Monday 28th July 2025
Blog Page 972

Antibiotic apocalypse

Jonny Page
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Antibiotic apocalypse

The modern world owes its existence to the industrial revolution and medicine, and it’s hard to dispute the benefits both have brought. But you can have too much of a good thing. Overuse of antibiotics is leading to the development of antibiotic resistance in many bacteria, meaning antibiotics are becoming useless for some infections. If the trend continues, there is a possibility that trivial ailments like chest infections will become untreatable and even basic surgery will become impossible. This ‘antibiotic apocalypse’ is creeping ever forward with each drug prescription.

The more we use antibiotics, the more likely it is these antibiotic-resistant bacteria can gain a foothold, outperforming other strains.  Antibiotics are dished out daily in prescriptions from GPs, pharmacists and vets, as well as in battery farms to both prevent illness and promote growth. This cavalier attitude to the use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of so-called ‘superbugs’ like MRSA and Clostridium difficile. Infections from these superbugs are sometimes completely untreatable and, without a change in the way antibiotics are administered, the number of multi-drug resistant strains of bacteria will continue to rise.  According to Dr Craig MacLean of the University of Oxford Department of Zoology, “By 2050 it’s predicted that antibiotic resistant bacteria will be responsible for ten million deaths every year.” The ultimate end of this trend is the so-called ‘antibiotic apocalypse’, in which all known antibiotics are no longer effective in treating disease, causing previously trivial infections to become life threatening.

It’s not just the healthcare system that will be challenged, the economy is set to take a hit too. “In a post-antibiotic world, you might go to the GP with a chest infection,” MacLean explains. “They might tell you that you’ll be fine, but you need to take three or four months off  work. That’s going to have a huge effect on the economy.” This situation is only exacerbated by the fact that there has been a drought in antibiotic discovery since the 1980s.

We can postpone the arrival of the post-antibiotic world, but it’s going to require some significant changes to how antibiotics are used.  Many antibiotics are prescribed needlessly because it’s very easy to confuse a bacterial infection with an infection caused by a virus. Antibiotics are effective against bacteria but cannot kill viruses. As a doctor, if a patient arrives at a hospital with flu-like symptoms, they could either have the flu, which is caused by a virus, or they could have a bacterial infection. Antibiotics will be useless against the flu, but a bacterial infection could be harmful if left untreated. Do you assume it’s the flu and send them home for some rest or do you give them antibiotics just in case?  Diagnostic tools that help doctors distinguish between viral and bacterial infections do exist, but they’re currently too expensive for global use.

The inability to distinguish types of infection is only part of the problem; the attitude of patients can be an issue too. Most people aren’t aware of antibiotic resistance, and our busy lives mean we just want a pill to help us as quickly as possible. Many people feel more comfortable walking out of the doctor’s surgery with a prescription. “People are seeking medicine as well as advice,” said Professor Chrisoph Tang of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. Tang believes educating patients about antibiotics could help significantly. “In Scandinavia, the general public are well educated about antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic use is lower there and we see less antibiotic resistance.”

If the four horsemen of the apocalypse are indeed just around the corner, it’s Pestilence leading the charge. Antibiotic resistance is an imminent threat and left unchecked it will change the face of modern medicine.

It’s not too late for the horsemen to falter, change is possible and in some cases simple.  Antibiotics need to be used more sparingly, but we need affordable technology to help this happen. Equally importantly, we need to be more aware about what we can do. We have to stop demanding antibiotics from our doctors and, if we are given some, we must finish the prescription.

Poetry through a rose-tinted telescope

Lily Begg
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0
Poetry through a rose-tinted telescope

“You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars…” Oh, Cummings! You bore me with your clichés. When will all these star-crossed lovers learn to look beyond the very basics of the cosmos for romantic inspiration? Our adored “pale-faced moon” pales further into insignificance when compared to the infinity of what lurks far beyond it, so why be restricted to such over-used imagery? Although talk of black holes and the Theories of Relativity are rare in a lover’s lexicon, there’s little crime in being original and intelligent in our expression.

Poets have ventured very timidly into space imagery: sun, moon, stars, relatively plain elements of the universe which are all immediately visible with the naked eye. Stars are just balls of gas which emit light. The real hidden gems are collapsed stars.

