Friday 11th July 2025
Blog Page 692

“Delightfully creepy”: “Spellbound” at the Ashmolean review

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“Delightfully creepy”: “Spellbound” at the Ashmolean review

The “Spellbound” exhibition at the Ashmolean stands in stark contrast to its light, airy surroundings. It is housed in a windowless, dim series of rooms, with the artefacts sporadically spread throughout. It’s delightfully creepy, especially the sections where the artefacts are resting on the glass above you in chimney-like structures, forcing you to walk into dark little alcoves and crane your neck up to see them. The displays are enhanced by the art installations that are placed alongside them. Katharine Dowson’s ‘Concealed Shield’ is an installation inside a symbolic chimney where the viewer is surrounded by scratching noises and red lights, giving the impression of being surrounded by demons or other unseen forces. It is an extension of some of the key elements showcased within the exhibit, reflecting folk-lore and customs about protecting the home from witches. Other striking installations include Ackroyd & Harvey’s ‘From Aether to Air’, which shows off a crystalline cast of a human body, and Annie Cattrell’s ‘Veracity 1 & 11’, dedicated to the significance of fire in magical lore.

Other highlights of “Spellbound” include the preserved human heart encased in a special heart-shaped case, and the collection of love rings with inscriptions intending to bind their lover to them (matched up with the modern-day tradition of love-locks, like on Pont des Arts). Some of these rings are really rather romantic, while some have weird, obsessive undertones. There’s also a big sword if you are into that kind of thing. You can also see preserved clothes that were found in people’s houses, where they were intended to ward off witches’ curses, although nobody quite knows why or how they ‘worked’. It is really jarring to see a collection of moth-eaten clothes, including a child’s dress and a single adult shoe, and be told they were found under the floorboards of a home in Kent. The exhibit also includes a collection of magic-related books, with gold leafing and diagrams of magical theory, for the manuscript enthusiasts of Oxford. The labels for the exhibits are sometimes weirdly placed so hard to match up with the actual artefacts but that also kind of makes it fun, to be able to look at something and have no idea what it is and be able to theorise, and then later finding out what it actually is.

The exhibit is free for Oxford Students, so make sure to bring your Bod card. Going through the whole exhibit will take an hour out of your day (maximum), so as an activity to do for free in Oxford it’s well worth seeing. The exhibit does get really busy, with the queue to see some of the exhibits up to three people deep. The time of day you go will affect how busy it is, so watch out for that. It’s a quick, engaging experience, and definitely worth a visit!

It’s one small step for Damien Chazelle: ‘First Man’ review

Eleanor Ohlsen
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It’s one small step for Damien Chazelle: ‘First Man’ review

Following the success of Whiplash and becoming the youngest winner of the Best Director Oscar ever for La La Land, whatever Damien Chazelle chose to make next always had a lot to live up to. First Man, a biopic of Neil Armstrong which chronicles America’s race to lunar exploration, is perhaps an unexpected departure for a director whose preoccupation with jazz dominated his prior directorial work.

But just as Whiplash transformed music practice into a tension-laced drama, so Chazelle transforms the historical, epic Apollo 11 mission in a surprising direction, creating an intricate character study that simultaneously functions as sensitive exploration of grief as well as a gripping history lesson.

First Man highlights the tense dichotomy between an astronaut’s life-threatening work-life and the need to foster a stable home-life. Armstrong, played with textbook emotive stoicism by Ryan Gosling, is clearly marked by a repression of emotions, whether in front of his wife, his friends, or journalists. In a fantastic scene at the kitchen table before he embarks on Apollo 11’s fateful mission, when saying what could be a final goodbye to his children, Armstrong recycles dialogue from an earlier press conference – “we have every intention of returning safely” – as if he’s unable to express anything beyond the rational demands of his job.

We soon discover that Armstrong’s dedication to his work is fuelled by his desperate attempts to escape the grief surrounding the loss of his daughter, whose untimely death is explored early in the film. It’s a neat dramatic conceit which allows the audience to get underneath the simplified myth of the iconic ‘Armstrong name’ and all of its heroic associations.

