Blog Archives

A time for re-enchantment, Paul Morris

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Spirituality In the global marketplace of popular ideas, religion is currently out and spirituality in. The churches are all but empty. Dogma, doctrines, guilt, judgement, restraint, penance, hierarchy, exclusivity, and wholly transcendent heavenly beings are all suspect, as too obviously indicating the…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Essays

After the roaring stopped, Sandra Coney

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Women I am woman, here me roar, In numbers too big to ignore And I know too much To go back to pretend. ‘Cause I’ve heard it all before And I’ve been down there on the floor, No one’s ever…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Essays, Gender

Eschatology and escapism, Mark Broatch

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Technology Eschatology comes into its own as a discipline around the fin de siècle. And the populace’s anxious murmurs reach a far higher pitch when the changeover involves le millénium. Such countdowns have always involved some level of unease, despite…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Essays

For love and money, Chris Laidlaw

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Sport If sport is indeed the opium of the masses then New Zealand has been on an awfully long trip. For more than a century sport has filled the Kiwi consciousness almost to bursting point, giving pride, pleasure and pain…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Essays, Sport

From visionaries to pygmies, Colin James

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Politics and economics Coming into the 20th century, the battle for the future was between socialists and triumphalist trumpeters of a “bigger and better Britain” here at the end of the world. The route out is likely to be along…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Economics, Essays

Silencing a people, Diane Prince

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Treaty Issues The history of Maori is only beginning to be written, and the heroes and heroines of the Maori resistance of the past and the outspoken “activists” of the present have yet to be absorbed into the “psyche” of…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Essays, Māori

Poems for the pocket, Vivienne Plumb

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

50 Poems: A Celebration Lauris Edmond Bridget Williams Books/Peppercorn Press, $29.95, ISBN 1 877 242 039 It is good to mark our lives with some celebration, which 
 is why we should welcome this celebratory collection of Lauris Edmond’s work…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

The limits of historiography, Jock Phillips

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Pakeha Maori Trevor Bentley Penguin Books, $34.95, ISBN 0 14 0285540 7 Being Pakeha Now Michael King Penguin Books, $34.95, ISBN 0 14 028438 9 These two books share much – same price, same publisher, about the same length, and…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in History, Māori, Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

Travels in Maoriland, 1907-1999, Mark Williams

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Travels in Maoriland, 1907-1999 Sir Harold Beauchamp was wealthy enough in 1903 to send his daughters to college in London. The experience made his most difficult and gifted daughter, Kathleen, reluctant to return to colonial Wellington and act out the…

See more ›

Tagged with:
Posted in Comment, Essays, History, Māori

The Gen-X factor, Kate Camp

Posted on December 27, 1999 by NZ Books

Literature One of the most pervasive ideas in contemporary culture is that nothing is original. It has become a modern cliché to complain about revivals of the past, and wonder what will come next. We’ve had the sixties, seventies and…

See more ›

Tagged with: ,
Posted in Comment, Essays, Literature
Search the archive
Search by category