Collapsing stars can create a black hole or, in very specific circumstances depending on pressure and chemical composition, a dying star can become a diamond with the same structure as one you would find in a ring, but unimaginably larger. In 2004, scientists discovered the largest space diamond yet, measuring 4000 km across—larger than the moon—and with a core composed of 10 billion trillion trillion carats. Such immense, dazzling gems are lodged in unknown corners of our universe, unseen by telescopes since they emit less light than ‘normal’ stars.

A by-product of a star dying is the dispersion of gas molecules thrown out as the star explodes or compresses. These rejected molecules eventually form gas clouds with those of other collapsed stars. Each gas cloud is a unique shape, colour and chemical composition, making hypnotic Holi-style appearances at the end of our telescopes.

And as much as poets praise the beautiful, they are irresistibly drawn toward the morose and the macabre, transforming death, decay and pain into beauty and art. Images of Hell, blood, worms, shadows, sleep, but what about black holes?

A black hole is formed when a dying star with sufficient mass is compressed to a tiny, incredibly dense core as it is sucked in by its own gravity. In the case of supermassive black holes, this core has an immensely powerful gravitational pull and mercilessly drags any surrounding matter into its heart. Even light is swallowed up, hence the appellation ‘black’ holes. However, black holes are incredibly unpredictable and even today we cannot claim to fully understand them. Sometimes they devour nearby stars, sometimes they stunt their growth, but black holes have also been known to accelerate the growth of new stars.

If you care to look, there is art wherever there is science. It is time to explore and exploit this. Look up at the stars and then beyond, for both poetry and space know no boundaries.

The Promised Land

Jack Harrison
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The Promised Land

Until the early hours of Thursday morning – Chicago Cubs were the worst franchise in American sporting history. 71 years had passed since their last World Series appearance, 108 years since their last World Series Triumph. When the World Series was last won by the Cubs, World War I was yet to begin, Edward VII was King of England and the oldest living person in Britain had just celebrated her 4th birthday – this was a long losing streak.

Unlike the sport we enjoy in Britain, where power often lies in the hand of those with the biggest pockets, US sport prides itself on equality. All the ‘Big Four’ League – NFL (American Football), NBA (Basketball), NHL (Ice Hockey) and MLB (Baseball), employ draft systems whereby the lowest ranked teams the previous season get first pick of the best new talent for the upcoming season in the hope that they’ll stop being so bad. The Chicago Cubs didn’t stop being so bad – no other side in the ‘Big Four’ leagues come close to a drought as long as the Cubs.

Longest Current Droughts in the Big 4 American Leagues.

Team League Seasons
Chicago Cubs* MLB 107
Cleveland Indians MLB 68
Sacramento Kings NBA 65
Detroit Lions NFL 58
Atlanta Hawks NBA 58
Texas Rangers MLB 56
Houston Astros MLB 55

 

*On Thursday morning however, history was changed. 108 years of pain was over as by overcoming the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in the final game of the 7 match World Series, the Indians themselves claimed top spot on one of American Sports most unwanted lists.

Throughout Chicago, the city was overcome with elation as the curse of Billy the Goat, placed on the team by a fan during their most recent World Series defeat in 1945, was lifted. This was however, as beautifully portrayed in a Wright Thompson piece for ESPN, a night of complex emotion. Much like with Stockholm Syndrome whereby hostages express positive feelings towards their captors, the curse for the Cubs has become such a part of the clubs identity it will be hard for fans to relinquish it – a victory will never taste so sweet again.

The day of the finale was one of reflection in Chicago. With 108 years of history about to be ended, many spent the day thinking about the 108 years of failure before them and the loved ones who had come and gone with it. One the walls of Wrigley Field, the Cubs home ground, many congregated to write messages to loved ones and names of loved ones who were no longer around for the special day. ‘This one is for you, Dad’ one read. As Thompson wrote in his piece, ‘each name represented an unfulfilled dream.’

Sports fans, more than most, have many an unfulfilled dream. Only a select few reach the promised land, and even when you’re there you want more. On Wednesday night, hours before the Cubs won the World Series I attended a Spurs Champions League game, a competition I and fellow Leeds fans had been longing for a place in ever since we were last knocked out of it, 15 years ago. And yet, to Spurs fans, this greatly coveted and cherished honour wasn’t so greatly coveted and cherished. Losing 1-0, the stadium half emptied. Success is all relative. The promised land is not the important thing, but the journey that may or may not lead there.

