Synthetic Violet
Editor’s Notes
It seems every edition of Synthetic Violet begins with notice of the season, of the time of year, of how light or dark it is and how that lends to art. So I want you to look around – do you see the sun? do you see the light? do you see the love? do you see the joy? I see the joy not just everywhere, but also here, in this my first edition of Synthetic Violet. One that, like this entire magazine, will always have a special place in my heart. This publication is one of the places, aside from the musical stage, that I first learnt to fully express myself in, and so to now be the one curating that art makes me so very happy.
Nonetheless, sometimes I think about music. I think, really, about how, to me, music is the essence of life. Music is the backdrop, the soundtrack, the heartbeat. Music is connection. Music is how I bond with those closest to me; with our impromptu car ride playlists, our half-hearted late night karaoke attempts, our chuckles as an old hit comes on in the supermarket. And I can think about the songs that, in a minute, could transport me right back to a certain moment, certain feeling, certain person; music that reminds me of a certain love. But then- is music not just love? I was watching an interview the other day with Will Gao, one half of indie band Wasia Project, who said that ‘Music comes from the heart and from the soul, and it’s not from someone being like, “I’m gonna write a hit! Let me write a hit” It comes from someone paying attention to how they’re feeling and letting something flow through them’ . Don't you agree? And don't you think that's the same as all art? Art is an expression of our feelings that we can't simply say or do; just pure beauty. Art is our fragile human attempt at unpacking and understanding the things we go through, the people we meet, love, miss. And imagine a world without that. Imagine one without expression, without love, without fear. Wouldn't that be such an empty world? Are we not, ultimately, defined by the relationships we have with each other and the feelings we feel for each other? Because if so, it's only fair that we record it, that we express it, that we make art from the beautiful canvas we were already gifted with; each other. And that's why I think culture is so important, why it cannot die, why we must water it, nurture it, develop it. We all feel. So, let's make art from it. That’s my ethos.
That idea is certainly explored further in Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World Where Are You, recommended as a summer read in the article on page 33, along with many other books (which all too have blue covers!)
We had initially chosen pop art as a prompt for this issue. Now there were no contributions towards this directly, but the submissions this term seem to be as wide-ranging and vibrant that perhaps we are not missing out! Carole Tucker paints a vivid portrait of olive trees on page 7 and Alexander Walker and Vera Ryten write in-depth articles on Marvel, page 23, and 1984, page 30, respectively.
All in all: Hi, this is a magazine, and it has some lovely work in it, so enjoy! I hope you have a lovely summer and get some good reading in.
- Alice Shaw, ed.
- Kherlen Ho
Poetry
Pop Art
Pop Art
Pop art America and Britain, drawing inspiration from sources in popular and commercial culture.
Hollywood movies, advertising, product packaging, pop music and comic books for their imagery.
Pop Art is: popular (designed for a mass audience, transient (short-term solution), expendable (easily forgotten), low cost, mass produced, young (aimed at youth), witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business
Multiples, doubles, mirror images These homewares, cars, gadgets, fashion music placed to turn a mirror on society at large could be found in the average home – in the kitchen cupboard or a photograph in a newspaper. Magazine and comic strips Following a period of post-war austerity the movement focussed on the glamour of commercial design and media culture, speaking of optimism and possibility. for mass appeal by blending elements of popular culture.
Coca Cola and Campbell’s Soup along with images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and
Pop Art
Pop Art is: Mass appeal, mass audience, mass produced, Multiples, doubles, mirror images, Mirror on society following post-war austerity.
Pop Art is: Culture inspiration. Popular culture: Glamorous Hollywood celebrities, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor. Media culture: Newspaper, magazine Music, movies, comic books. Commercial culture: Advertising packaging Coca Cola, Campbell’s Soup in the kitchen cupboard.
Pop Art is: Popular, transient, expendable, Fashion, optimism and possibility. Elizabeth Taylor as mass produced multiples using
- Alexander Walker, rep.
Roses on the mantelpiece
Someday, I’ll grow up and buy a car and drive to nowhere to watch the sunset
I’ll find a field to sit in and munch on overripe peaches while shadows fall over my feet
I’ll dance in circles or pentagons or all over the place and no one will be able to stop me
And grief might pop in for a drink
On the way home I’ll put jazz on; stereo, and scream at the mountains for all I’m worth I’ll hide in thick winter coats, chequered scarves, and pretend that suede shoes saying tap tap tap on the chess board floor are a placebo pill
Lie watching rain slice open the window pane and plant roses in my backyard
Grief might sit sipping lemonade on my patio
Go watch swallows by the river, wallow by the lake
Learn to knit little teddy bears or play piano in a concert hall and At Christmas say that the black hole in my heart has sucked itself away
So grief might leave by the front door this time
I’ll run down cobblestone streets and climb so high I’m an angel by human standards
I’ll press rewind and tell everyone I’m not stuck on an aeroplane anymore, just a train
That the only thing I have nostalgia for is the way coriander tasted before it became soap
There’ll be roses in a glass on the mantelpiece until I’m all grown up and can buy a car and drive to nowhere to watch the sunset in a field munching on overripe peaches while shadows fall over my feet dancing in circles or pentagons or all over the place and
no one will be able to stop me
- Alice Shaw, ed.
Breathless the wind of dawn gilded pallor of the morn slips in unison through the rosewood thorn.
