Oh! The Angst!

Cynicism has become an important part of student life.

This past week has seen my pessimism reach previously un-fathomed depths. Along with the usual bitching and moaning relating to the college/country/planet authorities, the smaller things have come within the reticule of my depressing rifle. The aggression of certain breeds of bird, the use of the word "supposebly" and the sogginess of tomatoes have all been the subject of bitter, never-ending tirades.

Oddly enough, however, I no longer view this pessimism as a bad thing. With previous little time left in college, it is the right of the student to verbally tear to shreds every single aspect of existence. Nothing should be left along from our scathing and snide remarks that undermine the very laws of existence. We are thus united under a banner of negation.

For after all, this college era is most certainly ending. We will not have the luxury of complaint for much longer as we must finally engage with the system rather than deriding it from afar. Inevitably, we must become the people we despise. But if we can hold on to the smallest part of our disquiet, or at least the memory of it, then perhaps we can give future generations less to complain about.

If not, then at least they can enjoy their small rebellion as we have enjoyed ours!

-The English Student

Deconstruction, not Destruction

Although it is an old theory, the idea of 'deconstruction' as posited by Jacques Derrida and others still has worth today.

'Deconstructionism' deals with the idea that there are no overall theories that can properly encapsulate existence. This school of thought came as a reaction to theorists who believed that literary texts are examples of unifying constructs that create understanding. These theories were pushed further with hypotheses that claimed that language itself was without any universal meaning and is a hollow construction that belies true existence.

These theories have often been derided for being elitist and abstract. On the surface, it is very easy to believe methods of deconstruction to be out of touch with common literary practice and common human existence. After all, by claiming that there is no universality in relation to literary texts, one can be seen to ignore the common tropes and form that are latent in countless instance of literature. It seems that we should take a slightly less extreme approach to criticism if we are going to engage with the theories of Derrida.

Indeed, it is important to make the distinction between 'deconstruction' and 'destruction'. We must not completely ignore all aspects of a text, but instead we should reduce them down to their basic form. The value of 'deconstruction' is that it attempts to make room for contrasting theories while looking for an underlying trope common to them all. Instead of forcing writers and texts together, sparing use of 'deconstructionist' approaches will allow a critic to identify the foundations of these texts rather than create a hollow amalgamation of the issues they deal with.

In this way, 'deconstruction' should be identified as another useful band in the spectrum of literary criticism.

-The English Student

Steinbeck and Orwell: Approaching an understanding of Capitalism

Orwell offers a solution to a major problem identified in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

The Joad family travel throughout the southern United States in a bid to find employment and a new home after the destruction of their farm. Steinbeck counterpoints the personal issues of the family with the general plight of the citizens of the country. The ordinary labour workers are becoming victims to the increasingly powerful leaders of industry that have emerged in the economy. These capitalists have gained so much power that it makes more economical sense to let crops die than to pay people to harvest them. Steinbeck indicates that this capital will fall into the hands of fewer and fewer people as this process continues.

But any solution he offers is undermined by a general impotence on the part of the labour movement. Instead, we have to look to other writers to find potential alleviations to this struggle. In Nineteen-Eighty Four we find a society that is constantly in war. The constant need to supply products for the war effort has created stable employment for millions and more importantly, has prevented a revolution by the working class. War can bring capital from outside a country back into it and this process can allow wealth to trickle down through the main capitalists to the individual workers.

Of course, this is a very bleak and distressing conclusion but the solidity of it cannot be denied. Even Marx can be adopted to this theory when his strategy of working within systems rather than revolutionising them is taken into account. However, this system will inevitably lead to strife and pain as increasing levels of violence (or at least destruction of products) would be necessary to sustain it. Is there no way of improving the system?

Can we no longer control the capitalist leviathan that we have created?

-The English Student

Franz Ferdinand: Concert Review

At last, the brilliantly original Franz Ferdinand have returned to the touring circuit.

If they have faced recent criticism for an apparent separation from their previous inspiration, the Scottish four piece certainly did not show a drop in quality as they took over our capital city for the night. This is most noticeable in their iconic on-stage style the band moves as a tight and intense unit that really communicates their love for music to the crowd. While any verbal interaction is kept to a minimum, passion oozes from the pores of every person on stage.

Front man Alex Kapranos obviously takes a lot of attention and considering his perpetual vocal improvement this is certainly well-deserved. However, the drumming skill of Paul Thomson completely stole the show. The power and ingenuity of Thomson is borne out in every single song as he confidently breathes life into new tunes and past classics alike. It is hard to overstate the impression that this Keith Moon/Phil Selway/Animal hybrid makes and how important he is in creating the bands unique live sound.

