Our Chancery Lane

I do enjoy my daily trip through the legal area of our capital city.

I only get glimpses of the area as I pass on my way into the city centre yet each glimpse seems to tell a story. Recently, the legal system has been split into separate areas in the city rather than the centralised system that was previously in place. As a result of this, I pass two areas of the legal system on my commute. Each of these areas seems to show the same two traits.

I meet the new court first on my commute. The building is a massive investment for the city, with huge glass façades and polished stonework. Upon its completion, the foot traffic around this area has grown exponentially. As an English Student I should not be so inclined to judge a book by its cover, however there does seem to be mainly two types of people surrounding the court. Many professional looking people with high class suits and robes frequent the area, most likely profitable lawyers and judges. The other group wears less expensive clothes, eat their breakfast on the street and are sometimes assaulted by photographers. So lawyers and criminals then, making each other more obvious by contrast and being forced to meet each other on the steps of the new court.

After passing this new area I go through the old court area. It is much quieter these days and is no longer assaulted by photographers. In fact, the only people really seen around these courts are people wearing long robes and ridiculous wigs. I began to wonder if the legal system had simply exported people that they did not enjoy dealing with to another area of the city. To grossly simplify the issue from the perspective of a bus, they tried to separate the lower class from their upper interests. This attempt seems to be a glorious failure however, as a small and secretive public house next door opens earlier than most laws allow, offering a place for the 'working class' to relax at almost any hour in the day.

Despite attempts to change the dynamic, the legal areas remain a self-perpetuating patchwork of rich, poor, law and disorder. While this institution may change area, fundamentally it will not change at all.

-The English Student

Masters of Disguise

Dressing up is a lot of fun.

Every country in the world should take an active part in fancy dress occasions like Hallowe'en. Our capital city is a glorious menagerie of bizarre, sublime, ridiculous and sometimes wrong costumes. At the same time the reputation of Hallowe'en has taken a severe downturn in this and countless other countries. In the eyes of many, the event has become an excuse for people to wear as little clothes as possible and engage in anonymous sexual activity under the cover of masquerade.

This masquerade warrants further discussion as it is surely not as simple as donning unusual attire as a protective mechanism. We all engage in disguise on various levels. The idea of self deception and creating alternative personalities and narratives for ourselves has been discussed more than enough and stands as an example of our need to pretend and project. The bottom line however, is that while we are disguised we feel more free to explore our natures. This can range from a simple flailing of the arms on a dance floor, to an arguably dangerous encounter with a stranger.

It is very easy to deride such events as an excuse for debauchery. It becomes a focal point for a certain fear. The fear that we all have about our own naturally created 'disguises'. Underneath these masquerades perhaps we are just the animals that we ethically and spiritually hold ourselves above.

...or perhaps it's just a lot of fun to dress up and pretend to be a super hero!

-The English Student

In Defence of the Vuvuzela

This year's World Cup seems to be bringing a record number of headaches to spectators.

The Vuvuzela, a traditional South African horn, has been wreaking havoc with the broadcasting of the soccer World Cup. Broadcasters like BBC and other national stations have been inundated with complaints about the constant droning of the horns. While I am not personally a fan of the sport, many of my friends have brought up the issue, with some being unable to watch a match in its entirety due to the noise.

For myself, I find the sport of soccer monotonous enough and as such avoid watching it whenever the choice is my own. This of course puts me on the outside of conversations and discussions quite frequently as the sport is obviously hugely popular. Yet for me that is not such a major issue as popularity is not a convincing indicator of quality. Indeed, there are countless examples of where the exact opposite is true.

I do not care how people feel about my indifference to soccer and the fans in South Africa do not care how the rest of the world feels about their Vuvuzelas. It is their own instrument, their own method of celebration. The South African supporters have stamped their own identity on the World Cup and this legacy will not be broken for the people that cannot understand the underlying basis for the Vuvuzela.

If people find the unique horn so offensive they should just go ahead and force the sport further towards homogeneity.

-The English Student

The Grand Tour

Places and personalities can become synonymous.

The idea of The Grand Tour is one that persisted for many centuries, especially in the United Kingdom. On paper the idea seems simple. A rich young noble takes a trip around continental Europe and beyond for an extended amount of time. This gives the 'tourist' an opportunity to sample different cultures, thereby completing their education and acceptance as an adult in the upper class. Of course, in practice, this largely equated to destructive young men roaring through countries experimenting with drugs and sexuality.

I do think that there is some worthwhile merit in this Grand Tour. At the same time I do not condone the subjugation of cultures by rich and reckless children - there is a very good reason that social constructions prevent us from engaging in all of our primal desires. So removing the lascivious elements of the Grand Tour leaves us with an extended trip abroad. Yet I still believe that the Tour has more worth than a simple holiday.

