Fashion Forward

Image: YouTube

If you’ve seen any of the looks from the New York City Met Gala this year, it was probably Beyonce’s Givenchy Haute Couture dress, Gigi Hadid in Tommy Hilfiger (accompanied by boyfriend Zayn Malik with a silver-plated arm), or Emma Watson in Calvin Klein. Otherwise, your timelines might have been filled with pictures of Clare Danes’ incredible light-up Cinderella dress by Zac Posen. It’s this dress that gives the biggest hint towards this year’s gala theme, Manus x Machina, which saw hand- and machine-made designs join forces in some of the most innovative couture of recent years.

The gala is the fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. This year, the Institute chose the theme of Manus x Machina to explore the way designers combine manmade and machine-made materials and designs to create haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear. The theme allowed for a unique take on a section of the industry that traditionally uses manual methods to create beautiful, intricately-detailed pieces that are as much works of art as they are fashion pieces. The ‘machine-made’ was a tribute to the extent to which machinery plays a part in society, and increasingly in art, and a challenge to conventional haute couture. The machine by no means takes away from the hand-made garments of tradition: rather, the meticulous design and planning that goes into each mechanic piece is as much a part of the creation of haute couture as any hand-stitched process.

So, how did the designers incorporate the machine into their work? Clare Danes’ dress is perhaps the most obvious example, with LED lights and 30 mini battery packs sewn into the lining of the dress, which was made from a hollow shell of custom-made Gossamer fabric to prevent the dress from becoming too heavy. Posen combined the most fundamental elements of modern technology – electricity and light – to bring a traditional fairy-tale Cinderella dress into the twenty-first century without altering its classical delicacy. Elsewhere, Marchesa designers and co-founders Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig worked with IBM’s cognitive computing system Watson to design a ‘cognitive dress’, worn by model Karolina Kurkova, that changed colour depending on the reaction it gained on social media – a reflection on the emotion and passion hidden behind the technological wall of social media.

Emma Watson’s dress by Calvin Klein and Eco Age was as much about contemporary issues as it was technology. Made from recycled plastic bottles, her look was a demonstration of the crossover between fashion and environmental sustainability – not the most fashionable of phrases – thanks to technology. In a Facebook post, Watson wrote: ‘Plastic is one of the biggest pollutants on the planet. Being able to repurpose this waste and incorporate it into my gown for the ‪#‎MetGala proves the power that creativity, technology and fashion can have by working together.’ The look may not have the visual effect that Clare Danes’ dress did, but its concept was arguably one of the most innovative of the collection – and has valuable practical resonances, too.

Looking further into the Met’s collection – there are plenty of photographs of select pieces online – it’s the use of plastic that stands out. But moving away from the recyclable to the more literally technological, 3D printing was also a major theme. In a video shot by CNN Style for the event, Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge at the Costume Institute, explains: ‘3D printing has the potential to be as revolutionary as the sewing machine.’ Iris van Herpen was at the forefront of this experimental design technique, as with her museum show, ‘Transforming Fashion’, that debuted in Atlanta’s High Museum of Art from November through to May this year. The bone-like structures and intricate designs that result from the combination of such a technological innovation with fashion is an accolade to the ability of fashion to transform and be transformed by technology in turn.

This year’s Met Gala was not merely a collection of metallic, futuristic visual pieces. The thought and innovation that went behind the designs paid homage to the collective awareness of technology as a dominant force in our society – and what better way to do so than by weaving it into fashion? The gala also demonstrated the willingness of designers to engage with social and global issues outside the realms of ‘traditional’ fashion. Fashion can thus never be labelled as shallow when it is willing to address the need for sustainability, or draw attention to the effect of social media on our own psychology. As Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive explained, ‘technology and craft are not at odds, and much like beauty and utility, they go hand in hand. Often the result is more powerful for the combination.’

Originally published on Palatinate Online.

Batman v Superman: Review

Image: YouTube

‘Now, I’m no film critic,’ I messaged Rory, Palatinate’s Film and TV Editor, at one o’clock on Sunday morning, ‘but I just saw Batman v Superman, and it was shit.’

