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Hundreds march through Oxford in solidarity with the OA4P encampment

By
Cherwell News
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Around 600 protesters marched through town in solidarity with the O4AP encampment in a demonstration supported by local trade unions and community groups. Students, workers and activists began their march in Oxford Brookes and walked through High Street before ending with a final rally outside the Bodleian. 

The main march began at midday and merged with a series of ‘feeder’ marches from across town at Cowley roundabout. An Imam led the crowd’s chants from Cowley onwards, and people in the crowd played the drums. Protesters implicated Irene Tracey, Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer and the Oxford Union in their chants, telling them “you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” and calling for a “ceasefire now.”

A large police presence, on foot and on bicycles, followed the protestors at a distance offering advice to onlookers and managing traffic flow. 

The local branches of the national education union, Unite, Stop the War Coalition and Health Workers 4 Palestine took part in the march. Alongside the banners of their organisations, protesters raised the flags of Palestine, Kurdistan, West Papua and the Communist Party. 

The march ended at the encampment outside the Radcliffe Camera at around 1.30pm where protestors stopped for a final rally at the entry into the Bodleian. Representatives from the various organisations participating in the protest spoke to the crowds massed at Radcliffe Square. 

Oxford Union believes the House of Lords is not fit for purpose

By
Charlotte Dawson
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Oxford Union
Image credit: Anita Okunde

On Thursday night, the Oxford Union voted in support of the motion ‘This House Believes The House Of Lords Is Not Fit For Purpose’. The final count had 90 members voting for the motion and 85 members voting against. 

Speaking in the proposition were Sir Vince Cable, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, second year PPE student Jenny Heath (Oriel College), and first year History and Politics student Zagham Farhan (University College). 

Speaking on side opposition were Lord Kakkar KBE PC, a professor at UCL and member of the House of Lords, and Lord Bilimoria CBE DL, Chancellor of the University of Birmingham and member of the House of Lords. They were joined by law student Silvan Bennett-Schaar (Brasenose College).  

Heath opened the case for the proposition by arguing that the House of Lords is unfit to carry out its fundamental purpose. While it is intended to scrutinise the House of Commons by providing expert opinions on bills, she argued that members of the Lords – particularly hereditary peers – are not necessarily experts on doing so. She also pointed out that many members have a very low attendance rate to debates and discussions. 

She also argued that due to their lifetime appointments, members of the Lords are not held accountable to the people, and therefore do not “serve the taxpayers that subsidise them.” Further, she argued that it does not descriptively represent the people:  30% of the Lords are women, she noted, and more than 50% went to private schools. 

Bennett-Schaar followed Heath by arguing that the House of Lords provides a “vital” counterpower to the House of Commons and “enhances legislative process in the UK.” He argued that the House addresses three main shortfalls of democracy. First, life appointments enable members to endorse a “long term approach to politics.” Secondly, peers are generally appointed for their “great distinguished achievements in business, society and politics” and therefore provide useful expert opinions. Third, its fundamental stability allows it to serve as a “moral compass to help navigate our nation through uncertainty.” 

Farhan spoke next in favour of the motion. He said that both life appointments and the existence of hereditary peers – which make British people unequal under the law – were undemocratic. He also criticised the presence of bishops in the House of Lords for breaking separation of church and state. 

The Lord Kakkar KBE PC then continued the case for the opposition. He began by arguing that there is a “fundamental misunderstanding” about the complex constitutional workings of parliament: the House of Lords does not impeach or embarrass the House of Commons, but instead scrutinises it and proposes revision of legislation. He stated that most of the time, when amendments are sent from the Lords to the Commons they are accepted, and only in a few cases is there “ping-pong” between the chambers. 

Further, he argued that if both houses had elected members, the likely outcome would be severe gridlock. He also argued that if the House of Lords were to be abolished, turning the parliament into a unicameral system, the result would be a strengthened, unchallenged executive. 

