Friday, April 25, 2025
Blog Page 324

The topography of Oxford

Nicola Carotenuto
-
0
The topography of Oxford

Old legends of a bygone past transcribed in an obscure chronicle tells us that Oxford used to host human beings. At those remote times, students were allowed to stroll around the city, promenade in the parks and joyfully gather together to celebrate in the streets of this legendary place. Alas, since ‘things that should not have been forgotten were lost, and history became a legend, and legend became myth’, I would like to recall those long-forgotten serene times.  

Students who did not previously study at Oxford, or who dared to come to this sceptred isle  from farfetched lands (informally known as international students) were immediately made comfortable  with WhatsApp messages from other flatmates saying “did you pick your Bod card and fob at the  lodge?”, “let’s meet in week 7 of Hillary”, “do you like LMH?”, “how was the tute?” and “see you at ChC meadows at the college boathouse.” 

This was particularly fascinating were you an international student still struggling to figure out how to say ‘strainer’ in English, having spent your entire academic English learning career being taught much more important things, such as the urgency for the use of the Oxford comma. After a glorious  C2 certification you felt like you had cracked it, and then you realised not being able to identity ten names of flowers, birds or everyday objects. Ironically, to many non-native speakers, terms like ‘grater’,  ‘strainer’, and ‘toenail clipper’ are more obscure than ‘ubiquitous’.  

The first thing you had to learn at Oxford, back at the time, was not how to avoid your pyjamas being spotted when you inadvertently turn on the video on Zoom or Teams, but the vocabulary. Of course, the first reference would have been Carfax. “Let’s meet at Carfax”, told a friend. And I replied, “do you mean Halifax?”, followed by a rush of laughter. Carfax Tower apparently marks the alpha and omega of the city centre, the meeting point of all activities.

Then there were more obscure terms: “see you in Cowley”. I must admit that given the notoriously well-articulated British pronunciation I honestly believed they were referring to a certain Cow Lake, which I then presumed to be located in Christchurch Meadow, given the cows. It appears that it is the name of the vibrant area south of Oxford.  

And then came the most dreadful reference, “do you live in Jericho.” This was most confusing. I  knew that there was Jericho in Jordan but I also recalled that in the Bible the city was destroyed by  God’s wrath, and at the sound of the angels’ trumpets “the wall of the city fell down flat”. Was it a bad omen? Was my friend wishing my house to fall flat as well? I then discovered that Jericho is an affluent area north of Oxford.  

Even more bemusing were the names of colleges. I still remember when a friend told me he “lived at Jesus”. I thought his main was not totally sound, or that he was probably a fervent believer. I  googled ChC the first time I was told to reach my college’s boathouse there. No one told me that there were no lights and that wandering through ChC meadows after 7 pm and a rainy day is the most medieval experience you will ever go through. Suspiciously observed by menacing cows, desperately trying to avoid the puddles, at a certain point I realised I had reached the river, and I had to wander for another hour trying to guess which coat of arms of the twenty-something boathouses belonged to my college.  

And then there are the others … Only at Oxford, a college founded in 1379 would be called  New College. Not to mention the love of Oxford student for unintelligible acronyms such as LMH,  GTC or ChC. Then there is St. Catz. (a name that really does sound bad in a certain Romance  language), which ominously points to an idolatrous cult of animals. For anyone who has a rudimentary knowledge of Latin saying “I study at Corpus” will sound tragicomical. I gently replied, “do you mean you are studying a corpus of texts.” Poor Corpus Christi; and this truncation comes despite Corpus Christi having been one of the most important festivities of medieval Europe. I still remember how puzzled I was when a friend told me he studied at Exeter and yet at Oxford; at first, I presumed he had the gift of ubiquity (not really a superpower I would envy if it meant following two seminars at the same time). Some college names are even more puzzling. There is a Queen’s College but not a King’s  College, and it is one of the oldest colleges but yet nothing remains of its original foundations.  

Then there is Magdalen. I once gestured at the college exclaiming “this is  Magdalen” (pronouncing the name of the college how the personal name is), and my friend was quick to point out that the pronunciation of the name of the college was different, even though no one could explain why. Apparently it is because in the 1458 charter of the college the founder wanted the name of the college to be pronounced Maudelayne. A friend suggested it sounded like French, hence posh.  In my mind, the term madeleine in French just reminds me of a certain pastry, and of a too-often quoted passage in Proust’s recherche.  

And then there is the most puzzling name of them all: University College. I mean, isn’t it a bit pretentious? Did they come first and hence could spoil all other colleges of this prestigious denomination? How did it work? I can just imagine the other desperate founders of Oxford colleges,  struggling with saint and cities, when they discovered that the name ‘University’ was already taken. There was no solace for these good-willing people after the others had already taken a French-sounding name, St. John’s, New, Exeter, University and Queen’s. No wonder they had to resort to names of people, such as Pembroke or other fancy French names no one can spot (apparently Oriel derives from a property called La oriole, I wonder if it is connected to the bird).  

That is all, or at least this is what I remember of that bygone past when you could go from  Cowley to Jericho passing through Carfax, and endless colleges whose names I will never grasp.

