8.3 Summer 2013
ZAHIR Magazine
The FREEDOM issue
ART Graffiti after Cairo’s Arab Spring
FILM Jafar Panahi: Iran’s forbidden filmmaker
POLITICS Fuck Your Morals: exclusive feature on FEMEN
LITERATURE The Great Gatsby
Trading in the Art of Freedom, An interview with Marcello Arrambide
MUSIC The Jihadist rap music of Al-Amriki
Zahir is an Islamic term meaning that which is apparent, that which is manifest, that which is visible. Its opposite is ‘Batin;’ the hidden and the invisible. Muslim scholars of the Zahiri schoolof-thought believe that everything has a Zahir and a Batin, thus there are visible realities and invisible realities. In this issue we explore FREEDOM. “Freedom is a transgression and its possibility resides in oppression, because we begin as unfree to dream of being free.” Zahir magazine is constantly growing and in this issue we have sprouted colour. We have interviews, reviews, playlists and features, and we simply cannot wait to share them with you.
free dom Our Zahirite Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief Beau Rahim Managing Editor Ellie Swire Arts Editors Sally Hoolin & Yveta Stiskálková
We are always searching for new writers to show us why this world is so interesting, if you would like to be invovled join the Facebook page, follow us on Twitter or send us an email at zahir@yusu.org
Politics Editors Hussein Kesvani & Rosie Hvid
Enjoy!
Music Editor Rosalind Hayes
Film Editor Harry Robertson Literature Editors Stephanie Milsom & Sania Sajid
Features Editor Tom Lubek 2
ART 4 - 5. “Neccessity is the mother of creativity,” Agnes Bakucz Canario looks at the creative boom in postrevolutionary Cairo. 6. Does Britain need the cock? Yveta Stiskálková investigates Britishness and art at Trafalgar Square. 7. Sally Hoolin reviews an exhibition inspired by Irish gravesites for unbaptised children.
FILM 15. Sam Wainwright brings Marxism to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 16-17. Jafar Panahi planned his mise-en-scene on his persian carpet, Harry Robertson analyses this forbidden film. 18. What happens when you mix the genre sci-fi fantasy with western movies? Dan Birkett & Harry Robertson suggests an interesting result. 19. James Damm explains how the fan of Fight Club has been shackled in chains.... 20. Dominic Jinks goes to David Lynch’s Dune to search for an alternative to the film adaptation.
POLITICS FEATURE 8-9. Rosie Hvid considers whether FEMEN’s topless jihad could ever awaken dreams. 10. Margaret Thatcher died on April 8th 2013, Hussein Kesvani questions her legacy. 11. Josh Allen begins struggling for the search for freedom.
LITERATURE 21. Ellie Swire considers the value of oratorical speech in modern society. 22. William Lawrence conducts a personal experiment using Gatsby’s self-improvement schedule. 23. Rachael Potter reviews The Great Good Gatsby. 24-25. People are irrational, selfish, and self absorbed, but we are oblivious to ourselves. A piece by Stephanie Milsom.
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12-13. Alex Slingsby interviews the most free man on earth. 14. Tom Lubek reviews The Hunt, a film about false accusations and the victims.
MUSIC 26. An original composition by Ceri Williams: The Oak Clock. 27. The winds hit heavy on the borderline, and so does revolutionary folk music, Bill Stockham investigates. 28-29. Rosalind Hayes deals with a human anomaly: AlAmriki, rap artist and religious militant. 30. Taqwacore playlist. 31. Kirsten McGowan considers why A Clockwork Orange ticks to the rhythm of Ludwig Van’s ninth.
“NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF CREATIVITY” - STREET ART IN CAIRO THE THE ARAB UPRISING
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Agnes Bakucz Canario on oppression and artistic FREEDOM.
Graffiti riddled with political significance has become for many individuals a tool of resistance wielded against the status quo. And what makes it so effective is its creation and development borne out of a common dissatisfaction, revolt, and the timing of a historical trigger – such as the quasi-tidal course of the “Arab Spring”. As these feelings spill out in the public realm, the street becomes a site of contestation, a key element in the interaction between community, activism, and art. Due to its dichotomous status of anonymity and publicity, the street functions as the arena in which social issues are expressed, highlighted, and developed. These range from gender concerns, to honouring the martyrs of this conflict, to record history as it is happening.
anuary 25th 2011 marked the beginning of the Egyptian Uprising. For eighteen days, collective social force hit the streets in an unprecedented manner. The Egyptian population - their resolve manifest in the numerous demonstrations in Tahrir Square - voiced political concerns and called for change within both the government and society. For eighteen days, Egypt was gripped by chaos and uncertainty; tensions which remain unresolved in Egypt to this day. However, destruction breeds creation. One of the outcomes of the revolution in Egypt has been the formation of space for expression, where such expression had previously been stifled. Moreover, not only did the uprising allow for new modes of expression, it generated them. The ‘Revolution’, catalysed by the use of social media, represented the accommodating framework for artistic experimentation, such as the surge of street art, standing monuments in the streets of Cairo.
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The streets of Cairo present themselves as an urban papyrus onto which artistic expression is allowed to flourish, continuously shifting with the ebb and flow of people and city. Through this freedom in expression a sobering reality is physicalised and highlighted, not as a means of ‘prettifying’ one’s surroundings, but as a creation of social awareness against
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the injustices of poverty, censorship, repression, violence, and corruption. The public space is re-claimed, as a means of resistance, and as expression of free-thinking - a freedom that has proven extremely difficult to annihilate. The evolving and layered nature of street art allows for a continuation and a development of expressive discourses that remain current and relevant to the issues which feed it. When the government paints over graffiti (in itself an act that affirms and augments its role as a vessel of freedom of expression), more eventually appears - as an evolution, as a response. This is freedom of expression at its most flowing, despite extreme pressure and constraint which actually create the necessity to express. This is freedom of expression at its most ever-shifting existence.
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Opposite: ‘You Are Liars’ graffiti against religious extremists and the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempts to censor street art. Top left: Mural against Morsi as a ‘liar.’ Top right: ‘Don’t label me,’ by Nooneswa. Above left: ‘Homophobia is not revolution.’ Above right: ‘Religion is not just a beard.’ Stencil on the Kasr El Dobara Church.
Does Britain need the Cock?
How appropriate is the latest addition to Trafalgar Square? Yveta Stiskálková considers the case of Nelson and the bright blue cock. The Westminster Council has finally confirmed that the Fourth Plinth at the Trafalgar Square in London will feature a new statue, Hahn/Cock, an electric blue cockerel, by German artist Katharina Fritsch. Yet Hahn/Cock has rapidly become a controversial piece of art, deemed amongst other things, as “totally inappropriate” in relation to its location, Trafalgar Square. The Fourth Plinth, once meant to feature an equestrian statue, was empty for more than hundred years, due to a lack of funding. It is only since the late 1990s, that it has been used as a platform for contemporary art and sculpture, with the aim of making Trafalgar Square a “vibrant public space”. Thus, the Fourth Plinth has hosted artworks including a ship in a bottle, live performances, and recently, a boy on a rocking horse. While all of them could be seen as loosely related to the idea of the “vibrant public space”, they also correspond to the historical symbolism of the square, which embodies a sense of national pride and “Britishness”.
lem. Although Fritsch claims that a “cockerel is a symbol for regeneration, awakening and strength”, it is, first and foremost, a national symbol of France. And it was France, which was defeated by Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar – a battle which would cost Nelson his life. Imagine then a giant cockerel landing smack in the centre of the place, commemorated to Nelson’s bravery! With its posture, one might easily interpret the cock as poking fun at the ridiculousness of the voluntary commission, making the British mock themselves by themselves. However, the Westminster Council defends its decision, claiming that “art is supposed to cause debate and discussion and the electric blue cockerel will bring colour to Trafalgar Square”. Surely, art is pointless if in its blandness it fails to arouse emotion? And yet it is doubtful that from around 1,500 applicants, Hahn/Cock was the only piece which the Council might consider thought-provoking. And the colour? If an artwork has a message, it does not matter whether it is black and white or shines in all the colours of the rainbow. Being a foreigner myself, I certainly can identify with Fritsch in relation to the concept of “Britishness”. There will always be times when we do not fully understand the British, and so we naturally make mistakes due to different cultural perspectives. However, the issue of Trafalgar Square is so self-evident that one does not really need to be British in order to understand the inappropriateness of Hahn/Cock: basic historical knowledge does nicely. Artistic freedom is surely a thing which should be cared for, nurtured, and cherished, but an artist still should respect the space within which an artwork is to be displayed. Hahn/ Cock will be on display from 20 June 2013 until 20 February 2015.
And this is the core of the prob6
“There will always be times when we do not fully understand the British”
Sally Hoolin reviews the Lullaby exhibition, which explores the forgotten child burial grounds in Ireland.