Chazelle’s masterful cinematography speaks volumes where Armstrong remains mute. There is, for instance, the visual theme of touch: flashbacks of feeling his daughter’s hair contrast with close ups of hands on levers controlling rickety spacecraft. His longing for, yet withdrawal from, human contact is continually reaffirmed through visual motifs which never fail to respect the intelligence of the viewer.

The film is not without its issues; the pacing drags unnecessarily in some scenes, interrupting the film’s overall momentum, and although he’s portrayed sympathetically, Armstrong’s characterisation leans dangerously towards the clichéd. The emotionally repressed male lead who somehow takes ‘one giant leap for humankind’ at the expense of his own mentality and loved ones is a role we’ve seen Gosling perform before in Drive or Blade Runner 2049.

Although Gosling is brilliant, Claire Foy’s performance is truly stunning as she depicts the anxiety and anger of his wife Janet who, whilst facing the possibility of widowhood, has to continue her everyday duties as a wife and mother.

The recent controversy Chazelle faced for not depicting the placing of the American flag on the moon blatantly ignores that such nationalistic themes were not the film’s focus. Rather, the single inclusion of the American flag, raised by Armstrong’s son at home, reveals such patriotism as hollow, overshadowed by the truly risky nature of the mission and the human cost it took to get Armstrong there at all.

Like a good book, First Man sticks with you, its resonance settling deeper long after you’ve watched it. I admit that I could be subjecting it to unfair levels of criticism, as part of me feels disappointed that it isn’t another Whiplash. But in its own right, it is an undeniably well-crafted film. It may not be the lightest choice if you’re sick with fresher’s flu, but I’d definitely recommend it.

Oxford grad sets up eating disorder peer support group

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Oxford grad sets up eating disorder peer support group

A peer support network for male athletes with eating disorders has been set up in Oxford by a graduate of St Edmund Hall. Hillary Reitman, who graduated in 2013, decided to begin the scheme after supporting a close relative who experienced bulimia whilst representing Oxford University at a Blues level.

The initiative, Supporting Male Athletes with Eating Disorders (SMAED), aims to break down the barriers of `toxic masculinity` by providing a network of support for athletes with eating disorders.

Hilary and her relative told Cherwell of their experience of the battle with the disorder. They discussed the impact of coach and team pressure, with coaches discussing `race weights` and making clear the link between food, shape and performance. The competitive
nature of the team meant that there was a hierarchy of ability, and falling lower down due to eating would lead to a vicious cycle where you were pushed even lower. No-one spoke of
life outside the sport or mentioned personal mental struggles.

They told Cherwell of the struggle of living as an athlete with an eating disorder like bulimia, saying that it is a very lonely experience, and that they only spoke to one other
male sufferer in a decade. Despite some famous sportsmen, such as Freddie Flintoff and Nigel Owens, speaking about their experiences with bulimia, they feel that this isn’t particularly helpful in day-to-day life.

They told Cherwell that the aim of SMAED is to “do our part in breaking down the barriers of toxic masculinity by building a peer community of support for male athletes with eating disorders, starting here in Oxford, with the ambition to develop peer support communities nation wide.

“Through our peer communities, we will encourage an openness of dialogue, battle the stigmatisation of eating disorders in men, more broadly, and male athletes particularly.

The pair emphasised that they “aim to make the general public aware that male athletes get eating disorders. Whilst we absolutely recognise the benefits that sport can bring to
peoples’ lives, we aim to educate the public about the potential development of eating disorders in men participating in elite and other sporting environments.”

In creating the network Reitman has created the email [email protected] for people who are interested in connecting with those who may have similar shared experiences.

The infamous melodramatics of Kanye West: Ye or nay?

Caleb-Daniel Oyekanmi
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The infamous melodramatics of Kanye West: Ye or nay?

In September 2009, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for the MTV Video Music Award for ‘Best Female Video’. This viral clip became one of the most popular internet memes of all time, with the line “I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time”. This led to him being castigated by the press, his fans, and even being called a ‘jackass’ by the then-president Barack Obama.

West would apologise within a week for his actions in a highly publicised interview with Jay Leno on primetime TV. However, a few years later, in an interview with Jon Caramanica from The New York Times, Kanye said that he did not have “one regret” about the incident. Kanye then exacerbated the situation further; on ‘Famous’, the lead single from his popular album The Life of Pablo, he said that he feels like him and Taylor Swift “might still have sex”, as he claimed that he made her famous – a lyric rightly criticised by many for being misogynistic.

