BOXED UP EMPTY Promises BLOOD First All Thoughts RANDOM
“The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.”
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
Although we don’t prescribe what writers can write for Mind’s Eye, this year the content has produced a rather pleasing balance among all human disciplines. For example, we consider both the wilds and wonders of Nature by exploring on one hand what happens when you torture a killer whale by making it live in a tiny tank or, on the other, peacefully spending time in your garden communing with plants. In the Arts, we look not only at the routes to success of two mega pop stars, but also the relationship between art itself and the artist, and we celebrate the iconoclasm of the great Sylvia Plath.
Less famous is a strange movement in architecture, based on living organisms, that originated in Japan but never quite took off. Fictional women are also celebrated this year, in one beautiful homage to the long-suffering females of ancient mythology, who provided strong role models for the author. Sport features in a rather niche way: while one of our writers claims categorically that golf really is a sport, despite the portly gentlemen who clutter up the fairway every weekend, another reminisces about the most terrifying cricket team of all time.
Technology inevitably rears its head in this year’s issue, when a young engineer considers the amazing achievements of the genius who cracked longitude and saved thousands of lives, but a young scientist warns us that AI could mean all originality of thought in schools is about to go out the window, although (ironically) another writer explores the recent explosion of self-publishing on the internet, as though the populace is grimly hanging onto creativity and originality while using the very tools that threaten both. Two of our authors are concerned about language: one suggests that Westerners should learn Mandarin, however hard this may be, and another wonders what it would be like if all several billion of us had one language in common.
No magazine by young people would be complete without young people showing very clearly how old people keep messing up, and so we have two very serious and heavyweight meditations on a war that was precursor in many ways to the Great War itself, and a popular modern political movement that might end up causing a rematch. And if it does all kick off again, one could always try, but possibly fail, to go and live in Australia, which one of our writers celebrates as perhaps the coolest place on Earth to live, but at a cost.
After reading all that lot, if you have any brain room left you might like to find out what leads us to think deterministically (get it?) or meditate with one young physicist on the behaviour of black holes. (The editor understood this final article for about five minutes before he had to read it again.) Enjoy. Without you, our readers…
Before I go, I must thank the great Trajan Majomi, who put half of this magazine together before he had to spend a lot of time at his other desk.
Anthony Lyons Editor
Mind’s Eye 2024 www.mindseyemagazine.com
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WE LOOK NOT ONLY AT THE ROUTES TO SUCCESS OF TWO MEGA POP STARS, BUT ALSO THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ART ITSELF AND THE ARTIST.
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NO MAGAZINE BY YOUNG PEOPLE WOULD BE COMPLETE WITHOUT YOUNG PEOPLE SHOWING VERY CLEARLY HOW OLD PEOPLE KEEP MESSING UP.
ZARA KOLADE explores what happens when you fail to treat an orca with respect.
February 2010: It’s that time in Florida when winter begins to ebb, when the sky brightens and the south wind carries enough warmth to persuade you out of your house and to SeaWorld Orlando, home of star orca, Tilikum, and expert trainer Dawn Brancheau.
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You book a ‘relationship session’ and, feeling privileged to see such a renowned pair, take your seat. You cheer as Tilikum leaps out of the water, marvelling when his 11-ton body twists in the air –weightless. The show is coming to an end and Brancheau bends down and places a palm on Tilikum’s nose, but he drags her in, her body now in his mouth. While you scream, he shakes her and drags her under the water. There is no helping her.
Later, officials spin the story as an accident, a playful scene that simply slipped out of control, but you were there and you’re certain of one thing: Tilikum knew exactly what he was doing. But what led such a ‘well-behaved’ orca, as former Sealand Canada trainer, Eric Walters,
remembers him, to commit such a horrific killing?
1983: At just two years old Tilikum was captured off the coast of Iceland and brought to Sealand in Victoria, Canada. There he was kept, alongside other orcas, in a net pen during the day and a floating steel container just wider than his body length at night – a significant downgrade for an animal used to travelling an average of 75 miles a day in the open ocean.
To learn behaviours and tricks, Tilikum was paired with another, pre-trained orca. This meant that if Tilikum failed to perform the behaviour that the trainer wanted when the trained orca did, the trainer punished both orcas by depriving them of food. In other words, he tortured them. This led to the trained orca becoming so frustrated with Tilikum that it raked him head-to-tail with tooth marks, marking the start of a tormented life.
1991: Whilst Brancheau’s was arguably the most gruesome, hers was not the first death involving Tilikum. In fact, his first kill took place at Sealand
when, during a show, a part-time trainer slipped and fell into the orca’s pool. Swiftly submerging her, Tilikum and his two tank mates dragged the young girl around, keeping her away from the life-ring that had been thrown in by staffmembers and pulling her back in when she attempted to climb out. Witnesses report that she surfaced three times, each time with desperate cries of ‘Help me!’ before ultimately drowning. At the time, the incident was regarded as play gone wrong, with Sealand’s head of animal training claiming the orcas
Tilikum and his two tank mates dragged the young girl around, keeping her away from the lifering that had been thrown in by staff-members and pulling her back in when she attempted to climb out.
‘never had something in the pool that was so interactive’ and so got ‘incredibly excited’. A year after this incident Sealand closed and Tilikum was transferred to SeaWorld Orlando where he would go on to claim two more lives.
1998: At SeaWorld Tilikum was a star and people came from far and wide to see the 22.5-footlong apex predator perform all sorts of tricks. But locked away in that glass tank with nothing to do except swim in circles, Tilikum couldn’t help but kill again. One morning, a 27-year-old
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At just two years old Tilikum was captured off the coast of Iceland and brought to Sealand in Victoria, Canada.
Brancheau’s death led more and more people to question the ethics of keeping these wild animals confined to concrete tanks and forcing them to perform.
man was found on Tilikum’s back, dead. Tilikum had drowned and brutalised the man, ripping his genitals off and inflicting wounds, contusions and abrasions all over his body. However, what exactly happened was never confirmed because SeaWorld officials claimed that the event had not been recorded by any of the numerous cameras that monitored the orcas.
2010 to 2024: For over ten years Tilikum did not kill again until that fateful day in February when he butchered Brancheau, after which he was effectively retired from shows to appear only at the end as the ‘big finish’ when all humans were out of the water. Thus he spent most of his time alone in his tank away from the public eye. There he grew restless and was ravaged by constant infections. Eventually, in 2017, Tilikum’s sad life of captivity came to an end from what SeaWorld called ‘a persistent and complicated bacterial lung infection’.
Brancheau’s death led more and more people to question the ethics of keeping these wild animals confined to concrete tanks and forcing them to perform for our entertainment. After all, Tilikum is not the only orca to kill his trainer. Keto, an orca at Loro Parque Zoo in the Canary Islands, had killed his trainer just a few months before.
No wild orca has ever killed a human. They are peaceful and playful creatures who rarely harm one another, let alone humans. It is obviously wrong to confine such intelligent beings to such an unnatural existence, but we still do it. If you were Tilikum, would you not get frustrated swimming around a lonely and sterile tank in SeaWorld? ¢
Can you separate the art from the artist? Asks ELLIE HENDERSON. of
They say you are what you eat. I like to see this as meaning we are what we believe in, and our existence as creators will therefore most likely boil down to a couple of things – our work and what we stand for, forming altogether the art and its artist.
a figurehead for artistic expression today. And yet, as a society over a century ago, we somehow confused Wilde’s difficult opinions with his work being less worthy of attention.
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But what happens when the art is so revered that the artist is brought to public attention, and their private self is put on a par with their work? And in this world of conflicts and critiques, is it right for their work to be valued primarily because of their politics or actions alone? Is there any sense in abandoning a creation if you cannot agree with what the creator believes? Should we ultimately separate the art from the artist?
Take Oscar Wilde. Wilde’s work counts as some of the most intriguing pieces of art created in the literature world, with books such as The Picture of Dorian Grey, and plays like The Importance of Being Earnest. His work put him at the forefront of Victorian literary and theatrical society, making Wilde a generally popular artist for his time. But of course we cannot please everybody and, even more so in uptight Victorian society, the idea of homosexuality was abhorred. Wilde was imprisoned on account of his various same-sex relations. Today we pride ourselves on our diversity, but Wilde was scandalous in his day, and his work became less popular. For most of us who honour freedom in sexuality, it seems inconceivable to punish a writer simply for his political stand. He is now
AS A SOCIETY OVER A CENTURY AGO, WE SOMEHOW CONFUSED WILDE’S DIFFICULT OPINIONS WITH HIS WORK BEING LESS WORTHY OF ATTENTION.
After being let out of prison, Wilde moved to France and published under a pseudonym to still make an income, suggesting that his name, in correlation with his work, caused a drop in the demand for such art. But if we are so quick to articulate that Wilde’s work should not have been separated from his ‘wrongdoing’, why is it so hard to separate an artist’s politics from their work today? The answer is it isn’t. If we can sympathize with a man whose work was shunned because of his sexuality, there should be no difference in our support of artistic expression created by someone whose opinions are frowned upon today.
However, this is not to suggest that the freedom of sexuality should be compared with actions that result in the harm of others. For example, most would agree that owning a poster of Jimmy Saville from his show ‘Jim’ll Fix It’, though not traditionally ‘art’, could be dangerous due to allegations of his sexual violence. Equally, it is unlikely that most would choose to own a painting or sketch made by Adolf Hitler since it might attract some controversy of its own, suggesting that the Holocaust of which he was guilty is somehow excusable. Though extreme, these examples show that it is a matter of situation and extent that allows one to separate the art from the artist.
A poster of Jimmy Saville from his show ‘Jim’ll Fix It’, though not traditionally ‘art’, could be dangerous due to allegations of his sexual violence.
However, perhaps it is less about the belief itself that we find hard to separate from the creation that the artist has made, but rather whether their art is still enjoyed despite the problematic beliefs attached to the artist. I would hope that we might generally agree that Nazism is not an aspiration at all to follow. If this is the case, then why does Kanye West, or ‘Ye’, have 63.8
There should be no difference in our support of artistic expression created by someone whose opinions are frowned upon today.
million monthly listeners on Spotify alone? His music is considered good despite his neoNazi standpoint and marketing of merchandise that bears a symbol designed with an uncanny resemblance to a swastika, a symbol that needs no introduction. And yet we can separate his music from his political beliefs because the consensus is that his music is good. Equally, Tom Cruise is known for his acting talent while we can separate this from his involvement in the Church of Scientology. This might suggest that when one’s art has still got a wide audience, the politics is easier to ignore, meaning that artists can continue to profit from their work. If this is
Winston Churchill’s achievements have been overshadowed by his racist political opinions.
Tom Cruise is known for his acting talent while we can separate this from his involvement in the Church of Scientology.
the case, then it seems that we can separate the art from the artist if there are enough followers willing to support their work.
And yet this seems hypocritical. Are we so governed by the tyranny of the majority that we are unable to acknowledge that others may appreciate work when it is produced by a problematic artist with a smaller audience? Or do we deem an artist‘cancel-able’when their work no longer is as relevant as it was before, where other artists can still profit from their work regardless of belief? For example, Winston Churchill, by no means a small name, and not a typical ‘artist’ in this respect, is considered influential in winning the Second World War. However, his achievements have been overshadowed by his racist political opinions. While it is not a good idea to support his beliefs, the work he did for this nation against the opposition merits acknowledgement rather than the disgrace of his statues and contempt for his name, and his supporters dwindling from remaining veterans to wartime fanatics. It appears that we cancel him for his opinions, perhaps because most people are less supportive now than a century ago. And yet our support for artists like Kanye West or Coco Channel allows creators and figures to fall into extinction because their work has a
“THE LIFE OF AN ARTIST CAN BE A LOW-INCOME LIFESTYLE, WITH AN EXAMPLE BEING VAN GOGH, WHO ONLY MANAGED TO SELL ONE OF HIS PAINTINGS WHEN LIVING.
smaller support today. Yet if this is the case, it implies that if we have enough supporters then we can be excused for our mistakes. This sounds oddly like ‘if you have enough money, you should be able to get out of any issue’, which is a dangerous motto to live by. For this reason, why should we cancel the works of any artist regardless of their support since we choose to nominate safety to those our consumerism allows to profit?
The artist is considering the social contexts and incorporating not only their own inspirations but what will gain them support.
We can extend this into how we negate opinions with public personas. The life of an artist can be a low-income lifestyle, with an example being Van Gogh, who only managed to sell one of his paintings when living. For this reason, in a time of political unrest, it is easiest for people to follow where the money is at, or which political opinion they most agree with. An example of this is the artwork that was created under Catholic rule, such as that by The Wilton Dyptych artist, most famous for the image of Richard II kneeling before Mary, who was following a strict religious code according to the current monarch and therefore one was more likely to paint from the religion that depicts a legal practice. However, when
the Protestant Reformation occurred, Catholic art was shunned along with the artists, in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and hence artists began painting protestant art to appeal not only to the law but also to the most lucrative market now that the religion had changed. This suggests that the artist is considering the social contexts and incorporating not only their own inspirations but what will gain them support. Likewise, artists such as Wagner, Coco Channel and Hugo Boss all had inner dealings with the Nazi party and, while it does not justify a pro-Nazi belief, it poses an explanation why these artists chose to support Hitler. Perhaps we choose to conflate opinion with output because our sense of ‘othering’ people does not accommodate their vast differences from ourselves. But for an artist, unless you are incredibly wealthy, the majority might not be able to afford to be ‘holier than thou’ and abstain from a political circle if it means they might be able to support themselves. Our complete lack of forgiveness cannot allow us to detach a political standpoint from the art that is created. Opinions and politics change as we learn more about science, art and human nature, and so surely if we were
Opinions and politics change as we learn more about science, art and human nature.
to attach the opinion of an artist to their art, the work that we could admire would always be changing, along with what is deemed acceptable today.