Art by Rachel Jung

Covid-19 fines vary dramatically between colleges

Sasha Mills and Estelle Atkinson
-
0
Covid-19 fines vary dramatically between colleges

FOI data has shown that colleges have opted for drastically varied approaches to COVID-19 disciplinary processes, with some colleges fining their students figures of over £4000, and others choosing not to fine students at all. Of the 26 colleges that Cherwell obtained data for, Somerville College has fined its students the most, administering 107 fines in Michaelmas alone totalling £5590. St Hugh’s College is also amongst the colleges with the highest amounts fined, administering £4300 in fines to date, with £2575 of that acted or levied. Trinity College, St Hilda’s College, and the Queen’s College are amongst the colleges that reported no fines for Michaelmas or Hilary up to the mid-February point.

The UK government’s fine policy suggests that those 18 and over will be fined £200 on their first COVID-19 rule breach if deemed necessary by the police, which is lowered to £100 if paid within the first 14 days. Under educational guidance, however, those attending illegal house parties of more than 15 people can be fined £800, doubling with any repeat offences. Under college policies, fine amounts vary, with Keble College fining between £50-£250, with the £250 fine reserved for those caught mixing households on multiple occasions. Other colleges provided less specific information on fining, instead providing ranges, with Mansfield College’s top-end figure being £500. 

Some of these colleges have opted for different disciplinary methods for COVID-19 rule breaches, both alongside and in replacement of fines. At Merton, some students were required to write essays of a tutorial length on COVID-19 related topics. At Trinity College, where no students have been fined, disciplinary methods include formal warnings, community service, restrictions from shared spaces, and in some cases, banishment from the college premises. A spokesperson for Trinity College told Cherwell that the college opted against using fines as a result of the possible disproportionate impact of fines on lower-income students, as well as JCR opposition to fining. 

A student that received a £30 acted fine and a £200 suspended fine for having a gathering in their room during Freshers week told Cherwell: “The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone’s social life to some extent. It had an outstandingly high impact on first-year students who found themselves in a novel environment. Freshers’ week plays a central role in the establishment of a support system at University. […] So, I consider that although I received a fine, it was worth having gatherings and getting to know people.”

The same student went on to argue that fines may not be a fair system. “An issue with the fining system is that it further enlarges the socio-economic discrepancies between students. Someone with financial difficulties may socialise less because the fine may affect them more.” Many fines are related to large social gatherings, with 47 of the fines that New College gave out during Michaelmas being ascribed to only 6 events. 

Another student was given a series of suspended fines. “I was fined around four times, and each time the fine doubled. The biggest fine was around £300 which seemed ridiculous. However, the college never followed through with them and I, as of yet haven’t been charged.”

“I was obviously annoyed about it and it was a frustrating situation, because I had to weigh up social isolation and breaking COVID-19 rules. And I know for certain I have met some of my best friends at university from breaking the rules, either within college or outside. So while I understand the college has to put on a front, and perhaps not officially fining me was that, it’s still frustrating because the college don’t seem to understand the social problems students face by sticking to COVID-19 rules.”

Multiple students cited the social ramifications of this policy, with another recipient of a suspended fine sharing their experience with Cherwell: “Three days into my time at Oxford I was given a three-figure suspended fine, to be paid the next time I committed the offence within a year. The offence was that of socialising with my fellow freshers.”

“The Porter broke up the innocent gathering as if we were producing Class A drugs, and took our names as if we were dangerous criminals. All this was, of course, the obvious consequence of prohibiting 100+ eighteen-years-olds, in self-contained accommodation and with hardly any contact with non-students, from interacting properly with anyone but 2/3 other bubble members.”

In a formal complaint to a college, another student requested the college “rescind or at least change the fine” that had been issued to them and five others, calling the disciplinary measure “incongruous to our actions” and “frankly an elitist consequence from a college that prides itself in denying elitism,” begging the question, “what is £100?”

“£100 is certainly worth a lot to a whole lot of people but frankly countless people in our college would throw away that amount of money on a suit, a new pair of shoes, or even to get into an esteemed club just because they can. Therefore, the punishment is not a future prevention but instead a confirmation that people can solve their problems with the writing of a bank note.”

A representative for Somerville College told Cherwell: “Somerville College is committed to preserving the safety and wellbeing of all our students, our staff and the local community during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Michaelmas 2020, we employed a fixed system of warnings and fines as a means of enforcing the government’s regulations and thereby keeping our college open and our community safe. The schedule of penalties was published at the start of term so the level of fine for each offence was known to everyone in advance and consistency in the application of fines guaranteed. The proceeds of these fines were divided equally between three local charities. As part of a no-tolerance policy, there were no fines imposed in Hilary 2021.” 

“In order to adopt the most nuanced approach for Trinity Term, a panel commissioned by the Governing Body of the College has developed a new disciplinary framework that balances the need for penalties that are sufficiently robust to deter Covid breaches against our overarching goal of maximising compliance and ensuring that everyone feels safe”. 

“As such, the framework will include fines, but these will be reserved primarily for serious or repeat infractions, with a sliding scale of penalties to be deployed at the Deans’ discretion, including formal warnings, community service, reflective essays, bans from student functions, suspended fines, immediate fines and the requirement to leave college early (for finalists) or temporarily (non-finalists). Under this system, we hope that everyone will feel safe and happy to return to Somerville and their Oxford lives in Trinity 2021.”

A spokesperson for Jesus College told Cherwell: “Jesus College is proud of the diligence and care its students have shown during the current pandemic, for those both within our community and the wider Oxford community. The College imposed fines amounting to 225 pounds across Michaelmas and Hilary terms. It also imposed suspended fines of 4,000, which are not payable unless there is another breach of the bylaws within a specified time. The total received by the college – 225 pounds – was forwarded directly to the College’s student hardship fund.”