Olive shrubs shed their crepuscular dew and glisten with their gnarled knots waxen edges interlocking lithified the stone echoes the warblers song as the brushland flows along.
Sharp shepherd eyes watch the river go and in the dale below beneath the misty smoke A plume - it is but feathererupts and tears apart the ether.
Rain but nature’s storm the piper leads his hooved beasts ‘neath the shelter of the trees a gift by all revered and trills his pearlescent tale
The light returns Sisyphean ziziphus burns in rosalean hues and tints and between the needles sun-clad tears and the rosids and the seers Since life arose from soil the sun shall turn to oil and the oil shall turn to gold
Time now and more a refuge Symbol of liquid heat of comfort and of peace crowds down the olive grove the children clamber among the roots and rolling, falls the ripened fruits.
In urns they sail across in cedar boats surmount the intermingled throes of the oceans and their tides dissociated in tragic sighs the oil flows in liquid amber wafts of heat that crystalise men’s hearts gave place to colder treasure and avid fervour turns to bitter fire burns engulfed the towers of sacred Ilium and filled the meadows of Elysium.
Now a flare illuminates once more the heights as mortal forms pound the dusty paths and on the dry and mottled ground Stygian shadows interweave with grass and crimson stains the violent fire spreads crackling in the twilight Be it the heat that makes it rise up from the barren hearth or falling from the sky in swathes of blasts that shell the earth.
Yet through the powdered beam leaves still sway in softened breeze emerging from the icy springs the fragrant foliage vaporises along the casks of oil and olives, and in the mist the oleaster flickers in a purple dusk its steady soul a glimmer of life amidst the dust.
- Carole Tucker
- Eugénie Tucker
oh so much of this.
promise me promise me this take my hand hold it feel my pulse can you tell i’m alive can you tell i’m here can you tell that my pulse, is yours?
promise me promise me all this let me take your hand hold you feel your heart beat will you stay will you keep me will you cry by my grave, that’s yours?
promise me promise me oh so much of this hug me tight and never let go let me weep in that churchyard tonight let me sob into my pillowcase won’t you stop it won’t you take me away too won’t you live a life with me, that’s yours?
- Alice Shaw, ed.
A Classics inspired poem
References, prompts and images:
Yes, I see, I see...
WhoWho... Is this?? Me?
Or is it You? or Us?
Gazes up at me. That face; such a familiar one. That face; so strikingly alike to mine. That face. So startlingly bright like yours had been. The eyes I remember to be doused in gold-dashed brown Dipped in silver rays
Ensconced in fiery warmth
And such very subtle shades; Yet now
As I look down
As the face looks up
I cannot find that same glow Or capture that same tenderness And fervour
Which had once blazed from within. Now
The face which shamelessly peers back up at me Bears no emotion, But bores through my soul with a Never-faltering, Never-blinking Glare.
A mask is all it is; Hollow Blank Cold Unfeeling Impassive And lifeless.
I do not recognise the face anymore
As mine; nor yours
That Was of the past.
What I see now is a shell of what once was,
A muted replica of what was ours:
The pupils
Have been smothered in dull bronze
Then drenched in rusted copper.
The lips
Are drowned in watery tones of burnt pink.
And the dazzle of the lunulae,
Our lunulae,
Has been subdued and suppressed
Within the suffocating confines of this encaustic wax; Clouded in colour,
Muffled, and stifled.
This, which once kept our heads raised up high
Now drags us down as an oppressive weight
Caging us within the limits of this prison.
What a futile attempt at trying to represent our true selves.
I cannot erase memory of those eyes, those very eyes... they
Used to be mine
Used to be ours
But their feeling
Their intensity And passion And affection
Will never be remembered. Never will be appreciated; Will be forgotten and discarded.
All that love, all that rage, that frustration, that rapture which once had been felt... Gone. This all exists no more; I do not know that face. This is not Me. Or You. Nor us. This is It.
- Lei Xue
Prose
Edward Small and the Dartmoor Vampires
Thank God, it was Friday afternoon and my shift at the front desk was over for the week: no more torture of watching dog owners who were capable of lead training or school groups of seven year olds who somehow made everything sticky.
I could see Janet through the window, jet-skiing through the courtyard with Algy as her indefatigable motor. She had come down from Cumbria for a fortnight; Holly House (where we had both grown up) and her tabby cat, Sally, in the care of our friend Joni. She practically crashed into the front room and I said a smug goodbye to those who would be spending the rest of the week scraping goop from the Abbey.
My cousin had parked her car in an obscure little lot on Dartmoor, which meant we had four miles to walk. The plan was to then find a nice pub, where Algy wouldn’t terrorise innocent people for fish and chips, and have dinner. We started out from the Abbey’s drive, and I began to talk about the week: the Easter children’s trail had been a success but had closed the previous week. While I designed the new Francis Drake themed trail, there had already been three boredom complaints from annoyed parents. I did try to tell the first family that patience was a virtue, and they had better come back soon. That did not get me far, so I ran for the dog biscuits and force fed them to their golden retriever, who chewed a single one, then spat it out.
I then asked Janet: ‘Any sightings of Martha?’. The answer was no. Six months or so prior to then, I saw a ghost on Hadrian’s wall, but she has not been seen since. I am not entirely sure that Janet believes me about Martha Ailward yet, or that my life was ever in danger. I’m certain I will see Martha soon and we’ll catch up over a cup of coffee, or tea, or whatever they drank in the fourteenth century. I’m sure she’d like oat milk.