I believe that work should be an end in itself. It should be admired for the interpretations it inspires and the commentary on the world it gleans through another lens. We are so sure that we know the truth, that what we believe is right, that if we do not separate the art from the artist our view on subjects will always be one-sided and we will never be able to learn. Instead, it is necessary that we enjoy the work of another simply because it is valuable, rather than the politics that is attached to its creator. Ultimately, we are not what we eat, since we cannot allow our beliefs to define ourselves as a species, in so far as we must cancel art purely because we cannot agree with one another. ¢
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IT IS NECESSARY THAT WE ENJOY THE WORK OF ANOTHER SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS VALUABLE, RATHER THAN THE POLITICS THAT IS ATTACHED TO ITS CREATOR.
Why is Taylor Swift so successful? Asks GRETCHEN CHANG.
Whether or not you’re a Swiftie, it’s hard to deny the global cultural impact Taylor Swift has had in the past two decades. Her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department, debuted in April at No.1, giving Swift her 14th album in the top spot, tying her with Jay-Z for the most No. 1 albums by a solo artist in the chart’s history. Consequently, she broke her own record (set by Midnights) of being the only artist to score 10 out of 10 in the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time, by occupying the top 14 spots with her songs.
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SHE’S
ABLE TO WEAVE HER WORDS INTO PASSAGES THAT ACCURATELY DESCRIBE ‘ORDINARY’ EVERYDAY EMOTIONS, OFTEN MIXED WITH CATCHY AND MESMERIZING TUNES.
So, what makes Swift unique? Why is she so successful? What factors contributed to her achieving worldwide fame? Was it pure luck and coincidence? Or were there some clever and well-timed strategies that we might easily overlook?
From my perspective as a Swiftie, her songwriting skills are exceptional. Despite being one of the most successful artists of our time, she’s able to weave her words into passages that accurately describe ‘ordinary’ everyday emotions, often mixed
with catchy and mesmerizing tunes. And when I asked my fellow Swifties what drew them to Taylor, the most common responses were something along the lines of ‘she puts my thoughts into words’ or ‘she makes me feel things’. Taylor has the talent for writing songs to convey a feeling, like in her hits ‘We’re Never Ever Getting Back Together’, ‘Lover’ and ‘Blank Space’, as well as telling a story using the verses through different narratives. For example, one of her most vivid stories is the high-school love triangle between Betty, James, and an unnamed girl, presented through a trilogy of songs in her album Folklore. In the lead single, ‘Cardigan’, Betty reflects on her past relationship with James, comparing their love to a familiar, comforting cardigan, now associated with bittersweet memories; ‘August’ offers the perspective of the unnamed girl who experienced a fleeting summer romance with James, filled with the realization that their love was temporary; and ‘Betty’ provides James’s viewpoint: he expresses deep remorse and seeks forgiveness for his mistakes. Together, these songs create
a rich, emotionally layered narrative exploring themes of nostalgia, regret, and love.
Swift is not only a skilful artist but also a clever businesswoman.
Swift is not only a skillful artist but also a clever businesswoman. She is most well-known as a pop sensation, but did you know that her discovery spans at least three different genres? From the country tunes of ‘Tim McGraw’ in her debut album to the chart-topping pop song ‘Shake it Off’ from 1989 (Taylor’s Version) to the calming, melancholic ballad ‘The Lakes’ in her indie-folk album, Folklore, her releases are everchanging and developing. In her Time Person of the Year Interview, she said that she realized every record label was actively working to try to replace her. ‘[So], I thought instead, I’d replace myself first with a new me. It’s harder to hit a moving target.’ She’s constantly reinventing herself, enough that nobody else could replicate her moves, but not too much that she isn’t ‘Taylor’ anymore. And, in my opinion, that’s one of the reasons she is so successful.
She started re-recording her old albums, and by doing so she took back control of her discography.
On top of that, Swift has released more albums in the past nine years than any other big artists. With five new albums, and four re-recordings, she’s persistently creating new content, and continuously becoming more and more relevant in pop culture. But what are re-recordings and what’s the deal with all the ‘Taylor’s Version’? Undoubtedly, it’s one of the most careerdefining points for her, as well as a showcase of the strong, independent woman she is. In June 2019, Scooter Braun’s company bought the rights to her original master recordings without her permission, which sparked a public feud because she was upset she didn’t get a chance to buy back her own music. However, she started re-recording her old albums, and by doing so she took back control of her discography? The latest Taylor’s Version, 1989, debuted at No.1 and stayed there for two weeks, extending her record for the most No.1
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IT’S SAFE TO ASSUME THAT EVERYONE IS SIMILAR WITHIN THE SWIFTIE FANBASE –YES, THE ONE THAT’S ALWAYS LABELLED ‘PSYCHOTIC’ OR ‘OBSESSIVE’ OR ‘INSANE’.
spots held among women (which was then broken again by her later release, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’). A real problem to this solution is: who wants a new album that sounds exactly the same as the original? Well, we do.
I think it’s safe to assume that everyone is similar within the Swiftie fanbase – yes, the one that’s always labelled ‘psychotic’ or ‘obsessive’ or ‘insane’, although I prefer to see it as ‘devoted’, ‘committed’ and ‘loyal’. So why is this fanbase so dedicated?
First, I believe that when people become a super fan it’s often because the public figure or celebrity connects back to their identity in some way. In this case, it’s the common emotion and life experiences. Because she’s been in the public eye since she was a teenager, many of her fans grew up alongside her: when they were having some of these first experiences, maybe with relationships or entering adulthood, she was doing that at the same time and singing about
She’s constantly reinventing herself, enough that nobody else could replicate her moves, but not too much that she isn’t ‘Taylor’ anymore.
that, and her life story mapped onto her fans’ life story, in some way. As for a younger generation of fans, like myself, there was a lot of social media content about her (especially during the pandemic), and she was putting out many albums, so a new generation discovered her while they’re also having similar experiences.
Having been a Swiftie for almost five years, I think it’s really become a part of who I am. I have met many friends through fan events and activities, and the community around Taylor is welcoming and free. Plus, she is a role model to many. Taylor is a great example of someone who sticks to their values and shows others that they can reach their goals, whatever those might be. Being there and experiencing her success alongside her can be a very inspirational journey. ¢
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TAYLOR IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF SOMEONE WHO STICKS TO THEIR VALUES AND SHOWS OTHERS THAT THEY CAN REACH THEIR GOALS.
Every great civilisation has embraced plants and gardening – take the famous gardens of Pompeii, for example – but only now, through modern studies and analysis, can the psychological benefits of being surrounded by nature be truly observed. This became increasingly important after the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, when it was drastically clear to many of us that we lacked a green space both indoors and outside in which to recline and relax.
Houseplants have become hugely popular over the last few years, and it is easy to understand why, with their sculptural and colourful nature adding to our homes, but they also provide many proven physical and mental benefits that occur without us even noticing. The most surprising of these benefits was found in a study by Exeter University that showed people working in ‘green’ spaces were up to 15% more productive compared with other employees who were not, which is especially important in the current era of people working from home.
PEOPLE WORKING IN ‘GREEN’ SPACES WERE UP TO 15% MORE PRODUCTIVE COMPARED WITH OTHER EMPLOYEES WHO WERE NOT.
This is also not the only benefit that helps us get through the day. Studies have found that harmful compounds in the air called VCO’s (volatile organic compounds), which can cause allergy-like symptoms and can be proven carcinogens, are partially removed by having plants that can absorb and process them. Having flora close or in sight has further health benefits as proven by a study from the US National Library of Medicine, which found that plants are a ‘noninvasive, inexpensive and effective complementary medicine for surgical patients’ because they reduce blood pressure and decrease levels of anxiety, fatigue and pain in surgical patients. These benefits far outweigh any argument that houseplants are a large commitment and require lots of attention since, although the relationship between man and plant may seem transactional, we have far more to gain from plants than they have from us.
This relationship extends outdoors and into our gardens too, in even more significant ways. Gardens have an impact from early
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EMOTIONALLY, CERTAIN FLOWERS CAN HAVE DIFFERENT EFFECTS, MOST NOTABLY LAVENDER, WHICH IS USED OFTEN IN AROMATHERAPY.
Houseplants have become hugely popular over the last few years.
childhood with the development of taste: children who eat homegrown food are more than twice as likely to eat their ‘five-a-day’ compared to those who are served store-bought food. Having a vegetable-patch which can be tended to and experienced from a young age is also vital in the development of our mental health since it is a method to gauge your place in nature and connect with and grow respect for your environment, combating struggles with self-worth, selfconsciousness and confidence in a world which is so dominated by the insincere and often cruel forms of social media.
Mycobacterium vaccae which is found in soil specifically triggers the release of serotonin, all of which improves our mood and relieves anxiety.
The benefits of gardening even extend to the chemical level in our brains, with the actual physical exercise involved causing the release of serotonin and dopamine as well as a bacterium called
Mycobacterium vaccae which is found in soil specifically triggering the release of serotonin, all of which improves our mood and relieves anxiety. Therefore, your garden can affect your entire lifestyle, personality and even academic ability: a study conducted by the American Society for Horticultural Science found that students who studied gardening as part of the science curriculum scored significantly higher on a test on the subject than students who studied in a traditional classroom setting. Although this could simply be the impact of the relaxing nature of gardening and visual learning, it could prove that the brain works more effectively and intellectually when plants are in the near vicinity.
A key part of every garden is flowers too, which have their own impacts on us. For centuries flowers have appeared in myth, such as Narcissus becoming a flower (daffodil), and even as a form of language in Victorian England known as Floriography, with Lavender meaning ‘devotion’, for example. In our modern age, flowers still hold much
emotional meaning and so it makes sense for us to be affected when we see them in our homes and our gardens. Physically, their colourful appearance and sweet scent stimulate our senses and promote positive emotions, as well as, like all plants, provoking the release of dopamine and other ‘happy’ chemicals. Emotionally, certain flowers can have different effects, most notably Lavender, which is used often in aromatherapy to create a sense of calm and relaxation due to its strong scent. Sunflowers have connotations of happiness and optimism and these are reflected in our mood when we see them, and roses are associated with love and passion and evoke these emotions in ourselves. Being able to see vibrant blooms is vital to the upkeep of a positive mental attitude and should be treated as any other form of natural medicine.
The relationship between man and plant seems transactional: we have far more to gain from plants than they have from us.
It is clear that for the improvement of our society and the mental wellbeing of all those in it, we must incorporate nature even more heavily into all aspects of our lives. Whether that be in the form of houseplants, bouquets, vegetable patches or garden borders, plants can benefit us in every way. ¢
“CHILDREN WHO EAT HOMEGROWN FOOD ARE MORE THAN TWICE AS LIKELY TO EAT THEIR ‘FIVE-A-DAY’ COMPARED TO THOSE WHO ARE SERVED STORE-BOUGHT FOOD.
MISCHA DURHAM considers the dangers of plagiarism using AI.
In recent years, the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has ushered in a new era of technological advancements. From self-driving cars to virtual assistants, AI is transforming the way we live and work. However, one of its more contentious applications is in the realm of written communication, particularly in the academic sphere. AI-written essays are becoming increasingly sophisticated and prevalent, raising significant concerns about their impact and the difficulty of detecting them.
AI-generated text, powered by advanced language models, has evolved to the point where it can produce essays that are coherent, persuasive, and remarkably human-like. These AI systems can generate content on a wide range of topics, often with
impressive accuracy and depth. For students under pressure, the temptation to use AI to craft assignments can be irresistible. After all, with a few keystrokes, they can produce a well-structured essay that meets academic standards, potentially saving hours of effort.
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and writing skills. Furthermore, it creates an uneven playing field, disadvantaging those who adhere to ethical standards.
WHEN STUDENTS SUBMIT AI-GENERATED WORK AS THEIR OWN, IT UNDERMINES THE ENTIRE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS.
The primary danger of AI-written essays lies in the erosion of academic integrity. Education systems rely on honest assessment of students’ abilities and understanding. When students submit AI-generated work as their own, it undermines the entire educational process. It not only cheats the system but also robs students of the opportunity to develop critical thinking
Beyond academia, the proliferation of AI-written content raises broader ethical questions. While AI continues to improve, distinguishing between human and machinegenerated text becomes increasingly difficult. This blurring of lines can have serious implications for fields that rely heavily on written communication, such as journalism, law, and public relations.
Detecting AI-written essays is no simple task. Early detection methods
focused on stylistic inconsistencies and the use of overly complex language patterns that were characteristic of early AI text. However, modern AI models have become adept at mimicking human writing styles, making these methods less effective.
Advanced detection tools are now being developed, employing machine learning algorithms to identify subtle patterns and anomalies indicative of AI-generated text. These tools analyse factors like writing style, syntax, and the coherence of arguments. However, as detection technology improves, so too does the sophistication of AI systems, creating a continuous cat-and-mouse game between AI developers and those tasked with ensuring academic integrity.
Despite advancements in detection technology, the human element remains crucial. Teachers and professors play a vital role in recognizing the nuances of their students’ writing styles and capabilities. Familiarity with a student’s previous work can often reveal discrepancies that a purely algorithmic approach might miss. Encouraging open dialogue about the ethical use of AI and emphasizing the importance of original work can also help mitigate the temptation to rely on AI for academic tasks.
“FOR STUDENTS UNDER PRESSURE, THE TEMPTATION TO USE AI TO CRAFT ASSIGNMENTS CAN BE IRRESISTIBLE.
to establish clear guidelines and consequences for the misuse of AI in academia. Additionally, fostering a culture that values the learning process over mere outcomes can help shift the focus from grades to genuine intellectual growth.
“Addressing the dangers of AI-written essays requires a multifaceted approach. Educational institutions must invest in both advanced detection tools and educational initiatives that promote academic honesty. Policymakers need
So, while AI-written essays present significant challenges, they also offer an opportunity to reexamine and strengthen the foundations of academic integrity. By staying ahead of technological advancements and fostering a culture of honesty, we can ensure that education remains a true reflection of a student’s abilities and efforts. As AI continues to evolve, so too must our strategies for maintaining the integrity of our academic institutions, but we mustn’t forget how undetectable these essays are. For instance, you may be unaware of the very fact you have been reading an article generated by the renowned Chat GPT AI. ¢
AS AI CONTINUES TO EVOLVE, SO TOO MUST OUR STRATEGIES FOR MAINTAINING THE INTEGRITY OF OUR ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS.
