So this is the class I had been dreading. What madness came over me? The idea that simply because I was teaching a module about consumer culture, that a field trip to Westfield shopping centre would be a good idea? Anyway, here we all are. Or at least, here I am. My students are merrily off gathering 'data' - although the odds are low that this is all they will gather - while I cower in a mainstream coffee shop. So, since I am here, I thought I would record some of my own thoughts. I don't know exactly what the architectural intention was when they built this place. You arrive from across a bridge which spans the vast Stratford International train station. The while thing is tastefully lit and leads you round a gentle curve and over a gentle hill which each entice you into a collection of glittering buildings that squat like some half-buried metropolis on the other side. Certainly there is no hint from the approach of the sheer siz...
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The Thick of It makes for increasingly uncomfortable viewing I have been thinking a lot about satire recently. This is partly because for only the second time in my life I am getting to teach a module on Augustan satire (one of my favourite topics). In addition though, it reminded me of a Twitter conversation I had with a couple of emminent literary gents about the satire of the latest series of The Thick of It . I was caught by the fact that one of these gents, writer Martin Wroe, was expressing exactly (but more eloquently) what I had been thinking myself - that the series appears to get darker each time, and in this series appears to portray all of humanity as posessing no redeeming qualities at all. When the infamously foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker accuses the leader of the opposition of having “all the charm of a rotting teddy bear by a graveside”, he could as easily be describing the show itself. If you are not familiar with the series (which was turned into the fea...
Today is turning into one of those days. In the middle of working towards an institutional revalidation, pretty much my whole focus is currently locked onto a series of policy and regulatory documents in which I am writing all the various changes which have been agreed upon - which really means translating various minutes and discussions into appropriately 'regulatory' language which scrupulously avoids saying anything that contradicts a statement elsewhere in our regulations. It involves laboriously cross-checking every sentence, and carefully scanning every punctuation mark to ensure that there is no obvious scope for misinterpretation. The task is, frankly, mind-numbing - especially the week after I finally managed to dodge my way back into a classroom again, and had such a delightful time re-meeting old students and welcoming new ones. One of the problems with regulations is that the mode of language which is used in them is so entrenched into a legalistic tone, that...
Yes, yes, yes, I know this is all rather self-aggrandizing - but honestly a lot of time and energy gets put into preparing a lecture and presentation, so it is always with a sad sigh that I issue one of them with a redundancy notice. This particular one I let go of with especial reluctance, because the teaching Restoration comedy is frankly just about as much fun as you can get in a classroom. Anyway, here it is - doubtless no real loss to the world in the great scheme of things... Restoration Theatre on Prezi It is, of course, absurd to point to any one moment I time, or any single event, and to suggest that the modern world began there. Society, history and culture are far more complex than that. However, something of significance certainly did happen in 1660, and the echoes of that something can certainly be argued, convincingly, to still be heard today. To recap. In 1642 parliament and King Charles I divided, and civil war broke out. In such times, the frivolity ...
A colleague of mine has been suggesting that he might open all of his lectures with a slide showing this picture: This seems like a good idea. After all, it cannot be doubted that a mobile phone ringing in the middle of a lecture or a seminary is a distraction. It is worth having a subtle reminder to students about acceptable behaviour during a class. This did make me wonder though - there is a whole language of signs which could be used here, and perhaps subliminally flashed up on the screen during the lecture in the kind of way which works so well for Darren Brown. For example, since it is equally distracting to have students on Facebook or tweeting your latest terrible joke during class, you could have: And since there is always a good chance that I am having a bad hair day, I would personally like to have: Of course nobody likes it when a student arrives to a post-lunchtime lecture with one of those awful polestyrene trays full...