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Vale ‘sister suffragette’: how Glynis Johns became a pop-culture icon in the story of votes for women

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-stevenson-196768">Ana Stevenson</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-helwig-1500979">Lindsay Helwig</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> Glynis Johns, most famous for her role as the suffragette mother Mrs Winifred Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964), passed away last week at the age of 100. A fourth-generation performer who made her <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-17-ca-126-story.html">stage debut</a> in London when she was only three weeks old, Johns inherited her Welsh father’s love of acting. She appeared with him in The Halfway House (1944) and The Sundowners (1960) and argued for the establishment of a Welsh National Theatre <a href="https://twitter.com/huwthomas/status/791367871242862592">as early as 1971</a>. Johns’s career spanned eight decades in Hollywood, Broadway and the British stage and screen. As Palm Springs’s Desert Sun <a href="https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19630426.2.50">reported</a> in 1962, her “husky voice and big blue eyes” were her hallmarks. But it was her portrayal of Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins which would make her a pop culture icon. <h2>A childhood inspiration</h2> Feminist activists and scholars often describe the Mrs Banks character as a childhood inspiration. As feminist communications scholar Amanda Firestone <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Resist_and_Persist/s5HiDwAAQBAJ">reflects</a> on the film: "I especially loved […] Mrs Banks (Glynis Johns), who marches around the family home, putting Votes for Women sashes onto the housekeeper, cook, and the (departing) nanny. Of course, as a kid, I had no idea that the people and events embedded in the song’s lyrics were actual parts of history, but I did find a kind of joy in a vague notion of women’s empowerment." Set in 1910, the symbolism associated with Mrs Banks references the history of the British suffragettes. Johns’ musical showstopper, Sister Suffragette, directly refers to <a href="https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-pankhursts-politics-protest-and-passion/">Emmeline Pankhurst</a>, who founded the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903. In 1906 British newspapers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859007003239">coined</a> the moniker “suffragette” to mock the union. <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0SDECwO54E?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> This ambivalence continued into the 1960s. Historian Laura E. Nym Mayhall <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316653">argues</a> that American concern over the impact of women’s public roles on their domestic responsibilities influenced the film’s depiction of Mrs Banks, especially her movement from a public suffragette back into an involved mother at the film’s end. For Mayhall, the figure of the suffragette emerges in popular culture as “a symbol of modernity”: a harbinger of democracy and political progress whose characterisation would elide ongoing struggles such as the civil rights movement. <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568335/original/file-20240108-23-tf6kwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1193&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>This 1909 Dunston Weiler Lithograph Co. anti-suffrage postcard offers resonances of Mrs Banks and her household staff in Mary Poppins. <a class="source" href="https://thesuffragepostcardproject.omeka.net/items/show/44">Catherine H. Palczewski Postcard Archive/The Suffrage Postcard Project</a></figcaption></figure> While some see the character of the suffragette mother as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Mary_Poppins/BLujEAAAQBAJ">supporting</a> women’s votes during the 1910s and women’s liberation during the 1960s, other readings of the film suggest a more satirical representation of the suffrage movement. Some historians even find <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-6923118">resonances</a> of anti-suffrage propaganda in Mrs Banks, including in her usage of her Votes for Women sash as the tail of a kite in the film’s final scene. Looking back at film reviews offers insight into how audiences received this character – and, by extension, Johns as an actor. American studies scholar Lori Kenschaft <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Girls_Boys_Books_Toys.html?id=Or13vhnA_W4C">suggests</a> that film critics who saw Mrs Banks as a “nutty suffragette mother” reiterated popular stereotypes about suffragettes and feminists being “mentally unbalanced”. Such stereotypes may have been reinforced by the film’s depiction of motherhood and the nuclear family. Involved parenting emerged as the bedrock of the 1960s nuclear family, an idea both supported and actively promoted by Walt Disney in both his films and his theme parks, as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Children_Childhood_and_Musical_Theater/XHrRDwAAQBAJ">argued</a> by American musicologist William A. Everett. As Mrs Banks, Johns embodied the transition from the distant, uninvolved parenting of the British middle-class in the earlier 20th century to the involved mother who facilitated the stable nuclear family. As women’s studies scholar Anne McLeer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4316893">argues</a>, Mary Poppins, through Johns’ portrayal of Mrs Banks, demonstrated the liberated woman of the 1960s could be contained within the nuclear family: the bedrock for a Western capitalist economy. <h2>A long career</h2> Beyond Mary Poppins, her most prominent role was in Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Little Night Music (1973). Johns originated the character of ageing actress Desiree Armfeldt, becoming the first to sing Send in the Clowns. As she <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-04-17-ca-126-story.html">reflected</a> of the classic in 1991: "It’s still part of me. And when you’ve got a song like Send in the Clowns, it’s timeless." Sondheim composed this song with Johns’s famously husky voice in mind. Yet some were less enamoured with her performance. One 1973 theatre critic <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3850619">described</a> Johns as “a now somewhat overage tomboy, kittenish and raspy-voiced, precise and amusing in her delivery of lines but utterly, utterly unseductive.” <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OAl-EawVobY?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> A veteran of stage and screen, Johns appeared in more than 60 films and 30 plays. In 1998, she was honoured with a Disney Legends Award for her role as Mrs Banks. Johns also received critical acclaim throughout her career, including a Laurel Award for Mary Poppins and a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for A Little Night Music. Regardless of how incongruous her status as a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-05/glynis-johns-mary-poppins-send-in-the-clowns/103287036">Disney feminist icon</a>” may be, Johns’s extraordinary influence upon the 20th century’s cultural memory is a remarkable legacy. <img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220766/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ana-stevenson-196768">Ana Stevenson</a>, Senior Lecturer, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/lindsay-helwig-1500979">Lindsay Helwig</a>, Lecturer in Pathways, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a> Image credits: Disney This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-sister-suffragette-how-glynis-johns-became-a-pop-culture-icon-in-the-story-of-votes-for-women-220766">original article</a>.

Caring

Explore. Dream. Discover: An Over60 Reader's epic journey

Many people travel to all corners of the earth, seeking new and exciting experiences, especially when we retire and are able to do so. Sometimes we can be pushed beyond the boundaries of our comfort zone but usually the experience is positive and often transformational. One popular destination for travellers who enjoy adventure is Sedona in Arizona, a town that nestles in a desert on the edge of red rock canyons. Nearby is Hopiland, home to the Hopi Indians. One of my most treasured memories occurred in this part of the world in 1990, on top of a desert mountain known as a mesa. The mesa rose thousands of feet above ground level and I climbed up there with a group of friends from Australia. As we reached the top, we began to hear the sound of drums and chanting coming from an underground cave. Our travel guide informed us that inside the cave, Hopi women and children huddled together on the dirt floor to watch their menfolk perform legendary rituals honouring their ancient ancestors. Since the ceremony was forbidden to tourists, we were given an hour to explore the top of the mesa. Moving a short distance away from the rest of the group, I sat down on a rock to fully absorb the nearby pulse of drums and chanting. A few minutes later, three young Hopi boys appeared and attempted to converse with me. Initially, I found it difficult to understand what they were saying until I realised they were actually inviting me to accompany them underground to join their tribal family. Throwing caution to the wind, I followed them down a rickety wooden ladder poking out of a hole in the ground. The atmosphere inside the cave was thick with burning sage combined with swirling dust from the pounding feet of men dancing, their heads hidden inside huge masks. Barefooted women and children squatted on the dirt floor and I felt very much an intruder as I squeezed myself amongst them. But, reassured by friendly smiles and head-nodding, I began to relax, absorbing the magical rituals of times past. Eventually the ancient ceremony ended, and I climbed the ladder back into the twentieth century, overcome by a newfound sense of humility and realisation of just how unimportant the wealth and material greed of Western society is. One can often rely on the unexpected to occur when travelling. During a visit to Egypt one year, our group emerged from the Temple of Isis to settle down and meditate on the bank of a nearby river when a military policeman appeared out of the bushes, clutching a large submachine gun. His other hand appeared to conceal something behind his back and as he drew closer, we noticed he had a second gun tucked into his belt. Terrified, we leapt to our feet. Then, his face breaking into a smile, he held out the hand from behind his back. Lying in its brown sinewy palm were eleven pink oleander blossoms, one for each of us. A moment of sheer terror switched instantly to one of absolute delight. Another example of ‘the unexpected’ occurred a few days later for a member of our group who had just turned eighty. All her life she had suffered with claustrophobia and its related anxiety and panic attacks. Consequently, when we visited the Great Pyramid to ascend the steep tunnel inside which would take us up to the King’s Chamber, we arranged for her to remain outside with our tour guide. But at the last minute she changed her mind, not wanting to miss out on such a special experience. By slowly crawling through the tunnel all the way up inside the Great Pyramid, she managed to achieve something she had never in her life believed possible. We celebrated her victory that night with champagne, lots of laughs and some hilarious attempts at belly dancing. A travel memory that always makes my grandchildren laugh is when I was visiting my friend Palden Jenkins, an historian who lives in Glastonbury. One day we set off for Snowdonia, North Wales, for a holiday. As we pulled up outside the 500-year-old stone cottage a farmer approached, urging us to be sure to leave a pot of tea outside every night for the Booka, the name given to Welsh brownies or elves. If we did this, he said, we would be assured of a hassle-free holiday. The Booka would not trouble us if we kept the cottage clean, left out the tea and didn’t have long noses. Words cannot describe the fun we two ‘grown-ups’ had in brewing tea every evening over an open fire to cater to the whims of Snowdonia’s faerie folk. Travelling the world can create change in our lives that we will never regret, opening our hearts, broadening our minds, and sometimes transforming our lives forever. To quote Mark Twain, ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the ones you did. So, sail away from the safe harbour. Explore. Dream. Discover.’ This wonderful story, including the images, was sent in by Over60 Reader Jo Buchanan. Thank you, Jo, for sharing your adventure with us! If you have a Reader Story you would like to contribute to Over60, please send it to the editor via <a href="mailto:greg@oversixty.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener">greg@oversixty.com.au</a>.

