Chernobyl, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and truth in fiction
A review of Chernobyl, written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck, a 2019 mini-series in five parts on HBO/Sky. In an early scene of Chernobyl, a young pregnant […]
Category Archives: fiction
Toppling statues, censorship, and erasing history
The first brass head has toppled in New Zealand. On 12 June the Hamilton City Council removed a statue of… Hamilton! British naval Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, veteran of […]
Young Harry Holland: the soapbox preacher
Harry Holland and the early labour movement in Australia and New Zealand – Part 2. (For Part 1 click here). Little detail is known of Harry Holland’s childhood. Despite being […]
Cultural appropriation, race-baiting, and the power of fiction: in defence of Lionel Shriver
US novelist Lionel Shriver ruffled a few feathers – to put it mildly – when she spoke at the Brisbane Writers Festival in September. Shriver took aim at ‘identity politics’ […]
“Really living life” vs the Russian Revolution: Watching Doctor Zhivago fifty years on
When you’re trapped in an aeroplane seat for twelve hours, you will watch almost any movie to take your mind off the noise of the engines and the thought of […]
Another digression
Well, I said there would be occasional digressions from what is primarily a blog of working class politics and history. Last weekend I picked some wild blackberries, for the first […]
A communist at large 