Sir Vince Cable closed the case for the proposition. He criticised the existence of hereditary peers but, on the matter of bishops, stated he was not opposed to “having God in the House of Lords.”. He also argued that many members are appointed because of their generous donations to the ruling party, which he called undemocratic. Sir Cable concluded by arguing that there is no fundamental need for a second chamber. He told the Chamber it’s “corrupted, … expensive, … unproductive” and noted that 60% of countries in the world don’t have one, including countries like Norway and Sweden.  

The Lord Bilimoria CBE DL spoke last for the opposition and started by arguing that the House of Lords does not overrule the House of Commons. In the case of the notorious Rwanda bill, he told the Chamber, the House of Lords was in clear opposition but the Commons still “got their way.” Moreover, he argued that the House of Lords is about a quarter as expensive as the House of Commons and took this to mean that they are a great “value for money.” He concluded by reiterating the importance of a bicameral system. He said: “if you try to change the foundations, you risk bringing the whole house down”. 

Kafka: Making of an Icon at the Weston Library review: ‘poignant and incredibly personal’

By
Adam Saxon
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Image Credit: Bodleian Libraries

One hundred years on from the death of the iconic Franz Kafka, Bodleian Libraries’ most recent exhibition at the Weston Library is an engaging dive into the life and legacy of the famous author. It is a project that marks the largest simultaneous showcase of Kafka’s works ever displayed alongside similar displays carried out by other libraries across the world. 

What is truly striking about the exhibition is the stark dichotomy between the two interpretations of Kafka’s life and personality. On the one hand, much of the material on display is incredibly personal, made up of his private diaries, correspondence with his favourite sister, and even a ‘conversation slip’, a short note which is a poignant reminder of Kafka’s tuberculosis which left him unable to talk as he approached his death in the early 1920s. All of these documents give us a real insight into the psychology of the man behind the masterpieces.

Contrastingly, however, there is a sense of real mystery surrounding Kafka. This is in part, perhaps, due to the fact that he was just an ordinary man who worked full time for an insurance company. In other ways though it can be attributed to the fact that he died in 1924 at the age of 40 with so much left to give the world – even if he only ever shared his writing somewhat reluctantly. He supposedly burned around 90% of everything he ever wrote, and famously instructed his closest friend, Max Brod, to burn all of his writings after his death – an act which, thankfully, Brod failed to carry out. The precarity of our ability to view Kafka’s writings today makes looking at and reading his works feel even more touching. It is thanks to Brod and others that the Bodleian is able to hold such a wide-ranging collection of Kafka’s writing, including the original manuscript of The Metamorphosis, which is also on display in the exhibition.

It is this personal nature of the exhibition that drives one to question what Kafka himself would have made of the display one hundred years on from his death. Professor Barry Murnane, Associate Professor of German at Oxford and a curator of the exhibition, told Cherwell that while Kafka may have been embarrassed if he had seen the exhibition, given the personal documents and correspondence on display, the number of artists and authors who have posthumously engaged with his writing would have evoked a sense of pride in the writer, even for one so riddled with doubt as Kafka.

Overwhelmingly, the exhibition marks an attempt to provide an accessible look into the life of Kafka and his influence beyond his death. Murnane emphasises that “Kafka doesn’t just belong to experts” – a fact we are reminded of in the second half of the exhibition, which looks at the numerous authors and artists who have drawn inspiration from his works. Highlights include Andy Warhol’s Franz Kafka print (1980), a new artwork by Tessa Farmer commissioned for the purpose of the exhibition, and a dive into the influence of Kafka in modern-day Korea and Japan.

Professor Katrin Kohl, Professor of German Literature at Oxford and also a curator of the exhibition, told Cherwell that the world looks so different today to how it did at the time of Kafka’s death. One might imagine that were he to have awoken suddenly in 2024, he himself might have found it something of a ‘Kafkaesque’ experience. The exhibition closes with a brief look into the use of the word in contemporary media, which is a reminder of how influential Kafka’s style is to this day. 

The Making of an Icon exhibition is just one of a whole host of events and projects ongoing at the University over the next few months to celebrate the life and works of Kafka. Over the weekend, a giant bug-shaped tent will appear in University Parks and play host to a range of events. On Monday, the Sheldonian will play host to a live reading of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis from a range of speakers including Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey, as well as authors and professors. 

