When I say that I am currently reading William Goldman's The Princess Bride, what I really mean is that this is the book that goes in my handbag when I am travelling on the tube. (Isn't it funny that one always needs something to do on the tube? Preferably a silent activity, of course - wouldn't want to rock the boat! Having said that, I endured a 45 minute trip to Heathrow over the weekend listening to a young man holding two conversations - on two mobile phones - simultaneoulsy. At yelling-across-a-room pitch. If I weren't so polite, I could quite cheerfully have given him a very mean stare. Or a kick in the balls.)
Aside from The Princess Bride, I am reading several hefty tomes concerning the authority of reading in the Christian Church. This is all contributing to chapter 4 (or is it chapter 3?) of the PhD. Time appears to be running out on this quicker than I can keep up, but I still find plenty of time to surf the net, play Spider Solitaire and create new and exciting playlists in iTunes... It's not the I don't enjoy what I am doing; it's just that I cannot yet grasp a sense of the whole, and that's holding me back significantly from constructing the parts. It is the literary equivalent of vomiting everywhere, then trying to collect it into one neat (and coherent!) pile. Frankly, I'm looking forward to getting shot of it now. It would be nice to have a weekend, or an evening, when I'm not thinking, "well, really, I should be typing up those notes on the Carolingian Church..." or, "Damn, I'd really better finish Chapter 2 today". And yet it is an immense privilege to have all this time to be creative, to produce something which I care about deeply, and wish pushes me intellectually as far as possible. It has been a frightening and exhilarating experience and I'm more tired than I can say. Sod savings - I think once I have finished this, I'm going to go on holiday!
Monday, 12 January 2009
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Lessons from history
I would never normally advocate watching something or reading something when you already know what the ending is going to be, but I think sometimes it is good for the soul. Case in point: Deborah Moggach's version of The Diary of Anne Frank for the BBC. There is something dreadfully poignant about watching this 'tweenager' dream about her future as "a dancer, an ice-skater, I haven't really decided yet" when you know that in fact she is going to die in the typhus-ridden Bergen-Belsen camp only a few years' later. I know people often feel that Holocaust literature has been done to death, but it never ceases to be important to remind people of what they are capable of - both 
good and bad. This is, we are told, an opportunity to learn the lessons of history, but do we ever? I'm not sure where I stand on the current situation in Gaza, but I know it makes me feel deeply uncomfortable. What are the lengths we would go to to protect our own? The recent changes in British legislation are another example, opening the gates for a myriad of unsettling situations justified under 'anti-terrorism' laws. The fact that Iceland was recently declared a terrorist threat to the UK in order to allow the financiers to gain access to British funds in failing Icelandic banks is nothing short of disasterous. The dystopic worlds of Orwell and Huxley apparently exist, quietly and irrevocably, under a veil of polite deniability and 'human rights'. I would like to think that were such a situation as Anne Frank's ever to arise again, I would do the right thing, no matter how hard it may be. The absolutely terrifying thing is, however, that I do not know what I would do until I am faced with doing it. More terrifying, even, than that is whether there would be anyone to help me and mine if we became persona non grata for some reason or another.
good and bad. This is, we are told, an opportunity to learn the lessons of history, but do we ever? I'm not sure where I stand on the current situation in Gaza, but I know it makes me feel deeply uncomfortable. What are the lengths we would go to to protect our own? The recent changes in British legislation are another example, opening the gates for a myriad of unsettling situations justified under 'anti-terrorism' laws. The fact that Iceland was recently declared a terrorist threat to the UK in order to allow the financiers to gain access to British funds in failing Icelandic banks is nothing short of disasterous. The dystopic worlds of Orwell and Huxley apparently exist, quietly and irrevocably, under a veil of polite deniability and 'human rights'. I would like to think that were such a situation as Anne Frank's ever to arise again, I would do the right thing, no matter how hard it may be. The absolutely terrifying thing is, however, that I do not know what I would do until I am faced with doing it. More terrifying, even, than that is whether there would be anyone to help me and mine if we became persona non grata for some reason or another.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Education, education, education...