The beginning is promising. A stern-faced Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) looks on as a city is destroyed, blow by blow, by a combination of alien ships and the apparent cannonball that is Superman. It is a necessary and well-done glance back to Man of Steel that feels natural and seamlessly provides Wayne with a back story and a motive for his hatred of Superman. Less necessary, I felt, was the dream-like sequence playing out the death of Wayne’s parents. Assuming that most of us are familiar with Batman’s backstory, the scene adds little to the forward momentum of the plot. The name Martha is obviously significant for the film, but couldn’t the sentence ‘my mother’s name was Martha’, accompanied by sad eyes and clenched teeth, have sufficed? As for the rest of the scene, the bat sequence, and the shot of Wayne rising out of the underground cavern in a whirlwind of bat wings, felt cheap, tacky and overdone. It’s a dream sequence, yes, but I’ve seen such sequences done far better in other films.

The dream sequences are, in fact, a large flaw of the film, as is the excitable use of special effects. I must admit, I didn’t hold much hope. It seems to be a common theme in recent films to go all-out on the special effects and save little for the imagination – with the exception of The Revenant, of course, which I actually quite liked. Batman v Superman fails on this point, as did Man of Steel before it. Both films see a promising plot promptly destroyed by destruction. Director Zack Snyder clearly loves a bit of drama, but the last half an hour or so of Batman v Superman is practically incomprehensible. Buildings, structures, even pieces of ground fly around the scene while the camera fails to keep up, resulting in a flurry of light, movement and sound that confuses the senses rather than indulging them in some high-quality action. I wasn’t entirely sure who dealt each blow throughout the sequence. And don’t get me started on the slow-motion effect, which Snyder seems to favour particularly for any scene that involves Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. For a character that should involve impressive depth and a pending film franchise to follow, she seems to spend a lot of her time standing in uncomfortable combat poses while the camera pans out to the wider action performed by the other characters.

The female characters deeply disappointed me. Amy Adams’s Lois Lane was promising as a fiery reporter, digging deep and asking the awkward questions. Yes, I thought. Here, finally, is a female action character that won’t descend into a damsel-in-distress act by the end. How wrong I was. There is a sudden switch in character somewhere in the film that removes any sense of power and impressiveness that Lane was instilled with, and replaces it with a stereotype. How many times does one woman need to be saved? Irritating, too, was the bathtub scene, necessary only to get a naked woman into the film, a requirement for any action film of late, or ever. If a man jumped into my bathtub with his dirty shoes on, no matter if he bought me flowers, he’d get a punch in the face.

Were there any positives? Yes, of course. Most bad films do have redeeming qualities, and this is no exception. Affleck makes a superb first appearance as a darker, more vengeful Batman: his character makes me excited for the new Batman film that fans are anticipating. The factory scene in which he rescues Superman’s mother from a group of baddies is potentially the greatest Batman sequence of any film, and definitely the most promising of this one. Contrary to Mark Kermode’s harsh review in The Guardian, I actually greatly enjoyed Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor: creepy, intriguing and slightly unhinged, he makes a great addition to an otherwise disappointing array of flat characters.

Overall, I wasn’t keen. I’d agree with Kermode on a two-star rating. Batman v Superman is a money-orientated blockbuster film that probably appeals visually to children because of its action-packed scenes, but to any fan of either franchise, fails to do justice to what could have been an incredible joining of forces between the two superheroes. It tries to do too much: setting up a new Batman film, a 2017 Wonder Woman film, and a new Lex Luthor character. It seems keen on bankrolling the DC Comics universe for a Justice League film that aims to rival the success of the Avengers franchise. If Snyder’s lack of success in combining Batman and Superman is anything to go by, it seems unlikely that a Justice League film will achieve this aim.

Originally published on Palatinate.

It Still Happens Here

Image: Jade Correa

Would you know where to turn if you experienced sexual violence? I suspect most people wouldn’t. I spend a fair bit of my time talking and writing about sexual violence, and for a long time I wasn’t sure where to go, either – to be honest, I’m still not sure I’m completely certain. And there’s another, more troubling question that links to my first. Would you turn to anyone at all if you experienced sexual violence? Do you trust that your claim would be taken seriously by your college, the University, even the police? I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if your answer to any of those questions was no.

It’s these issues, among many others, that It Happens Here Durham is trying to tackle as it works with the University, particularly the Sexual Violence Task Force. We’re a relatively new group, forming with only two members in 2012; we’ve only been a society for a year.  Nevertheless, we have huge aims for Durham. Our three key goals are for the University to have a transparent sexual violence policy, better signposting for those seeking support, and mandatory training for members of staff, particularly those whose jobs require a degree of pastoral care.