Kafka: Making of an Icon opens on Thursday 30th May and runs until 27th October at the Weston library. Admission is free.

Your insight into interrailing this summer

By
Bryn Mollet
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Image Credit: Rubèn Vique / CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr

If you are wanting to travel the continent this summer to soak up some sun, party into the early morning, convince yourself your three-day travel romance is the love of your life – and obviously appreciate the rich culture and history – interrailing sounds like it may be for you. 
ABBA might have been right when they said ‘it’s a rich man’s world’ but that doesn’t mean you can’t fulfil your European ambitions this summer. There are so many ways that you can cut down the little (or big) costs that add up all too quickly. It is easy to lose track of money between the Aperol spritz, sunbathing, national parks, and late night döners, but hopefully these tips will help ease your mind and help you make the most of your interrailing experience.

Plan with your pass
The best way to interrail is with an Interrail Pass, a train travel pass that is great value for money – although you may still need to pay for seat reservations! 
There are different types of Interrail Passes on offer. The main price difference is between passes that offer unlimited travel days over a certain time period and ones that only allow a certain amount. If you already have a route with a certain number of stops in mind,you can save  by opting for a pass with a set amount of travel days that matches your plan. Even if you have more travel days planned than a set-day pass might permit, it can work out cheaper buying the extra tickets not through the pass, than buying a more expensive pass. Purchasing the set amount of travel days doesn’t tie you to any set dates either, so you will still have plenty of flexibility.

Inter…bussing?
Trains in Europe are marvellous, and the UK could definitely learn a lesson or a hundred about how to properly run a rail service. That being said, for shorter distances, getting buses can sometimes be half the price and reach places that trains don’t. They can also come in handy if seat reservations are sold out and you don’t fancy sitting on the floor, being judged by all the Germans who of course did remember (a uniquely humbling experience). 

Night trains
As well as being a pretty cool experience in themselves, night trains are a brilliant way to save on a night of accommodation. If you are short on time, night trains can help you get from place to place and save time for exploring in the day. Food is extortionate (and notoriously bad) on board so remember to bring your own.

 Location, location, location
A big variable on your expenditure is where you decide to travel. Outside of Western Europe, everything tends to be a lot cheaper and arguably more interesting. Rural areas are much cheaper than cities, and can offer a rather different experience, great for nature lovers and hikers. 
When staying in cities, accommodation outside the centre is typically less expensive, even when you factor in the cost of necessary public transport. Electric scooters are more popular in Europe than in Oxford and are often the cheapest mode of transport around. 

Accommodation: the bigger the better?
Accommodation is likely to be the biggest cost on any interrailing trip, but there are a few ways to save. For the best prices, check Hostelworld, Booking.com, and the hostels’ own website, as prices can vary a lot. It is advisable to book accommodation as far in advance as your flexibility allows. 
Going for bigger dormitories can also save you money. They really aren’t as bad as they sound and if you are travelling in a group, you will know most of the people there anyway. It is also where you’ll most likely meet future travel companions. 
If you are in a group, booking an Airbnb can be cheaper than hostels and in better locations. From personal experience I can warn against fitting more people into an Airbnb than it is listed for, less you desire to have your passports held hostage by an angry Croatian man until you pay up the difference. 
Looking for accommodation with kitchen access is also a great way to channel your inner Gino D’Acampo and save on having to eat out every night. Although be warned, whilst most are well-kept, some hostel kitchens can be worse than even the messiest university accommodation!

Money, money, money
Having the right card when you travel is important and avoids frustrating conversion rates and fees. Monzo, Revolut, and Starling Bank charge no foreign transaction fees and use the Mastercard exchange rate. Starling Bank offers unlimited fee-free ATM withdrawals – the other two only permit £200 a month. They all have very accessible apps that make budgeting and transferring money to friends easier, ensuring you always get paid back for dinner. 
Most places take cards but there are some places where only cash will be accepted, especially at local markets and clubs, and lots of places in Berlin – you won’t be able to survive there without it!