Janet had mainly come for the fortnight so that Algy was not so bored. Recently, I have been bringing him to work with me, and despite the quantity of dog biscuits he has been given by my colleagues, he has still been lying on the floor and rolling his eyes at me. Janet had some time off, so she had come to help out. I asked her ‘What have you been doing this week with Algy?’ ‘Well he’s been stopping me from eating cheese and peanut butter for one thing. He’s also been teaching me to jet ski. We’ve tidied your house too, and I
made the very interesting discovery of a box of quality street wrappers, but not a single quality street underneath the bookshelf in your living room.’
We argued about the abundance of chocolate wrappers and the absence of chocolate in my house for a long while. A few metres after Algy tugged Janet over, and she handed the lead to me, we came by a fork in the path at which I’m pretty certain we took a wrong turn. The issue was that Janet was also pretty certain that we had taken a right turn. We went her way, since she claimed she had done an orienteering competition six years ago, so she should know.
We walked through field after field after field, and I complained for a long while until I saw a sign saying ‘Moorland Hotel’. I thought I had heard of it having closed recently, so I took my phone out and absent mindedly held Algy’s lead out for Janet to hold. I hadn’t realised that she had walked a few metres away to look at the sign. Before I knew it, Algy was running into the Moorland Hotel, and Janet and I were running in too.
There are a plethora of terrible cliches about haunted houses: ghosts in white, creepy dolls and darkness for a few examples. The most common of all horror story plot points is the slammed and locked door: the main characters are locked in the haunted house and they must escape- we all know how it goes. I’m afraid that this was exactly what happened to Algy, Janet and I.
We were stuck and we needed to find my dog before we even contemplated breaking a window to escape. He is a cocker spaniel, and at the slightest scent of anything that may be edible, he will run- and follow only his nose. The biggest issue with tracing him is that I don’t happen to be a dog, and I don’t happen to be able to afford a £12.99-a-month dog GPS system.
‘I suppose if we just walk around a little, we’ll find him eventually. If we’re lucky, and we turn our phone torches on we can spot him easily enough.’
Janet agreed with me, and so we searched.
Outdoors, night was beginning to close in, and the Moorland hotel was to become darker yet. In the lobby that Janet and I stood in, a huge oil painting of some fruit hung above the abandoned front desk. It looked to me, in the dim light of my torch, to be rotting there. In the restaurant next door, huge chandeliers hung from the ceiling, one had fallen down and crashed into one of the cloth covered tables. Glass had shattered all over it and tiny pieces were scattered around so that the floor crunched menacingly if you took a step.
Pots of wilted hothouse flowers sat on the tables. I noticed then that there was water dripping from the ceiling in tens of places around the room, and
stacked around it were silver plates. I walked over to one and looked at my dark reflection in it: real, solid silver. A hotel this posh could never have survived on the moors.
We walked through a few more rooms; a lounge, with dusty sofas around a stained and mouldy rug in the centre; a breakfast room with trays and engraved wooden trays of little salt and pepper packets that had been eaten by rats; lastly, another dining room with a massive grill and long, thick silver kebab sticks, still glistening on the countertop.
Algy was nowhere to be seen.
‘Eddie, we need to find Algy. God knows what could’ve happened to him in this place!’
‘I think we’d better go upstairs- maybe he caught a scent of something up there.’
We were racing up the wide staircase when I smelled something strong. ‘Janet, what’s that? It’s like aioli mayonnaise.’. I sighed to myself: I really could do with a Leon aioli chicken box right now.
‘It’s just garlic, Eddie. Odd for a hotel, I suppose.’, she sprinted past me, preoccupied by the dog situation, and rightly so.
I was getting worried: perhaps by the strange scents, the fact that the door was shut, or just that we were trapped in a creepy old hotel. I mean, Algy runs off all the time, just the circumstances were concerning, to say the least.
‘Careful, Janet, don’t slip!’ I shouted up the wooden stairway. It was covered in rainwater that had leaked through the ceiling. Around a second later, I heard a loud crash. A sharpened steak knife rolled towards me, down the stairway that Janet had climbed up. I picked it up and sprinted to the landing.
Strewn down it was a stack of old silver objects; plates; cups; necklaces; spoons; knives; some ancient hand mirrors.
I kept on running into a massive hotel room.. Knotted about the bedposts, and the tightly sealed and barred windows were garlic flowers. Looking again, they were everywhere: lying on top of the unused towels on the bed; rotting on the carpeted floor; on the bathroom shelf; and in a silver jug on the mantelpiece. They were all dried up: they had likely been lying there for months. Silver, garlic- silver and garlic- garlic and silver? Vampires. That explained the flowers. Even if this hotel had the funds to survive out here, the vampires must have caused its closing down.
You probably think I’m a maniac when I tell you that I believe in ghosts, goblins, and everything in between. When I ran into the Moorland Hotel, I’d already had an experience with a spectre Martha Ailward. If you’re interested then you might like to read what I wrote about her in a previous issue of this magazine. I now know that vampires do exist. And from experience, I can tell you ghosts are nicer.