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illiní also known as caldragh, calluragh or ceallunaigh are children’s burial grounds found scattered throughout Ireland. Traditionally they were for un-baptised children, infants and stillborn babies, as the Irish Catholic Church forbade their burial in consecrated ground. They were in use from at least late medieval times up until as late as 1970 and they are often situated within disused churches, fields, boundary lines, or by the sea. The babies were buried at night, often by their father or grandfather and mothers were not allowed to hold their babies or to be present at the burial. These mothers often lived and died not even knowing where their babies were buried. Sheena Graham-George explores the issues and emotions associated with the cillini in an exhibition called Lullaby which was an entry into the Aesthetica Art Prize. Lullaby features 15,000 paper butterflies hand cut from classic children’s books and pinned onto the gallery walls. This is accompanied by a sound piece of a woman humming a traditional Irish lullaby. The idea is based upon an old Irish myth that white butterflies, known as feileacain, carried the souls of dead children. The words of the classic children’s tales emphasis the shortness of the babies lives and the experiences that they missed which when combined with the humming of a mother creates an exhibition that is touching and heartbreaking at the same time.
Today there should be no problem having an un-baptised person buried with the rest of their family in consecrated ground but ‘Lulluby’ is dedicated to the memory of babies and children buried in cillinis. It acts as a remembrance of them and for their parents which is what make the work so powerful. It draws upon the trauma and emotions of parents of these children in a non-threatening way of a beautiful exhibition of butterflies. This makes the impact of the work all the more powerful once the message behind it is understood, it’s not an issue that can then be easily ignore. The exhibition challenges the shame that traditionally surrounded the cillini burial grounds that led to them being overlooked in society and in some places forgotten by those not affected. These sites should not be forgotten and Sheena Graham-George effectively brings the issue of cillini to a wider audience. In addition to the Lullaby exhibition, Graham George has created the Cillini Project, it is a site that documents news and recollections of cillini, including an emotional poem by Derry O Sullivan which gives an insight into the trauma surrounding the cillini. Related to the Cillini project, in an attempt to remember these children and families and bring them closure, a new organisation called HUG (Hidden in unconsecrated ground) has been set up in Ireland. Its purpose is to keep track of these unofficial burial grounds so that people have the freedom to honour these babies, a freedom for relatives to remember their children and ancestors without shame, a freedom that was so cruelly denied to the mothers of these children. 7
Lullaby ........... Sheena Graham George
FUCK YOUR MORALS - FEMEN - FREEDOM
Fuck whose morals?...Rosie Hvid analyses FEMEN. hould we respect and follow the beliefs of the state, or should the state respect us? In the comfort of the liberated West it is easy to demand the support of the state in whatever belief we may hold. But this is not a universal characteristic of states. The onset of global feminism continues to unsettle traditional ideologies in which women have always been portrayed as subordinate beings. In demanding a re-think of women’s place in society, Feminism stands in opposition to every historical culture. If the West can learn accept and tolerate it, can or should the rest of the world? FEMEN, a radical social movement encourages its bold female members to post topless photos of themselves in order to shock. The consequences for most of these women, (namely Muslim women) are extreme. But my question is why? My body is mine to do with what I want, I understand that certain religions have
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strict beliefs, but they cannot and should not control the choices of individuals… right? I sit in a place wrapped up in an ignorant, but fortunate, blanket of freedoms and rights which make it easy to forget the struggle so many people have to go through in order to have a voice. Lady Gaga uses images of her uncovered body to sell her perfume ‘Fame’ and the consuming world salutes her and the American government makes no movement to stop her. But whilst she baths in wealthy superstardom, oppressed females such as Amina Tyler- a Tunisian campaigner for FEMEN find their lives at risk. For posting a photo to Facebook which is equally explicit to Gaga’s, Amina awaits the dark prospect of being stoned. Across her chest she wrote ‘my body belongs to me’, a statement so simple and yet so ‘scandalous’ in her country, that the Muslim nation enveloped her into a world of violent hate. Condemned to a brutal end by her government and beaten and drugged by her own relatives, where is Amina sup8
posed to turn? What happens when you disagree with your non-secular government, should you conform as to avoid danger or you should you rise on the half of the oppressed? ‘Fuck your morals’ she declared. Amina’s case begs the question of morals: how can it be morally wrong for Muslim women (or women in general) to display their bodies, and yet it is perfectly just for them to be killed if they disobey convention? Where is the morality in killing? The suppression of women in these cultures is something I cannot bring myself to defend, I am a supporter of freedom and of choice and therefore I am a supporter of FEMEN, or at least I back the right they have to campaign. Should women choose to opt into Islam or into any set of beliefs, they have my support and toleration. But I will never be an advocate of forced religions and beliefs because the very idea of being ‘forced’ defies the idea of that which ought to come naturally to us. It is in my opinion that a government is there to protect and
A poem by Meena (1956 - 1987), the martyred founder of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.
Amina Tyler “MY BODY BELONGS TO ME AND IS NOT THE SOURCE OF ANYONE’S HONOUR”
I’ll Never Return (translated from Dari to English) I’m the woman who has awoken, I’ve arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children, I’ve arisen from the rivulets of my brother’s blood, My nation’s wrath has empowered me, My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy, I’m the woman who has awoken, I’ve found my path and will never return. I’ve opened closed doors of ignorance, I’ve said farewell to all golden bracelets, Oh compatriot, I’m not what I was, I’m the woman who has awoken, I’ve found my path and will never return. I’ve seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children, I’ve seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes, I’ve seen giant walls of the prisons swallow freedom in their ravenous stomach, I’ve been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage, I’ve learned the song of freedom in the last breaths, in the waves of blood and in victory, Oh compatriot, Oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable, With all my strength I’m with you on the path of my land’s liberation. My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women, My fists are clenched with the fists of thousands compatriots, Along with you I’ve stepped up to the path of my nation, To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery, Oh compatriot, Oh brother, I’m not what I was, I’m the woman who has awoken, I’ve found my path and will never return.
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO it should be neutral in doing so as to protect its entire citizenry. The actions of FEMEN are almost revolutionary in character, particularly in the East. The shock tactics that they employ of course draw attention to their cause; and it is understandable that some people will conclude the movement to be trouble. Instead of peaceful protests, the group works to ensure that cultures are disrupted with outrage and dishonour. I suppose the goal of the group is the transformation society at large, and when has this ever been achieved in a polite, diplomatic manner? There are however numerous people, from a broad spectrum
who would find nude pictures distasteful, but as their figures grow there is evidence of success, so why should they be stopped? In a world of internationalism there appears to be a free-for-all of ideas, and if you can get them heard, you have every right to celebrate. So what happens now? I sincerely hope that Amina can seek exile in a more tolerant country; I hope that no one reading this would wish her freedom to be diminished and her life to be ended. The power does not lie with me or you, probably. Unfortunately it rests with a government, her government that cannot bring itself to support her decisions. The 9
world is but a controversy wrought with a parallel between rigidity and flexibility. I find myself sitting here questioning what I can do, and yet I feel helpless. If nothing else, what FEMEN demonstrates is the power of an association, their campaigners are unique and individual, but without FEMEN… where might they be now? The group highlights a unified vision of the world and how it should be. For too long the desire for world peace has overridden the dream of worldly justice and emancipation, and FEMEN, as radical as they may be might gradually be re-awakening this dream.
Liberation Economics Hussein Kesvani on the ideological alchemists and Thatcherism Hunched in the shadow of his esteemed predecessor last month, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, boldly asserted that “we are all Thatcherites now”. Far from the political battle cry some commentators had expected, the disregard of the statement’s significance lies in its ontological development. Though previously conceived by former Labour party Secretary of State, Lord Mandelson, the modern conception of the phrase has its roots in one of Thatcher’s own ideological parents; the Nobel Prize winning economist, Milton Friedman. In 1965, Time Magazine attributed to Friedman the saying, “We are all Keynesians now”. Playing on Harcourt’s dictum in 1887 that the Labourer’s allotment bill had introduced to first brand of universal socialism, Friedman reacted against President Nixon’s decision to withdraw from the Gold Standard. Nixon’s move broke the Bretton Woods system established in 1944, suspending the US Dollar’s convertibility into gold. Yet rather than a run on the currency, both Nixon and Secretary to the Treasury, John Conally, justified the change through a peculiar language of liberation. Addressing the public, Nixon claimed that the reform would free Americans from the turmoil of consecutive financial crises. By America taking the lead in monetary exchange, it would provide the foundations for a stable, easily controllable system of financial relations across the world.
general election, Thatcher echoed Friedman in perpetuating the importance of Economic liberty. While previous Labour and Conservative governments had perceived the economy as a means of distributing resources and organising society, she would set the animal spirits free; market forces would determine the outcomes of social problems, ultimately freeing individuals of government interference. This paradigm shift has had its consequences. Since Thatcher, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened dramatically, and for those in the ‘middle’, living conditions and future prospects are bleaker than ever before. Such people would be hard pressed to identify themselves as ‘Thatcherites’. At the same time, our politics has been paralysed in this Friedman inspired rhetoric, with even the Labour party making a redundant case for state interventions. Indeed, despite its social consequences, the positivist economic model has become embedded into the ideological fabric of modern liberal discourse, with the continued argument that market forces are the most ‘efficient’ method for distributing social justice. For the most part, most of us are not ‘Thatcherites’. But it is clear that we are all trapped by a form of Thatcherism which won’t be dying any time soon.
