Monday 7th July 2025
Blog Page 1022

Les Misérables composer comes to Catz

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Claude-Michel Schönberg, the French composer who first adapted the novel Les Misérables into a musical, has been announced as the next Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at St Catherine’s College. He will succeed Simon Russell Beale in October 2016.

The position of Chair of Contemporary Theatre, which was founded through a grant from the Mackintosh Foundation at St Catz promotes both the study and the performance of contemporary theatre. Previous professors have included Patrick Stewart, Stephen Sondheim, Tim Rice and Phyllida Lloyd.

Schönberg announced, “After a certain age you want to share what you have learnt about your work and pass it to the next generation. Everybody has to go through their own experience, there is no shortcut but I can help to bring to the surface what creators have deep inside so they can understand better the process of their alchemy: channelling the stream of your passion and being patient enough to be at work when the inspiration occurs.”

Professor Roger Ainsworth, Master of St Catherine’s College, commented, “I am thrilled that Claude-Michel will be this year’s Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre. Claude-Michel’s eminent position and long-standing experience in contemporary musical theatre makes him an apt holder of this title, and it is wonderful that our students will have the opportunity to learn about this first-hand. It is an honour for St Catherine’s to be welcoming him and I look forward to his inaugural lecture later this year with great anticipation.”

Claude-Michel Schönberg began as a record producer, singer and songwriter and began musical theatre composition in 1973 with the French musical La Révolution Française. This began his long term collaboration with lyricist Alain Boublil.

In 1974 they began their musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, which would go on to become a global success, winning eight Tony awards including Best Musical. It was adapted to film in 2012 for which Claude-Michel received nominations for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards for “Suddenly”.

Schönberg has penned other successful musicals such as Miss Saigon (1989) and Marguerite (2008) and has received a Grammy for outstanding contribution to the creative community.

Izzy Rose, second year Music student at University College is delighted by the news, and told Cherwell, “I think it sounds like a fantastic appointment, it’s so important to have strong representation of contemporary arts within the academic structure of the Oxford collegiate system. It’s an extremely effective way of making new artistic ideas accessible to the broader student body even if it’s not part of their degrees.”

Issy Newell, Magdalen first year and producer of Magdalen’s garden play The Importance of Being Earnest had mixed feelings about the appointment. She told Cherwell, “As a fan of Claude-Michel’s work and musical theatre, his appointment is exciting news. It can’t be denied that he has reams of experience of the contemporary musical industry, and perhaps his appointment will result in a greater number of more adventurous modern musicals to be produced in Oxford.

“However, musical theatre plays a small part in the very large contemporary theatre industry, and I can’t help feeling that he won’t be able to contribute much to Oxford drama. The most exciting student drama is the wonderfully creative interpretations of both contemporary and old plays, but with musicals I feel that such artistic exploration isn’t as possible.”

Summer VIIIs: The Story

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Crashes, clashes, and collisions: Summer VIIIs 2016 has all the makings of a great bumps week. The leading amateur collegiate rowing festival in the world (sorry Cambridge) has been a tale of continuity at the top thus far, with the traditional powerhouses maintaining their dominance in the mens’ and womens’ divisions.

Oriel have put in two powerful performances to row over as Head of the men’s divisions. Captained by the charismatic Stevan Boljevic, the Tortoises held Christ Church, stroked by Blue Boat man Nick Hazell, at a length and a half on Wednesday. House were a little more threatening on Thursday, pushing Oriel to a quarter length, but again the Tortoises clung on. Cherwell expects that this may be the year when a Serbian college boat club captain finally takes the headship. Behind Crunchie, Pembroke have delivered two successive row overs. Without Jonny Ross, veteran of over nine years bumps racing, they’ve looked a little short in their rowing but are unlikely to be caught until Saturday when Keble strike.