The first goal brings us back quite nicely to my original question. It is clear that sexual violence is happening at university at an alarming rate: the most recent NUS report on the subject stated that one in seven female students experience serious sexual or physical assault at some point in their university life. Of those students, a total of 14% report their assault to their institution or the police, with the remaining students not reporting because they felt embarrassed or ashamed, or were worried that they would be blamed. The impression I get at Durham in particular is that the lack of a clear sexual violence policy, or a guide on where to go, might also be a significant issue. With the stigma that already surrounds sexual violence, might it not be discouraging to have no clear idea of who to go to for help?

A clear policy is something that should interest the University and its students alike. As well as providing a better procedure for dealing with victims of sexual violence, it might too offer ways of dealing with the perpetrators. Unfortunately, we live in a country as a whole where it is often the victims who are uprooted from their university halls, or are forced to find a different route to lectures, for fear of meeting their attacker on campus. It should be the responsibility of each university to ensure that both parties remain separated during any investigation of sexual violence, and it should not be up to the complainant to take extra measures to make sure that this is the case.

Policies take a long time to make, and the controversies and the ins and outs surrounding sexual violence makes the process more complicated and time-consuming. But there is still more the university can do in the meantime. It Happens Here’s second goal – to secure better signposting for victims of sexual violence – is perhaps the easiest to achieve. After all, everyone has the Nightline number on the back of their campus cards, and it has its own little section on DUO and the University website. It takes some searching, but mental health resources, too, are quite readily available, with the counselling service in particular being advertised through emails. Why, then, do sexual violence resources not have this same status? Considering the impact it has on students’ wellbeing, their mental health, and their academic performance, surely it is in the University’s best interests to provide a couple of links, maybe even a few phone numbers?

That’s what we’re trying to do at the moment. We’d like to see a section on DUO with the contact details of Rape Crisis and clinics in the local area. Ideally, we’d love to run a poster campaign around the Student Union, the library and other University buildings with details of how to get help. In the meantime, our own website has resources for anyone who needs them, including much-needed details of how to help a friend.

Finally, our third goal is about training. It’s about raising awareness of sexual violence and how to deal with it within the integral structures of the university. We believe that mandatory training should take place for anyone in a position where they might be approached by someone who has experienced sexual violence. This way, it will help reduce the chain of people involved in a single enquiry, ensuring greater privacy for the victim and decreasing the delay. Our opinion is that education on sexual violence should form part of everyone’s initiation into the University, too: after all, we have to complete a plagiarism tutorial and sit through police safety talks, so why shouldn’t sexual violence deserve a slot, too?

There will always be the cries of ‘but I know what consent is! I am not a perpetrator!’ of course; but equally, most Durham students would know what does and doesn’t constitute a fire hazard, and we still sit through fifteen minutes of fire safety talks during Freshers’ Week. If not to teach students something new about sexual violence – although you’ll be surprised to realise how much more there is to learn – then such talks serve to raise awareness of the issue, at least. Consent workshops will never be popular amongst the entire student body – although the ones we have run over the past year have been happily successful – but a talk on what sexual violence is, and how not to be a perpetrator, can hardly set one back in life.

Since I joined It Happens Here, I have realised how much more the University still needs to do for sexual violence. I am proud to have been part of a campaign that has raised awareness over the past few years, following the ever-growing trajectory of wider media coverage and, lately, even gaining traction in our own student publications. It seems that the student body is finally waking up to an issue more dangerous than river safety, more prevalent than muggings in the street. The University should wake up too. If you have experienced sexual violence, or even if you know someone who has, then you already know that Durham is much less safe than it supposes itself to be. I hope that our student campaign, however small it may be, can continue to work with the University and the Sexual Violence Task Force to provide a safer and more reliable space in which to study and live.

For more information on It Happens Here and what we do, please find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@DU_HappensHere) or visit our website: www.ithappensheredurham.wordpress.com

Originally published on Palatinate.

A platform for academic dialogue

‘In Our Time’ host Melvyn Bragg. Photograph: In Our Time

Three academics, Melvyn Bragg and a single idea: Radio 4’s In Our Time has returned to broadcast in time for the start of the academic year. Tackling an impressive variety of subjects ranging from history, science and philosophy to classics, culture and religion, the programme is invaluable to university students of all disciplines. To welcome in the new series, Palatinate speaks to producer Victoria Brignell about the programme’s history, its guests, and the never-ending knowledge of Melvyn Bragg.