International Travel

“That flying baby” shares her story almost 30 years on

While most babies have their little hands full with the all-important business of teething and crawling at six months, some have other things to be getting on with - and for one, that meant reaching for the stars. In 1991, six-month-old Jordan Leads was on a rock climbing trip with her parents in California’s Joshua Tree National Park when a picture of the young family was taken by photographer Greg Epperson, and then published by adventurewear brand Patagonia in its 1995 spring catalogue. The photo, titled “Come to Papa”, saw young Jordan - and the adventure-loving Sherry and Jeff Leads - bundled in a jumpsuit, soaring through the air between two large rocks with a substantial gap between them. She appeared to have been launched from her mum’s arms, and was heading straight for her father’s waiting ones. It fast tracked the family to worldwide fame, and even once the attention had settled, Sherry and Jeff made sure the moment wouldn’t be forgotten, choosing to hang a copy in the hallway of their family home. And now, almost 30 years on from the height of her stardom, Jordan has come to embrace that chapter of her life, going so far as to use the handle ‘That Flying Baby’ online. Though like her parents, Jordan’s life goal isn’t to head for the skies, with the young Leads following in their footsteps as an avid climber. And Jordan, who has a baby of her own, hopes to pass that passion onto her children when they’re old enough, as well as the story of her unusual rise to fame. "I can't wait to show [the pictures] to my kids one day,” she told NPR, “and to show them how I was growing up, how my parents raised me and to really just bring that whole family value of going outside back to them. "I would put [it] up on the wall, and then I could put my child's right next to it in our hallway ... I think that would be really cool." Jordan may have her work cut out for her getting the story to them first, however, with the picture making a resurgence online in recent years as entertained internet users transformed it into a popular meme. Thankfully, Jordan could see the fun in it all, even getting in on it herself when it came to her pregnancy announcement, when she photoshopped the faces of herself and her partner onto her parents’ bodies, and their ultrasound over the image of her younger self. But her favourite of all the edits takes things a little further from reality, as Jordan told Weekend Edition Saturday’s Scott Simon, it showed her parents “feeding me to a Jurassic Park dinosaur. I think that’s the best.” Images: Instagram

Travel Trouble

Why you should encourage your grandchildren to write stories

In an article published in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41405103" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Language Arts</a>, educators who were interested in encouraging children to write were asked why it was important for children to be encouraged to write. Their reasons were varied and interesting, and worth considering for anyone who has a young child in their life – let’s take a look at some: 1. To entertain As humans, we tell stories for many reasons, but perhaps the foremost reason is that we want to entertain one another. By encouraging children to write their own stories, they can discover what entertains them, as well as what entertains others – well-told, engaging stories. 2. To stimulate the imagination By creating from nothing a story full of characters and original plots, a child’s imagination grows and develops. 3. To search for identity When children write their own stories, they can use the conflict and characters to take their first steps on their search for identity. The power simple stories can have on a child’s self-development is remarkable. 4. To improve reading and writing skills Children need to read and write, so we may as well find a way to make it more interesting for them. Not only will writing help kids learn how to read, it can also help them understand literary devices (suspense, twist, dramatic irony, etc.), and grammatical structures. Now that we’ve explored some of the reasons creativity in writing in our kids, let’s find some ways to help get them started: 5. Inspiration exploration When you’re spending time with your grandchildren, make a game out of looking for fun story inspirations. Interesting newspaper headlines, a unique-looking house, a colouring-in book. You could even keep a box full of story inspirations to explore together with your grandchildren. 6. Unblank the page Anyone who has ever sat down to write knows there’s nothing more intimidating than a blank page. To help kids out, try giving them the opening line to a story. You can create these yourself, find a list of opening lines on the internet, or even borrow the opening line of a book on your own shelf. 7. Work all of the mind If you find that your grandchildren have difficulty focusing on just words, encourage them to explore other aspects of their own creativity by using visuals. Storyboards, illustrations, or even writing the story as a comic book can help stimulate storytelling. Image credit: Shutterstock

Family & Pets

How to avoid mobile phone bill horror stories when travelling

"I'm sorry, calls to this number are not allowed, please try again later". This. Again. At 1am standing outside what I thought was our Galway Airbnb, but instead was a popular alley for Irish revellers to relieve themselves. Brilliant. After begging a convenience store manager, borrowing a phone and stealing some local wi-fi, we made it to bed before 3am (one-star rating for the Airbnb host, naturally). Such was the power of the phone company when you're on holiday, I still got pinged far-too-high amounts for calls and data used to attempt a check-in at the Irish abode. A reader recently contacted me wanting to avoid such a conundrum by asking for the best SIM cards available in Europe. Thankfully, EU law has recently shielded travellers from harsh cross-border roaming charges by ruling that providers cannot charge excessively for access to rival networks in fellow EU nations. You'll see the kiosks hawking pre-paid SIM packages at many major airports. If you want the dependability a SIM provides, assess your needs and shop around. Better yet, get to know your smartphone better and use the whole range of mobile apps that will soon make international call and text roaming redundant. Organising hotels, taxis, tours, dinner reservations as well as calling home and making your friends and colleagues jealous with holiday snaps can all be done with a wi-fi connections, which are readily available and far cheaper (if not free). Avoid phone bill shock when you're away <ul> <li>Contact your mobile phone company rep about your destination and length of stay to see what add-ons and spending caps may be best.</li> <li>Only purchase local SIMs if you're in the country more than a week, have an unplanned itinerary or will have no free wi-fi at your accommodation.</li> <li>If you're on a per-day bundle, choose a few days to be on-the-grid and turn off your mobile data on other days.</li> <li>Go wi-fi only, in North American, Asian and European cities it's readily available.</li> <li>Embrace apps like Uber, Gett, WhatsApp, OpenTable and TripAdvisor to book taxis, call home and book restaurants and tours using hotel wi-fi and thus limiting calls.</li> </ul> Image credit: Shutterstock Written by Josh Martin. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stuff.co.nz</a>.

Travel Tips

A mother’s love story blossoms from a family reunion 40 years in the making

When Helen Mansfield took to social media in search of her biological mother, she could never have foreseen the good fortune she’d bring about - not only to herself, but to those she held most dear, too. It was in 2016 that Helen posted to Facebook, hoping to connect with her mother - who had given her up when Helen was only 10 days old. And a mere five hours later, someone did reach out, informing Helen that her mother was in the United Kingdom, and that her name was Glenda Joy. Helen, on the other hand, was in Perth, Australia. She’d been adopted by a Welsh couple, but had moved to Perth after marrying an Australian - with whom she shares two daughters. Four decades of mystery had gone by, but after that stranger on Facebook had set her on the right path, things had quickly fallen into place. As Helen informed 7News, “straight away, we knew each other. [She] gave me a big hug and said ‘I feel I just won the lottery’.” It should have marked the end of that happy chapter for Helen and Glen, but Helen’s adoptive dad, Gwyn, had other ideas. Because when Helen introduced the two - as her biological mother and her adoptive father - they immediately felt a connection, and set out on a number of adventures together, enjoying everything from the cricket to the beach, and last but certainly not least, a kiss. “I went in to Helen,” Glen recounted, “and I said ‘I’ve got something to say’. “I said ‘your dad kissed me’.” Glen added that she hadn’t been expecting it, but that wasn’t a bad thing, as she’d very much “wanted it to happen”. And it was only good times from there, with the unexpected couple getting married in the United Kingdom after enjoying a commitment ceremony in Perth with Helen as their joyous celebrant. They have every intention of returning to Australia, too, for a trip packed full of celebration with Gwyn’s 80th and the upcoming birth of a great-grandchild. But at the end of the day, Helen is “just really happy it happened”, and holds hope in her heart that their story will offer encouragement to anyone else in a similar position, searching for their biological or long-lost families. “I hope that anybody else - you know, it probably won’t go this far because this is a different story - but anybody else who wants to reach out and find their birth mother,” she added, “should try and do it.” Images: 7News

Relationships

10 horror travel stories that will make you think twice about that destination

From terrorist attacks and natural disasters to good old-fashioned scams, you might want to think twice about that next holiday. 1. A very expensive meal, Vietnam Last year an Aussie tourist was charged around $40,000 for a single meal at a restaurant in Vietnam after the manager fraudulently used his credit card. A staff member swiped the diner’s credit card numerous times after he told him there had been an error. In reality he was taking a large sum of money straight from his account. 2. Honeymooner murdered in paradise, Mauritius Mauritius is one of the world’s top honeymoon destinations. But in 2011 27 year old newlywed Michaela McAreavey was strangled in the bathtub of her room. Two hotel workers were charged though were eventually cleared, meaning the crime has never been solved. Tragically, her body was returned to Ireland and she was buried in her wedding dress at the same church where she had been married just 12 days before. 3. In flight toilet nightmare, Los Angeles A Virgin Australia flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was forced to turn around after one of the toilets exploded, sending water and waste pouring into the aisles. The smell was so bad that passengers were given face masks to wear and had to wait at least three hours before they could land again at LAX. 4. Hotel terrorist attack, India In 2008 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organisation based in Pakistan carried out a series of coordinated terrorist attacks over four days in Mumbai. Two of the locations targeted were hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident with a number of hostages taken, including foreign tourists. 61 people were killed in the hotels, with 166 killed around the city. 5. Britons contract Zika, Florida In 2016, the Zika virus was all over the news though many people assumed the danger was restricted to South America. However, two unlucky British tourists travelling to the state of Florida contracted the disease. Zika has been linked to serious birth defects microencephaly, which limits brain development. 6. Thousands die in Boxing Day tsunami, Asia On Boxing Day in 2004 a 9.2 magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Sumatra. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across 14 countries in Southeast Asia. Among the dead were around 2,000 foreign tourists who had been holidaying in the coastal resorts of the region. Germany and Sweden were the worst effected, making up around 1,000 of the casualties. 7. Corrupt police demand huge bribes, Bali The Indonesian island of Bali is the most popular international destination for Australian tourists. But for one group of men it quickly became a nightmare. The 16 men were celebrating a bucks party when police and private guards burst into their restaurant, tasered and pistol whipped them, and demanded $25,000 in ‘fines’. The men were told they faced 10 years jail if they didn’t pay up. 8. Gunman storms a casino, Philippines At least 37 people were killed and many more injured in June 2017 when a gunman stormed into the gaming floor of Resorts World Manila, setting fire to gaming tables with gasoline. Most of the casualties died due to smoke inhalation and suffocation, and the gunman was also killed. Authorities said his motivation was robbery, not terrorism. 9. Unexplained deaths on Koh Tao, Thailand One of Thailand’s most popular islands, the diving paradise of Koh Tao, has earned the name ‘Death Island’ after a number of unexplained cases in recent years. At least eight foreigners have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances since 2014. Many people accuse the corrupt Thai police for failing to adequately investigate the cases. 10. Tragic death in a water tank, Los Angeles In February 2013 guests at the Hotel Cecil in downtown LA began complaining that the tap water had a strange colour and taste, and there was little pressure. Little did they know that the decomposing body of 21 year old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was floating in the water tank on the roof. Elisa, who had bipolar disorder, had been in the tank for 18 days. Her death has never been explained, though there is security footage of her behaving strangely prior to going missing. Images: Getty

Travel Trouble

King's-eye-view: Story behind incredibly rare shot from palace balcony

Getty photographer Chris Jackson has shared insight into what it was like to capture the coronation, and watch the moment King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla walked out onto Buckingham Palace balcony from a unique perspective. Taking to Instagram, Jackson shared a rare image that gave the public a small sense of what Charles and Camilla would see from the balcony. <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6FZQwtiE6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6FZQwtiE6/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chris Jackson (@chrisjacksongetty)</a> </div> </blockquote> "An honour to shoot 'behind the scenes' and a never seen before angle from today's historic Coronation, what a day!!!!!! Save a 🥂 for me!", he captioned the post. That wasn’t the only ‘behind-the-scenes' look at the King and Queen’s time on the Palace balcony. Jackson also shared a photo of the pair watching the Royal Navy, Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force doing a flypast. The image shows the aircraft leaving a trail of red, white and blue exhaust as they flew over the proceedings. <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6M3BDNoYw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr6M3BDNoYw/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Chris Jackson (@chrisjacksongetty)</a> </div> </blockquote> "What a view! What a day!" Jackson captioned the post. King Charles and Queen Camilla were captured waving to the crowd from the Palace balcony following his coronation at Westminster Abbey. The pair travelled to the infamous site in a royal carriage for the long-lived tradition. Charles and Camilla were joined on the balcony by their royal pages and members of the British royal family. Prince William and Princess Katie appeared on the balcony with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. There were two noticeable absences from the balcony, although neither were expected to be there as only working royals are given the honour of making an appearance on the balcony. Although Prince Harry did attend the coronation, he left shortly afterwards to travel back to the US for his son Archie’s fourth birthday celebrations. Prince Andrew was also present at the coronation but not on the balcony as Charles looks to “slim down” the monarchy. The day marked the first time the royal family appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony since the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The late Queen waved to the crowd from the balcony, accompanied by Charles, Camilla, William, Kate and their children during Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June 2022. She passed away three months later on September 8, 2022, with Prince Charles immediately anointed as King. Image credit: Getty/Instagram