At the top end of the men’s rowing the most exciting pile-up came on Wednesday when Magdalen, Wolfson and Keble were involved in a three way collision. Magdalen, bereft of a strong top-end, glacially made their way from Donnington Bridge to the gut with Wolfson in hot pursuit. As the Wolf-pack went in for the bump, a chasing Keble crew struck , Tintin Stutter (Osiris 2016, Keble M2 2015) the Keble cox expertly steering her boat into the Wolfson stern. Panic ensued as both Wolfson and Keble pulled-over, thinking they had bumped, with Keble forced to put in an emergency restart as Teddy Hall approached, powered by George ‘Ladiator’ Mckirdy.

Over on the womens’ side Wadham have also been dominant. After a weak showing at Torpids, Wadham have managed to evade Pembroke on both Wednesday and Thursday, keeping them at a length as they passed Boat House island. With last year’s OUWBC captain, Anastasia Chitty, in the seven seat, the Panthers will be looking for some heroics over the weekend as they push on for the Headship. Oriel have also surged up into the bottom end of division one, bumping Worcester on Wednesday to become the top div sandwich boat and then taking Sommerville later that day. The Blessed Virgins struck again on Thursday, clinically bumping New outside the Univ boathouse. Coxed by the formidable Ed Carroll, this is a crew to watch over the last two days.

Overall in the top two women’s divisions there has been more mobility than with the men. Teddy Hall, New, Worcester, Merton and Osler House were all bumped on both Wednesday and Thursday, whilst Lincoln, Mansfield, Hertford and Keble as well as Oriel have all moved up on both days. With Univ bumping Magdalen on the first day to move from fourth to third, but unable to take Pembroke on the Thursday, it seems unlikely that there will be much turnover between the top three. One crew to watch in particular are Lincoln W1, who stand a strong chance of progressing into the top divisions.

It hasn’t all been rosy for Oriel however. Their Men’s 2nd VIII has lost the coveted ‘Head of the Second VIIIs’ position to Pembroke M2. The Panthers’ second boat is a formidable beast. In Torpids it bumped up into the first division and has continued this form into VIIIs. With the redoubtable Carl Gergs, their men’s captain, powering the boat from the seven seat, this boat has a fighting chance of finishing sixth in the men’s second division. The LMH men are another boat to watch in the men’s div two. Chasing Catz on the Friday and then potentially Hertford on the Saturday, they may well win blades. Another crew who have achieved a meteoric rise is Hugh’s M1, who have risen from second in division three to 12th in division two. Could this be the year for Hugh’s?

Down in the bottom divisions it has been predictably chaotic on both the mens’ and womens’ sides. It has been a tale of two boat clubs for LMH, as their men’s third boat has dropped from 8th to 12th in division seven, with Catz M3 inverting this performance and ascending from seventh to eleventh. Pembroke IV currently hold the mantle of foot of the river on the women’s side, and seem likely to stay there, with Balliol III hovering above them.

In a year in which the top end boats look a little slower than those which raced in 2015 and 2014, the performances have followed expectation. This is a bumps campaign without some of the men and women who have cast a long shadow over Oxford rowing; Constantine Louloudis, Will Geffen (Hilda’s M2 coach 2016) and Karyn Davies are all conspicuously absent from the river. With 25,000 supporters due to descend on Boat House island on the Saturday, be sure to be there for one of the greatest spectacles in world rowing.

Magdalen creates new Trans rep

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Magdalen has unanimously passed a motion to mandate the LGBTQ officer to represent Trans members of the JCR.

The role will involve working with the college on developing a Trans policy, as well as recommending to future JCR Committees to appoint a Trans officer should the LGBTQ officers feel unable to lobby for Trans students.

The motion stated, “These [Trans] students often have specific needs and face complex issues for which there is often little guidance and support. For example, negotiations with college regarding transitioning, financial assistance with medical costs, being put in contact with other transgender students.

“There has been a greater push among the University and national student body to support transgender students, including through the creation of the new full time NUS trans-rep and the widespread adoption of gender neutral toilets and transitioning policies.”

