tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11834122167199901592024-02-18T20:53:37.622-08:00Among the ThugsA class blog for students of English 342 at Simon Fraser University - "British Literature Since 1945."
<p>"Men's bodies are the most dangerous things on Earth." Margaret Atwood </p>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-79785856587855942017-03-27T16:09:00.000-07:002017-03-27T16:09:21.463-07:00Course Outline<div align="center">
<strong><span style="font-size: 130%;">ENGLISH 342: Evening</span></strong><strong><span style="font-size: 130%;">STUDIES IN BRITISH LITERATURE SINCE 1945<br />Instructor: DR. STEPHEN OGDEN</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><strong>"Among the Thugs: Masculinity and its Discontents<br />From End of Empire to Third Way."</strong></span><br />
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A number of short but highly influential post-World War II novels share a common inspiration: the mutual and open aggression between the British social establishment and young men of the lower-middle and working classes. The succession of labels given by generations of order and authority to deride this type—stroppers, louts, mods and rockers, hooligans, yobs, punks, lads and, recently, chavs and hoodies—are eloquent testimony in language to the enduring antagonism. In the historical context, the novels will be read against the rapid decline of Britain after her pyrrhic victories in the two World Wars: the martial masculinity bred to build and sustain Empire at once devalued and feared in the post-Colonial Welfare state. In the literary context, we will examine the development from the “angry young man” novel to today’s “new laddism”: the latter genre containing the attempts by Martin Amis and Nick Hornby to write a “Third Way” form of British masculinity capable of being accommodated within the feminism and socialism of New Labour's social legacy.<br />
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<em>Note</em>: cinema and popular music also took inspiration from these issues and samples from “Trainspotting” and “Quadrophenia” to "The Football Factory" will illustrate our study.<br />
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<u>PRIMARY TEXTS</u><br />
Kipling, Rudyard: <em>Stalky & Co.</em><br />
Greene, Graham: <em>Brighton Rock</em><br />
Stillitoe<em>, </em>Alan: <em>Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner</em><br />
Burgess, Anthony: <em>Clockwork Orange</em><br />
Amis, Martin: <em>Success</em><br />
Hornby, Nick: <em>High Fidelity</em><br />
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<u>SUPPORTING TEXTS</u> </div>
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Lydon, Johnny: <em>No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs</em></div>
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Hornby, Nick: <em>Fever Pitch</em></div>
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<u>COURSE REQUIREMENTS</u><br />
15% Class participation<br />
10% Class presentation<br />
20% Group polemical project<br />
20% Mid-term paper (approx. 2000 words)<br />
35% Final paper (approx. 3000 words) </div>
Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-25723371924583537522008-04-28T15:54:00.001-07:002008-04-28T15:58:41.698-07:00Cartoon Emasculation<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV6doZO0vMoyyI6vGjD2Sd1xVYpOKQpi5XuSs-jm9fbuNAfjFB8DreUQ555igN2xbQxHPIQ5kmsp5JNh01uPGqDDdWUbOYiUMlWIPxlwoFvD9xlthjxgisqZcS_QP4HZqaR5dSxuEUel2/s1600-h/Emsculation.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194433634014118034" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsV6doZO0vMoyyI6vGjD2Sd1xVYpOKQpi5XuSs-jm9fbuNAfjFB8DreUQ555igN2xbQxHPIQ5kmsp5JNh01uPGqDDdWUbOYiUMlWIPxlwoFvD9xlthjxgisqZcS_QP4HZqaR5dSxuEUel2/s320/Emsculation.gif" border="0" /></a> Via <em><a href="http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?sid=66431">NewYorker</a></em> (a pun exits here on that journal's title to which Americans are oblivious: clue on the cover of our <em>Oxford UP</em> edition of <em>Stalky & Co.</em>)<br /><div></div>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-75350547356343458672008-04-01T08:51:00.000-07:002008-04-01T09:00:00.693-07:00Chris Hitchens has been reading "Stalky & Co."Read <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2187780">this recent article by Christopher Hitchens</a> on Hillary Clinton & see if you conclude as I do that he has been reading, or clearly remembering, his <em>Stalky & Co</em>.<br />I respect (and read) Hitchens as a writer and controversialist, but I can't help concluding that he is fairly ordinary by English standards: indeed, in Britain he rather small beer. His fame comes from America, where that style of writing, & his media <em>persona</em> (a poor man's left-version of Kingsley Amis' public self) is unfamiliar--education being very different.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-76079481587697919792008-03-23T13:35:00.000-07:002017-03-27T16:06:52.524-07:00Term Essay Thesis DraftReminding all that the coming week is effectively our Reading Break: a godsend for us ahead of our closing two weeks focused on <em>Stalky & Co.</em> I am dying to hear your ideas on my perception that certain prefigurations of punk have their ghostly presence in the text.<br />