I hadn’t noticed that Janet was in the room yet: she was in the only corner in which there was almost no light. Tightened around her was a bony, white arm, and sunken into her pale neck were the whitest, sharpest teeth I have ever seen. Naively, I stepped closer to her, but the vampire leaned forward and snarled menacingly. He held his hand, and I could see every detail, down to the tiny hairs on his palm. I brandished my torch and he retreated a little into the corner, but would not give Janet up. I could see my cousin’s eyes changing colour from warm brown to bright red. What could I do? I couldn’t just leave Janet to become a demon.
I pushed the vampire further and further into the corner- but now what could I do? If I turned off the torch, he would come to bite me as soon as he could, but I didn’t have enough power to wait for daylight either. I was at 9% battery: my mobile phone is old, and the power would run out long before then. In any case, I know from the vampirical research I have done, that my cousin would have become a full vampire if I waited until daybreak.
From behind me, I heard a loud hissing. Turning around, I saw three female vampires dressed in Victorian gowns. They edged closer to me, baring their white teeth behind their red lips. They began to grab at me with their clawed hands. Running was no longer an option: I was closed in.
I had to think on my feet now. I guessed my phone would run out of power in about five minutes, and after then, I could buy no more time. From the looks of it, these vampires hated garlic and silver. What could I do with that? All of the garlic, flowers and cloves, were rotten, and the only silver I had in my pocket was the steak knife, which didn’t seem to be enough to ward them away. I couldn’t ward off the vampires at all. What could I do?
At this point, I should explain that I must be one of the biggest fans of aioli sauce in the history of man. I put the stuff on nearly everything I eat (excluding desserts, of course. Aioli tiramisu does not sound appetising). As a result of my obsession and our plan to go to the pub that evening, I happened to be carrying my litre jar of aioli in my backpack. It was the only thing that could save me now.
I poured the sauce in a thick circle around me. When I was certain I was closed off, I took a deep breath and switched off my phone. The plan had worked. The vampires had been repelled by the garlic sauce around me.
Now I needed to save Janet. Trying to talk with the vampires was not an option: I had already tried that in English and French. They may have understood, but they were uninterested in a trade. I was too angry about Janet becoming a vampire to accept defeat: the best thing to do was to kill them as fast as I could.
How does one finish off a vampire? I did Dracula Daily last year and I have watched and read a few other vampire related things. I gathered from these that one should either cut off their head and stuff it with garlic (for which I assumed garlic aioli would do the trick), or you should stake them through the heart, preferably with silver.
The undead were closing around me again and getting nearer to the circle around my feet. I needed to act fast.
I took a single tiny, ginger step with my right foot out of the circle, and made a stab at the vampire that was still guarding Janet (who seemed to be in some sort of trance) with my steak knife. I tried again: no luck. I was about to take a third shot when I felt a piercing pain in my neck. One of the female vampires had her canines sunken into my neck. I had turned my back to the vampires behind and removed both feet from the sauce circle. Screaming with pain, I dropped the steak knife on the ground, and the male vampire kicked it away.
Were Janet and I going to become undead? And where on Earth could Algy have got to?
I fell down then, and I am not sure what was happening for what I guess was around five minutes. When I gained some consciousness, I heard a quiet tapping that got louder, coming up the wooden stairs. Had someone come to save us?
My heart lifted when Algy bounded into the room, holding in his mouth the thick silver kebab sticks from downstairs and covered in white goop. I looked at the floor and realised that globs of aioli had spilled from the jar. He was completely coated in it, and he must have been missed by the vampires because of it. Algy trotted up to me and dropped the kebab sticks at my feet. Thank God he hadn’t become an undead spaniel. I gave him a pat and picked up the kebab sticks. I just needed to wait for a chance, now. If I could hit one
of the vampires in the right place from the back, I might just be able to kill them. I have tried archery a few times, and I’m not bad at it. Having said that, the last time I did any archery was at least five years ago. I hoped that my ‘natural talent’, as the instructor had called it, would save me.
A few seconds later, my opportunity came. Janet began to stir, and the vampires were distracted. I prayed that she was not becoming fully undead and chose to go ahead with my plan. I figured that it was likely neither of us had become a vampire yet, and if we had, at least we wouldn’t have to go around drinking people’s blood to survive. It was worth a shot.
On my first kebab throw, I stabbed the vampire that had bitten Janet, about where I thought his heart must be. My ‘natural talent’ paid off: he keeled over and melted into a pile of ash on the ground. I looked behind me and saw dust where the female vampires had also been, but looking human as ever in the corner of the room was Janet. We had been saved by Algy!
Algy trotted over to Janet and licked her face lovingly until she woke up. I walked over, helped her up and picked up his lead and my jar. We ran downstairs, opened a window (the door was still locked), and climbed out. After we were a safe distance from the hotel, I stuck my finger into the jar:
‘Fancy some aioli?’
The End - Sydney
- Yu
Essays
How do movies reflect the changing anxieties and beliefs of the cultures that produce them?
POST 9/11 TO THE PATRIOT ACT: HOW DOES MARVEL’S REPRESENTATION OF THE US MILITARY MIRROR THE ANXIETIES OF THE TIME?
When just beginning, The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) collaborated with the US Department of Defence (DOD). It was a symbiotic relationship: the DOD offered military extras and vehicles in return for compromises reviewing scripts. As Tricia Jenkins and Tom Secker state in their book Superheroes, Movies and the State [11], the DOD used MCU movies as a vessel, “to sanitise war, legitimize military authority, build support for US foreign policy… and promote military benevolence and righteousness in the public’s mind.”