In 2024 around 4 billion people (roughly half the world population) will head to the polls in the greatest election year in history. There will be major elections in the USA, India, Mexico, the UK (probably), the EU and many more. 2024 therefore has the chance of being a triumphant year for democracy when more people than ever before get to exercise their democratic right to have a say in how they are governed, but 2024 could also go very differently. The dark spectre of populism will hang over almost all elections this year. ‘Populism’ is a term that is naturally thrown around a lot these days.
Although the accusation ‘populist’ is frequently heard in modern politics, there is considerable debate about what actually constitutes a populist. It is commonly stated that the defining characteristic of a populist is the criticism of the political ‘elite’ and
representation of the ‘people’ who have been left behind by the political system. One look at the rhetoric of any major populist would confirm this. For instance, Victor Orban (populist Prime Minister of Hungary) once called his political movement ‘plebeian democracy’, and in a 2016 debate Donald Trump admitted to benefiting from tax loop holes whilst accusing Hilary Clinton of creating those loop holes to benefit her donors.
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THE DARK SPECTRE OF POPULISM WILL HANG OVER ALMOST ALL ELECTIONS THIS YEAR.
It is true that all populists are critical of elites, but it is not a complete definition. Under this definition we would have to call the likes of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn populists and that simply doesn’t feel right. So, a different definition is needed. The democratic theorist Jan-Werner Müller
has a better definition, that populists are not only anti-elite but also antipluralist. Anti-pluralist means they claim that only they can represent the people and anyone else who claims to do so is merely part of the evil ‘elite’. They also claim that those who don’t vote for them are somehow not part of the ‘real people’. It is this sort of thinking that led Nigel Farage to claim that BREXIT was ‘a victory for real people’ despite the fact that 48% of the country voted against it, thus implying that Remainers were not ‘real’.
It can also be seen in the invocation of ‘the silent majority’, a term popularised by Nixon and used frequently by Trump, which implies that there is a latent mass that always exists in favour of the populist candidate, but is not
POPULISTS CAN RIG DEMOCRACY IN THEIR FAVOUR BY SILENCING OPPOSING VOICES AND CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION ITSELF.
always heard, and such a concept delegitimises any government that doesn’t conform to the silent majority. More recently Liz Truss described the opposition and members of her own party as part of the ‘anti-growth coalition’, which degraded them from elected representatives trying to do what’s best for their constituents to bad actors doing their best to hurt Britain and its economy. We can therefore use this formula of anti-elitism and anti-pluralism to identify a number of high-profile populists in modern politics. This list includes Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (President of Turkey), Narendra Modi, Geert Wilders (a major figure in Dutch politics), Nigel Farage and Jair Bolsonaro, amongst many more.
Now that we have defined what a populist is, the next question is: why are they so dangerous? The dangers of populists naturally stem from their anti-pluralistic tendencies. By claiming that only they represent the people, they are able to legitimise measures that harm democracy, and marginalise opposing views and voices. This is particularly true for younger and less developed democracies such as India and Turkey, where both Narendra Modi and Recep Erdogan have begun to limit freedom of the press and silence opposition voices. In Hungary, Viktor Orban was able to rewrite the country’s constitution in 2012 based on a mere survey which was taken by only 920,000 people and could be interpreted freely by the constitution’s drafters. The resulting constitution included measures which greatly favour Orban and his party. Populists therefore can rig democracy in their favour by silencing opposing voices and changing the constitution itself. Such threats are less of an issue in more mature democracies, such as the USA, where Donald Trump is neither able to limit freedom of the press nor freely change the constitution.
In these countries Populism poses a different kind of threat: it decreases people’s faith in the political system. This is, of course, exemplified by the 2021 capital riots when protesters invaded the seat of their country’s government because they genuinely believed that the election was stolen. The other threat posed by populists in mature democracies is that when something
happens in a mature democracy the younger ones will tend to imitate it. The 2023 Brazilian Congress attack was inspired by and planned to be like the riot that took place in Washington DC two years earlier. Whilst America and other mature democracies can withstand such events, weaker democracies may not be able to, and it is entirely possible that such events in the future could lead to a coup d’état and a dictatorship. Populists are therefore dangerous because they threaten the very idea of a liberal democracy by attacking the free press, rewriting the constitutions meant to limit their power, and by inspiring popular distrust in democracy that can lead to riots and even coups.
If we turn our attention back to 2024 and all of the coming elections, we can see that a number of high-profile populists are running for office this year: Trump is running for his second term in the USA; Nahrendra Modi and his India People’s Party are looking to win a third consecutive Indian election; and there will be hundreds of populist candidates standing in this year’s European Parliament elections. This could therefore be a year of populism continuing to grow in both power and influence across the world. That has certainly been the case at the time of writing, when the populist candidate, Prabowo Subianto, was elected President of Indonesia
“BY CLAIMING THAT ONLY THEY REPRESENT THE PEOPLE, THEY ARE ABLE TO LEGITIMISE MEASURES THAT HARM DEMOCRACY, AND MARGINALISE OPPOSING VIEWS AND VOICES.
India and Turkey, where both Narendra Modi and Recep Erdogan have begun to limit freedom of the press and silence opposition voices.
in February. It is therefore possible to view many of the coming elections as a forgone conclusion, while a wave of Populism sweeps across the world, but to think like this is both impractical and overly pessimistic.
Populism can be and has been beaten, but that is not done through pretending it doesn’t exist. Populist candidates must be debated and engaged with; they cannot be marginalised and side-lined during an election campaign. This is for two reasons. The first is the practical issue that if you refuse to give a populist leader a popular platform it plays into their pre-existing narrative
A number of highprofile populists are running for office this year and there will be hundreds of populist candidates standing in this year’s European Parliament elections.
of a political elite that doesn’t care for the people, so it would only strengthen support for them. The second is that populists are antipluralist in nature, and to prevent a populist from speaking is anti-pluralist, so to prevent a populist from speaking is to act like one. Their supporters should be treated with respect, unlike Hilary Clinton in 2016 who referred to potential Trump voters as ‘deplorables’. These are people with genuine concerns about the economy and society and they should be treated as such, even if you don’t agree with what they say. Instead, the focus should be on trying to get the message across to people that populists don’t have the country’s best interests at heart. In 1968, Republican candidate George Wallace’s campaign fell apart after southern unions showed their members how little Wallace had done for the working man in Alabama. In 2016, the Austrian Greens were able to keep the populist Freedom Party out of the governing coalition by showing the populace how a populist government would threaten Austrian Democracy.
Both these examples show how people are more reasonable than some politicians may give them credit for, and that their sense and intelligence can be successfully recruited if they are respected.
Populists nonetheless will still probably win big in 2024, but that doesn’t have to be the prevailing narrative. Populists can be beaten, but to do that requires knowledge of what they are and the danger they pose. I believe, perhaps optimistically, that if the dangers of Populism are respectfully displayed to the people who intend to vote for it, a majority will turn their back. They just need to be represented and listened to by the other candidates. ¢
People are more reasonable than some politicians may give them credit for.
Twenty-two years ago, in the late summer sunshine at The Oval, the West Indian test cricketers, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, walked off the pitch for the last time. Since then, the fortunes of what was once the most formidable cricket team the world had ever seen have been in astonishing decline.
The West Indies team late in the Twentieth Century was almost unbeatable. It included legends of the game: Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Sir Vivian Richards, and the brilliantly-named Sir Garfield Sobers, to name but a few. The fast bowlers were virtually unplayable, routinely delivering the ball at speeds of over 90 mph. In 1993, Curtly Ambrose bowled a spell against Australia that took seven wickets at the cost of just a single run. Brian Lara’s career featured two stratospheric knocks of 375 and 400* (both sadly against England), the second being to this day the highest Test score ever. Victorious in the inaugural World Cups of 1975 and 1979, the team was also unbeaten in Test series for fifteen years straight.
The modern side is a less imposing prospect. Between 1979 and 1993, the Windies won 78 of their 182 matches and lost 44, giving them a respectable win/loss ratio of 1.772. Since 2000, they have played 214, lost 116 and won just 45, with a win/loss ratio of an abysmal 0.387. Over that time period, even England managed a ratio of 1.33 from 301 matches.
THE WEST INDIES TEAM LATE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY WAS ALMOST UNBEATABLE.
IT’S NOT THAT THESE PLAYERS DON’T LOVE PLAYING CRICKET FOR THEIR COUNTRY. IT’S JUST THAT THEY CAN’T AFFORD TO. “
One of the factors in the Windies’ deterioration is that many players are much more interested in earning huge sums of money in lucrative franchise leagues around the world. The Big Bash League in Australia, the IPL in India and even their own home-grown league, the CPL, can pay players £200,000 for six weeks’ work. Big-name players such as Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran have all
missed international series in recent years for franchise commitments. Bravo and Pollard have even both retired to pursue big-money deals, and their defence for this is that they don’t get paid enough by the Cricket West Indies (CWI) board to allow them to live a comfortable life during and after their playing years. ‘Love for the game doesn’t buy you groceries,’ as former limited-overs captain, Darren Sammy, rightly said.
It’s not that these players don’t love playing cricket for their country. It’s
just that they can’t afford to. And this begs the question: why aren’t the CWI keeping up with other boards and paying their cricketers what they deserve?
Sometimes the behaviour of the CWI towards its own players is not merely mean-spirited, but vexatious. An example of this led to the forced retirement of one of the great West Indian batsmen of recent times, Shivnarine Chanderpaul. He was handed an NOC (No Objection Certificate) by the board after asking their permission to play in the Masters Champions League. But there was a condition tantamount to blackmail or extortion: if he did not announce his retirement with immediate effect, he would in fact not be allowed to play in this competition. Subsequently, he retired from all cricket at the age of forty, leaving behind a legacy spanning two decades of service to the Windies that would forever be marred by the circumstances of his retirement.
Another example of poor treatment is how 34-year-old Darren Bravo was left out of the West Indies’ recent ODI squad against England despite putting vast amounts of
There have been some outstanding individual performances, such as Chris Gayle’s 333 against Sri Lanka in 2010.
work into his performances in the domestic Super50 tournament, where he was the top run-scorer, in a bid to earn back his place in the side. Lead selector Desmond Haynes defended the decision as an investment in younger players looking ahead to the next ODI World Cup in 2027, a comment which prompted Bravo’s brother Dwayne to label the system as having ‘failed again’. While Darren was excluded, 33-year-old Kjorn Ottley was picked for the first time since his first two ODIs in 2021.
It is worth remembering that it’s not all been bad since the dawn of the millennium. Glimpses of hope were shown in back-to-back T20 World Cup victories in 2012 and 2016, both times under the captaincy of the brilliant Darren Sammy. There have been some outstanding individual performances, such as Chris Gayle’s 333 against Sri Lanka in 2010, and Chanderpaul’s 203* against South Africa in 2005. But none of this detracts from the underlying problems facing the West Indies, and they can be put down mainly to their management system.
So, surely the only way is up for the Windies? After their shock failure to qualify for the 2023 ODI World Cup, they have likely reached their lowest ebb. A home T20 World Cup this year should help to boost funding, hopefully leaving all memories of corruption and blackmail far in the past, while they look on to new horizons in the 2027 World Cup and beyond. As the old saying goes, ‘When the Windies rise, the cricketing world feels the breeze.’ ¢
VERA LOIKA takes a look at the fortunes of Australia.
Australia today is one of the most successful economies in the world. Its GDP per capita ranks 18th globally, putting Australia right behind Germany and above Finland and Saudi Arabia. The quality of life in the country is therefore very high. So how can it be that Australia is one step away from economic collapse while showing none of the symptoms?
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HOW CAN IT BE, THAT AUSTRALIA IS ONE STEP AWAY FROM ECONOMIC COLLAPSE WHILE SHOWING NONE OF THE SYMPTOMS?
To break it down, I will answer three questions: What are the issues in the economic system of Australia? How does it manage to seemingly do so well despite them? And, are its solutions flimsy band-aids or will they keep the country stable forever?
One notoriously unreliable industry that is thriving in Australia is mining. This industry is more characteristic of developing economies rather than ones with similar prosperity to Australia. The country’s largest export is coal, a fossil fuel that most countries are now trying to move away from in favour of more sustainable energy sources. Australia’s position is made even more vulnerable due to who the buyers of these exports are. The country is highly dependent on China, as it is responsible for over 40% of all Australian exports. What this leaves Australia with is a massive mining industry that is bound to be at the mercy of global markets and actions of other economies thousands of kilometres away.
Nevertheless, Australia’s abundance of natural resources generates a lot of revenue. That is reflected in the GDP of the country but, unfortunately, does little to improve the real state of the rest of the economy. The ‘resource curse’ or ‘Dutch disease’ is an issue that hits close to home in Australia’s case. The piles of rock shipped overseas make the economic figures of the country look very good but have little benefit for most Australians. The mining operations are incredibly remote and employ few people, who are moved there for the duration of the job and back. These are the so-called ‘fly-in, fly-out’ workers. This means that one of the most profitable industries is completely cut off from the rest of the economy.
Other lucrative industries such as technology and finance have helped build major cities in the US, Europe, and Asia, as their workers spend their money going out for dinner after work or buying a new car, allowing the money to flow through other industries so that all participants in the economy can benefit from the revenue of the big sectors. This would be a clear example of the idyllic trickle-down economy, which is far from reality in Australia due to the nature of the mining sector. One solution to this issue could be taxing resource sales and using the money to fund government projects.
A good example of this strategy is Norway where, like Australia, an abundance of natural resources is shared by a relatively small population. In Norway, private companies that profit from natural resources are heavily taxed. Combined with a stateowned company in the field, lots of money is generated that is stored in the enormous Sovereign Wealth Fund. This national savings account invests the money and uses it to fund government services. This allows Norway to improve the standard of living for people who are not directly part of the resources industry. Australia failed to introduce direct taxes on mining. For this reason, it has little to no benefit for anyone other than the few extremely wealthy owners of the extracting companies and the relatively small labour force employed by them. This also contributes to the large wealth gap in Australian society and adds to the problem of unaffordable housing for most citizens.
