Saturday, May 17, 2025
Blog Page 43

A defence of students’ reliance on AI (and how to fix it)

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Unless my friends are particularly fiendish, I’m pretty certain that “I’m just going to ChatGPT this essay” is a phrase we have all heard. I would like to posit that it is no wonder many students succumb to this temptation when the work we are required to do is often as pointless as Elon Musk’s attempts to get people to start calling Twitter ‘X’.  

  It is not outlandish to claim that in the academic realm, final exam results are virtually all that most students prioritise. It is also not outlandish to claim that our peers are somewhat sensible for doing so. After all, we exist within an education system in which success is largely predicated on the maximisation of percentages. Thus, if an individual is tasked with producing sixteen essays over eight weeks, half of which will cover topics not on their final examination, the rationale behind focusing on non-examined topics becomes unclear. 

Of course, an ideal world would see us all so enthralled by our degrees that we want to produce a beautiful piece of writing on every topic, purely for the enjoyment of learning and the development of our writing skills. In some sense, many people I know do complete their work with this intention. An issue arises, however, when this intention clashes with the desire to lead a somewhat well-rounded life, and also to get enough sleep. Call me impulsive, but I truly believe that when faced with the decision to enjoy a unique evening with your friends or to dedicate yourself to a dull essay topic that is not going to contribute to your final grade whatsoever, it is much more sensible to enjoy the evening with your friends.

  I would like to make it clear that I am not advocating for such scenarios to be actively sought out. I believe that most students possess the necessary time management skills for the use of large language models (barring the use of them as a thesaurus, spell-checking device, or Google-substitute) not to be a common, necessary occurrence. I do however believe that a key reason LLMs are used is because we already fulfil our personal learning goals by engaging with examined topics, and therefore superfluous topics are logically relegated below a good night’s sleep.

  I admit I am speaking from a rather Oxonian lens. There are likely students at other universities–at which it is only required that students produce two or three essays per term–who still use ChatGPT as their heavy-handed assistant. Such cases do draw out my inner traditionalist.

  Of course, there is also a fine line between optimisation and over-optimisation. In machine learning, “overfitting” occurs when an analysis is too tailored to a specific (training) dataset, preventing it from accurately generalising to new data. Similarly, we must be cautious not to overfit ourselves when it comes to prioritising optimisation – optimising our lives to the extent that we lose the ability for creative thought and production. If we do not practise thinking for ourselves, I believe we may begin to lose ourselves. A loss of grit is not a trivial matter, and the sense of satisfaction obtained from completing a piece of work as an individual cannot be replaced. If you have found yourself succumbing to the pull of idle half-participation in your work, I thus challenge you to do your next piece of work without using an LLM. You will very quickly feel the positive consequences on your ability to think and communicate clearly. I also genuinely believe it will lead to you feeling much happier in the long run as you become more engaged with your own existence.  

Fundamentally, I believe most people would prefer to complete their work without the use of an LLM; the use of them for academic matters is typically a symptom of stress. To tackle this stress, course directors could, for example, trial the removal of written work on non-examined topics. Nonetheless: whatever the future of education holds, antagonising students for using ChatGPT is not the solution. To preserve creativity, we should address the root causes of students’ reliance on AI while encouraging original, human thought.

New guidelines on AI usage in academic work emphasise human responsibility

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New ethical guidelines for the use of large language models (LLMs), notably ChatGPT, in academic writing have been published by researchers from Oxford University and other leading global universities. The ethical framework aims to ensure the validity, integrity, and trust in LLM-assisted work.

The guidelines state that there must be a substantial human contribution to the work’s design, analysis, and data. At least one researcher must be able to guarantee the accuracy of the research and take responsibility for each substantive claim and piece of evidence in the writing.

The framework also emphasises the importance of researchers being transparent with their use of LLMs and other generative AI in their research. The article provides a template for authors to use in their work to help them declare the use of LLM. 

Recent improvements in LLMs have seen their increasing usage in academic work due to their high-level of performance, efficiency, and accessibility. The usage of LLMs in academic writing has generated some concerns about plagiarism, authorship attribution, and trust in research. LLM development has seen different models specialise in different academic fields. The most popular general LLMs include ChatGPT, Claude, and Bard.

