away, so that this brief work is not one of his best. But in this consumer age it is salutary to have his definition of the Christmas spirit, which is one 'of active usefulness, perseverance, cheerful discharge of duty, kindness and forbearance'.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

A Christmas carol for a divided world
- Gillian Bouras
- 21 December 2018
2 Comments
In this season, I usually re-read A Christmas Carol, that timeless tour de force of the Dickensian imagination. The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to the shops, where the former restores good humour to squabbling delivery boys. For, they said, it was a shame to quarrel on Christmas Day.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Tips for surviving Christmas angst
- Barry Gittins
- 06 December 2016
5 Comments
Cricket games, feasts, the origami orgy of Christmas present wrappings rent asunder ... the underlying truth in all of this, for many of us, is deep emotional pain and loneliness that's gone unheard, unnoticed, all year. Family is both a lodestone and a millstone at Christmas. It's a truth magnified by aspirational love. As Pope John XXIII once said, cutting close to home, 'Mankind is a great, an immense family. This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.' It's a big ask that carries a price.
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AUSTRALIA

Goodbye to not-so-great Uncle Joe
- Moira Rayner
- 22 October 2015
17 Comments
So many chances, so many slips. After building a reputation as a good guy politician on Sunrise with his 'good mate' Kevin Rudd, he blew it by rescuing Rudd from drowning in a flooded river on their well-publicised Kokoda Trail expedition in 2006. Kevin 07 went on to prove he could win an election but not run a government. In memory of the kindly smiling television entertainer Hockey once was, let us hope his diplomatic success will turn on his need to be liked, not his native political acuity.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Dickens' song for the poor
- Gillian Bouras
- 30 April 2014
8 Comments
While Dickens, staunch champion of the poor and of children, reportedly hoped that A Christmas Carol might encourage the restoration of social harmony, his narrative line can also be seen as a convenient plot device. It is a deeply Christian story, not just about Christmas, but about life itself, about actions and their consequences, the need for wrongs to be made right, and the desire for hope and potentiality of renewal.
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AUSTRALIA

Without jobs we're Scrooged
- Michael Mullins
- 16 December 2013
9 Comments
Pope Francis says: 'Work means dignity, work means taking food home, work means loving!' Some commentators criticise the government for taking an active role in maintaining employment through subsidising unprofitable industries. They miss the point that it's the government's job to promote the wellbeing of the people, and having a job is so fundamental to living in modern society.
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Best of 2011: Rescuing JFK
- P. S. Cottier
- 12 January 2012
'Kennedy was a cold warrior, but Johnson took it to the next level. He had the same my-balls-are-bigger-than-yours complex as Dubya.' The narrator journeys into the past in order to produce a kinder America. One that may not throw itself into Vietnam with such lust. Published 16 November 2011
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ARTS AND CULTURE

Rescuing JFK
- P. S. Cottier
- 17 November 2011
'Kennedy was a cold warrior, but Johnson took it to the next level. He had the same my-balls-are-bigger-than-yours complex as Dubya.' The narrator journeys into the past in order to produce a kinder America. One that may not throw itself into Vietnam with such lust.
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RELIGION

Opposing society's Scrooges
- Andrew Hamilton
- 22 December 2010
3 Comments
Outside of Christmas, Scrooge is back in favour. If a government has big ideas and plans to spend money, all the talk will be about the burden on taxpayers and on the deficit. But to spend money for the benefit of people is a good thing to do.
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Keywords: Scrooge