Housing in Australia is among the most expensive in the world. On the surface, it doesn’t make much sense. Its price, like that of anything else, is shaped by forces of supply and demand. On the supply side, Australia has a lot of land, being sixth in terms of size by total land mass. On the demand side, it simply doesn’t
have that many people. Some major cities around the world have more people than this whole continent.
What this leaves Australia with is a massive mining industry that is bound to be at the mercy of global markets and actions of other economies.
But the picture changes drastically if we look closely. Most of the land in the country is uninhabited desert. Most of the population lives in a small handful of dense cities next to the coast, mostly Sydney and Melbourne. The former is one is the second most expensive cities in the world and has little room for expansion because it is surrounded by mountains and cut off by the sea. What complicates the problem of land even more is the fact that Australians culturally prefer large freestanding homes rather than
apartments. The apartments that are being built quickly and cheaply by companies attempting to take advantage of the housing crisis plague the market, and their poor quality turns potential buyers back towards freestanding houses once again. On the demand side, Australians have very high incomes, with the world’s highest minimum wage. Buying houses is also heavily incentivized by taxation policy. This is true not only for houses bought for residential purposes but even more so for those purchased as investments or to rent out.
The tax policies in Australia are such that expenses on the asset can be written off against income. This is not unique to the country. However, what makes it different from other places is that the income is not limited to the profit generated by the asset; instead, expenses can be written off from your total income. In other words, if you earn $150,000 a year, you can claim $50,000 in expenses on your house on paper and only pay income tax on $100,000. This feature, paired with one of the highest income taxes in the world— income above $115,000 is taxed at 45%—leads to lots of tax avoidance. This makes such a difference that it is considered financially irresponsible not to buy a house and pay a lower tax rate. This made housing in Australia an investment rather than a place to live. What inevitably follows are skyrocketing prices in the sector and less development in other areas of the economy, especially given low international investment.
If Australia keeps things as they are, it is going to get more and more difficult for young people to enjoy a high quality of life in their own country.
So, how does Australia manage to carry on unaffected even though its economy is as reliant on natural resources as Russia’s, Venezuela’s, and Saudi Arabia’s, and lots of its wealth is contained in the housing sector, which does not contribute much to growth, and suffers from poor-quality development, an issue that China is facing at the moment? The answer is that Australia’s economy is not about selling dirt or houses but about selling Australia. It is one of the most desirable countries in the world to go and live. A big reason for that is the country’s political stability. It also has an incredibly high standard of living, good weather, and a strong culture of diversity while being an English-speaking country. That means that people from all around the world have a good chance of being fluent enough to work and live here.
Education in Australia is attractive too, with many great private schools and world-class universities. This allows Australia’s economy to benefit not only from the tuition fees paid by the students and the funding universities get from them to conduct more research and create jobs, but also from the money brought in from abroad that pays for the students’ living expenses. On top of that, as they graduate, Australia has a high chance of keeping the young professionals who will soon get a job and pay taxes to the country.
Australia is beyond happy to welcome the new immigrants if they bring some value.
On the other hand, already wealthy people often want to make Australia their home too since, despite property in major cities being so expensive, they are ranked as some of the most pleasant places to live in the world. Quality of life metrics are like those of the famously happy Scandinavian countries, but what makes Australia the winner in many cases is a fact that doesn’t make it on the spreadsheets and statistics – Australia’s sunny and hot climate, its beautiful beaches, and nature.
THE
If it slows the rate of immigration to reduce the competition for existing residents, then a lot of the country’s wealth could be destroyed.
The country is beyond happy to welcome the new immigrants if they bring some value, and it’s planning to accommodate 1.5 million new arrivals over the next four years. The industry accommodating them is massive in Australia, and already
existing citizens became ever more wealthy because of it. Simply owning a house can make you millions. This seems like a positive thing, as being a tourist and immigration destination is a very stable feature to build the economy around. The country is likely to stay very attractive as a place to start a new life.
However, the economic prosperity that such an approach leads to is once again not shared with an average Australian. For young people who had not yet made their wealth, buying property and moving out often becomes impossible, and, in general, living in the country soon becomes unaffordable. They do not enjoy the tax breaks that people with property do, so over time they often end up paying relatively more while earning less. Unlike most other unaffordable cities – New York, for example – Australia’s case contrasts, as ultra-high prices are not a result of opportunities for very high incomes in the city centres where highly technical industries pay their workers incredibly well. Wages in Australian cities are
considerably lower than New York ones while prices are higher. It is not the incomes that keep the prices high but the desirability of the lifestyle and the tax breaks owning property gives to high earners. If Australia keeps things as they are, it is going to get more and more difficult for young people to enjoy a high quality of life in their own country. If it slows the rate of immigration to reduce the competition for existing residents, then a lot of the country’s wealth could be destroyed.
Being a tourist and immigration destination is a very stable feature to build the economy around.
So, Australia seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Despite seemingly doing very well on the surface, the country serves as a cautionary reminder to all other developed nations about the dangers of letting issues like housing grow out of proportion. Whatever path Australia chooses to take, it is an interesting case study, the development of which the whole world should follow and learn from. ¢
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DESPITE PROPERTY IN MAJOR CITIES BEING SO EXPENSIVE, THEY ARE RANKED AS SOME OF THE MOST PLEASANT PLACES TO LIVE IN THE WORLD.
“PLATH’S SEMINAL WORK, THE BELL JAR, IS A SCATHING COMMENTARY ON THE SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS IMPOSED ON WOMEN IN THE 1950S.
The representation of women has been an ongoing interest amongst writers for as long as stories have been alive. From the beginning, ancient writers such as Aristotle have shown that the role of women in Greek literature has demoralized them and shown them in a maligned light. The women are portrayed as frail, cruel, insensitive, or as seductresses. These characteristics have been integrated into today’s society and have built the standards and defined the moral outlook of women. However, in Greek mythology, powerful women are not as well celebrated, such as Athena. This prejudice against women all stemmed from the sheer fact that all the well-respected members of society, let alone the writers, were men, so the view of women was from a very one-sided point of view, with no evidence from the women’s perspective.
“illness, heightened by these societal pressures, underscores the destructive nature of a patriarchal society that stifles female ambition and individuality. Esther’s struggle mirrors Plath’s battles she faced throughout her childhood and into womanhood, blending fiction with a brutal honesty that resonates with readers to this day.
Sylvia Plath is an iconic figure in American literature. She is renowned not just for her confessional style but also for her acute critique of patriarchal structures. Through her poetry and prose, Plath exposes women’s systemic inequalities and challenges the oppressive forces that seek to silence them. Plath’s seminal work, The Bell Jar, is a scathing commentary on the societal expectations imposed on women in the 1950s. The protagonist, Esther Greenwood, navigates a world that offers her limited options: conform to domesticity or face ostracism. The novel’s striking portrayal of mental
In her poetry, Plath’s confrontation with patriarchy is equally vivid. ‘Daddy’, one of her most famous poems, uses the metaphor of a tyrannical father to represent the larger, oppressive male-dominated society, and how her father has greatly affected and shaped her life. The poem’s raw emotion and defiant tone challenge the traditional reverence for patriarchal figures, revealing the deep psychological scars they can leave. Lines like ‘Every woman adores a Fascist’ starkly illustrate the internalized oppression and the complex love-hate relationships women often have with patriarchal authority figures. The poem ends with the revelation that she has been weighed down by the memory of her father, which has caused her grief, and now that she has come to terms with what he used to be like he can stop torturing her from the grave.
One of her most famous poems uses the metaphor of a tyrannical father to represent the larger, oppressive maledominated society.
Plath’s exploration of the domestic sphere in her collection, Ariel, further critiques the patriarchal confines of traditional female roles. Poems like ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘The Applicant’ dissect the objectification and exploitation of women. In ‘The Applicant,’ Plath mocks the institution of marriage and its transactional nature, where women are evaluated based on their utility to men. The biting irony in her verses exposes the absurdity and cruelty of these societal norms. Moreover, Plath’s depiction of the female body is revolutionary. She refuses to adhere to the
She describes her body’s resurrection not as a divine miracle but as an act of personal defiance and reclamation.
sanitized, idealized images cultivated by a maledominated culture. Instead, her poems often present the body in its raw, vulnerable reality, reclaiming it from the clutches of patriarchal control. This is evident in ‘Lady Lazarus’, where she describes her body’s resurrection not as a divine miracle but as an act of personal defiance and reclamation.
SHE REFUSES TO ADHERE TO THE SANITIZED, IDEALIZED IMAGES CULTIVATED BY A MALE-DOMINATED CULTURE.
Her depiction of women’s struggles against oppressive societal norms continues to inspire contemporary feminist discourse.
Her works serve as a timeless call to arms for women to reclaim their identities, challenge oppressive structures, and assert their voices.
Plath’s work is not solely an expression of personal anguish but a broader feminist statement. Her depiction of women’s struggles against oppressive societal norms continues to inspire contemporary feminist discourse. By laying bare the realities of living under patriarchy, Plath provides a voice for the voiceless and a lens through which to examine the persistent inequalities that women face. As society continues to grapple with gender inequality, Plath’s writing remains as relevant as ever. Her courageous exploration of the female psyche and the constraints imposed by a patriarchal world challenges us to reflect on our progress and the work still needed to achieve true equality.
Sylvia Plath’s legacy, therefore, is not just as a poet and novelist but as a fierce critic of patriarchy. Her works serve as a timeless call to arms for women to reclaim their identities, challenge oppressive structures, and assert their voices in a world that has long sought to silence them. ¢
Golf is not just for middle-aged men in checkered trousers claims SOPHIA PAYNE.
How can an activity mostly undertaken by unathletic middle-aged men, while wearing checkered trousers, ever be considered a sport? But look around. These men, however prominent in golf’s stigma, are only about 26% of golfers and, while this seems like a lot, compare this to the number of young people playing – almost six million – and these ill-dressed men seem insignificant. But people still wonder why it’s a sport.
Looking at a 50-year-old holding a beer can while driving an electric buggy can give golf a bad image, but in reality this is no different to any other game. Compare this to tennis, a sport well respected and played all over the world. There is the same, not quite so athletic player as golf, as well as having giants such as Novak Djokovic or Iga Swiatek. The same is true in golf. Just look at Scottie Scheffler or Rory
McIlroy, not to mention the infamous Tiger Woods. All sports have their stars, and they have their, well, not quite as good players, so clearly this is not a reason to discredit golf as a successful and proper sport.
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COMPARE THIS TO THE NUMBER OF YOUNG PEOPLE PLAYING – ALMOST SIX MILLION – AND THESE ILL-DRESSED MEN SEEM INSIGNIFICANT.
The Cambridge Dictionary says a sport is a game, competition or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played according to rules. Golf fits the bill perfectly. A game designed in 15th Century Scotland, golf has players of all ages competing against each other, be it for money or for simple glory, as in the annual Masters at Augusta National. People use their bodies to push against the ground and thrust a golf club forwards with an explosion of power to push a
golf ball at 130 mph hundreds of yards in the air, hoping to have channelled all this energy with the right orientation and, sometimes, luck, to get a 1½ inch ball somewhere near a hole only to repeat this process again for the next shot. If even one of these intricate movements was slightly off, you could be sending your ball to land in a lake, or roll into the rough, or bounce off tarmac, never to be seen again. And you tell me that golf isn’t a game, competition or activity needing physical effort and skill?
If you’re still not convinced, let’s look at the Olympics. Golf, if you didn’t know, is one of the many sports involved. Now, I know that a competition traced back
to 776 BC that has survived the test of time wouldn’t take the decision to add a sport lightly. While many of us watch the daredevils skateboarding on a course, women playing football for the pride of their country, we can see all the sports represented in the Olympics are there because they are all sports, and golf is one of them. Now, some of you might say there are some very odd sports in the Olympic games, one of which is curling. Sliding around on ice and pushing big stones about: what could possibly be sporty about that? I agree. Curling doesn’t seem like a sport to me, but if you take a closer look you will appreciate the precision necessary to get the stone in the right place on the ice. This shows us even the wackiest games are actually sports – another reason why golf is a sport.
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ALL THE SPORTS REPRESENTED IN THE OLYMPICS ARE THERE BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL SPORTS, AND GOLF IS ONE OF THEM.
Golf has players of all ages competing against each other.
I know, just like 80 million other people, that golf is a sport and playing it regularly develops strength and precision like no other. Golf must be a sport if so many other people play it, and I haven’t even started on how many people watch it! 450 million! That’s got to mean people think it’s a sport, or they wouldn’t be spending hours of their week gluing their eyes to the screen, trying to find the source of the precision and power executed by the professionals at the top of their game.
If medicine and science are your thing, here is legitimate proof of golf’s prominence as a sport. When you swing a golf club, you are using 17 different muscles and even more to coordinate the movements of the club from above the head right down to impact. This does not even include all the muscles used to walk around an 18hole golf course for hours. Clearly science proves golf’s significance.
All sports have their beer drinkers and weekend players. We do too. But this is a sport, and a great one it is. ¢
“WHEN YOU SWING A GOLF CLUB, YOU ARE USING 17 DIFFERENT MUSCLES AND EVEN MORE TO COORDINATE THE MOVEMENTS OF THE CLUB FROM ABOVE THE HEAD RIGHT DOWN TO IMPACT.
Ibelieve I was six years old when I was given my first book on mythology. That day, flipping through the pages, all I could think about was how thin the paper was, yet what heavy words and emotions it held. I’m sure that book created my ebullience today about the power women hold. But it didn’t start that way.