It also noted that Magdalen was yet “to create publicly accessible gender neutral toilets” despite prompting from both the JCR and MCR and that it has “no current policy for transitioning students”.

Matthew Elliot, the LGBTQ trustee who proposed the officership, told Cherwell, “As a non-binary person, I felt that there could be no guarantee that future LGBTQ reps could adequately represent trans members of the JCR.

“I think that this is an important issue because the college still needs to do work on creating an official policy for transitioning students and providing access to publicly accessible gender-neutral toilets.”

The debate concerning the motion was not at all about the merits of gender-neutral toilets or the college’s need to have a policy for transitioning students, but came down to smaller questions of constitutionality and whether a full officership was possible, and how many students the position would represent.

“I was quite surprised that the motion passed unanimously, and I was quite nervous about the possibility of strong opposition to the motion.

“However, in hind sight, I feel that any members of the JCR who attend-
ed the meeting and opposed the motion would have had strong reservations about being openly against the provision of the right of representation for trans people.”

Indeed, the only changes made to the motion dealt with small issues adapting the position from another college to the constitution of Magdalen’s JCR, which makes officerships more difficult to create.

“I based the motion to create a trans officer on the same role in the JCR of St. Hugh’s, where the position does not have to be filled”, Elliot said. “However, this contradicts the constitution of the JCR, as all committee roles must be filled, and so the motion was amended to create the position as a supernumerary officer in the case where LGBTQ reps feel that they are unable to represent trans students.”

JCR president Sam Sherburn commented, “I am delighted that Magdalen JCR unanimously passed this motion which affirmed our commitment to make sure that all voices are heard equally, and are represented in the strongest way possible to the college.”

Many students saw this as a welcome development for the college.

“This is another essential step in making the college a more welcoming place for all people” first-year historian Benn Sheridan said. “Magdalen has always had a slightly austere reputation, this will change that.”

Voting for NUS referendum approaches; debate continues

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Campaigns for the NUS referendum were launched this week, with both ‘Yes to NUS’ and ‘No Thanks, NUS’ unveiling their official manifestos and beginning to canvas throughout the university.

The campaign launches come a week before polling opens for the referendum, which follows a period of controversy in the national union due to the election of Malia Bouattia, who was accused of anti-semitism, as NUS national president.

Speaking about the campaign launch, Becky Howe, OUSU president and co-leader of ‘Yes to NUS’ said, “We have got a really amazing bunch of students we’re working with on this, and whilst it is really, really time consuming, it is definitely being helped by how many people are giving time and energy to this.”

Her co-leader and OUSU vice-president Lucy Delaney, added, “We’re pretty exhausted but also still quite spurred on. I think adrenaline characterises it, and we’ve got a fantastic, fantastic, dedicated campaign. Everybody is equally doing so much: there’s no hierarchy.”

Howe continued, “What we want to try and do with the campaign is make sure as many voices as possible are heard and as many people get to express why the NUS is invaluable to them but, hand-in-hand with that, making sure that people are aware of actually what NUS does.”

Representative of ‘No Thanks NUS’ and former OUSU vice-president Jack Matthews told Cherwell, “It’s been a great start to the campaign, with so many people offering their time and support. What’s especially encouraging is hearing from those who voted ‘yes’ two years ago, who’ve seen for themselves how promises of reform from within have proved false, and are now supporting a ‘no’ vote.

The key thing for us is to engage students from across Oxford in this debate, give them the facts and figures, and show them we have a strong and sensible OUSU that can represent us. We’ve been out at the common room debates where the response has been really positive and, as polling day approaches, you’ll be hearing and seeing a lot more from the ‘No Thanks, NUS’ team.”

Since the launches, a number of independent organisations have released official statements outlining their position.

The university’s Jewish Society has announced its support for ‘No Thanks NUS’, but will not be contributing to campaigns as an organisation nor releasing further comment beyond their initial statement, president Isaac Virchis told Cherwell. However, their individual members will be free to campaign as they wish.