One of those Cubs supporters who went to Wrigley Field to write on the walls, was Mary Beth Talhami; she wrote “Mom, thank you for teaching us to believe in ourselves, love and the Cubs. Enjoy your view from the ultimate skybox.” Her mother, Ginny Iversen had died just 6 days before, after game 2 of the World Series, having lived for 94 years as a fanatical Cubs supporter. She passed away wrapped in her beloved Cubs blanket.

Mary Beth went to her local bar to watch the game. With the game tantalisingly poised at 6-6 a rain break further elongated the wait, but then, upon resumption, the Cubs hit two further runs and closed the game out to end the longest drought in sport. While the city erupted, time stood still for Mary Beth, with the timing of her mother’s passing this was about far more than a game of baseball. Looking towards her mother in the sky, with victory shot raised in the air, it all hit home. As the emotion of the last few hours and the last 6 days set in, all Mary Beth could do was sob and shake. As time passed she steadied herself, and still looking to the sky, saw off the shot.

108 years were over, 94 years were over, it was all over.

Christ Church hall catches fire

Tony Diver
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5
Christ Church hall catches fire

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue service were called this morning to Christ Church hall, after a hot plate used to serve food caught fire.

It is not known how serious the blaze was, but four fire engines were called to attend, and smoke could be seen issuing from the windows to Tom Quad.

According to the Christ Church custodian, the fire was put out shortly before 2pm after burning for roughly an hour.

One member of hall staff told Cherwell, “we didn’t see any fire but there was a lot of black smoke”.

Ali Hussain, Christ Church JCR President, said, “it’s a shame that our beloved and historic hall is on fire. I hope no one was hurt.”

Felix Westerén, a second year PPEist who was in the area at the time, said, “I’d just left the stairs coming out of hall when the fire alarm started. Hopefully there will be dinner tonight, but it doesn’t look like it.”

In an email to students at the college, Pauline Linieres-Hartley, the Steward of Christ Church, stated: “A quick update that it has now been confirmed that the small fire in Hall was caused by an electrical fault in a hot cupboard. Thanks to the quick reaction of staff, in particular, Neil Jackson, the Hall was quickly evacuated, the fire brigade called, the fire alarm sounded and the fire contained. There will be some smoke damage but no-one was hurt and no other damage to anything apart from the hot cupboard. Our thanks to Neil and the Hall team for their quick response.”

Review: Albert Herring

Bessie Yuill
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1
Review: Albert Herring

The charm of this new version of Benjamin Britten’s 1947 opera Albert Herring lies not only in the impeccable vocal performances of the cast, but their strong overall characterisations as well. The humour of this nostalgic, parochial farce (which utilises the collective imagination’s picture of Victorian village life cleverly) depends on clear characterisation, satire and innuendo—one of the biggest laughs of the night was probably a female character’s flirtatious request for ‘a piece of best British beef’.

The set, while not overly complicated, creates clear distinctions between the different locations as well as evoking Victorian pastoral life, and—in a particularly creative touch—the cast themselves move props between scenes, entirely in character. While the orchestra tirelessly keeps a brisk, entertaining pace, the actors toil back and forth, except for a certain imperious aristocratic female character who at one point stands back and orders the others around as they carry boxes: it’s an ingenious method of keeping the audience laughing between scenes.

Maximilian Lawrie shines as the title character Albert, his clear discomfort at the enforced, emasculating title of May King building until it manifests in a captivating outburst that exhibits his outstanding voice at its best. Albert’s transformation over the course of the opera is not the only stand-out performance in the production, however: the sheer presence of Margaret Marchetti’s Lady Billows is incredible, emphasised by a majestic entrance and striking vocal performance. She works along with the three village representatives (played by Will Pate, Tara Mansfield and John Lee) and her acerbic maid Florence Pike (Sian Millet) to evaluate and dismiss the unchaste village girls in a superbly-acted scene, where the underlying social restrictions implicit in these condemnations blend with the satirical humour as seamlessly as the intersecting of the singers’ parts. Millet’s lament for ‘Country virgins, if there be such’ is particularly memorable, as the woman who has gathered rumours about every girl in town affects superior morality.

Lila Chrisp and Ivo Almond also dazzle with natural ease and chemistry, as the young couple who serve as counterpoint to the village’s moralising, Nancy and Sid. The three schoolchildren (Ellie Bray, Sofia Kirwan-Baez and Harry Gant) are equally charming, and a scene with them and Tara Mansfield’s headmistress character may send some audience members flashing back to choir practice with its brilliantly detailed satire.