Often in the myths I used to read I was disappointed by the part girls played in the stories. It didn’t make sense that I hadn’t read about many women who were wielding swords, conquering kingdoms or earning glory on the battlefield. But I learnt admiration. I felt sorry for Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, when she had to endure years of uncertainty and unwanted attention from suitors during her husband’s absence. But when I looked deeper, past the obvious disregard for these women, I found something much more noteworthy and interesting. A thing I really wanted to dwell on. These women
had grit. Penelope didn’t despair and give in to relentless men when she had no man for protection. While Odysseus was away on his long journey, Penelope remained faithful and loyal, fending off suitors who sought to marry her and claim Odysseus’s kingdom. Her faithfulness and resilience in the face of adversity made her a compelling character to the younger me. Penelope was the first woman who taught me that a woman’s war is not any less brutal than one fought by a man on a battlefield. And that lesson was such an awe-inspiring moment.
Penelope was the first woman who taught me that a women’s war is not any less brutal than one fought by a man on a battlefield.
stories were common representations of humanity and I thought about how these portraits of women as monsters must have affected the way women were seen in real life. Perhaps all these wildly threatening female figures fortified a male fear of woman’s latentapower. And isn’t that an interesting thought? Of course eventually I found the female warriors I’d been searching for in every chapter, my favourite being a brave woman called Atalanta.
I sailed the malicious waters with Odysseus and learned the hardships made by temptation. All the while, during the tale, I wondered why most of the antagonists on his trip were female. I could picture young girls and boys back in the time when these
In one story, a ferocious boar was wreaking havoc in the kingdom of Calydon. King Oeneus called upon the greatest heroes of Greece to join him in hunting down and slaying the boar. Atalanta, being a skilled huntress, was among the heroes who answered the call. During the hunt, Atalanta proved herself a formidable and courageous warrior, fought alongside the male
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I HADN’T READ ABOUT MANY WOMEN WHO WERE WIELDING SWORDS, CONQUERING KINGDOMS OR EARNING GLORY ON THE BATTLEFIELD.
heroes and displayed her exceptional skills in archery. Her hunting contributions were highly praised, and she played a significant role in the boar’s demise.
Atalanta’s participation in the hunt challenged the traditional expectations of women in Ancient Greek society. By showing her exceptional hunting skills and bravery, Atalanta proved that women were capable of feats typically associated with men. Her involvement highlighted the underrated abilities women can possess, challenging the notion that they were limited to domestic roles.
Atalanta became an inspiration for me because her tale encouraged me to pursue my passions after she fought
so hard to break free from societal constraints. Her defiance of gender roles became a symbol for me of empowerment and equality in history. Her story reminds me that women have always been capable of extraordinary achievements, regardless of expectations. Rules are made to be broken, right?
these women warriors back. I’m really glad I was proved wrong.
“
The only problem I had was that she ended up marrying a man despite her blatant dislike for the notion. Sure, the success of the engagement was heavily influenced by Aphrodite, but I still wondered why women always have to be linked with love. It seemed to me like love was flimsy and only held
CIRCE’S COMPLEXITY LIES IN HER ABILITY TO BOTH ENCHANT AND RELEASE, TO BE BOTH POWERFUL AND VULNERABLE.
The character who stuck with me and showed me people’s idiosyncrasies was my girl, Circe. The enchantress represents to me a complex mixture of power, vulnerability and compassion. Initially, she uses her powers to turn Odysseus’ men into pigs but, when Odysseus proves his strength and intelligence, she releases them all and shows mercy. This demonstrates that Circe is not purely malicious or evil, but rather a nuanced character with her own motivations and desires. In addition to her magical abilities, Circe is
also portrayed as a woman who desires companionship and love. She becomes romantically involved with Odysseus during his stay on her island, offering him immortality and a life of luxury. But Odysseus ultimately chooses to leave and continue his journey home, highlighting the conflict between Circe’s desire for love and her realization that she cannot keep Odysseus captive.
Circe’s complexity lies in her ability to both enchant and release, to be both powerful and vulnerable. She embodies the duality of human nature, showing that even those with great power can still experience longing, loneliness, and a need for connection.
Overall, her complexity in The Odyssey adds depth to the narrative, challenging traditional gender roles and revealing the intricacies of human nature. She serves as a reminder that characters, like people, are not simply good or evil, but rather a matrix of emotions, desires, and motivations.
By showing her exceptional hunting skills and bravery, Atalanta proved that women were capable of feats typically associated with men.
The only special parts about a woman were her appearance, her heart and the absence of a ring on her finger. This annoyed me greatly. The powerful thing for me about Circe to this day is not her magic but the way she proves that love has meaning and importance. Women being depicted as emotional is not always just an excuse to make men seem superior to women. It can be a beautiful thing that explains how the heart should have control over the brain.
part of me. It’s not possible. I have ambition and strength and love, but not just for people: for my passions and goals for the future too. I think it’s important to understand that these myths were written in a specific time period, but they have reverberated through history and make their mark now nonetheless.
Because of Circe I started to understand the power of feelings. Formerly, I resented some myths for making women out to be suitable only for love.
But the real reason I possess such high expectations of myself is linked to the misconceptions about a woman’s role in a man’s story, still today. I decided long ago, after reading a lot of Greek myths, that I can’t be defined by one
These myths affect my writing and poetry today because the women showed me the colour and light to be found in bleak grays and maddening darkness. Although these fictional women will never know the respect I feel for them, I sit content knowing that their endurance of undeserved hardships influenced me massively. Many of them suffer an unhappy and unfair end, but that has never presented my own character with a negative example to follow. ¢
WHILE ODYSSEUS WAS AWAY ON HIS LONG JOURNEY, PENELOPE REMAINED FAITHFUL AND LOYAL, FENDING OFF SUITORS WHO SOUGHT TO MARRY HER AND CLAIM ODYSSEUS’S KINGDOM.
HER HUNTING CONTRIBUTIONS WERE HIGHLY PRAISED, AND SHE PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE BOAR’S DEMISE.
Mandarin by MOLLY JONES.
Mandarin is renowned in many Western countries for being the hardest language to learn. Its complete departure from the familiarity of Indo-European languages, such as French and Spanish, which are most often taught in the United Kingdom, lend it a sort of mystique.
When I tell people I am learning Mandarin, their response is usually one of surprise and admiration. It is comparatively rare to find a secondary school student studying the language, and the notion that it is inherently difficult makes it seem impressive that I am even trying.
I began to learn Mandarin in Year 3, since my school was one of a handful in the country that taught it at this age. Whilst the actual language learning was interspersed with cultural activities – trying Chinese foods, making our
own lanterns and dragon boats out of paper – I immediately developed a fascination with the beauty and intricacy of the written characters. Before this point, I had never imagined that a language could also be an art.
“MANDARIN IS TWO LANGUAGES IN ONE: THE SPOKEN DIALECTS BEAR NO CORRELATION TO THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE. THIS MEANS THAT THERE IS TWICE THE LEARNING REQUIRED FOR EVERY SINGLE WORD.
There are several aspects of Mandarin that can make it less difficult than you might expect. Grammatically, verbs are not conjugated (having different forms for different tenses); instead, a single character combined with a verb can turn it into the past or future tense. The agreement between adjectives and nouns in Mandarin does not require changes to the form in number or gender. The characters themselves also contain ‘radicals’ (a graphic component)
When I left prep school, I was very lucky to have the opportunity to learn Mandarin again, this time in a more serious, academic manner. I began to understand that Mandarin is two languages in one: the spoken dialects bear no correlation to the written language. This means that there is twice the learning required for every single word. Not only must you remember the pronunciation, the tones and the pinyin (the most common romanisation system for Chinese), but there is also the question of the complex stroke order and multiple components that make up each character. Mandarin requires the memorisation of thousands of these (often highly detailed) characters.
In
spite of China’s rise, relatively little is known about its language, culture or history in the West and UK.
that can help you to remember their meaning. For instance, the water radical – three dashes on the left-hand-side of a character – appears in words such as hăi, meaning ocean; and kě, meaning thirsty.
However, it is understandable that many consider Mandarin the hardest language to learn. And when you realise that approximately 400 million people in China are learning English (a number larger than the population of the United States), it is also difficult to see a reason for native English speakers to concern themselves, in turn, with learning Mandarin. This is an attitude that needs to be challenged.
“
THE EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF CHINA HAS SEEN IT BECOME A GLOBAL SUPERPOWER, DOMINATING INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS AND POLITICS.
The exponential growth of China has seen it become a global superpower, dominating international economics and politics. It is, and over the next few decades will continue to be, a prominent player on the world stage. Yet, in spite of China’s rise, relatively little is known about its language, culture or history in the West and UK. This knowledge may not seem important but, while we continue to observe China’s remarkable development, from a fractured and disintegrating warlord state just a century ago to the global powerhouse it is today, it will become ever more necessary to understand and
interact with this fascinating country. The key to this, I believe, is being able to communicate in Mandarin. The language itself gives us a window into Chinese culture and tradition, and even a basic awareness of Mandarin can lead to opportunities opening up, while more and more companies seek people who are able to provide an insight into China, a nation that, until recently, has not widely been studied in the UK.
A few decades ago, the United States and the USSR were the two major world powers. But with Western civilisation in decline and China rising in status, these developments must have consequences for the educational system in this country. It will become increasingly important to have British fluent speakers of Mandarin, who can comprehend the complicated but compelling history of China in its own language, which is so vital in shaping the society it is today and the way it interacts with the rest of the world. The pathway needs to begin with augmenting the popularity of Mandarin in the UK, as well as dispelling the myth that it is unnecessary, and too difficult, for anyone non-Chinese to learn. ¢
Even a basic awareness of Mandarin can lead to opportunities opening up.
The earth is criss-crossed by lines of latitude and longitude that run horizontally and vertically. The lines of latitude run East to West, where the equator is at 0° latitude, whereas the lines of longitude divide run from North to South and are at 15° intervals all around the globe.
“The ability to find latitude was discovered over two thousand years ago, by the ancient Greeks using astrolabes, which use either the position of the sun or a known star, usually the North Star, in order to work out latitude. Longitude, however, is far more difficult. To find it, one must know the time at a reference point, such as the Prime Meridian, and then compare it to the local time. Since we know that the Earth rotates 360° every day, or 15° every hour, one’s longitude can easily be calculated.
catastrophic for a ship before the mid1700s. For example, in 1707, Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell was in command of a fleet of British ships coming home from Gibraltar in foggy weather, when, only about 30 kilometres from the south-west tip of England, they shipwrecked off the Isles of Scilly, killing Shovell and over 1500 others.
TO FIND IT, ONE MUST KNOW THE TIME AT A REFERENCE POINT, SUCH AS THE PRIME MERIDIAN, AND THEN COMPARE IT TO THE LOCAL TIME.
The only issue is knowing exactly what the time is. At the equator, where every degree of longitude is at its highest, each degree is about 111 kilometres. So even small inaccuracies in time measurement will amount to large errors in location, which could be
The first to find a solution to the longitude problem was Galileo Galilei in about 1610. He was the one of the first to use a telescope to view the sky and he believed that he could find the answer there. He attempted to tackle the issue by observing four of Jupiter’s moons and spent a year cataloguing and calculating the orbital periods of Jupiter’s moons and counting the number of times the satellites vanished behind Jupiter. From his observations, he created charts that showed when each of Jupiter’s moons was expected to disappear and reappear. And so, Galileo had found a solution to longitude. Eclipses of the moons of Jupiter, he claimed, occurred 1000 times per year, so you could set a watch in accordance with these
eclipses and, assuming a ship knew the time in a place of know longitude, it could find its own.
The first to find a solution to the longitude problem was Galileo Galilei in about 1610. He was the one of the first to use a telescope to view the sky and he believed that he could find the answer there.
Although in principle Galileo’s method works, it comes with many limitations. These eclipses only happen less than three times a day and Jupiter can never be seen during the day due to the sun’s brightness. These nighttime observations could also be carried out only during certain parts of the year and only when the sky was clear. Galileo’s method was far too inconsistent for conventional use at sea when the stakes were far too high. A method that could become undone by the sky being too cloudy was simply not good enough.
In July 1714 the British Parliament announced the Longitude Act, which offered a prize of £20,000 (roughly £1.5 million in today’s money) to the first person to find a practical and reliable method.
by his father to be a joiner, which is why his early timepieces were made of wood. When in July 1714 the British Parliament announced the Longitude Act, which offered a prize of £20,000 (roughly £1.5 million in today’s money) to the first person to find a practical and reliable method to find longitude to within half a degree, Harrison started working on his first marine chronometer, H1.
John Harrison, the eventual discoverer of a reliable and precise method to find longitude, was born in 1693 in North Lincolnshire and was trained
Creating a clock that was able to withstand the harsh conditions brought about by storms and large changes in temperature on board a ship was thought to be impossible by even some of the greatest scientists of the time, such as Sir Issac Newton and Christian Huygens. Newton even said to a parliamentary committee in 1714 that ‘no known clock could work accurately amid storms and changing temperature, humidity and barometric pressure, not to mention variations in gravity and the pitching, rolling and yawing of a ship at sea.’
IT TOOK HARRISON FIVE YEARS TO BUILD HIS FIRST MARINE CHRONOMETER. IT HAD TWO INTERCONNECTED SWINGING BALANCES THAT WERE DESIGNED TO CANCEL OUT THE EFFECTS OF THE ROCKING OF THE SHIP.
It took Harrison five years to build his first marine chronometer. It had two interconnected swinging balances that were designed to cancel out the effects of the rocking of the ship and it had a ‘grasshopper’ escapement, which he designed himself, that minimized friction between parts. The H1 clock is still running, with almost no wear, 300 years later in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
H1 was first tested out on a voyage to Lisbon in 1736 and performed very well and correctly predicted the ships’ location on many occasions.
H1 was first tested out on a voyage to Lisbon in 1736 and performed very well and correctly predicted the ship’s location on many occasions. It was a good first attempt, though not good enough to receive the £20,000 reward.
Over the next two decades, John Harrison would create two more clocks, H2 and H3, but neither of
them was precise enough to earn the Parliamentary reward. But in 1761 Harrison was ready to test his final chronometer, H4. His son, William, set sail on HMS Deptford, from Portsmouth to Kingston, Jamaica. Over the 81-day voyage, the clock was found to be five seconds slow compared to the known longitude in Kingston. This was easily enough to earn the prize, but the Board of Longitude refused to accept the result and demanded a second voyage.