Beauty & Style

New lessons about old wars: keeping the complex story of Anzac Day relevant in the 21st century

What happened on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey 108 years ago has shocked and shaped Aotearoa New Zealand ever since. The challenge in the 21st century, then, is how best to give contemporary relevance to such an epochal event. The essence of the Anzac story is well known. As part of the first world war British Imperial Forces, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs) landed at Gallipoli on April 25 1915. For eight months they endured the constant threat of death or maiming in terrible living conditions. Ultimately, their occupation of that narrow and rugged piece of Turkish coast failed. The 30,000 Anzacs were evacuated after eight months. More than 2,700 New Zealand and 8,700 Australian soldiers died, with many more wounded. The <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/anzac-day-resources">first anniversary</a> of the landing was a day of mourning, with Anzac Day becoming a public holiday in 1922. A remembrance day of sorrow mixed with pride, it has grown over the years to include all those who served and died in later international conflicts. Over time, various narratives and themes have emerged from that Gallipoli “origin story”: of Aotearoa New Zealand’s emergence as a nation, proving itself to Britain and Empire; of the brave, fit, loyal soldier-mates who emblemised the Kiwi spirit of egalitarianism, fairness and duty. All this mingled with the lasting shock and underlying anger at class hierarchy and the British leadership’s incompetence. But historians know well that the “Anzac spirit” is a complex and ever-evolving idea. In 2023, what do we teach school-aged children about its meaning and significance? One way forward is to rethink those Anzac narratives and tropes in a more complex way. <h2>Colonialism and class</h2> The Anzac story is tied up in the nation’s history as part of the British Empire. The Anzac toll was just part of a staggering 46,000 “Britons” – including many from India and Ireland – who died at Gallipoli. Some 86,000 Turks also died defending their peninsula. We need to teach about the Anzac sacrifice in the context of a global conflict where the magnitude of loss was horrific. Importantly, Anzac themes are bound up in early forms of colonial nationalism: New Zealand proving itself to Britain and developing its own fighting mentality on battlefields far from home. Part of this involves the notion of incompetent British commanders who let down the Anzac troops – but this is part of a bigger story. Focusing on imperial and class hierarchies of the time can place what happened in that broader context. The legendary story of <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/wellington-battalion-captures-chunuk-bair">Chunuck Bair</a>, taken on August 8 by Colonel William Malone’s Wellington Regiment, but where most of the soldiers were killed when they weren’t relieved in time, is particularly evocative. <h2>Māori and the imperial project</h2> From our vantage point in the present, of course, we cannot ignore the Māori experience of war and colonialism. As the historian Vincent O’Malley has suggested, New Zealand’s “great war” of nation-making was actually <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-wars">Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa</a> – the New Zealand Wars. It’s time to teach the complexity of this past and the multiple perspectives on it. For example, Waikato leader <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/te-kirihaehae-te-puea-herangi">Te Puea Hērangi</a>led opposition to WWI conscription and spoke against Māori participation on the side of a power that had only recently invaded her people’s land. Conversely, Māori seeking inclusion in the settler nation did participate. On July 3 1915, the 1st Māori Contingent landed at Anzac Cove. <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3b54/buck-peter-henry">Te Rangi Hiroa</a> (Sir Peter Buck) (Ngāti Mutunga) was to say, "Our feet were set on a distant land where our blood was to be shed in the cause of the Empire to which we belonged." These words echo the familiar Anzac trope of the New Zealand nation being born at Gallipoli. Such sentiments led to postwar pilgrimages to retrace the steps of ancestors and claim the site as part of an Anzac heritage – a corner of New Zealand even. For many young New Zealanders it has become a rite of passage, part of the big OE. That a visit to Anzac Cove is still more popular than visiting the sites of Ngā pakanga o Aotearoa is something our teaching can investigate. <h2>Mateship and conformity</h2> The notion of the Anzac soldier as courageous and beyond reproach, willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for nation and empire, is also overdue for revision. The “glue” of mateship – a potent combination of masculine bravery and strength with extreme loyalty to fellow soldiers – is again a contested narrative. By the 1970s, as historian Rowan Light’s work shows, there was a significant challenge to such perceptions from the counterculture, peace protesters and feminists. And by the 1980s, veterans were sharing their stories more candidly with writer Maurice Shadbolt and war historian Chris Pugsley. Teaching about the meaning of mateship might examine the history of those peer-pressured into participating in war, those who were conscripted and had no choice, and more on the fate of conscientious objectors like Archibald Baxter. At its worst, the idea of mateship was window dressing for uniformity and parochialism. New Zealanders today have complex multicultural and global roots. We have ancestors who were co-opted to fight on different sides in 20th-century wars, including those who fought anti-colonial wars in India, Ireland and Samoa. Some came here as refugees escaping conflict. Jingoism and what it really represents deserves critical analysis. <h2>Poppies and peace</h2> The ubiquitous poppy, an icon much reproduced in classrooms, is also ripe for contextualisation and debate over its meaning. In the age of global environmental crisis, it can be seen as more than a symbol of sacrifice immortalised in verse and iconography. The poppy also reminds us of the landscapes devastated by the machinery of war that killed and maimed people, plants and animals. It contains within it myriad lessons about the threats science and technology can pose to a vulnerable planet. Anzac Day rose from the shock, loss and grief felt by those on the home front. And beyond the familiar tropes of nationalism, mateship and egalitarianism, this remains its overriding mood. Remembering and learning about the terrible physical and mental cost of war is the real point of those familiar phrases “lest we forget” and “never again”. That spirit of humanitarianism chimes with Aotearoa New Zealand’s modern role and evolving self-image as a peacekeeping, nuclear-free nation. Anzac Day also speaks to the need for global peace and arbitration, and how war is no viable solution to conflict. Those are surely lessons worth teaching. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-lessons-about-old-wars-keeping-the-complex-story-of-anzac-day-relevant-in-the-21st-century-204013" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Caring

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: don’t watch it for the story but for how it successfully represents gameplay

The first videogame I ever played was the arcade game <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp2aMs38ERY">Donkey Kong</a>. Released in 1981, it took us into a blocky-looking world where a carpenter in overalls raced along platforms and up ladders in a building site to rescue a lady kidnapped by a large ape. Its humble hero, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario">Mario</a>, went on to feature in scores of multi-million dollar grossing games, becoming an icon <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/recentering-globalization">as popular as Mickey Mouse</a>. Having grown up in the 1980s, the new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnGl01FkMMo">Super Mario Bros. Movie</a> meant more to me than the average fantasy animation film. Watching <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKxaYsn_F78">Mario and Donkey Kong have it out</a> on a massive screen – at a resolution so high you can see a single hair or wrinkle on these crisp-looking, toy-like characters – was remarkable. Yet, it felt like the mission of this movie wasn’t just about creating flashy, fleshy cartoon characters or trying to tell a compelling story – it was about doing justice to the feel of these videogames that span decades and are still enjoyed by millions around the world. <h2>A film about jumping</h2> Story-wise, this is another of those PG-rated fantasy comedies that celebrate the 1980s and games culture. There’s a beta male baddy (Bowser, a fire-breathing dragon-turtle hybrid) and his army who must be defeated by a good-hearted guy (Mario) – helped by his brother (Luigi), a strong independent woman (Princess Peach), and a cast of zany allies. But what makes the film worth watching is how it tips its hat to aspects of gameplay. One of its biggest achievements is the unpretentious, funny recreations of moments from the videogames. Sometimes this happens by staging action-packed scenes that are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP-Qduvw9zY">framed from the same perspective as the videogame players</a>. For instance, seeing Mario and Luigi dash through a building site with the camera zoomed out to capture the entire screen from a side perspective is the filmmaker’s nod to the pleasures of platform games. The film also humorously reflects on player experience. Anybody who has enjoyed a Mario game might recall the disappointing feeling of falling down a pit after a failed attempt to reach a high platform. In the movie, Mario is initially inept at all of this. He is put through a funny 1980s montage of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKKBlSzMs4o">trial and error</a>, which reminds us how players got the hang of these games. The emphasis on replicating gameplay may be the influence of Japanese games design superstar <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/the-super-mario-bros-movie-shigeru-miyamoto-koji-kondo-nintendo-interview-easter-eggs-1234706449/">Shigeru Miyamoto</a>, the creator of Mario, who co-produced the movie. Where other designers may have attempted to create a “proper” Mario movie by focusing on realism or a more sophisticated story, Miyamoto has long been adamant about seeing videogames <a href="https://shmuplations.com/miyamoto1989/">as toys</a>. Now he has created a true videogame movie. <h2>Games as toys</h2> Approaching games as toys is consistent with the long history of Kyoto-based games company Nintendo. It started back in 1889 producing playing cards, and even <a href="https://www.hobbydb.com/marketplaces/hobbydb/subjects/n-b-block-series">competed with Lego</a> before going on to revolutionise the videogaming medium with titles such as Super Mario Bros. in the early 1980s. In most of Nintendo’s games, the end goal is not necessarily found in the stories – rather, these serve the pleasure of playing. In Super Mario Bros., for example, the damsel-in-distress narrative of Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach merely kicked off a game mostly about jumping. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Al_DShXX0">Other Mario adaptations for the big screen</a> have sought to translate gameplay with varying success. Take the 1993 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuXwMHF9y1Y&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesClassicTrailers">Super Mario Bros. live action</a> film, which was critically panned but has gone on to gain cult status. As a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/29/movies/review-film-plumbing-a-video-game-to-its-depths.html">reviewer in the New York Times</a> put it: “This bizarre, special effects-filled movie doesn’t have the jaunty hop-and-zap spirit of the Nintendo video game from which it takes – ahem – its inspiration.” Gone, now, are the days of third-party licensing when cinematic game adaptations were left in the hands of external developers, resulting in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKqFEV9rA1U">output that could look very different</a> to the games themselves – such as Super Mario Bros. Super Show! from the late 1980s. This animated show was not particularly faithful to the games: Mario and Luigi had a different kind of Italian-American accent and a Princess Toadstool. The live-action segments also featured crasser and more adult iterations of the characters. This time, however, Nintendo has worked with Universal Pictures to adapt the game, so the new animated movie is more faithful in brand continuity. <h2>Mario’s most successful cinematic appearance</h2> There are now entire TV series based on story-driven games, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNF27c3-5Qw">whose scripts replicate the game almost verbatim</a>. For instance, the recent hit series The Last of Us saw fans cross-reference scene by scene with the original game. In contrast, the Super Mario Bros. Movie looks like an attempt to make a film that works more like a game. And in spite of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/09/the-super-mario-bros-movie-review-game-over-for-this-lazy-animated-mess">lukewarm reception from critics</a>, the new film stands to be the most successful cinematic Mario appearance yet. While the film has been downplayed by some as a “marketing machine” to sell Nintendo toys, critics overlook the fact that its success might be connected to how popular these toys already are. The games have <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/7/23589075/nintendo-switch-q3-2023-earnings-sales-console-third-bestselling">sold in the 100 millions</a>, which may explain the film’s ability to <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/super-mario-bros-movie-box-office-b2317192.html">smash box-office records</a>. This film will have gameplaying fans poring over frames to identify references to the games and “Easter eggs” – messages hidden for knowing watchers to look out for. Older and new fans alike will recognise <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otZ-D3OJeW4">the GameCube jingle in Luigi’s ringtone</a>, and enjoy vintage gaming items such as the “hammer power-up” that are on sale in the film’s antique shop. Many viewers will also recognise the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QilqLbynOsY">iconic musical motifs from the Super Mario Bros. levels</a>, and how the maps are reminiscent of Super Mario World. They will spot cutesy fan-favourites <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o6yvb5E2Sw">Yoshi</a> and Toad. The Super Mario Bros. Movie may indeed work to re-market Nintendo’s four-decade back catalogue of gaming classics to both nostalgic parents and kids. But in being driven by the very success of gaming culture, it defies critics looking at it as “just another movie”. Instead, they should see it as an extension of the videogame, and a celebration of how this expansive world makes people feel. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-super-mario-bros-movie-dont-watch-it-for-the-story-but-for-how-it-successfully-represents-gameplay-203592" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Images: Universal Pictures