Mind Your Head, an Oxford-based student mental health charity, have gone on record in support of ‘Yes to NUS’ but take a similar line regarding campaigning.

Co-chair Jack Schofield commented, “I don’t think we’re going to get too involved. Individual members of committee are welcome in a private way to do as they wish. Yes, it is our official policy that we endorse a vote to remain in the NUS, but in general I think we have made our statement and we probably won’t be doing too much more, as we do, in general, try not to be political, and we do just want to keep campaigning on issues of mental health in Oxford.”

The campaigners themselves are, by their own admission, unsure about what level of voter turnout to expect, but the general mood around the city seems apathetic, and at best ambivalent. Some students expressed uncertainty as to the nature and causation of the referendum, while others told Cherwell they are unlikely to vote.

There were some undecided voters present at a well-attended referendum debate at St. Hilda’s on Wednesday 25 May, where Howe and Matthews delivered pre-drafted speeches in addition to fielding questions from the audience just six days before polls open on May 31.

Oxford comes second to Cambridge in new rankings

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As well as claiming to offer better punting and more Nobel prize winners, Cambridge now have the satisfaction of being ahead of Oxford in university league tables once again.

The rankings, recently released by the Guardian, rate each university on a wide range of metrics. These include student satisfaction with their teaching course, quality of feedback, spending and number of staff per student, entry tariff and whether the graduate career after six months.

The data was compiled by an independent company using information provided by the universities themselves and drawn from the National Survey of Students to measure satisfaction scores.

Oxford did top Cambridge on student satisfaction with teaching, achieving 92.9 points against the other institution’s 91.3, and satisfaction with courses, 91.6 to 88. Oxford also spends more per student, while Cambridge edges out its rival in jobs, with 89.6 holding a career after six month to 87.6 from Oxford, and higher UCAS point entry tariff s – a score of 600.1 to 576.9.

Cambridge, Oxford and St Andrews have held first, second and third positions respectively for the third year in a row, and Surrey holds onto a fourth place from last year. The big mover is Loughborough, which has shot from 11 to joint fourth since last year.

Oxford edged out Cambridge in both Mathematics and Economics, but was ranked lower in some staples like Classics, Law and History.

An Oxford University spokesman told Cherwell, “The various university ranking tables vary greatly in their criteria and in their placings from year to year. What is most important is that across these tables, Oxford is consistently ranked among the world’s leading institutions, both for the strength of its research and the quality of its teaching.”

First year History and Politics student and Oxford resident Hugh Tappin cited the greater range of course options as one of the reasons he chose his hometown over Cambridge as well as the nightlife.

He told Cherwell he made the decision “principally because they don’t do HisPol at Cambridge and it’s very small: I have heard bad things about the night life – there’s a distinct lack of Bridge.

“You can’t really say no to the Rad Cam being your faculty library and despite what people say about History at Oxford being very traditional, there is actually a fair degree of choice and you’re not as bound to studying British kings and queens as some people would have you believe.”

Some took a silver lining from the loss. “Both educational institutions are world class and the constant competition between us is what create the environment where we keep improving and developing,” first year Magdalen student Hannah McNicol said.

Stand up and be counted: students should campaign to Bremain

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In less than a month now, we will know where our future lies. After years of debates, months since the referendum was first announced, on the morning of June 24 we will wake up to the result of one the most important decisions most of us will have ever collectively made – and for my part, I will do my best to make sure that we stay in the European Union.

In a referendum that will have such an important effect on the rest of our lives, my main worry is that young people won’t have their say. In the last general election, only 43 per cent of people aged 18-24 voted, compared to 78 per cent of over 65s. Given that a recent BBC poll average found that 72 per cent of 18-24 year olds are in favour of staying in Europe, while only 42 per cent of over 65s want to stay, this is a crucial margin. In effect, our inactivity, or failure to register to vote before June 7 (Tuesday of 7th week), could mean the difference between whether Britain stays in, or leaves the European Union.