The guidelines, published in Nature Machine Intelligence, state that “LLM use should neither lower nor raise the standard of responsibility that already exists in traditional research practices.”

The ethical framework was developed by researchers from Oxford’s Uehiro Institute, which focuses on contemporary ethical challenges, alongside researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Copenhagen, and the National University of Singapore. 

Guidance for Oxford students from the University says that “unauthorised use of AI falls under the plagiarism regulations and would be subject to academic penalties in summative assessments.” Nonetheless, the guidance says that students can “make use of generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Bing Chat and Google Bard) in developing [their] academic skills to support [their] studies”, and even gives tips on how to use LLMs. 

In the last week, the use of AI became a point of contention for English students at Keble College as they were reminded in an email from their Director of Studies of their “responsibility to make sure that [their] work is not plagiarised…includ[ing] the use of AI (such as Chat GPT) to present the writing/thoughts/work of other sources as [their] own.” The email went on to highlight Keble and University guidance on plagiarism and academic misconduct. 

Department of Computer Science leads new cyber security project

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A new network aiming to protect cyber security will be led by Oxford University’s Department of Computer Science. The project, which is set to launch in early 2025, has received a £6 million investment from the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). 

The Cyber Security Research and Networking Environment (CRANE) hopes to create new insights into how to achieve security in accordance with Design and Default under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through utilising the benefit of technologies and intense collaboration.

The initiative’s ambition is to facilitate better cyber security across the nation’s economy, including a wide range of sectors, such as manufacturing, healthcare, and law enforcement. This variety will make businesses, charities and individuals more resilient against cyber threats.

Project lead Professor Andrew Martin from the Department of Computer Science said: “There is a pressing need for improvements in cyber security across a broad spectrum of social and technical research. We want to help the community to identify areas where research can bring the most benefit and encourage its development right across the UK and beyond.”

The UK is the third most targeted country in the world for cyber-attacks, after the United States and Ukraine. 

One of CRANE’s core objectives include maximising interdisciplinary research through collaborations with researchers in fields such as computer science, psychology, social sciences, law and economics. This will allow them to stay engaged with relevant technological advancements, including artificial intelligence and quantum computing. They intend to use a risk management strategy called “horizon scanning” to ensure that their project stays current and researchers remain ahead of trends and adapt to the changing digital landscape.

The project will be co-led by professors from Abertay University, University of Bath, University College London, and University of Birmingham. One of their ambitions is to foster a collaborative environment, with regional events to minimise travel and integrate a range of sectors, from government and industry to non-profit organisations. They are working with the UK National Cyber Strategy to strengthen the international cyber ecosystem and reach out to as many potential collaborators as possible. 

They intend to establish a new “learned society”, an organised group dedicated to research within a selected academic discipline, on cyber security research. This hopes to integrate UK businesses as well as voluntary and charity communities. 

Minister for Cyber Security Feryal Clark said that the new government has made cyber defences a “national priority” and this network will help generate “the UK’s cyber leaders of tomorrow.”

Price of a pint in Oxford rose by over 30p this year

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A pint of real ale in Oxford now costs £5.42 on average up from £5.06 last year, according to a survey of Oxford pubs. This comes after the new government budget’s promise to cut a penny off a pint.

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) recently surveyed 25 pubs in central Oxford, excluding two JD Wetherspoon pubs that always sell at lower prices. CAMRA’s findings indicate a strong trend of pints rising in price, with the most common pint now costing £5.60 – a rise of over 24% from £4.50 in 2023. Additionally, 12 pubs now do not sell any ales for less than £5 per pint, double of the 6 pubs last year.

CAMRA also reported that the single most expensive pint of ale was found at the Head of the River, where a Fuller’s seasonal beer sells for £6.55. In second place was Turf Tavern, costing £6.45 for a Greene King special beer. Notably, prices at Wetherspoon pubs have decreased to £2.49 a pint, except for pints of Greene King IPA which are sold at £1.99 each. Outside of Wetherspoon pubs, the White Rabbit continues to sell the cheapest pints at £3.80.