Movies

"The wilderness of mirrors": 70 years since the first James Bond book, spy stories are still blurring fact and fiction

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning." With these opening words, Ian Fleming (1908-64) introduced us to the gritty, glamorous world of James Bond. Fleming’s first novel, <a href="https://www.ianfleming.com/items/casino-royale/">Casino Royale</a>, was published 70 years ago on April 13 1953. It sold out within weeks. British readers, still living with rationing and shortages after the war, eagerly devoured the first James Bond story. It had expensive liquor and cars, exotic destinations, and high-stakes gambling – luxurious things beyond the reach of most people. The novel’s principal villain is Le Chiffre, the paymaster of a French trade union controlled by the Soviet intelligence agency SMERSH. After losing Soviet money, Le Chiffre takes to high-stakes gambling tables to recover it. Bond’s mission is to play against Le Chiffre and win, bankrupting both the Frenchman and the union. The director of British intelligence, known only by his codename “M”, also assigns Bond a companion – Vesper Lynd, previously one of the agency’s assistants. The two infiltrate the casino, play at the tables, and dodge assassination attempts, while engaging in a dramatic battle with French communists, the Soviets, and each other. Fleming’s Bond – the sophisticated, tuxedo-clad secret agent – is an enduring image of espionage. Since 1953, martinis, gadgets, and a licence to kill have been part of how ordinary people understand spycraft. Some of this was real: Fleming drew on his own work as a spy for his novels. Intelligence work is often less glamorous than he depicted, but in both espionage and novel-writing, the difference between fact and fiction is not always easy to distinguish. <h2>Ian Fleming, Agent 17F</h2> Fleming came from a wealthy, well-connected British family, but he was a mediocre student. He only lasted a year at military college (where he contracted gonorrhoea), then missed out on a job with the Foreign Office. He could write, though. He spent a few years as a journalist, but drifted purposelessly through much of the 1930s. The outbreak of war in 1939 changed everything. The director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, recruited Fleming as his assistant. Fleming excelled, under the codename 17F. He didn’t see much of the war firsthand, but was involved in its planning. He was an ideas man, not overly concerned with practicalities or logistics. Fleming came up with the fictions; other people had to turn them into realities. In 1940, for example, he developed “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/entertainment-britain-fleming-bond-finea-idCAL1663266620080416">Operation Ruthless</a>”. To crack the German naval codes, Fleming planned to lure a German rescue boat into a trap and steal its coding machine. They would obtain a German bomber, dress British men in German uniforms, and deliberately crash the plane into the channel. When the German rescue crew arrived, they would shoot them and grab the machine. Preparations began but Fleming’s plan never eventuated. It was too difficult and risky – not least because crashing the plane might simply kill their whole crew. Fleming worked on various operations. When he began writing after the war, these experiences found their way into Bond’s world. Fleming and Godfrey had visited Portugal, a neutral territory teeming with spies, where they went to the casino. Fleming claimed he played against a German agent at the tables, an experience that supposedly inspired Bond’s gambling battles with Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. Godfrey maintained that Fleming only ever played against Portuguese businessmen, but Fleming never let facts get in the way of a good story. Fleming picked up inspiration everywhere. Godfrey became the model for M. Fleming’s secretary, Joan Howe, inspired Moneypenny. The Soviet SMERSH coding device in <a href="https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/From_Russia_with_Love_(novel)">From Russia, With Love</a> (1957) was based on the German Enigma machine. Many of Fleming’s characters were named for real people: one villain shares a name with Hitler’s Chief of Staff, another with one of Fleming’s schoolyard adversaries. It became something of a sport to hypothesise about the inspiration for Bond. Fleming later called him a “compound of all the secret agents and commando types” he met during war. There were elements of Fleming’s older brother, an operative behind the lines in Norway and Greece. Fleming also pointed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Reilly">Sidney Reilly</a>, a Russian-born British agent during the First World War. He had access to reports on Reilly in the Naval Intelligence archive during his own service. Other possible models include <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_O%27Brien-ffrench">Conrad O’Brien-ffrench</a>, a British spy Fleming met while skiing in the 1930s, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Dunderdale">Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale</a>, MI6 Station Chief in Paris, who wore handmade suits and was chauffeured in a Rolls Royce. Stories of discovering <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/mr-bond-i-presume-20141017-117xji.html">the real-life James Bond</a> still appear. But there was also much of Fleming himself in Bond. He gave 007 his own love of scrambled eggs and gambling. Their attitude towards women was similar. They used the same brand of toiletries. Bond even has Fleming’s golf handicap. Fleming would play with this idea, teasing that the books were autobiographical or that he was Bond’s biographer. Much like a cover story for an intelligence officer, Bond was Fleming’s alter-ego. He was anchored in Fleming’s realities – with a strong dash of creative licence and a little aspiration. <h2>The changing world of Bond</h2> The success of Casino Royale secured contracts for more Bond novels. In the early 1960s, critics began to denounce the books for their “sex, snobbery, and sadism”. Bond’s attitude toward women, in particular, was clear from the beginning. In Casino Royale, he refers to the “sweet tang of rape” in relation to sex with his MI6 accomplice and paramour Vesper Lynd. But the public appeared to be less concerned. Bond novels still sold well, especially after John F. Kennedy listed one among his top ten books. The first film adaptation, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055928/">Dr. No</a>, appeared in 1962 and Fleming’s success continued apace. Bond’s world was evolving, though. From Casino Royale to For Your Eyes Only (1960), Bond battled SMERSH, a real Soviet counter-espionage organisation. The early Bond novels were Cold War stories. Soviet Russia was the West’s enemy, so it was Bond’s. But East-West relations were thawing in 1959 when Fleming was writing Thunderball (1961). The Cold War could plausibly have ended and he didn’t want any film version to look dated, so Fleming created a fictional villain: SPECTRE. This was an international terrorist organisation without a distinct ideology. It could endure beyond the battles of the Cold War – and did. It features in the 2021 Bond film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">No Time To Die</a>. Fleming’s more fantastic plots were always anchored in reality by recognisable brands and products. Bond’s watch was a Rolex; his choice of bourbon was Jack Daniels. His cigarettes were Morlands, like Fleming’s. In the novels, Bond drove Bentleys – the Aston Martin was introduced in the 1964 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058150/">Goldfinger</a>. The films have changed Bond’s brands to keep up with the world around them (and secure lucrative product-placement deals): Omega replaced Rolex in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113189/">Goldeneye</a> (1995); the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/17/bond-taste-for-beer-skyfall">martini was swapped for a Heineken</a> in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/">Skyfall</a> (2012). Bond now carries a Sony phone. Other changes brought the 1950s spy into the 21st century. Recent films have more diverse casting. Their female characters do more than just spend a night with Bond before their untimely deaths. The novels, too, continue to change – the 70th-anniversary editions have had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/27/james-bond-novels-to-be-reissued-with-racial-references-removed">racial slurs and some characters’ ethnic descriptors removed</a>. Some have criticised this as censorship. But as with <a href="https://theconversation.com/roald-dahl-a-brief-history-of-sensitivity-edits-to-childrens-literature-200500">recent rewritings of Roald Dahl’s books</a>, changes like this are not new. Fleming’s family has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-28/ian-fleming-james-bond-books-changes-to-new-editions/102035958">defended the alterations by citing similar removals</a> in 1955, when Live and Let Die was first published in the United States. There is a risk that this whitewashes Fleming’s attitudes, making them appear more palatable than they really were. But the revised Bond novels will include a disclaimer noting the removals. Casino Royale itself has not been altered (Bond’s rape comment remains intact), so the changes will perhaps be less extensive than the media coverage suggests. <h2>Spies After Bond</h2> Fleming is not the only ex-spy to have successfully turned his hand to spy fiction. John le Carré’s George Smiley is perhaps an anti-Bond: slightly overweight, banal, and essentially a bureaucrat. He relies on a shrewd mind rather than gadgets or guns. Le Carré introduced his readers to a more mundane, morally grey world of espionage. He had worked for MI5 and MI6 in the 1950 and ‘60s. He thought Bond was a gangster rather than a spy. Le Carré’s stories have also shaped how we think about espionage. Words like “mole” and “honeytrap” – the terminology of spycraft – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/02/john-le-carre-spy-came-in-from-cold-book/673227/">entered common usage via his novels</a>. Stella Rimington, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/23/stella-rimington-i-fell-into-intelligence-by-chance">the first female director-general of MI5</a>, began writing fiction after retiring from intelligence in the late 1990s. Her protagonist, 34-year-old Liz Carlyle, hunts terror cells in Britain. Like Smiley, Carlyle appears rather ordinary. She is serious and conscientious. We get glimpses of the everyday sexism she experiences. Carlyle triumphs by remaining level-headed, not by fiery gun battles or explosions. After three decades of agent-running for the CIA, Jason Mathews wrote his <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/series/The-Red-Sparrow-Trilogy">Red Sparrow</a> trilogy to occupy himself in retirement. He called it <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/books/shadowing-jason-matthews-the-ex-spy-whose-cover-identity-is-author.html">a form of therapy</a>. There’s a little more Bond in Mathews’ books than in those of le Carré or Rimington. His protagonists Nate Nash and Dominika Egorova are attractive, charismatic and entangled in a personal relationship of stolen moments and high drama. This is counterbalanced by the many hours they spend running surveillance-detection routes before meeting targets. The more tedious and banal aspects of spycraft – brush passes, broken transmitters, and dead drops – accompany the glamour and romance. <h2>The wilderness of mirrors</h2> Spy fiction is never just about entertainment. The real world of espionage is so secret that most of us only ever encounter it on pages or screens. We don’t usually look to Bond films for accurate representations of espionage. But the influence of Fleming’s spy and the general aura of secrecy surrounding intelligence work lend some glamour and excitement to the work of real spies. These fictions also influence our views on real intelligence organisations, their activities, and their legitimacy. This is why the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-cia-goes-to-hollywood-how-americas-spy-agency-infiltrated-the-big-screen-and-our-minds/">CIA invests time and money into fictionalisations</a> dealing with its work. From stories based on true events, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/">Argo</a>(2012) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790885/">Zero Dark Thirty</a> (2012), to fictional series like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1796960/">Homeland</a> (2011-20), the agency’s image is shaped via the media we consume. This was true when Fleming was writing, too. Soviet authorities <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Russia-and-the-Cult-of-State-Security-The-Chekist-Tradition-From-Lenin/Fedor/p/book/9780415703475">were preoccupied</a> by Sherlock Holmes’ surging popularity behind the Iron Curtain and fretted over the release of the Bond novels and films. The KGB studied both carefully. It was likely Bond who prompted KGB officers to release classified details about their most successful spy story: the career of <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-name-s-sorge-richard-sorge/">Richard Sorge</a>. Former intelligence officers such as Fleming are often quite good at fiction – perhaps because it is a core part of spycraft. A solid cover story has to be grounded in reality, with just enough fiction to protect the truth or gain a desired outcome. A good operation often requires creativity, to outwit a target or evade detection. And spreading fictions – disinformation – can sometimes be just as useful as gathering information. The world of espionage is sometimes referred to as the “wilderness of mirrors”. Spycraft relies on both reflections and distortions. The line between fact and fiction, between real stories of intelligence work and invented ones, can become blurry – and intelligence agencies often prefer it that way. Image credits: Columbia Pictures This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-wilderness-of-mirrors-70-years-since-the-first-james-bond-book-spy-stories-are-still-blurring-fact-and-fiction-201373" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Books