Yet far from ushering a new model of liberty, Friedman saw this form of government intervention as a form of entrapment. Instead, he preached the gospel of the Chicago School of Economics - which posited a rational, ‘value-free’ model of economics as a pure science. Channelled through Fleet Street and the BBC, Friedman’s construction of liberty precipitated on an abstract, linear understanding of ‘choice’, yet although it was certainly true that the economy could be ‘controlled’, its mechanics would derive from collective consumer actions, in the form of Market Forces. Government had no place in becoming ideological alchemists.
“We are all Thatcherites now...We are all Keynesians now”
More significant is the point that this philosophy had been moulded in the century of ideology. The shaping of ‘positivist economics’, with its supposedly value-free, subjectivist assertions, physically manifested into anything but. The emergence of individualistic ideas into the public sphere, such as those of Fredrich Hayek and John Nash allowed for the development of a new type of policy making- one which Mrs. Thatcher adopted and eventually built her legacy on. Upon winning the 1979 10
Freedom of the Workers’ Movement OOOOO
John Allen explores the struggle for true FREEDOM
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he late essayist Isaiah Berlin argued for a distinction between “positive” and “negative” conceptions of freedom, seeing the latterthe freedom from interference by others-as evidently superior to the kind of freedom we gain through coming together for mutual support. This distinction has profound effects upon our politics and our political discourse’s conception of what it means to be free. In contemporary mainstream political thought, from the monarchist Texas Republican Ron Paul, via third way progressives such as Peter Mandelson, to even nominal socialists like François Hollande the assumption is the same. It is the individual through the individual’s efforts who shall be free and who’ll safeguard freedom. This view of freedom, harking back to Sterner, Therou and, less peacefully Rynd was historically seen as very odd, very isolating, very cold and elitist, even amongst political groupings on the right. However, increasingly since the 1970s, with regards the role models we are presented, the media with which our culture is saturated: even the way careers information is presented to us and the idea of “investing” in a higher education. Suggests that “freedom” today is something that the successful have by virtue of the their economic clout and that the rest of us, as part of a steep sided
pyramid, deserve less by virtue of our relative failure. This tradition is both intellectually shallow and fundamentally anti-intellectual. By contrast there is a long, strong tradition of political and philosophical thought which says ‘au contraire’ to late capitalism’s, myopically money focused formulation of what freedom is. From Hegel and Marx’s, Kant inspired, realisation that people only make sense, can only understand and define themselves, in relation to other people, going right back to the core tenants of the Abrahamic faiths, and bang up to date with the green and sustainability movements, freedom has usually been seen as a collective endeavour, something that only makes sense, can only be spoken of, and can only exist, when it is the condition of all equally, not just an isolated few. It is this assumption which underpins the worker’s movement, where ever it is found. As a generation we are woefully ignorant of the rights we have at work, let alone how we can accrue more, or end the conditions which make wage labour a necessity. The answer to both lies in realising that it only be recognising our mutual purpose with others, our fundamental connection with them, that we can truly achieve freedom. Trades unions have become bureaucratic, chained by legislation and decrepit vested interests. They are Prometheuses 11
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bound, in the struggle for true freedom. Recent labour struggles organised both inside and outside the mainstream union movement, stretching from Chicago were militant teachers-many from minority backgrounds- have successfully fought plans by Mayor Rahm Emmanuel (Obama’s former Chief of Staff), via our own University of Sussex where workers have self organised very effectively against management outsourcing plans. To China were workers are increasingly staging wild cat strikes and wringing concessions from both capitalists and Communist Party by paralysing factories and the transport networks, like motorways, which are the artery’s of late capitalism. By recognising that their individual freedom is linked to the freedom of their fellow workers, Chicago’s teachers, Sussex Uni’s caterers and China’s component assemblers are able to achieve more together than they ever could separately. Berlin was wrong. Negative freedom-the man is an island philosophy, responsible for our current economic crisis and social dysfunctions, is not just unfair, but unsustainable. We must look to the workers’ movement and other collective guarantors of change and freedom to rebuild a comprehensible sense of what it means to be a free individual in a community of equals. Rather than an atomised agent free only to sink or swim.
Features
Alex Slingsby on Marcello Arrambide, founder of the Wandering Traveller blog.
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well in any kind of economic situation.” The Wandering Trader blog is not simply an account of his travels, but a collection of travel hints, language lessons, and lists of must-see destinations.
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion” – Albert Camus eet Marcello Arrambide. Seven continents, over eighty countries, and this Venezuelan-born day-trading travel-blogger is still looking for more.
His company, theDayTradingAcademy.com dictates mainly where he travels, particularly as it continues to expand. Marcello is in the process of opening day trading centres around the world, most notably in Peru, Brazil and South Africa, where he hopes to train the locals in the art of trading. “The day trading industry is a unique one. Most day traders sit behind a desk, within the confines of their comfort zones, but it’s much easier now to travel around the world and to experience new things.” Marcello’s response was confident when asked whether he has yet achieved freedom: “Travel has assisted me in framing my concept of freedom. Visiting third world countries and seeing how other people live has kept me extremely grounded. Freedom isn’t only about your own life, it’s all about being able to help others and have an impact on their lives.”
In November 2010, Marcello took out $25,000 in private student loans, and traded a full-time job in for his very own ‘journey to Freedom’, leaving the States for a life of travel. “I was very scared to leave what society calls the norm – a 9 to 5 job and a weekly pay check”. Since then, the traveller has become the CEO of his own company, Day Trading Academy, in which he passes on his own experience to future travelling day traders, and has a well-established blog and website, reaching thousands of readers each month. When asked about his reasons for leaving America, Marcello admitted that he had been looking for freedom: “My definition of success is not money or fame, just freedom. The freedom that comes from being able to live anywhere in the world, work anywhere in the world, and travel at a moment’s notice, has always attracted me”. Having recently visited his seventh and final continent, Australia, Wandering Trader seems to be close to fulfilling a life-long ambition of freedom, but Marcello still finds time to visit some unique destinations: “When I heard about the stone forest in Madagascar, I immediately bought a ticket to Africa, and was living there in a matter of months”.
After having travelled to over eighty different countries, Wandering Trader has no plans to stop writing or travelling, and will continue to visit some of the world’s most unknown places. This traveller is one of the few travel-bloggers to have visited the world’s newest country, South Sudan, and is one of the only people to have visited Somalia, a country located in the Horn of Africa. When asked about the most memorable culture shock, Marcello replied with Singapore: “Being raised in a multicultural household, I am pretty used to experiencing different cultures, but Singapore was my first taste of a true Asian city. Everything seemed a lifetime away from America”. “I am most inspired by the people who have faith that the world will unfold the way it’s meant to, and are confident enough to take a risk and follow their dreams.”
Marcello’s blog has been commended by many as one of the most influential blogs at the moment, but that was never his main goal, rather a side-effect of his success: “The initial goal for the blog was to drive traffic to a day trading company I was a member of”. The blog became a way of connecting with similar, like-minded people, and keeping track of his journey.
His final word of advice to future travellers was simple: “Let go of your inhibitions, let go of your material possessions, and follow your dreams. We all have to work and make money to live in this world. The real question is how exactly you want to live”. Although he currently lives in Singapore, Marcello eventually would like to become one of the few people to have travelled to every country in the world, and will be moving to Columbia at the end of May 2013 to open his first day trading centre over there.
Life as a day trader is one of the most profitable professions at the moment, and has been known to survive an economic crisis or two. Wandering Trader started working as a day trader when he was 18 years old, with $25,000 from private student loans. Day trading refers to the practice of speculation in securities, specifically buying and selling financial instruments within the same trading day on the basis of small, short-term price fluctuations. After Marcello started teaching other traders his techniques and methods at the Day Trading Academy, he found that the success rates were increasing. “Day trading is one of the only professions that I know of where you can do
“Freedom to me is not simply financial, cultural or physical. It is the ability to live your own life, dictated under your own terms.”
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IN THE ART OF FREEDOM Marcello with penguins in Antarctica.
The famous stairs in Rio De Janeiro.
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the hunt Tom Lubek reviews Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s latest film, The Hunt.
he Hunt explores the devastating consequences of a false accusation. It highlights the sinister tendency that we have to mete out punishment to our peers despite their being found wholly innocent in the eyes of the law; it is a film which reflects how “innocent until proven guilty” can swiftly become “guilty despite being being proven innocent.” Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, A Royal Affair) is Lucas, a lonely kindergarten teacher who has been forced to leave his job teaching at a secondary school due to cutbacks, and who is currently fighting his estranged wife for custody of his son. One of the children, Klara, who is also the daughter of Lucas’ best friend, develops a childish crush on him when he walks her home after finding her lost at the local supermarket. When Lucas discovers how Klara feels about him, he sets her right and tells her instead to give the gift she made for him to one of the boys her own age.