The survey took place in light of last month’s budget, wherein Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a cut of 1.7% to draught duty tax, promising “a penny off a pint in a pub.” But pub chains warn that newly-introduced increases to national insurance and minimum wage will necessitate higher prices across pubs.

A bartender at the Three Goats’ Head told Cherwell: “Every year, most stuff in here goes up by 10 to 30p.” He explained the impact of the minimum wage increase on pubs, stating that it means “quite a lot more money that they’ve got to pay staff, so they don’t really have a choice, they have to increase prices.”

October’s budget saw the share prices of several pub chains plummet, including JD Wetherspoon, which suffered a decrease of 11.4% in a single week. Pub chain Young’s announced that they were expecting to make a loss of £11 million in light of the budget. Several experts and pub chain owners have warned of further price increases, citing the increase in national insurance contributions as the most damning factor.

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Brasenose hosts talk by suspended spokesman for the Israeli government

Over two dozen students protested yesterday outside Brasenose College during a talk by alumnus and former Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy. Following Nikki Haley’s event at Blavatnik School of Government last week, this was the second time a controversial speaker was announced at short notice.

Protesters organised by Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) sat outside the college gate, temporarily trapping students and fellows inside. A student trapped inside told Cherwell that when they attempted to get out, they were “tramping over protesters who grabbed and scratched and screamed”. Protesters also yelled “Shame! Shame!” at people leaving and asked questions like “How do you feel about a genocidal maniac speaking at your college?”

According to a flyer posted inside Brasenose the day of Levy’s event, it “will be a valuable opportunity to gain some insight into the current conflicts in the Middle East, from somebody right at the centre of the events”.

OA4P called for an emergency rally about an hour before the event, alleging that Levy’s event was not announced until the last minute: “As has been patterned in recent talks this term, the University deliberately concealed the identity of the speaker until shortly before the event began, to avoid rightful accountability and reputation damage.”

This follows last week’s OA4P protests outside a Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) event featuring former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. OA4P alleged: “BSG clearly knew that the Oxford community would not welcome Haley’s presence, given that the School hid her identity as the Dean’s Forum speaker from the student body until this morning.”

Brasenose and BSG did not respond when Cherwell asked about the dates of announcing Levy and Haley as speakers respectively.

A Brasenose spokesperson told Cherwell: “Brasenose College values open dialogue and the exchange of diverse perspectives. The event, organised by students, provided an opportunity to engage with a speaker and alumnus who has held a prominent role in public affairs. We acknowledge that the speaker’s previous comments have sparked debate and took steps to ensure the event proceeded safely for all involved.

“Some disruption occurred, affecting some students, staff and visitors, but normal access resumed shortly thereafter. We respect the right of individuals to voice their views through peaceful protest and remain committed to fostering an inclusive environment based on mutual respect.”

Levy studied PPE at Brasenose and emigrated to Israel. He served in the Israeli defence ministry, worked as international media adviser to the president, and became the government’s English-language spokesperson following the 7th October attacks. Levy was suspended earlier this year following an online row with then-UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, BBC reported.

Review: Endgame – ‘Nothing is funnier than unhappiness’

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Devilish Whimsy’s production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame captures Beckett’s seamless blending of comedy, providing us with a hopeless vision of the future while simultaneously evoking gallows humour, inviting us to laugh at our powerlessness to escape this apocalyptic fate. Against the tragic contemporary backdrop of escalating global and political crises, this production’s use of laughter in the bleakest situations feels as relevant today as it must have done to the original 1957 audiences.

Beckett’s play, set in an apocalyptic landscape, depicts the unsettling relationships between whom we assume to be the only four survivors: Ham, who is blind and unable to stand; his servant Clov, who is unable to sit; and his senile parents who spend the entire play sitting in bins. The play’s small cast skilfully handles the demands of capturing the complexities of these relationships. Rowan Brown and Guan Xiong Lam deserve particular recognition. From the confines of their newspaper-covered dustbins, they manage to alternate with great energy between weary bitterness and nostalgic tenderness towards one another.