A spokesperson for St Peter’s College told Cherwell: “The vast majority of the College’s students have, throughout this academic year, largely complied with restrictions which have been, and continue to be, necessary to keep our students and staff safe and to reduce the risk of the onward spread of Covid 19 to the wider Oxford community.”

“However, there have been some instances in which students did not comply with the requirements – for example by not sticking to their own household areas. In those cases, reported breaches were investigated by the Dean and some fines were imposed. Where fines were imposed, students were also expected to re-familiarise themselves with the College Regulations and the requirements of the University’s Student Responsibility Agreement. All decanal fines paid by students go into the College’s Student Hardship Fund.”

When contacted for comment, a spokesperson for St. Hugh’s College told Cherwell that “St Hugh’s is one of the largest colleges in Oxford with a significantly higher proportion of students living on site,” and that the “the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff is paramount.”

23/4/21, 14:36 – updated to include a further student comment.

Image Credit: Alvin Gast / CC BY-SA 4.0

The Common DNA of the Snyder Cut and First Cow

Wang Sum Luk
-
0
The Common DNA of the Snyder Cut and First Cow

The world’s gone mad.

I’m not talking about COVID or politics. I’m talking about an interview with Zack Snyder by the New York Times, before the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a revised version of 2017’s  Justice League which brings it in line with Snyder’s vision. He noted that the film’s unusual 4:3 aspect ratio was something it had in common with indie film First Cow, saying, “Those two movies share some common DNA, I think…I would love that in a double feature, ‘First Cow’ and the Snyder cut of ‘Justice League’.”

For those unaware, First Cow is a critically praised but financially unsuccessful movie about making a living on the American frontier, as different from the Snyder Cut as…well, as an indie art film and a gigantic superhero epic, with barely any similarities at first glance. To examine these films side by side would be insane. But insane ideas aren’t always bad ones, and I was curious whether Snyder might be on to something with this comparison. So here I am, having watched both films, ready to explain how the Snyder Cut and First Cow both explore the ideas of heroism which are typical to their genres, and how they use comparable techniques to make very different points.

While the use of a nearly square 4:3 aspect ratio for the Snyder Cut struck many as unusual, Snyder’s decision was carefully considered. The taller frame of the image allowed him to recreate the predominantly vertical framing of comic panels and suited his goal of releasing the film in IMAX. While the pandemic has made viewing the Snyder Cut on IMAX impossible for now, the film’s visuals are magnificent. With ample use of slow-mo and bold lighting, we get the sense that even when the heroes aren’t on screen, we’re watching something extraordinary, as if the glory of the Justice League transforms the world they live in and makes it special, an idea that Snyder will go on to develop.

Like superhero films, the Western is likewise a genre dominated by visual spectacle, but Kelly Reichardt, the director of First Cow, uses visuals to tell a different story. The tight, square frame of the image adds a sense of intimacy instead of grandeur and emphasizes the oppressive vastness of the American frontier. Building on this, the story’s events are often framed at a distance, through barriers such as doorframes or windows, using the camera subjectively and implying that the story we see is only a fragment of a wider, fully realized world.

This is particularly significant given how Reichardt and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt invite us to look through the eyes of minor characters in the film. Blauvelt noted in an interview that the framing of the cow’s arrival in the frontier town, from the perspective of Native Americans fishing nearby, was out of Reichardt’s desire to “[think] of how they must have felt when things like the very first cow ever appeared in a territory”. The camera lingers on these minor characters for unusually long stretches of time, such as when Reichard concludes a scene showing how the settlers’ view of the beaver-trapping industry clashes with that of the natives by turning the camera o show two Native American women chatting in their own language, suggesting her interest in telling—even briefly—these small, atypical stories. Instead of the tendency for Westerns to focus on a single white hero and relegate others, especially Native Americans, to marginalized stereotypes, Reichardt seeks to broaden the genre’s lens and encompass a wider world.

The Snyder Cut, like First Cow, strives to contextualize its superheroes within a human world. Something Snyder is frequently criticized for is his heavy-handed symbolism, such as how his films for DC portray Superman as a messianic figure and repeatedly frame him with outstretched arms to invoke the Crucifixion. The way his visuals almost always present the events on screen as being awe-inspiring means that all of the members of the Justice League are rendered as larger-than-life beings, which poses the risk of making them feel distant and inhuman. But Snyder also spends time showing them doing day-to-day things like making tea or applying for jobs, with these scenes anchoring these characters to the human world. They’re presented as elevated role models, but these human elements keep them from feeling unapproachable, and give a better sense of the world the heroes are fighting to save.

However, this solution is an imperfect one, with these long scenes contributing to the film’s meandering pace and exhausting run-time. But sometimes this link of the human and superhuman works perfectly, most notably in the case of Cyborg, whose character arc in the Snyder Cut—moving from hating his Frankenstein-like existence to accepting and fully using his new powers—is probably the most well-developed and interesting in the film. He, alongside the Flash and Aquaman, are new members of the League who fall victim to doubt, apathy and a fear of commitment, holding them back from greatness. The film presents Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman as mentors, whose role is to unite and guide these young heroes towards realizing their heroic potential. And while the heroes recognize and nurture each other’s unique skills, the villains are a force of oppressive homogenization—they employ a mindless, monstrous army, and the event the heroes are trying to stop is literally called the Unity—with Snyder sketching out an almost religious allegory counterpointing the value of difference with demonic forces which seek oppression and the loss of individuality.