Klara is upset and tells an innocent lie to one of the other teachers. Fairly soon, Lucas is accused of sexually abusing her. What follows is an unflinching documentation of how the community ostracises Lucas based upon purely the suspicion of his wrongdoing. Highly relevant given the on-going furore surrounding allegations of institutionalised paedophilia in this country. The Hunt chronicles the hardship that such allegations can force upon the innocent. I do not intend here to speculate precisely who is or is not innocent of the alarming range of alleged crimes that currently saturate the airwaves, because, as the film shows, this is counterproductive. The residents of Lucas’ community all-too-easily allow themselves to be carried away by a sense of self-righteousness that goes well beyond the realm of law. He is prevented from shopping in his local supermarket, physically beaten when he refuses to leave. Without giving away too much of the plot, it is safe to say that Lucas’ very life is endangered by the judgement passed upon 14
him by the community, even when fully exonerated. The film’s devastating conclusion is that Lucas’ life can never go back to the way that it was, that he has become the perpetual “hunted” - that even though the community grudgingly, and superficially, accepts the law’s decision, he will be dogged for as long as he lives anywhere near these people. The film asks the question to what extent does punishment for a crime, or in this case for a perceived crime, range beyond the regulated legal system? Does the ephemeral, unregulatable ‘community’ have any right to confer additional punishment to that deemed necessary by the state? Should we be concerned when it does? And even if the law decides we deserve to be free, can the same be said of our peers? None of these questions have easy answers, but for anyone interested in them (and how can one not be?) The Hunt makes for essential, if uncomfortable, viewing.
Film
Sam Wainwright brings Marxism to space, the final frontier...
2001: A Space Odyssesy
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey centres on a struggle between the astronaut Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea), and HAL 9000, an apparently self-conscious computer, widely interpreted as a representation the upper class. HAL’s omnipotence constructs a circle of perpetual power; HAL is in control of the doors, the oxygen, and ultimately the lives of the astronauts. This image of the class divide between HAL and the astronauts is further propagated by HAL’s feigned interest in the drawings done by Dave. It is easy to detect a note of patronisation in HAL’s remarks, suggesting the patronising views held by the upper class towards the apparently irrelevant creations of those outside the bourgeoisie. HAL’s perpetual exploitation of the astronauts acts as a fitting allegory of the capitalist society which was especially contentious in the late he creates between himself and the astronauts. 1960s, with capitalist forces failing in Vietnam, and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The empathy that we are made to feel for HAL upon his destruction shows a breaking down of As the plot of 2001 unfolds, it begins to demonobjective morality. Kubrick’s statement on sociostrate the Marxist thesis of dialectical materialism. economic structures extends beyond capitalism: The astronauts’ growing mistrust of HAL reflects After HAL’s destruction, the remainder of the film the realisation of their own subjugation. In reis overwhelmingly confusing, with the suggessponse, HAL attempts to kill them, in an attempt to tion that HAL’s presence, while it may have been keep the astronauts oblivious to the power strucoppressive, was also an effective guard against the ture. However, in acting with murderous intent, chaos that rules in his absence. Through this, he HAL causes Dave to become class-conscious. He highlights one of the largest downfalls of commurealises that HAL has never considered him as an nism – its failure to create a realistic social system, equal, emphasised most by HAL’s dismissive use of and the dangers behind the act of overthrowing a the phrase “human error.” government without a clear plan for the future. The conflict between the astronauts and HAL represents the central flaw of capitalism: the exploitative paradigm of generating wealth through the working class will always lead to revolution due to its innate instability. The circle of power which HAL has created is, inevitably, imperfect. Fighting HAL breaks the perpetual exploitation of the working class, and the eventual death of HAL represents the overthrowing of the bourgeoisie in an attempt to create a society free from class distinctions and oppression. The imperfections in HAL’s circle of power are made even more prominent by the emphasis on the highly symmetric minimalist cinematography utilised by Kubrick. HAL himself is generally portrayed in the movie as a Cycloptic, red “eye,” echoing the cyclical nature of the hierarchy 15
“Kubrick’s statement on socio-economic structures extends beyond capitalism”
Jafar Panahi has been banned from making films. Being a director, this is of considerable importance to him, and the reason why his eighty minute feature, screened at Cannes in 2011, bears the title This is not a film.
thus rendering it impossible to compare with anything, Mr A. O. Scott of the New York Times demonstrates an exceptional ability to write long, important sentences whilst saying nothing at all.
This title alone has been a source of irony for the film criticism industry. Borderline paradoxical statements such as “This is not a film isn’t just a film, it’s a strong one” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “Jafar Panahi’s This is not a film is an extraordinary film” (New York Magazine) are scattered across the printed reviews. Other publications realised how ridiculous this sounded, and instead decided to take a more pretentious approach, none more so than the New York Times, which ran with “[it is]” a masterpiece in a form that does not yet exist.” The genius of this verdict is simple: “masterpiece” by definition is the best work within a collection – it is a purely comparative term. By placing This is Not a Film into a completely different form and
It is difficult to review an incomparable work. Practically all judgements of a film’s quality come from comparisons to others in the same genre. Recommendations for films are similarly based on our experience of someone’s taste. If my friend enjoyed Space Odyssey I might recommend Sunshine. If they liked 12 Monkeys then perhaps I would point them in the direction of Total Recall or Brazil. Into saccharine rom-coms? Amelie. Big dumb action movies? Terminator. Do they enjoy beating their head against a brick wall? Transformers. Unfortunately, there is no film like This is not a Film. As its own title demonstrates, it is much easier to describe what This Is Not A Film is not, rather than what 16
it is. It is not a film. The relationship between the subject of the camera’s gaze and the camera itself is so open and accepted that it feels more like a documentary. However, it is not a documentary either. It has no direction, no form of investigation or enquiry into a subject – it does not aim to inform the audience. Instead, it simply presents its audience with images of a largely inconsequential nature, and allows us to draw our own conclusion. Bizarrely, the form that This Is Not A Film falls closest to is classical drama. Two of Aristotle’s three “unities” – unity of time and unity of place – are observed down to the letter. The last, unity of action, is hard to apply. Unity of action states that there must be a single, driving action behind the plot of a play. Although this is practically inapplicable here due to the lack of plot, one could view the act of filming itself as the primary action, as all events during the 80 minute running time revolve in some way around the presence of a
camera. There are other allusions to classical drama. Action takes place off-screen – the noise of restless crowds and ominous bangs interrupt the conversation, but we never see the source. Drama has a history of allowing violent or intense action to take place off-stage, whereas film has always preferred to focus the camera directly on such incidents. Consider the film adaptations of Macbeth. In the theatre, both Macbeth’s beheading and Duncan’s murder take place off-stage, while in films these gruesome moments tend to be given centre-stage. There is even a re-working of the “messenger,” a character that will be familiar to anyone who has experienced any Ancient Greek drama. Messengers arrive at points in a play where it would be impractical to show the action on-stage. In Oedipus Rex we are told of the king’s father’s death by
a messenger. The climax of Antigone involves three suicides, announced by two messengers. In Oedipus at Colonus the death of the main character is announced, by messenger, to the audience. In This Is Not A Film, there is a modern day equivalent: the mobile phone. We watch phone conversations with his lawyer, and then friend and camera-man. His lawyer brings depressing news of his legal situation, neatly fulfilling the “bearer of bad news” trope that is so often associated with the messenger. Finally, during the final minutes of filming, Panahi’s camera-man leaves, and he is left with a camera with which he films a conversation he has with the young man who comes to collect his rubbish. This young man then acts as another form of messenger, fitting into the role perfectly, given the fact that messenger
characters were usually young men in the employ of the main characters. He is asked about his life, his studies, and he delivers this news to Panahi. Presenting This Is Not A Film in the same manner as a classical drama serves a simple purpose. A crucial aspect of film is the ability for a camera to go where an audience cannot. Restrict the director and his camera to an apartment, as the Iranian government has done with Panahi, and what you have is no longer a film: it is just a play during which a camera is present. The point being made is that in censoring an art form, rather than simply limiting it, one destroys it completely. A society in which film is censored cannot make films, they can only make that which resembles a film, but is not a film.
