Room to dream

Best known for films such as Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive and the hugely influential television series Twin Peaks, American director David Lynch has died at the age of 78.

The many lives of Yukio Mishima

Yukio Mishima is remembered as much for the absurd theatricality of his death as his outstanding literary achievements, but, on the centenary of his birth, he remains one of the most compelling and controversial figures of post-war Japan.

After Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was “one of the first American writers to celebrate the creative possibilities of modern capitalism and to emphasize the economic value of independent thought” and her legacy remains strong today.

Things fell apart

Social media continually bombards us with piecemeal fragments of a selectively curated approximation of something that passes for reality, stoking division and angst.

The morning star

Much of the art – and art criticism – of today is a vapid exercise in politically correct posturing rather than an imaginative exploration of the human condition, but the success of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s challenging works shows the public’s hunger for something more.

On the beach

Nevil Shute may fallen out of literary fashion but he remains one of Australia’s best and most popular writers, as a theatrical revival of his most famous book attests.