Post 9/11, the early MCU films showed America as a reluctant, morally superior superpower, portraying American exceptionalism and soldiers as the world's real-life heroes; however, as the MCU grew financially, it didn’t need DOD support anymore. Jenkins and Secker say later movies became increasingly, “critical of military and state authority and thus several of its films question the strength, cleanliness and benevolence of American Military power”. The movies reflected the age of the Patriot Act, ‘kill list’ drone strikes and the dubious justification for the Iraq War.
Early MCU movies showed American righteousness in war. Iron Man [1], for example, shows the US occupation of Afghanistan as morally right, because the US needs to protect weaker nations. The opening scene shows an Afghan civilian in the wilderness with goats, emphasising they are less advanced. Yinsen Ho represents a civilian who has lost everything to the evil terrorists and needs Iron Man (Tony Stark), symbolizing America, to step in and “save the day”. The terrorists are depicted as remorseless, torturing Stark, and therefore threatening America. This indicates only one solution – righteous violence. Iron Man suggests that America should exercise violence to police a world full of threats. Ordinary Afghan people
are only shown suffering because of the terrorists, not the US military; however, the UN reported roughly 111,000 Afghans, including civilians, killed through the Afghan war [11]. The movie shows the Afghan people as underdeveloped, juxtaposing America, - superior intellectually, morally, and strength wise. American patriots, like Iron Man, are incredibly clever and give America the military strength it deserves, single-handedly defeating the terrorists. A panorama around the enemies’ base displays the dumb terrorists getting their power from Stark’s exceptional American weapons. The terrorists are unaware of Tony’s plans to a comedic extent, looking confused, trying to rotate the image of the missile they want, to make it look like what Tony is building. Yinsen dies heroically, on an American sandbag – showing that heroism is an American quality.
Stark says, “Peace is just having a bigger stick than the other guy,” suggesting America’s enemies won’t stop, so America can’t stop. Stark also calls his enemies “the bad guys”, implying his allies, the Americans, are “the good guys”, and thus morally superior.
Jenkins and Secker state DOD support meant superhero films are grand displays of US military power. Superhero movies often have military themes, needing helicopters, tanks, aircraft carriers and unique filming locations and the DOD exploits this to increase enlistment. Iron Man 2 [2] has a scene where the DOD organised a training exercise to coincide with shooting, so that $6 billion worth of fighter jets were at Edwards Air Force Base where Rhodey does a Top Gun style flyby of the tower, making his arrival inspiring and patriotic. In Iron Man, Tony is rescued by a USAF helicopter; he sinks to his knees and uses the peace symbol, highlighting the military’s supposed real aim of peace.
Stark says to a journalist, “Do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs: military funding,” in response to his nickname: Merchant of Death. He argues that the military is justified.
As Jenkins and Secker state, early MCU movies portray soldiers as the world's real-life heroes and some, like Captain Marvel, are exceptional due to their military training and experience. There are many military based heroes like Steve Rogers, Nick Fury, Carol Danvers, James Rhodes, Maria
Hill and Sam Wilson. The films often show heroes fighting alongside the military.
Iron Man portrays brotherhood, unity, friendship and equality in the military. When drunk, Rhodey expresses his true opinion about the military, “everybody in the World that has this uniform has got my back.” In Iron Man 2, there is a very symbolic scene where Rhodey and Iron Man partner up to take on Whiplash, a threat too big for either of them to handle alone. The first scene of Iron Man focuses in on a military vehicle listening to AC/DC, portraying the military as cool. In the scene, American soldiers are portrayed as human – they are anxious when they meet Tony Stark, but also professional, calm and collected under fire.
In The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. decide to use nuclear weapons on New York to repel an alien invasion. According to Jenkins and Secker this led to the DOD leaving the movie mid-production. Market Paolo coined the term “anti-establishment narratives” as a description of plots where the superhero “stands in opposition to an evil governmental, corporate or aristocratic villain”. The later MCU movies, such as The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Captain America: Civil War, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier didn’t receive military support, so could adopt more anti-establishment narratives, pitting superheroes against corrupt or inept governments. These films are less sympathetic to the military and are instead laced with moral issues: weapons development, super soldier programmes and surveillance.
Iron Man 3 [3], released in 2013, shows the changing portrayal of the military. Fahrenheit 9/11 was a 2004 American documentary film by Michael Moore that became the highest-grossing documentary of the time; it suggested US President Bush's oil company was partially funded by the Saudis and by the Bin Laden family. Moore said that Bush had ulterior reasons to fight in Afghanistan: one being that he wanted a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean.
Jenkins and Secker feel legislation such as the Patriot Act, ‘kill list’ drone strikes and the dubious rationale for the war in Iraq challenged the concept of America's moral righteousness, especially where US civil liberties were increasingly discarded for national security. The US War on Terror led to
the Patriot Act which gave permission to the government for detention without trial of immigrants, and permission to put up surveillance and spy on anyone.
