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Keywords: Tolkien

  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The Rings of Power: Flawed jewels

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 19 September 2024

    The latest series of The Rings of Power is a real curate’s egg. Whether having some bits that are good among other bits that are on the nose is a conundrum that this viewer must sort out for herself. Do the bad bits ruin the whole thing?

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  • RELIGION

    I am pilgrim

    • Ann Rennie
    • 13 September 2024

    People visit graves and castles, libraries and mansions, battlefields and places of historical significance to feel a little of the lives of others, to pay homage, to make that human connection. We make secular pilgrimages to places that we have dreamt about or read in books or seen on screen. Wherever we go, these are ultimately visits to places within.  

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    The day John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 22 November 2023
    1 Comment

    Sixty years ago today, on November 22, 1963, the world lost three towering figures of the 20th century. On their diamond jubilee, do I think it was the end of the world as we know it when these three died? Each one shaped the twentieth century in a unique way. Each one left us with much to think about still.  

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    A moral compass at the centre of J.K. Rowling's Ink Black Heart

    • Juliette Hughes
    • 07 September 2022
    4 Comments

    So far it hasn’t been easy to find a review in Australia from someone who has actually read the sixth and latest book in Rowling/Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike crime series, The Ink Black Heart. l wonder if it is too much to ask for people to simply read books (any books) before holding opinions about them.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    Tolkien's inspiration for climate advocates

    • Tim Beshara
    • 29 June 2017
    14 Comments

    To Tolkien, 'the long defeat' described the idea that so often in the world you find yourself fighting for a cause where there is very little chance of success, but you fight for it anyway because it is the right thing to do and because you can't imagine doing anything else. He paired this with the concept of eucatastrophe, a sudden and unexpected change of fortune for the better. Despondent climate activists do well to remember that the latter doesn't come without the former.

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  • RELIGION

    Atheist Pratchett's Discworld has lessons for Christians

    • Michael McVeigh
    • 16 March 2015
    4 Comments

    'You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world. Otherwise it's just a cage.' When I heard English author Terry Pratchett had died, I immediately jumped online to start looking through some of my favourite quotes from his books. The above, from Witches Abroad, is one of many that have accompanied me over the years.   His 44 Discworld novels could be broadly described as comic fantasy, or fantasy satire, and yet that's really just the starting point for the immense variety of complicated ideas they explored in such a fun, joyous way. Perhaps strangely for someone whose work is so grounded in atheism, Pratchett has had a profound impact on my religious faith. Read more

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Harry Potter and other killer serials

    • Brian Doyle
    • 21 October 2009
    6 Comments

    From Pullman's His Dark Materials and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to Lewis' Narnia novels or the tale of Mr H. Potter, the series is often where young readers enter the seething and delightful universe of books, in a way that sets them up for life as readers.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Oz politics through the eyes of Tolkien

    • Vivienne Kelly
    • 09 January 2008

    Tim Costello was recently asked whether he thought his brother would ever be Prime Minister. He gave a wry and elegant answer that played with the notion of the difficulty of relinquishing power in the saga of the Lord of the Rings. From 19 September 2007.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Value your vote: values and Election 07

    • Staff
    • 25 October 2007

    Eureka Street's ongoing analysis of the Federal Election race, helping you discern your vote at the ballot in November.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Oz politics through the eyes of Tolkien

    • Vivienne Kelly
    • 19 September 2007
    16 Comments

    Tim Costello was recently asked whether he thought his brother would ever be Prime Minister. He gave a wry and elegant answer that played with the notion of the difficulty of relinquishing power in the saga of the Lord of the Rings.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Of gods, monsters and fairytales

    • Dorothy Lee
    • 08 July 2006

    Tolkien’s epic resists allegory, but Dorothy Lee found it open to mythological and spiritual exploration.

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  • RELIGION

    On stopping Sauron

    • Ormond Rush
    • 05 July 2006

    Winston Churchill is usually portrayed as one of the few people who recognised the evil potential of Adolf Hitler and was willing to go to war to stop him.

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