Over the next decade, John Harrison fought the Board to get his full prize, and eventually, in 1773, he was paid the last chunk. The total he received was £23,065, but he also saved hundreds of thousands of sailors’ lives with his reliable solution to Longitude. ¢
“THE H1 CLOCK IS STILL RUNNING, WITH ALMOST NO WEAR, 300 YEARS LATER IN THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY IN GREENWICH.
Social media has seen a dramatic rise in popularity over the last few years, and an online community has been established between authors and book lovers. More and more authors have been using this platform to promote their up-and-coming novels, a huge percentage of them being self-published authors. Selfpublished authors have seen an opening opportunity on the internet, because it’s a platform that is easy to use and convenient for reaching large audiences. Since acquiring a literary agent for traditional publishing has the probability of a one-in-6000 success rate, many authors have turned to the internet to get their book out in the open for the public to recognise. Such a staggering number of authors and readers have joined the book community on the internet, it has since shifted into the mainstream media, forming a trend known as ‘BookTok’, since this primary book community resides on TikTok.
“
SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS HAVE SEEN AN OPENING OPPORTUNITY ON THE INTERNET, BECAUSE IT’S A PLATFORM THAT IS EASY TO USE AND CONVENIENT FOR REACHING LARGE AUDIENCES.
eager readers, waiting to see what the fuss is all about. By being hot topics, popular books have been pushed to the top of the BookTok hierarchy – and, seemingly, to the top of the modernday literature hierarchy. This motion has become both a source of encouragement and discouragement for indie and pre-debut authors.
Novels such as Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller have found themselves in the hands of new and
One of the most popular ways authors promote their books is by emphasising their tropes to appeal to internet users, but new authors on BookTok fall under the assumption that their books will go viral if they use the most popular tropes in their own books, leading to a disassociation between what is written and what is needed in the novel. This is not to say that you shouldn’t highlight your book tropes! If your target likes another novel with similar aspects to yours, it draws attention to your book when you sell its highlights, building your own target audience. However, BookTok videos often lead to users admiring the tropes more than the quality of the book, indirectly pressuring authors into adding trendy tropes to attract a certain target audience.
Many authors have unfortunately embarked on a path of formulas not out of their own inspiration but out of the public demand.
This boils down to the overestimation of the internet. There are thousands and thousands of books which share similar tropes and ideas, but only a fraction has stood out. The idea of writing an ‘appealing’ book is tempting, but there is no strict guarantee that it will become a success. New authors fall under the impression that a book’s success depends on a formula. However, this has been proven wrong time and time again by the books that have not made it to mainstream media but have similar elements as popular BookTok books. Many authors have unfortunately embarked on a path of formulas not out of their own inspiration but out of the public demand.
The algorithm makes the mistake of introducing younger readers to New Adult (NA) book recommendations, which often contain explicit content.
BookTok’s influence has left authors prone to criticism because of their impact on young readers. The algorithm
makes the mistake of introducing younger readers to New Adult (NA) book recommendations, which often contain explicit content. While some older teenagers are aware and can handle provocative discussions, the same cannot be said for younger people. They cannot gauge the book for its underlying message, and it becomes difficult for them to differentiate fiction from reality, and right and wrong. For example, if an NA novel explicitly depicts an unhealthy relationship, a young person can easily be misguided into believing that the portrayal is a take on what all relationships look like. This is not the author’s fault. Authors are free to write anything they want, but because of how easily accessible NA books are to younger audiences on the internet, this creates repercussions towards both parties involved. While the author receives hate and backlash for the discussions they provoke, the reader is plagued with unrealistic and unhealthy ideologies.
While there is no denying that BookTok has problems, the platform does bring forth heartwarming success to lucky authors. Lloyd Deverux Richards spent 14 years writing a whodunnit called Stone Maidens. When it was published more than a decade ago, it garnered little attention in the book community. But years later his daughter made a TikTok video promoting Richards’s book, and the video went viral, amassing over nine million likes and forty million views. In the span of days, Stone Maidens became an Amazon sellout sensation. This shows that there are unexpected success stories that come out of BookTok. There is no guarantee of popularity and fame, even if you follow a recipe, and you certainly aren’t guaranteed enjoyment when writing
something that doesn’t feel authentic to you, even if it seems to increase the probability of success. Stone Maidens is an example of that.
BookTok has put an emphasis on writing a viral book that causes many authors to believe success is gained by hopping on a trend.
BookTok has put an emphasis on writing a viral book that causes many authors to believe success is gained by hopping on a trend. On the other hand, it gives indie authors a free platform to promote their novels, and it has since become the most convenient way to promote all books. We can make BookTok a place that supports boundaries and celebrates versatility, diversity, and thought-provoking discussions, to beat the idea of having the ‘perfect recipe.’ This does not mean debunking or slandering popular books, but rather creating an enriching environment for authors to write their book as they please, and to create something they enjoy. ¢
“IT GIVES INDIE AUTHORS A FREE PLATFORM TO PROMOTE THEIR NOVELS, AND IT HAS SINCE BECOME THE MOST CONVENIENT WAY TO PROMOTE ALL BOOKS.
Should we all speak the same language?
In a world with over eight billion people, spread across 197 countries, speaking over seven thousand languages, it can be hard to find common ground. One way of bridging the gap between people could be through a common language. This would be highly beneficial for ease of communication and the improvement of international relations, so it would make sense if everyone spoke the same language, right?
“
IN THE PAST, THERE HAVE BEEN VARIOUS ATTEMPTS TO MANUFACTURE A UNIVERSAL COMMON LANGUAGE BY COMBINING ELEMENTS OF PRE-EXISTING LANGUAGES.
In the past, there have been various attempts to manufacture a universal common language by combining elements of pre-existing languages, forming what is known as an ‘international auxiliary language’ or IAL. The most popular example of an IAL in history is Esperanto. Created in 1887 by Polish ophthalmologist, L. L. Zamenhof, Esperanto is mostly derived from Romance languages (e.g. French, Italian), with some influence from the Germanic and Slavic families. This makes it easier for speakers of these languages to learn.
In the early 20th Century, Esperanto grew in popularity due to its simplicity and
the speed at which it can be learnt. With industrialisation and globalisation, people saw the advantages of an international language, causing more and more people to have a go. This was much to the disdain of Adolf Hitler, who imprisoned Esperanto speakers because its creator, Zamenhof, was Jewish. Despite this, Esperanto became increasingly popular, establishing communities of speakers across the world and, in 1954, it became an official UNESCO international auxiliary language, although it is not an official language of the United Nations. Since then, Esperanto has declined in popularity while English has been used increasingly in commerce.
My personal experience of learning Esperanto was interesting. As a frequent user of the language-learning app, Duolingo, my interest was piqued when I learned that Duolingo had an Esperanto course. I decided to give it a go and was surprised by how easy it was to understand and learn the grammar structures and rules. I was able to understand basic conversational Esperanto in a surprisingly short time. But it does have its drawbacks. One of these is the lack of speakers. Even
though Duolingo’s Esperanto course has approximately 300,000 active users, you would be hard-pressed to find one of them in the wild. The only other person I know who speaks Esperanto to any degree is one of my friends, who started learning on Duolingo shortly after I did. The fact that I know only one person who can speak a bit of Esperanto renders my basic knowledge of the language useless. This is why constructed languages are not as enticing to learn: few people speak them in the first place, and they are only learnt by language enthusiasts with a little bit too much free time on their hands. After all, why would you put effort into learning a language that you cannot speak with anyone you know?
Esperanto, and other IALs in general, are often criticised for being Eurocentric. These languages tend to derive from languages that originated in and are mostly spoken in Europe, making these International Auxiliary Languages not very international at all. These IALs fail to consider the vast numbers of people who do not speak European languages, such as the Chinese and Arabic. Ultimately, it is hard to create a completely perfect language, since languages across the world are so varied and have so many unique features that it is hard to amalgamate
EVEN THOUGH DUOLINGO’S ESPERANTO COURSE HAS APPROXIMATELY 300,000 ACTIVE USERS, YOU WOULD BE HARD-PRESSED TO FIND ONE OF THEM IN THE WILD.
these into one common language without it being a complete mess.
The natural equivalent of an IAL is known as a Lingua Franca. These are languages which, like IALs, act as a common language between nations that do not speak the same language. The difference between a lingua franca and an international auxiliary language is that lingua francas are usually preexisting languages with existing native speakers that have naturally developed
and spread across the world, whereas IALs are completely constructed and purposefully designed to be used by as many different cultures as possible.
However, when asking the question whether the world needs a lingua franca, the answer is that we already have one: English. English is the most spoken language in the world, with over 1.5 billion total speakers. It is the official language, or one of the official languages, of fifty-eight countries worldwide. English became so popular through early colonialism and the popularity of English-language media from the USA that has spread across the world. Nowadays, English is a compulsory subject in schools almost everywhere, even in countries that do not have English as their main or even secondary language. English is also used as a common language for international relations, commerce and agreements made across the world. There is no doubting the dominance of English in modern global society.
But let’s think about what the world would look like if we had a lingua franca that was spoken by every single person internationally. This hypothetical language would be used for international relations and communication, similar to how English
Supporting linguistic diversity has been seen to strengthen people’s cultural identities and heritage.
“
WHEN
ASKING THE QUESTION WHETHER
THE WORLD NEEDS A LINGUA FRANCA, THE ANSWER IS THAT WE ALREADY HAVE ONE: ENGLISH.
We should encourage linguistic diversity and not use the prominence of English to justify not bothering to learn another language.
is today. In this world, I think we would see a dramatic decrease in the use of pre-existing languages and, over time, the extinction of languages with fewer speakers and existing endangered languages. This is because interest in learning them would decrease, which can already be seen in the UK with languages like Scots Gaelic and Welsh, which are slowly declining and have been labelled as ‘endangered’ by UNESCO. The extinction of these languages would have a significant impact on linguistic diversity across the world, which would be devastating to see.
The world is a beautiful, diverse place, home to thousands of languages, spoken by billions of people, and linguistic diversity is one of the best ways we as a planet can represent ourselves and our identities. Supporting linguistic diversity has been seen to strengthen people’s cultural identities and heritage, which is important for providing insight into the culture and history of communities and groups of people. Although English is already becoming increasingly popular in use around the world as a lingua franca for international communication, I believe that we should encourage linguistic diversity and not use the prominence of English to justify not bothering to learn another language. I think English should be used as a common tongue for international relations, but this should not be to the detriment of existing and endangered languages. ¢
Aprelude to the First World War, we often forget The Balkan Wars, a result of the power vacuum created by the long struggle against the Ottoman Empire in the region. It may be helpful to first familiarise yourself with the Balkan region, particularly the locations of the City of Thessaloniki, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and other points of interest. Macedonia should also be noted, given the considerable confusion in recent years. The nation of North Macedonia was renamed from Macedonia in 2018, after a diplomatic row with Greece over the name of the country lasting decades, which was often confused with the region of Macedonia in northern Greece, where Thessaloniki is located. For my purposes
here, I will refer to the Greek province as South Macedonia to avoid confusion and clarify the geographical location.
THE POWER VACUUM LEFT IN THE BALKANS BY THE LONG-TERM OTTOMAN DECAY CREATED A VOLATILE SITUATION IN THE BALKANS.
The power vacuum left in the Balkans by the long-term Ottoman decay, combined with rising nationalism and ethnic tensions in the 19th Century, created a volatile situation in the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire still held sway over Greek Macedonia and Albania, as well as other regions claimed by the new Balkan powers, in which large populations of Bulgarians, Greeks and Serbs lived. Tensions between Serbia and Bulgaria over claimed territory would go on to play an important role, and both nations desired to expand to their full size, becoming militarised states. Bulgaria expanded its military hugely, becoming ‘the Prussia of the Balkans’. It could not defeat the Ottoman Empire by itself, though, and on 13th March 1912 Serbia and Bulgaria signed a treaty which promised Northern Macedonia to Serbia, and Southern Macedonia to Bulgaria. In May 1912, Greece and Bulgaria agreed to a similar treaty, promising military action against the common enemy. Montenegro also promised its commitment to Serbia in a treaty. Bulgaria was keen to secure the important port city of Thessaloniki, believing its large army could reach it before the Greeks.
In 1911, Italy had launched an invasion of Libya, defeating and expelling the
Ottomans, which gave hope and encouragement to the Balkan states that they too could defeat their common enemy. On 8th October 1912, Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and it was soon followed by Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. The Ottomans mobilised an army of roughly 350,000, facing 600,000 Bulgarians, 255,000 Serbs, 120,000 Greeks and 40,000 Montenegrins.
Bulgaria was overcome by an Allied offensive from Greece, capitulating in September 1918.
The Serbs and Montenegrins achieved some success in the West, around modern-day Kosovo, as did the Serbs and Bulgarians in Northern Macedonia. Bulgaria focused heavily on Thrace, managing to push back the Ottomans to within 60km of Istanbul, where they were held. In North Macedonia, the Serbs broke the Ottomans at the battle of Kumanovo, and Albania, Kosovo, and other regions fell not long after. The Greek army advanced northward, capturing Thessaloniki on 8th November. The city was badly wanted by the Bulgarians,
who had expected to capture it before the Greeks, and was to be a continued bone of contention. An armistice was signed on 3rd December 1913. However, amidst ongoing negotiations, a coup on 23rd January 1913 put a Young Turk government in power, which promptly resumed the war. Following further Ottoman losses, a final treaty was signed on 30th May 1913, in which Ottoman territory in Europe was reduced to only a narrow band in Eastern Thrace.
In the First Balkan War, the Ottoman army was quickly and decisively defeated.
In the First Balkan War, the Ottoman army was quickly and decisively defeated, mostly being expelled from Europe. In following peace treaties, Macedonia was divided between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, with each nation gaining numerous territories. However, the Bulgarians were not content, and this would lay the foundations of the Second Balkan War.