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Office Hours are cancelled (as I will <a href="http://evenements.univ-lille3.fr/recherche/colloque-george-gissing/">be in France</a>) for the week, but I will have the thesis outlines with me of those who havn't yet been able to come by and discuss them. I can be contacted by e-mail with any questions about them.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-28707094101296650552008-03-18T15:56:00.001-07:002008-03-18T15:56:54.355-07:00Student Financial Aid & AwardsFollow the hotlink in this post's title for a list of the financial aid and awards available to undergraduates: the deadline is April 15<span style="font-size:78%;">th</span>.<br /><br />A list of <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/">SFU</a> bursaries (a hidden help) is <a href="http://students.sfu.ca/financialaid/bursaries/index.html">on-line here</a>.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-53780516022400763192008-03-13T11:36:00.000-07:002008-03-13T14:40:40.552-07:00Stoicism in the British Character<span style="font-size:85%;">The following is from </span><a href="http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2005_07_03_dish_archive.html#112075279206850277"><span style="font-size:85%;">andrewsullivan.com </span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">(Sullivan being an expat) and insists on stoicism as essentially an English - not an American - national characteristic.<br /></span><blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>THE BRITS AND STOICISM</strong>: Here's one cultural difference between Brits and Americans. Brits regard the best response to outrage to carry on as if nothing has happened. Yes, they will fight back. But first, they will just carry on as normal. Right now, a million kettles are boiling. "Is that the best you can do?" will be a typical response. Stoicism is not an American virtue. Apart from a sense of humor, it is the ultimate British one. </span><a href="http://www.neveratoss.co.uk/2005_07_03_neveratossblog_archive.html#112074559125264443" targtet="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">Neveratoss</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> captures this perfectly today:<br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;">Went to the pub at lunchtime to see the latest new on events in London. Three young guys were sitting directly in front of the TV as details of a major terrorist attack on London were emerging – all three avidly reading the Sun's account of the Steven Gerard/Liverpool fiasco.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;">That's a reference to a soccer story. Do not mistake this attitude for indifference. It's a very English form of determination.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>WHY CRICKET MATTERS TODAY</strong>: An emailer reminds me of another Englishman's commentary on seeking pleasure and diversion even in wartime, perhaps especially in wartime: "I think it important to try to see the present calamity in a true perspective. The war creates no absolutely new situation: it simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search would never have begun... The insects have chosen a different line: they have sought first the material welfare and security of the hive, and presumably they have their reward. Men are different. They propound<br />mathematical theorems in beleaguered cities, conduct metaphysical arguments in condemned cells, make jokes on scaffolds, discuss the latest new poem while advancing to the walls of Quebec, and comb their hair at Thermopylae. This is not panache: it is our nature."C.S.<br />Lewis, of course, in a 1939 sermon at St Mary the Virgin in Oxford. Yes, England beat Australia today - by </span><a href="http://www.sportinglife.com/cricket/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=cricket/05/07/07/CRICKET_England_6th_Lead.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:85%;">nine wickets</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">.<br /><br /></span></p></blockquote>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-34555182115967089452008-03-13T11:25:00.000-07:002008-03-13T14:31:31.394-07:00"'The public are sick and tired of yobs"<a href="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/03_02/MastersThompsonRPY_468x303.