Travel wash
Laundrettes are expensive; bringing travel wash allows you to frequently wash your clothes (usually in a sink) without having to splash out. This also allows you to pack lighter, which can reduce the temptation to spend money to avoid long walks with your bags and makes for a comfier trip in general. 

Bring a padlock
Hostels will have lockers in the room but no padlock, so to avoid leaving your now lovely clean clothes vulnerable to the prying hands of the less virtuous interrailer, it is definitely advisable to bring your own.

In conversation with Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P)

By
Cherwell News
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Image Credit: Tom Gardner

A member of the Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) press team spoke exclusively to Cherwell at the protest outside the Sheldonian Theatre on Tuesday afternoon. The interview covered topics including OA4P’s response to last week’s arrests, their demands for the University, and their future plans. 

When asked about the organisation’s future plans, the spokesperson told Cherwell OA4P demands that: “the Vice-Chancellor meets our demands and meets us for negotiations. That is our number one priority.” They explained that future actions by the group will “all depend on her [the Vice-Chancellor’s] complicity and her silence…if she responds, we’re willing to meet with her.” 

The spokesperson continued: “OA4P is not just the encampment…we’re not stopping until we meet,” explaining that the organisation has long-term plans in place “because we do want our demands to be met in part of our tenures here.” 

Regarding the University’s response to their protests, the spokesperson told Cherwell: “It’s very clear that we have not been satisfied with any of the responses from the University, particularly the University calling the police on our protestors last week.” Speaking more directly in relation to the arrests of 16 students last week after a sit-in in University offices, they described the police’s response as “brutalisation”, calling the University “ignorant, complicit, and scapegoating [the protestors].” The spokesperson said that this response has “only fueled the fire in terms of how we [OA4P] act [going] forward.” 

Focusing on the reasons for the protest this afternoon, the spokesperson described how “there are no universities left in Gaza while congregation meets… our aim today is to support the faculty members who are bravely standing up against the genocide in Gaza.” They continued: “a lot of the questions being asked in the congregation has to do with divestment, not only in the genocide in Gaza, but largely in illgeal arms manufacturing”, describing the event as “a continuation against the genocide in Gaza.” 

In response to the arrests of OA4P protestors during their occupation of the Oxford University offices last week, they said that “protestors did not go into a peaceful sit-in expecting to be arrested.” However, she acknowledged the risks some protestors face, saying: “we have continuously advocated for people to assess their own risk levels, and whilst doing so acknowledge that we are the privileged ones, and that we are willing to use our time and resources if it means that we can help alleviate the genocide in Gaza.” 

The spokesperson declined to comment on the allegations that some members of the encampment had used antisemitic language towards some Jewish Oxford Students, in relation to the St Hugh’s JCR Vice-President’s resignation a few days prior. However, another member of OA4Ps press team pointed out that an open letter was sent by “senior Jewish professors” at the University, describing a “disapproval in the way Irene Tracey has been weaponising antisemitism against the student protests”.

Oxford Africa Conference 2024

By
Bryn Mollet
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Image Credit: chensiyuan / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This year’s Oxford Africa Conference, titled Charting Africa’s Path Forward: A Journey of Possibilities, took place from the 24th to 25th of May. The annual conference, hosted by the Oxford University Africa Society (AfriSoc), garners global attention and provides opportunities for experts, leaders, and students to exchange and develop ideas, endeavouring to drive Africa’s progress.

Raila Odinga, the former Prime Minister of Kenya, and Godwin Obaseki, the current Executive Governor for Edo State in Nigeria, were present at the Conference. They were joined by politicians, prominent CEOs, charity leaders, and business people from across the continent and globally, who shared their insights on the future of Africa. These included Aïda Ndiaye, head of public policy at Meta, and Naana Otoo-Oyottey, Executive Director of Forward UK, a charity aimed at ending violence against women in Africa. 

Economic development was a key point of discussion, with an emphasis on promoting entrepreneurship and the integration of AI into African economies. The conference also addressed the state of democracy in Africa, especially with regard to the phenomenon of democratic backsliding.

There was also a strong focus on problems around gender equality and female empowerment across African nations. Dr. Khetwise Dlamini, former chief of staff at UN Women, along with many other notable African female figures, all spoke. 