Earlier this year, Kanye caused an incredible amount of controversy during an appearance on TMZ, when he stated that 400 years of slavery in the USA “sounds like a choice”. Though he later apologised, the public won’t quickly forget those awfully misguided words. To highlight all the Kanye West controversy would drain my word limit, but I think it’s safe to say that we understand the general gist of his exploits.

As alluded to earlier, West’s music does not stray far from the general theme. Yeezus, Kanye’s sixth studio album, was an overtly melodramatic project. Whether one believes the album to be fantastic, terrible, or somewhere in-between, it is clear that the record is intentionally abrasive, and was something of an exorbitant stunt. The fact the album features a song called ‘I Am a God’ sums up the general feel of the project quite concisely.
The question is: have Kanye’s antics hindered his career? In terms of the amount of public exposure he receives and the number of people that listen to his songs, the answer is almost certainly no.

I’m writing about him. You bothered to read this article. Drake cared enough to speak at length about him in a recent interview on LeBron James’ show, The Shop. We still speak about the Taylor Swift incident, which happened when I was just starting my final year of primary school. Whether you love him or hate him, his name will, at some point, be on your lips. His song ‘I Love It’ with Lil Pump and Adele Givens has only been out for a month, and has already amassed 255 million views on its music video on YouTube. It seems his levels of fame have only increased.

However, his status as a hip-hop legend will be tainted by the image that people have of his character. Ye will always be remembered as the person who released now-classic albums like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the person who collaborated with virtually every living big name in the industry from Jay-Z to Jamie Foxx.

Unfortunately, he will also be remembered as a hip-hop supervillain – the man with an enormous amount of talent but an attitude that leaves a substantial amount more to be desired.

As a fan I eagerly look to the future to see what he will do moving forward, but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that his memory will be forever flawed.

22 July: Netflix dramatises Norway’s darkest day

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22 July: Netflix dramatises Norway’s darkest day

With 22 July, Paul Greengrass has answered the question of how to convert tragedy into film. In handling the harrowing 2011 Norway attacks that left 77 people dead and a nation in shock, Greengrass has created a film that begins as a thriller before shifting into a tale of national recovery.

Though the attacks have been present in the collective European consciousness for years now, knowing the outcome does not make the unravelling chaos less terrifying to bear witness to on screen. Greengrass takes the viewer through every painful minute of anguish, despair, and finally hope.

The film centres on the attacker, Anders Behring Breivik (Anders Danielsen Lie), a right-wing extremist who pathologically perceives himself as a crusader in a war against multiculturalism, and a single victim, Viljar (Jonas Strand Gravli), who survives the attack with severe wounds.

Lie plays Breivik with an unnerving dispassion for the atrocity he has committed in planting a bomb and shooting to death tens of adolescents at a summer camp. He oscillates between professionalism, stalking around in a mock-police outfit (which is in itself one
of the more quietly horrible aspects of the film), and the bloodthirstiness of a huntsman prowling the forest.

Gravli holds his own against Lie’s disquieting presence, portraying with enormous pathos the ruination of his youth as he grapples with living with both a bullet and the memories of the day still in his brain. Viljar’s entire self is swallowed up by trauma; simply looking at his own face in the mirror is enough to trigger the sound of gunshots and screaming in his mind.

It is an intelligent choice on the part of Greengrass to distil the reverberations of trauma into the paths of two characters. The film’s narrative is divided between the attacker and victim, with two opposite yet converging tales of aftermath.

The film follows the outpouring of collateral damage that follows the attacks. Viljar is aged by trauma, his body contorted and diminished as he sweats through physiotherapy. Viljar’s younger brother Torje, who suffered no physical harm, becomes insular and withdrawn in his attempt to cope with his psychological scarring. Nobody is safe from the unravelling aftershocks of the event; even Breivik’s lawyer receives death threats and is encouraged to withdraw his children from school in light of the hate levelled against Breivik and, by extension, himself.

It is as if the massacre becomes the centre of a cobweb that splinters out in horrible,
variegated directions to form one dreadful tapestry of atrocity – one in which everyone
is a victim.

