New Zealand Listener Issue 21 2018

It may be about as relevant and life-improving as Dancing With the Stars or the latest food fad, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much for taking delight in the royal wedding. It’s not just a matter of our shallower selves succumbing to some extended click-bait. Nor is seeking to avoid the massive publicity surrounding Prince Harry’s marriage to American Meghan Markle (and good luck with that) necessarily a sign of superior discernment. In the great scheme of things, this is mostly just a feel-good celebrity event. A nice-seeming man, whose grandmother is this country’s titular, but purely ornamental, head of state, is marrying a nice-seeming A-list television actor. Slightly more resonant appeal lies in the fact that the British royal family is finally reviewing its stultifying protocol. Markle…

There is another New Zealand connection to Doctor Zhivago (“The cloak & dagger novel”, May 12). Author Maurice Shadbolt was in Moscow in 1957 and spoke to the Italian journalist who was facilitating translation of the novel for publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Shadbolt’s appointment with the secretary of the Soviet Writers’ Union, Alexey Surkov, was postponed when the latter flew to Milan to try to stop its publication. At the time, Shadbolt thought rumours of the manuscript being smuggled out were not credible and wrote in Landfall (March 1959) that the Soviet state publishing house Goslitisdat had planned to publish in 1956, until stopped by censors, and they had sent the manuscript to Feltrinelli already. Shadbolt wrote extensively on Boris Pasternak and Doctor Zhivago. His defence of the novel in the…

It may be about as relevant and life-improving as Dancing With the Stars or the latest food fad, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much for taking delight in the royal wedding. It’s not just a matter of our shallower selves succumbing to some extended click-bait. Nor is seeking to avoid the massive publicity surrounding Prince Harry’s marriage to American Meghan Markle (and good luck with that) necessarily a sign of superior discernment. In the great scheme of things, this is mostly just a feel-good celebrity event. A nice-seeming man, whose grandmother is this country’s titular, but purely ornamental, head of state, is marrying a nice-seeming A-list television actor. Slightly more resonant appeal lies in the fact that the British royal family is finally reviewing its stultifying protocol. Markle has African-American heritage…

There is another New Zealand connection to Doctor Zhivago (“The cloak & dagger novel”, May 12). Author Maurice Shadbolt was in Moscow in 1957 and spoke to the Italian journalist who was facilitating translation of the novel for publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Shadbolt’s appointment with the secretary of the Soviet Writers’ Union, Alexey Surkov, was postponed when the latter flew to Milan to try to stop its publication. At the time, Shadbolt thought rumours of the manuscript being smuggled out were not credible and wrote in Landfall (March 1959) that the Soviet state publishing house Goslitisdat had planned to publish in 1956, until stopped by censors, and they had sent the manuscript to Feltrinelli already. Shadbolt wrote extensively on Boris Pasternak and Doctor Zhivago. His defence of the novel in the Communist Partybacked…

Some kind of owl and a penguin from the Antipodes, Your Majesty. WINNING CAPTION Ann Love, Nelson FINALISTS Jacinda Ardern: “Long way from Pt Chev, eh?” – Rowena Wheaton, Auckland Ardern: “Remember, it’s ‘Your Majesty’, not ‘Kia ora, mate’.” – Bruce Eliott, Auckland Clarke Gayford: “Life is like Fish of the Day – dining with the apex predators one moment, ripped into by the bottom feeders the next.” – Mike Wagg, Auckland Ardern: “A haka might not be so good for my hairdo.” – Kath Jones, Waikanae Gayford: “Even with the baby, it’s a bit big for us.” – PM Lynch, Upper Hutt Gayford: “A stuffed marlin? Up there?” – Erin Howard, Dunedin Gayford: “I’m just a Lambeater protecting the crown jewels.” – Lyall Lukey, Christchurch Ardern: “Think of chatting with royalty simply…

“Some ideas are so absurd only intellectuals believe them.” – attributed to both George Orwell and Bertrand Russell “The people I knew in school who excelled in sport are all dead. That’s deeply gratifying.” – Barry Humphries “Science literacy empowers you to know when someone else is full of shit.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson “I let my seven-year-old stay up and watch a couple of the Dancing With the Stars dances last night. Seemed harmless enough but this morning at breakfast she gave her younger sister 6/10.” – Jesse Mulligan “The judges are right. I do need to keep my legs together more often. I had nine children and I should’ve learned a long time ago. Sometimes I just can’t help myself.” – Marama Fox on Dancing With the Stars…