The surprising stories of how these 10 words came to be

Ever hear or read a word and think, “where on earth did that come from?” Well, for the etymologists of the world, that’s exactly what they try to figure out. In a post on online forum <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4tqrix/etymologists_of_reddit_what_is_your_favorite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reddit</a>, user russellbeard asked, “Etymologists of Reddit, what is your favourite story of how a word came to be?” The community delivered, and some of what we learnt was very interesting indeed. Here are 10 of our favourites. <ol> <li>The Latin prefix “pen-” comes from the word “paene”, meaning “almost”. Therefore, a “peninsula” is almost an island and something that is “penultimate” is almost last.</li> <li>“Muscle” is derived from the Latin word “musculus”, which means “little mouse”. Physicians used the term after noticing the muscles in the biceps and calves look like little mice running under the skin.</li> <li>“Daisy” comes from the Old English term “day’s eye”, since the flower is open during the day and closes at night.</li> <li>The words “traitor” and “tradition” have the same root as they both denote something being handed over.</li> <li>“Eavesdropping” is named after people who used to spy on their enemies from rooves with wide eaves to listen to their conversations.</li> <li>“An apron” actually used be “a napron”.</li> <li>People often break “helicopter” into “heli-” and “-copter” to make new words like “helipad” and “newscopter”, but it really should be broken into “helico-”, which means “spiral” or “helix” and “-pter” which means “wing”. In fact, that’s why pterodactyl starts with a p.</li> <li>“Sinister” is actually the Latin word meaning “left”. It was given the connotation of “evil” because left-handed people were historically blamed for being demonic and villainous.</li> <li>The word “dunce” comes from the medieval philosopher Johannes Duns Scotus. His enemies disagreed so strongly with his theories that they turned his name into an insult 200 years after he had died. He was, in fact, an incredibly smart man and well known for his debating abilities.</li> <li>“Uppercase” and “lowercase” are named as such because in the days of hand printing, capital letters and lowercase letters were literally kept in different cases.</li> </ol> Images: Getty

Books

Couple with the same name share the story of their unique path to love

Married couple Nunzia and Nunzio Varricchio took sharing to the extreme on the day of their births. With matching Christian names, the pair were born with mere hours between them in the same Italian village, with the same midwife overseeing both occasions. As their daughter, Vicki Brunello, explained to 7 News, “[the midwife] happened to be Dad’s grandmother. She delivered my dad, hopped on her bike, and a few hours later she delivered my mum.” Apparently, that same grandmother had joked that she’d found her grandson a girlfriend. And although she hadn’t been (entirely) serious at the time, it turns out she’d been right on the money. Cut to 15 years later, when Nunzio decided that he’d ask his partner-in-name to be his girlfriend - just as his grandmother had predicted. Nunzio believed that it had been “love at first sight”, although it seems that Nunzia didn’t quite share his opinion. Although she did eventually fall for him, it took “a little bit of time” to get to the same point. As she put it, “I didn’t say yes straight away.” Nor did the couple make it official immediately. Nunzio and his family actually moved to Australia in the 1960s, far from the village where the two had grown up. He made the decision to farewell Nunzia before he joined his family overseas, and while he might have been hoping for a sweet moment for the subject of his affections, Nunzia - once again - had other ideas. He had hoped to give her a kiss, even going so far as to tell her as much, but as Nunzia explained, “I said ‘forget about it’.” And as she added, she’d even threatened to throw a bucket on his head, far from the heartfelt goodbye he’d envisioned. Nunzia was determined not to be forgotten, and Nunzio was in no position to do so. Writing to her regularly, he told her all about his new life in Australia, and although she took “a little longer” to respond to him, she still did, with the two remaining in constant - if not a little irregular - contact. But even Nunzia couldn’t play hard to get forever, and at just 21 years old, she packed her bags and moved to join Nunzio in Australia, with the couple marrying soon after. However, their shared history decided the time had come to cause a little chaos, with Australian authorities assuming they’d made a mistake on their paperwork while registering their marriage. The issue? The similarities in their applications - their matching names, birthdays, and places of births. It was one they unfortunately encountered again when trying to organise passports. As for problems with their life, neither had anything to report - nor did their three children and six grandchildren, who claimed they’d never so much as seen the 80-year-old Nunzio and Nunzia argue. Nunzio put their success in marriage down to their amicable conflict resolution strategy, and explained that after their wedding, his wife had informed him to “keep quiet” if she started arguing while upset. From there, he said, they simply “cool down and we don’t argue.” “Dad’s a big softie,” daughter Vicki added, “you know, and there’s a lot of love.” “We’re very happy,” Nunzia agreed. Images: 7 News

Relationships

Can reading help heal us and process our emotions – or is that just a story we tell ourselves?

The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4306897">oldest known library</a>, dating back to the second millennium BC, in Thebes, Egypt, reportedly bore a sign above its portals in Greek: Psyches Iatreion, translated as “healing place of the soul”. The idea that reading may confer healing benefits is not new, but continues to intrigue readers and researchers. Of course, this doesn’t apply to reading about how to put up the tent, or tidy our piles of household stuff. When we talk about books that might offer a balm for the soul, we mean fiction, poetry and narrative non-fiction (including memoir). The idea of emotional catharsis through reading is intuitively appealing. But does it work that way? Or do we read for interest, pleasure, escapism – or love of words? <h2>Reading as catharsis and transport</h2> “The highest aspiration of art is to move the audience,” claims <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609280/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-by-george-saunders/">George Saunders</a>. Who is not still moved by the first book that affected them on a cellular level – whether that’s Storm Boy, The Little Prince, or their high-school reading of To Kill a Mockingbird? According to the authors of <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-novel-cure">The Novel Cure: an A-Z of Literary Remedies</a>, "novels have the power to transport you into another existence, and see the world from a different point of view […] sometimes it’s the story that charms; sometimes it’s the rhythm of the prose that works on the psyche, stilling or stimulating." Humans imitate or re-present the world through art: poetry, drama and epic. That drive, claimed <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1812/The%252520Poetics%252520of%252520Aristotle%25252C%252520by%252520Aristotle.pdf">Aristotle</a>, sets humans apart from animals. In 1987 Jerome Bruner proposed that “world making” is the “principal function of mind”, in both the sciences and arts. As humans, we are drawn to the momentum of narrative to tell our stories, <a href="https://ewasteschools.pbworks.com/f/Bruner_J_LifeAsNarrative.pdf">he says</a>. We seek to make sense of the events in our lives, as if life really were a three-act play with a clear narrative arc. (Conveniently summarised as: “Get him up a tree; throw rocks at him; get him down.”) <h2>How reading works</h2> Reading is one way we seek to understand our worlds. Evolutionary psychologists propose the brain is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009164710203000101">“designed for reading”</a>, just as it is for language, facial recognition or other drives. The act of reading engages both cognitive and – especially where there’s a narrative – emotional processes. Children learning to read must first grasp the basics of recognition (sound-letter-phoneme-word) and then proceed to the higher-order cognitive skill of comprehension of the meaning of the text (semantics). It is at that next level of meaning-making that words connect and stir the emotions. That might be fear (<a href="https://theconversation.com/frankenstein-how-mary-shelleys-sci-fi-classic-offers-lessons-for-us-today-about-the-dangers-of-playing-god-175520">Frankenstein</a>), love (<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/pride-and-prejudice-9780241374887">Pride and Prejudice</a>), outrage (Germaine Greer’s polemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-female-eunuch-at-50-germaine-greers-fearless-feminist-masterpiece-147437">The Female Eunuch</a>) or existential angst (Albert Camus’ philosophical novel L’Etranger/<a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-outsider-9780141198064">The Outsider</a>). But how does this process “work”? Or, as Saunders puts it: “How does [the writer] seduce, persuade, console, distract?” <h2>How reading between the gaps invites us in</h2> World or meaning making can occur directly by acquiring knowledge (for example, when reading that tent manual) or indirectly, through our engagement with the social world, art and our meaning-making faculties. Works of art invite thought and feeling. This “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27449184/">indirect communication</a>” of literature is one of the unique affordances (or benefits) it offers readers. Meaning-making <a href="https://www.onfiction.ca/p/books.html">is</a> a transaction between author, text and reader; the “gap” between the words and the reader’s interpretation, shaped by their own experiences and predispositions, is critical. Thus, an author might seek to move a reader – but whether the reader is moved will depend on individual circumstances and preferences. (Not the least among these is the skill of the writer, of course.) <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-week-is-good-for-kids-and-book-clubs-are-great-for-adults-30783">Book clubs</a>, where heated discussions can be motivated by how books and their characters made readers feel, are a great example. So is consumer review site <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-world-of-goodreads-do-we-still-need-book-reviewers-56455">Goodreads</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-booktok-and-how-is-it-influencing-what-australian-teenagers-read-182290">#BookTok</a>, the sector of TikTok where books that make readers cry dominate. As <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609280/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-by-george-saunders/">Flannery O’Connor</a> says, “the writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live” (my italics). In other words, some books will always speak to some readers. And those same books will leave other readers cold – or even make them regret joining a book club. <h2>What neuroscience tells us about reading</h2> Virginia Woolf wrote of books as “<a href="http://lemasney.com/consulting/2015/05/05/books-are-the-mirrors-of-the-soul-virginia-woolf-cc-by-lemasney/">mirrors of the soul</a>”. And contemporary neuropsychologists have proven it, with brain-imaging studies. These studies have demonstrated that when a person indirectly experiences an event associated with an emotion, the same regions of the brain are activated as if they had experienced the event directly. We feel disgust, whether we actually discover (or half-eat) the maggot in the ham sandwich or view a TikTok video of the simulated event. The same fear is elicited in the brain when we walk a tightrope in a virtual reality simulation, view the film of Phillipe Petit in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3488710/">The Walk</a>, or high-wire walk ourselves (do not try this at home). Mirror neurons prompt us to yawn or smile or frown when another person yawns, smiles or frowns. The other person – the protagonist, in a book – can be completely fictional, the entire plot make-believe: yet we still cry. Who of us hasn’t wept real tears when tragedy befalls a favourite character in a novel? (For me, it’s the death of shell-shocked World War I soldier Septimus in Virginia Woolf’s novel <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/mrs-dalloway-9780241468647">Mrs Dalloway</a>.) <h2>The psychology of fiction</h2> University of Toronto professor emeritus and author-psychologist <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Such+Stuff+as+Dreams:+The+Psychology+of+Fiction-p-9780470974575">Keith Oatley</a> explains that reading narratives allows us to “simulate” a social world where we identify with characters and their struggles, and observe their way of solving conflicts. This way we can process emotional content and solve life’s problems indirectly. It’s much more effective than being given the solution! Oatley’s research has also demonstrated that readers’ long-term engagement in fiction (especially literary fiction) <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27449184/">improves their empathy</a> and their ability to take the perspective of another person (referred to as “Theory of Mind”). Oatley suggests: “We need not lead one life; through fiction we can lead many lives”. In this sense, reading can prompt us to understand the inner lives of others as well as our own. It can even help us to re-imagine the narrative of our lives – especially if we are not happy with the one we are actually leading. In this way, reading can provide both escape and a way to imagine (and perhaps start to plan for) alternative ways to live. In her book <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1kgqwk8">Why We Read Fiction</a>, Lisa Zunshine argues "fiction helps us to pattern in newly nuanced ways our emotions and perceptions […] it creates new forms of meaning for our everyday existence." Quite apart from the practical benefits of this kind of cognitive and emotional gymnastics, Zunshine says our biggest reason for doing it is enjoyment itself. Does reading prompt emotional catharsis? Marcel Proust wrote that a novelist can, in an hour, “set free all kinds of happiness and misfortune which would take years of our ordinary lives to know”. Reading, as a hard-wired impetus and a form of engaging with art, allows us to process our emotions. Importantly, this can be at a distance. We don’t have to directly, for example, pursue forbidden love and sort out the ensuing mess (Graham Greene’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-end-of-the-affair-9780099478447">The End of the Affair</a>), or cope alone with alienation or discrimination (Alice Walker’s <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/alice-walker/the-color-purple-the-classic-pulitzer-prize-winning-novel">The Colour Purple</a>). We can scare ourselves without ever having to go into the dark woods. We can access experiences unavailable to us in life – and the positive feelings they produce can remain with us. For example, we can transform ourselves into magical, powerful heroes and heroines who prevail against impossible odds (<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tolkien-and-lord-of-the-rings-inspired-the-commercial-and-artistic-success-of-the-fantasy-fiction-genre-170958">Lord of the Rings</a>). Saunders suggests art (including literature) might be "an offering of sorts – a hypothesis for both writer and reader to take up and consider together […] the goal of that offering might be to ease the reader’s way; to make the difficulty of this life less for her. We try to give the reader a way of thinking about reality that is truthful, yes, and harsh, if need be, but not gratuitously harsh, a way of thinking that, somehow, helps her." Image: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-reading-help-heal-us-and-process-our-emotions-or-is-that-just-a-story-we-tell-ourselves-197789" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. <figure></figure>