First Cow is altogether more skeptical of the archetypes of heroism typical to Westerns. The protagonists create comfort and beauty on the frontier through their work and friendship, but their success is only possible through acts of theft, which eventually lead to their deaths. It is always ambiguous whether the protagonists are selfish or selfless, or if their actions are right or wrong—every character is united by greed and folly, but also by gentler emotions. Reichardt is skeptical of these simple categories, just as she points out how the American Dream requires people to already possess skills and capital to succeed. In this system good people can succeed, but only by breaking the rules.

It’s common for movies to explore morally simplistic genres by making their heroes darker and flawed, from self-doubting superheroes to violent cowboys, a style of storytelling which Snyder is very much a part of. And these stories, at their best, are thrillingly original and thought-provoking. But First Cow shows that that kindness exists amidst violence, that nostalgia unites even the selfish, that in the barbarity of the frontier—of civilization, even—friendship is possible. The idea that heroes must be violent and tormented is as reductive as black-and-white morality, and by showing us the inner workings of human kindness, First Cow finds complexity within a simple, gentle narrative.

The Snyder Cut and First Cow seem to say very different things: the Snyder Cut is a world where man can, by shedding apathy and gaining faith, reach the superhuman heights of the heroes of old, while First Cow defies the genre limitations of the Western by showing us a glimpse of a broader world, in which goodness and selfishness are impossible to neatly define. But when you consider these films together, it becomes apparent that their common DNA is thematic—both movies draw on a comparable arsenal of narrative and visual techniques, to explore the same question of what it means to be a hero and a good person.

Image credits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/147718632@N06/38441988401/in/photostream/?fbclid=IwAR2l0eX4OmOL_QUaoC6rT-fHVmzLff8NTexRCraw-0jGzJk5MuKKEm1k_iE

Oxford University launches new education and enterprise initiative for BAME students

Jill Cushen
-
0
Oxford University launches new education and enterprise initiative for BAME students

Oxford University has launched an Entrepreneurial Fellowship Initiative to drive inclusion within business, start-ups and venture capital and ensure equality for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in senior leadership positions. Twenty BAME students studying at Oxford University will undertake eight-week funded internship placements with start-ups from the Oxford Foundry’s portfolio this July. The initiative aims to provide fellows with skills and experience in venture-building areas as well as opportunities to help them achieve their personal and professional goals. 

Throughout the placement they will be supported by world-leading entrepreneurs and business ambassadors and more than 50 mentors. Ambassadors include Angela Ahrendts DBE, former Senior Vice President of Apple Retail, Ric Lewis, Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Tristan Capital, and Biz Stone, Co-founder of Twitter and Chair of the Oxford Foundry Advisory Board. 

The University described the initiative as “game-changing” stating: “Crucially, the programme will provide Fellows with a platform and strong support community of peers to help navigate and combat the barriers and biases which regrettably still systemically exist in entrepreneurship.” The University also referenced updates to the Parker Review published in March 2021 which found that nearly a fifth of FTSE 100 companies lack board-level ethnic diversity, and other reports that show over the past 10 years, less than 1% of venture capital investment in the UK went to Black entrepreneurs. 

Professor Martin Williams, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Oxford University, said: “The under-representation of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic students in higher education, academia and entrepreneurship, is well documented, and something that the University continues to strive to address. Closing the opportunity gap for all Oxford students and promoting inclusion and fairness in entrepreneurship is at the heart of the Oxford Foundry’s mission. This fantastic programme will take that work a step further towards supporting and guiding the careers of the innovation leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.”

Director of the Oxford Foundry, Ana Bakshi, said: “Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not – and that is the primary focus of our Entrepreneurial Fellowship Initiative; to provide access to the support and career pathways all students need to succeed, when they need it most. Now is the time to invest and to make this a reality. We have the potential to dramatically shift the landscape of people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and other under-represented groups within senior leadership positions, and to substantially, and sustainably, improve fairness within our global entrepreneurial ecosystems. We can create a world that is reflective of the world we want, and it all starts with education and entrepreneurship.”

Sean Sinanan, President of the Oxford African and Caribbean Society, and a third year undergraduate studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mansfield College, said: “There is an unspoken dilemma that many students face. You either enter a corporate career upon graduation or find something else. However, the incredibly important work of the Oxford Foundry via these Fellowships helps mitigate this issue. The Fellowships inspire students from under-represented backgrounds to tap into their own creativity and explore alternative pathways in a sector that has been wrongly deemed as risky.”

“The prospects of high-level mentorship to develop skills, paired with work experience in exciting start-ups which also have a social impact, not only demystifies the venture capital world but also offers a genuinely unique opportunity for students who are not interested in ‘traditional’ career paths. I am extremely excited to promote this to the Oxford ACS. I have seen how creative and ambitious students of the society are – and thus, I believe this Fellowship Initiative will truly nurture and empower such talents.”

Image Credit: Oxford Foundry

Oxford study suggests loss of learning as a result of lockdown

Zahra Lahrie
-
0
Oxford study suggests loss of learning as a result of lockdown

A study conducted by researchers at Oxford Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (‘Learning Inequality During the Covid-19 Pandemic’) has revealed that primary school children (ages 8 – 11) have made “little or no progress” in their learning, during school closures.