The relationship between Nate Wintraub’s Hamm and Lyndsey Mugford’s Clov, around which the majority of the play’s action revolves, is also impressively executed. Wintraub, in a brocade jacket and velvet smoking hat, portrays Hamm as if he were a rake from an Edwardian melodrama thrust into modernity. Unable to function in this unfamiliar setting, his impish charm sours into infantile petulance. In contrast to this mercurial theatricality, Mugford brings an emotional numbness to the role of Clov. While Hamm has responded to the unknown catastrophe by collapsing into self-pity, Clov uses emotional repression as a coping mechanism. Despite their characters’ constant bickering, Wintraub and Mugford manage to create a briefly tender and poignant moment of solidarity; the stand-out scene of the play was when Mugford’s Clov, after refusing to touch Hamm, placed a caring hand on his shoulder while apologising for throwing a stuffed dog at him. Through the absurdity of the moment, we as audience members were given a brief vision of a more optimistic future of love and affection before Clov’s return to numbness.

Director Killian King successfully emphasised the environmental themes of the play; at the back of the set, two windows are covered in white paper to capture the barrenness of the outside world and the contemporary threat of rising sea levels is alluded to at one point with the sound of waves. Hamm’s line ‘nature is dead’ reminds us that the play’s dystopian setting may not be as far into the future as we would like to think.

The characters all bring humour to their roles, whether in the physical comedy of Clov dragging Hamm around the stage in an enormous armchair or in the darkly comedic jibes the characters direct towards one another (and at one point the audience). However, ultimately this production is a deft rendition of Beckett’s absurdist cry of despair for the future.

A literary map of Oxford

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Bookshelves are the most revealing part of a room. It’s there you’ll discover if your potential hook up is into incel-adjacent self-help books (in which case, leave as soon as possible) or bruised editions of old paperback classics (in which case, they’re a keeper). An Oxford undergraduate’s bookshelf, however, is more likely to be filled with an unchanging set of volumes, brought ritualistically to Uni at the beginning of each term as part of an optimistic belief in the existence of free time. In a city with such a rich cultural history, you can absolve yourself of the nagging guilt over these books left to gather dust by absorbing the inspiration its alleys and canals have to offer. Below is the perfect afternoon dawdle, chasing the ghosts of literary greats through the town – particularly beautiful right now as the leaves start to turn.

First stop – Christ Church College and the Thames

The richest, biggest, and most pretentious of Oxford’s Colleges, it is also the site on which Mathematics don Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) found inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. A boat trip from Folly Bridge to Godstow undertaken by Carroll and the three daughters of a dean from the college on the 4th July 1862 was later identified by the author as the date of inspiration for his nonsense novel. Its protagonist is supposedly based off of the middle daughter, Alice Liddell, with whom Caroll enjoyed a particularly close relationship – it’s been speculated by a biographer of Liddell’s that his sudden break from the family occurred after his desire to wed the 11-year-old girl was discovered.

(Hint: This connection to Alice in Wonderland is why you’ll find Alice’s Shop opposite the college.)

Up High Street to University College

Percy Shelley’s name does not usually figure on the list of Oxford’s literary alumna. Possibly because his stay at the university was so short.  He was expelled five months after arriving at University College in 1810 for circulating a pamphlet called ‘The Necessity of Atheism’ that he and fellow student Thomas Jefferson Hogg had written.

Down Magpie Lane to Merton College

Don’t ignore Magpie Lane as you pass through – Robin Swift, main character of R F Kuang’s dazzling 2022 ‘Babel’, spends a brief few months of semi-blissful ignorance at the beginning of the novel living here in student accommodation. Kuang’s study of academic complicity in imperialism could not be further from the homely nostalgia of ‘The Hobbit’, written by future fellow of Merton College J.R.R.Tolkien. Merton, mischievously re-imagined as ‘Judas College’, plays a crucial role in Max Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson. It is Zuleika’s familial connection to the university that allows her to gain access to and wreak havoc upon the sexually frustrated men within Edwardian Oxford.