Harry Robertson finds Artistotle in Panahi’s forbidden film. 17
FIREFLY
What happens when you mix the genre sci-fi fantasy with western movies? Dan Birkett & Harry Robertson suggests an interesting result…
and
FREEDOM Firefly is, at its heart, space cowboys. Despite the glitz of futuristic technology, all the fundamental aspects of a western are present – a cast of lawless yet lovable outcasts, an ongoing sense of freedom and exploration of a new frontier, revolvers, stetsons, horse riding and, bizarrely, cattle-rustling. The fundamental attraction of westerns lies in their appeal to our desire for freedom and independence. The man who dares to journey to the frontiers of civilised society and forge his own name must be among the most popular masculine fantasies of the American dream. Unfortunately, this central attraction is also its largest flaw: the classic western hero comes with an unavoidable nostalgic twinge: a love-letter to days when “men were real men” and riding about on horseback shooting Native Americans would not be met with swift imprisonment. The western is a fundamentally melancholy genre. At its core lies the thought that the days were good, but they are long gone and the best we can do is recreate them in film.
There is very little justification for the melding of western and sci-fi: we never find out exactly why all the main characters have revolvers, or why practically every planet resembles 19th century western America. Joss Whedon’s great achievement is simply making this not matter. He deftly proves when we are presented with a cast of well written characters, a theme that appeals to a social desire, and some competent actors, we couldn’t care less how ridiculous the setting might be. Unfortunately, there is a depressing end to the Firefly story. Initially poor viewing figures caused Fox to cut the program after a single series, and despite constant outcries of despair by the show’s many fans, there has been no significant movement towards restoring the show. What Joss Whedon proved with Firefly is that as long as you can write good characters, the setting can be as insane as you can imagine. British television drama has stagnated to the point where Doctor Who has now become the most inventive ongoing production on the airwaves. What we desperately need is a writer and producer who are not afraid to go a little crazy.
Firefly is the solution to the nostalgia problem. Switching to a futuristic setting neatly swaps nostalgia for optimism. Firefly asserts that at some unspecified time in the future, humanity will double back on itself, and once again there will be a place for mysterious, swashbuckling heroes and feisty heroines. A fundamental sense of optimism and hope underpins the series. The setting itself is somewhat depressing: the main characters are outlaws, set up against an absolutely overwhelming force – the alliance. The day to day life of the protagonists generally consists of simple survival. Nonetheless, watching Firefly will leave you bizarrely cheerful. The constant assertion of the series is simply that we have not lost the traditional “western” protagonist – they are just in hiding for the time being. 18
James Damm explains how the fan of Fight Club has been shackled in chains....
fig ht cl ub
With 10 million likes on its Facebook page alone, it is safe to say that David Fincher’s 1999 film Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, has been a hit. The film depicts the unnamed narrator (Norton) as he struggles through his ordinary daily life, confined and defined by it. This is until he meets the mysterious Tyler Durden (Pitt), beginning a journey that radically change’s the narrator’s perspective on life. Arguably, the film’s greatest triumph is in providing a bizarre scenario which at no point alienates the audience. Every viewer will have questioned their own purpose in life, or felt submerged in a society obsessed with brands and advertising. Fight Club questions all the doubts humans naturally feel about the society that we embrace. Throughout the film Norton’s character increasingly frees himself from the shackles of society and social norms, providing what many view as the film’s central philosophy: “it’s only after we’ve lost everything that we are free to do anything.” The film’s subtle irony, however, is regularly overlooked. Members of the Fight Club switch from society’s rules and start working under Durden’s twisted ideology. We see a group of young men switch from being ‘minions’ in society to becoming ‘minions’ in Durden’s grand plan. The central philosophy of Fight Club is simply not to follow any one philosophy blindly. The biggest irony of all has come in the form of the film’s cultural impact. The manner in which mil19
lions of people have so completely missed the point of a film is frankly startling. Fight Club teaches its viewer to question everything they see, to become your own person rather than let any external force define you. Despite this, 10 million people now like the Facebook page; a page dedicated to a Hollywood corporation’s product. People message their favourite quotes, post up fan art dedicated to the film and even frequently use in the phrase “in Tyler we Trust.” Using the quotation in this way is not simply missing the point of the film; it is in direct opposition to the film’s most potent message. Fight Club was created in a world before the internet and social media. If either were to be recreated now the themes would be the same, but the film would tackle this new aspect of society. The character of Tyler Durden would not approve of social media, and definitely not in the popular culture that now surrounds the film. Bizarrely, the film’s ‘fandom’ has become exactly that which is criticised within the film. The point of this article is not to slate Fight Club, nor is it to condemn the explosion of social media and the spread of internet fandom. This article is aimed at those viewers who worship every quote, own Fight Club Memorabilia and claim to live by its message. Perhaps you need to watch the film again?
f r o m
psCREEN: age to
Ever read a book and just wanted to see it, actually see it. I bet you have. Have I? Definitely. So cross your fingers and hope some bored film producer would snap their digits and make it happen. And perhaps your dream may be realised. That favourite book of yours has finally made it to the silver screen! Wait. A mistake has almost certainly been made here. Don’t worry it is not your error but the filmmakers’. I’m sad to say it but film is not the correct medium for our desires. How many films derived from you favourite books have left you feeling unfulfilled? I’ve heard, experienced, countless examples. As the required medium, the film is very much lacking to accomplish our consumer need.
Let’s address the most grievous hurdle: length. A film can only be of a certain length. All too often that is the reason why parts of a novel are missed out in their screen versions. Some films just cannot spend the screen time on including certain characters. For example Arthur Holmwood, a personal favoured character of mine, and Quincey Morris are completely omitted from the 1931 Dracula. As a fan of Bram Stoker’s novel it was infuriating to have such details missed. Even when some films sprawl outside of the bladder’s capacity various preferred characters are cast out like crusts of a child’s sandwich. Think of Peter Jackson’s overweight epic Lord of the Rings. The involvement of the Grey Company and the characterful men of the Gondorian fiefdoms were complete bypassed in favour of more CGI ghosts. Mr Jackson, why, oh why would you deem them not worthy of any screen time but allocate precious minutes to a poem about fireworks? But let’s not just find fault with the restricted length. There are many more limitations of this medium. Certain points cannot be expressed adequately in film, to reader’s dissatisfaction. Take The Last of the Mohicans (1992). In Cooper’s original novel he displays a wonderfully sympathetic exposition of the Native American cultures. It would make the “yengeese” hate being white. But where in this film adaptation is it? Our pathetic heart strings are only yanked at the very end when Chingachgook looks over the promontory. It would take a truly skilled script writer and director to carry across the subtleties that expansive prose can achieve. A further example is most strongly displayed in David Lynch’s Dune (1984). Key among the themes of Herbert’s original novel is the cautionary approach to placing one’s faith in heroes. Yet Lynch manages to idolise Paul Muad’Dib as any hero from Campbell’s ‘monomyth’. Congratulations are in order. I did not know a filmmaker could create a fire that makes you cold. For the rest of this disappointing article I shall focus on
A Fi lmmaker's Terrible Purpose Dominc Jinks is weary of the film adaptation, but is there an alternative path?
adaptations of Frank Herbert’s Dune. As a novel it has achieved a level of popularity such as to inspire fanatic loyalty. Lynch’s film however, has instead of opening the novel to a wider audience buried the science-fiction masterpiece under a wave of negative reviews. Even I, the lay person optimist, would gladly condemn the shocking adaptation. A more perfect example of why books should not be bourn across to the visual media could not be found. Yet may I use a cliché? No? Fortunately there is a way to save your favourite novels from the ravages of poor movies. Enter Mini-series! Like Dr Frankenstein, maybe slightly more effective, the mini-series raised Dune from the dead. Frank Herbert’s Dune is a brilliant example of the unrealised supremacy the miniseries has for adaptations. Worried about missing out characters or themes due to time? In a mini-series you can take as much time as you like. The episodic structure of frees the producers and director from the constraints of keeping the viewer in the cinema seat. Literary separation of chapters or suchlike, such as the different volumes of Dune, is just waiting for a mini-series. So why lump everything together clumsily? In many ways the mini-series can be the perfect medium for a novel adaptation. Themes absent from films are permitted presence within a mini-series: the political overtones and dangers of trusting prophesy are displayed only in the novel and mini-series. The film does not permit such delicate developments. The mere physical representation of characters in a minor but noticeable role such as small speaking parts (Take notes Peter Jackson - that’s right I’m thinking Beregond) can enhance the viewer’s understanding so much. In Frank Herbert’s Dune a paradigm example is Otheym. Rather than just a Fremen name on the cast list in the Lynch film the mini-series manages to portray him as an actual lieutenant and character by sparing him a little screen time. Film editors heed the wisdom of the mini-series. All it takes is a little generosity of time to truly recreate a novel rather than write it off.
To adapt a novel for the screen I ask all filmmakers out there to consider the mini-series. The hugely popular HBO series Game of Thrones shows you what you can do. Each series is essentially a mini-series of a single novel of A Song of Ice and Fire. Learn from them. You can be faithful; you can be cinematic; you can take careful artistic privileges. A mini-series will let you all this and more. But there are acceptable ways to make a film based on the books. Be careful and I won’t complain too much. Try a short story perhaps like Minority Report. A film will do perfectly for that. Or better still be inspired by (but not actually representative of) the books like I-Robot. So if any of you readers out there plan on adapting a novel for the screen, listen carefully: 20
“Knowing there is a trap is the first step in evading it.”