‘We are only passing through’: stories about memory, mortality and the effort of being alive

Chris Flynn’s <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/books/here-be-leviathans">Here Be Leviathans</a> is a collection of short stories that seems quirky and light-hearted, propelled by its creative use of perspective. Each story is established from a surprising vantage point and so the world as Flynn imagines it becomes topsy-turvy – anything at all might be alive and sentient. Animals, chairs, boats, you name it. <hr /> Review: Here Be Leviathans – Chris Flynn (UQP) and The Tower – Carol Lefevre (Spinifex) <hr /> A bear eats a teenager, and thus inherits the boy’s memories. An airplane seat describes its last day at work. A hotel room observes its favourite couple, who return over the years. A monkey details a trip into outer space. But these stories are driven by more than quirky inspiration. The point-of-view might offer an interesting hook, and Flynn’s tone may be jaunty at times, but the stories are propelled by deeper themes of mortality, death and existential pointlessness. Flynn uses perspective to reflect and question the way we think about things. <h2>Memory and mortality</h2> Many of the characters in this collection die, have died or are about to die – but there’s also a counter-theme of connection. The bear may eat the teenager, and so the ranger is hunting him down; we enter a hide-and-seek game for survival. But it’s the connection the bear and ranger have, the mutual respect they share, that becomes the message of the first story, Inheritance. <figure class="align-right zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497560/original/file-20221128-26-5t8y8o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> Flynn also explores ideas of memory transference, and this imbues the story with lingering, thoughtful hope: something that pervades the whole collection. In Flynn’s world, death can be a means to existence – as long as our memories keep living, our experiences and perspectives continue to exist. Flynn’s use of unexpected points of view allows him to avoid the sentimental. In 22F, he tells the story of an airplane seat abandoned in the jungle and we’re left with the superb image of moss growing up and over the upholstery, claiming the seat for the natural domain. We learn about the seat’s history, the work-politics of neighbouring seats, and observations of the passengers who have sat in them. We see glimpses of these human cargoes that simultaneously show the banality and profundity of life. The collection took Flynn ten years to write, and he includes notes at the end about his process and the stories’ origins. For instance, he describes how 22F was inspired by the Werner Herzog documentary <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/wings-of-hope/">Wings of Hope</a>, which interviewed Juliane Koepcke, the sole survivor of a 1971 airplane crash. Together, Herzog and Koepcke journey to the site of the crash and find parts of the airplane in the jungle. Flynn says the story is about: <blockquote> Memory and place. A reminder that we are only passing through and that everything is part of something larger. </blockquote> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497575/original/file-20221128-21-v71muf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>One of Chris Flynn’s stories is told from the perspective of an airplane seat abandoned in the jungle. Leslie Cross/Unsplash, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></figcaption></figure> The importance of memory and place is further explored in the story A Beautiful and Unexpected Turn, where we follow the perspective of a hotel room that takes a special interest in its guests, Diane and Hector. We see the waxing and waning and waxing of their relationship. At the end, the room says: <blockquote> We are places of passage, of transience […] Eventually, I would be demolished, perhaps to make way for another hotel or an apartment block, or nothing […] I would become rubble, and then dust. </blockquote> This could be the larger message of the book – our lives are transient and then we become dust. The connections we experience and inspire are what give us meaning in the moment. <h2>Complications of care</h2> Carol Lefevre’s <a href="https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/shop/p/9781925950625">The Tower</a> also emphasises place. This thoughtful collection of short stories is very different from Flynn’s in tone and focus, but it too grounds storytelling in the themes of place and mortality. <figure class="align-left zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497573/original/file-20221128-14-p18sux.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption></figcaption></figure> The Tower is structured around a series of interlocking narratives about Dorelia MacCraith – in the very first story, after losing her husband Geordie, she sells her house and buys a new one, with a tower. Her children, who she does not consult, are suspicious of this defiant act. Straight away, the reader is thrust into the negotiations and complications of care. People who Dorelia once cared for are now asserting (or trying to assert) forms of reverse care. And many stories in the collection reverberate with related themes – women caring for children and partners and parents, or making decisions about their positions as carers, especially in the context of trying (or deciding not) to have children. The interconnected stories about Dorelia and her tower are the centrepiece of the collection. Yet Dorelia finds this house of her own by accident, when driving her dear friend and fellow artist Elizabeth Bunting to an appointment: <blockquote> they took a wrong turn, and then another, until at the end of the a quiet cul-de-sac, set among sheltering trees, stood the most adorable house […] and above the porch rose a small tower. </blockquote> I appreciate that it is the women’s friendship – their spark of connection and humour are immediate and inviting – that enables Dorelia to find her tower oasis. I also appreciate that this critical act occurs during a moment of generosity and care: Dorelia is driving Elizabeth to an appointment. While Dorelia may find her tower by accident, we never feel Lefevre is accidental in rendering the lives of these women on the page. The prose is carefully controlled, as is the detail and world-building – and the deeper reflections of the stories kaleidoscope through one another, building in nuanced ways. <h2>Reimagining the crone</h2> Of course, symbolic permutations resonate throughout this text – a tower of one’s own harks to <a href="https://theconversation.com/skin-and-sinew-and-breath-and-longing-reimagining-the-lives-of-queer-artists-and-activists-from-sappho-to-virginia-woolf-184459">Virginia Woolf</a> and Rapunzel. Dorelia reimagines the crone from the Rapunzel <a href="https://theconversation.com/reader-beware-the-nasty-new-edition-of-the-brothers-grimm-34537">fairy tale</a> as central and heroic. This rewriting and revision of the crone – and her motives and backstory – seems key to recognising women’s narratives more generally, and prioritising a multiplicity of stories and experiences within the Australian literary canon. In this sense, it feels like Lefevre is in conversation with authors such as Drusilla Modjeska, <a href="https://theconversation.com/intellectual-fearlessness-politics-and-the-spiritual-impulse-the-remarkable-career-of-amanda-lohrey-187354">Amanda Lohrey</a> and Charlotte Wood. <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496662/original/file-20221122-23-obj24f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption>The main, recurring narrator of The Tower reimagines the crone from the Rapunzel fairytale as central and heroic.</figcaption></figure> In <a href="https://theconversation.com/tarot-resurgence-is-less-about-occult-than-fun-and-self-help-just-like-throughout-history-139448">tarot</a> mythology, the card of The Tower considers the collapse of old structures. We get a sense of this in the reflexivity of the text, as well as in its story-world – as Dorelia faces life without her husband Geordie. Indeed, old age itself collapses life as she’s known it. The interplay between the textual and the intertextual resonates in this collection, making this book as enjoyable to later ponder as it was to actually read. Here Be Leviathans and The Tower are two very different short-story collections to consider in tandem. They vary in voice, tone and style. Yet both engage with the precariousness and effort that is at the foundation of being alive, and making meaning from our short time on the planet.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193628/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/shady-cosgrove-153726">Shady Cosgrove</a>, Associate Professor, Creative Writing, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-wollongong-711">University of Wollongong</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-only-passing-through-stories-about-memory-mortality-and-the-effort-of-being-alive-193628">original article</a>. Image: Getty

Retirement Life

More than a story of treasures: revisiting Tutankhamun’s tomb 100 years after its discovery