It is to Greengrass’ credit that he eschews experimentation in this film. He could have
shoehorned in dream sequences to express Viljar’s PTSD, or employ some fragmented,
vignette structure to convey a society that has been fractured and wounded to its core.

But instead he takes a more journalistic stance, portraying the shooting with an almost documentary-style verisimilitude to the actuality of events. It is perhaps the only way that such a recent horror – one that Norway is still reeling from today – could be given screen time; to do so in any other way would be to flounder from the truth, to get lost in the aesthetic over the brutality of the content.

Atrocity is, by nature, chaotic and beyond the exacting powers of rationale. It seems
that Greengrass is trying to give structure to something so chaotic, to build narrative
out of senseless atrocity.

He is sublimating personal and national pandemonium into celluloid catharsis.

It is through this interweaving of the personal and the political where the film is most successful. Greengrass overlaps voiceovers of political conversations onto scenes of Viljar’s corporeal breakdown and recovery.

The technique reminds us how terrible events motivated by political extremity are enacted upon the localised site of the civilian’s body.

And Greengrass does not shy away from any of it – not from the horrifying somatic realities of bloodshed, nor the strange, almost sci-fi-like medical aftermath of defibrillation, blood-bags and surgical drilling. It is part of his journalistic method to show it all in exacting, naturalistic detail. The latter part of the film shifts from focusing on the power of the gun to the power of narrative, as Breivik tries to attribute extreme right-wing triumph onto his act in court and the victims attempt to establish solidarity in their shared grief.

The film ultimately leads up to a confrontation in court between Breivik and Viljar, and though the depiction of the attacks themselves is distressingly effective, the film is at its most poignant in this exploration of recovery and a potential movement towards catharsis. In this way, Greengrass has achieved something very important; from an event of horror, he has cultivated a narrative of hope.

Oxbridge degrees less advantageous for women than men, study finds

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Oxbridge degrees less advantageous for women than men, study finds

A recent report from Thomas International shows that Oxbridge degrees have less of an effect on career attainment for women than for men and that women pursuing a career are instead judged more on personality.

The study demonstrated that a man’s age and education are 150% more likely to predict his employment in a senior role than are those same characteristics for a woman. These factors account for 25% of the reason a man may be employed in a senior position and 10% of why a woman may be.

Head of Psychology at Thomas International, Jayson Darby, wrote that this means “mediocre men are getting ahead of better women.”

The analysis comes from data collected from over 100 director-level female leaders compared against their male counterparts.

Darby further stated that Oxbridge “can be an old boys’ club,” telling The Independent that “things are so much about who you know rather what you know.”

He said: “A man with an Oxbridge degree will be offered a huge advantage in their career efforts compared to a woman with an equivalent qualification, even if she has better leadership traits.

“The end result will be lots of average men getting ahead of more talented women.”

The Thomas study also found that men and women share similar levels of emotional intelligence and have comparable personality traits, finding far greater discrepancies in emotional perceptions of each gender.

Darby stated that “there is an inherent bias in the way people describe female success, and it’s holding women back.”

He told The Global Recruiter: “Our research has shown that women are as likely as men to have the traits of a good business leader, but women face additional hurdles to their success; the very traits that are proven predictors of leadership potential are judged negatively when they are shown by women.

“You have got the unconscious bias at the recruitment stage, such as an older man being seen as more advantageous in business, but older women not being seen like this.”

These findings come in light of the University admitting more women than men in this year’s intake.

Earlier this year, Cherwell reported that this year’s intake of freshers was made up of 1,070 18-year-old women, compared to 1,025 men of the same age.

Women not only gained a greater numbers of offers, but also applied in record numbers.

At the time, Catherine Canning, VP for Access and Academic Affairs at Oxford SU said: “It is important to recognise that Oxfordhas finally reached gender parity in its admissions for the first time in its 1,000-year history.

“However, there are still significant disparities in admissionsparticularly around race and class. It is also important to recognise that access is more than an offer letter and Oxford University should be making sure all students feel welcome here.”

Uni bids to trademark ‘Oxford’ on 126 products

Eve Webster
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Uni bids to trademark ‘Oxford’ on 126 products

A bid for exclusive use of the city’s name has been submitted by Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the University, as a “precautionary measure” in response to “ongoing uncertainty around Brexit”.