Literature
The Art of Speaking Well ‘right’?
Ellie Swire considers the value of oratorical speech in modern society
It is a question that has divided opinion for well over two millennia. Socrates condemned the art of rhetoric practised by the Sophists as an inherently dangerous exercise. For in its primary purpose – to persuade an audience to agree with the opinion or viewpoint of the speaker rhetoric is, he argued, essentially deceptive and specious. Yet this is somewhat complicated when we think that the deliberate manipulation of an audience or omission of fact may be used in the cause of the common good. The relative moral or immoral value of oratory seems only to extend from the purposes to which it is put.
“Rave reviews of this speech will probably outnumber the very bad ones,” concludes the Guardian’s Middle East editor, Ian Black, “But what happens next matters much more than intelligent and honeyed words.” Writing in response to a speech made by President Obama during a visit to Jerusalem earlier this year, Black is by no means the first nor is he likely to be the last to be wary of the smooth, undulating promises and adulations made by the most powerful and compelling of our politicians and senior statesmen. Indeed, such mistrust is symptomatic of a much older existing dichotomy between the value of physical action and the value of oratory, stretching back to classical antiquity. It is a split typified in Book 13 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In ‘The Judgement of Arms’, Ulysses and Ajax assert their claim to the weapons and armour of the recently-deceased Achilles, and finally agree to resolve the matter by pitching their case to a panel of chieftains.
“manipulation and deception, can oratory ever be called a good thing?”
While Ajax surpasses Ulysses in physical strength and power, a man of military action rather than fine words, it is Ulysses who, in his compelling oratorical delivery, provides a pitch worthy of claiming his prize. Devastated by his defeat, Ajax takes his own life, his final act and admission to the supremacy of rhetoric being symbolically to silence his own speech.
Rhetorical training was once the apex of a Roman education. Young men were taught not only how to speak persuasively, but the appropriate occasions to do so, the posture to adopt and the vocal inflections to make. But such training was not merely practical. Equally significant was the ability such an education afforded them in recognising the particular techniques and strategies of rhetoric in others - the skills to correctly identify and analyse speech and therefore better recognise the occasions in which they are being manipulated as an audience.
No-one would deny the power and influence that is made possible through the careful manipulation of oratory, as this example clearly reflects, yet in an age of increasing political scepticism and cynicism, we tend to favour clarity and transparency of ‘straight-talking’ and concrete actions of politicians over the elaborate platitudes devised by their spin-doctors. As political discourse becomes increasingly homogenised, peppered with buzz words and catch-phrases, the frankness of the Boris Johnsons within the political sphere represents a refreshing and attractive alternative, though no doubt Johnson also recognises that cultivating and exploiting his unique bumbling persona through language can yield significant advantages.
This rhetorical instruction is all but lost in our modern education system, but to reintroduce some provision of rhetorical teaching, to establish a familiarity with at least the rudiments of oratory, might actually not be such a bad idea. Aside from the point that such training allows young people to develop the practical skills of articulation, clarity and projection, to learn about the basic principles of rhetoric is also to better understand the way in which information is communicated to them by politicians and the media, and thus placed in a better position to judge its implications. Actions may speak louder than words, but we should never underestimate the power of words to shape consequent actions.
In its capacity for manipulation and deception, can oratory ever therefore be called a good thing? If it is used predominantly for personal, selfish purposes, is it morally 21
Getting Up Early With
Gatsby
William Lawrence follows the Gatsby self-imporovement schedule. In anticipation of the release of Baz Luhrmann’s new film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, I sought out a copy of the book. The edition I dusted down from my Grandma’s shelf was a ‘book of the film’ edition published to coincide with the 1974 release of the adaptation starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. Before I had read a word of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Redford’s cream Ralph Lauren waistcoat gave me a rather vanilla taste of what was to come – which is why you should never judge a book by its cover.
ten an indecipherable blurb by party guests. Two girls in “twin yellow dresses” share that “he was a German spy during the war,” whilst another confides, “somebody told me they thought he killed a man once”. One fragment from Gatsby’s past, however, does point to the real Gatsby. In the last chapter, Nick is proudly shown a self-improvement schedule from Gatsby’s younger days by his father, Henry Gatz...
Jay Gatsby is a characterisation of this cliché. Readers never really get to see more of the man than an array of pink suits, silver shirts, gold ties and a dazzling, dynamic smile. He is writS C H E D U L E Rise from bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00 A.M. Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling . . . . . . 6.15-6.30 Study electricity, etc . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.15-8.15 Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.30-4.30 P.M. Baseball and sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.30-5.00 Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it 5.00-6.00 Study needed inventions . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00-9.00 GENERAL RESOLVES No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable] No more smoking or chewing Bath every other day Read one improving book or magazine per week Save $5.00 [crossed out] $3.00 per week Be better to parents Nick comments that, “He [Henry Gatz] was reluctant to close the book, reading each item aloud and then looking eagerly at me. I think he rather expected me to copy down the list for my own use”.
what makes Gatsby the hero is that his schedule was not cut short by his own will. His unwavering drive continued right up until his last breath. “Gatsby turned out all right at the end: it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men”.
Where Nick was hesitant in following Gatsby’s example, I took Henry Gatz’s expectations very literally, copying the schedule down for my own use. There were, of course, some necessary alterations. 6 am was revised up to half 6 (still painfully early for any student); wall-scaling was replaced with jogging; baseball and sports was replaced with sitting at a computer reading about football. But the general resolve was there.
The short-winded elations of men were carefully and considerately avoided throughout by Gatsby. This is what I really wanted to copy. In an age in which we demand instant results, instant gratification, the determined pursuit of such a long-term, lifetime aim is admirable. Why make the effort unless we can sell it, leverage it, re-package it or use it to lose five pounds? The love Gatsby yearned for eluded him. Exam success may well elude me, but with the guiding green light of an end goal, that’s no matter.
It lasted less than a week. Four days and eight hours in, I found myself almost hallucinating with tiredness, glaring aimlessly at a first-floor JB Morrell computer. Where Gatsby’s schedule ended [spoiler alert] with him floating, dead, in his swimming pool, mine ended face down in bed incurring a state intended as a nap, but not indistinguishable from a coma.
Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . And one fine morning----
Gatsby and I both left our self-improvement incomplete. Yet 22
The not so great gatsby Rachael Potter reviews The Great Good Gatsby.
I don’t think I’ve been quite so excited about a film, ever. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a commentary on 1920s American society: the perfect basis for a silverscreen spectacular, and what could be more exciting than a story of lost love, on a backdrop of corruption, with a jazz age soundtrack?
story, arguably one of America’s greatest novels, did all the hard work.
Fitzgerald wrote the novel wanting to critique the society of greed, ignorance, immorality and extravagance; to highlight the social disparity between East and West Egg, and the Valley of Ashes; to emphasise the corrupt nature of the wealthy; and to write a cathartic novel about lost love. But Baz Luhrmann seems to have got caught up in the champagne and extravagance, and fails to address the immensity of the novel. Fitzgerald provides a depth to the characters which is lost on the screen. Although he intended for every character to appear hedonistic and driven by greed, he strikes a perfect balance between this and their human sides, allowing them to be complexly superficial. Luhrmann takes this superficiality too literally and seems to miss the delicate, emotional aspects.
The Great Gatsby and extravagance are virtually synonymous, and for me, that’s the problem. There was so much going on that I felt slightly distracted from the story that was really being told. Luhrmann used archive footage at the beginning – nice touch – only to later inundate the audience with unnecessary amounts of CGI and green-screens. Similarly, there was the perfect opportunity to combine the awaited soundtrack with authentic early jazz to properly set the scene and really bring the film to life. Disappointingly, only snippets of the soundtrack were used and their presence went relatively unnoticed, so the film felt slightly incomplete. This extravagance was, however, a perfect example of everything Fitzgerald was critiquing; a beautiful, but empty society film. The redeeming feature was the cinematography: the picture was so elegant and intense, it almost compensated for the earlier lapses. Visually, the film experience is sensational – there aren’t enough synonyms for beautiful to describe it; the scenic shots are so rich in detail that you feel like you’ve become part of the drama. Additionally, the artistry is second to none - the costume design is exquisite, the attention to detail for accessories, location, and set-dressing were faultless. Aesthetically, this film is dazzling; truly beautiful.
All the actors give worthy performances, most notably Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan, who are admirable as Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. You do genuinely believe in their romance, pain, and torment, particularly during the poignant reunion at Nick’s house. The other actors (Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Elizabeth Debicki) were somewhat mediocre in contrast. I cannot help but feel that Lurhmann caught the hedonism bug and that the
Despite this, Luhrmann’s Gatsby was nothing more than a good Gatsby.
23
ADD GRATUITY?