Here in Oxford, the problem is even more pronounced. Cherwell‘s survey last term found that 80 per cent of a large sample of Oxford students wanted to stay in Europe. Yet issues of registration either at home or at the University mean that there is a real danger of Oxford students in particular missing out on having their say. Even if I didn’t think that Oxford students would vote overwhelmingly to keep Britain in the European Union, I would be upset that so many of us might miss out on our opportunity to decide our future.

When older generations’ higher turnouts constantly disincentivise British political parties from taking a real interest in young peoples’ issues, this referendum is an opportunity to set the record straight. Regardless of the result of the referendum, if a higher proportion of young people vote our opinions will be converted into real political power. A strong youth ‘Yes’ vote will demonstrate how far this nation’s future leaders are committed to creating a much more forward looking European Union.

Of everyone, it’s us young people that will be most affected by the results of this referendum. Whereas the decision will affect only part of our parents’ lives, we will be the ones who may have to spend the whole of our working lives living with the consequences of a ‘No’ vote. Personally, I don’t think that we need to stress the negative aspects of leaving Europe. At the same time, however, I am aware that the huge damage felt by the breakdown of investment, research funding and access to export markets that may come from leaving the European Union would have the biggest long term effects on us. Even here at Oxford University, Moody’s found only a couple of weeks ago that our position as net beneficiaries from European research funding would be jeopardised by a vote to leave Europe. As much as I feel that it’s unnecessary to labour this point, it seems so obvious to me that we Oxford students would be amongst some of the worst hit by Britain’s potential withdrawal from the European Union.

More importantly, however, young people need to vote to keep Britain in the European Union because it offers so much for us. Moves towards European unity have ensured a record period of peace and prosperity in Western Europe that hasn’t been trumped since the end of the Pax Romana. As European citizens, we young people in particular have the benefits of freedom of movement, freedom of trade, and soon freedom from those petty data roaming charges you get when you go abroad. Our membership of the Union facilitates cooperation between nations so that issues that affect young people can be dealt with on a continental scale. Never mind the huge number of students that benefit from Erasmus programmes – membership of the European Union means that young people’s voices are heard on a continental scale. Europe offers so much for people our age, it would be a shame to let older generations drag us out.

Last week, Oxford Students For Europe (OSFE) were fortunate enough to co-host Nick Clegg on his way around the country campaigning for Britain to stay in the European Union. Sat in the auditorium for what was admittedly a relatively brief talk, I was struck most by the urgency with which he spoke. According to a YouGov poll from May 17, the vote to stay in the European Union remains only four per cent ahead of those willing to leave. At present, any slight falter in the remain vote could tip the balance in the Brexiters’ favour. Significantly, a slight change in the opinions of those people that remain unsure about the European Union could spell disaster for our prospects as young people that are part of a hugely productive European system. For a man like Nick Clegg, who has staked his entire career on the mutual benefits of our membership of the Union, this has become a serious call to action. For us members of Oxford University this should also be a wake-up call.

By joining Oxford Students For Europe through our Facebook page, as well as by following us on twitter @osfeurope, we can put you in touch with our campaign to mobilise Oxford
students to vote to stay in the Europe Union. In this way, in the final few weeks before the
referendum, you too can join us in making a real difference for your future.

Rewind: Nigeria’s 2013 Same Sex Marriage Act

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On May 30 2013 Nigeria passed the Same Sex Marriage Act. This bill had disastrous impacts on the LGBTQ community in Nigeria, imposing 14 years of imprisonment for those caught entering a same-sex marriage.

Though this wasn’t the only act that the bill made illegal. It also prohibited the registration of and any participation in gay clubs, societies and organisations, as well as the public show of same-sex amorous relationships in either a direct or indirect manner. These acts, as well as helping with a same-sex wedding ceremony, all carry a punishment of ten years in prison.