In Our Time started out in 1998 as the brainchild of Bragg and the BBC. Following Bragg’s departure from political programme Start the Week, the idea was conceived as an attempt to liven up the Thursday ‘death slot’ he’d been given. The show wasn’t expected to last the year. Seventeen years and over 600 episodes later, however, In Our Time remains an essential and popular programme for listeners interested in lively academic debate. Consequently, although the programme isn’t aimed specifically at students, In Our Time has quickly gained appreciation from universities around the UK. Brignell mentions that the programme’s episodes have often been compared to ‘radio seminars’. Indeed, the show has increasingly expanded its repertoire of subjects, and in 2000 the programme was changed from a half-hour slot to 45 minutes, making it more reflective of a lecture or seminar at most universities. The show also moved from hosting two guest speakers to three around this time, subsequently increasing the range of voices contributing to each week’s discussion.

The programme presents itself as an ideas show, discussing theories, topics and concepts. Guests do not choose to appear on the programme to promote new books to listeners; they are chosen because they bring a distinctive voice to each episode’s topical debate. Brignell is keen to emphasise the diversity of topics chosen as a result of this. “We choose topics we think are interesting,” she says. The programme does not deliberately follow developments in academia, but its topics are often very relevant to university courses across the UK. “The production team doesn’t have time to be across all the current trends in academia, but we do receive many ideas from listeners and guests,” Brignell explains. “A large number of our programmes are based on topics suggested by academics and members of the public.”

The programme is refreshing for the range of guests it hosts, especially when one might be expecting to see it dominated by Oxford and Cambridge academics. Brignell reassures me that In Our Time is “not an Oxbridge programme”. Indeed, a number of Durham’s own academics have appeared on the programme, including Carlos Frenk, Richard Gameson and Mark Woolmer. Guest diversity is a key reason for the show’s success. “For each programme, we aim to book the leading experts in their field. Thanks to the internet, it is possible to find out academics’ research interests and publications relatively easily, and that means we can find guests from a range of institutions.” She stresses, too, that the guests are chosen for their skills in radio as well as their research fields. “We look for experts in their field, but they also need to be engaging communicators. We need them to be able to display passion for the topic.” Guest speakers commit a significant amount of time to the programme. They are involved in the research and planning processes of each episode, as well as travelling to London, for the show’s recording. Academics’ commitment to the programme is important and highly valued by the production team. When asked about the academics’ behaviour, Brignell can’t think of a time where a guest has been uncooperative or difficult. “I’ve never come across any academics who are unhelpful,” says Brignell. “Fortunately, the programme has a strong reputation in the academic world and guests are keen to support it.”

Producer Victoria Brignell. Photograph: John McCafferty

With the vast number of subjects and guests appearing on the show, it is Melvyn Bragg who provides constancy. Bragg is well-known by listeners for being impressively, almost impossibly knowledgeable on each episode’s topic. Brignell explains that there is a long research process before the show airs, aided in part by the guest academics. She and her colleague carry out hour-long telephone conversations with the guests, before they come on the programme, to gain a more in-depth understanding of the topic. Then, each week, they send Bragg about 30 pages of briefing notes. In an interview with The Scotsman in 2009, Bragg reveals the extent of the work he undertakes for each episode. “I enjoy what was called swotting in my day,” he explains to the paper. “I get the notes late Friday afternoon for the following Thursday morning. I find all the spare time I can for reading, get up very early on a Thursday morning, have a final two hours of nervousness, and away we go.”

With more than 600 programmes made so far, and more coming up every week until summer, there is no sign of the programme’s end any time soon. Episodes are often directly related to university courses, and the production team is keen to emphasise the benefits In Our Time offers to students. The show offers in-depth discussions and debates on an extensive variety of topics; each episode is a useful starting point for further exploration into a specific academic talking point. With so much preparation, and the invaluable input of three specialised academics, it’s no surprise that In Our Time is rapidly gaining popularity amongst students.

In Our Time airs at 9am every Thursday on Radio 4. Past programmes can be downloaded from the website at bbc.co.uk/radio4/inourtime.

Originally published in Palatinate.

Why they didn't tell the university

Photograph: It Happens Here Durham

Trigger warning: rape, sexual violence and abuse, alchol abuse. Contains content some readers may find upsetting.

One in seven female students is a victim of serious sexual or physical assault. One in four is a victim of sexual violence in general. Ten percent of these students have reported the assault to the police, and only four percent to their university.