P
ermit me, somewhat selfishly, to use this space as a glorified rant for this edition. I’m justifying it mainly on the basis that, as I’ve become increasingly aware recently, everyone else is selfish too. Anyone who knows me will attest that I can be a feisty, intolerant [insert appropriate swear word] at the best of times, so I like to find out people’s opinion on things, and discuss those I don’t agree with (essentially, I’m the irritating one at parties who drinks too much and tells you you’re wrong. Apologies). Throughout my intrepid conversational travels, I’ve noticed a recurring and worrying theme: people are irrationally self-absorbed. We all do it, without even realising, and whenever we’re challenged about it, we revert back to the old ‘yeah, well, life isn’t fair’ adage.
parents to adopt children. They also have questionable beliefs on abortion, and don’t like people with tattoos and piercings (Dad almost had an aneurysm the day I turned up with my tragus pierced). They both explained quite honestly, despite being part of a ‘dysfunctional family situation’ - that children need a mother and a father to develop. A quick Google search will show you that, whilst as humans we undoubtedly develop into more well-rounded individuals with positive role-models, it isn’t exactly clear how people associate with said ‘role-models.’ A child with no biological parents living may still become a good person; and what’s more, any parent who desperately wants a child but cannot biologically is all the more likely to cherish a child if deemed fit to adopt. I cannot fathom, then, why it’s so awful to let unwanted children grow up in loving environments. Apparently, according to them, it’s ‘not natural’ - biologically, true; but they have no qualms with flying in an aeroplane, and last time I checked it wasn’t ‘natural’ for humans to fly... In a way, it’s not even that I feel strongly about the issue (although I do); it’s more that I simply cannot understand why people who don’t have a genuine religious aversion to the idea (because that is an entirely separate issue, although equally confusing to me) feel they have the right/need/desire to deny other people such a basic right to equality. It’s exactly the same with the current gay marriage debate swinging its way through parliament, and which my parents have exactly the same negative attitude towards. They have gay friends and - which is the real clincher for me in the matter - were not married
Take a recent discussion on adoption with my parents (father and step-mother). It’s a tricky issue at the best of times, but they’re quite old for parents of my generation (mid-50s), and my father was brought up a Roman Catholic (although he has subsequently rejected the Church - slight family scandal, will divulge at a more appropriate time). They, like many others you’ll encounter if you bring up the subject, think that it is ‘wrong’ for gay 24
no
no
in a church but a registry office, because both had been married before, still dislike the idea. My step mother, irritatingly, used as her main argument: ‘We weren’t allowed a civil partnership, so why should they be allowed a marriage?’ I did not grace that one with an answer.
behaviour instead of treating the cause; even to the point of encouraging denying ourselves the best tasting food in the pursuit of the best body. We all do it: we perpetuate a guarded, selfish mind-set, and I definitely and completely count myself in that bracket - I find myself suddenly and unexplainably shaking my head apologetically, without even considering the request properly. I’m reluctant to tip without receiving 120% from my waiting staff, even though having just got a job as a waitress myself, I’m well aware of how hard it is to keep on top of a full restaurant. I am one of those irritating people who are the epitome of the very thing they hate in others; I’m trying, however, to channel my inner hippie and spread some love - or, at least, I will be once exam season is over.
Neither of them reject these concepts on religious grounds - it is entirely semantic. Apparently ‘civil partnership’ and ‘marriage’ are one and the same, so have done. If the issue really is as black-and-white for nonbelievers, then why is the answer to deny it? Why is the default always no? It seems entirely unfathomable to me that people seem so confused about why on earth gay people should want to get married. These sorts of people also tend to qualify their opinions with the statement ‘if gays want to ...’ Well, yes, they do want to - that’s the point. There is no further elaboration needed. They want to, and they should (this argument of course shouldn’t be used for more dangerous activities in life; but, aside from being viewed as less exciting than your single contemporaries/marrying a psychopath, I haven’t yet seen any danger in getting married).
Stephanie Milsom
Why is it so difficult for us to comprehend that other people have hopes and fears and dreams and wishes, and that these are just as legitimate as our own? Why is it better to fill orphanages and foster homes with angry, upset, rejected children, when there are couples begging to be allowed to love them? It’s not even these big issues that we have a habit of rejecting without even thinking; most of us will happily tell the woman with the charity bin that we don’t have any spare change, even though we know it’s a lie; we’re eager to punish people for bad 25
Music
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A Question of Folk Bill Stockham investigates the history of folk music and its political intent
Musical expression and ideals of freedom have always been synonymous. From the freedom to perform and listen, i.e. the freedom to enjoy music, to liberty, rights and free will as the subject of song, it seems hard to separated one from the other, like Gemini (CASTOR AND POLLUX) the inseparable twins.
Perhaps a good example of this is the Bright Eyes song If the Brakeman Turns My Way. Here Bright Eyes’ singersongwriter Conor Oberst talks of his fate in the hands of the brakeman, the operator of railway points. It is in his hands that Oberst’s future lies, an analogy perhaps referring to Oberst’s reluctance to accept a God as dictating his fate,
Work songs of slaves and convicts mark the beginnings of modern folk music’s relationship with freedom, although as Conor Oberst notes ‘Music has always had its message’. These work chants evolved from African music brought to America by the hordes of slaves displaced during the 17th to 19th centuries.
“I could meet you, any place / If the brakeman turns my way.” Later in the song Oberst rejects a God as a personal creator,
“It’s an infinite coincidence / But it doesn’t form a plan”
Later folk music, chiefly by Bob Dylan, deals more openly with civil issues. In his song Oxford Town, Dylan talks of the segregation, humiliation and brutalisation of the black American. The title refers to the town where, in 1962, James Meredith became the first black student to be admitted to the University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS. Meredith became a symbol of the civil rights movement in America but Dylan’s lyrics are far from optimistic, reflecting difficulties of the struggle,
He confirms his interest in spiritualism and the occult, which he alludes to in his album Cassadaga, the title referring to the Florida town famous for its spiritualists and mystics. However, Oberst does acknowledge that sometimes he feels out of control, that maybe somebody is guiding his thoughts and actions, or perhaps this is his cry for help, a reference to his lack of personal control over the direction of his life,
“He went down to Oxford Town / Guns and clubs followed him down / All because his face was brown…”
“I never thought of running / My feet just led the way.”
More recently some musicians have talked about another form of freedom – free will, freedom from one’s own actions and desires, and freedom from one’s self. In Fiona Apple’s song Every Single Night, she talks about being the hostage of her subconscious, with vivid lyrics about the agony she endures at night,
Some of the questions posed by musicians have helped drive national change; others challenge personal conceptions of freedom. The importance of asking questions is summed up by Bertrand Russell; ‘In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” Be it from musicians or politicians, artists or authors, teachers or pupils, questions about freedom will always be the questions worth asking.
“That’s when the pain comes in / Like a second skeleton / Trying to fit beneath the skin…” Apple is not even free to control her own thoughts within her desolate nightmares. And perhaps this is the direction that the genre is heading, with the decline in 60’s era protest songs, and a rise in more personal (and often dark) exaltations, born of punk-era frankness. 27
Al-Amriki Jihadist Rapper and Holy Warrior
Rosalind Hayes on rap and violence, al-Shabaab and the USA, freedom and hypocrisy. Violence and rap are almost synonymous; guns and personal vendettas are the lifeblood of certain American artists who use the spoken word as rallying cries in territorial disputes. Look back to the 1990s and the role of rapping in the East Coast - West Coast rivalry which left two of the US’ biggest players, 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G., dead.
increasingly militant, moving from Alabama to Toronto where he married and became a father, on to Alexandria in Egypt and finally arriving in Somalia late 2006. The rap for which he is known features in a recruitment video entitled First Stop Addis, the capital city of Ethiopia whose Christian government had invaded Somalia in 2006 with American backing. Al-Amriki makes his standpoint very clear: addressing President Bush and Condeliza Rice, he envisions establishing Allah’s law on the land with calls for Jihad against the armies.
With this in mind it’s perhaps not unsurprising that a young man from America, “land of the free”, has appropriated such an art form to recruit fellow countrymen to an Islamist cause in Somalia, a country riven by sectarian disputes.
It’s an odd composition which does not hang together well. Rap verse is merged with a sung chorus similar in style and intonation to that of Qur’anic recitations performed during worship. His faltering delivery is laughable - not so much spitting as spluttering - and manages to seem so out of touch with the genre to the point of self-delusion. In many ways it’s not dissimilar to the type of video you find on YouTube suffixed “cover” or “me Singin lol”, which should always be avoided.