Even if the speed and subtlety of the humour may seem daunting to some, this production will soon welcome and enrapture you—this perfect antidote to fifth week blues combines wit, social commentary and a beautiful score to stunning effect.

One thing I’d change about Oxford… Lectures

Safa Dar
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1
One thing I’d change about Oxford… Lectures

I’m told that, as a historian, I have no right to complain about lectures. Apparently having most of your lectures after 11am means you are living the good life. While I can confirm that 9ams sound like a horrific injustice, there is one thing about history lectures that is almost as frustrating: the lack of coordination between tutorial and lecture topics.

At first, it may seem having lecture topics unrelated to tutorial themes being covered in the same week is an efficient way of gaining a “broad overview”. But once the keen fresher goggles come off and lofty goals of “learning for the sake of learning” are forgotten amidst the onslaught of essays and accompanying crises, the thought of attending a lecture you’ll probably never write an essay on becomes less and less appealing. Soon enough your life becomes a series of daily struggles, constant internal battles and groggy calculations of the opportunity cost of wasting 3600 precious seconds that could be dedicated to an essay due in two hours.

And then there’s the guilt: whichever path you choose, you can’t escape this. Did you go the lecture? Hooray! Now you can bin the notes you halfheartedly scrawled a year later without ever having looked at them. Did you skip it? Congratulations, not only are you wasting your money, but your noble intentions of “working” probably ended in an (un)satisfying nap and you can now be doubly haunted by an essay crisis and a guilty conscience to boot. Lucky you.

But, really, what’s wrong with broadening your academic horizons, you ask? There wouldn’t be any harm in attending an unrelated lecture or two if it was actually useful. Even someone as lazy as myself occasionally jumps at the chance for actual contact hours. Instead, what you often get is an unhelpfully vague and general conglomeration of random information which makes very little sense to the uninformed audience.

Why there shouldn’t be a General Election in 2017

Maxim Parr-Reid
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0
Why there shouldn’t be a General Election in 2017

With Conservative MPs quitting and the High Court ruling against the government, some may think that Theresa May should call an early General Election. This would be an unwise move, despite favourable poll ratings and strong conditions for the Conservatives.

Governments are loathed to call General Elections they might lose. With the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, this has the effect of producing a more volatile political environment. The path to exiting the European Union is far from clear, and an early general election is not wise due to the three-fold divisions within the country over whether we should have a “soft Brexit” or “hard Brexit”

The economy is also in a turbulent position. It’s quite possible that there could be a strong reaction to Brexit in Conservative seats that voted heavily for Remain (seats in urban conurbations for example, where the electorate are decidedly more liberal than the Brexit-supporting Tories of the shires). There was a similar metropolitan backlash against the Labour Party over the Iraq War in 2005, and it is conceivable that a snap election could enable the Liberal Democrats to reclaim their Southwest London wedge lost in 2015.

An early election would force Theresa May to declare her hand (effectively giving a “running commentary” on negotiations and exit strategies). This would split the cabinet and party into supporters of “soft Brexit” (remaining in the Single Market) and hard Brexit (leaving the EU and the Single Market entirely). Anti-Brexit parties could gain political capital by taking advantage of this obvious divide. If the government were to lose its majority in the House of Commons due to a rebellion from Remain voters, then the country could be in a far worse position.

The Labour Party would surely be reliant on the Scottish National Party to govern, and the consequence of this could be a very limited Brexit due to Scotland’s support for remaining in the European Union. Such a government may even have to commit to a second referendum on Scottish independence or a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the United Kingdom. This would effectively mean the almost complete Balkanisation of the UK which would be without a strong government.

Opinion polling can be highly misleading. It’s worth remembering that prior to the 2010 General Election the Conservatives had towering leads in the polls but failed to win the General Election due to the strength of the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats in their bid to be the party of the 48 per cent who voted Remain in June’s referendum could once again deprive the Conservatives of office.

It is far better for the government to see out its five year term, complete the process of leaving the European Union and go to the country in 2020 on a manifesto based around completion of the process of Brexit. This would also allow the Scottish Conservatives to strengthen their position as the main party opposing Scottish independence. The stability of a full term of one government is clearly evident, one only has to regard the coalition’s stability and the economic growth that coincided with it for evidence that such continuity is of utmost importance.