The topic of climate and sustainability received due attention, given that African states tend to be disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change due to their geographical location, which makes their agricultural sectors particularly sensitive to changes in global temperatures. 

An important part of the conference was the announcement of the Innovation Seed Fund (ISF) recipients. The ISF is an initiative that offers three grants of £5,000 to fund development, entrepreneurial, and research projects in Africa. This year, there was a new collaborative focus that sought partnership with leading universities from all regions of the continent. Recipients of the grant are also offered technical support and mentorship from Oxford University. 

All the projects must be put forward by students from Oxford or leading universities across Africa, and offer “innovative and scalable solutions” to current issues. These projects plan to  help farmers optimise water usage in agriculture, to improve healthcare access and affordability for chronic disease treatment through the employment of remote monitoring and analytics, and to improve the quality of menstrual health products.

Oxford researchers test AI tool to treat depression

By
Roy Shinar Cohen
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Image Credit: Aishia Simmons

A team of Oxford researchers are testing an Artificial Intelligence algorithm to help treat depression. The system, known as PETRUSHKA, aims to personalise antidepressant treatment for adults with major depressive disorder.  

Data unique to patients such as their age, gender, and symptoms are collected. This information is then used to recommend specific drugs based on previous outcomes for similar patients and preferred side effects.  

According to the Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, the two most important factors of the trial are the side effects and perceived efficacy of any prescribed medication. The PETRUSHKA team believes the new system could help choose the right antidepressant for each patient and improve treatment adherence. 

Professor Andrea Cipriani, Chief Investigator for PETRUSHKA, said: “We want to treat individuals, not averages. We want to be as precise as possible and identify the best treatment for each patient sooner based on what we know works for patients with similar characteristics.” 

The research is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Nyla Haque, the Trial Manager for PETRUSHKA, said: “The study lasts 24 weeks in total but after eight weeks we will see how many participants are still taking the allocated treatment.” Haque explains this measure will tell the PETRUSHKA team how acceptable and well tolerated a treatment is. Haque added: “We will also collect information from the participants about their mood, anxiety, quality of life and any side effects during the entire duration of the trial.”  

Nearly nine million people in the UK are prescribed antidepressants every year, but, according to the PETRUSHKA team, approximately four out of five of them stop the treatment after several weeks. According to NIHR, Professor Cipriani said the reason for it is “In real world practice, antidepressants are usually prescribed based on the clinician’s knowledge.” 

Cipriani added that of all the antidepressants available, “nine times out of ten, GPs prescribe one of just four antidepressants.” According to him, this means that “patients may not get the treatment that would be most effective or sustainable for them.”  

The researchers are now looking for 200 volunteers to join over 500 people who have been used to test PETRUSHKA’s performance. People interested in joining the study must be between the ages of 18 to74 and agree to try antidepressants. After signing up, they will go through a screening process and, if found to fit the program’s requirements, could participate in person or remotely. 

Oxford History Professor donates prize money to the Ukrainian Army

By
Roy Shinar Cohen
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Image Credit: 401st_AFSB / CC BY 2.0 via Flickr

Oxford history professor, Timothy Garton Ash, was recently awarded the prestigious Lionel Gelber Prize 2024 and donated his prize money to the Ukrainian army. His most recent book, Homelands, which was awarded the prize, “tells the story of Europe in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.”

Garton Ash, St. Anthony’s Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, received approximately £29,000 in prize money. He has donated the full sum towards purchase of drones and night vision equipment for the Ukrainian army. 

Garton Ash visited Kyiv and Lviv this week for the presentation of the Ukrainian version of his book. While in Kyiv, Garton Ash said: “I can think of no better use for a prize received for a book about recent European history than to donate it towards equipping the Ukrainian Armed Forces for victory. Because nothing less than the future of Europe is at stake in this war.”

According to Come Back Alive, a charity to which Garton Ash donated the prize money, it was used to buy four DJI Mavic 3T quadcopters, ten thermal imaging monoculars, ten night vision monoculars and mounts for PNB, as well as four  Minox monoculars. 