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/03_02/MastersThompsonRPY_468x303.jpg" border="0" /></a>Even) more from British tabloid <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=533471&in_page_id=1770">The Daily Mail</a>:<br /><div>'<strong>The public are sick and tired of yobs,' judge says as he jails teens who beat man to death</strong></div><div><span style="font-size:78%;">13th March 2008</span></div><div>A judge today described three teenagers involved in beating to death a "helpless" man as typical of the "young, drunken, violent yob who hunt in packs and of whom the public are sick and tired".....Judge Stewart said: "Gavin made his way home in great pain to lie dying alone in his flat during the following three days because of a ruptured spleen. The pain he endured must have been horrific."....The three told friends about the attack and showed them the footage, which was also sent to other people's mobile phones but was never published on the internet. </div><div>The thug on the right is from my home town of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/">Bradford, Yorks</a>...</div>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-7992218308786633222008-03-11T10:56:00.001-07:002008-03-11T12:06:38.240-07:00Mid-Term Essay: Conditional GradeTwo (important) points regarding the Mid-Term Essay that you received back in class this week.<br /><br /><ul><li>If you have any specific aspect for discussion about the grade that your essay earned, relate the essay and the marking comments to the objective criteria in the "<em>Essay Letter Grade Criteria</em>" in the <span style="color:#ffff33;">Pertinent & Impertinent</span> list here on the blog. Should you then bring the essay to an Office Hour for discussion, frame your remarks and questions directly to these objective criteria. This provides an independent standard and a common framework for understanding the expectations and requirements for a scholarly essay at the University level.</li><li>The primary purpose of essay assignments is to afford students opportunity to improve the quality of their academic writing and analysis. To this effect, as I stated in lecture, I customarily write copy-edits on Mid-Term essays: with a personal purpose of rewarding students for their good contributions to class by showing the way to an effective Final Essay, and thus an agreeable final course grade. However, it has been my unvaried experience hitherto that in excess of seventy-five percent of students make precisely the same mistakes on the Final essay as were corrected--lavishly and in vivid red ink--on their Mid-Term essay; leading me to conclude that my corrections are not being read. (One explanans offered me is that students interpret essay corrections as comment on their ability rather than--as is the case--as judgement on the artifact that they have submitted.) This term, then, I have determined to restrain myself from writing copy-edits, and have instead written a detailed overview at the foot of the essay. The design is that the student will do two things:</li><li><blockquote><li>Read and study the concluding analysis, and then apply the directions found<br />there to pages of the essay.</li><li>Bring the essay in person to the Lecturer, for manual assistance.</li></blockquote></li><li>To, shall we say, 'encourage' the second event, <strong>I have recorded the grade on the Mid-Term essay as "Conditional"</strong>: the grade will be certified only when the essay is brought in for discussion. In order to help the quality--and thereby the grade-- of your Final Essay, the earlier this is done the better. Scheduled Appointments are available for the remainder of the term</li></ul>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-26154675425245536092008-03-11T10:38:00.000-07:002008-03-11T10:50:09.487-07:00Film Viewing<a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/915868827_ec0b050465.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/915868827_ec0b050465.jpg" border="0" /></a>There will be a class film showing of the remainder of the classic <em><a href="http://www.filmsite.org/filmnoir.html">film noir</a></em> version of <em><a href="http://members.tripod.com/~greeneland/brighton.htm">Brighton Rock</a></em>, screenplay by Graham Greene himself & written by <a href="http://www.terencerattigan.co.uk/">Terence Rattigan</a> whom we know from his charming <em>Browning Version</em> earlier in the Term. This will take place in the classroom, but beginning at five-thirty; that is, the hour before the scheduled class time.<br /><div></div><br /><div>In class time we will see clips from the film version of <a href="http://www.thewho.com/">The Who</a>'s <em><a href="http://www.quadrophenia.net/">Quadrophenia</a></em>. The album was inspired in part by Brighton Rock, and the film has several scenes in Brighton evocative of Greene's novel.