Rewatching Iron Man 3 after having watched Fahrenheit 9/11, I was struck by many ways in which the movie provides an ‘anti-establishment narrative’. Moore alleged that the Bush administration used terrorism to build a climate of fear among the American population to gain public support for US military action. A former national security adviser in 2007 wrote terrorism is just a “technique of warfare” because, as fear clouds reason, it allows politicians to shift public opinion to their side more easily. Iron Man 3 also presents the War on Terror as a manufactured event for financial gain: the terrorist figure is a hoax, but the entire nation is fooled. Aldrich Killian, the villain, mentions Osama Bin Laden and Gadaffi by name, saying, “Because the second you give evil a face - a Bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin - you hand the people a target.” – perhaps suggesting how the War on Terror atmosphere was used by the Bush administration. Killian points out that the War on Terror was good for military businesses as he says he, “controls the supply and the demand.” The Mandarin says that America is hollow and full of lies. The villains are military funded, and the ex-military are used in inhumane experiments. Iron Man 3’s President is corrupt in his actions with an oil spillage, and the Vice President is extremely corrupt.
The media mocks Rhodey’s rebranded suit – a direct jab at American propaganda as a whole - “Same suit, but painted red, white, and blue... And they also renamed him Iron Patriot. You know, just in case the paint was too subtle.” The covering up of military blunders by military propaganda is also portrayed when Rhodey tells Stark there have been nine bombings, but the public only knows about three.
The original Captain America movie encourages military enlistment: Steve Rogers shows that anyone can be a soldier and symbolises the benefits of enlisting. He also represents soldiers not wanting to kill, but instead wanting to be good people. The film shows the perfect soldier is good and kind.
Jenkins and Secker believe early MCU films worked to sanitise war: they avoided negative areas of war and minimised casualties. In contrast, when Captain America walks in on Wilson talking to a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) support group for former soldiers and airmen, it shows a more realistic view of war. PTSD is also shown in Iron Man 3
Later Captain America films however use increasingly subversive antiestablishment narratives, portraying governments as sources of villainy. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS) [6] suggests that organisations given too much power cannot be trusted; greater transparency is needed. It is revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by Hydra, maybe a metaphor for how governments can become corrupt tools for oppression. In Captain America: Civil War and The Avengers, the state tries to control all superheroes, or arrest them. CA:TWS shows us that many intelligence organisations were made by some of the most despicable people of the 20th century. S.H.I.E.L.D. was revealed to be overrun by Nazis - the film name dropped Operation Paperclip - a real US operation where many Nazis were pardoned and recruited after World War Two. As Jenkins and Secker say, “thus the dangers of a rampant security state willing to incorporate dangerous players to achieve their end game.”
Rather than legitimising military authority, or building support for US foreign policy, Jenkins and Secker believe that Captain America: The Winter Soldier mirrors the anxieties of the time and moral concerns about torture (e.g. Guantanamo Bay), the CIA's drone programme with pre-emptive assassinations, nationwide surveillance and abuses of the Patriot Act (policies adopted by the US for use in the War on Terror). CA:TWS ends in all S.H.I.E.L.D.’s and Hydra’s secrets being dumped online, perhaps reflecting major leaks by whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning. Chelsea Manning leaked information in early 2010, including a video, called “Collateral Murder” displaying a US attack on civilians in Afghanistan: children were injured, two news reporters and someone who went to help were killed. Manning was also accused of leaking the Guantanamo Bay Files, revealing that the US was capturing and torturing people to get information.
Captain America argues against Project Insight. He says to Nick Fury that he thought in America, “the punishment usually came after the crime”, to
which Fury responds, “we can't afford to wait that long”. This is surely a direct jab at the morally questionable logic of the pre-emptive assassinations without trial or evidence. When Steve says, “holding a gun to everyone on earth and calling it protection”, this is possibly another jab at the US Patriot Act. Fahrenheit 9/11 shows abuses of the Patriot Act and how the War on Terror took away civil liberties, for example, Moore interviews a man quizzed by the FBI for casually insulting Bush at his health club and a peace group that was infiltrated by an undercover police agent.
In conclusion, both Iron Man and Captain America trilogies progress from establishment to anti-establishment narratives, when they didn’t need support from the DOD. Their portrayal of the US military reflects their time, from post 9/11 to the era of the Patriot Act.
Bibliography
Books:
[11] Superheroes, Movies and the State by Tricia Jenkins and Tom Secker Movies:
[1] Iron Man (2008)
[2] Iron Man 2 (2010)
[3] Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
[4] Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
[5] Iron Man 3 (2013)
[6] Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
[7] Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
[8] Captain America: Civil War (2016)
TV Documentaries:
[9] Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore (2004)
[10] Louis Theroux interviews Chelsea Manning (2023)
Sources:
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act
[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_9/11
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_U.S._drone_strikes
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp - Alexander Walker, rep.
Is 1984 really a great, classic work of fiction?
When I read 1984, I was confused. Why did it not have sympathetic characters, or particularly good prose, and why did most of the story sound much more like history than a futuristic prediction? Was it fiction, dystopian, was it a classic – and was it even great?
First of all: is 1984 fiction? As I read the story, I wondered whether I was reading about the future, or the past. There are a few significant examples of Orwell merging his narrative with raw history, such as the case of Goldstein. It is widely acknowledged that the character is entirely based on Leon Trotsky. After Lenin’s death in 1924, there was a power struggle in the Russian Communist party between Stalin and Trotsky. He was denounced, condemned as an enemy of the people, attacked, and his followers were expelled from the party in 1927- all by Stalin. In the novel, Goldstein had originally shared power in Oceania with Big Brother, but as ‘The Party’ set their sights on a completely totalitarian regime, he founded the Brotherhood to oppose it. During the novel, Goldstein is used by the party as the subject of the ‘Two Minutes Hate’, a daily dose of propaganda for the purposes of angering Oceania’s citizens. There are obvious parallels between the histories of Trotsky and Goldstein. Ultimately, both men are used as negative cohesion to enrage the citizens of their respective countries. To top it off, Orwell emphasises the parallel in his decision to make Goldstein Jewish, just like Trotsky. As in many other parts of the novel, Orwell mixes history with narrative, and the end product is a book that should maybe be found in the history or politics section!