The consistency of Thomson and the band in general is important when the changing sound of the band is considered. While their latest album, "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" marks a departure from earlier work, the cohesion of the band makes a set of old and new virtually seamless. This culminates in a brilliantly innovative and well-paced concert. The highlight of this set would have to be the energetic "Outsiders", but this is akin to choosing a diamond from a collection of other gemstones.

The mark of a great band is one that sounds better in person than on record; point in case is the newly revived and truly fresh Franz Ferdinand.

-The English Student

A Tremor of Contact

In The Metropolis and Modern Life, Georg Simmel compares the small towns which were based on “feelings and emotional relationships” and the “rational manner” of the metropolis.

Theorists like Simmel were obsessed with identifying the differences between rural and city life. These realms were divided by issues of subjectivity and objectivity, capital and money-economy. But the most striking and relevant trope in these writings relates to personal relationships. A conception of these relationships based in city life came to my mind recently during my commute.

I accidentally placed my hand upon the hand of another traveller while exiting a bus. This slight incident left a pronounced mark on my thoughts for the entire day. A prevailing tremor ran through my body and mind after this glancing contact. But why should such an event seem so important to me? We may be surrounded by thousands of people in the urban landscape but we truly are separated from them. We have replaced the need for physical space based in the rural with a mental division based in the urban.

My shock was based on the apparent contradiction between the densely populated city and our isolated position within it. Initially, this disconnection seems like an undesirable change in human interaction. But in actuality, the reserve we now keep for physical action makes contact more important. The use of action and even words has become more concentrated and a concise and this heightens the illustriousness of communication. We should not begrudge the change of human contact with the movement from the rural to the urban.

Instead, we should be grateful for the opportunity to create greater meaning with every word, look and touch.

-The English Student

Psycho: Almost 50 Years Later

With this years Oscars on the horizon we should take this opportunity to look back on past greats.

Christmas seems to come earlier each year, games and albums are pirated at a higher pace and the college year flies by at increasingly high speeds. With this in mind, I have no problem jumping the gun on everyone and offering a fifty year retrospective of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho forty-nine years after it was released. Many people have made wide reaching statements about the film but I believe that it is summed up by its own subtitle: "A new and altogether different screen excitement."

A modern audience may find Psycho to be quite dated in places. The special effects are hardly special anymore and the relatively censored murder scenes bring a smile to the viewer who is used to the 'ultra-violence' of contemporary horror. But if you are turned off by these aspects then you have missed the point. The ability of Hitchcock to use simple imagery to create iconic and memorable scenes is sublime. With its simple black and white cinematography, exquisite music and believable character development Psycho achieves what films with ten times it budget consistently fail at: genuine tension.

More than this, Hitchcock has created a psycho-analytical thriller before the genre even existed. We are drawn into the minds of every character in the film and become both a victim on the murderer and an accomplice. The many levels of the psyche that this film deals with is quite staggering and the sociological issues of equality and isolation are still very relevant today. Hitchcock really did set the groundwork for the psychological thriller and as such shares some of the credit for the truly great films we have seen from that genre. He does not, however, share some of the guilt for the truly awful ones we have endured from that genre. 

If your thriller is underwhelming then you need to re-watch the forty-nine year old Psycho, for it is a masterclass on the art of cinema.

-The English Student

In Search of an Opposition

People are very dissatisfied with our government recently, but I am far more dissatisfied with our opposition.

This week the national newspapers rang out an alarm across the political corridors of the city. The government has apparently become deeply unpopular and lost many percentage points through informal polling. This is especially worrying for the government now as they face numerous votes and electoral challenges in the coming months. In fact, many people believe this government to be practically finished.

But what alternative is there? The main opposition party has comparatively low numbers in similar polls and many would reject a government lead by the party's figurehead. It really would seem that the people of this country do not know what they want in a government. People could easily link this to a growing level of political apathy, but not all parties lost so badly in these polls.

The most quiet, inoffensive and downright cowardly party has gained a marked boost in popularity. I do not wish to engage in a tirade against this party but it is deeply worrying that the electorate deems them a good alternative without seeing any real definition of policy. The current government have set the agenda, this party simply opposes it without any self-declaration of intent. People are entitled to deride the government for their shortcomings but this certainly should not result in success for an untested and vague political party.

We need strong leaders and representation in this country but without a strong and well-defined opposition we will not get them.

-The English Student