The study is believed to be one of the first attempts to quantify learning loss from Covid-19. Unlike the economy or health care, educational systems do not release data at high-frequency intervals. Instead, researchers tried to measure the effects of school closures by using data from the Netherlands. The study used data from national examinations that took place before and after lockdown. The progress made in the 2020 period was compared with progress made in the same period, over the past 3 years. The study assessed national examinations on the following basic skills: mathematics, spelling, and reading.

The data demonstrated that the loss of learning was equivalent to one-fifth of a school year. Early data also indicates that there had been a drop in coursework completed and surveys suggest that students spent considerably less time studying. Students coming from less-privileged households experienced a 60% larger loss in learning, affirming suspicions that the pandemic has unevenly affected households.

Dr Engzell, one of the researchers behind the study, told Oxford Mail: “Students made little or no progress while learning from home and losses are particularly concentrated among students from homes with parents with low levels of education. For them, the loss was about 50% worse than for others.”

Another researcher, Arun Frey added: “These results confirm many of the worst fears that educators and other stakeholders had when going into the first lockdown. The Netherlands did so many things right. Teachers and school officials made a tremendous effort. The government provided additional support and financial resources. From broadband access to housing and parental support, conditions in the Dutch system outscore most of its neighbours. If anything, consequences are likely to be graver in the UK, where schools also stayed closed for longer.”

With the Netherlands representing a ‘best-case’ scenario, the study proposes that there could be larger losses in learnings in countries with weaker infrastructure and longer school closures. The UK has undergone multiple lockdowns, with schools closing in March 2020 and January 2021. Therefore, the study suggests that the UK may have experienced more severe losses in learning. However, the longer-term impact of school closures is uncertain. These results could indicate a temporary setback or a more lasting contribution towards educational poverty.

Image Credit: klimkin/Pixabay.com

WATCH3WORDS: Palm Springs – Exuberant.Poolside.Mayhem.

Millie Butler-Gallie
-
0
WATCH3WORDS: Palm Springs – Exuberant.Poolside.Mayhem.


Welcome to WATCH3WORDS, the fortnightly column where I will be reviewing the good, the bad, and the ugly of the box office. Taking the method of the life-saving app What3Words (which allocates every 3 metre square of the world a unique combination of three words for the purpose of locating those in need) and shamelessly applying it to a non-life-saving cause, I will be assigning recent releases three random words which sum up that particular film. Whilst eagerly awaiting the reopening of cinemas in May, I look to Amazon Prime’s premiere of Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs.

Over the past few years the romantic comedy has been attempting a slow, and often painful, comeback. Various reincarnations of the once-beloved genre have earnestly tried to break away from its now tiresome template but almost always end up sacrificing the ‘comedy’ requirement in the process. Part of the déjà-vu feel of these revivals is down to setting. Harkening back to the rom-com’s golden age where, almost always, a vibrant cityscape provided the perfect framework for two soulmates to beat the odds of finding one another in a sea of people, recent releases aren’t deviating from this tried and tested method to their own peril: Holidate (2020) is set in Chicago while Set it Up (2018) and Isn’t it Romantic (2019) both take place in New York. Palm Springs refreshingly breaks the mould by taking the romantic comedy poolside. But far from simply showing us casual flirtation between lovers who float around on inflatables, it spices things up by taking a dive into the realm of the surreal. Ironically, by taking the well-known Groundhog Day storyline and injecting it with a healthy dose of sun, fun, and drug-fuelled nihilism, Palm Springs makes one of the dullest formats in the book suddenly enjoyable. With reality put to one side, exuberant excess and mayhem ensue.

Set in the eponymous desert resort city in the Golden State, the beginning of the film sees Nyles (Andy Samberg, in perfect casting) stuck in an infinite time loop and forced to relive, over and over, what can only be described as a typically ‘Californian’ wedding: bridal flower-crown, fairy lights, and quaint hay-bales. Having ditched what was on his first rodeo presumably formal dress, he prances around the party in yellow swimming trunks and a dashing Hawaiian-print shirt. He is your typical unfulfilled 30-year-old – admittedly through no fault of his own – but we get the feeling that even if reality was restored, he wouldn’t know quite what to do with himself. Fortunately for us, Nyles is well past the pity party stage which must inevitably accompany the infinite time loop experience. This allows for many humorous displays of his light-hearted indifference to his fate. Everything changes, however, when one night  Nyles locks eyes with sister of the bride and family black sheep Sarah (Cristin Milioti). Both are listless. Both are totally alone. But just as Palm Springs seems to enter typical rom-com territory with the goofy-guy meets troubled-girl routine, the chaotic temporal paradox which provides its backdrop jumps in to save it from cliché. It is not spoiling anything to say that Sarah’s night of romance with Nyles gets her stuck in the loop with him – this happens very early on. Left with nothing to do and nowhere to go, together they must navigate their new shared reality and try to offset the ennui that grips them both, allowing for a wildly entertaining string of mischief and mishaps. 

The result is a charming reinvigoration of the genre and all its trappings. Amazingly, all of the things which in a real-time rom-com would be borderline vomit-inducing are actually endearing in the time loop universe. Matching tattoos, matching outfits, and choreographed dances are surprisingly palatable when you know that these two people only have one another in the whole world. Then again, if it wasn’t for Samburg and Milioti’s effortless chemistry and the added spark they bring to their already likeable underdog characters, this love story might not have been so convincing.