A successful application would mean that OUP would be the only institution or business to be able to use the name free of charge. If approved, the University would have the sole right to use the city’s name on any product, including stationary, DVD, maps, bibles, newspapers, tickets or journals.

However, the trademark would not limit the word being used in print and, in potential legal disputes, decisions would be based on a “reasonable view” of whether there could be any confusion between the University and those using its trademark.

With the trademark, OUP will also be able to take legal action against anyone using the city’s name without previously gaining permission from them to do so. OUP would also be able to sell and license use of the name.

Unless formal opposition is created, OUP’s bid – which cost £270 to launch – is set to become active within the next three months.

In response, Oxford City Councillor Roz Smith expressed concern for the city’s other major institutions. Smith said: “Oxford is not just ‘gown’, it’s town and, in our case, city, and I don’t want to see a divide. What will this do for the Oxford Mail? For Oxford Brookes University?”

Arun Prasad, manager of a shop on Cornmarket Street which sells Oxford University hoodies, phone covers, and mugs, told The Oxford Times: “I sell a lot of official Oxford University merchandise – I don’t think that would be affected.

“I do also sell one or two souvenir items which just display the word ‘Oxford’ but if there was a problem with these then I would simply return them to my supplier. I’m not too worried at the moment – we will wait and see what happens.”

OUP initially filed the application to have the exclusive right to produce 122 products with the name “Oxford” in March, but due to technical changes in the process it was resubmitted on Monday.

Referring to the move, a spokesperson from OUP said: “Oxford University Press is over 500 years old, and we have had ‘Oxford’ registered as a trade mark for our products since 1994, and across Europe since 2000.

“We have filed an additional trade mark application in the UK for the same products and services where we use the word ‘Oxford’.”

They added: “[Trade marking the name] will help us protect the work we do to achieve our mission – furthering the University’s objectives of excellent in research, scholarship and
education.”

If the University’s trademark is approved, the trademark will be in effect for the next decade.

Brasenose JCR apologise for ‘problematic’ ceilidh

Christopher Sinnott
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Brasenose JCR apologise for ‘problematic’ ceilidh

A Freshers’ Week ceilidh at Brasenose College has come under fire for being “inauthentic” and using music “not at all recognisable to the Scots in the room.”

One Brasenose fresher complained of “the misuse of the Scottish term ‘ceilidh'”, which “confused some of us who were expecting something that reminded us of home”.

Another told Cherwell: “The dances we all know and love were nowhere to be seen. The fact that the band was entirely English, while not necessarily an issue if they give an authentic ceilidh, did then seem as if the event had little interest in recreating an authentic ceilidh.”

One student complained to the Brasenose JCR committee, calling the event “a bit problematic” and saying that “if they didn’t want a proper ceilidh they shouldn’t have called it that, and if they did they should have done more research”.

Speaking on behalf of the Brasenose JCR, JCR President Manish Binukrishnan told Cherwell: “I’d like to apologise on behalf of Brasenose JCR to any in our community who felt that the Fresher’s Week Ceilidh was an inappropriate representation of Scottish culture.

“Our intention was to represent a variety of cultures, so there were also Welsh and Irish Ceilidh dances. However, we’re committed to coordinating with our Scottish students to make sure the next Fresher’s Week Ceilidh is appropriately advertised, and that our Burn’s Night Ceilidh in February is as authentic as possible.

“We had run this even both in Fresher’s Week and after Burn’s Night successfully for many years, but we’re always willing to improve and make Brasenose as representative as possible so we can celebrate and promote cultures in a respectful manner.”