The bill received little opposition from the Nigerian people, with the Pew Global Attitudes Project showing that 98 per cent of Nigerian residents believe homosexuality should not be accepted in society. However, as the country already had various laws that made homosexuality illegal, it is worth questioning why they needed this new bill. This bill may have been introduced as a form of propaganda to incite fear into citizens and quell anyone speaking out for change. It could also be seen as a ridiculous appeal to similar countries, showing they didn’t have to fall into the sway towards global marriage equality.

In the rest of the world, there is a dramatic sway in the opposite direction, as in this same year France, Uruguay and New Zealand all legalised same-sex marriage. There is a huge global contrast on these issues, creating an atmosphere where we cannot celebrate every victory because of every wrong that is committed against the LGBTQ community.

A good example for the extent of this sway can be seen in the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who denounced the bill by saying: “Rarely have I seen a piece of legislation that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, universal human rights”.

As human beings, we always want to believe in social progress. Whilst we may believe that ‘it gets better’ for members of the LGBTQ community, this is far from the truth. But when we take off the rose-tinted glasses, this social progress it not as all-encompassing as it first appears to be. We are often too swayed by the more immediate progressive change and even though for many this is enough, we should all continue the fight for equal rights for all.

Review: Woyzeck

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This production of Buchner’s 1837 play loses none of the power it possessed upon its original release. Run entirely in German by the Oxford German Society, it was very refreshing to see a piece of theatre so different from those that tend to be put on – it felt while watching that one was watching a play from a sociocultural backdrop, seeming by turns strange and deeply moving.

The eponymous Woyzeck (Stephen Jones) suffers from something akin to paranoid schizophrenia; waking from cruel nightmares only to imagine that the persecutions continue. A soldier subjected to inhumane and degrading treatment, he finds little peace in his life, except in the presence of his friend and implied lover Andres (Henner Petin), making Andres’ fate all the more tragic. The play moves fast, such that occasionally the audience is left a little confused (especially in the fast dialogue scenes, in which switching between looking at the actors and the subtitle screen became a little difficult); yet this pace succeeds in creating a more authentic, impressionistic view of the play’s themes.

Dr Coffinnail (Brigit Rauchbauer) is the main implementer of these torments, forcing Woyzeck to live on a diet that consists solely of peas to begin with. Her insouciant menace, however, becomes all the more apparent as the tortures worsen to a deeply scarring climax. Not to spoil it for anyone wishing to see the play, the ending is amongst the most dramatically powerful moments this reviewer has ever seen on stage. Rendered in the enclosed environs of the Burton Taylor Studio, the actors succeeded in bringing out the defining traits of their characters, the broken sadness of Woyzeck, the horrifying sadism of Dr Coffinnail.

Left unfinished by Buchner at the time of his death, a lot of the play feels somehow like this – as if there are shifting shadows behind each character; perhaps best exemplified by the unnamed witch-like character who pronounces ‘Alles war tot’ and the loneliness of an unspecified orphan. This seems strangely out of context, removed from the scenes of war that are grimly set in reality. The references to the moon, such as Andres’ song and Woyzeck’s claim that it looks like a bloodied knife, also hint to this something other; creating an unearthly atmosphere to the proceedings that makes the horror of the reality all the more powerfully realised.

The play was brilliantly executed, but suffered from the occasional moment of confusion; while the odd technical flaw made it hard to follow the plot at times. Ultimately, however, this was one of the most invigorating pieces of theatre recently performed – a refreshing and highly original production.

“I’m not gonna be crying anymore”

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As they entered the pub they felt a distinct lack of welcome. They were conspicuous in their dress, demeanour, accent… everything. Wandering through the smoke filled haze of the anteroom of the building, they cut straight to the bar, only to be disappointed by its lack of staffing. After waiting several minutes, an eight year old girl came over and said, brazen and blunt as would be thought possible, “What’s it going to be then, eh?”

Slightly shocked (but at least happy to be served) they ordered a round of Boddingtons, at which point she promptly began to pull pints from a tap that extended well above her head. After receiving them, they walked over to the back of the pub, where they sat and sweated slightly in the early summer heat as they took their first sips. The girl likewise swung out from behind the bar and walked over to the embrace of a toothless man who was sat by the pool table.