Art review: Unreported Worlds

Ellie Siora
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0
Art review: Unreported Worlds

There was something appropriately humble about the exhibition space of the Barn Gallery of St. John’s College. Its recently lacquered pine hardwood floors and quiet, off-white walls reminded me of a local parish centre whose similar walls fondly watched over many twelve year olds’ birthday parties and school discos. It seemed a rather apt modesty of a space to emphasize the framed photographs lining the walls were unquestionably worthy of someone’s complete attention.

Curated by contributing photographer Uwe Ackerman, Unreported Worlds: Seeing the Overlooked at St. John’s Barn Gallery was definitely worth undivided and meticulous attention. Meant to explore the unexplored, the exhibition ventured to depict a variety of previously unseen cultures. The six contributing photographers’ work spans the cultures of the Middle East, Eurasia, East Africa and Central America with a coherent artistic skill that simultaneously highlights the breath-taking idiosyncrasies of these cultures, yet leaves an overarching impression that we are viewing singular components of what it means to be universally human.

Ackerman himself worked to present the beautiful banalities of Haitian culture, capturing moments stumbled across during conservation work with the Seamark Trust. His curation of the rest of the exhibition includes sibling teachers Saeedeh and Saeed Kouhkan and shopkeeper Ehsan Mortazavi who—through their own amateur lens—seek to capture their community in Behbahan, Iran in an effort to cause a ripple of influence for the better. Similarly, we have the chance to view Beirut through local photography student Rami Maassarani. Although claiming to explore the consciously “foreign”, Unreported Worlds avoids being suffocatingly quintessential in its portrayal of the ‘exotic’ culture.

We see a young child, perched like a bird ready for flight on her fathers shoulders, in a full delicately rose-printed hijab (‘Girl and Veil’, Mortavazi). Next to this photograph another young girl’s face, darker with salt-stained braids and a slightly older and more quizzical expression (‘In Presque Isle’, Ackermann). Yet, these images are far too personal to merit any sort of generalisation. They are of two little girls, but they are not both of “a little girl”, rather simply “this little girl” on two separate, individual occasions. Thus, the exhibition of unreported worlds acts as a snapshot moment of the world’s kaledeioscopic plural personality that could not allow the ‘her’ of either of these images to simply be ‘the Other’.

The diversity of these images are not only commendable for their honest acknowledgment of the welcome fragmentation of the world’s identity. They are equally commendable for presenting a holistic image of a culture within itself, furthering the complexity of unknown cultures rather than their misunderstanding. These photographers cut, image to image, from the everyday ritual of Halva making—with women laying out slices of the desert on a baking-papered round tray as if they were sea shells decorating the sand—to the celebration of the Day of Ashura, whose pictorial representation speaks microcosmically of the conflict between the Sunni and the Shia Muslims (both images by Saeed Koukkan).

Bharat Patel draws out the sensations of his images—the dust that dances around feet, the hard Ethiopian sunlight that clogs the air and the sharp whipping of a slender stick cutting from sky to earth—to leave the emotional impression we must relate to in order to understand the whipping ritual of the Hamar tribe girls. It is spectacular and it is hair-raising.

Each symbol placed, on clothing, hair or skin is pivotally planned for this moment. Equally, however, Patel presents the more magically mundane moments of the same culture. A man stands alone—his stance is not symbolic, nor foreign, yet just as sensational. He simply ponders his own questions as the dry grass gently whispers around him. The photographers of Unexplored Worlds present a multi-faceted nature to the peoples they depict, crumbling any impression of stereotype and leaving only generalising similarity.

Half of the contributors are ‘subjects’ of these very same cultures. Through the lens of the Kouhkans and Mortazavi we see the ‘real’ Behbahan. Although set against the unfamiliar backdrop of the Zagros Mountains or against Imamzadeh shrines, their expressions and interactions remain familiar through the camera of an assimilated photographer.

Saeedeh Kouhkan’s depictions of the all-girls school she teaches at spoke of the same dynamics I knew and loved during my secondary education: the shared conversation between new-found female friendship caught on camera as a moment belonging to that specific situation, but still not an unfamiliar moment at that.

Rewind: Disney’s Fantasia

Bessie Yuill
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0
Rewind: Disney’s Fantasia

Disney’s Fantasia debuted on Wednesday 19th November, 1940: the company’s third feature-length animated film. Originally conceived as a short film of ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ to showcase Mickey, costs ballooned to such an extent that it was decided to make several animated sections based on classical music. This was wildly experimental in comparison to the fairy tales Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, and the humorous cartoons their rivals at Warner Bros. or Metro-Goldwyn Mayer were producing. Incredibly, there was no narrative carrying through the whole film, and some parts of the film did not even have their own individual stories—instead, Disney animated abstract shapes and colours that reflected the music in a kind of kids’ film synaesthesia.