Living in a material world

Tony Wilkes
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Living in a material world
What year is it? We don our denim skirts, dungarees and skirts, pull on ‘Mom jeans’ and wide-leggedpants, bucket hats and fanny packs. We sport ‘Hilfiger’, ‘Fila’, and the off-white sneaker. We dance in showers of purple rain, sing of Africa, Eileen and making dreams. ‘The ‘80s Are Here’ screams theNew York Times, but there are ‘‘90s Trends You Need To Try’. It’s 2018, but as Vulture explains, ‘we feel culturally connected to these decades.’ Why? Revivals run on cycles of twenty years. The ‘70s were fascinated by the ‘50s. Think Grease, ‘The Rock ‘n Roll Revival’, and chart-topping Chuck Berry. The ‘60s revived in the ‘80s, with songs like ‘Summer of ‘69’, classic rock, and Dirty Dancing. And we had That ‘70s Show, disco beats, and Boogie Nights in the ‘90s. Twenty years were close enough to be accessed. Relics survived: the records and photos and outdated wardrobes. You could look to your parents. The average mother gave birth in her twenties, so would be the same age as yourself, a person you could be, but never knew. My mum describes wearing her own mother’s clothes – her button-up shirts and knife-pleated skirts. Those decades revived as they were found. You could be given the past, and it fit.
We’ve adhered to that twenty-year rule. The Eighties relaunched in the Noughties: That ‘80s Show and I Love the ‘80s aired in the early 2000s. And by 2010, nostalgia was shifting. ‘For more than a year’, read a 2010 issue of Vogue, ‘people have been saying we’re going back to the ‘90s.’ And true to form, the ‘90s revival’ was, and remains, the ‘Obsession of The Day’. Though as we moved through the Noughties, we are less confined to a past we can access. Generations will always be drawn to the time they were born. We have seen and heard it before. But our revivals are refusing to leave. ‘[T]he ‘80s revival is already old news’, read the same article in Vogue. ‘Time to move on’. But we haven’t, and we’ve noticed. The journalist Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania, Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past (2011) – told Inverse.com: ‘the duration of ‘80s nostalgia feels unprecedented, historically speaking. The ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the actual ‘80s did.’
Technology has given access to the past on anunprecedented scale. According to Spotify, in 2016 the streaming of ‘80s songs tripled over three years. And the second-highest demographic of listeners were aged 18 to 24 – us. We have greater access to clothes, with greater choice and convenience. Depop, the mobile flea-market, was founded in 2011 and has ten million users. The first Netflix episode of Stranger Things, set in 1983, was watched by 16 million in the first three days. The past is more easily seen, with images and print now taken online. And with social media, trends can spread like wild-fire. Instagram’s trend page #80s contains 8 million videos and posts. But whether it’s thirty years or twenty, we revive decades eluding our memory. And though I was born in the Nineties, in late ’99, those last few months passed me by. A revival needs that amnesia. The film director Fenton Bailey has defined ‘nostalgia’ as a ‘sufficient amount of time [that] has passed’, so you forget the reality […] and romanticise it’. The past is rid of adversity, and attracts a false sense of purity. Free to interpret, we create what we need. We fashion a decade from present desires, and current beliefs. So the times are not just revived, we reinvented. We create a past that was ‘happy’, ‘simple’ and ‘safe’.
The award-winning Black Mirror episode ‘San Junipero’ (2016) – now a revival-think-piece-cliché – shows how we replace the past with sugared idealism. Set in a future replacement of heaven, the episode follows a love affair between two women – Kelly and Yorkie – in a 1980’s virtual reality. They are integrated as naturally as the carefully cultivated ‘80s soundtrack. As is Kelly’s race. In the Eighties of ‘San Junipero’, being black or gay is not just accepted, but celebrated. The episode acknowledges that this is a ‘Land of Make Believe’ (1982), a song featured alongside ‘Fake’ (1987) and ‘Wishing Well’ (1987). Only seven years before Rhythm Nation, black artists were barred from MTV. Race riots swept through Britain in 1981, and Miami would burn in 1980 – and ‘89. In 1988, the British government introduced Section 28, banning the discussion of homosexuality by local authorities and schools. Local libraries were forbidden to stock material with gay or lesbian themes. The Chief Constable of Manchester told the country in 1986: ‘I see evidence of people swirling around in the cesspool of their own making.’ Heaven was
not a place on earth.
But we identify with the Eighties as the era that tried. Opposition to Section 28 amounted to war. Lesbian protestors scaled the gallery of the House of Lords. Activists stormed the BBC, handcuffed themselves to the broadcasting cameras, and disrupted The Six O’Clock News. ‘By getting on the news’, one protestor said, ‘we would be the news.’ We look to resurrect that spirit. We produce films like Milk (2008) and Pride (2014) – documenting the effort and achievement of activists. The books of the time that were once under ban are now taught and discussed in our schools. So we don’t just replace the mistakes, we romanticise to help ourselves heal. ‘San Junipero’, the name, stems from Juniper, the plant – a soother of sickness and pain. We revive the past, perhaps, to heal prevalent wounds. Eighties fashion soothes us, creating a sense of freedom. Isabel Marant explained that the ‘joy of the ‘80s was the freedom to dabble in many’, the ‘reckless abandon’. Variety was encouraged by a number of fashion magazines like The Face, I-D, and Blitz. This ‘triumvirate of style bibles’, according to Metro, ‘defined what was fashionable at the time.’ Ian R Webb was fashion director of Blitz from 1982 to 1987. ‘A huge variety of looks collided and coexisted’, he told Metro in 2013. ‘A lot of things featured came from charity shops or we knocked them up on a sewing machine. [….] The magazine gave us a stage […] to present […] an alternative way of looking at fashion.’