I watched a really interesting documentary about behaviour management in UK primary schools last night. The Dispatches programme on Channel 4 dealt primarily with the issue of individual pupils who, for a variety of reasons, disrupt lessons to such an extent that it is no longer practical to have them in the classroom. It described a government-funded trial of 'nurture rooms' in schools across the country. These rooms double up as both a classroom and a safe environment for the children to explore some of the difficulties they face both in school and at home. The work that is carried out in these rooms focuses on their ability to function in social situations, as well as improving their general behaviour in the classroom to enable them to develop academically. It was a fascinating experiment: unlike many, the schools involved refused to see these pupils as 'just inherently bad' (as some of their parents seemed to think) and were determined to do what they could to get to the root of the problem. As far as the individuals followed were concerned, the trial was a total success; although many of the children still need to step out of the classroom and into the nurture room from time to time, all of them are coping better with both their class teachers and their classmates. Perhaps most interesting of all was the fact that this scheme also involved an element of educating the children's parents - from general parenting skills to more specific methods of coping with their child's particular struggles. None of the parents interviewed seemed to see this as a patronising intrusion on the part of the school; in fact, all seemed extremely relieved that they were receiving much needed advice and support. Of course, it all comes down to money in the end. Despite the success of this scheme, very few schools that currently run it are being given funding to continue, and those that need it are not given access to the funds that are required to set it up. The economics of the situation were clearly outlined, stating that for an initial investment of approximately £40,000 to set up the room and the staff to run it, and a cost of several hundred pounds per year per pupil, many pupils who would go on to have poor attendence and academic development in secondary school remain within the education system. Despite the fact that local government pays out thousands upon thousands of pounds every year to nurture just such children in secondary school, as well as paying the costs of the consequences of leaving bad behaviour unchecked (court costs, criminal damage costs, and so forth), it appears unlikely that nurture rooms in primary schools have much of a future. It is very frustrating to watch education policies being developed which have the potential to positively affect hundreds of children - if not more (a survey suggests that 97% of primary school teachers believe they have children in their class who are regularly disruptive) - subsequently being abandoned because Government thinks in the short-term - more specifically, the four years of their initial tenure.
On a slightly lighter note, here is a very funny review of the new ITV 1 drama series, Demons. I couldn't decide whether to watch this - I think I knew that if I had, it would primarily have been for comedy value, rather than its hard-hitting dramatic commentary!
On a slightly lighter note, here is a very funny review of the new ITV 1 drama series, Demons. I couldn't decide whether to watch this - I think I knew that if I had, it would primarily have been for comedy value, rather than its hard-hitting dramatic commentary!
Monday, 5 January 2009
How could I forget?!
Oops - should obviously have commented on the fact that the BBC have just announced their new Doctor Who. I wanted to wait a few days after the announcement to see what the general consensus was from fans. The thrust of comments seems to be along the, 'Matt Smith, who's Matt Smith?' line. I've seen him in several TV productions and I think he'll do fine. It was always going to be a nightmare to try and replace David Tennant - although I think he made the right to decision to quit now. The show is currently running the risk of becoming a little too pedestrian, so the change should shake things up nicely. I also have intense faith in the ability of new Lead Writer and Executive Producer, Steven Moffat, and if he says Mr. Smith will do well, then I'm willing to sit back and enjoy!
New Year, Old Habits
Obviously I sho
uld be cracking down on the ever-growing piles of work on my desk. Instead I've decided to enter the AbeBooks Arabian Nights competition... I won't spend too long on it. Really, I won't. If I put off my next PhD chapter any longer a) my supervisor will hunt me down and demand my funding back, b) I will never get any sleep again and c) I will never ever get round to finishing the PhD and will therefore never ever get round to finding a proper job!
Christmas and New Year were lovely, despite the sense of impending doom that always accompanies January for me. Sister 2 has her birthday on Christmas Day, and brother managed to return from the wilds of the NHS in Bristol, despite still being at work at 9pm on Christmas
Eve. I received many book-related presents, which has forced me to decide two things: 1. I need more shelving space; 2. I'd really rather have a career that's focused around books and reading. I therefore spent the dregs of 2008 writing applications for work experience at various publishing houses. A heavily competitive industry, of course, and yet another industry impacted by the UK's current recessions (yes, even Mr. Brown calls it that now...). It's strange reading the headlines on the BBC news website - every day, one familiar firm or another seems to be going under. Today it was the turn of the Wedgewood brand. There is something deeply unsettling about all this - not only the loss of any kind of financial certainty, but above and beyond that, the loss of choices. For example, as a child of the New Labour education system, I currently owe the Government a rather large amount of money. It grows daily (the interest rates on the amount owed seem to be miraculously unaffected by the current climate, funnily enough...) whereas my chance of earning a wage that will cover repayments plus rent plus energy bills plus general living costs plus travel costs plus insurance and so on and so forth seem to diminish daily, limiting my choices of career and geographical location considerably. It's perhaps no surprise that the vast majority of people I know are intending to leave the country entirely. What a waste...