“Alright then lads, how about a game of pool then?”

He was bald, young and snivelling, making frequent recourse to a bag and a key which he kept in a loose top pocket of a nondescript brown jacket. Why the hell not, a shrug, and the game was underway.

“I bet you’re wondering how I got so good at this,” he said as he potted another of the spots.

“Yeah I guess.”

“Well, it’s what you get from practice,” he grinned arrogantly. “All we had in prison was a pool table and fuck all else to do with our time.”

He proceeded to drink half the rest of his pint and with a sniff and a snort was back to the game.

“You want a round in then? Oh forgot to say, I’m Gavin.”

“Sure – I’m Peter, and that’s George,” at which point the toothless Gavin strode over to the bar with the confidence of someone who owned the establishment and brought over three more pints.

Feeling woozy from lack of sleep and several pints in, Peter and George were beginning to feel slightly wary of the man stood on the other side of the green felt of the table who periodically hugged the eight-year-old girl and by turns proclaimed angry remarks about his experiences in prison and the fight that got him put in there, swaying from one leg to another as he spoke.

“I tell you, it’s the drink,” he said. He looked over to the bar and for the first time the gleaming grin was wiped from his face. “It destroys people, I’ll fucking tell you that. You see the crackheads come wandering through here and they’re shaking, fucking twitching and unable to look you in the eye; paranoid bastards, but I don’t know many of them. They’re not my mates anyway, can’t be mates with a crack-head. No, it’s only drink that does it as I see it.”

“Have many of your friends drunk too much then?”

“Yeah… you could say that. But I’m not gonna be crying on the dusty burial ground anymore.”

“Why’s that?”

“Cos I’ll probably be the next person to be there.”

He snapped his head back to look at Peter and George with an alarming severity and started laughing. The laugh was hollow, empty; devoid of any reference point save the stark realisation of his own impending doom which lay over him as certainly as the dirt that he had shovelled, hour upon hour, upon friends lying with epitaphs and eulogies and declarations of love that meant nothing with the receiver of those declarations putrescent yet peaceful in their death.

“It was all of us, we had no fuckin’ chance at anything. I can tell you lads have got something, maybe you’re at uni I don’t know. And I know none of this offers an excuse I’m not saying that; but I was never given that. We were never given that. We have a good time while we’re here but we won’t be here long. Look at my family, look at my niece,” he said and stared at her keenly. George and Peter looked also, and she stared back with insouciant menace as he turned back to face them, “We’ve none of us got a chance such as you lads clearly had. And then you get the bottle and then that life has you got in its sway,” he took a sniff from his pocket, “and there’s nothing you can do, except accept it,and hope that at the very least you can enjoy yourself while you can.”

He took his cue and placed it between his first and second finger, slowly but rhythmi-cally measuring his shot. With the expert skill of a life lived in prison halls and public houses, he potted the black. “Now it’s your turn to get a round,” Gavin said as he drained another pint.

He stared at them coolly, and looked them straight up and down as if he had finally got the measure of them. Posh twats veering into a world that was well beyond them; voyeurs into a life, a world which would never know them, and which would always seem far more alien than any other country could provide. And they looked at him and hoped that they would never see themselves so ruined, deeply aware of how easily their places could be changed. With a noncommittal shrug, Peter agreed to get the round.

“Alright. What’s it going to be then, eh?”

What is an elephant, to you?

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And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Religious experiences are definitely real, even if God might not be. This is the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes down and fills up the disciples, inspires them with some incredible, beautiful, burning religious experience and makes them sway from side to side like gospel singers in ecstasy.

There are as many interpretations of ways of generating religious experiences and of meditation and prayer as there are yoga teachers and church leaders. To Sikhs, meditation is the act of calming and opening the mind to allow the blissful presence of God into the mind. To many Hindus, it’s the act of removing the constructed, obstructing ego to allow each person to see and blissfully feel the unity of the divine inside – the soul – and the divine outside – all other souls, God.