It is an alternative we’re embracing today. Vintage blogger Jasmin Rodriguez told the Huffington Post: ‘With so many companies […] creating mass-produced clothing, it is hard to keep your originality[….] Buying vintage supports individuality.’ And Richard Wainwright, co-founder of a vintage pop-up in L.A., told the Post: ‘so many […] have embraced vintage as a way to develop a signature style.’ Research has shown that 16-18% of Americans use vintage shops in one given year, compared to 21% who shop in a major department store. Its share of the market is growing, and the companies have noticed.‘It’s such a great era to look back on’, the Global Design Director of Topshop told Grazia last year, ‘as it championed individualism […] and expression.’ The Nineties championed rebellion. ‘Grunge’ fashion emerged as ‘opposition to the materialistic excess and glamour of the decade’, and reached itspeak in the Nineties. It’s a style we’re reviving. In 2018, Vogue predicted, everyone will be having to ‘grunge it’. And we are. Trend Spotter characterised the look as heaving layering, Doc Martens, oversized silhouettes, and slouchy sweaters – most of which I wear daily. Our return to rebellious styles may be attempts to reclaim authenticity through fashion. The defining feature of ‘90s fashion was authenticity. Beauty was redefined as less constructed. Designs were grittier. It was an ‘antidote’, The New York Times explains, to ‘blown-up body parts airbrushed to car-paint’. In 2018, we still need that antidote. Jameela Jamil, in a Channel 4 podcast last August, said: ‘The face-tuning, the
photo-shopping, the fillers, […] it’s definitely gotten worse. […] Women are way more under attack than men’. Is it a coincidence that the revival of grittier fashion and grunge is especially marked among women? Clothes are worn for transparency. Women wear nets, and tops made of mesh. Outfits are strapless and backless. These may be attempts to reject distorted versions of appearance, and embrace the genuine ‘you.’
But the most obvious display of Eighties revival is music. We are drawn to the sound. As W Magazine wrote in 2016, ‘popular music is as synth-heavy as it’s ever been since that decade’. Synth first hit the main-stream in the mid to late Eighties, with an impact comparable to Mersey beat. And it’s back in the mainstream. In 2015, Slate attributed the success of ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ to how well The Weeknd simulated ‘the synth burble and serotonin flush of 1980s Michael Jackson.’ It’s not just The Weeknd. The biggest singles of the year – singles from Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris, Ariana, and Drake – all feature synth. In 2018, if you have Eighties sound, you’re a hit. But why? The sound, in fact, had never gone away. The kind of music we listen to now is the same as they listened to then. In the Eighties, synth was quickly absorbed into dance music, creating genres like ‘synth-pop’ and ‘dance-pop’. This produced some of the most recognisable songs of the decade, like ‘Tainted Love’ (1981) and ‘Into the Groove’ (1984). As the genres blurred, a music was created that sounds ‘electronic’ but also like ‘pop’ – a sound of up-tempo, synthesised beats you could get up and dance to. Which is, in effect, our own music. Artists from Rihanna to David Guetta, Britney Spears to Beyoncé, are all considered artists of the genre. And just listen to hits like ‘Solo’ and ‘One Kiss’. Nothing much has changed.
Neither has our worship for their stars. The last few years has seen a surge of interest in artists like David Bowie, George Michael and Michael Jackson. It can be seen in the industry. Record producer Max Martin – ‘the Swedish imperial chart conqueror’ – spoke to Slate about their influence in 2015. ‘These kids […] don’t have a Michael Jackson,’ he explained. ‘They don’t have a Prince. They don’t have a Whitney. Who else is there? Who else can really do it at this point?’ It is a lack we are very aware of. Many of these artists have died in our lifetimes: MJ in 2009, Whitney in 2012, and in 2016, Prince, George Michael, and Bowie. With each loss, we have felt the weight of a presence we never experienced. But we try to understand – buying records, and posters, and downloading singles. But to argue we lack the same talent is misguided. We may not have a Whitney, but we have a Beyoncé. We have the calibre of Drake, Rihanna, and Adele. So it’s not just a question of quality: we are drawn to these stars for their stories. Margo Jefferson published On Michael Jackson last May asking: ‘How to account for Michael Jackson’s rise and fall?’ And the tragedy of Whitney Houston’s life continues to fascinate with documentaries like Can I Be Me (2017) and Whitney, released last July. Their lives reflect questions that we are now able to discuss more openly, or even at all: questions of race, sexuality, addiction, and mental health. Whitney encompasses all of these: the recent film exposes claims of abuse. So their lives are important – the interest helps us understand our own times and ourselves.
Above all, though, we just like the songs. Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson has written the best analysis I’ve read. Eighties music, he writes, ‘connotes its fancied innocence. […] The music’s very shallowness becomes a kind of helpless depth.’ The shallow profundity is intrinsic. In 1989, an academic wrote a paper examining the top fifty songs of September 1987. It proves, he admits, what we already knew. We make songs fit our own lives. The analysis shows that, for the music of 1987, 94% of the songs had an unspecified ‘I’. 86% had unspecified ‘you’. 62% had unspecified genders. The songs are so vague we ‘appropriate the words.’ And, importantly, 94% are not grounded in time, and 80% are not given a place. They are, in other words, timeless. Which is why, on every other Wednesday, Cellar is packed for ‘Burning Down the House’. And it’s why I pass a builder who, laying a drive, joins in with his speaker, and looks me in the eye: ‘Don’t you want me, baby? Don’ you want me, oh!’ So, really, above all the cycles, the clothes, and the music, we feel a greater pull. It may be sentimental, inaccurate, or shallow, but deep down, no matter who we are, or where we may be, you remember don’t you. You wanna dance with somebody.

