S C R I B B L E Shrewsbury High School Literary Magazine, Issue 6 (December, 2020)
A
NOTE FROM THE
O
EDITORS
n behalf of Lily, Holly and myself, we are so grateful to be back after what has been a roller coaster of a year and are thrilled to get Scribble back on its tracks. I feel this is a very special edition as it represents us finally coming together as a school and it shows how as a team, we have been able to capture the essence of the last few months.
Our co-editors Holly and Lily have been committed contributors to Scribble with their passion for literature shining through every article in each edition, and this one is no different! With her theme of lockdown, Holly takes us through her experience, describing her change in routine from intense studying to baking, reading and sunbathing, whilst also finding her appreciation for the things which surround her. We are also enlightened with seven reviews from her ‘Lockdown Reads’, including ‘The Green Mile’ by Stephen King and ‘FEMINISTS DON’T WEAR PINK and other lies’ curated by Scarlett Curtis. Book reviews are such a great way to find another person’s perspective of a novel and this has most definitely inspired me to find my own opinion of these books. Lily also discusses one of her lockdown reads ‘Maurice’, looking at the life and romance of the protagonist, LGBT representation and compares the
novel to its film adaptation. Amy, another of our treasured Scribble writers, delves into the ideas surrounding ‘Candide’, a novel which she found appreciation for over the time lockdown gave us to simply think. Following the motif of lockdown from our Year 13’s, I was also inspired by the affairs of this year, above all, the protests which swept the globe in aid of Black Lives Matter. In honour of this I decided to research three well deserved black women authors who I, and possibly others, had not heard of.
This edition has been made even more exciting by the joining of our Year 12 students who, starting English Literature this year, have offered us a colourful array of literary angles and ideas. Willow takes a creative and unique approach when looking at songs based on literature whilst Libby debates the culture and challenge of classic novels against the gossip and drama of young adult fiction. Aaina’s interesting article on endings raises the question “Is Happily Ever After Real?”. Our Scribble social media page on Instagram promotes and shows what is up next in this wonderful magazine so be sure to keep an eye out. I hope you enjoy this lovely edition and find it as special as myself and the rest of the editing team do. Grace
SCRIBBLE
Contents P4
2 Welcome from the Editors 3 Contents 6 Paradoxes in Graham Green Novels 12 Breaking the Routine 14 Candide 16 Songs based on Literature 20 Lockdown Recommended Reads 22 Educating Daughters 26 Is Happily Ever After Real?
Maurice
P10
Black Lives Matter
P18
Young Adult Books An Acceptable Addiction? scribble_shs
Editors Holly Lovett, Lily Harding, Grace Turner
Editorial Contributions Robin Aldridge, Amanda Lingen, Lily Harding, Holly Lovett, Grace Turner, Amy Watton, Willow Dowd, Libby Driscoll, Aaina Jassel, Joanna Jepson, Alex Hale
scribble_magazine_shs
Editoral Design & Typeset Tiffany Pardoe
Front Page Illustration from SHS Archives ‘A Windy Day’ by A.L. Purcell c.1941
Published by Scribble, Shrewsbury High School 32 Town Walls, Shrewsbury, SY1 1TN
3
e c i r u a M Perhaps the one good thing lockdown has given us is the chance to pick up old hobbies we didn’t have time for in our average routines. Unfortunately, reading for my own enjoyment had been something really lacking in my daily life before lockdown (poor show for an English student, I know), but suddenly with a summer of overwhelmingly indoor activities sprawled out in front of me, reading became one of my favourite things to fill my time with again. I’ve managed to get a handful of books under my belt since the beginning of the holidays- ones I’ve always been meaning to read like ‘Wuthering Heights’ and Leigh Bardugo’s ‘Six of Crows’- but the one that topped any expectations I had of it was EM Forster’s ‘Maurice’. Looking at the novel from our modern experience of gay representation, it’s easy to miss just how extraordinary this little book is. Written in 1913, but not published until 1971, after Forster’s death, ‘Maurice’ is a surprisingly sharp story that concerns itself not only with creating an intimate portrait of the life and loves of our protagonist, Maurice Hall, but also with deconstructing the
where they no longer understand their own desires, as well as a class system that encourages a view of servants and workers as less than human. Maurice himself is also one of the most endearing protagonists I’ve come across in quite a long time; Forster is never charitable to him, creating the impression that even our omniscient narrator has no patience for his rudeness or ignorance. Recently I find myself more and more exasperated with the practically flawless main characters that seem to be taking up an increasing amount of space in the modern literature landscape; I’m sure we’re all familiar with a character whose only ‘personality flaw’ is their dark backstory and penchant for sarcasm. Maurice is not one of these characters, he’s definitely not someone you’d traditionally label as “cool”, in fact his lack of witty rapport and general lack of critical thinking skills altogether are frequently remarked upon. He comes from a privileged upper-class background and often has trouble forming his own opinions independent of the status quo. Maurice would have blended seamlessly into the high society that produced him if it weren’t for one key aspect: his sexual orientation. It is this element that propels his maturation forwards, and the experiences he has as a result of it that serve to broaden his horizons, and make him grow into an empathetic person with an awareness of his strengths as well as his shortcomings. Perhaps the most affecting parts of the narrative to me, though, are the two romances Maurice experiences over the duration of the story. I’ve mentioned how easy it would be to dismiss ‘Maurice’ on the basis of the fact that nowadays, gay representation in media is far more commonplace. In the last decade or so, corporations have realised that the LGBTQ+ community are in fact also capable of giving them money, and so we have gained an influx of queer characters making their appearances in TV, film and literature. For many, this is a victory; a tangible sign of progress; but to me these stories can more often than not feel hollow. The prime example of this hollowness comes in the form of 2018’s
E.M. Forster, in full Edward Morgan Forster, (born January 1, 1879, London, England—died June 7, 1970, Coventry, Warwickshire),
values and systems operating at the time the novel was written. Forster, through Maurice’s eyes, allows us to see the injustice of a society that forces people to repress themselves to the point
4
SCRIBBLE
‘Love, Simon’, a studio produced, gay romantic comedy that is so dead set on convincing its audience that it’s just like any other teen romcom that it completely passes up any chances for originality. It is this corporatized version of gay romance that I’ve become used to seeing in the mainstream. So, when reading ‘Maurice’ I was pleasantly shocked to find such a sincere, considered and passionate story about two men in love. Plenty of gay love stories in the 21st century concern themselves with appearing ‘normal’, with appearing to be identical to the average heterosexual love story, all for the sake of being assimilated into heterocentric society; but none of them manage to pull it off whilst retaining any heart. ‘Maurice’, in the simple act of being a plain love story unbothered with doctoring any details for studio or publisher approval, achieves it. And it’s really, really wonderful.
classical studies and how they affect his perspective. What really alters the films version of Clive’s narrative are the only original scenes added by the screenwriters that were not present in the book. Risley, another one of Maurice and Clive’s Cambridge classmates, is tricked into revealing his homosexuality and is sent to prison in a trial scene reminiscent of Oscar Wilde’s infamous incarceration. Clive is shown looking in horror at the newspaper that reports Risley’s imprisonment, and later appearing at the aforementioned trial, hiding his face, mortified, as if he’s only just coming to terms with how dangerous being gay in Edwardian England is. It’s implied that this new fear is the thing that causes him to end things with Maurice. This, understandably, makes the audience far more sympathetic towards Clive than they would have been had the narrative remained untouched, but unfortunately takes a lot of the bite out of Forster’s original message. The film becomes not a story of Maurice’s triumph in finding love that is founded on mutual respect, but of Clive’s tragedy, that he had to let Maurice go because of the societal circumstances.