Garton Ash told Cherwell he chose this equipment because it is what Come Back Alive, who are experts in aiding the Ukrainian armed forces, said they most needed. He added:“this war is different from all earlier wars because of the almost total visibility of the front line for both sides, given by such reconnaissance drones.”

Regarding the  decrease in focus the Ukraine War has recently received internationally and in Oxford, Garton Ash told Cherwell: “Our students are absolutely right to be deeply, deeply concerned about what is happening in Gaza, but I would ask them not to forget about what is happening in the Ukraine.” 

He added that the Ukraine War’s longevity and casaulty levels in the hundreds of thousands make it one of the most significant wars in Europe since 1945. “I hope people will want to pay attention to it too,” he said.

Aside from Homelands, Garton Ash has written ten books mostly about Europe and European history. Additionally, throughout his career he has contributed to The New York Review of Books, The Independent, The Times, and The Spectator.

Garton Ash was also a columnist on foreign affairs in the Independent and the Foreign Editor of the Spectator. Before receiving the Lionel Gelber Prize, Garton Ash received, among others, the Somerset Maugham Award, the Prix Européen de l’Essai and George Orwell Prize.

Jewish faculty critique Oxford University’s response to pro-Palestine protests in open letter

By
Cherwell News
-
Image Credit: Adam Saxon

An open letter from Jewish faculty members addressed to Oxford University and the Vice-Chancellor, Irene Tracey, was published on Monday 27th May in response to the most recent University statement on Oxford Action for Palestine’s (OA4P) protests. The letter disputes the University’s statement that the pro-Palestine encampment has established “an intimidating environment” for Jewish staff and students. 

The letter accuses the University of failing to engage in conversation with members of the Jewish community who support the encampments and protests. It describes how Jewish academics, who “reached out to you [the University] recently to propose a conversation” were “ignored”.

Twelve prominent Oxford academics from a range of departments and varying political stances signed the letter. It said they were all: “deeply disturbed by the rising tide of rhetoric conflating criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza with antisemitism, and by the use of this rhetoric to justify government interference in higher education and repression of student protest.”

The letter rejects the University’s portrayal of the recent Jewish experience at the University, and said: “We therefore object to the University’s reductive and misleading claims to speak on our behalf. The characterisation of Jews as a uniform mass with a single viewpoint is itself a common and insidious antisemitic trope.”

Oxford’s Jewish Students for Justice (JSJ) also released a statement addressed to Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey. JSJ stated they: “Call for the University of Oxford to explore alternative analyses of antisemitism which offer a more nuanced approach and connect the fight against antisemitism with the fight against all other forms of hate.”

The open letter from faculty members called on the University to learn from “students who have been urging the University to reckon with its complicity in the catastrophe unfolding.” It also refers to other institutions, including the University of Cambridge and Trinity College Dublin, who, according to the letter, have engaged in “meaningful, good-faith dialogue with protesting students.”

Cherwell have contacted the University of Oxford for comment. 

RIP Dante, you would’ve loved fanfiction

By
Liz Lane
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Image Credit: Quinn Dombrowski / CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED via Wikimedia Commons.

When the trailer for an adaptation of Robinne Lee’s 2017 novel The Idea of You came out last month, it set the internet ablaze. Within a month, it became the most-watched trailer ever for an original streaming movie. As word of the film spread online, one question abounded. ‘Is this film based on Harry Styles fanfiction?’

The film follows 40-year-old gallery owner Solène Marchand (played by Anne Hathaway) and her love affair with 24-year-old boyband superstar Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine). They meet when Solène, a single mother, escorts her daughter to Coachella and unwittingly finds herself in the trailer of the heartthrob Hayes Campbell. She does not recognise him, but he takes a shine to her and an immediate connection is formed. Hayes then pursues Solène, they fall in love and try to navigate the media storm that follows their relationship.