On November 4 1922, a young Egyptian “water boy” on an archaeological dig is said to have accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the limestone bedrock. The stairs led to one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries in history and the only almost intact funerary assemblage of a pharaoh – the Tutankhamun’s tomb. A century after this discovery, it’s worth revisiting the story of Tutankhamun’s tomb and how it eventually became a symbol for Egyptian nationalism. <h2>The ‘child king’</h2> <a href="https://egyptianmuseum.org/explore/new-kingdom-ruler-tutankhamun">Tutankhamun</a> is often referred to as a “child king” and the “most famous and least important” of the pharaohs; he was almost unknown to history before the tomb’s discovery. The son of one of the most controversial pharaohs in history – the champion of monotheism, <a href="https://www.arce.org/resource/akhenaten-mysteries-religious-revolution">Akhenaten</a> – Tutankhamun ascended the throne around age six or so. After a rather uneventful reign of restoring temples and bringing Egypt out from a period of political and religious turmoil, he died sometime between the age of 17 and 19. The discovery of his tomb full of magnificent and unique objects is more than a story of treasures. This is also a tale of the “roaring 20s” in the Middle Eastern version: a story of a quintessential embrace of class, privilege and colonialism juxtaposed against struggle for political freedom and building of new national identity. Archaeology 100 years ago was <a href="https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/tutankhamun-excavating-the-archive">very different</a>. None of the three male protagonists behind the discovery – Howard Carter (the lead British excavator), Lord Carnarvon (the man behind the money), and Ahmed Gerigar (the Egyptian foreman) – were formally trained as archaeologists. Despite this, Carter is now almost always referred to as an archaeologist, but Gerigar <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remembering-unsung-egyptians-who-helped-find-king-tut-tomb-180980074/">almost never is</a> – further entrenching colonial narratives. But Carter’s three-decade-long excavation experience, draughtsman’s talent and his meticulousness, allied with the photographic aptitude of <a href="http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringtut/burton5/burtoncolour.html">Harry Burton of Metropolitan Museum</a> and the skills of the Egyptian excavators assured Tutenkhamun’s tomb – the only discovery of its type and arguably one of the most important archaeological finds ever – was recorded in a systematic and “modern” way. <h2>The painter who became an archaeologist</h2> Howard Carter was a young painter who fell in love with Egyptian antiquities while following his father, also a painter, into the houses of London’s elite to add drawings of pets to his father’s portraits. In 1891, age 17, Carter was recommended as an illustrator to archaeologist Percy Newberry, and joined him at a dig in Egypt at <a href="https://benihassan.com/">Beni Hassan tombs</a>. From this first trip to his death in 1939, Carter spent his life mostly in Egypt with short trips back to London to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/13/howard-carter-stole-tutankhamuns-treasure-new-evidence-suggests">deal in antiquities</a>, including those allegedly stolen from Tutankhamun’s tomb. After Beni Hassan, Carter became an illustrator for one of the fathers of Egyptology, William Flinders Petrie in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna">Tell el-Amarna</a>, the capital of Tut’s father Akhenaten. Carter then worked in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_el-Bahari">Deir el-Bahari</a>, the funerary temple of queen pharaoh Hatshepsut, located right on the other side of the limestone ravine known as the Valley of the Kings. It is here, on the western bank of the Nile I also trace some of my humble early experiences in Egyptology. Walking at dawn from our base at the Metropolitan Museum house in Deir, which Carter frequented, to the temple, I followed in his footsteps and mused on how lucky he was when the “water boy” stumbled upon a staircase to the tomb. That year, 1922, was supposed to be the last season after seven fruitless years of digging in the Valley in search of Tutankhamun’s elusive resting place. After clearing the staircase, Carter found the doorway sealed with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartouche">cartouches</a> – the hieroglyphs which enclose a royal name. He ordered the staircase to be refilled, and sent a telegram to Carnarvon, who arrived from England two-and-a-half weeks later. On November 26 Carter made a “tiny breach in the top left-hand corner” of the doorway. Carnarvon asked, “Can you see anything?” and Carter <a href="https://museum.wa.gov.au/whats-on/tutankhamun-wonderful-things/">replied</a> with his famous line: “Yes, wonderful things!” Across 3,000 years, about 300 pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt. All royal tombs had been broken into by thieves. The spectacular find of Tut’s tomb was also not a fully intact discovery. The tomb had been looted twice in antiquity, and Carter estimated that a considerable amount of jewellery was stolen. But it is the only surviving almost complete funerary assemblage. Consisting of over 5,000 objects, only <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/tutankhamun/id463700741?i=1000460805430">30%</a> have been studied so far. <h2>A story of its time</h2> Following <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_Declaration_of_Egyptian_Independence">Egyptian independence</a> on February 28 1922 and the establishment of an independent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Egypt">Kingdom of Egypt</a>, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb became an optimistic symbol for Egyptian nationalists. After the initial documentation, the official opening of the tomb in early 1924 coincided with the inauguration of Egypt’s first elected parliament. Despite the new independence, colonial attitudes continued. Lord Carnarvon sold the rights to the story of the discovery of Tut’s tomb to the London Times for a significant sum. Given the delay of a couple of weeks with sending photos on the ship from Cairo to London, Egyptian newspapers and readers were only able to follow the unfolding discovery from reading delayed British press. This caused a lot of resentment among the newly independent Egyptians, especially the middle classes. Nevertheless, the discovery was very significant for nation building and new national post-colonial identity. Taha Hussein, a notable Egyptian philosopher of the time, coined a notion of “<a href="https://raseef22.net/article/1074731-are-we-arabs-pharaohs-phoenicians-or-assssyrians-a-question-raised-since-1933-by">pharaonism</a>”. This unified national identity was supposed to transcend religious and ethnic differences between Arab, Muslim, Coptic and Jewish Egyptians. It remains a tool of propaganda to this day – notably with a parade of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56508475">22 mummies moving to a new national museum</a> and a lavish re-opening of the <a href="https://grandegyptianmuseum.org/">Grand Egyptian Museum</a> soon, where much of the treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb can be found today. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-story-of-treasures-revisiting-tutankhamuns-tomb-100-years-after-its-discovery-193293" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

LGBT+ history: the story of camp, from Little Richard to Lil Nas X

Although camp is difficult to define, it probably doesn’t need much description. Ever since 1956 – when former teenage drag queen Little Richard began performing his tribute to anal sex, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13JNjpNW6c&ab_channel=Darwinner">Tutti Frutti</a>”, while wearing a six-inch pompadour, plucked eyebrows, and eyeliner – camp has increasingly been accommodated into social acceptance and understanding. It has been adopted and adapted by celebrities including Dolly Parton, Prince, Elton John, Ru Paul, Lady Gaga, and Lil Nas X. It was the theme of the 2019 Met Gala, prompting widespread commentary about what camp is. Susan Sontag, whose work inspired <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/photos/2019/05/met-gala-camp-on-theme">the Met Gala Ball’s theme</a>, wrote in <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1419465/susan-sontags-54-year-old-essay-on-camp-is-essential-reading-to-understand-culture-in-2018/">Notes on Camp</a> (1964) that camp is about “artifice and the unnatural”, a “way of seeing the world as an aesthetic phenomenon”. Camp, Sontag continues, is “the spirit of extravagance”, as well as “a kind of love, a love for human nature”, which “relishes, rather than judges”. Sontag also writes, however, that the camp sensibility is “disengaged, depoliticized”, and that it emphasises the “decorative … at the expense of content”. But camp is intricately enmeshed with queerness, and is anything but disengaged and merely decorative. Rather, in subverting social norms and rejecting easy categorisation, it has a long and radical history. <h2>Camp’s political beginnings</h2> For many working class queer men in urban centres such as New York around the turn of the 20th century, camp was a tactic for the communication and affirmation of non-normative sexualities and genders. This was enacted at <a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/george-chauncey/gay-new-york/9780786723355/">Coney Island male beauty contests</a>, <a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/queens-and-queers-rise-drag-ball-culture-1920s">Harlem and Midtown drag balls</a>, and in the streets and saloons of downtown Manhattan. As historian George Chauncey established in his book <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2952659">Gay New York</a>, the so-called “fairy resorts” (nightclubs whose attraction was the presence of effeminate men), which sprang up downtown, established the dominant public image of queer male sexuality. This was defined by a cultivated or performed effeminacy, including make-up, falsetto, and the use of “camp names” and female pronouns. These men questioned gender categories, and did so by behaving “camply”. In this way, camp evolved as a visible queer signifier. It has helped some queer people, both then and since, “make sense of, respond to, and undermine”, in Chauncey’s words, “the social categories of gender and sexuality that serve to marginalise them”. Decades later, in late June 1969, not far from New York’s former “fairy resorts”, a group of queer and trans teenagers used camp to dramatically shift the outcome of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stonewall-riots-global-legacy-shows-theres-no-simple-story-of-progress-for-gay-rights-119257">Stonewall uprising</a>. A series of demonstrations against the closure of a popular gay bar, these protests are often credited with launching the gay rights movement. Facing an elite unit of armed police, the youths marshalled their campest street repertoire, joining arms, kicking their legs in the air like a precision dance troupe. They sang “We are the Stonewall Girls / We wear our hair in curls,” and called the police “Lily Law” and “the girls in blue”. Once again, camp accomplished a powerful subversion, this time of the presumed machismo and authority of the police. <h2>Liking camp</h2> Camp offers a critical stance that derives from the experience of being labelled deviant, highlighting the artificiality of social conventions. For the writer Christopher Isherwood, whose 1939 novel <a href="https://shop.penguin.co.uk/products/goodbye-to-berlin-by-christopher-isherwood">Goodbye to Berlin</a> became the darkly camp musical <a href="https://masterworksbroadway.com/music/cabaret-original-broadway-cast-recording-1966/">Cabaret</a> (1966), camp was underpinned by “seriousness”. To deploy it was to express “what’s basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance”. Two of the 20th century’s campest artists, Andy Warhol and <a href="https://makeyourownbrainard.cal.bham.ac.uk/">Joe Brainard</a>, took Isherwood’s stance on camp seriously, and based much of their careers on the belief that “liking” was a valuable aesthetic. Both are famous for the camp excess of their imagery, producing work that featured multiple iterations of camp images. For Warhol, it was Marilyn Monroes and Jackie Kennedys. For Brainard, pansies and Madonnas. Even, in Brainard’s case, a transgressive, dramatic account of how much <a href="https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/interviews/wonder-talking-joe-brainard-andrew-epstein/">he liked Warhol</a> , featuring the words “I like Andy Warhol” repeated 14 times. Warhol also embraced camp as a personal style, performing a theatrical effeminacy that equated to a strategic queerness designed to discomfit those among his contemporaries who held him to be “<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/575/57574/popism/9780141189420.html">too swish</a>”. Warhol’s use of camp finds an echo, in the 21st century, in the work of <a href="https://theconversation.com/lil-nas-xs-dance-with-the-devil-evokes-tradition-of-resisting-mocking-religious-demonization-158586">Lil Nas X</a>, a musical artist who similarly deploys Sontag’s iteration of camp as “a mode of seduction — one which employs flamboyant mannerisms susceptible of a double interpretation”. His smash hit “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Ov5jzm3j8&ab_channel=LilNasXVEVO">Old Town Road</a>” (2019) is a queer country/hip-hop cross-over, whose music video is replete with sequins, tassels, chaps and choreographed dancing. Much of this was ignored by some fans who only appeared to notice Lil Nas X’s commitment to camp on the release of the video for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swmTBVI83k">“Montero (Call Me By Your Name)</a>” (2021). Montero features the biblical Adam making out with the serpent in the Garden of Eden, before gleefully riding down a stripper pole to hell where he performs a lapdance for Satan (all characters played by Lil Nas X). Like Warhol, Lil Nas X uses a camp style to put visuals to repressive narratives and double standards. In particular, he claims camp transgression for black queerness, enacting, once again, a critical stance on the contradictions and condemnations that serve to marginalise those who don’t, or can’t, conform. His work confirms, in other words, that camp is much more than a quirky outfit. That it is a strategy, as much as a style. Image credits: Getty Images This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/lgbt-history-the-story-of-camp-from-little-richard-to-lil-nas-x-174501" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