After reading and enjoying the book as much as I did, I decided to seek out the 1987 film adaptation. I’d already seen it and appreciated it on its own merits as a film, but wanted to compare it to the novel and see how it held up. What I found was even more interesting.
I spent a good deal of time after my second viewing of the film wondering why these changes were made- why blunt such a sharp commentary like this?
The first thing to know about the film ‘Maurice’ is it is almost a carbon copy of the book it was based off of; the majority of the dialogue is taken directly off the page. As an experienced hater of book to film adaptations, this is something that almost never happens and is a godsend for book fans when it does- you get to see the story you love translated as honestly as possible between mediums. However, there is one crucial change the film makes that serves to ripple through the rest of the plot and warp it into something I believe delivers a totally opposite experience to that of the novel.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the fault lies with England’s beloved, Hugh Grant. For context- Hugh Grant actually plays Clive, I’m not just randomly picking on everyone’s favourite heartthrob. The casting of Hugh Grant as Clive in the midst of his dashing, English gentleman, heartthrob days was always going to result in him being more likable than the character is on paper. When Clive’s elitism is dressed up in Grant’s awkward charm, suddenly it’s no longer a problem.
The first man Maurice falls in love with, Clive Durham, is a fellow student studying at Cambridge. He has a very similar background to Maurice; inherited wealth, firmly part of the English upper class. Whilst Maurice’s love for him is based on genuine affection and admiration, Clive’s love for Maurice is filtered through his own elitist goal of living through the Platonic ideal of love. For Clive this takes form in a refusal to be intimate with Maurice, and on a deeper level a refusal to recognise his lover as an equal. It is when Clive realises that Maurice cannot help him reach this narcissistic, and frankly hypocritical, ideal of ‘Classical purity’, that he puts an end to their relationship. In the novel, this section contributes to the class commentary, implying that those at the top of society believe themselves capable of living in a state of complete perfection, defined by strict rules and boundaries in an attempt to replicate some false image of the past. This is directly contrasted with the love shared between Maurice and Alec Scudder, a groundskeeper far below Maurice’s station that demands equality in their relationship as a first priority.
Despite this, I don’t think Grant is entirely to blame. The film is a period drama, and usually period drama audiences come for the escapism, the fantasy and the glamour of the past- which necessitates glossing over a lot of the ugliness that could be found within these time periods. Personally, I think Clive’s makeover, so to speak, was a result of the writer’s desire to deliver a new tragic romantic lead to rival the likes of Darcy and Rochester, men who were themselves of a high social standing. This is not to devalue the film altogether, it is a beautifully made, beautifully scored piece of work and in all other places the world and characters that Forster constructs for us are vibrantly brought to life. Only on the level of its moral does it fail its original version. Ultimately, I would recommend both the book and the film because of their differences. It’s been interesting for me to try and figure out which I like best and why, and what values both of them try and put forward. I hope anyone who reads this and decides to give either a read or a watch has as rewarding an experience as I did!
In the film, this is changed quite drastically. Obviously, part of the nuance is lost along with the lack of ability to see parts of the story from Clive’s point of view; there is much less emphasis on Clive’s
by Lily Harding 5
SCRIBBLE
PARAD
IN
GRAH GREE NOV by Mrs Amanda Lingen
T
aking into consideration his ‘Catholic’ novels, (Brighton Rock, The Heart of the Matter, The Power and the Glory and The End of the Affair) it seems that Graham Greene’s writing centres on paradox. Greene’s faith as a Roman Catholic, which was by no means unquestioning or orthodox in its nature, gave a theological framework to his writing. He famously described himself as a writer, ‘who happens to be Catholic’, suggesting that he is not specifically a Catholic writer, but rather, as part of his philosophy and outlook, faith naturally enters his writing. While these novels are in no way dogmatic, they contain many Catholic characters and probe the place of Catholicism in a predominantly sceptical and secular twentieth century society. It is in the questions of faith and doctrine that most of Greene’s paradoxes can be found and these paradoxes are dramatised through his protagonists - Pinkie, Scobie, the whisky priest and Benedrix. Let us consider Brighton Rock, Greene’s first major ‘Catholic’ novel. The novel contains a double discourse: it is at once a detective story, with Ida Arnold determined to solve the mystery of Hale’s murder, and a mystery of the mercy and nature of God. The very distinct secular and religious paths cross, or rather clash, in Brighton Rock in the battle between the worldly Ida, who insists on the moral justice of right and wrong, and the Catholic Pinkie and Rose, who exemplify evil and good respectively. Ida dismisses Rose’s theology, retorting, “That’s just religion”. Similarly, Rose is unable to react to the moral standards Ida holds by: ‘[Ida] “I know one thing you don’t. I know the difference between Right and Wrong. They didn’t teach you that at school.” Rose didn’t answer; the woman was quite right: the two words meant nothing to her. Their taste was extinguished by stronger foods - Good and Evil.’
6
SCRIBBLE
DOXES
N
HAM ENE’S VELS In this novel the secular and the religious are shown as incomprehensible to one another. They are as remote as two different countries and Ida finds herself in the religious land: “She [Ida] was as far from either of them as she was from Hell - or Heaven. Good or evil lived in the same country, spoke the same language, came together like old friends, feeling the same completion.” This exemplifies the first paradox: good and evil, supposed opposites, are aligned as companions, coming together in the marriage of Pinkie and Rose. In fact, these opposites are said to need each other, as Pinkie’s thoughts demonstrates: ‘What was most evil in him needed her: it couldn’t get along without goodness.’ While good and evil complete one another, good and right, usually thought to be closely aligned, are conversely alien to one another in Brighton Rock. So, if good and right are incompatible, where does this leave wrong and evil? Does this mean that Greene advocates that the world should favour evil doers like Pinkie over the well-meaning people like Ida? Lewis argues that the rhetoric of Brighton Rock seems condemning of Ida, described with her ‘remorseless optimism’ and ‘merciless compassion’. Pinkie’s judgement of Ida when Rose asks, “Is she good?’ supports this critical tone. ‘“She?” The boy laughed. “She’s just nothing.”’ Despite the novel’s subtle rhetorical condemnations, Gordon regards Ida as one of Greene’s ‘unsung heroes’. One of the few to stand up and fight against evil. While it is true that Pinkie is ultimately reduced to a panic stricken schoolboy, defeated and almost certainly damned, this does not necessarily equate to the success of Ida and the moral world in the way that Gordon argues. Gordon fails to recognise the insignificance of a victory in this world given the context of the novel and while there is a slight hope, ‘between the stirrup and the ground,’ for God’s mercy to extend to
7
SCRIBBLE