Despite early celebration in the Balkans, the friendly relations between countries soon deteriorated. Territorial agreements made prior to the first war were broken, with Serbia occupying areas of southern Macedonia, and Greece ruling Thessaloniki, which angered the Bulgarians. This and other factors ended the Bulgarian-Serbian alliance and seeing a potential threat the Serbs started negotiations with
“IN 1911, ITALY HAD LAUNCHED AN INVASION OF LIBYA, DEFEATING AND EXPELLING THE OTTOMANS, WHICH GAVE HOPE AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE BALKAN STATES.
ITALIAN SOLDIERS HAUL A MONSTER GUN UP THE ALPINE SLOPE IN THE WINTER CAMPAIGN 1915-16.
the Greeks, who also had reasons to be suspicious of Bulgarian intentions. The two countries signed a defensive alliance in June 1913.
The Tsar of Bulgaria, Ferdinand, wanted to create a large Bulgarian state – ‘Greater Bulgaria’, which would encompass extensive lands in the Balkans including Istanbul and Thessaloniki. Tensions rose between the powers, and on 27th June Montenegro announced its support for Serbia; a day later Romania declared that it would not remain neutral in the case of Bulgarian aggression. Skirmishes continued in Macedonia and tension continued to rise, and it became clear that another war would soon break out. On 29th June Bulgarian troops started a surprise attack against Serbia. The initial attack was repulsed, and offensives from Serbia and Greece pushed back Bulgarian forces. Romania invaded Bulgaria unopposed across the Danube in July. This lack of resistance convinced the Ottomans to join, and soon Bulgaria was surrounded by enemies and pushed back on all sides.
The Tsar of Bulgaria, Ferdinand, wanted to create a large Bulgarian state – ‘Greater Bulgaria’, which would encompass extensive lands in the Balkans
The defeat of Bulgaria was mostly a result of poor planning, a rashness to declare war on its former allies and the over-optimism of the Tsar. On 10th August the Treaty of Bucharest gave Eastern Thrace back to the Ottomans, Dobrogea to Romania, North Macedonia to Serbia, and lands in the south to Greece. Still, Bulgaria had increased its size by 16% from the start of the First
“
IN NORTH MACEDONIA, THE SERBS BROKE THE OTTOMANS AT THE BATTLE OF KUMANOVO, AND ALBANIA, KOSOVO, AND OTHER REGIONS FELL NOT LONG AFTER.
Balkan War, with Serbia almost doubling in size, and Greece expanding by 68%. After the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria was still not content, and eager for revenge it would go on to join the Central Powers in the First World War.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Serbs caused the Austro-Hungarians to send the July Ultimatum, and war was declared on 28th July 1914.
Although the First World War is not referred to as the Third Balkan War, it began in the region, and it was an important front throughout the war. In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, Bulgaria aligned itself with the Central Powers, even though this meant an alliance with the Ottomans. Recuperating from the defeat in the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria sat out the first year of the Great War. Serbia never accepted the annexation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary, and in June 1914 the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Serbs caused the Austro-Hungarians to send the July Ultimatum, and war was declared on 28th July 1914.
Austria invaded Serbia at the beginning of August, and was met with stiff resistance by Serbia, and it could only spare one third of its army to attack Serbia due to involvement on other fronts. Amidst a successful Serbian defence, Bulgaria was convinced by the Central Powers to join the war, and invaded unopposed, taking over Serbia within a month. The remaining Serbian Forces retreated to
BULGARIA WAS CONVINCED BY THE CENTRAL POWERS TO JOIN THE WAR, AND INVADED UNOPPOSED, TAKING OVER SERBIA WITHIN A MONTH.
Bulgaria was overcome by an Allied offensive from Greece, capitulating in September 1918.
Six years of bloodshed in the Balkans, from 1912 to 1918, destabilised the region, causing poverty and struggle.
GREEK IMMIGRANTS LEFT NEW YORK CITY TO RETURN TO THEIR COUNTRY AND FIGHT IN THE FIRST BALKAN WAR, IN 1912.
Greece, which was experiencing an internal struggle between the pro-German King and the pro-Allied Government, only joining the war against Bulgaria and the Central Powers in 1917.
Romania joined the war on the Entente’s side in August 1916, with the main priority of uniting with Transylvania. Despite initial success, it was overcome by German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces, and signed an armistice in February 1917.
After a year of stalemate in the Balkans, the tide began to turn in favour of the Entente, while German and Austro-Hungarian forces were withdrawn to fight on other fronts. Bulgaria was overcome by an Allied offensive from Greece, capitulating in September 1918. Soon after this, the Romanian Government cancelled the armistice with the Central Powers and invaded Hungary. Meanwhile, the combination of the Arab revolts and the Allied advances forced the Ottoman Empire to sign an armistice on 30th October 1918, which was followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire on 3rd November, and the First World War ended on 11th November 1918 with Germany’s surrender.
Although the third conflict in the Balkans was not an isolated event that time, the events which played out were a direct consequence of the first two wars. After the Great War, the Balkan layout completely changed. Bulgaria was reduced in size, so that it could never again pose such a threat, while Greece united with Macedonia, and Romania regained its ethnic-majority areas. Serbia later formed the country of Yugoslavia, and both the AustroHungarian and Ottoman Empires were dismantled. Six years of bloodshed in the Balkans, from 1912 to 1918, destabilised the region, causing poverty and struggle. There would not be peace in the Balkans yet. ¢
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“COLLIER HAS NOT DISAPPOINTED THE WORLD WITH HIS INNOVATIVE ABILITY TO DEVELOP TRADITIONAL MUSICAL HARMONY AND TEXTURE, CREATING A NEW AND BOUNDARY-FREE STYLE OF COMPOSING.
In the last few years, Jacob Collier has become one of the most influential people ever in the music industry. Following his recognition by the New York Times as ‘the colourful Mozart of Gen Z’, Collier has not disappointed the world with his innovative ability to develop traditional musical harmony and texture, creating a new and boundary-free style of composing. He continues to produce records apace, expanding his ambitious collaborations with other highly talented musicians. His watchword? “It’s not: ‘How many people did I reach?’ It’s the people I reached. ‘How many of them did I move?’”
his sheer engagement with his listeners. He comes from an average background, and lives in a small flat in London, writing songs in his bedroom whilst wearing his multicolored ‘collier crocs’.
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One thing Collier excels at is pushing the boundaries of music while maintaining an audience that includes non-musicians. A subtle way he achieves this is through microtonality, which involves composing with intervals smaller than a semitone, moving away from the traditional twelve notes of an equal-tempered scale. Collier’s understanding of the emotions evoked by musical keys allows him to paint a more complex and vivid picture with his music. In one of his popular songs, ‘Hideaway’, released in 2016, he starts in D major tuned to A 432Hz and ends in D major tuned to traditional A 440Hz, achieving a brighter feeling by the end of the piece. This modulation creates a euphoric climax when returning to the home key.
COLLIER’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE EMOTIONS EVOKED BY MUSICAL KEYS ALLOWS HIM TO PAINT A MORE COMPLEX AND VIVID PICTURE
Jacob Collier emerged onto the music scene with his debut album, In My Room, which showcased numerous instances of musical brilliance and virtuosic passages. While this impressive display garnered significant attention within the musical community, it left many listeners unsure of how to interpret the complexity of his work. However, Collier has since developed an exceptional ability to strike a balance between accessibility for non-musicians and the inclusion of intricate and stunning harmonies. This remarkable synthesis contributes to the distinctive beauty of Collier’s more recent releases. His use of microtonality is a subtle way to engage more experienced audiences while maintaining a diverse following.
Videos of his audience choirs that he conjures out of ordinary crowds of people have been flying round the internet as of late, and they are some of the most aweinspiring sights. His ability to do this all boils down to
Collier often discusses establishing brightness and darkness in his music and continually making changes to achieve a greater impact. His experience in music-making is vital in evoking precise emotions in his listeners, which help to show off his brilliance in the art of composing. So, in case you haven’t already, please allow me to convince you into listening to some of his music, because he has one of the most remarkable and inspiring talents the world of music has ever seen. ¢
His use of microtonality is a subtle way to engage more experienced audiences while maintaining a diverse following.
Ionce heard someone say, ‘Each equation you add will half everyone’s attention span.’ I experienced this fact in quite an embarrassing way after putting about 15/16ths (93.75%) of an audience to sleep during a presentation about hot objects. I myself have always loved equations. To me, equations and derivations tell the same story a cumbersome paragraph and large diagram do, but in a more concise and elegant manner. Sadly, this turned out to be an abhorred opinion, but luckily such abhorrence provoked me into research that revealed how visual aids in the form of diagrams that play with the intuition of readers are far more intriguing to the general reader base. After taking inspiration from the works of Leonard Susskind, I tried to explain one of the more complex topics in
Physics without mathematical aid, and I felt that the notion of a location becoming the future was enough mental strain for a Mind’s Eye reader. I’ve always liked the idea of a thoughtprovoking article, so this passage will conclude by linking this theory to a general problem with all human thought and reasoning. Enjoy.
Imagine a source of light in a dark room, something as simple as a light bulb. When you turn it on, light is produced in every direction and fills a ‘bubble’ around itself which continuously grows at the speed of light.
As soon as you are inside this so-called bubble, you will never be able to leave its perimeters. This is because to do so we must surpass light’s speed. This
means that by turning on this lightbulb we have set a boundary for possible positions we could be in after a given period of time.
If we imagine our lightbulb in a twodimensional space with time as our third axis, we see that our bubble, or circle now, grows as we move along
WITH THE BASICS OF LIGHT CONES IN PLACE, WE CAN USE THEM TO DIFFERENTIATE AND DEFINE THE AXES OF SPACE AND TIME.
in time, widening from past to future. This creates a cone-like shape which represents how the parameters in which we can move in a given period of time change as time goes on.
We can also note that as light always travels a constant distance for each unit of time (one light year every year), the growth of the circle can be projected using a straight line at 45° from the horizontal time axis. Hence its name: ‘Light Cone’.
Now, suppose we have the same situation but from the perspective of a stationary viewer far away from the lightbulb. In the instant that the bulb is turned on, the viewer will still see an
unlit bulb because the viewer will only see the lit bulb once the light produced has travelled into the viewer’s eyes. The point in time at which this change occurs can be interpreted as the moment at which the light cone passes over the eye.
This creates a strange limit to cause and effect relations because an event which happens far away from Earth will only take effect once the light cone has reached us. This gives us the definition for causality: an event that triggers another at the speed of light.
With the basics of light cones in place, we can use them to differentiate and define the axes of space and time.
Space can be thought of as a threedimensional grid in which we can move and experience different events. In this grid space, we can move in a sphere of different directions: up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards and everything in between. We can even do things like go on a circular path that traces back onto itself.
Although our access to this space is in effect boundless (we can move in the same direction forever and never reach the end), our ideas of light cones allow us to write a more specific definition for space at a specific time as simply the light cone which an object is in.
Unlike space, time is a lot stricter in terms of manoeuvrability. Time is a one-dimensional axis which is
perpendicular to space and forces all objects into a singular direction (past to future). This means that directions like left, right, up, down and backwards do not exist and circular paths also do not exist.
This is due to successive light cones created during our movement forcing us in a forward direction. As all matter within a light cone are bound inside of it, it becomes impossible to turn around. Hence, in relativity, time is simply defined as the direction in which light cones are orientated. Therefore, our future lies in the general direction which all light cones point.
III. Gravity and Black Holes
Let’s go back to our imaginary light bulb, but now it is above a massive object like the Earth. We know that the bulb will begin falling towards the Earth due to gravity, but we must also acknowledge that the light produced from it will also bend towards the Earth.
As light gets closer to a massive body, successive light cones begin to stop aligning, curving so that the axis of time now points towards the Earth. Although the bulb was above Earth at first, its ‘Future’ points downwards.
Mass distorts the geometry of the universe, like above, bending time. Space-time becomes relative, the orientation dependent on where we are. This is general relativity.
The extent of this bending depends on the distance of the light cone from the object and the object’s density. This means that if we have an object massive (contains a lot of mass) enough, at some scale all light cones will point towards the object. Unlike with the example of Earth, where time is only tilted slightly
towards it, this massive body will have time tilted at 45° or greater so that objects travelling away from it at the speed of light are still destined to be pulled into its centre.
Because no light can escape its gravitational field, its appearance is pitch black, gaining itself the name Black Hole, a spherical region whose curvatures in space-time cause everything to be driven towards its centre. The distance from the black hole where light cones begin to point
IF WE HAVE AN OBJECT MASSIVE ENOUGH, AT SOME SCALE ALL LIGHT CONES WILL POINT TOWARDS THE OBJECT.
in this way is called the horizon since beyond this point no light can ever be seen.
If we think of this situation from the point of view of a astronaut who is beyond the horizon, his spacetime axes tilt further as he approaches the centre until the axis of time has turned 90°. Geometrically, time has swapped axes with space, now pointing downwards. It is almost as if the horizon is no longer a space, but an event in time that occurred in the past. As the astronaut has no way of stopping himself, the centre of the black hole is where his predetermined future lies. This is why the horizon is more commonly known as the ‘event horizon’, because past this point space outside the black hole becomes a passed (and past) event in time, never to be accessed again.
IV. The Information Paradox
Information about an object, to most of us, is what we can observe using our senses, some examples being colour, texture and shape. We know that an apple is red, smooth and round, unlike an orange, which is orange, rough and round. These properties allow us to differentiate between two things.
Likewise, in science, information at the microscopic level is analysed as quantum information. Quantum properties like the spin, momentum and position of the fundamental particles that make up our universe are studied. Because all these particles have a unique set of quantum properties, if we crush an apple until it is unrecognisable, the information of the apple will not have been destroyed. If collected perfectly, this can be used to recreate a perfectly identical apple. Much of physics relies on this law called the conservation of quantum information: ‘The total amount of quantum information in the universe must stay constant.’
The problem arises when we throw an apple into a black hole. When something is absorbed by a black hole it is incorporated into the mush of mass, and results in a near-infinitesimal increase in the body’s radius, effectively removing this information from the universe. Many theorists believe that the increase in radius shows that information is stored, although it may be inaccessible. However, Steven Hawking made a discovery in 1970 that would come to disprove that.
the black hole surface with energy and the antiparticles reduce the mass of the black hole due to its negative energy. This means that black holes will slowly evaporate and disappear.