These figures, taken from an NUS ‘Hidden Marks’ survey in 2010, don’t include male survivors of sexual assault: even without these additional statistics, they depict a worrying cultural trend. Whilst sexual violence is disturbingly prevalent, the majority of survivors appear to feel unable to report their attacks to their institutions. Since its publication, the NUS report has sparked conversations in universities around the UK about the level of support offered to survivors of sexual violence and abuse, and about the quality of education that institutions are offering about the issue. It is becoming clear that universities – including Durham – need to offer more in the way of support and advice.

The survey also draws attention to the reasons why the other ninety-six percent of female students didn’t report their attackers: half said it was because they felt ashamed or embarrassed, and forty-three percent thought they would be blamed for what happened. Laura*, a former student who agreed to talk to Palatinate, said that she didn’t tell the university because she felt she wasn’t a ‘good victim’ – ‘I came to university really vulnerable because of lots of things that happened in my life before.’ She became involved in an abusive relationship. ‘I was raped and sexually assaulted a number of times both by him and by multiple other men. I reported the last rape, but I didn’t tell the university, partly because I was about to leave and partly because I don’t think he was a student. All the other sexual violence was from other students who were known to me. I couldn’t tell because I was convincing myself I could cope with it. I told myself I deserved it and could handle it myself.’

It has become clear over recent years that we need to create a supportive, compassionate environment at university which reaches out to survivors. This environment should include a network of people who are trained to deal specifically with sexual violence and support survivors in a positive, constructive way. ‘I can’t imagine how you would just go and tell all of this to a college tutor who has no experience in sexual violence,’ said Laura, of her own experiences. ‘The questions over why I had willingly sought out sex with a stranger, why I’d stayed in a relationship with a man who raped me, why I was abusing alcohol, why I was compliant with some of the violence – as a vulnerable, confused twenty-year-old, I didn’t even have the answers myself.’

Durham’s approach to sexual violence and abuse is changing with the introduction of sexual violence awareness campaigns, particularly the introduction of It Happens Here Durham. The organisation was set up with the aim of educating students about sexual violence and creating a safe place for all members of the community. Since its launch in September 2013, the organisation has led discussions about sexual assault and prompted change in and around the university, and its network of organisers has grown dramatically in recent months. It is creating a culture that gives survivors more options, better support, and a chance to share their story.

Working closely with the university to establish a clear, coherent policy on helping survivors, It Happens Here hopes to explore options for raising awareness about sexual violence and supporting students more directly. The group is using the most powerful tool available at university – the student voice – to initiate action and instigate change. Their hope is that Durham University will continue to engage in discussion and commit to change alongside the campaign. They firmly believe that it is the university’s duty to work to create a culture that supports survivors and educates the student body: It Happens Here, and its affiliated organisations, is the medium through which such a culture can be created.

For more information on the ‘It Happens Here’ campaign and how you can help, visit http://ithappensheredurham.wordpress.com, their Facebook page, or follow them on Twitter (@DU_HappensHere).

*Names have been changed.

Originally published on Palatinate Online. 

Review: Richard Kalich's 'Central Park Western Trilogy'

‘”I couldn’t believe it. It was a complete shock. I had no idea he had that in him.”
‘”And what was it that your brother, Richard, had in him?”
‘“All that sadism, perversity, grotesqueness. I mean the novel was brilliant, but as for the rest… I was totally unprepared.”’

Image source: Betime Books

Central Park Western Trilogy is the collection of three of Richard Kalich’s novels: The Nihilesthete, Penthouse F and Charlie P. They have been described as ‘postmodern fables’, addressing concepts of identity, morality and civility in a way that challenges the reader to review their own perceptions. The arrangement of the books is peculiar, and the narrative techniques vary; it is impossible to settle into the trilogy and become familiar with Kalich’s characters and his plots, because the collection in its entirety is so unsettling that it challenges any conventional approach to writing the modern novel.

The first novel in the trilogy, The Nihilesthete (1987), follows a perverse social worker on his quest first to attain control of a disabled boy with an unusual condition – cri de chat syndrome, we are told – and then to conduct a lengthy ‘game’ in which the objective is to crush the young boy’s spirit using his only joy in life, art. The novel is grotesque and shocking; it tests the reader’s sense of moral righteousness by attempting to justify the unjustifiable and rationalise the insane. Despite its contents, however, the nature of the novel does not deter, but rather compels the reader to read on as the protagonist, Haberman, relates first-hand his thoughts on all aspects of philosophy, art, science and relationships. The Nihilesthete demonstrates the brilliance of Kalich as he creates a masterpiece out of the monstrous and the ugly.