Pinkie, Ida remains equally as far from heaven or hell. So if Gordon is wrong about Brighton Rock favouring Ida’s success over Pinkie, this leaves us in moral confusion. How can Brighton Rock be reproachful of Ida and condoning of the murderer Pinkie? The answer lies in a complicated paradox – Greene’s work implies that failure brings one closer to holiness. This failure is more specifically affiliated here to religious orthodoxy: that one is self-deprecating being aware of their failure to attain religious ideals. This failure requires two provisos: first that one believes in the standards they are failing to achieve and yet one rejects them: ‘The characters’ failure to conform to the standard, it is essential for humane action; their continued acceptance of it is necessary, not only if they are to be distinguished from nonChristian humanists, but if they are to experience that self-deprecating humility of failure which is, for Greene, the condition of holiness’ (Terry Eagleton). Greene’s protagonists who come closest to sainthood thus regard themselves as failures, and can be seen as such. The whiskey priest in The Power and the Glory sees himself as an unworthy representative of God, a mockery to the church with his drinking and his daughter. By the end of the novel the priest is stripped of all his possessions, and without wine or alter he is unable to perform the sacraments correctly. Similarly, Sarah in The End of the Affair condemns herself in her diary as a bitch and a fake. However, Eagleton believes that both of these self-denigrating judgements must be regarded by the reader as incredibly harsh in order that the characters be seen as embodying the holiness the novels suggest, (both seemed elevated to sainthood by the end). However, the characters must believe in their unworthiness to avoid being pious and to come close to God through suffering and humility. Therefore, their failure is a source of anxiety at being bad Catholics and is one of their most notably Catholic traits. This does not apply, however, to Pinkie whose actions the novel does not necessary condone but rather explores. Although Pinkie fails to adhere to orthodoxy while believing in it, he does not achieve holiness and seems to be most certainly damned. His failure to achieve holiness must then be down to his bad intentions. This leads to yet another paradox, identified by Eagleton, that ‘sanctity and damnation lie in simultaneously recognising and rejecting the rules,’ one’s intention providing the only distinction between the two. This paradox supports the companionship of good and evil found in Greene’s work as they require many of the same beliefs and actions and so a thin line between salvation and Damnation exists. The logic based on paradox, qualifies the obscure statement of the priest at the end of Brighton Rock: ‘a Catholic is more capable of evil than anyone. I think perhaps-because we believe in him-we are more in touch with the devil than other people. Greene described his choice of Catholic characters for Brighton Rock by his wish to examine more closely the effect of faith on action. This leads to another paradox: religious faith cannot kill evil and has failed to do so and Pinkie who commits crimes (which he more importantly regards as mortal sins) while contemplating the subsequent damnation of his soul. Despite the sadistic contemplation, his evil deeds go unrestrained. This has wider political implications and most immediately can be demonstrated by the Nazis’ shame of twentieth-century Europe. Peter Mudford argues that in Pinkie, Greene mirrors the inefficiency of faith against evil in both individuals and in society. In fact, Pinkie’s carefully considered leap into damnation has left some critics finding his actions almost heroic. While Pinkie is almost certainly damned, given the strange nature of God's mercy we can never be completely sure given the nature of god’s mercy cannot be known. Another key paradox found in Greene’s work is that his protagonists find God through evil and hate, or rather God seems to find them in this condition in what has been described as a reversal of the Pilgrim's Progress quest for salvation: ‘Greene’s God seeks those furthest from him, Greene suggests, paradoxically, that in reaching out for the Devil one may well find God intervening and conversely in reaching for God, one may indeed find the devil (Mudford). This can be seen most notably in The Power and the Glory by the whisky priest. ‘You only had to turn up the underside
8
SCRIBBLE
of any situation and out came scuttling these small absurd contradictory situations. He had given way to despair and out of that had emerged a human soul and love-not the best love but love all the same.’ Just as his character was about to give up, God seems to reach out to him. The priest acknowledges that when he was serving God in the comfortable situation before the persecution in Mexico he was less holy than in the desperation of his life in pursuit. However, he must not question this orthodoxy, for although the rules are broken for humanitarian reasons, they must not be seen as arbitrary rules, insignificant in themselves. On occasions the tension between accepting and rejecting the rules is threatened in The Power and the Glory by the idea that the rules do not matter. For instance, the whiskey Priest on giving confessions, ‘wanted to say to this man love is not wrong you don't need penance my child you have suffered quite enough’. However, this design is overruled and a habit of the confessional surfaced: ‘He said mortal sin, danger, self-control’. The reason the policeman cannot reject the rules and simply trust his heart is revealed in the final confrontation between the priest and the lieutenant. The lieutenant knows that he wants to let his heart speak but the priest tells the lieutenant that the heart is an untrustworthy beast. Instead one must obey the rules of the church or break them reluctantly for humanitarian reasons as human pity can be false especially when compared to the mysterious workings of God's mercy. This dilemma between humanity and God seems to be played out in The End of the Affair, where the protagonist Benedrix and God are seen as rivals. Not only are they rivals for Sarah's love, but given Benedrix’s profession as a creative writer they are also rivals in the act of creation. In both instances God is victorious, for the novel which Bendrix is writing seems to be the one that we are reading, and it becomes apparent that an absent god is controlling the action of the novel. Throughout the ‘story’ of the novel Bendrix remains the sceptic, refusing to believe the ‘miracles’ that occur after Sarah’s death. Yet by the end of the novel, it seems that Benedrix has reluctantly been converted. It seems that one of the key themes of the novel is hate. Bendrix hates God for being one step of head of him by controlling the actions, for it seems the end or purpose of the affair was to convert Bendrix. And more pressingly, he hates Him for taking Sarah away from him. However, it is of course Sarah's free will and her vow which places God as an obstacle in their illicit relationship. It seems that while in the other novels we have discussed one can find God through failure, the central paradox in this novel is that finding God can also lead to pain, suffering and, for Bendrix, hate. The End of the Affair seems to carry on the idea that following the heart is untrustworthy, yet this doesn't make the sacrifices of the heart any easier to bear. It seems that Greene’s novels are able to value ‘human worth without challenging human worthlessness’ (Eagleton). Beauty is found in sin, as the whisky priests in prison and announces, ‘suddenly we discover that our sins have so much beauty’. In the face of the ugliest human the whiskey priest must remind himself that here too God's image is present: When you visualise a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity - that was a quality God's image carried with it. It seems that God for Greene is not only love, but also pain and suffering. In fact Greene adhered to a theory of evolution that God and man were both evolving together, and in the end this evolution will reach a state where evil is eradicated. However, Greene’s work explores God from the perspective of evil, failure and hatred and Greene is consistently interested in the underdog, the underground world of Pinkie, the persecuted Mexico inhabited by the whisky priest and the tainted world of adultery Sarah and Bendrix find themselves in. In essence Greene’s protagonists are anti-heroes, placed in a fallen world making the heroic leap of faith or disbelief, anything but indifference which Greene abhorred. While these novels contain a framework of Catholic theology, much of the anxiety and uncertainty found in his work is symptomatic of the 20th century world Green was writing in.
9
SCRIBBLE
BLACK LIVES MATTER By Grace Turner
I
t could be argued that one of the most significant events of this year (and there certainly have been many) is the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement which has swept the globe in the form of protests, petitions and activism, with people searching for ways in which they can become stronger allies to the community. In this I was led to reflect on the lack of people of colour within the literary canon and how it important it is to celebrate these less popular authors who seem to have been swallowed by a wave of ‘old, dead white men’. I have collected three female authors of colour who touch base on a range of genres. In simply opening up a space in a small publication like this, educating a small number of people, a big difference can be made. Maya Angelou, 1928-2014, amongst other things, was an American author, poet and civil rights activist best known for her memoir ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman in literary history. Much of her autobiographical work, including this one, explores themes of economic, racial and sexual oppression, all of which are issues she had experienced first-hand.
many, was in 1993 when invited to compose the poem ‘On the Pulse of Morning’ for the inauguration of the U.S President Bill Clinton. Another notable moment in her career was when Angelou versified Nelson Mandela in her 2013 poem ‘His Day is Done’, which went on to be commissioned by the U.S State Department. Angelou died in North Carolina, on May 28, 2014 at 86 years old.
When moving to New York City in the late 50’s Angelou was encouraged for her literary talents at the Harlem Writer’s Guild and her writing flourished under the rise of the African cultural renaissance. After travelling around the world as part of her performance career, she returned to California in 1966 and wrote ‘Black, Blues, Black’, which revolves around the role of African culture in American life. Alongside this, her writing of the movie drama ‘Georgia, Georgia’ made ger one of the first African American women to have a screenplay produced as a feature film. Angelou’s poetry work, including ‘Now Sheba Sings the Song’ (1987) and ‘I Shall Not Be Moved’ (1990), drew heavily on her personal journey whilst using multiple perspectives and viewpoints. One of her greatest honours, amongst
Octavia Estelle Butler, 1947-2006, was an African American author noted for her science fiction novels surrounding future societies and superhuman powers, including mythology and African American spiritualism. Butler was born in Pasadena, California. After the death of her father, she was raised by her widowed mother. As an extremely shy child, she became fascinated by the fantasy reads at her library and began writing fiction in her teenage years. Butler was educated at the University of California in Los Angeles and, encouraged by writer Harlan Ellison, her career began in 1970. The first of her novels, ‘Patternmaster’ (1976), was the beginning of her five-volume Patternist
10
SCRIBBLE
series about an elite group of mentally linked telepaths ruled by Doro, a 4000-year-old immortal African. Her novel ‘Kindred’ (1979) involves a modern black woman who is sent back in time to a pre-Civil War plantation, becomes a slave, and rescues her white, slave-owning ancestor. Butlers short story ‘Speech Sounds’ won a Hugo Award in 1984, and her novel ‘Bloodchild’ , published in 1995, about human male slaves who incubate their alien masters’ eggs, won both Hugo and Nebular awards. That same year Butler became the first Sci-Fi writer to be awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and in 2000 she received a PEN Award for her lifetime achievement. Toni Morrison, 1931–2019, was an American writer noted for her examination of black experience, particularly black female experience, within the black community. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Growing up in the American Midwest, Morrison was raised by a family which possessed an intense love of and appreciation for black culture, with storytelling, songs and folktales being a deeply formative part of her childhood. In 1965
Morrison became a fiction editor, after teaching at Texas Southern University and Howard for a combined 10 years. Morrison’s first of many books, ‘The Bluest Eye’ (1970), is a novel based around a victimised black girl of adolescent age who is obsessed with the ideology of white beauty, longing to have blue eyes. In 1973, she published her second novel ‘Sula’, examining the dynamics of friendship and the expectations for conformity within the community. The critically acclaimed ‘Beloved’ (1987) is based on the true story of a runaway slave who, at the point of recapture, kills her infant daughter in order to spare her a life of slavery. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1998 and starred Oprah Winfrey. The central motif running through Morrison's novels is the black experience; in an unjust society her characters struggle to find themselves and their cultural identity. Her use of fantasy, poetic style alongside raw and eye-opening subject matter is what gives her stories strength and great importance.
11
i n k a g
Bre
SCRIBBLE
e
By
ne
u t o i R
th
ly
Hol L o ve
tt
L
ooking back at my day-to-day life in January, it is hard to comprehend just how intense my daily routine was. It is clear to me now that back then, I had never really appreciated how my life would be without structure and organisation. Similar to a military drill, I would thunder through my morning routine, move on to a day at sixth form, then rush home, maybe to a driving lesson or for netball practice, then complete homework and go to bed. Just to wake up the next day and repeat. Oddly, upon hearing about the potential lockdown, I was not worried about missing my loved ones or becoming unwell myself, but more panicked by how I would be able to ensure my online school work would be of a high enough standard and whether or not I was going to lose my Saturday job. I was worried about how I would ever live without structure. Not once did I stop and think how others would be more negatively affected than me by this global issue. 12
SCRIBBLE
A
s soon as I accepted that lockdown would be happening, I went ahead and did all of the activities my busy schedule doesn’t usually allow. I baked, I read for pleasure, I sunbathed and I painted. I indulged in relaxing activities that made me feel peaceful and content (feelings that in my normal life I rarely achieve). After roughly three weeks into this new way of living, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my life, and mulling over the future, looking forward to going to university, overthinking past mistakes, hoping that I would be able to pass my driving test and worrying about my A-Level examinations. This mixture of emotions began to build up, and eventually I was in a state of longing for everything to go back to the way it was before. This is because I had the time, to actually think about myself, my emotions and my life. I felt that if I kept myself occupied the way I was previously; these stressful emotions would leave. I began to believe that the way I had usually relieved myself of these difficult feelings was to bury them under the tasks I usually seek to complete. This is something that I have recently realised I have been doing for years. But I know now, that I cannot let things become the same as they were before. I do need to take time to interpret my feelings and I need to be more considerate of how things affect my mental health, instead of hiding my thoughts and emotions away under a daily routine and schedule. The lockdown has made me realise that I need to experience my feelings as they come to me, and not push them to one side for a time when it may be ‘more convenient’ for me to sit with them. Lockdown has also taught me that I need to appreciate those around me more. My grandmother, at the age of seventy-two was at home, alone, unable to visit us, or us visit her. She was not able to pop out to the shops, just to have a chat with the person working at the till. Forbidden to visit my grandfather’s grave at the cemetery, and not able to get on the bus to walk through town, it didn’t help that she is not fluent in using technology. I realised soon into the lockdown that my previous worries were rather ridiculous and self-centred, and that there were far more important things to consider and think about. I began to appreciate just how tough those first few weeks of lockdown must have been for my Grandma and how much I need to value my time with her. As well as 13
this, I have learnt that spending this much time with my mother, is something that I may never experience again as I move into adulthood. The long summer holidays spent fooling around with my siblings could soon become a thing of the past. I have been blessed with the opportunity to spend a large quantity of quality time with them, this I will always remember. It has also made me realise how much I rely on my family to stay on track, I know now that without mum, I would have fewer aspirations and I would be unable to cope with life as well as I currently do. It has made me treasure her more and I hope to be just like her when I am older. As a result of this time spent thinking about my way of life, I concluded that I should take more time to appreciate and understand what is happening in the specific moment, rather than continuously looking ahead to the next section of my day. In hindsight, I view the lockdown as a lesson that I could have only ever achieved by experiencing the time I had at home, completely unplanned. It has taught me that I need to become more aware as to how important it is to talk to people, face to face, how interaction with others helps me maintain a positive mindset and to appreciate those around me and their situations more. I am now aware of how important it is for me to take the time to express to my loved ones that I care, rather than just assume they already know. I have discovered that I should not always be looking ahead, at university and career choices, but instead I should be enjoying my youth before it runs out. This brings me to question whether life as we know it should ever go back to ‘normal’. This period of time has led me to believe that there is much more to life than having a routine and following it continually. It has taken this for me to accept that it is ok to break the structure and spend more time on things that make me happy and improve my mental health (which is currently at its best due to having this time away to reflect and be calm). I have learnt that it is just as important to spend time with my family and friends, as it is to work on my grades. I know that it is healthy and acceptable to express how I am feeling, and to understand my emotions, because I am human. Breaking my routine has reminded me of this, and I know that it has enlightened me.
SCRIBBLE
CANDIDE by Amy Watton
U
pon first reading Candide, I immediately dubbed it a vague ‘big ideas novel’ because I’ll be frank, it’s not a book I would read for the sake of reading: it’s a book I would read because I would be subjected to studying it, specifically, exploring the philosophy of optimism and a theory prominent in the age of enlightenment (hence the time it was written, 1759). Whilst not initially enjoying the style of writing, the general plot and the very flat characters, I came to appreciate Candide a lot more after mulling it over in my head for a few months. Fortunately, time during lockdown allowed me to go beyond my Pinterest-level questioning and philosophising, and scrape just the surface of the ‘big ideas’ in this novel. Voltaire wrote this book with the intention of making a mockery of philosophical optimism, and he constructs an entire character (Pangloss), to satirize the ideas of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz who “believed that the world was perfect and that all evil in it was simply a means to a greater good.” 1. Essentially, we are apparently living in ‘the best of all possible worlds’. So, Pangloss’ absurd justification of living the best of all possible worlds being, “noses are made to wear spectacles, and so we wear spectacles” just strikes readers as something inherently detached from reality. Voltaire ridiculed this idea further through constructing a literal journey for his main characters in order to “systematically poking holes in the theory” 2. To create the mocking and satirical nature of the novel, he employed parody. This is shown by the excessive violence and general absurdity of each coincidence-led situation in which the protagonist, Candide, lands. Pangloss presents optimism as too easy and as Candide commits to his seemingly neverending journey, it is unsurprising his trust in his teacher’s theory diminishes significantly. He is exposed to death, war, torture and natural disasters. The episodic nature of the novel really shines through here as Voltaire’s use of devastating real life events, such as the Great Lisbon earthquake, hits like a series of punches. Life itself comes across very combative and openly antagonistic towards poor, innocent Candide. Surely the world would surely be fairly devoid of suffering if everything were truly the best of all possible outcomes. Then again, maybe the more indirect assumption I am making here is that good will always triumph over evil or at least there is some sort of dynamic equilibrium involved.3. I get the impression that every time the situation improves for Candide, Voltaire undermines it with somewhat cruel glee through
14
SCRIBBLE
a veil of pessimism to ‘disprove’ optimism. It is like watching sweets being snatched from a child on repeat. However, something that probably triggered my initial confusion and dislike of this book is that it is not the simple polemic against optimism; it is also just as valid an attack on pessimism. Satire is not only the component used to disgrace optimism but ironically pessimism as well. Take for example the Old Woman’s conversation with Cunégonde; she recounts her suffering in a way of pessimist competition. As Wood (2005) notes, her suffering in the numerical form is twofold everything Cunégonde has suffered, “if you haven’t been raped by at least two Bulgars, been stabbed in the belly twice, seen two of your castles destroyed, witnessed two mothers and two fathers having their throats cut and watched as they whipped two of your lovers…I don’t see how you could possibly beat me.” Having numerical value applied to suffering is made somewhat comical at the end of this extensive list of pain because despite it all, she claims to have still “loved life”. It presents suffering as something immeasurable and the pessimism associated with it almost irrelevant. The novel ends with Candide giving up on his journey so therefore, the final fight of ‘optimism v pessimism’ is inconclusive. In fact all that remains is rejection because Candide settles to ‘cultivate our garden’. I say rejection because Candide’s retreat to the garden seems to symbolise an abandonment of optimistic idealism or rather, philosophy itself. As a result, it also brings to light a motif I wasn’t really aware of until the end: the uselessness of philosophy. So after reading, I was a bit like ‘well what was the point in that?’ because I wanted a side to be chosen, a grand finale of ‘optimism sucks, so there’. I definitely did not expect a finale of ‘philosophy sucks, so there’ (especially coming from a philosopher). In my opinion, Voltaire deliberately ensures Candide is a book in which nothing happens… sort of. Don’t get me wrong; Candide is definitely an episodic, picaresque novel where the protagonist goes on a series of adventures with something to prove. However, there’s no resolution to any of the events that proceed and there’s a definite lack of closure to the point the ending is just full of bathos. It’s dissatisfying and frustrating, but that’s the brilliance of it: you are left with more questions than answers so the reader almost has a mini journey of their own after reading it.
References 1. Course Hero. 2016. Candide Discussion Questions & Answers - Pg. 5 | Course Hero. [online] Available at: <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Candide/discussion-questions/page-5/> [Accessed 12 September 2020]. 2. Shmoop.com. 2020. Dr. Pangloss In Candide | Shmoop. [online] Available at: <https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/ candide/dr-pangloss> [Accessed 12 September 2020]. 3. Wood, M. and Cuffe, T., 2005. Notes on “Candide.” New England Review (1990-), [online] Vol. 26(No. 4), pp.pp. 192-202 (11 pages). Available at: <https://www.jstor.org/stable/40244764> [Accessed 17 November 2020].
15
SCRIBBLE
Songs based on literature... I
am sure that lots of you have sung along to lyrics, without really knowing what it is that you are singing about. Recently I was belting out Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, when it dawned on me that the song was based on Emily Bronte’s wellknown novel. This got me thinking about other songs where the writer has drawn on classic literature for inspiration. In 1978, aged 19, Kate Bush released her debut single ‘Wuthering Heights’. This musical master piece topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and she became the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. In several of Kate Bush’s works she embodies elements of historical and literary references. Her debut single was based on Emily Bronte’s classic of English literature "Wuthering Heights" which was published in 1847. Emily Bronte took inspiration for her novel Wuthering Heights from Romanticism including the novels of Walter Scott, gothic fiction, and Byron.
16
by Willow Dowd
In the song Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush sings from the point of view of one of the main characters Catherine as she pleads to be let into Heathcliff’s, another main character’s, window. This can be heard in the lyrics ‘Let me in! I'm so cold!’ which is repeated throughout the song.
sorrow and regret. This is created by the simple and repeated melody played by Mark Knopfler on a resonator guitar. At the end of the song we are left with the sad longing of Romeo wanting his Juliet back when the final lyric is repeated ‘how about it?’ This captures the woe that we feel at the end of Shakespeare’s play.
Kate Bush has a dramatic soprano vocal range which allows her to portray both the childish and erotic characteristics of Catherine. In addition to her broad vocal range, she portrays a ghostly sound by extending the words that she is singing to give it an eery feeling. Heathcliff and Catherine’s complex relationship in the book is mirrored by the many instrumental layers and sounds that you can hear in this song. This inspired piece of musical work by Kate Bush gives another view on the well-known classic which is Wuthering Heights. There are so many pieces of music based on the well-known William Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. However, I have chosen to write about one song in particular which is a song by a band called Dire Straits, released in 1981 and written by frontman Mark Knopfler, their song Romeo and Juliet has been described as a classic by many. Unlike most song adaptions, Dire Straits decided to take a different view on this renowned play. The lyrics describe the experience of Romeo and Juliet, in which they hint at a situation where Juliet abandons Romeo after deciding she wants bigger and better things. Although many people believe this song was written purely with the play in mind it has been implied by Knopfler himself, that it was based on one of his own personal relationships with Holly Vincent the main singer in the short-lived band Holly and the Italians. Knopfler believes that Vincent was only using him to boost her career. Like so many plays and musical adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, this song portrays a feeling of
The next song I have chosen is one that is not as well-known but is a favourite of mine. The song is Samson by American singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, despite having never been officially released as a single, it has charted in several countries, and is often considered as one of Spektor's greatest pieces of work. The song is based on the Bible story Samson and Delilah from Judges 16. In the story Samson is born with extraordinary physical strength given to him by God which is held in his hair. Samson becomes great in his own eyes and begins to pursue women outside of God's plan for his life. He falls in love with Delilah a beautiful Philistine woman. The rulers in Philistine come to Delilah and offer her money if she finds out what makes Samson so strong. Eventually she cuts of his hair and leaves Samson powerless. In this song Regina Spektor has such an emotional, soft tone which creates a feeling of sorrow. The song is written from the perspective of Delilah and the slow tempo represents the regret that Delilah feels after portraying Samson. The simplicity of her voice, accompanied by the piano creates a sense of loneliness and isolation that both Samson and Delilah’s characters are left feeling at the end of the story. In conclusion, I believe that by basing a contemporary piece of music around classical literature, it adds a level of complexity which enhances our overall experience of the song. Although there are plenty more examples and I am sure you can think of some, these three songs represent this beautifully
SCRIBBLE
Young-adult books... an acceptable addiction?
By Libby Driscoll
Y
oung-adult fiction writers and publishers are systematically preventing generations from becoming fully literate adults by favouring novels centred around gossip and drama over real culture and challenge. I, and the majority of my friends who also study literature, have picked up many “cloth-bound classics” such as the works of Austen, Dickens, Christie and Conan Doyle, in recent years. As many people in my generation I was raised on the likes of Harry Potter and the works of authors such as David Walliams. I do not dispute their literary value for a pre-teen, as they are incredibly readable and appealing with simple plot points that are easy to follow; they are a good introduction to the world of literature. However, I remember endeavouring to read my first “classic” book at about age 10 and really struggling to get past the first page, something I have now learnt is a common experience amongst my peers. After realising this, I went home and did some research. I understand the appeal of nostalgia and the occasional easy read but that didn’t explain to me why, according to an American survey by YouGov in 2013, 53% of women aged 35-54 have not only read all the Harry Potter books but would class themselves as a fan. This continued to the films, with 56% of the audience for the last film being over 25. Again, I understand the appeal to an extent but the style of the series is toxic to the literary interest of a developing reader. It has addictive pedestrian descriptive prose that is seldom found in any other books that are typically acceptable for adult reading. Verlaine once said that he could never write a novel as he would be forced to, at some point, write a sentence like “the count walked into the drawingroom” and the very concept of needing to write something so mundane ruined the allure of a potential
18
SCRIBBLE
career writing novels for him. This is a fear that does not seem to affect Rowling as proven in page 324 of The Order of the Phoenix which shows six consecutive descriptions of how her characters talk, “…said Snape maliciously”, “…said Harry furiously”, “”…he said glumly”, “…said Hermione severely”, “… said Ron indignantly”, “… said Hermione loftily”. This, alone, should be proof enough that modern young-adult fiction is detrimental not only to attention span, but also to vocabulary when in comparison with books such as Little Women or Treasure Island which are aimed at a similar age range. Is more evidence needed to show the social acceptability of the retreat into infantilism that the voluntary immersion into contemporary young-adult fiction represents? On the other hand, reading, no matter what the material, has been shown to drastically improve mental health, particularly in adolescents. It can provide a form of escapism, fantasy books such as Harry Potter in particular. It can also educate on and normalise issues that many teenagers face, novels with focalisers their age can be relatable and can include representation of the 1 in 5 real teenagers who experience mental health issues (according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness). However, inaccurate portrayal of mental illness – especially in online fiction - can lead to potential self-diagnosis which can have harmful effects on the life of the teenager. Self-diagnosis often results in a form of hypochondria and the individual in question may begin to display symptoms of a disorder they do not have; this can lead to a further spread of misinformation and divests attention from those diagnosed. Through this apparent relatability, the reader may come to believe that the protagonist’s life is attainable and, indeed, desirable. This desirability is furthered by the common characteristics of the hero in many books such as Divergent and Twilight. They are typically reserved yet bold, plain yet beautiful, quirky yet well-liked, inoffensive yet unique and to top it all off, always hold some distinctive attribute – be it a skill, a power, or circumstance. This juxtaposition enables the reader to easily project themselves onto the character, making their lives pale in comparison. Without the supernatural, a secret power, a dysfunctional family, a 19
love triangle, or an opportunity to save the world, how can they possibly be fulfilling their potential as they see in the characters that are so similar to them? Contrastingly, seeing their potential despite their age has been shown to encourage many teenagers into activism in a way they may not have been without the influence of young-adult fiction. This has been shown recently in the news through the number of teenagers backing (and, in fact, leading) protests surrounding the Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion movements. Without the characters in the aforementioned novels they may not have felt that they possessed the power to make such significant changes in a world that can often seem to cater to the middle aged, middle class, middle minded of us, leaving the younger population powerless. Seeing characters such as Tris from Divergent or Katniss from the Hunger Games overcome such adversities may motivate younger people to own their opinions, their voice and such, their power. That being said, the typical fast-paced, uninvolved prose is hypothesised to be one of the lead causes in the development of such short attention spans in young people today. In fact, a study by Microsoft Canada in 2015 showed that the human attention span is now (as of 2013) literally shorter than a goldfish, having fallen from twelve seconds in 2000 to eight seconds less than fifteen years later, leaving us a whole second shorter than the often-mocked goldfish. Given that this statistic is seven years out of date, give yourself a pat on the back for making it so far through this article! In a survey in 2016 over 47% of readers rated their attention span during reading “fair” to “poor” and 80% of these readers claimed that this has prevented them from reading at least one classic book. In conclusion, I have given you evidence on both sides of this argument but this is really a matter of personal opinion. Whether you’re a die-hard Potterhead or not, I hope you see the potential challenge and growth a classic novel can offer you; and instead of walking straight to the YA section next time you’re in a library or bookshop, will pause and read the blurb of a classic or two.
SCRIBBLE
Holly’s Recommended Lockdown Reads Property by Valerie Martin
l
Property was a short novel that I was introduced to by my Year 10 English teacher. Eagar to explore new themes and genres, I thoroughly enjoyed this engaging read to such an extent, that when I came to pick a text for my A-Level English NEA, there was no other book that came into close consideration. I deemed that the lockdown would be the perfect time to begin re-reading this old favourite. From the perspective of Manon Gaudet, Valerie Martin creates an intense plot involving the events of a wife who is intelligent, yet unhappily married and incredibly bitter. Property is a short novel set in 1828 discussing the life revolving around a sugar plantation owned by Manon’s husband. Gradually, tension builds with the possibility of a slave rebellion. Martin is ungenerous and provides readers with small sections of detail through the first parts of the novel, however this particular narrative strand grows increasingly more threatening, building up to the climax. The events of the novel successfully interweave themes of marriage, racism and oppression, culture, infidelity, violence, murder, feminism and class structure. The infusion of these contrasting topics throughout the narrative ultimately creates an atmosphere of deliberate chaos as well as strife for Manon. However, although the protagonist, she is not created to be a likable character overall so readers are not necessarily routing for her success. With so many different elements, this is a novel that has given me huge insight into many different aspects that can affect people in life, as well as being a thoroughly interesting read.
5/5
Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and other lies curated by Scarlett Curtis
A book that celebrates feminism, FEMINISTS DON’T WEAR PINK and other lies is both intriguing and informative. Expressing the harsh, humorous and truthful reality of the life of a female, this is a book that I believe should be on everyone’s bookshelf. Incorporating a mixture of real-life experiences, poetry and detailed information, readers are invited to not only form opinion, but also to explore further (particularly in the section titled “our shared shelf”). There is a varied mixture that grants representation to many different women with inputs from famous females, female businesses owners and everyday women such as single mums. A section that particularly struck me as of importance was “My Feminism” written by Saoirse Ronan as I found it specifically relatable to my own life.
4/5
A Tale of Two Cities curated by Charles Dickens
Revolving around the events occurring within London and Paris in the late 18th century, A Tale of Two Cities is a classic Dickins novel that talks about life before and during the French revolution. It is a novel full of unforgiving description in true Dickins style and from this, a tone of relentless misery is achieved. With strong, dominant male leads, this novel is one that allowed me to consider different aspects of masculine differences. With Darnay being honourable there is a direct contrast and full inverse when considering the rude and unfiltered Carton. With intense language and structure, this novel is one that requires a perseverance, however the overall plot and the surprising yet satisfactory outcome makes it a worthwhile read. Finishing this novel drove me to discover more about the events occurring in France during this time.
20
3/5
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Gifted to me during lockdown by a close friend, Call Me By Your Name is a novel that explores the deep tension and romance between a young man named Elio, and Oliver who is a house guest for the summer. With a beautiful setting of the Italian Riviera, Aciman is intelligent when creating an intense and heavy atmosphere that parallels with the humidity experienced by the characters. The narrative involves topics of literature, desire, a struggle of expression, intimacy and self-discovery. It is a novel that is crafted to easily but unsuspectedly pounce on readers emotions. The obvious themes of this genre are explored with aspects of poetry, obsession and hidden love all taking prominent narrative strands. By stripping an idyllic relationship down to raw and untarnished emotions, readers become immersed into a world of hope, love and despair which produces an incentive to continuously turn the page. The events that the characters endure are bold and this romance novel is one that successfully interweaves genre conventions and adventurous subversions. I would label this as the perfect summer read due to the gripping content as well as the stunning syntax present from cover to cover.
4/5
The Green Mile by Stephen King
An author that does not appear in huge quantities on my book shelf, King writes this novel to involve itself with horror, fantasy, mystery and crime. When reading I was presented with an exciting opportunity to consider themes of race, violence and institutional expectations in 1935. An element I enjoyed was the fact that the story is told in the style of a ‘flashback’ by Paul Edgecomb, who is elderly and living within a nursing home. He expresses the events so vividly that readers are effectively transported to live alongside the drama. The parallel between the characters of Percy Wetmore and Brad Dolan struck me as significant as they are both men who are ignorant, corrupt and power hungry. These men, although immensely unlikable, are incredibly interesting, as King places them in positions of care and also power. Their constant maltreatment of others includes an eery and concerning atmosphere full of tension. It is through this, King is able to make readers aware of the pace of the novel, and also inject a fear of ‘time running out’ as we expect them to cause harm through their radical actions. Another section to note, is the suffering Paul endures from the loss of his wife which is tainted with the unanswered narrative strand of whether it really was John Coffey’s silhouette in the distance. This leads to an emotion of pain for Paul as he remains behind in a world where unanswered questions are all he has left. For me, this book is now one of my favourites, mainly due to its truthful and savage storytelling which is interwoven with suffering and misery.
4/5
Dancing by the Light of the Moon by Gyles Brandreth
The style that Brandreth writes creates an informative and riveting text. The first chapter opens with the poem “The Owl and the Pussy-cat” by Edward Lear, and the childhood memories that resurfaced whilst reading pushed me into a page turning frensy. With poems littered throughout the sections, the combination of analysis and opinions invites a sense of debate and creates opportunity to form personal judgement. It is a book that I found questioned some of my own initial interpretations of poems, and the challenge of finding an answer was captivating. The regular inserts of information surrounding the positive impacts of consuming and learning poetry is something that not only informed me, but also inspired me to widen my breadth of poetry knowledge.
Me by Elton John
An autobiography which is hilarious yet sincere, this text enlightened me into understanding the life of one of my idols. A relatively simple read that saw me through the end of the summer holidays, Me discusses elements of Elton John’s life that are unrestrained to any boundary. Moving in a chronological order from childhood to old age, all of the great events of his life are interestingly described from an insider point of view. Stemming from my reading, I moved on to watch the 2019 film ‘Rocketman’, which was a true delight.
3/5
3/5
SCRIBBLE
EDUCATING DAUGHTERS by Joanna Jepson
F
Shrewsbury High School is celebrating its 135th year of helping girls take their place among the top ranks of society. We delved into the archives to find out how much has changed.
rom its humble beginnings in Clive House on College Hill, SHS has set out to instil great ambitions in its pupils.
of the Girls’ Public Day School Company opening the school, rather than the Church Schools’ Company, but fears were soon allayed.
The school officially opened on May 5, 1885. Thirty one girls enrolled under the headship of Miss Edith Cannings, newly arrived from Croydon High School. She arrived in Shrewsbury with a very large and very noisy dog Hako (‘Hush, hush Hako’ became a proverbial saying in the staffroom!). Nineteen juniors were admitted a week later and fees were just two pounds per term for juniors and five pounds for seniors. There was initially some opposition to the idea
Advertisements from those early days stress the focus on ‘intelligent advancement’. By 1893, there were three High
SHS Staff c.1887
22
School girls studying at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Academic subjects offered were largely in-keeping with school today – with the addition of Botany and Natural History. Drawing, needlework, dancing and singing were timetabled in the afternoons and rounders, tennis, drill and calisthenics kept the girls
Miss Cannings
SCRIBBLE
Our School through the ages: Above, Science in 1906, 1960s and today, left alumnia Mary Beard and below Mary during her SHS days, and right, drama in the 1900s and a recent production of Chicago which was performed at Theatre Severn.
in good health. Mathematics was added to the timetable in 1886 and all three sciences by 1900. A photograph from this era depicts a well kitted-out laboratory presided over by a female science teacher. Subjects for Kindergarten pupils from this period included ‘sticklaying’, ‘button-laying’ and ‘paper twisting’. The Admissions log shows some remarkable successes from this era; Anne Askew Woodall was the first girl to graduate from university – the daughter of a draper from Stafford, Anne lived with an aunt in Shrewsbury in order to attend school from age 14 – 18. She left in 1890 to study the Mathematical Tripos at Cambridge and served as headmistress at Milton Mount College in Kent until her death in 1926. Daisy Gladys Scott left SHS in 1902 to study for a BSc at University College Liverpool,
The Shrewsbury Chronicle of 1885 suggested that all those who valued their daughters’ education would likely welcome the opening of Shrewsbury High School, since it would help those girls ‘take their place among the foremost ranks of their fellow countrywomen’. going on to publish a raft of papers and work as an assistant lecturer in Botany. And Dr Esther Harding (1899 to 1907), daughter of a dental surgeon who lived at Acton House, Kingsland, was the first High School pupil to train as a doctor. The family was progressive – with only daughters, the focus was on educating the girls to the highest possible level.
23
Esther graduated from the London School of Medicine for Women in 1914. She would go on to study Psychiatry under Carl Jung, becoming a psychoanalyst in New York and publishing a pioneering work on the feminine psyche The Way of all Women among others. Entries in the leather-bound log are made in beautiful calligraphy – a quick glance of the parents’ professions suggests girls joined from a cross-section of society; there are corn merchants, wine importers, hop merchants, mining engineers, drapers, tanners, surgeons and solicitors – reflecting much the same parental demographic as today. Reasons for leaving were often given as ‘delicate health’, or worst still, ‘death’ and there are some amusing exemptions given – notably ‘drawing’. The very first pupil listed was one Amy Gertrude
SCRIBBLE
“Resilience to failure is our most powerful tool. That’s what’s lovely about Shrewsbury High, it’s that the people who are sitting around you now who will always have your back. Ten years after leaving Shrewsbury High, when I fall down, when I fail, these girls pick me up. So Shrewsbury High School girls don’t need to be afraid of failing because we have each other.” Amy Williams, SHS Alumna and Founder of Good-Loop
HRH Princess Louise Attfield, a corn merchant’s daughter from 50 Belle Vue, Shrewsbury, who joined aged 13. Despite the progressive nature of the school, staff in the early years were most decidedly ‘Misses’ – and would leave their jobs as soon as they married. The school grew quickly and Murivance House was purchased on Town Walls in 1896, with all 105 pupils moving in to a purpose built school the following year. The official opening was conducted by HRH Princess Louise (daughter
of Queen Victoria and Patron of the Girls’ Public Day School Company). Uniform was initially not formalised – boaters topped white blouses and dark skirts. In an article for the school magazine, Joyce Haseler, who joined in 1911 and stayed on as a teacher until 1941, recalled the epoch of the hobble skirt. Girls played hockey and did drill and lunges with skirts ‘lifted to their knees’. Joyce described the science room as a ‘source of wonder’ and recalled breaking
24
the rules by climbing onto a glass roof and cutting her initials on the desks, adding perhaps somewhat hypocritically: “We were not so constantly tiresome in little ways as many of you are and our manners were usually better”! During the First World War, girls sent socks and mittens to Shropshire battalions and jam to sailors and raised money for the YMCA and Local Belgian Relief Fund. The school closed for nearly three weeks in October 1918 during the influenza outbreak.
SCRIBBLE
saw the new House system introduced: Cannings, after the school’s first headmistress, Gurney, Hallam, Magnus, Somerville and Stanley after benefactors and friends of the school. Gradually, through the 1970s to the present day, new buildings were acquired and built along Town Walls, to provide: a sixth form house, new gymnasium, science buildings, a performing arts studio, purpose built library and new sports hall. In 2008, the Junior school merged with Kingsland Grange Prep School. Modern alumnae include the English scholar and classicist Dame Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge and Amy Williams, Founder & CEO of Good Loop ethical advertising tool, listed in the Forbes ’30 Under 30’. A gem in the archives is Mary’s article for the school magazine in 1967 about her time at the trampoline club – her biting sarcasm belies her very bright mind: “I could write about _____ and be sued for libel,” she says! “I leave you with the words of Mon General: ‘Vive le trampoline!’ ‘Vive le trampoline!’ ‘Vive le trampoline libre!’
SHS Guildes adopted a British Prisoner of War in Germany sending him regular parcels. Ilustration from our archives 1941
Long serving headmistress Miss Gale (1907-1935) presided over the school during these turbulent times; there is a dedication to her headship in the library window. Evacuees from London and Merseyside were enrolled at SHS during the Second World War, along with Jewish refugees from Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia. A nettle collection was started in response to a national appeal for nettles for the purpose of dyeing camouflage. Books and magazines were collected for the school’s ‘adopted’ merchant navy ship, SS Twickenham. When the ship docked at Plymouth, the captain had one of its lifebuoys painted in SHS colours! This was sent to the school after the war and hung in the Old Hall for many years.
Also an SHS pupil was Hilda Murrell, a British rose grower, naturalist, diarist and campaigner against nuclear power who was abducted and found murdered five miles from her Shropshire home in 1984. This is an abridged and adapted version of a wonderful history of the school compiled by archivist Librarian Alex Hale.
Next Scribble Edition SHR EWSBUR Y H IGH SCH OOL
Charity efforts continued after the war – in 1949, girls collected 1409 eggs for the Shirlett Sanatorium!
Zeitgeist Club lague,
It was in 1959 that SHS took over ‘‘Stepping Stones’ preparatory school on Kennedy Road in Kingsland and merged it with its junior department. The autumn term
25
P in Times of Being Alive s Darknes Unrest and
in Room 9 Wednesday 1.10
Lecture Series ...
30th September - discussion 7th October led by Mr Aldridge
SCRIBBLE
Is Happily Ever After Real?
H
by Aaina Jassel
appily ever after. A wellknown phrase used for years and years to describe the ending of a story. But just how happy is it? The phrase ‘fiction is fun’ comes to mind when I think of a ‘perfect’ ending because that is exactly what it is, fiction. Yet how do these endings set us up for life? Do they give us unrealistic expectations? Or are they simply just a way to escape our own reality?
Stephanie Perkins. Over the course of this novel it’s a typical girl meets boy, they go through obstacles, big fight and then a romantic gesture which fixes everything. The end of this novel seems to suggest that this couple will last forever when in reality roughly 14% of people marry someone they met in school. Alongside this as soon as the couple get back together all their other problems seem to fade away and disappear leaving the perfect happily When we read fiction books we can get ever after we’re so familiar with. consumed by the stories, the clichés and mainly the way everything resolves in Parallel to Perkins novel, The Sun is the end, creating the perfect ending in also a Star by Nicola Yoon follows a standalone novels or in those part of a similar pattern. In this novel the girl and series. The first novel to showcase this boy meet for just one day and manage is called Anna and the French Kiss by to fall in love. As soon as that day is
26
SCRIBBLE
over, the two of them part ways as the girl leaves the county. They lead separate lives for almost 10 years when a random lady, the girl and the boy all happen to be on the same flight. When the lady sees the girl, she goes to thank her about something that happened 10 years ago. The statistics of meeting someone you met once after such a long time is very low. This is when the boy realises that the girl is on the flight as well and the love, apparently, all comes back. In reality circumstances would’ve completely changed these feelings as both the girl and the boy would’ve moved on and only 1/50 people actually find love on an aeroplane. These kinds of endings, the happy conclusive kind, allow us to escape our own reality. They let us explore a universe where love and fate can triumph despite everything being against it which is perhaps why they are so popular; so that the reader can feel more at peace with what has happened inside the fictional world as opposed to the chaos of our reality.
before it breaks down and 40% of them end with a break up. Most people find that until they have found themselves they cannot enter a committed relationship and be happy.
To challenge these seemingly ‘perfect’ endings there are the endings which are more realistic. These endings show life as it is, with flaws and problems. In romance novels for example these are the ones where the couple don’t get together at the end or if they do get together, there are still problems that they face and they understand that they might not last forever. The first novel that shows this is It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne. Throughout this novel the protagonist is fighting against love and clichés yet every cliché in the entire romance universe has been thrown in forcing her to make decisions. At the end, after the big romantic gesture, she decides to not take the boy back as she was moving away for a drama school and she couldn’t forgive him for what happened. In this specific novel the girl is left realising that she needs time to get to know herself; that her happily ever after isn’t with a boy but with herself. This is so much closer to the truth of real life where a romantic gesture doesn’t always work and say she did take him back they’d be in a long-distance relationship. The average long-distance relationship only lasts 4.5 months
This I feel is the closest to real life out of all the novels I’ve read because it is just so true. One moment can change your life completely and you have to learn from it and then bring all you’ve learnt into the rest of your life.
Another novel ending which demonstrated this is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This novel is about a girl who balances her two different lives, school and home, to fit in but one day something happens which changes her forever. She has to speak out and the ending reflects how she’ll continue this journey. The ending embraces that this isn’t really the end, that there will be trouble along the way and that she can’t be quiet anymore. The last lines of the novel say: “Khalil, I’ll never forget. I’ll never give up. I’ll never be quiet. I promise.”
All these endings match their novel. Each novel has a different tone such as if the girl and boy got together at the end of It Only Happens in the Movies then it would contradict the whole novel and even the title but in the novel The Sun is also a Star if the boy and girl never met again, as a reader it would feel incomplete as if the story wasn’t over yet. Even though we all want to have the happy ending with all our problems fading away perhaps the endings we need are those flawed, almost inconclusive endings. Do we need more realistic ending for novels or are we ok with these unrealistic expectations which keep us hoping for something more? Maybe happily ever after is what we’ve all been waiting for, after all that is the perfect ending.
27
S C R I B B L E Independent Day School 32 Town Walls I Shrewsbury I Shropshire I SY1 1TN I 01743 494000 www.shrewsburyhigh.gdst.net scribble_magazine_shs
Shrewsbury High School
scribble_shs