There were also shocking elements in the actual content of the film. The female centaurs in the mythological ‘Pastoral Symphony’ section were originally topless. Bacchus is clearly, if maybe unsurprisingly, drunk off godly wine, and in the incredible feat of animation ‘Night on Bald Mountain’, the villain is essentially a Satan stand-in. The element that would probably be found most scandalous today, however, is a centaur portrayed as half-young black girl and half-donkey who waits on the other white centaurs, polishing their hooves and grooming their tails. This derogatory stereotype is ‘Sunflower’, and is maybe the most egregious example of disturbing racial shorthand in Disney’s canon that has been later swept under the carpet: she was edited out of all versions past 1969, disappearing like Disney’s slavery-based family film Song of the South.

Outside of that ugliness the film succeeds as an experimental portrayal of sound, although the original plans to create a series were scrapped due to the high costs of ‘Fantasound’ technology significantly outweighing the film’s profit. It experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 60s as a psychedelic cult classic for the same subversive scene that also enjoyed Alice In Wonderland and the official drug of finding hidden meaning in children’s films, LSD. Fantasia has truthfully had fans consistently since then, but the question must be asked: how far can Fantasia be considered an abstract masterpiece when it retained such ugly racial stereotypes, and Disney has not addressed or resolved this issue? It succeeds where it challenges the boundaries of children’s films, but fails where it upholds the boundaries of race relations at that time—both regressive and ahead of its time.

Town versus gown: a view from the fence of the age-old divide

Michael Jacobs
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0
Town versus gown: a view from the fence of the age-old divide

Coming to Oxford was an overwhelming experience of excruciating pain, tears and much fussing around me; so much of all this that I hardly remember it. I am of course referring to my birth, as it is since then that I have lived, and later studied here. Even for a child, Oxford is an easy city to navigate, its main sites rarely straying far from the cross roads around which it revolves. A lot of students who already live here will therefore never enjoy the charm of being lost that must befall new students of larger cities. This is exacerbated by the fact that the University is such an inescapable part of the city centre.

Go abroad, and the global recognition of your hometown can be bizarre, given that it’s almost small enough to know someone every few streets. Even stranger, can be people’s impressed reactions and assumptions that merely living here should entail a pompous attitude. To an extent, familiarity with the city is an advantage in applying, potentially offsetting feelings of intimidation that others might experience when confronted with the density of medieval buildings and sneering gargoyles.

Living here can also teach you that playing the student isn’t so hard to master—a bold walk through a college door almost always gets you free entrance, while seeing students dumbly staggering the streets on a night out does wonders to eliminate the mystique around entry requirements. Yet I’m not without jealousy for those whose hometowns are so different that for them living here is ‘like living in a cake.’ As both a resident and a student, even living right in the centre is not always enveloping enough to feel like I’m studying here. Rather than seeking to escape the bubble, as so many understandably do, remaining absorbed in it is all the more important. When work finishes for the week, a torrent of student events and extra-curricular activities seems preferable to the stagnant feeling that living in college is like being on some strange residential in your own town. So long as you keep moving, you can outpace your sense of place.

Of course, different sides to the city are seen, as you start getting to know it inside out, from lakes and deer parks you didn’t know existed, to underground college bars. Studying with people who are new to the city also lends some novelty to the experience, as the religion of Burning Down the House replaces town traditions such as the Purple Turtle nativity, whereby in a cleansing and invigorating rite, the hole in the wall of PT becomes a portal through which friends are posted headfirst. Similarly, Lola Lo had never before been a place for buying drinks, only a dance space to return to after serving shots from a gin bottle hidden in the graveyard outside. Neither had I before known friends pretentious enough to commit a French pun in calling it “grave” drinking.

But for all its drawbacks and questionable consequences, my experience of studying in the town I live in has shown me that the town and gown divide generally seems to exist more as a consequence of the fact that the lives of students are inevitably structured differently to those at school or with jobs, than out of any mutual hostility or snobbery. Yet the difference is still there, and when leaving the city centre after the end of term I’m always a little surprised to see that Oxford exists, even when the student bubble has burst.

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