"This is his story": Details on Prince Harry's memoir released

The details of Prince Harry's highly anticipated memoir have been announced, with his publisher finally releasing the name of the book and when it will be published. The news of the memoir has been an object of obsession for royal fans since it was first announced last year, with eager readers not having to wait much longer. The memoir, titled Spare, will be published on January 10th 2023: three years to the date that Harry and Meghan took a step back from the royal family. Spare is being billed by Penguin Random House, as an account told with “raw, unflinching honesty” and filled with “insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.” In a statement released on Thursday, Penguin Random House announced the details of the book as they summoned memories of the death of Princess Diana in 1997 as Harry and his brother, William, “walked behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow - and horror.” “As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling - and how their lives would play out from that point on,” the statement reads in part. “For Harry, this is his story at last.” The memoir's title is a nod to William and Harry’s roles as ‘heir and the spare’, with William as heir to the throne, and Prince Harry as his spare. The 416-page book will come out in 16 languages, from Dutch to Portuguese, and also will be released in an audio edition read by Prince Harry. The hardback copies of Spare will be retailing for $50, with Harry has previously confirming he will be donating proceeds from the sales of Spare to various British charities. Image credits: Getty Images / Penguin Random House

Books

"They’re making money off tragedy": Netflix’s Dahmer series shows the dangers of fictionalising real horrors

Netflix’s recent series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story has stirred <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63088009" target="_blank" rel="noopener">controversy</a> over its apparent glamorisation of a serial killer and perceived insensitivity towards the families of Dahmer’s victims. In contrast to more journalistic true crime entertainment (<a href="https://theconversation.com/true-crime-entertainment-like-the-teachers-pet-can-shine-a-light-on-cold-cases-but-does-it-help-or-hinder-justice-being-served-189787" target="_blank" rel="noopener">which has its own issues</a>), the dramatisation and fictionalisation of real-life crimes, such as Dahmer, has drawn a wave of criticism for re-traumatising victims and their loved ones, and glorifying criminals. <h2>Artistic license or sensationalist schlock?</h2> Whether presenting itself as an accurate retelling or merely “inspired by true events” – there is always going to be some artistic license when transforming a complex true crime story into a movie or TV series. While changes from real life to screen are often relatively minor, such as having multiple police officers represented by one fictionalised detective, others can significantly misrepresent events. Anne Schwartz, the journalist who broke the original Dahmer story, has called the recent Dahmer Netflix series “not a helpful representation”. In an interview with the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/anne-e-schwartz-jeffrey-dahmer-autopsy-polaroids-b2194855.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Independent</a>, Schwartz criticised the caricatured depiction of law enforcement in the series. She also took aim at key plot elements, such as having key witness Glenda Cleveland (played by Niecy Nash) live next door to Dahmer, rather than in the building next door (as in real life). Other dramatisations of real-life crimes have gone much further, adding sensationalist – and even downright supernatural – elements to true events. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7976208/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Haunting of Sharon Tate</a>, written and directed by Daniel Farrands and released in 2019, was universally panned by critics and audiences alike for graphically depicting the real life murder of actress Sharon Tate by the Manson family. In the film, Tate (played by Hilary Duff) has apparent premonitions of her murder in her dreams, with the film ending with a meeting of Manson’s victims in the afterlife. Film critic Owen Gleiberman <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/the-haunting-of-sharon-tate-review-hilary-duff-1203179977/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the film “pure, unadulterated cheeseball exploitation” opining that it “goes out of its way to turn the Manson murders into schlock horror”. <h2>Re-traumatising victims and their families</h2> Victims of crime and their loved ones are frequently angered and re-traumatised when their real-life stories become fodder for public consumption. The families of homicide victims are particularly disadvantaged when encountering inaccurate or insulting depictions of their loved ones, given legal protections of reputation, such as claims in defamation, don’t apply if the person defamed is deceased. Some of the families of Dahmer’s victims have expressed outrage at the Netflix series, noting that they were never approached about the show’s release. Rital Isbell, whose brother was murdered by Dahmer, had her heart-breaking victim impact statement dramatised in the series without her knowledge or consent. She called the series “harsh and careless” in a <a href="https://www.insider.com/rita-isbell-sister-jeffrey-dahmer-victim-talks-about-netflix-show-2022-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">piece</a> in Insider expressing that “It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this tragedy”. The question of who benefits from depictions of real-life crimes is an important one, with large studios and streaming platforms earning millions while victims and their families are often left to bear the consequences of increased public attention. Australian films haven’t been immune to this tension between artistic freedom and the wishes of victim’s families. The 1997 Australian film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118735/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blackrock</a>, directed by Steven Vidler and adapted from a play by Nick Enright was clearly <a href="http://www.textjournal.com.au/oct09/brien.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inspired by</a> (although denied by Enright) the real-life rape and murder of 14-year-old schoolgirl <a href="https://7news.com.au/original-fyi/crime-story-investigator/leigh-leigh-remembering-murdered-14-year-old-stockton-girl-30-years-on-c-535209" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leigh Leigh</a> in 1987. Leigh’s family were highly critical upon the film’s release finding the depiction exploitative and accusing the filmmakers of “feasting on an unfortunate situation”. <h2>Making celebrities out of serial killers</h2> The rise of online “fandoms” surrounding real-life killers is an increasingly documented phenomena likely tied to the increased pop culturalisation of true crime. Social media site Tumblr has a variety of dedicated fan accounts for history’s monsters, with everyone from serial killer Richard Ramirez to school shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold getting special treatment. Researcher Andrew Rico sees such fandoms as partially motivated by an urge to <a href="https://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/671" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shock and scandalise</a> the public, but notes they also indicate the tabloid depiction of criminals such as schools shooters has led to a form of dark celebrity. This is supported by the work of doctoral student Sasha Artamonova, who views dark fandoms as a kind of “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/32699599/Rebels_with_a_Cause_School_Shooters_Fandom_as_a_Form_of_Counterculture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">counter-culture</a>” movement rallying against moral norms. The Dahmer Netflix series has <a href="https://uk.style.yahoo.com/why-hollywood-obsessed-casting-teen-134800169.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received criticism</a> for casting Evan Peters as Jeffery Dahmer, given his status as a teen heartthrob who rose to fame in creator Ryan Murphy’s far more lighthearted horror series American Horror Story. The Gen Z populated TikTok is full of fan videos of his depiction of Dahmer. Similar criticism was levelled at another Netflix series Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile which cast Highschool Musical star Zac Efron as serial rapist and murderer Ted Bundy. An unhealthy obsession with serial killers is, of course, nothing new – Jeffery Dahmer received <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dear-Dahmer-Letters-Milwaukee-Cannibal/dp/B0B72T273N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">many positive letters</a> and even marriage proposals while incarcerated. However, some worry the recent trend of casting attractive celebrities as serial killers could have flow on effects. One writer in Odyssey <a href="https://www.theodysseyonline.com/hollywood-romanticizes-serial-killers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that “young and impressionable youth of today might find themselves empathising with and falling for people who are actually dangerous”. Whether such concerns are prescient or a textbook example of moral panic remains to be seen. Ultimately, there will always be an audience for stories of the murderous and macabre, with fascination in the darker side of life an incredibly common human impulse. This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/theyre-making-money-off-tragedy-netflixs-dahmer-series-shows-the-dangers-of-fictionalising-real-horrors-192006" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Image: Netflix

Man who claims to be King Charles’ son to share story with Netflix

The Queensland man claiming to be King Charles’ son is looking to take his story to streaming website Netflix. Simon Dorante-Day is adamant that he is the son of the newly crowned King Charles III and Camilla and is even willing to contest the paternity claim in court. The 56-year-old says he has been approached by leading documentary makers from the US and UK to share his story. He is hoping that when he approaches Netflix and they accept to take on his story, it will force Buckingham Palace to acknowledge him as the son of King Charles III. “I’ve been inundated in recent weeks with many documentary filmmakers and filmmaking companies keen to share my story,” he told <a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/aussie-man-who-claims-to-be-king-charles-secret-son-announces-surprise-netflix-move-c-8452963" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7News</a>. “I didn’t expect this to happen - but I’m glad it is. I’m considering their offers. “Ultimately I would like to see my story on Netflix, or a similar streaming platform, and will approach them about doing so. I am already speaking to one person, who I trust, and is happy to act on my behalf.” He said he is focusing on the legal requirements and hopes that this will see DNA tests done by him and King Charles and Camilla. “I want a DNA test from both of them, as ordered through proper legal means. “If sharing my story on Netflix or to a greater TV audience will help do that, then I say let’s do it.” Mr Dorante-Day is also heading back to the UK for the first time since he came out announcing that he is the son of King Charles. He will also be interviewed at multiple outlets in Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin, and Portsmouth. Image: 7News

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Vale ‘sister suffragette’: how Glynis Johns became a pop-culture icon in the story of votes for women

Explore. Dream. Discover: An Over60 Reader's epic journey

“That flying baby” shares her story almost 30 years on

Why you should encourage your grandchildren to write stories

How to avoid mobile phone bill horror stories when travelling

A mother’s love story blossoms from a family reunion 40 years in the making

10 horror travel stories that will make you think twice about that destination

King's-eye-view: Story behind incredibly rare shot from palace balcony

New lessons about old wars: keeping the complex story of Anzac Day relevant in the 21st century

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: don’t watch it for the story but for how it successfully represents gameplay

"The wilderness of mirrors": 70 years since the first James Bond book, spy stories are still blurring fact and fiction

The surprising stories of how these 10 words came to be

Couple with the same name share the story of their unique path to love

Can reading help heal us and process our emotions – or is that just a story we tell ourselves?

‘We are only passing through’: stories about memory, mortality and the effort of being alive

More than a story of treasures: revisiting Tutankhamun’s tomb 100 years after its discovery

LGBT+ history: the story of camp, from Little Richard to Lil Nas X

"This is his story": Details on Prince Harry's memoir released

"They’re making money off tragedy": Netflix’s Dahmer series shows the dangers of fictionalising real horrors

Man who claims to be King Charles’ son to share story with Netflix

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Vale ‘sister suffragette’: how Glynis Johns became a pop-culture icon in the story of votes for women

Explore. Dream. Discover: An Over60 Reader's epic journey

“That flying baby” shares her story almost 30 years on

Why you should encourage your grandchildren to write stories

How to avoid mobile phone bill horror stories when travelling

A mother’s love story blossoms from a family reunion 40 years in the making

10 horror travel stories that will make you think twice about that destination

King's-eye-view: Story behind incredibly rare shot from palace balcony

New lessons about old wars: keeping the complex story of Anzac Day relevant in the 21st century

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: don’t watch it for the story but for how it successfully represents gameplay

"The wilderness of mirrors": 70 years since the first James Bond book, spy stories are still blurring fact and fiction

The surprising stories of how these 10 words came to be

Couple with the same name share the story of their unique path to love

Can reading help heal us and process our emotions – or is that just a story we tell ourselves?

‘We are only passing through’: stories about memory, mortality and the effort of being alive

More than a story of treasures: revisiting Tutankhamun’s tomb 100 years after its discovery

LGBT+ history: the story of camp, from Little Richard to Lil Nas X

"This is his story": Details on Prince Harry's memoir released

"They’re making money off tragedy": Netflix’s Dahmer series shows the dangers of fictionalising real horrors

Man who claims to be King Charles’ son to share story with Netflix

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