Ben Etherington

The Living and the Undead

Most critics are aware that they work within the endlessly relative landscape of literary history. Once a writer’s place in the landscape is secured, it is not easy to budge and this shapes future literary judgements.

Craveñho’s Universe

'The first question to ask of the Craven phenomenon is not "why?" but "how?"' Critic Watch on performative criticism.

This Little University Went To Market

‘Quite a few countries now use income contingent loans for student fees, but only in Australia do they hold such an unimpeachable place in ongoing debates about the financial and social logic of higher education.'

The Poet Tasters

No one believes that most Australian poetry volumes are a couple of edits or a tempered excess away from being a perfect version of themselves, but this is what, en masse, the reviews tell us. A biddable reader will have the impression that all de...

Universities and the Block

Pyne is attempting to divert the function and aims of knowledge in our society. His policy clinches and fully institutionalises the worldview that understands education entirely as a private good. The public benefits of major scientific discovery,...

The Real Deal: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

How do we understand the critical response to Hannah Kent's Burial Rites? In order to distinguish authentic aesthetic judgements amongst the reviews it will help to consider the way the advance for Burial Rites fits into the logic of trade book pu...

Road to omission

How do you review the 'experimental novel'? Critic Watch turns its gaze to the reviews of Anthony Macris' Great Western Highway: A Love Story (Capital, Volume One, Part Two). With a response from Jeffrey Poacher.

Critic Watch: Summer Review

Hobbyist doggerel and Booty Calls: Ben Etherington on Quadrant, government subsidies, and the Books of the Year. Plus a response from Jennifer Maiden.

The Brain Feign

Is there an 'epidemic of niceness' in book reviewing? Ben Etherington examines the critical responses to Anna Funder's All That I Am.

In response to 'The Brain Feign'