At times deeply philosophical, and at others darkly playful, Palm Springs asks us to consider the big questions: what would we do if the world simply stopped? This is apt given the current state of affairs, but, perhaps more poignantly, it also asks: what would we do if the world simply stopped but we were with the person we love? Would we then, finally, be content?

Palm Springs is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Art by Sasha LaCômbe.

The Map to Happiness: Hilary Term and The Atlas of Happiness

Beth Proctor
-
0
The Map to Happiness: Hilary Term and The Atlas of Happiness

At the start of Hilary Term, I thought surely this won’t be too bad? The idea of spending the next eight weeks studying from home was hardly exciting, but lots of people had it much worse. Just stay organised and keep it in perspective I told myself, you’ve got this!

Cut to me four weeks later, sat in bed with an empty bottle of wine and the gloomy prospect of a hangover in the morning. A zoom call with friends had left me feeling flat and deflated – I was desperate to see them all in person, not just as blurry, pixelated faces on a screen. Perhaps, I thought, with the slowly dawning clarity only large amounts of alcohol can bring, I wasn’t handling lockdown 3.0 very well after all. 

I realised I had developed a strange sort of Stockholm syndrome. As the weeks dragged by, I had begun to think longingly of late night sessions in the library and what it would be like to be working at my desk in college. Up until that point, I had missed many things about Oxford but this was a new low. 

The only logical solution, I decided, was to try and distract myself – I would use this time to become an all round better person, and do all of the things I kept putting off. I would start exercising, maybe read some classics, become cultured and interesting. I might even learn how to do winged eyeliner. This was ambitious, particularly given my many failed past attempts at self-improvement. 

The most recent of these had been a short-lived effort to embrace the Danish idea of hygge. It might sound like an obscure martial art, or the noise you make when something gets stuck in your throat, but hygge is actually something far more comfortable. Described by Meik Wiking, the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, as “a feeling of home”, hygge is the sense of cosiness and contentment that comes from simple things, like spending time with loved ones or curling up with a good book by the fire. 

It’s a concept that Danes apply to many different aspects of life, and over the summer I tried to do the same. I made more time for the things I enjoyed. I kept my room cosy, lit candles and went on long walks in the woods. I even tried meditating. But when university rolled around there were suddenly a hundred and one other things to do, and all thoughts of self-improvement quietly slipped away. 

This time, I was determined not to let that happen. I began by reading countless articles about personal growth and “maximising” your time in quarantine, and immediately felt guilty. It seemed like I should be emerging from lockdown as a master chef or a marathon runner, when in reality I was spending most of my time just trying to stay on top of my uni work. Looking back, that in itself was an achievement, but at the time I felt frustrated that I wasn’t doing more. Even when I read articles that questioned the culture of toxic productivity and the idea that we should all “make the most” of lockdown, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wasn’t achieving enough. 

Then, thankfully, I picked up The Atlas of Happiness by Helen Russell. It’s a book about all the weird and wonderful ways people around the world stay happy. Each chapter is dedicated to a different country and it’s customs, such as the Italian idea of “Dolce far niente” (the sweetness of doing nothing) or the Finnish practise of “Kalsarikännit” (getting drunk, alone, in your pants). I realised I slipped slowly into equating “productivity and achievement” with “happiness”, but in actual fact, there was so much more to it than that. As soon as I had finished the book, I wanted to give all these ideas a go. 

And now, with this column, I have the chance to do exactly that. Each week I’m going to be trying out a different “happiness habit” from around the world and writing about what happens. The aim is simple: to figure out the best ways to stay happy as a student. I’m not sure what to expect, but, hopefully, unlike hygge, this time some of it will stick. 

Artwork by Rachel Jung

Hertford College commits to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030

Sasha Mills
-
0
Hertford College commits to net-zero carbon emissions by 2030

Hertford College has announced that they will be setting a new aim to reach net-zero emissions and net biodiversity gain by 2030 as “a matter of urgency.” The college will be committing to a set of changes to reach this goal, including an audit of their current emissions, ensuring that Hertford’s investment policies “sustainable and climate-conscious investment standards,” and setting up a Sustainability Board consisting of the Principal alongside students and academics. 

This comes after the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign released a report calling on the University to “make a concerted effort to square its financial connections with its ambitious sustainability goals.” Earlier this year, the University launched its new Sustainability Strategy, setting out aims to “achieve net zero carbon and biodiversity net gain by 2035” through ten priority areas. Oxford City Council set an aim last year to reach net-zero emissions by the end of 2020 and was able to reach its target of a 40% reduction in carbon emissions based on a 2005 baseline.

Tom Fletcher CMG, Hertford College Principal, said: “Getting Hertford to net-zero is an ambition that both unites our community and can only be delivered by the community as a whole. But it is just part of our wider ambition on confronting the climate crisis. Alongside the Sustainability Action Plan, we will continue to champion teaching and research on environmental change – from understanding climate events like floods and droughts to thinking about corporate climate risk management, the impacts of nature conservation, and sustainable models for food and agriculture. We will also support the personal and academic development of our students who will lead the local, national and global response to the climate crisis in the future.“

David Rom, the JCR Environment and Ethics representative, said: “The Sustainability Board is anything but a top-down hierarchy – everybody is enthusiastic about involving the whole Hertford community in reaching the ambitious goals of net-zero carbon emissions and a biodiversity net gain by 2030. I strongly believe that our college can pioneer an Oxford-wide effort in tackling the climate crisis.”