Indian religions – including Buddhism – lean towards religious relativism in the way that Abrahamic religions tend towards unique claims on truth. The famous story of the blind men and the elephant stems from South Asia and is common to many traditions. The way I was told it when I was little, the king of the land gathered seven blind wise men and told them that they were to describe what the creature was. Each is led to a different part: the hard smooth tusks, the thin whippy tail, one of its broad, wrinkly sides and so on. Each reports back to the king accordingly, that the elephant is long and sharp like a tooth, or ropey and hairy and snake-like, or massive and flat and uniform. But the wise men are not, in fact, all that wise, and are ensnared by ego: they fall into a huge argument, and don’t recognise that each one just had a different angle on the truth.

The story is usually used to talk about God, or sometimes about religion in general – it might be influenced by the general leaning in Indian thought towards denying the existence of the self and teaching methods to realise this, and by the arguable tendency to place experience of the divine before theory about the divine.

I think it can tell us a lot about the practical side of things, too. Humans can feel intense calmness, bliss, compassion that goes past what we expect in everyday life, and they can feel the experience of worship and devotion. I am, to be frank, taking ideas wholesale from one branch of Buddhist Modernism, from the writings of Theravadin scholars like K. Sri Dhammananda and Nyanaponika Thera. These feelings can be mixed up in all different ways and sometimes fall under the umbrella, then, of religious experience.

Watch a non-theistic Buddhist monk quietly chanting mantras, eyes slightly rolled up under their lids and body moving softly from side to side in their absorption in the devotion and the sounds. Look at gospel singers dancing and really, really praising God. Or people of any faith in sincere, intense prayer, heads bent over their clasped hands and chests slightly heaving, or people of no faith meditating on concepts that bring joy, like being immersed in the excitement of each moment of being alive, or unqualified gentle self-love.

The scholarly parts of each of these traditions try to describe this experience in all sorts of ways, combining it with other concepts in their attempts to understand the world – but the core feelings, the qualitative experiences of being ‘near God’ or ‘immersed in meditation’ or whatever you want to call it, are the same. Atheists, non-theists, monotheists and polytheists of all sorts can all have powerful, wild, often psychologically beneficial ‘religious’ experiences, and it’s this experience that some people call God, and others meditation, or ‘samadhi’ (absorption), or prayer, or ‘devotional psychological flow’ or absolutely anything else.

To bring this right back to swaying, where we started, I think you can extend this beyond the territories we see, by our perfectly reasonable conventions, as the religious ones. The disciples at the Pentecost were clearly in some sort of ‘divinely’ inspired religious ecstasy. ISKCON devotees – better known as Hare Krishnas – sit and rock from side to side or use dance and chanting and drums and the power of loud group worship to drive themselves into a similar state of bliss, seeing it as filling themselves up with the awareness of the universal Lord, who runs through everything like the string through rosary beads. You might equally describe it as toss-ing yourself headlong into primal dwelling in the present moment, abandoning rationality through rhythm and dance and the power of the group to allow the individual chattering mind to slip away, leaving space for the thrill of moving and living and the bliss and ecstasy that comes with it.

Swaying, ecstatic, ‘orgiastic’ worship is found all over the place, too – sometimes fuelled by tambourines and vegetarian cooking as with the Hare Krishnas, sometime by stronger intoxicants, such as the Bacchic rites. And when you are literally mindlessly drunk or otherwise unsober in whichever club you’ve gone to, and something you really, really like comes on, tell me you don’t sometimes – for a second – lose your sense of self. Tell me that when you’re dancing at your most wild and most excited and happy, you aren’t, partly, dancing for the joy of dancing without needing to think, celebrating that you can find joy, finding some kind of everyday glory in your experience of that moment. This might be wildly wrong, but I think that there’s just as much experience of God in Plush as there is in any church.