Up Merton Street to Magdalen College and Holywell Cemetery

Magdalen College dons were taken by surprise in 1878 when Oscar Wilde, notorious University-wide for his aestheticism and disobedience, graduated with a double first in Classics. Some fifty years later, The Inklings – a group of writers including C. S. Lewis and J. R.R. Tolkien – began their regular meetings at Lewis’ fellow’s room in the college. Behind the college lies Holywell Cemetery, which not only contains the grave of Theophilus Carter, reputed inspiration behind the Mad Hatter, but also Kenneth Grahame, who wrote ‘The Wind in the Willows’, and the son for whom it was written.

Down Holywell Street to the Bodleian and Rad Cam

Grahame bequeathed all his royalties to the Bodleian despite never studying at the University; this imaginative hold of the library’s over generations of writers is testified to also by the central place it occupies in Babel and Deborah Harkness’ All Souls trilogy. In the former, Kuang constructs a towering new linguistics building in the midst of its courtyard, whereas in the latter the witch Diana Bishop discovers an arcane text that inducts her into a community of magic-casters and vampires. Walking past the Rad Cam, you’ll come to the approximate location of Jordan College, a parallel universe equivalent of Exeter College, where Philip Pullman was an undergraduate and decided to use as his main character Lyra’s Oxford base in the His Dark Materials trilogy, a subversion of Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Up Catte Street to Hertford College

Hertford boasts not only the Bridge of Sighs, but also the distinction of having Evelyn Waugh as an alumna. His satirical Decline and Fall comments on elite circles of interwar Britain.It begins with the expulsion of main character Paul Pennyfeather after getting caught up in the actions of the Bollinger Club (a very thinly veiled fictitious Bullingdon Club), whereas Brideshead Revisited is a work of nostalgia for easy hierarchy.

Down Broad Street to St John’s College

Philip Larkin, arguably the most sour poet of the 20th century, spent much of his time as an undergraduate at St John’s College writing lesbian stories under the pseudonym Brunette Coleman. One of these, entitled ‘Michaelmas Term at St Bride’s’, is set in a women’s college with striking similarities to Somerville, which segues us away from Larkin’s sexual frustrations to the next stop.

Up St Giles’ Road to Somerville College and Jericho

The Eagle and Child, once a famous Inklings’ haunt, now stands lifeless on this road, despite having been bought by the American Ellison Institute of Technology last year. Somerville itself is a much happier sight. It’s been home to A.S. Byatt, whose beautiful Possession explores academia, forbidden Victorian affairs, and Brittonic poetry; Dorothy L Sayers, a writer of feminist mysteries who set her Gaudy Night at an alumni dinner at a certain ‘Shrewsbury College’; and others including Iris Murdoch, Frances Hardinge, and Vera Brittain, whose semi-autobiographical Testament of Youth begins with her preparations to study at Somerville being abandoned by the advent of the First World War.

Optional last stop – Woodstock and the greater Oxford area

The first of Colin Dexter’s thirteen Inspector Morse novels begins with a group of women waiting for a bus to Woodstock, which now runs from Keble Road just outside Somerville’s main entrance. As – and if – you take the bus out of Summertown to this quiet village belonging to Blenheim Palace, you could end this literary ramble on a depressing note by reflecting on the bleakest story to find inspiration from Oxford’s dreaming spires. Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure tracks the eponymous character’s desire to attend ‘Christminster’ as a scholar. This  is made impossible by the sexual and class standards of late Victorianism. Hardy himself was never able to progress his education past the age of 16, and Jude never manages to gain access to the colleges he longs to be a part of. The full story is so unrelentingly comfortless that it’s thought to be the reason Hardy gave up writing novels, and tried his hand at poetry instead.

One of the most surreal aspects about life in Oxford is the opportunity to walk the same roads as the figures you study, and those revered and studied before them. But the various imaginations that have found their outlet in the city enable you also to discover the paths of those figures who exist ordinarily only on the page. It’s a privilege that should not be neglected – we hope you’ll embrace it instead, on wanders such as this.

Should we judge a book by its cover?

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When was the last time you read a book without ever seeing its cover? They’re the first thing you see and I believe our experience of books is intrinsically tied up with the way that they look. If this is the case, is it even possible to avoid judging them? Bookstores and libraries have a wealth of choice, so a book cover has to be enticing enough that you pick it up in the first place. If the cover isn’t the genre you’re looking for, you might put the book down before even reaching the blurb. Designing a book cover requires a significant amount of effort and thought: it can make or break book sales.