As soon as Lee’s book was published, it was connected with One Direction’s Harry Styles. Lee, who once admitted that Styles acted as something of a muse, has now expressed regret over the statement. ‘It’s unfortunate because it’s being used as clickbait,’ she told Entertainment Weekly, ‘and when I’m writing for Hayes, I’m not picturing Harry Styles.’ A debate about the degree to which The Idea of You can be considered fanfiction has since emerged. But Lee’s desire to distance herself from the genre says more about the derision that surrounds the label “fanfiction”.

Some people have traced fanfiction back to Star Trek zines created in the 1960s but its history dates back much further. If “fanfiction” can be defined as ‘stories written about TV, film, or book characters by their fans’, Virgil, Jean Rhys and John Milton can be considered some of its best writers. Paradise Lost, Milton’s epic 1667 poem about Adam and Eve in Eden? Bible fanfiction. Inferno, Dante’s poem detailing his own journey through hell? Self-insert fanfiction. Tom Stoppard’s modern classic Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead? Hamlet fanfiction at its finest. Authors tend to shy away from the term “fanfiction” because it is so frequently used in a derogatory manner but on a very basic level, the concept has always existed in literature.

Robinne Lee’s rejection of the label “fanfiction” may stem from a fear that her work and its themes would not be taken seriously if it is labelled as such. Talking to Vogue, Lee explained, ‘This was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles . . . It was supposed to be a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself, just at the point that society traditionally writes women off as desirable and viable and whole.’ The Idea of You is, in many ways, a book about the ways in which ideas and people can be shamed by society. Solène, Lee’s protagonist is quickly labelled a “cougar” by the press when her relationship with Hayes goes public. The media is incredulous, appalled by the idea that a middle-aged woman could be an object of attraction to a younger and highly desirable man. Part of the book’s purpose is to prove that it is possible to rise above ideas unfairly ridiculed by society. Why can’t fanfiction, surely the most ridiculed subgenre of them all, do the same?

In recent years, work that originally started out as fanfiction has produced some of the biggest hits in the publishing industry. Most famous, of course, was E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, which started out as fanfiction based on Stephanie Meyers’ Twilight. Since then, Ali Hazelwood’s TikTok sensation The Love Hypothesis, which started out as Star Wars fanfiction about Rey and Kylo Ren, has taken the industry by storm. In the same year, Neil Gaiman defended the legitimacy of fanfiction online: ‘I won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story for an H. P. Lovecraft/Arthur Conan Doyle mashup fiction,’ he wrote, ‘so fanfiction had better be legitimate, because I’m not giving the Hugo back.’ S. E. Hinton, the author of The Outsiders, who has written fanfiction based on her own novel, similarly praised the genre, arguing that ‘two of the best stories I’ve ever read in my life, published or not, were fanfiction’.

The key word here is Gaimain’s: ‘legitimate’. Though fanfiction is undeniably a popular form, and one that can easily be found in the canon, it is still not taken seriously by the media at large. This, perhaps, is where Anne Hathaway comes in. Anne Hathaway is a multi-award-winning A-list actor, known for her performances in Interstellar, Les Misérables and, of course, The Devil Wears Prada. Not only does she have a proven track record as a film star but she’s also enjoying what has gleefully been dubbed as a ‘Hathaissance’ in the media. Praised on social media for her iconic performances and ‘unproblematic’ celebrity persona, Hathaway may well be at the peak of her powers. Her decision to star in The Idea of You gives the film and book a kind of legitimacy: a premium label that can only be found in the brand of Anne Hathaway.

So, will this turn the dial in turns of how we start to view fanfiction? The film, though not universally praised, has not been derided in the way that it might have been five years ago. Instead, it has been lauded as an enjoyable piece of escapism and was even described as ‘deceptively courageous’ by Empire. Love or loathe it, The Idea of You is a mainstream rom-com about an older woman finding love. She is not laughed at in the film, nor is she an object of pity. In its own quiet way, The Idea of You is doing what fanfiction has always done on the fringes of the internet: namely, provided a space for people to express their desires in a way that mainstream culture may not allow. Fanfiction, as we know, has always been an object of derision but when it starts to dictate the conversation as much as it has done recently, perhaps it’s time we stop dismissing it and start paying attention to all the bizarre and creative things it is capable of saying.

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