Tag: Literature
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Don’t lie about Christmas, warn psychologists
Should we stop telling children the Christmas myth is true? Santa Claus, the chimney and the reindeer: it is the story we all grew up with. But some experts argue these lies can be harmful.
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Million-dollar author caught in web of lies
Dan Mallory, writer of the bestselling thriller The Woman in the Window, has admitted to lying about having brain cancer — one of many deceptions he used to boost his career.
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The father and son who survived Auschwitz
This Sunday is Holocaust Memorial Day. A new book tells the story of two remarkable survivors: a father and son who stuck together in concentration camps for six horrific years…
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The superhero whose comics took over the world
What did Stan Lee teach us about life? The mastermind behind Marvel’s success has died aged 95. From Spider-Man to the Hulk, he helped to create many of the world’s most beloved superheroes.
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‘Let me live, love, and say it well...’
Is poetry more vital than ever? A survey has declared Sylvia Plath the most popular poet of all time among teenagers — ahead of William Shakespeare. Meanwhile, poetry readership is surging.
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Booker Prize holds a mirror to our dark times
Can fiction change the world? Racism, injustice, ecological destruction — the Man Booker Prize shortlist has been unveiled, and the new novels paint a bleak picture of modern society.
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Avo, bougie and rando: the new words for 2018
Is the English language getting out of hand? Merriam-Webster has added more than 800 new words to its dictionary, including “TL;DR”. Our language has been constantly changing for centuries.
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The surprising philosophy of Winnie-the-Pooh
Should we all live like Pooh? As Christopher Robin hits cinemas, the friendly bear has been hailed “a philosopher to rival Plato and Confucius”....
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The wild, difficult genius of Emily Bronte
Should we admire Wuthering Heights? The first reviewers of Emily Brontë’s dark tale of obsessive love called it “baffling” and “disjointed”. To its fans, the novel is a...
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Giant of American fiction Philip Roth dies
Do great writers offer great wisdom? Legendary American novelist Philip Roth has died aged 85. Love, death, sex, faith: his era-defining prose left no side of human life unexamined.
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Shakespeare exposed by plagiarism detector
Is the world's greatest writer a cheat? Software normally used to outwit exam fraud has disclosed an obscure manuscript that was the source of many of the Bard's most famous lines.
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Handwriting makes a comeback in US schools
Should handwriting be taught in schools? More American schools are putting cursive back on the curriculum. But for some, computers have made handwriting lessons a waste of time.
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Fury as Twitter doubles length of tweets
Is brevity really the soul of wit? This week Twitter gave all its users 280 characters to play with, instead of 140. But many believe the site has lost its “unique selling point”.
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The woman making The Odyssey feel new again
Is translation an art or a science? This week, Emily Wilson publishes a new version of Homer’s Odyssey, the first by a woman. But translation is “complicated”, as her...
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Philip Pullman: ‘human nature demands meaning’
Is it possible to be spiritual but not religious? Philip Pullman thinks so. After a 17 year wait, yesterday he finally published the prequel to the celebrated His Dark...