Penthouse F (2010) sees Kalich himself assume the role of protagonist, following an investigation of a young boy and girl who commit suicide together from Kalich’s balcony. The novel continues the concept of a human ‘game’ from The Nihilesthete, but in Penthouse F it is not so coherent. The narrative is jumpy, disorientating, perhaps reflecting the feelings of the interrogator as he interviews those who knew Kalich around the time he took the couple as his charges. The novel serves not as an uninterrupted work of fiction, but as a report investigating the inner workings of the author’s mind. It confuses the real with the imaginary, and it is ultimately a self-conscious piece of art; it addresses the topic of creating a novel even as it goes beyond the conventions of one.

If the first two novels of the trilogy blur fiction and reality together, then Charlie P (2005) destabilises certainty even more. Kalich chooses to create a novel comprised of small chapters with little or no relation to each other, following Charlie P’s life in no specific chronological order. Whilst it is difficult to impose order on any of Kalich’s novels, this one might be seen to be thematically unified in that it consistently addresses the complications of one man’s relationship with women. The novel appears to be less concerned with the twisted themes of the other two works in the trilogy, but there still remains a sense of the unnerving as Kalich delves yet again into the darkest depths of his character’s mind, revealing the protagonist’s shadiest thoughts as the narrative deviates further and further from normality.

Central Park Western Trilogy explores the obscure thoughts and instincts of its protagonists, depicting disturbing situations that we can only hope are limited to a fictional world. Nevertheless, Kalich manages to write a trilogy that is wrought with dark humour and a multitude of literary, philosophical and psychological references. The trilogy is an essential read for anyone who enjoys a challenge: predictable neither in content nor in form, Central Park Western Trilogy is not your average novel.

Originally published at Palatinate Online.

Linda Grant at the Durham Book Festival 2014

Linda Grant’s conversation with Caroline Beck at Durham Book Festival is far beyond a simple discussion of Grant’s newest novel, Upstairs at the Party. It is, instead, a funny and thoughtful insight into some of the most radical ideas of the early to mid-seventies.  Grant talks of this era as a time when students were “lab rats in an experimental pool” – given total liberty, free of adult interference and support – at a campus that is quite clearly the University of York, in all but name. Beneath this freedom, however, is a darker assessment of the profound impact university life can have on its students. In the hour Grant has with the audience, she addresses themes such as responsibility, blame and mental illness to highlight student issues in the seventies that clearly resonate strongly with her own experiences.

Photograph: Durham Book Festival, via Palatinate

Humorous, casual and perceptive, Grant’s talk is littered with anecdotes of her own time at university: telling familiar stories of the horrors of student accommodation, the struggle to define oneself in a new environment, and the importance of strong friendships. But between these stories, Grant voices her opinion on a number of sensitive topics.

Her novel is focused around a defining point in the narrative where something happens ‘upstairs at the party’ that will stay with the characters for their whole lives. She does not make clear what this event is, but her focus throughout the evening on the issues of mental illness and an unsupportive university system allows audience members to make an educated guess. Her novel’s narrator, Adele, looks back on this crucial moment with mixed feelings of responsibility, guilt, and blame, and Grant uses this narrative device to highlight her own memories of her university years: as she tells the audience, “there is nothing so distant as the recent past.”

A funny and thoughtful insight into some of the most radical ideas of the early to mid-seventies

Grant appeared to be looking towards her characters’ futures, highlighting some of the issues prevalent in an era that exists only as an implied future in her novel – namely, the 1980s and 1990s, where AIDS was becoming a widespread problem. Adele meets several advocates of sexual experimentation during her time as a student, not least an openly gay character called Bobby. Whilst Bobby appears to embody the freedom given to students to choose and express their individual identities, Grant was well aware of the AIDs epidemic about to overwhelm the gay community. She tells the audience that her time at university was one where “nothing could harm us”; Bobby’s sexual freedom, however, serves by implication as a powerful reminder of the potentially dangerous lifestyle he would later be exposed to.