Alex Clark, DPhil researcher at Hertford College and Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment said: “It’s great to see Hertford embrace the urgency of environmental challenges and take responsibility for them by committing itself to this ambitious programme. Minimising the footprint of the college itself is of course important and commendable, but it is particularly encouraging to see an ambition for wider systemic change, where our actions and research can influence the behaviour of those beyond the college.”

Image Credit: CameliaTWU / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Last Bookshop: Giving old books a new life

Jill Cushen
-
0
The Last Bookshop: Giving old books a new life

Oxford is a booklover’s paradise. As well as housing world renowned book chains such as Blackwell’s and Waterstones, the city is home to a variety of smaller businesses that offer a unique buying experience. Jake Pumphrey and Nick Walsh, untraditional booksellers and owners of Pumpkin Wholesale, are leading the way in providing this experience, and doing it cheaply.

After working as a buyer in London, Pumphrey returned home to Oxford in 1994, found an empty shop and with his business partner, established Pumpkin Books in Gloucester Green: ‘My idea was to have a remainder shop which sold classy remainders like a proper bookshop would, but cheaper.’ Since then, alongside running their wholesale business, the pair have opened The Last Bookshop in Jericho, a bookshop in Bristol, and in November 2019, The Book Stop on Magdalen Street in Oxford.

‘Publishing is extremely wasteful,’ Pumphrey told me when I interviewed him shortly before the lockdown restrictions on non-essential businesses lifted. ‘So many books are printed and only a fraction of them are bought, and read.’ In 2009, the UK Publishers Association estimated that there were around 61 million unsold books returned to publishers. The industry creates a huge amount of waste every year and thousands more books are printed than sold. That’s where this pair steps in.

‘Remainders are a brilliant way of recycling the unsold books,’ he said, most of which are brand new, not just ‘cheap and nasty’.  Recycling books is one option. Another is pulping, whereby books are crushed into a soft, wet, shapeless material which is converted into paper. Even the most popular reads can ultimately face being pulped but Pumphrey set out to save books from this undignified end since the very beginning.

He explained to me that publishers give to booksellers on a sale or return basis, meaning whatever they don’t sell can go back to the publisher or distributor. ‘They don’t know what to do with [returned books] because sometimes they’re not in mint condition or they’re in a mixed palette,’ he said. ‘It’s enormously labour-intensive to unpack it all and return them to stock so they just sell them and people like me buy them.’

In 1997, the publishing industry underwent a big shift when the Net Book Agreement came to an end. The arrangement in the UK and Ireland allowed publishers to set a fixed retail price, meaning if a bookseller sold a new book at less than the agreed price, the publisher would no longer supply them. ‘In the old days publishers could keep books for years and not really care but the need for moving these unsold books on became more acute over the years. … The market opened up under economic pressure due to publishers having to control their costs.’

In the Aladdin’s cave that is The Last Bookshop, there’s an eclectic mix of rare and popular treasures. You might stumble across a new release, a hardback edition of a beloved classic or a dog-eared copy of something you’ve never even heard of before. As well stocking remainder books, The Last Bookshop also has a wide selection of second hand reads.

‘I didn’t really set out to be a second hand bookseller,’ Pumphrey said. ‘What happened was that when I arrived in Oxford in the 90s, there were loads of secondhand bookshops and so the market was well operated, people knew who to go. But they slowly all closed down.’

When The Last Bookshop came on the scene, secondhand retailers were already an endangered species but in a city overpopulated by bookworms a complete demise wasn’t in the cards. ‘When professors die and they’ve got a house full of books, what happens to them? People started to call me because I had shops in Oxford and I can’t help myself, I just have to buy them.’

Throughout our conversation, I imagine their warehouse in Abingdon, where Pumphrey talked to me from, to be so cluttered with books that it would send Marie Kondo into retirement — and I might not be wrong. ‘I can’t help myself. That’s why Walton Street exists because we’ve got this ever expanding second-hand book mountain which we’ve had to try and start selling somewhere.’

The shop closed in the early 2000s before reopening in 2009 and finding its permanent home on Jericho’s Walton Street. ‘When we started again, bookshops had been closing,’ Pumphrey explains. ‘It was before the recent renaissance of independent bookselling, which I’m very happy about. It seemed like soon there might be no bookshops. And then the Kindle came along and everyone thought, “Well that’s the end of books,” and we obviously didn’t think it was the end of books.’ The shop’s name is a kind of joke about the state of bookselling, but Pumphrey and Walsh were the ones still laughing as they prepared to reopen after yet another lockdown.

When first lockdown hit, the two main facets of the pair’s business disappeared, leaving them with only online retail and the time to launch a new online bookshop, billandbenbooks.co.uk: ‘I’ve been meaning for a long time to have a website, well basically a bookshop that was on the internet rather than in a physical setting and there was never enough time in the day. Lockdown seemed like a good time, when the business was a bit quieter and when two thirds of it was not happening.’ As of last Monday, we can browse and buy in store once again, and if you’re not in Oxford, then a scroll through their virtual bookshop might just do the trick.

The company’s online business fluctuated in success during the periods of lockdown but for the most part, Pumphrey says, ‘it has been really busy because people have been stuck at home. The internet is something they can still use and reading is something they can still do, something they can always do.’