“DUE TO SPACE AND TIME FLIPPING NEAR THE HORIZON THE ANTIPARTICLES ARE ABLE TO BE PULLED AWAY FROM THE REAL PARTICLE BEFORE THEY CAN ANNIHILATE EACH OTHER.
Hawking radiation is the release of particles from just above the event horizon. In quantum field theory, a vacuum is defined by the destructive cancelling out of vibrations in space. This can be understood as a real particle with positive energy and an antiparticle with negative energy colliding to annihilate themselves. As this process happens instantaneously, these particles, in practice, should not exist.
However, this is not the case for black holes: due to space and time flipping near the horizon the antiparticles are able to be pulled away from the real particle before they can annihilate each other. The positive particles leave
Where did the information go? This question continues to lay dormant after the best part of 40 years with multiple theories cropping up that try to explain where the information has gone. These range from black holes leading to another parallel universe, represented in the extended Penrose Diagram, to our entire existence being a hologram and information being compressed into reduced dimensions.
In most of modern physics, we try to come up with theories to explain something we cannot see and will never experience. I will now leave you with some questions.
With all these exceptions and new discoveries, which force us to adjust what we think is correct, can there ever be an objective truth? And how will we know if we have found it? Can we only know for sure that we are wrong? ¢
For centuries, we understood Nature by using Classical Mechanics that consists of works by the greatest scientists that we can all name on the spot, such as Galileo, Newton and Einstein. The Classical Mechanical viewpoint of reality can describe any event as due to the conditions of the event prior, using mathematical laws.
For example, the notorious laws of Newton could perfectly describe a collision between a London Bus and a Lamborghini moving at full speed. Using Newton’s Mechanics, we can deduce how the event would unfold right after the instance of collision. We can even calculate whether the man in the far-right corner of the bus will break his toenail if we know the conditions
right before the collision event to the minutest detail. (We would even have to know if the poor guy at the corner was crossing his legs or not).
“Apply the laws of motion and see the future unfold exactly as predicted. There is a clear use of causality in this process, which led to the idea of scientific determinism, popularised by Laplace and his idea of ‘Laplace’s Demon’. Laplace concluded that if a genius mathematician deity who knows all the laws of the universe and the exact positions and speeds of particles in the universe at any instant, the deity would know the entire history of the
THE NOTORIOUS LAWS OF NEWTON COULD PERFECTLY DESCRIBE A COLLISION BETWEEN A LONDON BUS AND A LAMBORGHINI MOVING AT FULL SPEED.
universe, its past and its future. The theoretical Laplace’s demon would be able to compute exactly where you will be located from its knowledge of the positions and the velocities of particles 10 million years ago. Determinism is thus incompatible with free will because ‘if my body’s motion is already determined by the particles millions of years ago, how could it be my choice to move my hand?’ Thus philosophers agree that either determinism is false or free will is an illusion.
Then comes the quantum world: the mechanisms that govern the tiny. The behaviour of subatomic particles has now been shown to be nothing like what we see in the real world. The classical understanding of the atom was completely wrong. If Classical Physics described reality atoms would not exist so we wouldn’t exist. Let’s outline some key ideas. First, electrons are not spherical particles that orbit around the nucleus of the atom in the way the planets in the solar system orbit the sun (yes, that picture of an atom shown everywhere is incorrect). According to that incorrect model of the atom, electrons orbiting the nucleus would constantly be losing energy because the law of electromagnetism states that an accelerating charge such as an electron (anything that orbits, accelerates) would be constantly releasing energy until it collides with the nucleus. This would mean atoms can’t exist, but they do.
It was later shown that electrons are waves spread around the nucleus that are governed by Schrodinger’s Wave Equation. Their definite positions can only be determined by collapsing the wave-like nature of the electrons. This idea of collapsing the wave-function means that electrons and subatomic particles are wavelike in nature, rather like water waves in a pond, but stop behaving like a wave once there is an attempt to measure the position of the electron. This is because to measure the position of an electron you must use light, fundamentally made of particles called photons that interact with the electron and change its properties in a way that cannot be predicted.
Heisenberg comes along (Walter White’s alias in Breaking Ba)) and determines that it is impossible
to know the exact position of a subatomic particle and its exact speed. Well, obviously people knew that it would be hard to know the speed and the position of any particle that small. But they didn’t know the universe had literally said no. This is called the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle; it unites and protects the quantum mechanics. It is a very real property because otherwise any technology that requires the use of Quantum Mechanics would not work. So, what does this uncertainty tell us about nature? It means that there is a true randomness in the foundations of the universe, in every single atom that makes up you and everything you see around you. You can say randomness is nothing new, when I toss a coin: whether it can land on heads or tails is random: everyone knows that. But that is false: in principle, if you knew the exact force to flick the coin, the exact point of your thumb’s contact with the coin, and the air resistance paired with the knowledge of the dimensions and mass of the coin, you can determine whether the coin will land on heads or tales every single time.
You can determine whether the coin will land on heads or tales every single time.
“THERE IS A CLEAR USE OF CAUSALITY IN THIS PROCESS, WHICH LED TO THE IDEA OF SCIENTIFIC DETERMINISM, POPULARISED BY LAPLACE AND HIS IDEA OF ‘LAPLACE’S DEMON’.
Of course, this would require a complicated experimental setup so the outcome we deem as ‘random’ is just due to us not being bothered with doing the complex mechanics. If it were to be random, the outcome could have been otherwise and not be determined by its conditions. Where an electron will appear cannot be determined every single time in any way due to the Uncertainty Principle. The best we can do is to use the Schrodinger’s Wave Equation to calculate the probability of an electron appearing somewhere. It’s the same principle that makes radioactive decay truly random. This is an inherent property of the universe that we live in, not due to the insufficiency of measurement technology. The universe simply doesn’t allow us to know. So, we can conclude that in the quantum realm the rationality breaks.
THE BEST WE CAN DO IS TO USE THE SCHRODINGER’S WAVE EQUATION TO CALCULATE THE PROBABILITY OF AN ELECTRON APPEARING SOMEWHERE.
Einstein wasn’t happy with the idea of randomness, and he famously stated, ‘God doesn’t play dice with the universe.’ But his observation was largely due to his emotional connection with the deterministic law of Physics since his Theory of Relativity was deterministic too. But Stephen Hawking put it better: ‘God not only plays dice; he throws the dice where they cannot be seen.’
Sorry, but reality is not deterministic, continuous or logical. ¢
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HERE IS A TRUE RANDOMNESS IN THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE UNIVERSE, IN EVERY SINGLE ATOM THAT MAKES UP YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU SEE AROUND YOU.
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ELECTRONS AND SUBATOMIC PARTICLES ARE WAVE-LIKE IN NATURE, RATHER LIKE WATER WAVES IN A POND, BUT STOP BEHAVING LIKE A WAVE ONCE THERE IS AN ATTEMPT TO MEASURE THE POSITION OF THE ELECTRON.
Change is fundamental. Life is driven by change, from the reshuffle of DNA leading to mutations and evolution, to the change of a computer bit in 2003 during an election leading to the voting tally of a Belgian candidate having 212 extra votes. Some fields ignore change, minimise it and remain ignorant to the fact that change is inevitable. Some argue that architecture, with its façade of permanence, has fallen foul of this. But I disagree, and so did Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki.
sustainable model for urban growth and hoped that cities would become more adaptable and evolve with new changes of lifestyle.
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THEY SOUGHT TO REVOLUTIONISE JAPAN’S POST-WAR URBAN LANDSCAPE THROUGH THE USE OF BIOMIMETIC ARCHITECTURE AND MODULAR SYSTEMS, INSPIRED BY AND MIMICKING ORGANIC CELLS.
They are the ‘founding fathers’ of an underrated and unknown architectural movement known as Metabolism. Heavily influenced by their renowned architect professor, Kenzo Tange, they sought to revolutionise Japan’s post-war urban landscape through the use of biomimetic architecture. Modular systems, inspired by and mimicking organic cells, were viewed as a solution to the rapid expansion of the Japanese population and its accompanying urban areas on limited land. More broadly, they saw modular developments as a more
A Metabolist manifesto was published in 1960 for the Tokyo World Design Conference of the same year. This garnered international exposure for these experimental architects. The manifesto consisted of four essays titled Ocean City, Space City, Towards Group Form, and Material and Man. This included designs for cities floating on oceans as well as plugin capsule towers that incorporate organic growth. A realised example of this was the Nakagin Capsule Tower designed by Kurokawa. In their manifesto, they laid out their planned cities where the urban fabric would be organized by circulation systems like veins around which builds and parts of the builds could be replaced and renewed without interrupting the whole system. This is where their name originates. Oxford Languages defines metabolism as ‘the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.’ Metabolist architects believed that different
parts of the city have different rates of ‘metabolic’ change and that new land needed in Tokyo and other cities could be made by reclaiming the sea.
Several megastructures were designed over the coming years after the publication of the manifesto, which followed the principles of metabolism and mimicked organic biological growth. However, due to the radical nature of the projects and the financial investment needed, none were realised. One of the only achieved designs by Metabolist architects was Kurokawa’s experimental Nakagin Capsule Tower. Construction started in 1970 and the building was finished in 1972. It exemplified Metabolist principles and provided the first capsule architecture design. Reflecting Japanese urban life, the capsules were designed to be inhabited by travelling businessmen commuting into central Tokyo during the week. It became a model for sustainable, recyclable architecture since the capsules could be replaced and adjusted when necessary. This was possible due to the central structural core being accessible from the exterior, which allowed the capsules to be plugged in.
The building was 14 storeys high with 140 capsules surrounding the core at differing angles. Each module was
attached using only four high-tension bolts, enabling the units to be replaced. This technology was designed by Kurokawa himself because he believed this was the future of housing. With only a 4 x 2.5-metre floor area per capsule, the rooms can accommodate just about one person. If this sounds too small for you, the capsules were also designed to amalgamate into a bigger living area. Each capsule has its own porthole-style window, appliances and furniture. This unique ability to grow, adapt and evolve contrasts with
previous conceptions about how a building should function, and this is what made Metabolism so radical and experimental.
The Nakagin Capsule Tower was demolished in 2022. It did not need to be demolished. The building was purchased by Capsule Tower Building (a group of real estate firms) in 2021. The last residents were moved out. Many petitions arose from conservationists that included the designer himself. Nakagin Capsule Tower had suffered from leaks and maintenance problems for its last 20 years due to degrading materials, as well as the difficulty and expense of their replacement.
However, the historic landmark represented Japan’s post-war architectural momentum and was one of the only realised icons of Metabolism that played a crucial role in shaping Japanese architectural modernism. It signified an age of experimentation and future-minded thinking and challenged conventional norms in residential architecture through its prefabrication off-site, and its modular structure. Kurokawa had designed the building with adaptability in mind, but obviously this was overlooked, even though the infrastructure of the building communicated its function to be restored. Tatsuyuki Maeda, a
Metabolism did not take off. Virtually no designs were realised. But some key principles have prevailed, and it has left a bold watermark on experimental architecture.
member of one of the conservation campaigns, claimed that 2 to 3 billion yen ($16 million to $24 million) was required to renovate the tower. The capsules could have been repurposed for modern needs as Kurokawa had envisaged, functioning as renovated residential spaces, or studios or even novel hotels. But sadly, due to a lack of financial investment, this was never achieved, and the building was demolished. Kurokawa originally claimed that the capsules should be replaced every 25 years. Instead, they deteriorated into disrepair.
Nakagin Capsule Tower offered a unique syzygy of architectural innovation, cultural heritage and historic value. Its demolition directly led to a loss of appreciation and study of the underground movement of Metabolism, a loss of provided opportunities for adaptive reuse, and a loss of emphasis on sustainability in architecture.
Metabolism did not take off. Virtually no designs were realised. But some key principles have prevailed, and it has left a bold watermark on experimental architecture and is possibly more relevant now than when it was first conceived due to the ever-increasing need for future-proof housing. Due to the radical, and subtly political, nature of the movement, heavy financial investment was needed to at least create a platform for the movement to flourish, and in a struggling post-war economy people did not want to hedge their bets on experimental architecture. The general view shifted
from envisaging the future in an experimental light to wanting immediate solutions to the urban issues faced. Technical limitations also fed into the movement’s collapse when many plans and designs needed structural technology that was not available. This was furthered by a diminished supply of resources for industrial production in 1960s Japan. Concrete cast-in-situ was more economically viable than capsulated design, but it did not align with Metabolic attitudes using the prefabrication of modules.
Concrete cast-in-situ was more economically viable than capsulated design, but it did not align with Metabolic attitudes.
Metabolist architects even accepted this. Kurokawa admitted this fault in his book Metabolism in Architecture: ‘Our plans serve to explain how cities should exist, even though they entail visions which cannot be turned into realities at present.’ But now that technology has become more advanced and abundant, why are
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PEOPLE ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE IDEA OF CONFINEMENT AND MODULAR HOUSING BECAUSE IT CAN LEAD TO AN INFRINGEMENT ON FREEDOM.
The manifesto consisted of four essays and included designs for cities floating on oceans as well as plugin capsule towers that incorporate organic growth.
Is there that much of a difference between the housing developments being built now and the concepts of prefabrication and modular design?
there not more Metabolist structures? Answer: people are not ready to shift their lifestyles this radically and dramatically. It boils down to the fact that people do not like change. Change can be accepted in increments, or when people are blinded by its benefits, but when doubt creeps in, people get scared and change is prevented. Along with other radical urban planning schemes, Metabolic buildings are rejected because people are uncomfortable with the idea of confinement and modular housing because it can lead to an infringement on freedom and can be viewed as tyrannical because of its links with social engineering. But what house does not manipulate the way we socialise and live? Is there that much of a difference between the housing developments being built now and the concepts of prefabrication and modular design? ¢
PODS SAVED FROM THE DISMANTLED NAKAGIN CAPSULE TOWER ARE RESTORED AT A WAREHOUSE NEAR TOKYO. IMAGE: