I was not defacing, I was sending lovely messages of friendship and companionship. At least I didn't do anything to your work! And it's a nice surprise when you go to retreive your work!
Good luck with your exams!
(Oh, and good effort on the defacing!)
Why was Agrippina killed?
• Introduction: o Poppaea’s jealously o Nero’s resentment o Agrippina’s interference in Roman politics • Personal motives • Poppaea: o ‘While Agrippina lived, Poppaea saw no chance of his divorcing Octavia and marrying her,’ –Tacitus, XIV, 1 o ‘Poppaea succeeded in convincing Nero that the only obstacle to the divorce of Octavia and their own marriage was Agrippina’ –Garzetti o ‘The most we can safely say…is that Poppaea’s pleading may have been a contributing factor’ –Holland o ‘The advent of Poppaea was merely the final piece that caused everything to fall into place…she [Poppaea] merely told him what he wanted to hear.’ –Bauman • Nero’s resentment: o ‘he concluded that wherever she was, she was intolerable,’ -Tacitus o ‘a desperate act by Nero to liberate himself from the psychological domination of his mother and enjoy…the fruits of autocratic power,’ –Warrington o ‘She could give her son the empire, but could not endure him as emperor.’ –Tacitus o ‘The over-watchful, over-critical eye that Agrippina kept on whatever Nero said or did proved more than he could stand.’ -Suetonius • Political motives o ‘he determined to put an end to her ambitions forever’ –Salmon o ‘her threats and violent behaviour terrified him into deciding she must die’ -Suetonius o ‘he rebelled against subservience, while unwittingly submitting to it’ –Bauman • Conclusion o Combination of all factors o Nero, Poppaea, Agrippina all to blame
Evaluate the significance of Agrippina’s marriages in her rise to prominence.
• Intro o Marriages increased personal wealth, prestige, power, for herself and Nero o ‘there is nothing she will not sacrifice for imperial ambition-neither decency, nor honour, nor chastity.’ –Narcissus, in Tacitus • Gn. Domitius Ahenobarbus o ‘Ahenobarbus, a man described by Suetonius as detestable in every aspect of his life, but who, all the same, enjoyed a distinguished lineage.’ –Barrett o ‘Tiberius had personally entrusted…Agrippina to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus…Domitius was a man of ancient family and a blood-relation of the Caesars.’ -Tacitus o Aristocratic, prestigious, wealthy o Grandson of Antony; increased Nero’s ties to aristocracy • Gaius Sallustius Crispus Passienus o ‘Juvenal…relates that he was poisoned by Agrippina, greedy for the rich inheritance that would go to her son.’ –Syme o ‘His capital is estimated by Suetonius at 200 million HS, a large fortune. The marriage was fortune for Agrippina. Passienus was a man of influence, who became consul for the second time in 44.’ –Griffin o ‘The large fortune that Agrippina inherited from Crispus put her in a position to buy political support in high places, and she patiently built up a network of influential friends committed to Nero’s interest.’ –Holland o ‘Her passion to acquire money was unbounded. She wanted it as a stepping stone to supremacy.’ –Tacitus o Wealthy, aristocratic, influential o His fortune helped gain power and prestige for Agrippina and Nero after his death • Claudius o ‘One consequence of Agrippina’s rise was that those who had insulted her in the past disappeared from view for the next ten years: they included Galba and Vespasian.’ –Weidemann o ‘The aim of putting her son forward for the succession was pursued energetically by Agrippina as soon as she was married to Claudius.’ –Garzetti o ‘She was more than just the wife of the emperor, but acted as a political power in her own right.’ –Alston o ‘From this moment the country was transformed. Complete obedience was accorded to a woman…This was a rigorous, almost masculine despotism.’ -Tacitus o ‘As soon as Agrippina had come to live in the palace, she gained complete control over Claudius. Indeed she was very clever at making the most of her opportunities, and partly by fear and partly by favours, sh won the devotion of all those who were friendly towards him…She was amassing wealth for him [Nero], overlooking no possible source of revenue.’ –Dio Cassius o ‘Agrippina used her influence over Claudius not only to consolidate Nero’s claims, but also to enhance her own position.’ –Bauman o ‘The next few years, the last ones of Claudius, saw the growing power of Agrippina, who acted like a genuine empress.’ –Garzetti o Marriage gained personal power for Agrippina o Placed Nero in succession o Allowed Agrippina to dispatch her rivals • Conclusion o Marriages gained successively greater influence and power for Agrippina through wealth and patronage, through links with Rome’s aristocratic families
Legal Studies Practice Essay
Assess the effectiveness of various forms of legal measures in achieving justice, with reference to at least one current criminal justice issue. You may refer to any of the examples of the current criminal justice issues listed below, or any other current criminal justice issue. (12 marks)
• Anti-terror laws • Mandatory sentencing • Majority verdicts • Trial by media • Death penalty • The right to silence
Sources:
http://www.unolympics.com/humanrights/mandatory.shtml http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id294/pg1/ http://www.hreoc.gov.au/speeches/social_justice/mandatory_sentencing.html http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr040400.pdf http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s115654.htm
The use of mandatory sentencing practices in the Northern Territory from 1997 to 2001, and the application of similar laws in Western Australia, led to considerable public controversy and outcry. These laws, known colloquially as ‘three strikes laws’, may have hindered the effectiveness of discretionary sentencing, the application of mitigating circumstances, and the prison system in achieving justice, through the application of inappropriate penalties which have led to effects more adverse than would exist in a just situation.
In a legal sense, mandatory sentencing is the procedure whereby judicial discretion regarding certain crimes and in certain cases is restricted by law. In an Australian context, it has been taken to refer to the procedures applied in the Northern Territory, under the governments of Shane Stone and Denis Burke, whereby mandatory sentences from one month to one year for the third offence relating to property and theft were introduced. These matters gained national attention after the death in custody of Johnno [sic] Warramarrba in February 2001, who committed suicide after having stolen $90 worth of stationary. The outcry gained a dismissive response from Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke, who claimed ‘there will always be deaths in custody’.
However, this populist response ignores the fact that reducing judicial discretion in minor cases also reduces the capability to introduce just solutions for rehabilitation and prevention. The prison system has been accused of encouraging criminal behaviours in the past, as its inmates become alienated from society and, through differential association with other criminals, develop criminal behaviours at a faster rate. This seems utterly at odds with the comparatively minor crimes most frequently punished by mandatory sentencing, especially juveniles, and can lead to tragic consequences wholly unbefitting the nature of their actions. Peter Andren has stated that: ‘a crime should be punished based on the degree of that crime and the circumstances’, a distinction which mandatory sentencing does not allow. By removing any scope for debate or for consideration of circumstances, mandatory sentencing prevents judicial discretion and thus obstructs justice. Andren continues by stating ‘mandatory sentencing with no discretion to the magistrate or the judge is an entirely counterproductive exercise.
Mandatory sentencing legislation also reduces the effectiveness of discretionary sentencing through its applicability to juveniles, and through the reduction of the role of mitigating circumstances in general in the sentencing process. Prime Minister John Howard has stated that ‘We [the federal government] have particular concerns about the operation of the mandatory sentencing laws of the Northern Territory as far as they affect juveniles,’ presumably reacting to the outcry after Jamie Wurramara was sentenced to one year in jail for stealing $23 worth of biscuits. Mandatory sentencing for juveniles, without judicial discretion, can lead to drastic consequences. For juveniles, second-strike offences under the NT sentencing laws were punished by mandatory sentences of 28 days in jail, regardless of the scale of their crime or mitigating circumstances. This disproportionate response can disrupt a juvenile’s study, lead to a loss of job opportunities, lead to a sense of anomie, expose the youth to criminal influences they would not otherwise encounter, and lead to disillusionment and distrust of the system, often without serving to deter future occurrences. Such a system also breaches the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that courts should have the best interests of the child as the primary consideration, and that detention of a child must be the last resort, and for the shortest possible time. Senator Bob Brown has stated that ‘the Prime Minister of this country …must lead in overruling this iniquitous system…which, at the heart of it all, is wrong, because it destroys and damages kids -- the future of this country.’ In causing psychological trauma to children through its hindrance of the effectiveness of discretionary sentencing, mandatory sentencing leads to unjust outcomes often wholly unbefitting the situations to which they are applied. In his defence, Denis Burke argued on Four Corners that ‘I could mount an argument that some of those cases have been specifically set up to try and embarrass the mandatory sentencing laws.’ This argument is spurious and based not on facts, but on paranoia.
Mandatory sentencing also serves to hinder the effectiveness of the prison system as a deterrent. Under the Australian system, imprisonment is used as a measure of last resort, being hugely expensive to maintain and with regards to differential association theories amongst prisoners. Under mandatory sentencing, however, juveniles and adults alike are imprisoned after second and third-strike offences indiscriminately, despite often having committed minor crimes that may not otherwise warrant such a sentence. By reducing the exclusivity of the prison system, mandatory sentencing may serve to degrade its status as ‘the last resort’, instead resulting in increased strain on the capabilities and resources of the prison system. The increased prison population as a result would lead to worsened conditions, and reduction of the possibility of rehabilitation. As such, rather than reducing crime by functioning as a deterrent, mandatory sentencing would merely serve to hinder the effectiveness of the prison system in achieving justice by serving to reduce its capability to prevent future crimes, through obstructions to rehabilitation.
In conclusion, mandatory sentencing, during its four-year implementation in the Northern Territory, served to hinder the effectiveness of various legal measures, such as discretionary sentencing, the citing of mitigating circumstances, and the prison system in achieving justice, through its arbitrary and ineffective nature. Mandatory sentencing, especially when applied to juveniles, merely lead to-and would lead to, if applied again in the future-higher prison populations, psychological damage to those sentenced under it, and the obstruction of the possibility of rehabilitation. Hazel Lalara said in an interview with Four Corners, ‘We'll be losing our young people. We'll be losing our people. We'll be losing our culture’ due to mandatory sentencing as applied from 1997 to 2001, and little evidence has been presented to deter this from happening were such laws to be ever implemented again.
Hi Regent!! edit
Lookie, I made an account too! And now I'm defacing yours... I've already added to one entry (Sleuth (computer game))! I never knew mucking around on Wiki could be so much fun! This is Melethiel, by the way.
English Extension 2 Seminar edit
Good morning children. Today I am here to talk to you about the use of Polish literary metaphors, pioneered by the Kazakh accountant Valery Toliakov with particular emphasis on the use of dialectical symbolism to reinforce dualist metaphors concerning the Taoist beliefs of little-known Armenian director Frunzik Bashinjagyan, as used in the 1923 Czechoslovakian play Zorka, which concerns the obscure Kiev-Novgorod Wars of the early ninth century.
Nah, nah, I kid. What I’m here to talk about today, kids, is the future. I see before us our cities laid waste, our countryside aflame, our nation under the yoke of brutal oppression. I see a land blasted by comets and reduced to ashes by mushroom clouds in the sky. I see demonic armies raging across the land and I see an entire planet purged of the filth of life. I bring good tidings of the TRIUMPH OF DEATH!
As it turns out, I’m not here to talk about that, either. No, what I’m here to talk about is…
In The Beginning: An Analysis of the Opening Scene and Titles
• The opening sequences of your story can be used to: o Gain the audience’s attention o Introduce the vital themes of the story o Set out the context of your story o Establish a ‘voice’ (when using a first person narration) o With critical analyses, introduce the topic and provide a basic overview of the subject • As such, the way your text begins is very important in establishing audience interest, and in setting the tone for the events which follow.
The Title
This is, in most cases, the first thing the audience see of your story. It’s your first chance to make an impression. As such, a plethora of puns and an avalanche of allusions (alliteration’s common, too) have been featured in titles over the years. In today’s seminar, I’ll focus on four texts; three novels, one essays. Through comparison and contrast, we can gain a greater understanding of the techniques involved as a whole.
• Pride and Prejudice: Alliterative and simple, this title effectively sums up the basic themes of the novel. It’s catchy, memorable, and unpretentious; you get a basic feel for what the novel will be like, through the themes it presents in the title. • The Catcher in the Rye: Using metaphors in your title can often be dangerous; a common problem with Extension 2 Major Works is a tendency towards pretension. The metaphor used here, explained within the novel, is simple and appropriate. The title is undeniably memorable. • The Fellowship of the Ring: Less effective than the previous two titles. Of course, this title has to be understood in that it’s part of a trilogy, and thus shouldn’t have to provide much information; however, it must be admitted that it’s not the most instantly appealing title. The actual words ‘fellowship of the ring’ are not said in the novel until halfway through. The title is effective in that it is an unmistakeably ‘fantasy’-sounding name, thus identifying the genre. • Girt by Sea: Mungo MacCallum’s Quarterly Essay on Australian refugee policies is immediately distinguished by its title, referencing the infamous line from the national anthem. It identifies Australia as the subject, it is moderately witty with regards to the subject matter, and it is simple and memorable.
The Opening Line
The ‘hook’ is vital towards establishing audience attention. A dull, pedestrian beginning, in either a critical response or a story, will merely serve to ward off their audience. On the other hand, a witty, well-written opening line can serve to instantly gain audience attention. Of course, you can’t try to do too much in your opening line, or you’ll just end up rambling. It needs to be short, sharp, and to the point. Don’t worry about trying to establish too much; after all, it’s just one of hundreds of lines in the story.
• ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ The classic opening line, from Pride and Prejudice; it establishes the social attitudes present within the novel and shows complacency of Regency social mores; the irony of ‘universally acknowledged’, subtly mocking social conventions, also creates humour, which draws the reader further into the work. By modern standards, though, it’s probably rather too formal; unless if you’re trying to create a nineteenth-century context, the time of such a traditionalist opening line has passed.
• ‘If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of ****, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.’ Despite my dislike for Catcher in the Rye in general, it can’t be denied that this is a very effective opening line. In just 64 words, Holden swears, establishes facts about his childhood, his parents, and his generally misanthropic character. From reading that line, you instantly get a sense of what kind of person Holden is-which, incidentally, is one of the major reasons I can barely get past that line. The problem is that it’s rather a blatant info-dump, disguised as opposition to social norms; Holden establishes the very things he’s trying not to establish. Even cloaked in teen angst, this line breaks the cardinal rule of ‘show, don’t tell’. However, it is very well-written, and the unique ‘voice’ of Catcher in the Rye, established here, is instantly recognisable and idiosyncratic.
• ‘When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.’ The opening line of Fellowship of the Ring is perhaps the utilitarian variant. We establish Bilbo’s age, the location, and the event. The use of strange words (‘eleventy-first’, ‘Hobbiton’) adds a fantastical element to the proceedings, to establish the context. It must be admitted that it’s not the most engaging line for a new reader; it’s dense, formal, and rather dumps the reader in the deep end. However, it’s often good to create confusion as to characters and setting, to encourage your readers to continue.
• ‘The first boat people to arrive in Australia seeking permanent residence probably did so some 40 000 years ago; we say probably because some authorities believe that the Aborigines walked over a land bridge from the Indonesian peninsula.’ For those of you doing critical analyses, this is the first line from Girt by Sea. MacCallum establishes the topic of his essay, subverts our expectations, subtly mocks anti-refugee advocates (by showing that boat people were our original inhabitants), and uses official terminology (‘permanent residence’) in an entirely unofficial context. It’s a brilliant opening line.
The Introduction
In both a critical response and in a story, this is crucial. In fact, an entire story can be determined by how it begins. A terrible opening scene or introduction, over-long, confusing, and badly written, can turn someone off a story or essay forever. Conversely, a well-written, intriguing opening scene is vital to creating a successful story.
Of course, how does one ‘define’ an opening scene? Is it just the first paragraph? Is it the first few pages? Is it until the first major plot development? This varies from story to story; some texts dispense with their introduction in a few paragraphs, some take much longer to establish context and characters.
• Pride and Prejudice: This novel, dating from an older literary tradition, has a rather more staid opening scene than is generally the norm today. Dialogue such as ‘you must know’ is used as an excuse for exposition on the characters and their circumstances. The first few pages serve as a dense introduction to the characters, their context, and the current situation, in a very comprehensive overview of much of what follows. However, the rise of more ‘naturalistic’ dialogue, as compared to the stilted, formal style of Pride and Prejudice, has rendered such an introduction rather too informative, as opposed to presenting a realistic depiction, and as such care must be taken to prevent such obvious exposition.
• The Catcher in the Rye: The opening scene is rambling, taking detours and vignettes rather than advancing the plot. This serves to build the ‘voice’, but also to establish the nature of Pencey, Holden’s former school. It sets out the reasons why Holden is expelled, thus establishing both the nature of his character and providing the impetus for the rest of the events of the novel. With a stream-of-consciousness structure, the extent to which ‘scenes’ exist in Catcher in the Rye can be debated; the particular subject of Holden’s ruminations continues for much of the first chapter, but establishment of themes and characters takes much longer. The scene can be seen as a very standard exposition of setting, context, characters and perspectives.
• The Fellowship of the Ring: The first scene of this novel is a classic of the form. It establishes that Bilbo is ‘very rich and very peculiar’, that he is elderly but ‘unchanged’, and that he has travelled in the past. It establishes the setting and the character in a clear, concise prose style. For example, ‘At ninety-nine they began to call him well-preserved; but unchanged would have been nearer the mark’ is at once humourous and matter-of-fact. The passage does not take the detours of The Catcher in the Rye nor does it use the over-elegant style of Pride and Prejudice.
• Girt by Sea: The introduction to Girt by Sea is a marked contrast to the other introductions in this section. Rather than introducing the situation, the protagonists, or MacCallum’s views, the section instead details a little-known refugee situation of yore, in which Australia aided a number of poor Italian farmers who had been press-ganged into forming a colony in Papua. This contrast is used to illustrate MacCallum’s point about the Howard government’s inhumane refugee policies, through comparing it to the success of past policies. This is a striking way of avoiding exposition, and yet at the same time making a strong point.
So, in conclusion, what have we discovered?
A good title often features:
• Memorability • Humour • Conciseness • Wordplay (alliteration, puns, etc)
A good opening line and introductions in general often feature:
• Humour • Establishment of context • Establishment of ‘voice’ • Establishment of character
However, it must be stressed that these are guidelines, not rules; every title and every opening scene is different, and rules can only take you so far.
Activities
Critical Analysis: Write the opening paragraph for an essay on a topic of your choice. Make it interesting to the reader through the use of stylistic techniques.
Short Story/Play: Write an opening paragraph to attract the attention of the audience. Use metaphors, humour, stylistic techniques, etc, to create meaning and interest.
Be as bold and creative as possible-use the writing techniques learnt in other seminars to create something distinctive and original.
English Extension 1 Speech
My topic today is appropriations of film noir crime fiction as applied to different genres. Sounds boring, huh? Guess again. Crime fiction isn’t like other genres; it can be applied across different genres, thus leading to interesting combinations; for example, crime fiction motifs can be found in science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and even romance, although that’s not an experiment anyone here wants to observe. It is this versatility and range that makes crime fiction such a fascinating genre, as there is literally an unlimited range of ideas. Today I aim to analyse how one particular subject of the crime fiction genre, ‘film noir’, has been used in different genres. To this purpose, I will analyse two texts: Blade Runner, by Ridley Scott, in the science fiction genre, and Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, in the fantasy and comedic genres. In doing so, I will show how the perspective provided by film noir allows for a greater examination of the genre as a whole. You’re encouraged to pay attention, and to note down elements of film noir identified within both texts.
There are three main questions we must ask: what is film noir, why do these texts qualify as film noir, and what is the fascination of film noir? Well, for starters, film noir is not a genre, despite the adamant declarations of many badly-researched texts. It is also not the same as hardboiled crime fiction, although the popularity of both during the early 1940s has led them to be inextricably linked. Film noir is a variety of techniques, conventions and motifs, which we can loosely describe as a ‘style’. The main feature of film noir is its attitude towards its protagonists and towards the world in general; it is generally cynical, sombre, and unremittingly dark. The…well, let’s just call it a ‘style’, for ease of reference, arose in American film in the 1940s, with the rise of a series of black-and-white, shadowy films distinguished by a number of recurring features: the antihero, a protagonist featuring villainous characteristics; antiauthoritarianism, where trusted institutions are mocked and portrayed as ineffectual; witty, sardonic dialogue, characterised by sarcasm and world-weariness; voice-over narration, through which we get an insight into the thoughts of the narrator; and, of course, the ever-present smoke machine and use of lighting and shadows, which is just one in a number of elements contributing to film noir’s shadowy, dark appearance on film. In short, film noir was a genre noted for cynicism, cruelty, world-weariness, and angst.
The obvious question is ‘why has such a bleak genre been so consistently popular?’ I hope that by analysing the use of film noir in texts of different genres, we can see how effective it is in each, and thus understand its popularity. Effectively, film noir’s popularity derives from the different perspective on the universe it provides in many texts; its nihilism, bleakness and cynicism allow for exploration of many deeper, darker themes than other ‘styles’. In Blade Runner and Guards! Guards!, this perspective, characterised by poverty, moral degradation and less clear-cut characters, is used to great effect for dramatic and even comedic purposes. Oh yes, and incidentally I’m going to be saying ‘this is why this is film noir’ a lot in this text; I think it was ten times, or something? This isn’t an apology, just an invitation to count along.
The first of my texts is Ridley Scott’s classic text of identity and the meaning of humanity, Blade Runner, a text chosen in no way because I’m doing it for English Advanced this year. Blade Runner is not only the archetypal science fiction film noir text, it is also the premier example of another series of conventions known generally as cyberpunk, a genre to which film noir bears some resemblance in its antiauthoritarianism, its cynicism and its bleak depiction of the world. The world in which Blade Runner is set, in the now somewhat anachronistic date of 2019, is in many ways the realisation of the bleak worldview of many of ‘traditional’ film noir’s protagonists. In short, whereas they see the world as a place of unremitting darkness, the world of Blade Runner actually is. Polluted, dark, infested by crime and vice, the dystopic vision presented in Blade Runner is a thoroughly negative view of city life, consistent with traditional film noir. A staple of these texts is the constant presence of darkness, shadows, and often smoke; the opening scene of Blade Runner, which I’m about to present on DVD, is a classic example of this.
See that? The city in Blade Runner seems to be eternally night. It is infested by commercialism and pollution. This is indeed a disturbing universe, entirely consistent with film noir’s idiosyncratic world view. These tie in with multiple tropes of the film noir style, used in homage; for example, in multiple scenes, light is shown shining through Venetian blinds to create a patterned shadow effect. The use of shadows and smoke are two of the most notable features of film noir. Neon is also a constant presence, in signs and lighting, giving an unsettling glow to the world at large.
No analysis of the use of film noir in Blade Runner would be complete without an examination of the film’s protagonist, Rick Deckard. Deckard has been overshadowed in recent decades by the so-called ‘replicant controversy’. To be brief, as it is a issue that has attracted conflicting opinions from Deckard’s actor, Harrison Ford, and the director, making it unsure where the truth lies, there is conflicting evidence within the text, not least an infamous but complex dialogue error stating there are six replicants on Earth while the film refers to only five, to whether Deckard, a man entrusted with hunting down any so-called ‘replicants’ (androids, in all but name), is himself a replicant. This controversy opens up a compelling psychological dilemma at the heart of the story, and plays into the typical film noir concept of the ‘flawed hero’, or antihero. In killing those who are of ‘the same kind’, Deckard’s very existence is a contradiction, in that he defies the law he seeks to uphold. This morally grey approach is perhaps one of the greatest appeals of film noir, in that it creates dramatic subtleties that would not be present otherwise. This is best displayed through the controversial symbolism of ‘the unicorn’. At one point, in the Director’s Cut, Deckard dreams of a unicorn, yet later in the film his police partner, Gaff, leaves an origami unicorn for him. This could be evidence of the manufactured nature of his experiences, thus opening questions of what is ‘real’ that reflect the existential tone of much of film noir; namely, questions of the purpose and meaning of life, leading to a cynical tone throughout much of the style. This tone is a direct reflection of the general existentialism of film noir, in that the film contains a primary mood of disillusionment, bleakness, paranoia and pessimism. At a time when the science fiction industry was dominated by entertaining but shallow tales such as Star Wars, this introduction of deeper moral ambiguity led to a revolution within the genre, with a greater focus on complex, angst-filled characters. As such, the blend of science fiction and film noir within the film leads to the introduction of new and fascinating elements to both.
Deckard lives alone, and acts in a generally cynical fashion; he is disillusioned with the law, tending towards a generally antiauthoritarian theme to the film. Law enforcement officials are shown to be inept, as in the murder of the interviewer by Leon in the beginning, while the wealthy live in high-tech environments wholly inconsistent with the world around them. In the theatrical cut, he eventually flees the city for a rather inconsistent ending where he escapes into a bucolic natural setting, but in the Director’s Cut the ending is much more ambiguous, showing only that he flees. This further ties into the film noir nature of the film, in that there is no happy ending. This can be contrasted with general trends within the science fiction genre as a whole, which has often been accused of an unjustly ‘utopian’ view of the world. The darker perspective provided by Blade Runner, in which poverty and environmental degradation are directly referenced and made an integral part of the film ‘universe’, has had a major effect on science fiction as a whole. As such, the introduction of film noir elements into science fiction has led to the development of the genre as a whole.
However, the most notable film noir feature of the film was removed in this cut; I speak of Deckard’s narration during the film, the removal of which caused much uproar. This narration gives us an insight into the tortured mind of Deckard, in which he questions his own actions and, essentially, gives us ‘his spin’ on the events taking place. This insight into the psychology of the protagonist, as well as the psychological complexity of the characters involved in the story, shares with film noir a tendency towards self-analysing, tormented characters. A key feature of film noir is not which people commit crimes, but why, and much of Blade Runner is concerned with this issue, by seeking to understand the violence and crimes of the replicants. A notable feature of both film noir and Blade Runner is the nihilistic viewpoints shared by many characters within their respective films, which is particularly emphasized by Roy, the film’s replicant antagonist. This viewpoint is characterised by a belief in the meaninglessness of existence, a somewhat brutal misanthropy or hatred, and a tendency towards sociopathy. This focus on the dark and inhumane side of human nature is not commonly a feature in science fiction, but is a classic staple of film noir; as such, the characterisation within Blade Runner has led to changes within the science fiction genre accordingly, with the growth of sophisticated and multidimensional characters. This viewpoint can be seen in film noir through the use of complex characters, thus threatening simple notions of ‘good’ or ‘evil’, through the often brutal nature of events involved (Blade Runner is particularly notable in this aspect), and through the general lack of ‘idealistic’ or ‘nice’ characters or features. This viewpoint is shared between Blade Runner and much of film noir, although crucially not with Guards! Guards!
Contrary to the bleakness of Blade Runner, Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards! is comedic in style and effect. Originally designed to showcase the expendable ‘city guards’ often featured in fantasy fiction for no reason beyond cheap fight scenes, the story evolves into a more detailed satire of the crime fiction genre as a whole. As such, the film noir features within the novel are somewhat exaggerated for the purposes of humour. As Guards! Guards! is a novel, rather than a movie, questions may be asked to what degree it can qualify as ‘film noir’, rather than hardboiled, as many of the stylistic features which make up ‘film noir’ will be diluted in a novel. To answer this, we must analyse the film noir genre itself. Although it began as a series of stylistic techniques, pioneered by German Expressionist and Italian Neo-Realist directors, it has became inextricably linked with certain character and more generally screenwriting motifs through the popularity of hardboiled and more general crime fiction during the era in which such thematic techniques were at their height. Therefore, the use of such motifs, including the flawed detective, the femme fatale, and the use of a psychologically complex crime story, in other mediums can constitute stories that are generally accepted as film noir. However, a subtle stylistic reference to film noir remains present:
‘Once, in the days when this had been a respectable district, some hopeful owner of the tavern next door had paid a wizard a considerable sum of money for an illuminated sign, every letter a different colour. Now it worked erratically and sometimes short-circuited in the damp. At the moment the E was a garish pink and flashed on and off at random.’ (p.68-69)
This is a reference to the common film noir cliché, whereby the detective’s office commonly has a flashing neon sign outside. The major way in which film noir is utilised in Guards! Guards!, however, is in the character of Samuel Vimes and in his general demeanour. He serves as an effective example of the amalgamation of film noir into a fantasy context, highlighting features of both genres. Sam Vimes is a nihilistic, depressive, class-conscious alcoholic, whose commitment to ‘not playing by the rules’ has left him effectively sidelined in the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. This tendency towards anti-authoritarianism and rebellion is the calling card of the film noir detective, and symbolises a deeper theme throughout the whole ‘style’, namely that it often highlights a peculiarly American resistance to authority, corruption, and social norms. Features of American history, such as the Revolutionary War, the colonisation of the west and the widespread idealisation of the Confederate States of America, may contribute towards this attitude within film noir. This may also suggest why the ‘style’ attracted such interest in the United States, but with relatively few successful variants in other countries. As such, even though his author is British, Sam Vimes serves as a pastiche of what is essentially an American archetype, and behaves in characteristically American, rather than British, manner. His dialogue and manner contain many allusions to earlier film noir characters. For example, his thought that ‘Of all the cities in all the world it could have flown into…it’s flown into mine,’ (p.135), which although it traces from Casablanca, a non-film noir movie, is obviously meant to serve as a homage to Humphrey Bogart and his archetypical film noir role, Sam Spade. Sam Vimes is unique in the fantasy genre, which has (somewhat unfairly) been depicted as a genre replete with stereotypical, one-dimensional stock characters; his genuine depth and self-doubt allow for a much more jaundiced perspective on the fantasy genre, allowing for a deeper, more meaningful story as a whole.
This perspective also allows for a ‘darker’ fantasy universe to many of the idealised, cookie-cutter contexts of stories. The Discworld is afflicted by poverty, corruption, absurdist criminal situations (for example, rather than making theft a crime, the Thieves’ Guild has been legalised and given set quotas) and a general nihilistic malaise. Far from the general unrealistic fantasy worlds, fantasy elements are incorporated into real-world problems; for example, pet dragons are used as the ultimate status symbol, and dwarves form ethnic ghettoes, encountering routine racism and discrimination. The classic ‘dystopic metropolis’ of film noir has been appropriated and given a fantastic façade in this novel, which serves as a satirical jab at standard, unrealistic fantasy cities, which seem to lack Ankh-Morpork’s ‘depth’. This is not only comedic, but also serves to give depth to a genre which is often characterised as rather shallow. So, by the appropriation of the traditional film noir ‘city’, Guards! Guards! manages to add depth to the fantasy genre.
The story echoes many of the standard tropes of film noir. After a poor, innocent thief is incinerated, Captain Samuel Vimes goes on an investigation to discover the culprit. The story contains such elements as an ineffectual, corrupt bureaucracy, a decadent upper class, a crime-stricken and hysterical metropolis, and a main character who, despite his flaws, stays to a strict moral code. Chandler’s The Simple Art of Murder, generally considered to codify the archetypes of hardboiled film noir, is referenced with the line: ‘And then he went out on to the streets, untarnished and unafraid (p.119)’, an almost direct paraphrase of Chandler’s original quote that "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." This quote can be seen as the main theme of the book, specifically with reference to the naïve innocent character of Carrot. Although in many areas the film noir elements in the book serve as a pastiche of the style as a whole, they also serve as legitimate plot elements within the book. This is perhaps best referenced in a scene from pages 175-179, where Vimes re-enacts a famous scene from Dirty Harry, armed only with a small dragon. This scene serves as a homage, but also serves to move along the plot by establishing character relationships, while integrating fantasy elements. As such, film noir and fantasy are combined, in a way which provides both entertainment and humour.
So, in conclusion, what have we learnt from this seminar? I hope I have provided a brief overview of the variety and versitality of film noir, as well as given an insight to the broadness of the fantasy and science fiction genres. By analysing film noir in different contexts, we can gain a greater understanding of both the style and the combined genres as a whole. For example, the use of film noir in a fantasy context in Guards! Guards! allows for a more interesting fantasy world as a whole, in that we analyse elements of poverty and social inequality which are primarily analysed by film noir. This same bleakness, which can be seen as perhaps the defining theme of film noir, is applied to the science fiction genre in Blade Runner. Film noir allows for a unique perspective on fictional worlds through archetypical characters and setting, which is demonstrated fully in Blade Runner and Guards! Guards! Thank you.
Your activity is hopefully rather straightforward; essentially, highlight elements of film noir used in either text. The final question involves what role these film noir elements play within the novel. It’s rather dull, yes, but so am I. You’re also encouraged to identify the use of film noir techniques in other, non-noir texts.
Film Noir In Science Fiction Activities
1. Identify examples of film noir techniques within Blade Runner.
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2. Identify examples of film noir elements within Guards! Guards!
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3. What do film noir styles and techniques contribute towards texts in other genres?
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4. Identify film noir techniques used in other texts you have encountered during your wide reading.
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A History of Crime Fiction
The Formative Years of Crime Fiction (1840-1920)
1841: ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’ by Edgar Allen Poe released. First locked-room mystery, first ‘classic’ use of fictional detective. Status as first crime fiction story disputed, but influence on later works undeniable. Poe called his crime fiction stories ‘tales of ratiocination’.
1887: First Sherlock Holmes mystery novel published, ‘A Study in Scarlet’. Holmes and his assistant, John Watson, prove extremely popular. Birth of crime fiction as ‘popular’ genre. Holmes’ stories have huge influence on later fiction.
1891: Sherlock Holmes presumed killed in ‘The Adventure of the Final Problem’. Public outrage forces his revival three years later. Evidence of growing public popularity of crime fiction.
The Golden Age of Crime Fiction (1920-1940)
1920: ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ by Agatha Christie introduces Hercule Poirot, and marks her first work in the genre. Generally accepted as beginning of Golden Age. Prototypical example of ‘cosy’ genre, marked by isolated location, small number of suspects, moral conclusion based upon personality flaws in criminal.
1923: ‘Whose Body?’, first story of Dorothy L. Sayers, published. She and her main protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey, would go on to play a major role in the development of Golden Age fiction.
1929: Ronald Knox, Golden Age author, defines the rules of Golden Age fiction. According to him, a Golden Age detective story:
"must have as its main interest the unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end."
These rules define the genre, and form the guidelines for British detective fiction for the next several decades. Genre becomes conventional, conservative, largely dominated by stereotypes of ‘Merrie England’ or traditional village life.
1930s-1940s: Height of Golden Age crime fiction. Genre is conventional, traditionalist, following clear rules. Agatha Christie recognised as ‘Queen of Crime Fiction’
Hardboiled/Noir Fiction (1920-1960)
1920: Black Mask founded. The magazine becomes the first launching point of film noir, publishing stories of a darker and more ‘realistic’ bent than the stylised British Golden Age stories.
1929: ‘Red Harvest’ published by Dashiell Hammett. Many formative elements of film noir contained within; as a reaction to stulifying, traditionalist Golden Age detective fiction, noir fiction noted for violence, immorality and antiheroes.
1930s: Exodus of directors from Germany; they bring new, modernist styles and techniques to film, leading to stylised techniques of film noir. First proto-noir films released.
1934: ‘Finger Man’ published by Raymond Chandler (later revised as first Philip Marlowe story). Conventions of genre in film established; femme fatale, corrupt authority figures, worldweary detective. Chandler’s works become emblematic of the genre, with the conventions established within Finger Man.
1939: Batman first appears, in Detective Comics #27. His psychological trauma, dark, shadowy imagery and exploration of the darker side of city life make him instantly popular, over many more ‘traditional’ heroes.
1941: ‘The Maltese Falcon’, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, released in theatres. Considered classic of film noir, with use of shadows, smoke, and stereotypical character traits. Future films often imitate ‘The Maltese Falcon’ for effect, leading to the growth of literary conservatism within the genre.
1940s-1950s: Film noir at its height in America, both in print (rise of paperback novels at this time) and in film (The Big Sleep, The Big Combo)
1959: Raymond Chandler dies. Film noir begins a decline in popularity, as new developments in crime fiction take place. New trends in film noir lead to the development of neo-noir.
1986: Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ reinvents Batman as the ultimate film noir antihero, with a near-psychotic approach to fighting crime. Even though the hardboiled genre has long since faded from the popularity previously enjoyed, DKR serves to reinvent the comic book genre, which comes to incorporate many more film noir elements.
Modern Crime Fiction (1950-modern day)
1951: ‘The Daughter of Time’, by Josephine Tey, released; it is later recognised by the Crime Writers’ Association to be the greatest crime novel of all time.
1951: ‘Dragnet’ is the first police procedural television series. This begins the decline of crime fiction in print, with television increasingly becoming the focus of the genre.
1952: ‘Last Seen Wearing…’ by Hillary Waugh released, the first police procedural novel. The novel marks the start of a subgenre which continues in popularity to the present day.
1950s-1970s: Golden Age genres, such as the ‘cosy’ and locked-room mystery, decline in popularity, with the rise of more complex character-based and hardboiled stories.
1973: ‘Police Story’, an anthology TV series, first airs. It sets many of the conventions of television crime fiction. Later shows, such as Law & Order (1990) and NYPD Blue (1993) largely continue to follow these conventions.
1975: Agatha Christie dies. Her last Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot novels, ‘Curtain’ and ‘Sleeping Murder’, are released. Although the Golden Age is recognised as ending decades before, this marks the decline of Golden Age genres from popular acclaim. Detective stories begin to metamorphose into crime stories in general, with less of a focus on the detective.
English Extension 1 Journal
Section One: A History of Crime Fiction & an Analysis of the Genre
Section Two: The Big Sleep
Section Three: The Skull beneath the Skin
Section Four: The Real Inspector Hound
Section Five: Additional Texts
• The Maltese Falcon (complete) • The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender
Section Six: Analytical Writing and Research
• Film Noir In Science Fiction (complete) • Political Subtext in Crime Fiction (complete)
Section Seven: Writing in the Style of the Genre
• Missed Opportunities (complete) • The Other (complete) • For Real This Time (complete)
Story One: Missed Opportunities
The rain hit the window like drops of water, slamming into a glass. Smoke curled from my cigarette, filling the room with…smoke. I gazed through bleary eyes at the room around me, with metaphors about sledgehammers and bloodshot whites noticeably failing to appear in my brain.
A lot of detectives think like they’ve got a thesaurus lodged in their brains. That might go some way towards explaining the way they act, too. I don’t have that luxury. When I see a woman, I don’t think of her as ‘a dangerous dame, the type men kill for’; I see an ordinary, nondescript female who some might find attractive. My name is Michael Brown (ordinary name, no?) and I have the rare distinction of being the most non-descript detective in history. I also collect miniature cars, and race them on weekends.
She came into my somewhat shabby but not noticeably decrepit office like a woman entering a not noticeably intriguing building, in the cesspit of crime and corruption they call Vaucluse. My secretary, whose lack of ‘sass’ or a comedic personality was more than made up for by her administrative competence, waved her through. She kept glancing over her shoulder throughout the interview, and her voice quavered. This may have meant she was frightened, or, as my more astute colleagues say, ‘in hot water and starting to fry’, but I made no such assumptions. For all I know, she had a nervous tic. I don’t discriminate.
‘Mr Brown, I presume?’ she asked, fluttering her eyelids in a manner that, while some might have found it comely, simply made it look like she hadn’t had enough sleep the night before. ‘Why indeed I am, my dear lady. And who do I have the honour of addressing?’ I don’t condone such terms as ‘dame’ or, horrifyingly, ‘babe’, especially to people I’ve just met. That would be simply rude. She stared at me curiously. (Not that it was a curious manner of staring, simply that she was curious. One must avoid misunderstandings). ‘What on Earth are you talking about?’ she snapped. ‘This is 2006, not the goddamn eighteenth century!’ ‘Madam!’ I shouted, outraged. I’ve always believed that even as a hardboiled, tough-as-nails detective, some decorum is required. ‘I’ll have you know such language is not tolerated in this office!’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Aren’t you a private detective? The long arm of the law? The last recourse of the desperate? He who walks these mean streets, untarnished and unafraid?’ ‘Well, yes,’ I replied, affronted. ‘But part of being ‘untarnished’ involves not taking recourse to that kind of language. I’ll have you know we keep a moral office here!’ ‘You’re smoking a cigarette’, she pointed out, archly. ‘Isn’t that meant to indicate you harbour no fear of death? That your clean-shaven appearance merely hides a darker soul beneath?’ I waved off the point irritably, unfortunately spraying ash as I did so. ‘It’s very hard to be ‘untarnished’ if I’m also meant to harbour a ‘darker soul’. And besides, not everyone who smokes is a hardboiled detective on the line between chaos and disorder, you know.’ It was all very logical, but she didn’t seem to take the point well. I was rather glad I didn’t bring up the alcoholism, which wasn’t so much the result of my moral decay or a troubled past but rather because I quite enjoyed the taste.
She got up, as if to leave. ‘Look, Mr Brown. I don’t care how you speak, or whether you seem to be stuck in some entirely different era to the rest of us. Can you investigate crimes? Can you act without fear or favour to defeat those who would fight against what is right? Can you, in short, hold your own in a fight?’ I gave the matter some thought. I was generally called upon for finding pets, that sort of thing; what she was talking about was rather out of my field. ‘Well…I suppose,’ I finally managed. She glared at me. ‘What do you mean, ‘I suppose’?’ she spat out. ‘Well, I do have other appointments’, I said mildly. ‘I’ve got Bridge on Wednesday, you know. I can hardly fight ruffians in rain-soaked alleys if I’m at the Catholic Club, can I?’
She stormed out, furious. I stared at the door for a few seconds, surprised by her reaction, and then quietly went back to my filing.
Later on, I discovered that my mystery visitor was part of an extensive crime syndicate running many of the sordid activities in this city, from bingo game rigging to the far more serious matter of bill posting. One of my far more glamorous colleagues got involved, seduced the girl, slammed an inordinate amount of people against brick walls, and finally confronted the criminals in an extensive gunfight in a warehouse in Parramatta. It did all sound rather exciting, but I’m rather glad I didn’t get involved. After all, like most detectives with glamorous and adventurous lives, he turned up in Sydney Harbour a week later filled with holes.
I may be boring, but I’m also consistently alive.
Story Two: The Other
Matthew Butler flexed his hands slowly. He had all the time in the world.
‘So tell me, Mrs Fysh, when did you first discover your neighbour was a communist?’
Fysh was an arrogant busybody, five foot five in high heels and yet ten metres tall in her own mind. She regarded the world with suspicion, constantly on the lookout for violations of her own high standards-not so much from moral opprobrium as from a chance to revel in her own immaculate value system.
‘Well, Inspector,’ she said, in a tone that cracked glass, ‘he always was the quiet type. I hear’-she leant in, obviously delighted at the prospect of airing such dirty laundry, ‘that he’s a vegetarian. Clearly not one of us. He never went to barbecues; never played sport; never watched the rallies. He just sat there and read all day. Like he was too good for us. Clearly subversive.’ Butler smiled sweetly. It was a talent of his. He could make people just open up, and spill their secrets. It saved having to use scalpels. ‘Thank you very much for your time, Ms Fysh.’
It was moments like this that made it all worthwhile. To be on the chase.
Butler was a born detective. Even from before the New Order, that same desire for justice, for order, had been a part of him. At school, he had thrived in the company of others; he lived for social interaction, and defined himself by how others saw him. He had always harboured an intense desire to be liked, to be normal, and to fit in; fighting crime was, from his perspective, the culmination of this. The punishment of dissidents, the re-establishment of order, the maintenance of civil society. When the New Order had been established and the old turbulence of democracy swept away, he had nearly cried with relief. Finally, all of society could embrace sweet, glorious conformity.
The suspect lived out in Area 6, a bland City 1 suburb. The signs were all white-washed; evidence of pre-New Order street names being wiped away. In a few years, there would be no evidence there had ever been an Australia before the New Order at all.
The houses were of a standard unimaginably luxurious by the standards of any previous generation; at least, that was what the New Order advertised, and why should anyone doubt them? Each building bore the telling signs of Neo-Speerist architecture: grey, imposing buildings featureless but for a sense of scale. Every street, every suburb was the same. Inside, grey little people lived grey little lives. Except for Mrs Fysh’s neighbour. Butler didn’t even bother to identify him with a name; he was an aberration, a cancer in the perfect society.
He lived in a house just like any other in Area 6. His front yard was concreted over. Against the concrete fence, there was a weed growing in between the cracks. Butler looked upon it with disgust. He knelt down, gently, and clutched its stem between thumb and forefinger. Then he yanked it out, violently. After all, he was a detective; he hunted weeds.
The door was unlocked. How could it not be? To lock one’s door was to shut oneself away from the world, to isolate oneself, and there bred difference. Abnormality. Butler knew the layout of the house just like he knew his own, and everyone else’s house. Inside, though, he suddenly felt sick. There were pictures on the walls. Of people. Why would you want to entertain yourself through abstractions of mud and water on canvas? To seclude oneself away and to indulge in such decadent pleasures was not merely abnormal. It was disturbed.
Butler found the suspect in the kitchen. He didn’t even have time to scream. Two shots and it was all over. Butler stood there for a moment, admiring his handiwork. Then he went to get a mop. The mess was rather distasteful.
It could be somewhat troubling, being a detective. But then again, what Butler did was no different to any of the work of Holmes, or Poirot, or any other man fighting against disorder throughout history. He simply worked on a larger scale. He fought against chaos, and uncertainty, and those who would flaunt the social norms. Wasn’t that what police work had always been about? His job may have been cold, ruthless and brutal, but then again police work always had been, albeit veiled in procedure and ancient statutes. The New Order had simply removed the façade from police work. The fight against crime stood revealed as authoritarian fascism, as it always had been. Crime had never been the enemy. It was, and always had been, the other.
And everyone was much happier that way.
Story Three: For Real This Time
Every single second, I have to keep reminding myself to cling on.
It would be so easy, to lose control of reality again, to slip back into absurdity and farce, to let go of my grip. I have lived so many lives and seen so many worlds that the here-and-now can’t compete.
I wake up…
…as a detective…
…and go to punish dissidents…
No! I am Miles Borden, packaging executive. None of that is real. I am not Michael Brown. I am not Matthew Butler. I am not a detective. There is something wrong with my mind. I have to stay focused for…for…
Ah! The dinner party! My triumphant return to the land of the living! Where…
…there’ll be a murder…
…normality will thrive…
No! Got to steady myself, here. This is going to work out just fine. We can’t have any of my friends see me acting like this. Acting abnormal.
I put on my suit, my hands shaking. I check my watch; it’s nearly 5 PM. The guests will be arriving soon. Ever since I fell…ill…I’ve been sleeping strange hours. Not anymore.
Downstairs, the household staff are scurrying about. We have a big house, as befits my (former) status. People need packaging, after all. My wife is in the living room. There’s undisguised alarm on her face as she sees me. I’ve had too many false starts before.
She starts to speak. She…
…fluttered her eyelids in a manner that, while some might have found it comely, simply made it look like she hadn’t had enough sleep the night before…
… was an arrogant busybody, five foot five in high heels and yet ten metres tall in her own mind…
Lost in my own reverie, I don’t hear a word she says. My return to normality is all the more painful for its abruptness. She snaps her fingers in front of my face. She says something, something angry, but the words are lost. I mutter a meek apology, and scarper off. She glares after me.
Outside, the guests are beginning to arrive. Grey people, in grey suits and grey dresses, with smiles requiring the barest amount of effort. Their contempt is obvious when they see me. I’m a freak, a failure. In a civilised world, people like me would be quietly put out of our misery. They find ways to stream past me and talk to each other. They diffuse throughout the house, comparing my possessions to theirs, and feeling validated by the comparison.
I try to make conversation, to show how very normal I am. I keep slipping, though; I see dames in all the women and bureaucrats in all the men. All the worlds of my mind keep slipping and sliding into each other, blurring the world.
I finally reach my limit. I stumble into the library, trying desperately not to fall to pieces, not to let all the other worlds roll in. It’s a dull place; full of textbooks, manuals, regulations. My entire life is a saga of memos and regulations. Packaging is not a subject renowned for fights in dark alleys. Perhaps you presume my fantasies are the result of a longing for change in a static world. On the contrary. I long for stability in a world of chaos; I imagine worlds of dull detectives, worlds where the only real crime is difference. My crime is not that I am abnormal, but merely that I am too normal. The floor is scuffed; the guests have been keeping a careful watch on this place, trying to assess my wealth by the books I buy. To be well-read is the latest status symbol, and nothing would validate their opinion of me more than being an illiterate idiot.
And then, in the corner of the library, I see it. A red dress…
…a crime! It must be a crime!...
…abnormal. Strange. Destroy it!...
I grab a shelf. Just to reassure me what’s real. Obviously the dress can’t be there. This is my library, in the real world. This sort of thing doesn’t happen in the real world. I’m a packaging executive. I don’t deal with dead girls. I stagger out of the room, trying desperately not to see the dress. I’m ill. This sort of thing doesn’t happen. After all, other people would have seen it, wouldn’t they? How can a murder just go unnoticed?
I stumble out. Dinner is beginning. It’s an affair with nothing to do with food; caviar and oysters are all about appearances, not sustenance. The conversation is much more shrill than usual. I can hear the whispering; word about the dress (which doesn’t exist) must have gotten around. No one wants to bring it up; after all, who would want to appear mad?
And then I see it. On a man’s shirtsleeve, a pinch of red. Blood.
I try to rationalise it to myself. He cut himself shaving. His wife tripped on the steps.
…he’s a crook…
…he’s irrational! Abnormal…
No. I’ve got to stay logical and in control. He can’t have murdered someone. That’s simply not what happens. That would be mad.
Smirking, he leans across the table towards me. ‘I say, Miles,’ he chuckles, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve been in the library recently?’ What an odd remark. ‘No.’ Everyone is looking at us. The same thought is on everyone’s mind. ‘Oh? Well, I just thought you should know there’s a girl in there. Dead. Strangled, to my mind.’ The glass I’m holding begins to shake, violently. Wine begins to drip down the rim. ‘Oh.’ I’m sorely tempted to say nothing else, but a mad impulse overtakes me. ‘How do you know?’ He smirks. ‘Well, I did kill her.’
There’s silence at the table for a second. Then a rich, elderly dowager, smiling frantically, asks her neighbour, ‘I say, Gladys, have you seen these glasses? Rather shoddy, I think. Not half what we saw in Capri.’
And so the table returns to a hundred different conversations. The murderer joins one, avidly, smirking. He gets laughs, even admiring glances. No one wants to admit, even to themselves, what they heard. No one wants to seem mad.
Despondent, I return to my room. A murder has been committed. A girl, an unknown girl, is dead. And yet no one cares. Everyone wants to live in their own little world, a world of files and bureaucracy, where this sort of thing is unheard of. They can look through anything, and pay any price, for tomorrow to be the same as today.
And so I return to my fantasies, the wishes of an insane man trying desperately for his own peace of mind. They make so much more sense than living in a mad world.
The Maltese Falcon
• Sam Spade’s attitude towards authority and his distrust of power is shown through his dismissive and contemptuous attitudes towards the police, especially Lt. Dundy; his distrust and dislike of Gutman, who is portrayed as wealthy and corrupt; and his disbelief of Brigid’s story, showing his naturally questioning, sceptical approach towards accepted truths and reality in general. This distrust is an important aspect of his character, and an element of his wider individualism; he is a character who acts without regard for societal values or institutions, acting according to his own instincts and experience. • The entire film was shot in sequence, giving a greater sense of an ‘unfolding mystery’; the actors were allowed to react much more naturally to each other and to the script if it seemed to follow a more natural progression. • When Gutman explains the history of the Falcon to Spade, the camera shoots up at him from a floor angle, so that he fills the entire screen, dominating the scene and leading to a greater sense of authority. This also shows the enormity of the conspiracy through his sheer size. • Scenes involving Brigid include stylistic techniques to involve prison. In one scene she wears striped pyjamas, the furniture in the room in one scene is striped, and in the slivers of light from the Venetian blinds and, in the final scene, the bars on the elevator cage, jail bars are suggested. • Elements of Sam Spade’s personality can be seen to reflect those of Dashiell Hammett, the author of the original novel, and of Bogart himself. Hammett worked as a private detective in San Francisco, and was strongly anti-authoritarian; indeed, he joined the American Communist Party in 1937, which later led to his blacklisting. Bogart, like Spade, was abrasive, anti-authoritarian, and often displayed alcoholic tendencies. • Joel Cairo is said to have been based on a criminal Hammett captured as a private detective in the 1920s. It is implied within the film that he is homosexual, but not explicitly stated, as in the novel. • The Maltese Falcon is described as ‘the stuff that dreams are made of’, and functions as the archetypal ‘Macguffin’, or an object without any intrinsic value beyond serving as an object of desire for the characters. It serves as a personification of greed rather than any object worthy of greed itself, with its eventual worthlessness serving as a metaphor for the ultimate pointlessness of selfish actions. • Although Sam Spade is clearly the hero, he comes across as being nearly as amoral, ruthless and greedy as the criminals he defeats. He contains several contradictory characteristics: he is honourable and greedy, world-weary yet curious, and cynical yet capable of deep love. • Sam acts detached and impassive during the events surrounding Archer’s murder. He orders his secretary to have signs of Archer removed from the office, declines to examine the body, and says dispassionately ‘I guess so’ when Polhaus points out that Archer ‘must have had some good points too’, reflecting his uncaring attitude. Sam does not fit the traditional noir stereotype of being ‘untarnished and unafraid’, as stated by Raymond Chandler, but is instead a morally ambiguous character who grins before knocking Cairo unconscious, which has been interpreted as purposeful cruelty. This further demonstrates that Spade is defined as ‘good’ only by contrast with the even more despicable villains, rather than his own characteristics. His sense of ‘loyalty’ can be seen as suspect; while his loyalty to his partner is cited as an example of a redeeming characteristic, his apathy at Miles’ death and his affair with Iva can be seen to rebut this. • Spade’s main redeeming characteristics lie in his professional responsibility and commitment to his work. He notes: o ‘When a man’s partner is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it. It doesn’t make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you’re supposed to do something about it. And it happens we’re in the detective business. Well, when one of your organisation gets killed its bad business to let the killer get away with it. Bad all around. Bad for every detective, everywhere’. • It should be noted that loyalty plays only a small role in the above speech, but rather Spade acts for business reasons. The fact that ‘you’re supposed to do something about it’ has nothing to do with any personal loyalty, but rather a sense of professionalism. • Spade can be said to possess a strike of misogyny, treating women with anything from indifference to contempt. This is particularly evident with Iva, who is regarded as either a figure of fun or a distraction. This provides a contrast with the stereotypical ‘knight in shining armour’, as Spade’s attitudes illustrate his generally pessimistic worldview.
Political Subtext in Crime Fiction
The context in which a work of crime fiction is written or set can have a huge impact on the subsequent nature of the piece. One of the more notable consequences of this comes in the political context of a work, and the subsequent influence of political matters upon this work, either through the political opinions of the author or of society at large. While crime fiction is such a diversified genre that to cover political subtext in a generalised sense would be both impossible and possibly too broad for detailed analysis, an analysis of two different texts, The Skull beneath the Skin by P.D. James and (text) by (author). The contrasting political opinions of their authors allow for a more detailed study of subtext, through the different perspectives allowed through the left-right dialectic.
Phyllis Dorothy James has, since her ascension to the peerage, sat as the Baroness James of Holland Park in the House of Lords for the Conservative Party. This clear signalling of her political alignment allows for the analysis of how her own personal views may have affected the composition of The Skull beneath the Skin (1982), which features three very different characters with clear political beliefs: Roma Lisle, Sir George Ralston and Ambrose Gorringe.
In many ways, Roma Lisle and Sir George are contrasted. Roma Lisle is outspoken about her left-wing beliefs; she keeps ‘left-wing garbage’ in her bookstore, angrily denounces ‘the rise of fascism’ at dinner, and treats Sir George with derision because of his own beliefs. Unlike Gorringe, she is socially engaged; she cares about world issues, but is ultimately defeated by her own flaws. She is depicted as ineffectual, ‘whiny’, and rather pathetic in her attempts to fit in; she is described as ‘a woman who cared about clothes without any idea what suited her or the occasion’-this serves as a description of her as a character beyond her mere sartorial sense, and characterises her political views: she cares about issues, but has no plans to deal with them. This condescending attitude towards Lisle is indicative of the author’s prejudices towards the left as a whole, which is portrayed in the form of Roma as ill-thought out and infantile. The above description also characterises Roma Lisle as rather ignorant, more concerned with form than actual substance; this can be seen as a critique of shallowness on the left as a whole, as Roma’s opinions are integral to her characterisation.
By contrast, Sir George has, as indicated on the back cover, ‘right-wing beliefs’; he is a member of the so-called Union of British Patriots, the name of which is obviously meant to imply a similarity to the 1930s British Union of Fascists. Within the novel, this is seldom discussed, but forms an integral part of Sir George’s character through its indication of his fundamental conservatism, which can be contrasted with Ambrose Gorringe’s reactionary lifestyle. Sir George’s fascist links are subtly ironic, given his wartime service as a guard in a prison for alleged Nazis. He is described by Ivo Whittingham as taking ‘the great absolutes, honour, justice, loyalty, and binds them to his heart with hoops of steel.’ This flattering description perhaps indicates bias on behalf of the author, and can be compared to various unflattering descriptions of Roma throughout the novel. He is described as a ‘sentimentalist’ by Ivo, who ties in to his traditionalist, conservative and reactionary ideology as a whole. Ralston’s political stance is connected with his status as a reactionary, traditionalist character. Ivo says he finds these traits ‘rather appealing’, which ties into perhaps a greater sympathy on James’ part for traditionalist characters in what is perceived as an immoral society. Ralston commits no acts of immorality throughout the novel, which contrasts with the adulterous actions of Roma. This is another example of how his ‘traditionalist’ stances are depicted in a positive light, with his fascist links barely dwelt upon within the novel itself. This is indicative of how the political subtext within The Skull Beneath the Skin bears a subtle bias to reflect James’ own conservative political views.
Gorringe, on the other hand, differs from Ralston and Roma by the way in which he removes himself from mainstream society entirely, which still carrying Ralston’s traditionalist political beliefs. Unlike Ralston, his traditionalism leads him into evil, including the blackmail of Clarissa, the cover-up of her murder, and the murder of Lessing. This difference between characters sharing otherwise similar political beliefs comes as a result of Gorringe’s decadence and isolationism. Unlike Ralston’s ‘sentimentalism’, Gorringe’s traditionalism is depicted as decadence; his preoccupation with the past has left him without a clearly defined moral sense; his defence of his ‘place’ at all costs forces him to commit immoral actions. This can be read as criticism of apathy with the political system in Britain as a whole.
The conflict between ‘the past’ and ‘the modern world’ is a major theme in The Skull Beneath the Skin, which ties into the left/right dialectic of progressivism/conservatism. Within the text, Ralston and Gorringe are both depicted as trying to restore ‘the past’, using different means. While Gorringe chooses to withdraw from the real world, Ralston actively forms the Union of British Patriots, a fascist organisation, and engages in concerted political action. Gorringe’s eventual revelation of complicity in the plot shows the author’s critique of his approach; his decision to withdraw from ‘the modern world’ and to try to recreate an imagined past is treated as self-serving and decadent. This shows the author’s own prejudices in favour of engaging in the political process, as shown by her later elevation to the House of Lords and her current status as a sitting peer.
Roma’s approach, however, is also criticised. Her advocacy of leftist causes, such as trying to combat ‘the rise of fascism’, is overshadowed by her general weakness of character; she is adulterous, frequently complains, jealous, spiteful, and often rude. Her leftism is presented as part of her general ineffectual approach, which James presents as showing naivety and shallowness. This critique reveals a deeper antipathy towards the left as a whole, as Roma’s political opinions form an integral part of her character.
Politics play a major role in the plot and themes of The Skull Beneath the Skin, especially with regards to the conflict within the story between the past and the present. These issues, however, also reveal the deeper political bias of the author.
Film Noir in Science Fiction
English Extension 1 Speech
My topic today is appropriations of film noir crime fiction as applied to different genres. Crime fiction can be applied across different genres, thus leading to new combinations; for example, crime fiction motifs can be found in science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and even romance. Film noir, a particular subset of the crime fiction genre, has been used in texts such as Blade Runner, by Ridley Scott, in the science fiction genre, and Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, in the fantasy and comedic genres. The perspective provided by film noir allows for a greater examination of the genre as a whole.
Film noir is not a genre, nor the same as hardboiled crime fiction, although the popularity of both during the early 1940s has led them to be inextricably linked. Film noir is a variety of techniques, conventions and motifs, which we can loosely describe as a ‘style’. The main feature of film noir is its attitude towards its protagonists and towards the world in general; it is generally cynical, sombre, and unremittingly dark. The style arose in American film in the 1940s, with the rise of a series of black-and-white, shadowy films distinguished by a number of recurring features: the antihero, a protagonist featuring villainous characteristics; antiauthoritarianism, where trusted institutions are mocked and portrayed as ineffectual; witty, sardonic dialogue, characterised by sarcasm and world-weariness; voice-over narration, through which we get an insight into the thoughts of the narrator; and the use of smoke and shadows, which is just one in a number of elements contributing to film noir’s shadowy, dark appearance on film. In short, film noir was a genre noted for cynicism, cruelty, world-weariness, and angst. By analysing the use of film noir in texts of different genres, one can see how effective it is in each, and thus understand its popularity.
Blade Runner is Ridley Scott’s classic text of identity and the meaning of humanity. Blade Runner is not only the archetypal science fiction film noir text, it is also the premier example of another series of conventions known generally as cyberpunk, a genre to which film noir bears some resemblance in its antiauthoritarianism, its cynicism and its bleak depiction of the world. The world in which Blade Runner is set, in the year 2019, is in many ways the realisation of the bleak worldview of many of ‘traditional’ film noir’s protagonists. Polluted, dark, infested by crime and vice, the dystopic vision presented in Blade Runner is a thoroughly negative view of city life, consistent with traditional film noir. A staple of these texts is the constant presence of darkness, shadows, and often smoke. The city in Blade Runner seems to be eternally night. It is infested by commercialism and pollution. The film takes place within a disturbing universe, entirely consistent with film noir’s idiosyncratic world view. These tie in with multiple tropes of the film noir style, used in homage; for example, in multiple scenes, light is shown shining through Venetian blinds to create a patterned shadow effect. The use of shadows is one of the most notable features of film noir.
No analysis of the use of film noir in Blade Runner would be complete without an examination of the film’s protagonist, Rick Deckard. Deckard has been overshadowed in recent decades by the so-called ‘replicant controversy’. To be brief, as it is a issue that has attracted conflicting opinions from Deckard’s actor, Harrison Ford, and the director, making it unsure where the truth lies, there is conflicting evidence within the text, not least an infamous but complex dialogue error stating there are six replicants on Earth while the film refers to only five, to whether Deckard, a man entrusted with hunting down any so-called ‘replicants’ (androids, in all but name), is himself a replicant. This controversy opens up a compelling psychological dilemma at the heart of the story, and plays into the typical film noir concept of the ‘flawed hero’, or antihero. In killing those who are of ‘the same kind’, Deckard’s very existence is a contradiction, in that he defies the law he seeks to uphold. This morally grey approach is perhaps one of the greatest appeals of film noir, in that it creates dramatic subtleties that would not be present otherwise. This is best displayed through the controversial symbolism of ‘the unicorn’. At one point, in the Director’s Cut, Deckard dreams of a unicorn, yet later in the film his police partner, Gaff, leaves an origami unicorn for him. This could be evident of the manufactured nature of his experiences, thus opening questions of what is ‘real’ that reflect the existential tone of much of film noir; namely, questions of the purpose and meaning of life, leading to a cynical tone throughout much of the style. This tone is a direct reflection of the general existentialism of film noir. As such, the blend of science fiction and film noir within the film leads to the introduction of new and fascinating elements to both.
Deckard lives alone, and acts in a generally cynical fashion; he is disillusioned with the law, tending towards a generally antiauthoritarian theme to the film. Law enforcement officials are shown to be inept, as in the murder of the interviewer by Leon in the beginning, while the wealthy live in high-tech environments wholly inconsistent with the world around them. In the theatrical cut, he eventually flees the city for a rather inconsistent ending where he escapes into a bucolic natural setting, but in the Director’s Cut the ending is much more ambiguous, showing only that he flees. This further ties into the film noir nature of the film, in that there is no happy ending. This can be contrasted with general trends within the science fiction genre as a whole, which has often been accused of an unjustly ‘utopian’ view of the world. The darker perspective provided by Blade Runner, in which poverty and environmental degradation are directly referenced and made an integral part of the film ‘universe’, has had a major effect on science fiction as a whole. As such, the introduction of film noir elements into science fiction has led to the development of the genre as a whole.
However, the most notable film noir feature of the film was removed in the Director’s Cut: Deckard’s narration during the film, the removal of which caused much uproar. This narration gives us an insight into the tortured mind of Deckard, in which he questions his own actions and, essentially, gives us ‘his spin’ on the events taking place. This insight into the psychology of the protagonist, as well as the psychological complexity of the characters involved in the story, shares with film noir a tendency towards self-analysing, tormented characters. A key feature of film noir is not which people commit crimes, but why, and much of Blade Runner is concerned with this issue, by seeking to understand the violence and crimes of the replicants. A notable feature of both film noir and Blade Runner is the nihilistic viewpoints shared by many characters within their respective films, which is particularly emphasized by Roy, the film’s replicant antagonist. This viewpoint is characterised by a belief in the meaninglessness of existence, a somewhat brutal misanthropy or hatred, and a tendency towards sociopathy. This viewpoint can be seen in film noir through the use of complex characters, thus threatening simple notions of ‘good’ or ‘evil’, through the often brutal nature of events involved (Blade Runner is particularly notable in this aspect), and through the general lack of ‘idealistic’ or ‘nice’ characters or features. This viewpoint is shared between Blade Runner and much of film noir, although crucially not with Guards! Guards!
Contrary to the bleakness of Blade Runner, Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards! is comedic in style and effect. Originally designed to showcase the expendable ‘city guards’ often featured in fantasy fiction for no reason beyond cheap fight scenes, the story evolves into a more detailed satire of the crime fiction genre as a whole. As such, the film noir features within the novel are somewhat exaggerated for the purposes of humour. As Guards! Guards! is a novel, rather than a movie, questions may be asked to what degree it can qualify as ‘film noir’, rather than hardboiled, as many of the stylistic features which make up ‘film noir’ will be diluted in a novel. To answer this, one must analyse the film noir genre itself. Although it began as a series of stylistic techniques, pioneered by German Expressionist and Italian Neo-Realist directors, it has became inextricably linked with certain character and more generally screenwriting motifs through the popularity of hardboiled and more general crime fiction during the era in which such thematic techniques were at their height. Therefore, the use of such motifs, including the flawed detective, the femme fatale, and the use of a psychologically complex crime story, in other mediums can constitute stories that are generally accepted as film noir. However, a subtle stylistic reference to film noir remains present:
‘Once, in the days when this had been a respectable district, some hopeful owner of the tavern next door had paid a wizard a considerable sum of money for an illuminated sign, every letter a different colour. Now it worked erratically and sometimes short-circuited in the damp. At the moment the E was a garish pink and flashed on and off at random.’ (p.68-69)
This is a reference to the common film noir cliché, whereby the detective’s office commonly has a flashing neon sign outside. The major way in which film noir is utilised in Guards! Guards!, however, is in the character of Samuel Vimes and in his general demeanour. He serves as an effective example of the amalgamation of film noir into a fantasy context, highlighting features of both genres. Sam Vimes is a nihilistic, depressive, class-conscious alcoholic, whose commitment to ‘not playing by the rules’ has left him effectively sidelined in the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. This tendency towards anti-authoritarianism and rebellion is the calling card of the film noir detective, and symbolises a deeper theme throughout the whole ‘style’, namely that it often highlights a peculiarly American resistance to authority, corruption, and social norms. Features of American history, such as the Revolutionary War, the colonisation of the west and the widespread idealisation of the Confederate States of America, may contribute towards this attitude within film noir. This may also suggest why the ‘style’ attracted such interest in the United States, but with relatively few successful variants in other countries. As such, even though his author is British, Sam Vimes serves as a pastiche of what is essentially an American archetype, and behaves in characteristically American, rather than British, manner. His dialogue and manner contain many allusions to earlier film noir characters. For example, his thought that ‘Of all the cities in all the world it could have flown into…it’s flown into mine,’ (p.135), which although it traces from Casablanca, a non-film noir movie, is obviously meant to serve as a homage to Humphrey Bogart and his archetypical film noir role, Sam Spade.
The story echoes many of the standard tropes of film noir. After a poor, innocent thief is incinerated, Captain Samuel Vimes goes on an investigation to discover the culprit. The story contains such elements as an ineffectual, corrupt bureaucracy, a decadent upper class, a crime-stricken and hysterical metropolis, and a main character who, despite his flaws, stays to a strict moral code. Chandler’s The Simple Art of Murder, generally considered to codify the archetypes of hardboiled film noir, is referenced with the line: ‘And then he went out on to the streets, untarnished and unafraid (p.119)’, an almost direct paraphrase of Chandler’s original quote that "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." This quote can be seen as the main theme of the book, specifically with reference to the naïve innocent character of Carrot. Although in many areas the film noir elements in the book serve as a pastiche of the style as a whole, they also serve as legitimate plot elements within the book. This is perhaps best referenced in a scene from pages 175-179, where Vimes re-enacts a famous scene from Dirty Harry, armed only with a small dragon. This scene serves as a homage, but also serves to move along the plot by establishing character relationships, while integrating fantasy elements. As such, film noir and fantasy are combined, in a way which provides both entertainment and humour.
So, in conclusion, by analysing film noir in different contexts, one can gain a greater understanding of both the style and the combined genres as a whole. For example, the use of film noir in a fantasy context in Guards! Guards! allows for a more interesting fantasy world as a whole, in that elements of poverty and social inequality which are primarily analysed by film noir are revealed within the text. This same bleakness, which can be seen as perhaps the defining theme of film noir, is applied to the science fiction genre in Blade Runner. Film noir allows for a unique perspective on fictional worlds through archetypical characters and setting, which is demonstrated fully in Blade Runner and Guards! Guards!
History Extension Proposal
(i) Description of Preliminary Research: I have begun planning the structure and topic of my Major Work; after much deliberation, I have decided to do research and analysis of the New Guard, an Australian paramilitary fascist movement of the 1930s. However, this remains highly speculative, and it is eminently possible I may choose to change my topic. I have spent much of my time considering which topic to choose; originally, I planned to research Pauline Hanson’s One Nation movement, but decided this would be better suited for my English Extension 2 Major Work. Both the New Guard and the One Nation movement have several similar features, however, inspiring me to choose this as my topic of interest. As of yet, my preliminary research has been strictly limited to reading general works on the time period in which my subject in question. I have read Gerald Stone’s 19321, which primarily focuses on the conflict between the New Guard and Jack Lang, as well as multiple online works concerning the New Guard and their links with fascist movements worldwide2 3. I have also read John Hirst’s Australian Democracy4, which contains a short section on the New Guard, but felt it to be too brief to render much aid. As this is a rather specialised topic, not much has been written on the topic for a general audience; as such, my preliminary research has been somewhat curtailed.
(ii) Enquiry questions • Who were the New Guard, and how widespread were they? • What factors motivated their creation? • Were there any serious intentions towards anti-democratic actions by their membership? • To what extent were they fascist? • Why did the movement, which previously enjoyed such popularity, disband so quickly, and what factors lead to this? • How have they been perceived by historians? • Were their tactics justifiable? • To what extent did they mirror similar European movements?
(iii) Research Intentions: My research will be necessarily broader than an analysis of the New Guard, as it is essential to understand the circumstances which led up to their creation. I will be required to carry out intensive research on the early 1930s, and more specifically the Great Depression. One of my main topics will be the societal, political and economic conditions which led to creation of the New Guard. Jack Lang will be a major figure in my Major Work, and I intend to read his autobiographies ‘I Remember’5 and ‘The Turbulent Years’6 for more information on conditions at the time, and about New Guard activities with relation to him. A large number of books have been written with relation to Jack Lang, which will play a major role in my research. I plan to research the New Guard in-depth, through books, websites, and if possible use of academic sources such as newspapers from the time. I plan to approach this task incrementally, due to time constraints. I am also currently studying English Extension 2, and the demands of creating two major works will mean that my research will necessarily sometimes have to take a back seat to other time demands. In my methodology, I will also be forced to confront the problem of partisan bias; the two major figures in my Major Work, Jack Lang and the New Guard, have become subject to much controversy over the years, to the extent where a non-partisan review may be almost impossible. Any detailed research program will be forced to take account of this, as nearly every source used will be influenced by the bias of the composer.
(iv) Bibliography 1 Gerald Stone, 1932, 2005, Pan MacMillan Australia 2 http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200313/c_historicalfeature_moore.html, Andrew Moore, The New Guard, 2003 3 http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070550b.htm, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Keith Amos, 1979 4 John Hirst, Australia’s Democracy: a short history, 2002, Allen & Unwin 5 Jack Lang, I Remember, 1949, Invincible Press 6 Jack Lang, The Turbulent Years, 1968, Invincible Press
English Extension Journal
Paper 1, Section 1
(Note: The text for Text 1 is unreadable, and thus the task cannot be done)
b) The composer makes the father’s journey seem important through the use of language such as ‘daunting’ and ‘gruelling’, which create the impression of danger; this creates the impression in the responder’s mind of the important nature of the journey through its epic scope. The contrast with ‘a simple father-son bonding exercise’ also heightens the importance of the journey, in that it shows the true scale and impact of the journey. The use of quotes heightens the emotional impact, in that we are allowed to understand the situation from his perspective, and thus makes his situation seem more important through, as he says, ‘a human face on genetic disease’.
c) (i) The responder receives an idyllic impression of New Zealand from the first paragraph, with information about the wide variety of life and creatures in the landscape. (ii) The composer involves the reader through humour and imagery. The humour is provided by examples of the so-called ‘Curse of Stinginess’; this involves the reader through the creation of situations that are relatable, and creates an entertaining feel that encourages the responder to read on, thus becoming more involved. The imagery, such as ‘fresh snow [coating] the foothills’ and the metaphorical ‘industrial-sized bulls, horses, cows and farmed deer’, allows the reader to imagine themselves taking part in the journey via an appeal to the senses.
d) Texts 2 and 3 demonstrate that the journey is more than a simple movement between places through analysis of the underlying motives and transformations that occur as a result of the journeys. These are demonstrated through the use of imagery, metaphor, and descriptive language.
Text 2 highlights from the beginning how ‘Jesse’s journey’ differs from a simple movement between places by contrasting it with a ‘normal’ journey, in that it is neither a ‘father-son bonding exercise’ nor a ‘farewell’. By highlighting what the journey is not, the text demonstrates the significance of the journey. The text states that John Davidson’s second journey was designed ‘to bring hope to families affected by genetic illnesses’, and Davidson uses the metaphor of putting ‘a human face on genetic disease’ to describe his journey. This metaphorical intent highlights that the journey is more than a simple movement between places, in that the text focuses on the fact that the intent is designed to, in a metaphorical sense, ‘rattle a few cages’, rather than move from place to place.
Text 3 demonstrates the significance of the journey by focusing on what it reveals about both New Zealand and the composer. The composer focuses on the so-called ‘curse of stinginess’ rather than the actual journey itself, in that what they discover along the journey is more important than the destination itself, which is never identified. The stylistic technique of keeping the origin, destination and purpose of the journey vague allows for a greater emphasis on the composer’s discoveries, rather than the journey itself. The composer uses a format of connected vignettes around a central theme to show the nature of New Zealanders, and in doing so highlights the author’s discoveries along the trip rather than the trip itself.
In conclusion, both texts demonstrate that the journey is more than a simple movement between places by highlighting discoveries made during the course of the journey and/or the intent of the journey, rather than focusing on the journey itself. This allows for deeper examination of the inner, rather than physical, journeys undertaken by the protagonist in each text.
Paper 1, Section 2
Now, I’d like to introduce a man whose works in the study and debunking of post-modernism is second to none, and whose efforts to end the ‘long march’ through our institutions by leftist dogma has helped enlighten students across Australia. Ladies and gentlemen, Professor Mitchell Hoffman!
Thank you, thank you. It’s an honour to be here.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we face a crisis in education and in the cultural debate in this country that is unequalled in our country’s long history. I speak, of course, of the syllabus in today’s schools. More to the point, I bring to your attention a question in the 2004 HSC English paper; namely, a written response to the statement ‘Your imagination will take you further than your car ever will.’ This statement, seemingly innocuous, I think poses a greater threat to society and culture in this country since the defeat of communism and the triumph of Hayekian economics.
Now, at first, this statement may seem innocent. After all, aren’t we meant to encourage imagination in our children? But it is exactly the form of New Age postmodernism that has destroyed standards and moral values in this country. Children are being taught, ladies and gentlemen, to abandon rationality and honest scepticism, and to accept simple fantasies as substitutes for reality. Note that both the imaginative and the physical journeys are referred to in the same sense; they are not ‘separate but equal’, but the imaginative is clearly referred to as being superior to the physical. After all, no one says ‘Your imagination will take you, in a separate but equal way, to a different destination to your car’. This is an approach that clearly spurns real-life solution for dogmatic, theoretical notions of the superiority of the imagination. There is no recourse to logic, there is no recourse to sense; children are being encouraged towards antisocial, introverted approaches to life; after all, the world inside their head is clearly superior to the outside world, right? Wrong. This is yet another example of the left’s pessimism and apocalyptic approach to world politics; having failed to encourage their treacherous and fantastical policies through the wisdom and scepticism of the Australian people, they now encourage our children, through their domination of the educational industry, to forsake the real world, as denoted by the ‘car’, in favour of the left’s ‘imaginary’ world, where no problems exist, where real problems can be solved by hand-waving and fairy dust, and where practical, real-life means of thinking and problem-solving, as should be taught and expected in schools, are replaced with a socialist fantasy world.
I believe this educational approach, which focuses more on the imaginary than the practical, is at the root of any number of problems in our world. Drug abuse is simply another way of escaping into the fantasies which Marxist ideologues in our schools indoctrinate our kids into thinking will ‘take you further’ than the real world. Ladies and gentlemen, what ever happened to practicality? What ever happened to reason over emotion, science over magic? Our children are being taught-brainwashed, if you will-New Age filth that denies the reality of our world and seeks to indoctrinate them from an early age.
Imagine unleashing these children into the world. They will have no understanding of practical realities, no grasp of English for use in the working world; their emphasis on ‘imaginative’ solutions and denial of any form of absolutism may put them in good stead with their teachers, but is utterly incompatible with reality. These children will lack social skills, as, after all, they are taught that no physical action can better than their own imaginations; as such, they shall become introverted to the point of mental illness. An entire generation of Australian schoolchildren are being poisoned by these narrow-minded, dogmatic teachings!
Because you all see where this leads. If one’s ‘imagination’ takes a child further than their car, soon they shall abandon cars altogether. (Another example, you will note, of the false prophecies of global warming being peddled in our schools) From there, why bother moving at all? What prospects does the real world offer compared to their, if you will excuse the sarcasm, ‘imaginations’? Children will become disillusioned with the real world, and try to escape into fantasy. And from there, it is a short, slippery slope to depression and suicide. Why should our children live, after all, if they are taught to be so disappointed in the real world? This mirroring of the left’s despair at the destruction of their hallowed false idols, Whitlam and Keating, is being programmed into our children. From here, is a suicide epidemic really so far-fetched?
I call upon the Teacher’s Union to end these filthy doctrinal practices, and to restore proper standards of rationality and common sense! For the sake of our children, we must restore notions of practicality to English teaching. A physical journey is always superior to an imaginative journey in terms of real-world experience, and one’s ‘imagination’, no matter how highly viewed by teachers, can never help one cope with the real world. No matter what these left-liberal, chardonnay socialists who infest the unions, especially the teaching profession, think, a car will always take you farther.
Creative Writing 1
Extract from Effects of Long-Term Space Travel, Nature Magazine, 16 July 2026
Although Professors Lancaster and Taylor in their examination of the Discovery mission made the assessment that, ‘in the long term, the facilities onboard the Discovery should have served sufficient to avoid any psychological consequences resulting from prolonged isolation’, this report takes a more pessimistic view. We feel that the Discovery lacked sufficient area and recreational activities to prevent the effects of long-term isolation…
Day 163
Jonathan Howell woke up slowly. There didn’t seem much point in getting up.
The Discovery was small. Very small. For the last five and a half months, Howell had lived in a grey, metal can. There were no decorations on the walls, nothing to distract him. Too much weight, they had said; everything had to be kept to a minimum. And so, Howell was left with a room that was nothing but walls.
Every day, he woke up at the same time, ate the same meals, did the same activities. He went through the same routine of pointless tasks, performed experiments that would never be looked at, filed logs that would routinely ignored. He was just another robot on a ship full of them; just another part of useless cargo, nothing more.
There was no need for humans. He was only here as a public relations exercise. Every damnable aspect of the ship was just another sop to public opinion.
Extract from Effects of Long-Term Space Travel
Although at first Jonathan Howell showed no signs of psychological impediment from the voyage, we believe that this may have been an attempt by Howell to avoid showing ‘weakness’. The first evidence of Howell’s decreased mental capacity came on June 21, 2025…
Day 243
Today, he’d snapped at his controllers back on Earth. How could they blame him? He’d been out here for eight months. Eight pointless, long months. Every day, every hour, every minute he longed for home. And yet he still had four hundred and fifty days left to go.
He tried to stay focused on the destination. After all, that was what journeys were about, right? But, in a very real sense, there was no destination; the whole mission was just a fly-by. He would be able to look down on those red deserts just once, and see the planet sail on by in the blink of an eye…there was no destination, there was no reason, there was no point to the journey. He was being sacrificed on the altar of public consciousness.
Extract from Effects of Long-Term Space Travel
The subject began to suffer wild mood swings from his isolation. He was observed crying on Days 275 and 281, while he reacted with noticeable anger on Days 321 and 342. After a while, it became apparent that these emotions were not in reaction to any of his surroundings…
Day 281
Jonathan took to imagination as his one source of companionship. In his eyes, he wasn’t Jonathan Howell, scientist; he was Lord Jonathan of Howellia, slayer of dragons, usurper of thrones, lord of many nations. He decorated the walls of his craft with pictures, crudely drawn, of his many adventures; it made it seem more real, somehow.
Extract from Long-Term Effects of Space Travel
Jonathan began to devote more of his time to drawing and writing; examination of the pictures (examples below) shows a marketable decrease in quality as time progressed. His writing gradually became more erratic…
Extract from Ship Log for Day 414 of Discovery Mission
…you see, Lord Jonathan is more real than any of this. There’s a point to his life: to do good. He can make a difference; he exists in a world of black and white…his realm is filled with fantastical creatures, sure, but are they any more or less real for that? He has friends, he has enemies, he has subjects. He loves, he hates, he laughs, he cries. He is real.
Jonathan Howell, on the other hand, lives in a world of shadows. He speaks to no one, he does nothing. He simply lies there, waiting for the destination. ‘He’ does nothing; he spends his entire time in the life of Lord Jonathan. He has no personality, no emotions, beyond those he experiences in his imagination. Is a man who lives vicariously really a man at all?
If that is the case, why does it matter if he lives or dies? His ‘real-life’ journey scarcely matters; it is pointless and insipid, meaningless and endless. And yet it is the only thing that exists in his life. Surely, in such circumstances, this means his own life is pointless and insipid…but his imaginative journey has purpose and meaning. Lord Jonathan has goals, ideals, and motivation. Jonathan Howell has nothing…
Extract from Long-Term Effects of Space Travel
Jonathan was not observed eating after Day 436, and was not observed moving after Day 439. He continued talking sporadically until Day 441. After this, no movement was observed…the first signs of decomposition were observed on Day 463. Upon the return of his capsule to Earth, examination showed that he had died sometime between Day 444 and Day 453…
More research is required.
Creative Writing 2
My name is Taylor Matthews, and although you may not believe some aspects of the journey I’ve been on over the past few weeks, I swear it’s true. All of it. Especially the bits I made up, for reasons that will become apparent soon enough.
The whole thing started, really, when I began to wonder what is real? Unoriginal, I know, since Descartes beat me to the question by a few centuries, but he made a crucial mistake in his reasoning. I think, therefore I am, he said, since how could he be fake?
The problem with his reasoning is that even what we are is indeterminate. I may not be Taylor Matthews; I may simply be someone who thinks he remembers being Taylor Matthews. For all I know, I merely exist for this one moment; everything else is merely a figment of my-or worse, someone else’s-imagination.
These questions obsessed me. I could not prove, conclusively, that anything I did or thought had really been done or thought; there was no way I could prove I had done anything, since my own memory could not be trusted and if I asked someone else, how could I be sure of what they said? I might merely have imagined their response in the affirmative, carefully blocking out anything that might shatter my notions of my own world. In short, I could not prove that anything I saw had any relevance to anything real, since I had no frame of reference I could trust.
Admittedly, most people go through identity crises at 13, but I went through a reality crisis. Every day, these questions preyed on my mind. What was the point of doing homework, I wondered, if I could not prove that I had done the homework at all? For all I knew, I was merely imagining doing homework, and would wake up later on to find that my careful notes existed merely in the confines of my mind. Then again, my later awakening may not exist either. Admittedly, this wasn’t the best excuse to use on teachers, but it seemed self-evident to me that either I would resolve this issue, proving the universe to be true or false, or it would consume me. I pictured myself in the future; unable to move, unable to speak, unable to think, for what would the point be if nothing I did mattered? I decided to go on a journey, to resolve the truth of the universe; a journey in the sense that while I had no fixed destination or path, I hoped that along the way I would discover truth. Isn’t that the point of journeys?
Obviously, there was nowhere I could go to find answers to my questions; this would be a journey of the mind and spirit, not of the body. I remained convinced, even in my darkest moments that I was real; no one (for I was convinced that if I was being fooled, it would be by conscious intent) could make me anyone else than who I was. Further analysis would have revealed this to be a lie; I was the product of the circumstances around me, and if they were merely the product of conscious manipulation then so was I. But I desired to retain some certainty, at least.
One night, I decided that I would take the leap. Any chemical stimulation would be unnecessary; after all, if my worst fears were confirmed then the drugs would be revealed not to exist at all. Besides, Mum would have killed me. I merely lay in bed one night, and concentrated.
At first, the project appeared as foolhardy as it might have first appeared. As time went on, I began to reflect on the stupidity of my venture, and to wonder what such concerns said about me. I had an unhappy school life, to be true; my marks were low, my friends were sparse and unenlightening, I felt no motivation to learn. Could the boring tedium of my conservative, stultifying life have led me to this? Could I merely be trying to deny that this life was real in an attempt to escape it?
It suddenly seemed so clear to me. My examination of my psyche had revealed one, simple fact: that this whole thing was merely a figment of my imagination. What imagining that one is on a journey to discover that one is merely a figment of one’s imagination says about one’s psyche is sure to be disturbing, but that was beyond the point. My journey was over. The answers had come not from deep analysis of the universe, but from myself.
I got up, and walked out. I was already several steps outside my room when I realised I hadn’t opened the door along the way.
This was most concerning.
Related Text 1 – Life of Pi
• The use of flashbacks and vignettes set in the present (indicated by italics) indicates that Pi's survival is a foregone conclusion; the book is not about whether he will survive, but how he survives. As such, the book focuses less on the physical journey, the ending of which has already been indicated, but rather the imaginative and inner journeys. • The three challenges Pi faces, the ocean, the island and the tiger, are also paradoxically the things that allow him to survive. The ocean is blue, the traditional colour of Christianity; the island is green, the traditional colour of Islam; and the tiger is orange, the traditional colour of Hinduism. In this sense, Pi's religion allows him to survive. These 'challenges' are not physical challenges, but rather spiritual. •
Related Text 2 – American Gods
Notes on Items from BOS Stimulus Booklet
Text 1
• The poem serves as an extended metaphor. • The poem follows an ABAAB rhyme scheme. • A melancholy, regretful tone • ‘yellow wood’: autumnal, season of change • ‘long I stood’; assonance of ‘oo’, prolonging sound • No pauses in Stanza 1 • Repetition of ‘and’ in Stanza 1 prolongs decision to go forward • Low modality; little definition of place through contradictions in Stanza 2 • Exclamation mark in Stanza 3 creates sense of finality • ‘doubted’; further uncertainty, regret. • ‘:’ in Stanza 4; creates pause • Final stanza creates sense of closure, with low modality, uncertainty, and no definitive answers to consequences.
Text 3
• Humorous tone • Anthropomorphic characters create imaginary aspect • ‘shining with newness’; metaphor • Bucolic, romantic setting • ‘The whole world before you’; metaphor • ‘The very finest cart of its sort’; hyperbole, exaggeration • Hyphen serves to slow pace • Italics for emphasis • Elevated language used by Toad shows his higher status in society
Text 4
• Margaret Atwood is a Canadian postmodern poet. • Written during the 1960s, during an era where self-analysis was seen as important in healing mental health. • Contemporary with rise of Confessional poets such as Sylvia Plath. • Poem is different to Margaret Atwood’s usual style in terms of its darker tone. • She notices a similarity between ‘physical’ landscapes and ‘inner’ landscapes. • A recurring theme is that one’s discoveries while on an inner journey can be different to how one originally perceived; the mental landscape appears different from first impressions, with ‘hills’ becoming ‘endless prairies’. • ‘that a cliff is not known/as rough except by hand’ shows the difference between perceptions of the psyche and actually experiencing it. • Extended metaphor of the map, and differences between the landscape as shown on the map and the ‘real’ landscape. • ‘that there are no destinations apart from this’: highlights that all journeys are to some extent an inner journey • sense of claustrophobia in the last four lines in Stanza 1, due to reluctance to journey and make discoveries • The responder is told of things which distract the composer while on the journey; makes point that small, tedious distractions of life, and to an extent mundane situations as a whole, distract from self-discovery. • Brackets contain a self-mocking aside, which exists as a ‘reflection on the reflection.’ • ‘but only some have returned’; comment on the dangers of self-discovery, veiled reference to Sylvia Plath • negative implications of words in fourth stanza; futility of trying to impose order on dynamic, changing consciousness • ‘must’ in fifth stanza, sense of urgency, one must retain calm in face of one’s discoveries
Creative Writing 3
Ad Europa, Tedium
The day dawned bright and early, which is not only inaccurate (my journey took more than one day) and uncertain (I wasn’t exactly conscious either time) but also irrelevant. While it may seem that I was merely taking a physical journey, this was merely superficial. I took an inner journey of epic depth and scope, into the depths of decay and out the other side.
The catalyst was my own greed and avarice for a trip to Europe, and a failure to understand the consequences of this flaw. I was young and spiteful; there was nothing I could not do, at least with the aid of thousands of dollars of my parents’ money. As soon as the plane took off, I realised the depth of my error and the extent of my most grievous mistake. It was the smell that first assaulted me; that sickening stench of disinfectant, of body odour, of a thousand unwashed souls cooking in their own seat. The harsh cabin lighting seemed to bore through my eyes and into my synapses. I watched Family Guy to the point of nausea (one episode, once), and then sickness finally overwhelmed me. Michael Busuttil tells me I looked on the verge of death, or ‘gross’, in his words.
For the next fifteen hours, I went without sleep, without food, sick to the deepest pit of my stomach. I sat in the aisle at the back of the plane, simply because it was the coldest spot. Admittedly, I did impede passage from one aisle to another, but I barely cared. I spent my time staring numbly at the walls, unable even to read, such was the extent of my sickness and my misery. As my physical journey wore on, I underwent a similar inner journey to confront my hubris.
Why, I reflect bitterly, had I subjected myself to this? My eyes were seared by the lights. My mouth was full of a foul, acid taste. I starved and I thirst, yet I could not eat or drink. In my sleep-deprived state, I eyed the time with greedy eyes. I counted down the hours until freedom, glorious freedom. As I boiled in the warmth of the craft, I longed for the winter of Europe. A brief stopover in Singapore merely made matters worse; I paid $10 for a copy of the Sydney Morning Herald, only to discover that in my absence Australia had categorically failed to do anything worthy of the money I paid for the paper. It did little to improve my already-darkened temperament. After that, I merely sat and stared at my watch.
As I sank deeper into despair, I railed against my greed and my insatiable desire for travel. I did not need to go to Europe; I had been there only two years before, more than many people would go in their lives. Had I subjected myself to the torments of airsickness, boredom, and the indescribable terrors of the Fantastic Four movie for nothing except empty vanities? By the time I left the plane, which seemed an eternity later, my inner journey was complete. Never again, I vowed, would I give myself over to greed.
As it turned out, Europe was fantastic, easily worth the effort of getting there (and back). Next year, I’m going back. While my inner journeys are generally deeply meaningful, they don’t tend to last very long afterwards.
The Tempest
• The role of The Tempest as an imaginative journey is indicated through the setting, the fantastical nature of events, magical characters such as Ariel and Caliban, and the exaggerated, proto-Romantic language used. • The sea voyage at the beginning is symbolic of the journey, while the shipwreck is indicative of perils on life’s journey. Storms are indicative of imbalances in the natural order, as in Macbeth and King Lear. • The extended metaphor of sleep and dreaming is first introduced in Scene 2, and recurs throughout the play. • Transformation as a theme also recurs throughout the play, and is first referred to in Scene 2 with how Antonio ‘changed ‘em/Or else new formed ‘em (1.2.83-85)’. • Miranda’s name is a transliteration of ‘wonder’, which ties in with Ferdinand’s line ‘O you wonder’ (1.2.425). References to the divine and the wondrous are common within the play. • Gonzalo’s speech (2.1.145-153) further emphasizes the unnatural nature of the island, in that he would execute all things ‘by contraries’, and would accomplish things Shakespeare’s audience would consider impossible or unnatural, including sovereignty over an island where Gonzalo says there will be ‘no sovereignty’. This not only emphasizes the magical nature of the island, but creates a direct link between the island and the theatre, where anything is possible. It must be emphasized that although his commonwealth seems somewhat utopian to today’s audience, many of the things he wished for (‘no sovereignty’) would have been profoundly affronting to the Jacobean era audiences. • Trinculo’s speech repeats references to stormy weather, showing disturbances in the natural order. The reference to Caliban as a ‘most delicate monster (2.2.72)’ is deliberately amusing, and repeats an earlier reference to Ariel as ‘too delicate (1.2.272)’, heightening contrast between Ariel (of the air) and Caliban (of the earth) • Caliban’s reaction to Stephano is similar to Miranda’s reaction to Ferdinand, creating contrast. • The ‘maze’ which Gonzalo refers to in Act 3 Scene 3 refers to both the island and the island as a metaphor for life. The journey on which Alonso and his courtiers are sent serves as a metaphor for their journey as a redemptive experience, in which they can understand their guilt and be forgiven. • Prospero links the ending of ‘our revels’ at the masque in Act 4 Scene 1 to death (4.1.146-158), part of the theme of death and renewal recurring throughout the play, as shown by the traveller’s symbolic ‘death’ on the boat and their redemption on the island. • Prospero refers to Sebastian and Antonio as ‘unnatural’ (5.1.79), a further reference to the contrast between the natural and the unnatural. The play largely concerns itself with the ‘natural order’, as shown by various ruminations on justice and forgiveness throughout the play, and especially in Act 5. Through Prospero’s overthrow, the natural order of being has been disturbed, thus making Sebastian and Antonio ‘unnatural’; through Prospero’s restoration, order is restored. However, Prospero must give up his own innately unnatural magical abilities for this to occur. • Prospero asks Ariel to provide ‘calm seas, auspicious gales’ before freeing it, thus further restoring the natural order.
Concept of the Journey
• Shirley Geok-lin Lim: ‘They [humans] k an external geography that will act on their internal psychology like an irresistible force, so they will return to the place from which they came blessed and altered’. This is the theory of travel as the search for the genii loci, or ‘the spirit of the place’. • Journeys can be roughly divided into physical, imaginative and inner journeys, but many journeys, fictional or otherwise, cross boundaries; it could be said that all journeys are physical, imaginative and inner, and each merely focuses on an aspect of the greater whole. • Physical journeys can be defined, roughly, as travel or exploration (exploration implies an indefinite destination) in a physical sense. Examples of such texts include Alien, Life of Pi and the books of Bill Bryson. However, it must be noted that these journeys rarely exist merely in the physical realm, but are often representations of the quest by the explorer for the genii loci, as mentioned above. As such, many physical journeys involve imaginative or inner elements, and some texts cross genres of journeys. • However, it must be taken into account that to define the concept of the journey is inevitably a variable task, as there can be no precise definition of the concept of the journey. Each journey is unique and based upon the context in which it takes place. • Imaginative journeys have been variably defined. Generally, they are journeys of the imagination or fantasy, where the lines between reality and fiction are blurred. Many can be little more than physical or inner journeys with unreal or speculative elements (examples of this include Tomorrow, When The War Began or Star Wars; both document physical or inner journeys with imaginative environments), while some are texts involving imaginative contexts or situations with less emphasis on the inner or physical journeys undergone by the protagonists (examples of this include Sophie’s World or Harry Potter) Generally, the imaginative journey is a text where the context or situations contained within require imagination or speculation on behalf of the audience or the composer. • Inner journeys do not necessarily take place in the physical world or involve imaginative elements (although many inner journeys in fiction involve imaginative or physical journeys). They require and promote a fundamental change in the mindset of the protagonist, and involve a ‘journey’ or exploration of the psyche, in which the explorer is fundamentally changed by their discoveries. This is perhaps the most amorphous genre of the journey; numerous texts involve inner reflection and self-discovery on the part of characters within, to the extent where this ‘genre’ threatens to become too all-encompassing for easy definition. • The journey, fundamentally, can be defined as ‘change’; every journey requires change, whether physical or psychological. The change in context provoked by a physical journey promotes psychological changes as well, due to the influence of context on one’s perceptions. Therefore, it can be said that a ‘journey’ text documents the impact on the psyche of changes resulting from a physical, imaginative or inner journey. In this sense, it can be said that every journey is an ‘inner’ journey, in that every journey, through the change in context, inevitably causes change to those on the journey.
Paper 1, Section 3
Composers have used texts to explore the importance of the journeying process through analysing the central concepts behind various journeys, and through the use of techniques to demonstrate these concepts. The composers of The Tempest, The Road Not Taken and Life of Pi all use imaginative journeys to explore the important role of journeys in psychological, individual and spiritual development.
William Shakespeare, composer of The Tempest, uses the text to explore the importance of journeys in the psychological development of its characters. The text contains multiple forms of journeys, with physical journeys (the opening scene, the fruitless exploration of Alonso’s party), imaginative journeys (the magical and fantastical nature of the play itself, Gonzalo’s envisioning of his ‘commonwealth’ with ‘no sovereignty’), and inner journeys (Prospero’s journey from vengeance to forgiveness). Each of these journeys plays an important role in the development of the characters within the text. The importance of imaginative journeys is particularly reflected upon with Alonso; his journey through the island, caused by the interruption of his journey to Naples, causes him to reflect upon the errors of his ways and thus seek redemption. Through the imaginary element of the illusionary banquet, presented in 3.3.19-52, Alonso is made to suffer (through the removal of the food), which leads ‘their great guilt/Like poison given to work a great time after,/Now ‘gins to bite the spirits’ (3.3.105-107), according to Gonzalo. The stage directions indicate ‘several strange Shapes’ are responsible for bringing in the banquet, thus using theatrical techniques to highlight the imaginative nature of Alonso’s journey. It is only through Alonso’s troubled journey on the island that he is able to reach redemption, thus highlighting the importance of the journeying process. A similar process is undergone by Caliban, on his ‘journey’ with Trinculo and Stephano, which ends in failure. He states, ‘I’ll be wise hereafter, and seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass was I to take this drunkard for a god and worship this dull fool!’ (5.1.294-298). This revelation is only accomplished through Caliban’s journey across the island, and through the imaginative nature of the ‘divers Spirits’ which pursue him. It is only through the imaginative journey (imaginative in the sense that it blends the fantastical with the real, in that it requires imagination on the behalf of the composer, and in that much of what occurs is the province of the mind) that Caliban goes on that he is able to gain wisdom. This is conveyed technically with the change in Caliban’s language in the last scene, and the contrast this presents with his behaviour in the first scene; whereas previously he used terms of abuse such as ‘the red plague’ and ‘toads, beetles, bats, light on you!’, in the final scene he promises to ‘seek for grace’. This heightens the impact which Caliban’s imaginative journey has had on him. These two examples highlight that, in The Tempest, Shakespeare aims to illustrate the importance of journeys as a source of psychological enlightenment.
The Road Not Taken, written by Robert Frost in 1916, examines journeys in a different light. It is important to examine The Road Not Taken in the context of political liberalism, and more importantly the political context of the times; Frost, a noted liberal thinker, wrote The Road Not Taken during the so-called Progressive Era, where individual thought and social liberalism gained impetus under the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Tyler Hoffman argues that Frost’s poetic practice is ‘fundamentally progressivist’. In this context, the protagonist’s journey can be read as a triumph of individualism; in making his choice of path without consideration for which road was more taken, the protagonist is validating the concept of the journey as an effort of individual will and self-realisation, without the constraints of community pressure. The poem is low on modality, suggesting that it represents not a single journey, but rather an idealised metaphorical conception of journeys throughout life; the protagonist states, ‘I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference’, but the negative connotations of ‘sigh’ imply that this difference may have been a negative one. In this sense, The Road Not Taken can be interpreted as a rebuke of liberalism, in that taking the road less travelled by, and thus giving in to one’s individualism, leads to one recounting the tale with a ‘sigh’. However, this does not detract from the poem’s essential message upholding human liberty; one cannot ‘travel both’ paths, but must make a choice. It is this emphasis on choice that serves as the poem’s central theme. Through this, it can be said that the poem emphasizes the importance of journeys in a liberal sense, in that they serve as means by which humans may exercise freedom and individuality, and thus develop as individuals.
Yann Martel’s Life of Pi is unique, in that it presents a journey that can be interpreted as inner, imaginative and physical. On first examination, the text can be seen as merely the journey of its protagonist, Pi Patel, on a lifeboat with Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. However, in a deeper sense the story is about Pi’s religious journey; as a Hindu, Christian and Muslim, Pi merely wants ‘to love God’. Pi's retelling of the story to the Japanese businessmen in the end, and his presentation of an entirely different version that seems more plausible, shows that the imaginary journey can be seen as a meditation on what is 'real', and that imaginary journeys, if they form 'the better story', can be made just as valid as what can be seen to have actually happened. Pi mentions that he survived by turning to God, and thus the journey in Life of Pi can be seen as a spiritual awakening. The technique of symbolism is used to illustrate this point; the three challenges to Pi's life are the ocean, the tiger, and the mysterious island he encounters, and yet all three of these also help save his life. The tiger, Richard Parker, is orange, the island is bright green, and the ocean is blue; these colours are also used to represent Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity respectively. This adds further credence to the theory that the 'journey' in Life of Pi is a spiritual awakening, where Pi's faith is tested and ultimately affirmed. As such, the 'journey' can be described as important in that it serves as a source of religious fulfilment. (add quotes later)
In conclusion, all three authors come to different conclusions as to the purpose of the journey, and illustrate these through different techniques. However, a common theme is that of the journey as a source of individual fulfilment and enlightenment; to Shakespeare, it serves as a psychological catharsis, to Frost, it serves as an expression of individuality, and to Martel it serves as a source of religious and spiritual strength. As such, it can be said that the importance of the journey is in the impact it has upon the psyche of the journeyer.
John Lancaster
Draft Proposal
• Working Title and Intention: My working title is The Anvil. This is an allusion to the ‘Pact of Steel’ formed between Fascist nations before World War 2 (with fascism obviously standing in for steel), and with a reference to the notion that my story is less about fascism itself, than about the circumstances which lead to individuals gaining ideological allegiance to it. However, this title is still highly speculative. My chosen form is still somewhat variable; I believe that a short story is necessary for the inner reflection of the central character required, yet I find myself tending towards presenting the piece as a monologue or series of monologues, which may be better suited to a speech. However, I currently believe that a short story, told from a first-person perspective, would be better suited to my topic; I may do it in flashback format, depending on space and relevance concerns. I have decided to write a story about the modern Australian ultra-nationalist fascist movement, including groups such as One Nation or the Patriotic Youth League, and more specifically about the psychological factors drawing people to join that movement. My main focus will be how my female main character, a member of a neo-Nazi group, has been dehumanised by poverty, injustice and the media, to the extent where she no longer looks on others as human. I have decided to set it in the format of an interview with a left-leaning journalist in the aftermath of the Cronulla riots, about the protagonist’s life and their reasons for joining the fascist movement. My audience will be people of all ages, but more specifically those with an interest in and knowledge of history; while the psychological drama contained within my work will hopefully provide interest for an adult audience (younger audiences, understandably, may not be entirely suitable), the strong political l content may make the work somewhat more appealing to a left-leaning audience, although obviously I aim to make my work appeal across the political spectrum. The purpose of my work is to explore both the ideological and psychological basis of fascist ideology and its adherents, and more broadly an analysis of the dehumanising effects of media prejudice, societal expectations and poverty. I believe this will be demonstrated through analysis of the central character through the interview, leading to a better understanding of her psyche and motivating features. Additionally, I may choose to include excerpts from (fictional and otherwise) texts examining fascism and the psychological effects of war.
• Inspiration: My inspiration came through two works studied in English, Angela’s Ashes (Advanced) and George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (Extension). My initial intention was an adaptation of Pygmalion set in Nazi Germany; however, I felt that this period of history and location have been made somewhat cliché by repeated analysis. While seeking to find a way to use this concept in a non-German setting, I recalled Laman Griffin, a fascist character in Angela’s Ashes, and his misanthropic behaviour within the novel; I decided an analysis of how he came to gain his psychological deviation would be an interesting topic. I was inspired by Der Untergang, a 2005 film about the final days of Adolf Hitler; the fanatical loyalty shown by his adherents, even after his derangement became apparent, appeared a fertile topic for analysis (even though, unfortunately, many other writers have apparently decided this before me). However, I later decided that the Irish fascist movement was not either interesting enough or easy enough to research, and so I chose to set it in a modern Australian context. I believe this will be interesting due to my intense interest in politics and history, and more specifically in the rise of racial politics in recent years. More specifically, I wish to examine racism in Australian society more generally, and what the recent popularity of racist movements says about our culture and history, through analysis of books, websites, and other forms of media on the subject, including fiction addressing the subject. I also plan to research the ‘interview’ and ‘short story’ forms through wide reading, while also investigating the possibility of doing the Major Work as a dramatic presentation.
• Planned method or process I plan to have finalised my ideas and how I plan to achieve them by the end of Term 4 this year, and to use my summer holidays for research. I plan to spend Term 1 in intensive research, while also completing preliminary drafts, leaving adequate amounts of time to begin the project anew, if my ideas prove less satisfactory than previously envisioned. By the beginning of Term 2, I plan to have completed my research and to possess a rough draft of my Major Work, but with Term 2 serving as a time in which to revise and rewrite the work intensively. By the time of my Viva Voce, I aim for my first draft to have been completed. I will spend Term 2 working on my Reflection Statement, while also completing my Major Work. By Term 3, I aim for my work to be practically complete, with only a few minor areas in need of completion.
• Outline of preliminary independent investigation: I began research into the Irish fascist movement, the Blueshirts/National Guard/Army Comrades Association, through both internet and literary searching. On the Internet, I have visited several websites associated with Eoin O’Duffy, the leader of the Blueshirts, and I have visited Liverpool and Campbelltown Libraries in order to conduct further research. In this time, I have learnt enough to confirm my interest in the National Guard; as stated by Terence Brown in Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, ‘the Blueshirt movement was an Irish expression of a European phenomenon [fascism]’, and thus they share many of the features that make the study of European fascism so interesting. However, my preliminary independent investigation has been somewhat stonewalled by the lack of readily available information on the Blueshirt movement; as the National Guard were later merged into Fine Gael, one of the major Irish political parties, this period of history is perhaps understandably one that is regarded as somewhat embarrassing. Compounding this difficulty is the somewhat insular nature of my subject matter; few books have been written in detail on this subject, and even fewer have been released to Australian audiences. I thus decided to change my context to modern-day Australia. I bring to my major work knowledge and understanding of Australian history, knowledge of the European fascist movements of the 1930s and a reasonable understanding of Australian vernacular and methods of speaking. I intend to research the history, ideology, structure and membership of modern Australian racist movements, and the underlying social factors which they reflect.
• Critical factors for success: My major obstacle to success will be my workload. I will be doing 11 units next year, 9 of them online; however, all of my subjects will be heavily research and essay-based, thus requiring a higher workload than some alternatives. My main conflict for time will be with my History Extension major work, which will require extensive research and which will be due within a similar timeframe. My other major obstacle is the insular matter of my subject manner; any research I undertake may require specialisation, which will require perhaps more effort in obtaining suitable texts than another subject might. This will perhaps consume more of my time which might have been spent on research. There is also the problem of stretching out an interview, or indeed a series of interviews, to the word length required. This may require me to change the format of my Major Work, and perhaps to broaden the subject area.
• Resource requirements: This is an area of particular relevance to my work, as many of my resources and knowledge required will be highly specialised. I may need to interview experts in Australian history and politics for specialised information, and books not in general circulation may prove useful. This may require research in university libraries, interviews with people connected with or witnessing the Cronulla riots (a central feature in my story) or similarly specialised sources of information.
• Evidence of research into other major works Der Platz: Der Platz is an excellent, evocative story, with complex symbolism and themes. The story is original, coherent, contains developed ideas, and demonstrates a wide range of well-developed literary skills. Its vignettes are flawless, and show a good understanding of the underlying themes and tensions in German society during the fall of the Weimar Republic, which will prove very useful for my own Major Work. The film communicates developed ideas with the novel touch of using the stylistic flourishes common in German silent films of the time. Questions must be asked about originality; this era has been visited often by many different texts, thus presenting the problem that this era may have been somewhat ‘overdone’. However, I feel that Der Platz deals with these ideas in a novel, original way, overcoming the inherent limitations of dealing with an era as controversial and commonly-dealt with as the rise of the Nazis. An excellent story. The Powers That Be: The Powers That Be is a simplistic, shallow collection of stories with a lack of coherence. Although some themes do recur, they generally do not allow the work as a whole to coalesce into a stylistic ‘whole’, with the stories generally being too different to allow for thematic relation. The first segment is a shallow analysis of German class conflicts lacking in depth or aim, while the rest of the stories are disjointed and lack plot or flow. Her most memorable moments occur in the second story, with some memorable imagery; otherwise, her stories lack any notable stylistic flourishes. Her characters range from shallow caricatures to melodramatic, one-dimensional pastiches. Although the themes of control and authority often recur, there is no central point to the work; rather, it functions as a series of short stories with a recurring motif, which does not tie together or work as a unified whole. Therefore, it must be judged on the merits of the short stories themselves, which I found distinctly lacking in interest or depth.
• Annotated bibliography: Terence Brown, Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, Fontana Only marginally useful for my subject matter, with only two paragraphs on the Blueshirt movement; however, the book proved useful for analysis of the social and cultural factors prevailing at the time. This could prove useful in an analysis of nationalist movements in a modern context. Tim Pat Coogan, Ireland In The Twentieth Century, Arrow Books, 2004 A very comprehensive book with large amounts of notes and information on the Blueshirt movement; this been my major source of information while I was planning to research Irish fascism, and is probably one of the most authoritative works on fascism in Ireland available. Detailed and well-researched. Again, this could prove useful in an analysis of nationalist movements in a modern context. James Lydon, The Making Of Ireland, Routledge, 1998 Again, only marginally useful for my subject matter, with only two paragraphs on the Blueshirt movement; shows negativity towards De Valera and greater sympathy for the Blueshirt movement than other sources, which may indicate bias but also presents the case for the movement, which will prove useful in character construction within the text of nationalist characters. In presenting a more equivocal view of the fascist movement, it will allow me to understand the motives of the people involved in modern nationalist movements. Robert Manne, Left Right Left: Political Essays 1977-2005, Black Inc, 2005 Robert Manne’s collection of scholarly essays contains several fascinating essays on the rise of the One Nation movement dating from 1996 and 1997, in what must be one of the very few academic analyses of, as he calls it, ‘what a politically significant extremism of the right might look like in contemporary Australia’. His analysis of Pauline Hanson’s appeal bypasses standard analyses of the ‘great man’ movement and instead focuses on her ‘negative charisma’, ‘expressive not of hope for the future but of bitterness about the presence’, calling her an ‘anti-politician’. This book has been hugely helpful to me as a major source of work on the extreme right in contemporary Australia.
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/australia1031-ltr.htm
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/Human_Rights/idc/index.html#major
1.2 Compliance with human rights obligations
The human rights of detainees in immigration detention facilities are recognised by international law in a number of human rights instruments. By ratifying these treaties, Australia has agreed to uphold the rights and obligations contained therein. Under the HREOC Act, the Commission has functions which relate to the human rights recognised in the international human rights instruments scheduled to or declared under the Act.[10]
For detainees in immigration detention facilities, two of the most relevant of these instruments are the following treaties:
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (1966)
the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (1989).[11]
Australia has also ratified a number of human rights treaties which are not covered by the HREOC Act. The most relevant of these for asylum seekers in particular is the Convention (1951) and Protocol (1967) relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention).[12] Although this Convention and Protocol are not scheduled to or declared under the HREOC Act, article 22 of the CRC provides that Australia must ensure that child asylum seekers “receive appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth … in other international human rights or humanitarian instruments” which Australia has ratified.
What are the key human rights principles relevant to people in immigration detention facilities?
Non-refoulement Non-refoulement is the principle that prohibits the forcible return of any person to a country where he or she risks facing persecution on return (article 33(1), Refugee Convention; articles 6, 7, ICCPR; articles 6, 37, CRC).[13]
Freedom from arbitrary detention
No one should be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention (article 9(1), ICCPR; article 37(b), CRC). The term ‘arbitrary’ refers to more than simply whether the arrest or detention is unlawful. To avoid being arbitrary, detention must be reasonable, necessary and a proportionate means to achieve a legitimate aim.
Detention of children as a last resort
The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time (article 37(b), CRC).
Right to judicial review of detention
Anyone who is deprived of his or her liberty has the right to challenge the lawfulness of his or her detention before a court (article 9(4), ICCPR; article 37(d), CRC).
Right to access legal assistance
Anyone who is detained should have access to independent legal advice and assistance (Article 37(d), CRC; Principles 13, 14 and 17 Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment (1988)).
Right to be treated with humanity and respect
All persons deprived of their liberty should be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person (article 10(1), ICCPR; article 37(c), CRC).
Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
No one should be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment (article 7, ICCPR; article 37(a), CRC).
The best interests of the child
In all actions concerning children, the best interests of the child should be a primary consideration. States Parties should ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for the child’s well-being, taking into account the rights and duties of his or her parents or others legally responsible for him or her (article 3, CRC).
Non-discrimination
Everyone is entitled to respect for their human rights without discrimination (article 2(1) and 26, ICCPR; article 2(1), CRC).
How does the Government monitor the human rights of detainees in immigration detention facilities?
There is no independent body in Australia dedicated solely to monitoring Australia’s detention facilities with the power to compel changes to detention practices where warranted.
English Extension 2 Journal
22/11/06
I’ve been working on structural reform, or rather construction, for my Major Work. More specifically, what form do I want it to take?
At first, I decided the monologue structure would allow for the greatest psychological depth, perhaps with a framing story. However, I am beginning to believe that a monologue may prove tedious over an extended duration, although I believe that a series of monologues on different topics may prove interesting. At current, I am experimenting with a structure as a psychological interview, perhaps for the protagonist’s shellshock or some unidentified crime; perhaps the protagonist could be the last Irish fascist, having continued attacks after the movement folded? If so, the ‘voice’ may be somewhat diluted, which might make a case for moving the story’s context to a British or Australian setting. More research is required.
More specifically, I think I need to set out exactly what I wish to achieve with this project. Do I want a psychological analysis of fascism? The effects of poverty on the human mind? A history of the Irish fascist movement? A study of abnormal behaviours? Well, ‘all of the above’, really, but I think I need to know what I want to focus on, to make it less fractious. I have also downloaded an Irish dictionary for translations. ‘Inneoin’ is the Irish word for Anvil; I think this could make a good title. ‘Faisisteachas’ (Fascism) is also a possibility.
While I have a reasonable idea what I want to do, however, I’m still a bit unsure what I want to do it about. Irish fascism would allow for a distinct ‘voice’, but the information available could still be sketchy. The New Guard, the Australian fascists, appear interesting, but would they be interesting enough?
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1. The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948. 2. The Assembly called upon all member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories”. In many cases, Australia has done this, as the Universal Declaration has been published in many schools; however, this has not yet been universally adopted in schools. 3. a) Tyranny can be defined as a state in which one or more people possess absolute power over the governed without reference to the rule of law. The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure, without the exercise of arbitrary power. b) The preamble sets out the principles of ‘the equal and unalienable’ rights of all humans, and states that these human rights ‘should be protected by the rule of law’. It states that the signatory states to the charter have recognized that human rights are ‘the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’, and that these states aim for ‘the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms’. 4. a) Article 5 is concerned with freedom from physical abuse. b) Article 18 and 19 is concerned with freedom of thought and conscience. c) Articles 9, 10 and 11 are concerned with legal rights with respect to pre-trial and court processes. d) Article 16 is concerned with family rights. e) Article 17 is concerned with property rights. f) Article 21 is concerned with democratic rights. g) Articles 22, 23, 24 and 25 are concerned with economic rights. h) Articles 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 are concerned with social rights. 5. a) The individual has the duty to protect the rights of others, to work towards the betterment of others, and to refrain from activities which may cause harm or infringe upon the rights of others. b) The rights and freedoms guaranteed within the Universal Declaration should extend so far that they do not infringe upon the rights guaranteed within the declaration to others. These rights are absolute, but applicable to everyone; therefore, they are absolute only so far as one does not infringe upon the absolute rights of others. c) If your rights clash with the rights of others, then dispute resolution may lead to a mutually satisfactory situation, or to a situation in which the person whose rights lead to more benefit for mankind at large, even on a small scale, is guaranteed their rights above those rights pursued for purely personal reasons. 6. The non-derogable rights are those contained in Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 28, and 30. 7. a) Inter-American Convention to Prevent, Punish and Eradicate Violence against Women, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. b) Committee on the Rights of the Child, Declaration of the Rights of the Child 8. a)Jean-Jacques Rousseau b) League of Nations c) Amnesty International.