The book retail industry boomed last year with 202 million books sold across the UK. Despite this welcomed boost for the industry, ‘books aren’t really a massive money spinner,’ Pumphrey said with a laugh. ‘None of us are here to make a million pounds. It’s a relatively marginal business and we do it because we like it.’ And as an Oxford book-lover, I’m glad they do.

Out of the Frame: Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos

Kate O'Sullivan
-
0
Out of the Frame: Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos

As long as humanity has existed, art has followed in its wake. Whether to tell a story, send a political message, decorate an environment or simply depict what we can see; art has documented society’s development through the ages. Today, we have ascribed unwarranted elitist connotations to art and its formal study, strengthened by the fact that our curriculum perhaps places more value on STEM subjects. By implementing this distance, it is often difficult to realise that many of the themes addressed in this way remain just as relevant today. Our modern age is obsessed with image in so many different contexts, from social media to marketing. Given this, it is actually surprising that more attention is not given to the way that our ancestors used the visual to comment upon their own times. The best thing about art is that it is predominantly created to be seen, and we are so lucky to live in a world which invites us to look on the work of the past through galleries and museums. The wonderful fact is that you do not need a particular level of understanding to enjoy a work; it invites the viewer to draw their own conclusions, which may be separate from those intended by the artist. The experience of art can be a highly personal one, one which will never fall out of style, constantly renewing the relevance of sometimes ancient work. It brings us in touch with our humanity in a way like no other.

This week I am looking at the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles’ best-known work, the Knidian Aphrodite (shown as a plaster cast above in the Museum of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge). She invites plenty of conversation about the inherent sexualisation and objectification of the female body, a topic which resonates particularly loudly with the news of recent weeks. Praxiteles had produced one of the very first full-scale female sculptural nudes in history, setting a precedent for almost every other subsequent depiction of the goddess as well as other female nudes. A story circulated about the statue being rejected by the people of Kos, who considered the naked goddess to be gravely inappropriate and were in favour of another clothed version which the sculptor had to offer. This raises a couple of problems for me: firstly, the Greeks were more than used to seeing depictions of naked men, with phallus clearly on display, and muscles large enough to poke someone’s eye out. The nude was therefore by no means inherently sexual. Even in the case of Aphrodite, she is here depicted at her bath, a small water jar is placed next to her bent leg. At first glance, her pose does not seem to invite any sort of sexual response. She stands upright, clutching her clothing in her right hand and covers her genital region with her left. This is a private moment which we, as the viewer, seem to be intruding upon, immediately promoting any who gaze upon her as an intrusive voyeur. Already, we have seen that the people of Kos could not bear such a seemingly ‘offensive’ sight as a naked woman. How could they possibly expect the goddess of sex not to be fully clothed? Another story tells of a sailor who snuck into her sanctuary in Knidos at nighttime, commemorating his nocturnal adventure by leaving an ‘amorous stain’ on the goddess’ thigh. The goddess seems only to have caused feelings of disgust or acts of transgressive and unwanted passion. The male gaze seems to have imposed connotations which in turn are not reciprocated on a male subject. Her seemingly innocent pose has been further corrupted by subsequent male scholarship, who have emphasised the suggestiveness of the piece, arguing that Aphrodite is in fact dropping her robe in some kind of divine strip tease and pointing flirtatiously to her genitals.

The story of the sailor reveals the reality of attitudes towards the female body; because she is naked, she is automatically viewed in a sexual way. Praxiteles’ statue makes for the perfect victim: she is motionless, she cannot prevent her aggressor from inflicting himself upon her. But the harsher reality is that women face such abuse for the simple reason that they are women. When confronted by a nude male, society has never reacted so drastically. While the nude male represents manly perfection, athletic potential and virility, a woman provokes lust, disgust, and unwarranted sexual behaviour.

It is time to come up with a new way of looking at Aphrodite, one which may not fit the traditional context of the statue, but rather one befitting of women today. As the patron of sex, she herself should stand as a beacon of sexual freedom and liberation, instead of promoting a culture of shaming female sexuality. Aphrodite has the right to choose to drop her clothing or cover herself up, without provoking anger, disgust or lechery in the viewer. The different readings available to us should encourage equal validity of what a woman may choose to do to her body and how she may choose to present it. When I look at this statue, I decide to see it as an empowering symbol, to overturn how she is traditionally seen as nothing more than a sexual object.

A modern-day Aphrodite would certainly be an advocate for today’s more liberal attitudes towards female sexuality and the increasing control which women have over their personal image. However, she also exemplifies how the female form has always been tainted by male entitlement. This issue has become significantly better over the years, but the current news suggests that we are by no means clear of this problem.  I hope we reimagine Aphrodite as a strong, confident woman and adopt a new way of looking at her Knidian depiction as a symbol of power rather than one of oppression. By viewing art in this manner, we pave the way for interpreting the naked female body as a symbol of power.

Image Credit: Museum of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Photographer: Alice Boagey. Aphrodite of Knidos, plaster cast, no.232. (Original: Munich, Glyptotek)

1...323324325...2,486Page 324 of 2,486

Support Student Journalism

Cherwell is Oxford’s oldest independent newspaper, established in 1920. We are entirely student-run. By supporting us, you will contribute to keeping our paper in print and online. Every donation makes a difference.

Donate

Explore

Follow us

More

Oxford Student Publications Limited © 2025 - All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy

Website by James Ashley