Culture

“What is a good life?”: The Standard of Living in review 

“What is a good life?” This axiological question, asked earnestly in the opening lines of James Graham’s The Standard of Living – playing at Theatre Royal Haymarket until December 12 – is often overlooked by the fractured and hyper-specialised discipline of economics.

Diverse voices: ‘Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah’ by Miljenko Jergović 

‘When he created Earth and these lands upon it, when he divided people into...

Art as protest on university campuses

CW: rape. This week, Cornell University has made headlines as prosecutors reopened an investigation into...

Good grief! Why do we feel for the death of fictional people?

Whether it’s a mild sniffle or full-blown tears, I always end up feeling a bit ridiculous about the whole ordeal when it’s over. I mean, it’s not real, is it? Why do I waste my grief on things that haven’t happened, that will never happen?

Jazz Society launch record label

Oxford University Jazz Society have welcomed in the new year with the announcement of the launch of their new independent record label, JazzSoc Records. Describing...

Girls to the Front: a brief history of Women in Rock

It is encouraging news that, according to a 2018 study by the guitar manufacturer Fender, 50% of new guitarists in the US and UK...

‘Find Me’ Expands Romance and Falls Flat

Find Me is the October 2019 sequel to André Aciman’s 2007 novel Call Me By Your Name, which was popularised by the success of its 2017 movie adaptation. As a much anticipated...

Review: Marriage Story

“Everything’s like everything in a relationship, don’t you find that?” This is the question Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) asks at the start of Marriage Story....

THE BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE

We, your Film Section Co-editors, have assembled a totally and completely objective top ten best films of the 2010s list. While we theoretically believe...

And a merry christmess

It is hardly a ground-breaking revelation that Christmas is an extremely wasteful enterprise. However, due to my mum’s insistent anti-palm oil venture, this year's would be a truly green Christmas, whatever that means.

Conserving Culture : Not on the Tory Agenda

The election of a new conservative government begs the question of how British culture and the Arts will be affected. Close to a decade of Tory rule caused a sharp decline in the funding and support of art and culture, and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better.

Review: Troy: Myth and Reality

It would be hard to think of another set of myths that are so present in contemporary culture as those surrounding the fall of Troy and its aftermath, immortalised most notably by Homer and Virgil. Stories such as the judgment of Paris, which sets the war in motion, the deception of the ‘Trojan Horse’ and Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops during his decade-long journey home are many people’s first introduction to the classical past as children, and the past few years have seen a resurgence of the Trojan cycle in popular culture. Novels such as Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles and Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls have reconsidered the war and its characters from different angles, and the BBC’s Troy: Fall of a City adaptation brought the saga to a generation raised on Game of Thrones. Therefore, the British Museum chose an opportune time for this year’s BP exhibition, Troy: myth and reality, which aims ambitiously to exhibit artistic depictions of the well-known myths and their various post-classical reinterpretations alongside the archaeological evidence that Troy and the war actually existed.

Ten Politically Inspired Books to Read in 2020

The last three years of politics are enough to make a person want to do some Malcolm Tucker-esque screaming into the void. You can’t...

Review: Vampire Weekend

Nine years after they last took Muswell Hill by storm, indie giants Vampire Weekend played a two-night engagement at London’s Alexandra Palace as part...

Pantomime: does it still deserve a place on the modern theatrical scene? (Oh, yes it does!)

Emily Capon argues that pantomime (when done well) still has an important place in the modern theatre.

The Skywalker ‘Saga’

The following article is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoiler-free. In the several weeks leading up to the release of the newest Star Wars...

Review: Lucian Freud: the Self-Portraits

The Royal Academy’s current exhibition, Lucian Freud: The Self-portraits, is a bold and singular response to this century’s fascination with self-image. Lucian Freud’s artistic career predates the selfie-saturated 2010s, yet his work captures the obsession and volume with which we display ourselves today.

Review: Knives Out

British audiences know the whodunit genre well. The Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, wrote 66 murder mystery novels over the course of her prolific...

How the Grinch Stole the Christmas Number One

Many years ago, all the good girls and boys of the United Kingdom would get a special present from Santa every Christmas – a...

Punch and BoJo

What happens to satire when politics is already a joke?

Vintage Actually

Holiday dressing with a new old approach We love the holiday season because dazzling decorations adorn our neighborhoods as we revel in the joy of...

In Defense of Escapist Art

In our current political climate escapism is a dirty word. Moreover, it is a risky form of mental engagement in a culture that calls...

Review: Fine Line – Harry Styles

Two years since his solo debut, Harry Styles is back with his second album, Fine Line. Styles’ self-titled album in 2017 had to fight...

The Fantasy of Film

Food - whether symbolising power, desire, loss, despair, love, murder or moral, social and political disorder - provides an extensive menu for films. Imogen Harter-Jones explores its symbolic capabilities.

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