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Editor's note
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The online travel guide Library Planet shows that #librarylove is alive and well around the world. As Stuart Kells writes in his fascinating essay, modern libraries are social spaces founded on inclusion; they are also windows into a nation’s soul.
Elsewhere, Julian Savulescu explores ten ethical flaws in the Caster Semenya decision on intersex athletes, and Cathal D. O'Connell explains why the idea of alien life is not as far-fetched as you might
think. And catch up on our new series Inside the story, which unpicks the writing craft, or brush up on the poet Walt Whitman, 200 years after his birth.
With our long reads, experts go deeper into current issues in science and culture. We aim to provide informed analysis and, of course, promote good writing. If you value what we do, please donate today. And enjoy your Sunday!
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Rosanna Hunt
Deputy Editor: Arts + Culture
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#Librarylove
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China’s five-storey Tianjin Binhai Library occupies an area of 33,700 square metres with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves which can contain up to 1.2 million books.
Roman Pilipey
Stuart Kells, La Trobe University
In our world of pervasive consumerism, libraries continue to be founded on humanism. Their core purpose as accessible places is vital – yet they are also now popular tourist destinations.
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Science long reads
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Cathal D. O'Connell, University of Melbourne
The ancient question 'Are we alone?' has graduated from being a philosophical musing to a testable hypothesis. We should be prepared for an answer.
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Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford
Athlete Caster Semenya will need to take hormone-lowering agents, or have surgery, if she wishes to continue her career in her chosen events. But the decision to ban her is flawed on many grounds.
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Friday essays
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Danielle Clode, Flinders University
Although not pitched as one, Avengers: Endgame is an environmental movie. But in reality, we need to face our fears and find solutions, rather than perpetuating the fantasy of regressing into the past.
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Kate Douglas, Flinders University
From Steve Smith's tearful apology to anonymous apps like Whisper, public confessions can be therapeutic, emancipatory, or potentially exploitative.
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Janna Thompson, La Trobe University
If it is wrong to censure art or refuse to display it because of its content, how can it be right to shun it because of the behaviour of the artist?
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Mark Davis, University of Melbourne
In the face of digital disruption that threatens the very fabric of democratic culture we must refashion Enlightenment oppositions for new times.
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Walt Whitman's 200th
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Poet Walt Whitman in his home in New Jersey in 1891. Born 200 years ago this week, Whitman is celebrated in America for his daring poetry collection Leaves of Grass.
Samuel Murray/Wikimedia Commons
Carolyn Masel, Australian Catholic University
Walt Whitman is perhaps America's most admired poet. His work, now praised for its themes of equality and democracy, was once shunned for its experimental verse and discussion of sexuality.
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Inside the story
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Sue Joseph, University of Technology Sydney
Part memoir, part investigation, Leigh Sales's recent book Any Ordinary Day provides rare insight into the journalistic craft.
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Philippa Burne, University of Melbourne
Writing episodic TV, scriptwriters traditionally work from a principle of having three stories woven together through an episode. These are known as the A story, the B story and the C story.
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Review
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Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang’s Murmuration (Landscape) 2019 (detail) Realised in Dehua, Fujian.
province and Melbourne, commissioned by the NGV.
Proposed acquisition supported by Ying Zhang in association with the Asian Australian Foundation, 2019
NGV Foundation Annual Dinner and 2019 NGV Annual Appeal, on display at NGV International.
© Cai Guo- Qiang. Photo © Tobias Titz
Alison Carroll, University of Melbourne
A new exhibition pairs China's famed Terracotta Warriors with contemporary works of inspiring ethereality. The contrasts here are many: life and death, harmony and chaos, energy and control, art and politics.
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Featured jobs
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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Griffith University — Nathan, Queensland
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UNSW Sydney — Sydney, New South Wales
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Charles Sturt University — Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
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Featured events
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State Library Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatrette, Entry 3, 179 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia — La Trobe University
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Darwin Convention Centre, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0800, Australia — The Lowitja Institute
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Melbourne University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3006, Australia — University of Melbourne
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PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, 2007, Australia — University of Technology Sydney
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