Upstairs at the Party isn’t just a vivid and vibrant dialogue about student life in the seventies but also a reminder that issues such as mental health and the struggle for a definitive identity are dangers that all young people face, whatever their generation. Grant ends the discussion on a poignant note when she states that “every generation finds a new set of problems,” and perhaps this is why Upstairs at the Party has been greeted with such promising reviews: it is a funny, saddening and reflective novel inviting empathy from readers of all generations.

Originally published at Palatinate Online.

ISIS: a movement spread through social media

Image sourced from Wikipedia.

The videos of U.S. journalist James Foley’s alleged execution by ISIS fighters went viral in August. Followed by the beheadings of Steven Sotloff and David Haines, ISIS have furthered the militant Islamist ideology of leaders like Osama bin Laden to the point where al-Qaeda have cut all ties with the group due to their brutality. ISIS’s threat stems not least from the use of an apparently British militant carrying out the executions, which begs the question: if they have the power and ability to reach the ‘desperate and disaffected youth’, as quoted by The Guardian, just how dangerous are they to the reputation of Islam, and to the safety of the world?

ISIS has a decade-long history of activity spanning Iraq, Syria and Turkey, but it is their recent actions that have brought the group to the attention of our media. They have advanced beyond suicide and car bombings to focus specifically on targeting the U.S. and Britain, reaching a more personal means of attack by targeting individuals, and therefore their families and communities. Their use of the internet in perpetrating these crimes demonstrates their understanding of its power: they know that people are, by nature, strangely fascinated by the violent and macabre, and therefore their disturbing videos will circulate swiftly. And even when people refuse to watch the videos – by principal, or because they are affected by the nature of the murders – they still make the headlines of world media. ISIS has proved quite clearly that it can make an impact on the world extremely quickly.

By placing a British figure at the forefront of their videos, ISIS also demonstrate the ease with which they can ‘radicalise’ Westerners. This decision has more purpose than to shock viewers: it means we can no longer easily dehumanise perpetrators of terrorist acts and dismiss them as ‘others’. We have to recognise that young people from our own countries are capable of the acts many cultures deem ‘barbaric’ – and with this, we must question why young people are joining ISIS in the first place.

By using social media to reach out to more people than has previously been possible, ISIS can use recruitment techniques reminiscent of military campaigns through time – the depiction of an idealised Jihadist to which future fighters should aspire, coupled with promises of glory, money and women – to communicate their ideology to young Muslims who may sympathise with their cause. They draw upon instances of western or Christian crimes against Muslims that are rarely or never discussed in our media, and remind recruits of the often tendentious depiction of Islamic militants in comparison to violent groups of other religions and cultures. By reversing the language often used by our media, ISIS has effectively created an opportunity for young Muslims to break away from western values and fight for a cause not previously open to them. And their propaganda is effective – over 500 British Muslims have travelled overseas to join ISIS in the last year, and 250 more have returned as converted Jihadists.

ISIS’s claim to be ‘an Islamic army accepted by a large number of Muslims worldwide’ is damaging enough to the reputation of the Islamic faith. Whilst ISIS justifies its actions with a retaliatory argument, it has encountered criticism from Islamic groups around the world. A recent letter to David Cameron, signed by representatives of the Islamic Society of Britain and the Association of Muslim Lawyers, asserted that ‘[ISIS] is neither Islamic, nor is it a state. The group has no standing with faithful Muslims’.The issue is that years of poor media coverage and poor education around religious issues have led to a widespread ignorance amongst the public as to the difference between the peaceful teachings of Islam and the extremist views of groups such as ISIS. Efforts to solve this problem are wasted when politicians and the media continue to use language that implies that ISIS has any ties with mainstream Islamic values, such as their persistent referring to ISIS as ‘Islamic State’, which somewhat reinforces ISIS’s claim to be a true ‘Islamic army’.

Whilst the west works to fight ISIS and its collaborators, efforts should be made in our own communities to prevent ISIS from further threatening the reputation of Islam, and to dissuade young Muslims from joining the group. We should work to counter the claims of ISIS as a ‘widely-accepted’ Islamic army by educating people about the difference between Islam’s teachings and extremists’ actions. ISIS’s online presence should be challenged by anti-ISIS efforts on our part – although the U.S. has recently attempted this with its ‘Think Again, Turn Away’ mock ISIS recruitment video. A movement that crosses the boundaries of its predecessors, occupying social media as well as territorial space, needs more than gunfire and airstrikes to defeat it. 

Originally published on Palatinate Online.