Saturday, March 1, 2025

Culture

Should ‘Orbital’ have won The Booker Prize? 

Laurence Cooke reviews Samantha Harvey's 'Orbital', the winner of the 2025 Booker Prize.

Fontaines DC and the (re) rise of indie Sleaze

I recently took to my finsta to post a story claiming that the Fontaines...

Julie review – Free shots, toxic relationships, immersive theatre

My ticket to see Julie resembled an invite to a birthday party, promising a...

Who is Oxford’s Coffee Shop Artist? In conversation with Julia Whatley

Julia sees herself as the conduit through which an artistic vision is realised. Where does this vision come from? “Somewhere else.”

“If a book is well written, I always find it too short”: Our Ongoing Love Affair with Pride and Prejudice

"In Being Mr Wickham, Lukis and Curzon have had relatively free reign to develop the titular character, given that Austen doesn’t reveal much about Wickham’s past other than his involvement with Darcy." Beth Proctor discusses the latest left-field adaptation of Jane Austen's classic.

Review: ‘Klara and the Sun’ by Kazuo Ishiguro

'In Klara, Ishiguro crafts a memorable first-person narrative voice, simultaneously robotic and infantile, scrupulous yet naïve.'

No neutrality in another tongue: translation and the ethos of cultural power

Nowadays, most people think of translation as an impartial, disinterested profession of fluent polyglots. Its history shows otherwise. In 1915, the renowned American poet...

Discordant disenchantment: Hyperpop as the pandemic’s soundtrack

As lockdowns were imposed across the globe, most of us turned to the internet to maintain some semblance of sanity. Within these conditions Hyperpop was able to thrive.

Happy 2021 Census day

Think of each Census like a point of data on an ever-growing Graph, the more accurate the data and the more standard the points of data, then the more accurate the conclusion can be drawn.

Review: Spoon River Anthology

"In a year with little to no available theatrical resources, the production team of Spoon River managed to create a magical experience of many intersecting forms of artistic talent telling important stories. From the editing of the audio file to the curation of the journal, the performance flowed seamlessly from sense to sense."

Thoughts on Literary Awards

Literary awards and prizes have been around for centuries, with the first British Award for Literature established in 1919 (The James Tait Black Memorial...

The Mechanicanon: AI and Literary Value

this new canon shall – by learning to load and fire itself – exile us from even counting as its projectile or target

Modern musicals and new writing: where did musical theatre leave off?

CW: Addiction, rape, homophobia, conversion therapy, depression. "While the apparent lack of original musicals can feel disheartening, there’s actually a lot of original work out there." Katie Kirkpatrick looks at the state of new musical theatre.

This isn’t Music

Imagine, then, that we are surrounded by an endless field of noise- every person, whether they can ‘hear’ or not, is moving through this field of non-musical sound, the raw chaos of natural existence, and that although this chaos may not offer itself as pleasurable, it is necessary, and, for that matter, does not care what people think about it, with the moment of experiencing noise music itself being exposed to a natal image of transcendent noise.

Review: Weezer’s “OK Human”

"Ultimately, the album is about the human experience: the joys and monotonies; the passions and anxieties; the connection and solitude". Karan Chandra reviews Weezer's latest record, OK Human.

“Nothing Important”? An Introduction to Richard Dawson

"Dawson’s lyrics aren’t poems; the music is too important to the cadence and stress of the lines for the words to retain their power without it. Still, they do pass that age-old test which can be used upon a line of verse to distinguish the animating spirit of poetry: they’re often almost impossible to gloss in prose." Oscar Jelley tries to unravel the complexities of Geordie folk singer-songwriter, Richard Dawson.

UK Hun?: Drag’s Message to 2021

Promotion of self-love for all and checking in on your friends (UK Hun?) truly transforms this camp bop into a feel-good anthem

Clubbing in Culture: Rituals of Community-Finding

On the dancefloor is where you find your people in the deepest sense

Teen Dramas: Winx Saga Doesn’t Fly

Whilst Winx Saga is tripping over itself to scream 2020s at us, some of the most successful teen-based Netflix shows – Stranger Things and Sex Education for example – are both doing the opposite

Review: Julien Baker’s ‘Little Oblivions’

CW: Mentions of alcoholism, substance abuse. "'Little Oblivions', then, is a battle diary published long after nadir itself, with retrospective editing. The full-band sound makes it extremely listenable, and Baker’s silvery voice is snugly at home amidst metallic textures." Irene Zhang looks at Julien Baker's latest release.

Arctic Monkeys’ “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not”: 15 Years On

"Arctic Monkeys' sentiment of local identity is perfectly surmised in the closing track ‘A Certain Romance,’; though it bemoans the towns low fashion and ‘kids who scrap with pool cues in their hands,’ it resolves into a statement of "this is our town, our culture, and we’re owning it."" Greg Halliwell looks back at what the Sheffield quartet's debut album meant to Northern music culture, 15 years' on.

In Truth

'Everything I told you Came out untrue'

Time

'The clocks cry her name from Outside the door; Their hands are stiff and still.'

Changes by the River

'It doesn’t matter how stagnant we feel, The seasons keep on flowing'

Follow us