uld be cracking down on the ever-growing piles of work on my desk. Instead I've decided to enter the AbeBooks Arabian Nights competition... I won't spend too long on it. Really, I won't. If I put off my next PhD chapter any longer a) my supervisor will hunt me down and demand my funding back, b) I will never get any sleep again and c) I will never ever get round to finishing the PhD and will therefore never ever get round to finding a proper job!Christmas and New Year were lovely, despite the sense of impending doom that always accompanies January for me. Sister 2 has her birthday on Christmas Day, and brother managed to return from the wilds of the NHS in Bristol, despite still being at work at 9pm on Christmas
Eve. I received many book-related presents, which has forced me to decide two things: 1. I need more shelving space; 2. I'd really rather have a career that's focused around books and reading. I therefore spent the dregs of 2008 writing applications for work experience at various publishing houses. A heavily competitive industry, of course, and yet another industry impacted by the UK's current recessions (yes, even Mr. Brown calls it that now...). It's strange reading the headlines on the BBC news website - every day, one familiar firm or another seems to be going under. Today it was the turn of the Wedgewood brand. There is something deeply unsettling about all this - not only the loss of any kind of financial certainty, but above and beyond that, the loss of choices. For example, as a child of the New Labour education system, I currently owe the Government a rather large amount of money. It grows daily (the interest rates on the amount owed seem to be miraculously unaffected by the current climate, funnily enough...) whereas my chance of earning a wage that will cover repayments plus rent plus energy bills plus general living costs plus travel costs plus insurance and so on and so forth seem to diminish daily, limiting my choices of career and geographical location considerably. It's perhaps no surprise that the vast majority of people I know are intending to leave the country entirely. What a waste...
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Christmas cold
'Tis the season, after all... As I sit here trying to read about the medieval English attitude to literacy and its connection to the liturgy whilst heavily dosed on Lemsip and every other cold remedy known to mankind, I thought I'd just update the posts with a few things of interest.
Very funny (and irreverent!) description of a Sunday morning experience in an Anglican church:
http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/2008/12/on-being-led-into-temptation.html
Very funny fairy tale/Christmas cartoon:
http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/red-riding-hood/
Very intersting Q & A article with Philip Pullman:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7774176.stm
This is interesting, not least because he appears to be utterly horrified at any suggestion that his stories are knowingly anti-religious (or, more particularly, anti-Christian), but also because he simultaneously appears to pitch himself as someone who would 'fight hard' for the anti-religious cause (if such a thing can be said to exist):
"I think the fashion for fundamental ways of thought will fade eventually. Living at a pitch of hysteria is exciting for a while, but then people get tired of stoning martyrs and exorcising devils and being fearful of shadows, and want to live normally again. But if such a clash does come, we shall have to fight hard."
This has a worrying hint of Richard Dawkins about it - religion versus 'normality'. I am not a deeply religious person - I certainly don't have a regular religious outlet - but I am deeply interested in its effects on history, society and culture. It frustrates me that religion is so often that which is to be opposed to something else, whether it be a political theory, a scientific thesis or a social construct. Having said that, of course, those in the know from the fields that religion is most often opposed to tend to feel equally exasperated by the whole process. Genuine scholars realise that there is more to be gained from a weaving together of different perspectives, rather than a shutting out of dialogue. I admire Philip Pullman's books and, as he advises in this article, I take them to be stories, rather than preconditioned agendas. It is a shame that the questions he is asked by fans push him into dealing with these sorts of polarities; I suspect he may be far happier to be understood as a story-teller who lives through his imagination.
In more time-wasting internet surfing I discovered to my great delight that a) there is to be a new Stephen Poliakoff film in 2009 and b) David Tennant is playing a part in it. I obviously leapt onto IMDB to find out what I could and it sounds really interesting. Its title is 1939 and it is the story of a family dealing with the situation in Britain in 1939. The BBC showed two feature-length Poliakoff films in 2007 (Capturing Mary and Joe's Palace), along with a shorter, character-based drama revolving around one of the central characters in Capturing Mary (The Perfect Summer). This was my introduction to Ruth Wilson, an actress I have come to greatly admire. Poliakoff's films are so beautiful; many people I know find them too static (perhaps the consequence of a diet of action films?), but I find their character development and slow, thoughtful camera work very moving and poignant. Let's be honest, after studying Chekhov in the original Russian, I am immune to static drama... Roll on 1939!
Very funny (and irreverent!) description of a Sunday morning experience in an Anglican church:
http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/2008/12/on-being-led-into-temptation.html
Very funny fairy tale/Christmas cartoon:
http://bookwitch.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/red-riding-hood/
Very intersting Q & A article with Philip Pullman:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/7774176.stm
This is interesting, not least because he appears to be utterly horrified at any suggestion that his stories are knowingly anti-religious (or, more particularly, anti-Christian), but also because he simultaneously appears to pitch himself as someone who would 'fight hard' for the anti-religious cause (if such a thing can be said to exist):
"I think the fashion for fundamental ways of thought will fade eventually. Living at a pitch of hysteria is exciting for a while, but then people get tired of stoning martyrs and exorcising devils and being fearful of shadows, and want to live normally again. But if such a clash does come, we shall have to fight hard."