British lords considered the Grand Tour as a completion to sexual education, yet I believe a different type of education is at the core. Living in one country or place for many years gives many obvious benefits like relationship networks, income and security. Yet too much time spent in one place inevitably leads to an over-reliance on the area. A home town becomes a part of a personality and enforces behavioural patterns. These patterns are cemented into a person and become a part of them. In effect, the environment becomes a defining aspect of personality. Perhaps the Grand Tour still has worth as an idea because it forces us to break outside of this environment. We can become closer to understanding the person that we truly are if we remove one external factor.

If we sacrifice the outdated practical use of the Grand Tour a valuable seed remains: fulfilment of our personal education.

-The English Student

Narrative Over-Stimulation

We are a culture that thrives on narrative.

When you look at all forms of art, literature and music some kind of narrative is evident. It could be a narrative within the piece that allows us to follow, like the plot of a novel. Of course, some narratives can be obscure and so the overall process of an author or artist becomes the narrative that we cling to. Even post-modern and contemporary work that attempts to defy this tendency ultimately results in us delving further into our imaginations to create a narrative.

Beyond cultural work, this pattern of creating narratives is constantly in effect. Our relationships with friends, co-workers and family are formed with narrative structures. You may meet someone, begin to like them, become friends, have a fight and repair your friendship or any number of possibilities. We even create plots for ourselves. When starting a new job, it is like a new chapter or section of your narrative, another small segment that makes up the narrative of your life. Projecting these narratives is never a straight forward affair as we often show an ideal narrative of ourselves, rather than one based on fact.

It is very easy to become completely engulfed in these 'fictional' narratives. People constantly idealise their own narratives or spend their entire lives engulfed in other narratives. This creation is a major part of our humanity and seems to be a unique process for our species. It follows that our species is unique in that it constantly reinvents itself beyond the truth in order to feel more comfortable with itself.

It all amounts to a narrative over-stimulation.

The English Student

A Truly Great Barber

I finally relented this week and took my hair self in for a haircut.

Despite appearances, I would actually go to my barber fairly frequently. My inability to spend money with any kind of free abandon makes me tentative to book dentist or doctor appointments. The fair prices that I have worked out with my barber (without discussing it!) are based on whether I am working or not. This gives an early insight into the kind of barbershop this man runs. The next insight comes from the standard by which any barbershop can be judged.

I generally look forward to our haircut chat. This is usually primed by a quick perusal of the newspapers lying around the shop. It is pretty much the only opportunity I get to read the papers that are inclined to use red ink in their title headlines. Our usual chat moves from here to sporting issues, the weather, the state of the country and other general areas. Even if you consider these areas 'mundane', the level of discourse is always very high. The man is highly intelligent and experienced and leaves me chasing him through a myriad of debates.

We even had a frank and illuminating discussion on death this time around. It was a fairly abrupt change of conversation and yet it was not out of place in the barbershop. We did not say a huge amount on the subject, despite the fact that we were actually discussing it for a large amount of time. We came to the conclusion that there really is not anything that can be said to encompass death and so we did not feel the need to bandy words about. It was appropriate and enthralling.

He also did an excellent job on my hair throughout it all: the mark of a truly great barber!

-The English Student

A-Adventurous

I really do seem incapable of having any kind of adventure.

In the last week some of my friends spontaneously took off for a little adventure. It may not have been fully on the spur of the moment, but within a few hours of discussing a plan they were out of the country fulfilling it. Some people seemed to be a touch angry at them, others shocked, while plenty thought the whole situation was hilarious. I have felt a huge amount of envy.

In a previous post I discussed my ridiculous frugal tendencies and in some respects, this explains my inability to feel free to go off and have such an adventure. My brain would constantly be worrying about spending money when something this spontaneous can only be done without this restraint. But this is incidental to the foundation of my problem. Time is the real resource that I would not be able to give in. If I am not in work, then I am studying. If I am not studying, then I am trying to recuperate energy for work and study. While I still spend a lot of time doing nothing, this nothing is a part of my solid schedule that leaves no room for adventure.

If this keeps up I will truly lose my ability to have wild experiences. It seems that it is an issue of control and reassurance. If someone cannot release some of the control they exert over their internal and external lives then they will never be open to alternative experience. Yet I type all this knowing that I am very unlikely to release this intense control that I hold over myself.

If I continue to wait for an epiphany that will shock me out of this control I may very well miss my opportunity to explore. I may very well become a-adventurous.

-Then English Student