Trinity building proposal approved despite Bodleian opposition

Daniel Hall
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Trinity building proposal approved despite Bodleian opposition

A proposed building development by Trinity College has been approved by the Council, despite opposition from the Bodleian Library.

The extension will include a lecture theatre, five new teaching rooms, an additional library and 46 accessible student study bedrooms. Currently two floors of Trinity’s library, as well as most communal spaces are inaccessible by wheelchair.

However, in a submission to the council’s planning committee, Bodleian librarian Richard Ovenden noted the adverse effect the new building would have on the Weston Library’s reading rooms.

Ovenden told the Oxford Times: “The proposed development would be just 35 feet away from this reading room and would be as high as the north range of the Weston Library and run almost the full extent of the reading room’s length.

“The view, so cohesive to quiet study, would be completely lost, blocked by student accommodation that is, in our view, too big and too close.

“The reduction in light and the increase in noise would cause harm to one of the world’s great research spaces.”

President of Trinity College, Dame Hilary Boulding, noted that Trinity has made an effort to work with and satisfy different interest groups during the consultation process.

Boulding said: “This is a heavily constrained site. We’ve taken time to understand these constraints and to explore and model opinions and have worked collaboratively with council officers and many interest groups.”

The new building, which will be the first to be built on Trinity’s main site in 50 years, will aim to provide accommodation to all 50 first-year graduate students. The College are presently only able to house 17 out of 150 graduate students on the main site.

Boulding added that the extension would help to “foster a graduate academic community”. She also noted that the new accommodation would alleviate problems in Oxford’s housing market.

The proposal was put on hold for five months earlier this year, to allow Historic England to review any impact the development would have on Weston Library. They concluded that any potential impact would be modest.

This follows the news in June that New College was granted permission to go ahead with a controversial redevelopment that will see a 21.8-metre tower be built on a new site on Savile Road.

The proposal was met with opposition from nearby Mansfield College, whose Principal at the time, Baroness Helena Kennedy, filed an official complaint to the council.

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