Should 1984 be in the classics section of a library or bookshop? Dystopia describes an imagined state or society where there is great suffering and injustice, and many claim that Orwell’s novel is a futuristic dystopia, but this cannot be. 1984 is neither imagined, nor a representation of the future at all. It is simply a novel about the horrific present that people were living. 1984 is not a prediction of the future by any means. Others claim that the novel is science fiction, but the focus of such novels is often predicting technology. 1984 does not deal with science. It contains a token few ideas about technological advances: memory holes and telescreens, but these are irrelevant to the story. Orwell clearly had no excitement about new machinery- his enthusiasm is reserved for the historical and political content alone. Then why is 1984 so popular? It neither has memorable characters nor prose. The 19th century saw writers like Charles Dickens write richly and descriptively, bringing to life fully fleshed, sympathetic and realistic characters: Sydney Carton and Esther Summerson, for example. In
comparison to Orwell’s symbolic creations, such as Julia (who represents love and its absence), there is no question who are more attractive protagonists to read about. One book that 1984 can be compared to is The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In the same way that C.S Lewis’s novel is a metaphor for the life of Jesus Christ, Orwell’s can be seen as one for communism. However, Aslan’s story is made much more complex via the setting and characters, while Winston Smith’s is set in the human world, with characters not dissimilar to their living counterparts.
One reason it might be popular is that it predicted parts of the future correctly. There are still totalitarian regimes in 2024: North Korea, Iran and possibly Russia. However, considering that 1984 was a depiction of his present, less than one hundred years ago, it is natural that Orwell correctly predicted aspects of the future. The world does not change completely in a century and the radical political ideas of the 20th century have not completely disappeared.
Lastly, is 1984 great? The short answer is yes. What makes a great book is a great aim: the goal of the novel is to educate people. In the hundred and eighty pages of 1984, one learns much more about the horrors of Stalinist Russia than one would through a dense history book of eight hundred pages. Orwell thought that awareness of history and politics was particularly important, and so with his novel, he wanted to teach people. He thought that many were ignorant of current affairs, as he depicts through the character of Julia, who is uninterested in the party’s actions, only in surviving under their regime. Despite this, he also thought there was hope for the working class to become aware. He explains that ‘if there was hope, it lay in the proles.’ A huge belief of Orwell’s that he conveys in the novel is that the world would be a better place should everyone be educated, be “politically conscious”. 1984 was intended to educate people about all that was happening in 1948, the two digits are just a clever inversion.
In summary, 1984 is not fictional: it takes the majority of its material from the true history of Stalinist Russia. It is not a classic in the usual sense, since it is neither dystopian nor science fiction, despite often being perceived in this way. However, it is certainly a great novel in both its aim and its execution, educating the reader through an extended metaphor about the terror of Stalinist Russia, and ultimately, this was what Orwell aimed to do.
- Vera Ryten, rep.
Literary and Cultural Recommendations
Hot book summer? Or: Only read books with blue covers
Françoise Sagan - Bonjour tristesse:
“The room was in semi-darkness. I could see my father silhouetted against the window. The sea was beating on the shore.”
Françoise Sagan was 17 when she wrote this. Merely 17, and this book has almost definitely changed my worldview. It’s a book of sticky, beach-day hot summers, what it is to be loved and what it is to love, adolescence, growth, hope. To me this is the utmost summer book - read it sprawled out in the grass/on the beach/hiding away under cotton duvets.
Content warnings - Car accident, Suicide, Death, Infidelity, Minor sexual content
Emily Critchley - Notes on My Family:
This book pays no rent yet lives in my brain almost every day. It’s about friendship and identity, family and growing up, it’s about life unfiltered, raw and hilarious. I can't explain this book more than say: it’s not a story of your life, but it could be, it’s not a story of my life either, but it could be.
Content warnings - Mental illness, drugs
Jostein Gaarder - Sophie’s World:
A lesson in the importance of reading translated fiction. Before I read this I’d never read a book set in Norway, never read a book with so much information in it, but never read a book so creative, so ground-breaking. If you’re interested in philosophy or just want something to help aid your summer holiday existential crises, this. You won’t regret it. You’ll come out a changed person. Content warnings - Minor sexual content, Racial slurs
Claire Keegan - Foster:
“This water is cool and clean as anything I have ever tasted; it tastes of my father leaving, of him never having been there, of having nothing after he was gone.” There’s something so immensely special about this book. Maybe it’s because somehow modern Irish literature manages to create immersive worlds that leave me nostalgic for, cliché incoming, something I’ve never had, but I think this is yet another story that has changed by brain chemistry. This story is about the complexities of family, the intricacies of love, loss and identity, yet all packed into about 90 pages. It’s astounding and I have nothing more to say.