Omar Hammami first came to international attention in 2009 under the moniker of Abu Mansur al-Amriki (“The American”) with an online video featuring his very own rhymes and rhythms. Hammami’s transition from sophomore class president, deep in America’s Bible Belt, to being hunted by both the FBI and the Islamist terror group al-Shabaab, for whom he had previously recruited, was doubtless a complicated one; but then Hammami is a complicated guy. Born to an American mother and a Syrian father he was always going to be a bit of an anomaly in Daphne, a small city in Alabama. His family’s religious practices were split between Southern Baptist within the community and Islamic traditions around the home. A summer vacation to Syria dramatically changed Omar’s outlook and he returned for his freshman year as a newly converted, and very devout Muslim. Over the next few years he became
The point which distinguishes al-Amriki’s output is that he is so far removed from the average teenage suburban bedroom that generally provides the backdrop. Clearly though, rap still has a resonance that transcends borders which enables it to be put at the forefront of alShabaab’s recruitment programme despite employing a musical form which is unmistakably American and western. It worked too, the FBI estimates that around thirty American and Canadian citizens, some of Somali descent, arrived in the North African country within a year of it 28
going online. Some of these individuals were later participants in deadly suicide bombings around the region.
pare this to the recent Boston bombings whose two suspected perpetrators - there has been no confession and no trial yet - were unaffiliated from any Middle Eastern groups. Maybe American-borne Islamism has some very different ideas which don’t quite translate to regionalist terror networks.
Al-Amriki’s use of language is particularly interesting, being completely in English, in a contrived Arab accent, without Arabic subtitles. Most absurdly, Hammami signs off with Can I get a takbiir?, answered by a cry of Allahu Akbar, surreally reminiscent of pleas for hollas and the like in western tracks, especially Jay Z’s Can I Get A... Hammami managed to attract international members and raised the recognition of al-Shabaab through its formative years of sectarian-focused resistance into a more global outlook, including siding itself with al-Qa’ida. His use of social media - of YouTube and Twitter (@abumamerican) - was integral to the group’s rise and his own elevation through the ranks. Key to this was his experience, and his retention, of American culture.
Their motivations come from the multi-faceted firsthand experience of American life which is subtly different to the unbalanced view of an ideology and its army which the Islamist groups face. Al-Amriki’s ultimate belief in American pop-culture and as his trademark means of communication led him adrift. The will to enact terror may suffice in the short term but the clash of cultures lets something crucial get lost in translation and leads to fractures. A new brand of terrorism which could turn America’s ‘freedom’ tactics inwards, if it ever came into existence, would prove to be extremely fatal.
But what goes up must come down. Late last year he was ousted from the Islamist group with threats on his life. Only in April, Hammami reported an unsuccessful assassination attempt, on top of the $5 million bounty offered by the US government. Al-Amriki’s insatiable thirst for fame and self-promotion was cited by the Somali terror group leaders as the reason for his rejection, and there is evidence of the American criticising the leadership’s merely regional aims - as opposed to far reaching jihad - through Twitter, telling of a deeper rift in the group’s structure.
The hypocrisy found at the heart of America’s defense of freedom clearly had a profound effect on Hammami. The question is, did he achieve liberty by turning against his mother-country? In the end, he found his means of expression criticised and his personal freedom under threat. Now, on the run from the Land-of-the-Free and Somali freedom fighters, he finds himself constrained in a limbo, caught between societies. Listening to his rap reveals not only a complex individual but also the difficulties of reshaping traditional Islamism by aiming to integrate recruitment tactics formed in a western pop-language.
It perhaps comes down to questions of culture. Com-
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Taqwacore playlist PUNK ISLAM --Taqwacore combines the Arabic word Taqwa, meaning “God-fearing” or “piety”, with the idea of hardcore punk. The result is motley mix of westernbased groups making music rejecting the traditional teachings of Islam. Many of them are interested in Sufism, while others live outside of the religion’s rules altogether. Michael ‘Muhammad’ Knight’s novel, The Taqwacores (2003), imagined an Islamic punk scene which inspired a later film of the same name, released in 2010.
Zahir has collated a list of the big players of the scene which gives an introduction to the wide range of music involved. Check them out on YouTube because the visuals are as important as the vocal. The Kominas - “Choli Ke Peeche (Live at the BBC)” The Kominas (‘the bastards’ in Urdu) are a four piece band fronted by two Pakistani-Boston natives, with a Pakistani-American drummer and BengaliAmerican guitarist. This ragged cover of a Bollywood classic is a great fusion of styles.
Playing Tiny Drums in a Closet
Poppy Fields
Omar Waqar --It has terrible quality camera phone footage but the name alone gives it charm; his skills in a confined space aren’t bad either. His classically-inspired music is an anecdote to the more ferocious metal and punk of the other bands.
Vote Hezbollah --Slightly reminiscent of The Damned, the song’s lyrics aren’t exactly elegant but give a strident voice to the antiBush narrative.
Beneath the Edifice
Hey Hey Hey Guantanamo Bay
Al-Thawra --It’s hard to understand a word of Marwan Kamel’s screaming but the video, which features, amongst other flashing, gaudy images of pop culture, a bikini-clad white model in a gas mask lounging alongside starving African children and the Israel-Palestine division wall, certainly puts across their anger at American hypocrisy and the violence emanating from all sides. The Chicago-based band, whose name derives from the Arabic for “revolution”, has been influenced by sources as disparate as Sufism and modern American composer John Cage.
Secret Trial Five --A slower track than their usual raucous noise featuring biting satire about the controversial prison which, years on from recording, is still relevant; “I’d like to visit you one of these days/ Bring my sunscreen and a map / I won’t forget my baseball cap”. This Canadian five-piece is all women and very strongminded, having renounced their affiliation with Taqwacore.
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SOUNDTRACK Kirsten McGowan explores the meaning of the music behind the picture. What makes a film? Is it the director, the effects, the actors, the screenwriting? All of these are equally essential components of a great motion picture, yet what seems to be often overlooked is the importance of the musical score. Think about it - without the musical score, the effect of a film would be completely altered and most likely diminished. The musical score conveys the emotion, theme and atmosphere of a look, a touch, a word. It’s what gives the film feeling without you even realising it. Take Jaws, for example, in which two notes, daaaaaaaa dum... radically determine the impact of scene.
behaviour and emotions. The use of Beethoven’s symphony at the beginning of the film represents the freedom of Alex’s behaviour; its volatile rhythm and incontrollable spontaneity that often acts as a catalyst for driving his actions of “ultraviolence”. But this also serves to emphasise how the symphony later becomes the means of controlling him. His free will has now become enslaved to the will of the government and society’s expectations of social control, with the symphony becoming the jailer of his thoughts and actions as it is used to essentially brain-wash him. The power of music over his mind and behaviour is put to effective use at the end of the film; the sense of elation and renewed power it creates helps to emphasise that, whilst Alex is still working within the restrictions of society, he has once again regained control and freedom over his mind.
The soundtrack to a film is central both in evoking an emotive response from its audience, as well as reflecting the emotions of characters within the film. This is highlighted in Stanley Kubrick’s adaption of A Clockwork Orange, a film which masterfully matches music to action to reflect how the freedom of the protagonist, Alex, changes throughout the film.
A Clockwork Orange reflects the centrality of the soundtrack in conveying meaning in a film. In this instance it helps to communicate ideas about freedom in the state and society. Whilst the soundtrack in films is essentially “background music” to the action, this does not mean it should be kept in the dark or ignored.
The soundtrack was a result Kubrick’s collaboration with Wendy (Walter) Carlos using her talent for electronic adaptions of various classical pieces, most notably in A Clockwork Orange, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The electronic recording of the classical pieces creates an eerie and otherworldly atmosphere to the film from the opening sequence. Yet what is perhaps most striking is the sharp dichotomy it presents against the uncivilised and wild behaviour that it seems to cause and mirror. The civilised nature of the classical music highlights the disorder of the society in which film is set as well as giving the impression of Alex’s power and freedom in this unruly society. The Ninth Symphony, out of all the tracks, bears most significance and symbolism as it is of great importance to the main protagonist Alex and as such has great importance when reflecting his
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CIRCLES FOR YOUR DOODLING
Arts Awareness Week 2013 Monday 10th June Norman Rea Gallery’s opening party for the Summer exhibition. Life drawing from 6:30 - 7.30pm in room D/L037 (below the gallery). Norman Rea unveils a sculptural nest, to nurture any objects students place in it.
Tuesday 11th June A talk and roundtable discussion between Jo Applin, James Boaden and Jason Edwards to celebrate the publication of Jo’s books Eccentric Objects: Rethinking Sculpture in 1960s America and Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field. Open to all members of the University. A drinks reception will follow the discussion. 4:30pm – 7:30pm The Tree House, Berrick Saul Building
Wednesday 12th June Art Society holds an oil painting workshop with Emma Whiting. 12pm – 2pm in V/044
Thursday 13th June Art Society places chalkboards around campus. Draw, write, doodle, and scribble about the four seasons. National Trust Careers Talk with Eilidh McIntosh, A History of Art graduate from York and now Estate Steward at Nostell Priory. She will be giving a talk on her career and her experiences studying at York. All are welcome. Free of charge. There will be a buffet. 5:30 - 7:00pm in V/044.
Friday 14th June Final exhibition, photographs of the week’s events and postcards from various artists inspired by the Circle.
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