Plenty of people also actively focus on the aesthetics of books. If given the choice between two designs of the same book, I’m sure lots of people would choose to buy the nicer (in their opinion) of the two. I know when I buy classics I’m always particularly drawn to the beautiful clothbound editions. Although I’ve only come to own one second-hand clothbound classic,  so clearly costs can play a part too. I’ve also been tempted in the past to buy copies of books I already own just because a new version of the cover has come out, or in order to have matching covers for a trilogy or series (again, cost and wastage are prohibitive here for me). So there you have it. On several levels, plenty of people do in fact judge books by their covers. Sometimes more consciously than others.

I don’t mind if people choose aesthetic books to add to their collection. I’m happy that people enjoy reading, and buying a book for aesthetic purposes doesn’t stop you from actually reading it. The idea of choosing a book by its cover might be frowned upon, but if people are reading for enjoyment then is it really so wrong for aesthetics to be part of this enjoyment? In addition, book covers are a form of artistic expression. People collect art for the sole purpose of enjoying the way it looks; why can’t the art created by book cover designers and illustrators be similarly admired? 

For those who believe we shouldn’t judge books by their covers, maybe this sounds controversial at best, terrible at worst. But the fact remains that plenty of people do judge books by their covers, so much so that it can affect book sales. According to Penguin publishing, designing a book cover requires designers, but also editors, marketing, sales, and production teams. Whilst the author is consulted and their input considered, it’s down to the art department to make the final decision. Publishing houses have to consider their target audience, retailers, and their competition whilst designing a book cover. This illustrates that we do in fact judge books by their covers. It means you can infer a lot about a book from the cover alone. You can often tell the genre, the narrative tone, the author (if you’ve read their other works), and their target demographics too. If you like books of a certain genre, you might pick up a book cover which reminds you of that. What comes to mind for me are books which might be classed as ‘dark academia’. These tend to look visually dark and often have covers in a gothic style. Think The Secret History, Babel, Ninth House, If We Were Villains. They all have different covers, and the books are in fact different in tone and contents, but you can tell they could all be grouped together as dark academia books. 

Romance books are another example. To me, Ali Hazelwood and Hannah Grace’s book covers all follow similar aesthetics: they regularly feature swirling fonts and two lovers against pretty, often pastel, backgrounds. The covers alone show that they’re light hearted romance novels. Sometimes a book straddles multiple genres, and you can see which has been focused on through the cover design. Both Emily Henry and Sally Rooney’s novels feature covers with bold coloured and minimalistic backgrounds. Henry’s book covers, however, use brighter and more saturated colours and tend to also feature two romantic leads. This gives the impression that her books fit within the romance genre, but might have a higher degree of realism than Hazelwood’s, for example. The covers of Rooney’s books, on the other hand, tend to opt for more muted tones of red or green and are more minimalistic covers than Henry’s. This indicates that whilst there might be a romantic story, the real draw is literary fiction and an element of realism, rather than a guaranteed happy ending.  

All of this suggests that book covers often follow cover design trends: minimalistic covers with muted colours for realism, pastels and a happy couple for romance. It seems that designing a book cover involves the difficult task of trying to create something that follows a trend whilst also being individual enough to be set apart from competitors. And sometimes, this leads to incredibly similar covers. The first book in Lauren Child’s Ruby Redfort series, marketed towards 9 -14 year olds, came out in 2011. The first Geek Girl book, written by Holly Smale, was published in 2013. Around two years after this, the Ruby Redfort series underwent cover redesigns, and when I saw them I was immediately reminded of the Geek Girl covers. Coincidentally, Harper Collins was the publishing house behind both covers. It felt like a direct message to the readers: if you liked Geek Girl, read this! I was surprised. Having read both and only liked one of the two series, I didn’t think they were all that similar. But it makes sense; if book covers really do influence what we buy, why not follow the successes of other books. Why not take advantage of fans of one book looking for their next fix in the form of another? And if book covers are a marketing tool, maybe we should judge books by their covers. 