This has a worrying hint of Richard Dawkins about it - religion versus 'normality'. I am not a deeply religious person - I certainly don't have a regular religious outlet - but I am deeply interested in its effects on history, society and culture. It frustrates me that religion is so often that which is to be opposed to something else, whether it be a political theory, a scientific thesis or a social construct. Having said that, of course, those in the know from the fields that religion is most often opposed to tend to feel equally exasperated by the whole process. Genuine scholars realise that there is more to be gained from a weaving together of different perspectives, rather than a shutting out of dialogue. I admire Philip Pullman's books and, as he advises in this article, I take them to be stories, rather than preconditioned agendas. It is a shame that the questions he is asked by fans push him into dealing with these sorts of polarities; I suspect he may be far happier to be understood as a story-teller who lives through his imagination.
In more time-wasting internet surfing I discovered to my great delight that a) there is to be a new Stephen Poliakoff film in 2009 and b) David Tennant is playing a part in it. I obviously leapt onto IMDB to find out what I could and it sounds really interesting. Its title is 1939 and it is the story of a family dealing with the situation in Britain in 1939. The BBC showed two feature-length Poliakoff films in 2007 (Capturing Mary and Joe's Palace), along with a shorter, character-based drama revolving around one of the central characters in Capturing Mary (The Perfect Summer). This was my introduction to Ruth Wilson, an actress I have come to greatly admire. Poliakoff's films are so beautiful; many people I know find them too static (perhaps the consequence of a diet of action films?), but I find their character development and slow, thoughtful camera work very moving and poignant. Let's be honest, after studying Chekhov in the original Russian, I am immune to static drama... Roll on 1939!
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Happy December!
My second-favourite month of the year (after September!) - perhaps it's odd to rate the months, but there you go... Christmas cards are largely written, presents ordered (God bless the internet) and in a few weeks' time decorations will go up. Found it very difficult this year to find advent calendars - especially those without chocolate. It seems like cheating to have chocolate every day on the run up to Christmas; you appreciate the Quality Streets far more on the day if you haven't been stuffing yourself for the previous twenty-four! Rather disturbingly, flatmate has been bought an advent calendar by his mother entitled - and I kid you not - Sexy Ladies. Each day contains a chocolate and a picture of a half-naked young woman (usually with a vacant expression). The true meaning of Christmas...
Watched the BBC's adaptation of Henning Mankell's Wallander series on Sunday. Starring (directed by? produced by?) Kenneth Branagh, I knew it could turn into something of an ego performance. I haven't yet read any of the original novels - though I borrowed one from the local library yesterday - so I can't really comment on how true the adaptation is to Mankell's writi
ng. I have to admit, I found it a little difficult to get into the story. It seemed to be full of 'arty' shots and overly dramatic crescendos of orchestral music. This is always worrying in a TV show - it seems to imply that the story itself needs crutches, that it can't stand alone on its own merit. However, by the end of the episode I was in tears. It was a beautifully-told story, and the overriding theme of fathers and sons was very powerfully portrayed. The only slight niggle was the casting: when the majority of the secondary characters are relatively unknown, but one is recognisable, chances are they are going to have something to do with the final denouement...Have been thinking a lot over the past few weeks about what happens next, career-wise. I had a slight panic when I realised all my PhD colleagues are applying for jobs (apparently one applies in January for posts which start in September - regardless of whether one has the qualification yet). I spent eight hours over the weekend searching for jobs and - surprise, surprise - there are none. It seems that unless an academic subject is 'economically viable', there is no funding available to pay for either researchers or newly-qualified lecturers. After seven years of higher education (let alone the seven years of secondary and seven years of primary), it was a little galling to see post after post in the sciences and social sciences, but not a thing for the humanities. To be perfectly honest, at this stage in the game, I need to get a regular income; I have some savings, but they won't last forever. So, I sat down and thought properly about the future for the first time in ages. And the more I thought, the more I realised that the struggles of the past few years seem to be down to the fact that, although I am proud of what I am achieving and realise the benefit of pushing my intellect with this research, I'm not really enjoying myself. At the moment, the potential of a career in academia makes me feel stressed. There is very little job security, and one's position eternally depends on the research one produces. Perhaps because of this, it feels as though the work never ends: it is not as though you complete a project and move onto the next one - you are constantly working, there are constantly things you haven't done, so you never really get the chance to leave it behind. And if you aren't really enjoying it in the first place, then that is a fairly big commitment to make. So, I thought, what do I really love? Short answer - books and reading. If I could, I would spend my whole life reading books and digesting them. I am good at editing and analysing text (I've edited two academic books, and a large proportion of academic research is about analysing text), and I enjoy the challenges presented by new material. On this basis, I've decided to try and get some work experience with several publishing firms, with a view to moving sideways into publishing once I've finished the PhD. As ever, we shall see...
On a slightly happier note, it's our seventh anniversary today. Seven sounds like a big number, but it does seem to have whipped by very quickly! Out to dinner tonight - he's paying...
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