Content warnings - Child death, Grief
Sandra Cisneros - The House on Mango Street:
“You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can’t erase what you know. You can’t forget who you are”
Another short one: Written in a series of vignettes, this is a poignant snapshot of life in Chicago during the ‘60s. It tackles the issues of domestic abuse, sexual harassment and what it is to grow up in a misogynistic world. At the same time, it’s a majestic bildungsroman of the people that we cross paths with once and maybe never again, what we owe to the people that we grow from, and the immense power of dreaming. It’s only 120 pages, so, you have no excuse. Content warnings - Domestic abuse, Sexual assault/harassment, Child abuse, Rape
Sally Rooney - Beautiful World, Where Are You:
“Maybe we’re just born to love and worry about the people we know, and to go on loving and worrying even when there are more important things we should be doing” Marxism. Not something I know too much about. Adult life. Not something I know too much about either. Does this book make me think I do? Hell yeah. Sally Rooney describes all the mundanities of everyday life as if they are high class art, and plants deep conversations of climate anxiety, class-consciousness and media consumption behind the real question of - what does it mean to be human?
Content warnings - Suicidal thoughts, Graphic sexual content, Mental illness
Muriel Barbery - The Elegance of the Hedgehog:
“Do you know what a summer rain is? To start with, pure beauty striking the summer sky, awe-filled respect absconding from your heart, a feeling of significance…”
This book contains some of the most stunning commentaries on culture, class, life, and death that I have ever read. What struck me most about this book is how really, I never properly saw the lives of these characters, just their most private witty secrets and ideas. This contains some immensely lyrical writing that I can only imagine would be even more impressive in the original French. Content warnings - Death, Suicidal thoughts, Classism
Meg Rosoff - The Great Godden:
Personally, this is the other pinnacle of summer books. It’s set by the sea, in a summer of change. It’s an incredibly emotionally charged coming-of-age story, yet we never learn much about our narrator: their name, their gender, their life before this summer. And yet that’s what makes it so captivatinglittle glimpses into a sparkling blue ocean of just about everything. You’re in for a ride.
Content warnings - Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content and assault
- Alice Shaw, ed.
- Kherlen Ho
A plea for CDs
Some of my favourite albums
If you know me in person, you’ll probably know that I have a very broad ranging taste in music, and an obsession with CDs. Now I know we are in the age of Spotify playlists and friendship group blends (and I love it all!), but there’s something special about opening up a CD player and popping in a disc, especially if said disc has stunning graphics paired with it. I cannot say I have impeccable music taste, but as someone who’s go-to childhood tracks were ‘Running Up That Hill’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, I don’t think it’s awful. You can make your own judgement. So in the spirit of summer road trips and in-the-sun book reading sessions, here are some of my favourite albums.
Fairground Attraction - the first of a million kisses
This album feels nostalgic in every sense, from its black and white cover to its mix of soft rock, Cajun, folk and jazz style songs. My favourites from this are ‘A Smile in a Whisper’, and the immensely jazzy ‘Clare’.
The Beach boys - Pet sounds
Now I might be giving myself the title of ‘officially obsessed with summer’, but The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds is always going to remind me of the sun. It’s fun, beautiful, a little silly, and a lot of fun to listen to. Notable tracks include ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice' and ‘God Only Knows'
Björk- Post and Times promo cd
Someone I am officially obsessed with is Björk. Her aesthetic, her graphics… It's all captivating. Her music experiments with sound in this other-worldly manner and her use of instruments is simply stunning. I particularly love the Times’ promo album for her, but Post is very good too! Go listen to ‘possibly maybe’ and ‘all is full of love’!
dodie - Build a problem
Now I don’t actually have this on CD, but I thought I’d highlight it because it’s incredible. It’s simple but oh so emotional, and its graphics are also lovely! Highlights include: ‘Air So Sweet’, ‘Hate Myself’, and ‘bored like me’
- Alice Shaw, ed.
Closing Notes
As we reach the end of this edition of Synthetic Violet, I’d like to thank many people! First, to all the editors . It’s been really great working together this term!
Then, I’d like to thank Mr Green, who has overseen all of this; Mr Buchanan in reprographics, who has designed and printed all of the lovely posters and paper copies; and Mrs Alboni and Mrs Suman-Chauhan, who have put together a brilliant book display showing all of the books recommended here.
Thank you so much, Carole, for making SV such a brilliant magazine, for passing it on and for helping us all - we wish you the very best of luck!
Thanks to everyone who has submitted something for Synthetic Violet- the magazine wouldn't be here without you.
Last, but by no means least, to you, the reader. Thank you for looking at all of our work: we hope you enjoyed it!
I hope everyone has a lovely summer holiday - see you in September!
- Vera Ryten, rep.
Notice
Synthetic Violet, the Perse Literary and Cultural magazine, will be accepting submissions for the Michaelmas term issue throughout the summer holidays and for the most part of the Michaelmas term.
Here is a reminder about the genres we accept, though as ever we are open to various artforms (you may be published under a pen name or your own):
• verse (poetry of all kinds)
• fictional prose (short stories, creative writing etc.)
• articles/essays on varied subjects - including all the humanities!
• literary and cultural recommendations/reviews (books, films, tv shows, documentaries, podcasts, albums…)
• art (both for the covers and within the magazine)
Please email any contributions/queries to syntheticviolet@perse.co.uk
The SV team
Alice – Editor
Vera - MS rep
Alexander – LS rep
Joyce – 6th form rep