However, by judging a book by its cover alone, we may end up judging authors by the one part of their book which they have had little to no control over. Not all book covers are successful. I was disappointed at the redesign of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology. The covers went from conveying a mysterious fantasy story set in the same universe as Bardugo’s other books, to covers which I would likely interpret as literary fiction or Romance.  They don’t represent the contents or mood of the books, and I’ve seen others online say similar things. I remember seeing them and thinking that if I saw the new covers in a bookstore, I wouldn’t be drawn to them in the same way. That’s not to say I wouldn’t pick up the books at all, but would I buy them? I’m not convinced. 

Maybe ‘judge’ is the wrong word. We should accept that we are influenced by book covers. That they do contribute to the opinion we form of a book. That being drawn to a cover can be the reason we pick it up in the first place. But we need to be conscious of this. Maybe we need to start giving a chance to the books we wouldn’t usually take a second glance at. 

Blood is compulsory: The films of Martin McDonagh

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Under normal circumstances, asking me to write about a filmmaker who’s changed my outlook on life might invite something moving. There are plenty of directors, after all, who have that effect. Scorsese’s parade of doomed hyper-masculine protagonists marches on like a premonition. Francis Ford Coppola’s best work touches perfectly on the ways unremarkable people react when everything falls apart. Or, on the lighter side, I could muse for hours on the simple joys of Wes Anderson; a man I’ve never met and never will, yet who reminds me of an old relative who effortlessly evokes long-departed times and places. 

For all their merits, though, none of those three ever drunkenly told Sean Connery to ‘f**k off.’

Martin McDonagh, above all else, is an idolater. His plays, unapologetically drawing on his Irish roots, appalled the stuffed shirts of Fleet Street with their violent, absurd depictions of working-class life – but at the same time, caused a furore across the sea on the grounds that McDonagh, a Londoner by birth, was stereotyping his homeland for his own gain. He might now sit at the head of British film and theatre but if that head were to meet a similar fate to those of his protagonists, it might make for grisly viewing.

The chaos inherent to his films is perhaps best exemplified in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), in which Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) erects the titular fixtures in protest at the police’s inability to find her daughter’s murderer and rapist. This seemingly reasonable frustration leads to a small-town death spiral: a suicide, a defenestration and an arson attack, all stemming from the attempts of the parochial and the powerful to protect their reputations. 

America as depicted in Three Billboards is angry and fractured. However, while this perspective on the country earned critical acclaim, it also provoked the ire of some quarters in the media. The film’s portrayal of race was especially criticised, with the bigoted and violent Officer Dixon (Sam Rockwell) becoming an apparently sympathetic figure despite not changing his ways. It’s true that Dixon and Mildred grow closer as the film progresses. But rather than assuming that this signifies an acceptance of Dixon, one might easily see it as a symbol of Mildred’s descent into amorality. Everyone turns against Mildred, so she turns against everyone – audience included, as it turns out. She sympathises with Dixon not for his hateful views, but for his ever-present anger at the same world Mildred sees as having failed her.

I’d suggest, therefore, that McDonagh’s handling of racial issues is more nihilistic than ignorant. Themes of cruelty and depravity also run through In Bruges (2008), in which Colin Farrell plays Ray, a hitman driven to suicidal thoughts at the guilt of having killed a child is hunted by his colleague Ken (Brendan Gleeson), who is instructed to kill him in response. The same two actors reprise in similarly bleak roles in The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). In the midst of the Irish Civil War, Gleeson’s character Colm cuts off his own fingers for no reason rather than to avoid talking to his former best friend Pádraic, played by Farrell. In response, Pádraic attempts to burn Colm alive in his own house. Scenes such as these demonstrate McDonagh’s worldview; bitter conflict is practically a given, and the only things more fragile than his protagonists’ social bonds are their egos. 

In McDonagh’s work, no one is safe from corruption. The strong female lead joins forces with racist thugs, alienates her son and wishes a violent death upon her daughter on the very day it occurs. The two inseparable friends see their country torn apart by sectarian violence, and mutilate themselves for the sheer sport of it. This conception of society – one without heroes or convictions, dominated by self-destructive vendettas – is striking because, in our uncertain century, it speaks to us more than any traditional morality tale could.