</div>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-45261308031204149522008-03-11T10:37:00.000-07:002008-03-11T10:53:32.843-07:00Assignment Due DateA reminder of the assignment due in class this coming Monday....Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-41019156936839694492008-03-10T18:04:00.000-07:002008-03-10T18:08:40.231-07:00The Pedagocial Fallacy<em>À Propos</em> the pedagocial fallacy mocked by Alex in <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>, this article featured on today's Arts & Letters Daily:<br /><blockquote>The arts won’t make you virtuous or make you smart, but they are Robert Fulford’s faith, firmly installed in his mind where other people put religion... <a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/story-printer.html?id=191797">more»</a></blockquote>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-21962880450815932382008-03-07T23:48:00.000-08:002008-03-07T23:52:28.762-08:00On Sillitoe: Class DiscussionGood class work on analysis & insights into Sillitoe's stories, now online.<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.sfu.ca/~ogden/Sillitoe%20&%20Stalky.doc">Group A</a></li></ul>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-79852587159748038012008-03-07T21:39:00.001-08:002008-03-07T21:40:10.823-08:00Term EssayA reminder to keep an eye on the syallbus for the format of the Term Essay, and the upcoming date of the draught thesis paragraph.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-26629176103708177322008-03-04T11:04:00.000-08:002008-03-04T13:28:53.108-08:00Possible Influence on "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfE_QAS85wyhGuC-i0CjBQuIDQBixve1rKM0emB-_z1LgfskOeE8gGI89Q7bFXfXo8Swta32G5B5c1y7T6tpCxtujcrUe5kLbkNXmU5sBhLr8IsjUV6jRi_KD0ELu_0dSAzxzR1wf8iXVk/s1600-h/tott.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173999229935004722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfE_QAS85wyhGuC-i0CjBQuIDQBixve1rKM0emB-_z1LgfskOeE8gGI89Q7bFXfXo8Swta32G5B5c1y7T6tpCxtujcrUe5kLbkNXmU5sBhLr8IsjUV6jRi_KD0ELu_0dSAzxzR1wf8iXVk/s320/tott.jpg" border="0" /></a>"Bloomin' Ada!" A possible influence on Sillitoe's <em>Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner</em> (or, more precisely, on his working up of the story from his original idle penning of the titular line) is <a href="http://www.toughofthetrack.net/">Alf Tupper, the Tough of the Track</a>. My father and I grew up in turn reading Alf, as did almost all working class boys in post-War Britain, quite plausibly including a young Alan Sillitoe. Follow the hotlink to a useful website & see what you think.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-62403945359754412332008-02-23T11:10:00.000-08:002008-02-23T19:17:54.251-08:00Students' Nadsat EssaysAnthony Burgess' nadsat is clearly a workable argot, as the following short essays by your small groups demostrates. Peet o' scotchmen by the winner?<br /><br /><ol><li>On “The Pedagogic Fallacy”:<br /> All the mooges and damas think that like school and biblios are real horrorshows, but me mozggies ain’t no better for it. Even the state institute for the reclamation of criminal types reckoned that it would make me a good non-violent malchick. That, it turned out, my brothers, was pure chepooka. Droogs who become bookmen can still do a right bit of ultraviolence, even if they know it’s not the right. You would have to be like bezoomy to reckon that being an oomny chelloveck mean the difference between being dobby or the baddywaddiest. Anyone with glazzies in their gullivar can viddy that education allows more than a bit of horrorshow ultraviolence. By Old Bog, if you slooshy any lewdies who gavoreet any different they ain’t worth hen-korm. Yarbles to school and all that cal.</li><li>Alex is a failed Stalky model. He alienates the gruppa relationship by over-prodding, which undermines the equality of the shaika, and he fails to respect the larger system and its institutions.<br /> Throughout the novel, Alex like refuses to allow the other vecks of the bandas to perform. He is apt to shvat the glory and the spotlight and stops everyone else from verifying themselves. He continually re-asserts his dominance over the shaika. Over raz, they have less and less freedom, which prevents them from performing very horrorshow.<br /> When Alex tolchocks Dim and Georgie, it instantly displays how his tendency towards over-performance deteriorates the close-knit fabric of the bandas. Where he could have like permitted the other droogs to have a say in things, or to perform, specifically, he just drats them as an attempt to re-assert his oddy knocky authority. Alex’s failure to viddy the ultraviolence performance rights of the other droogs effectively dissolves the very horrorshow cohesion of the very malchickiwicks that Alex claims to privodeet over.<br /> Finally, whenever Alex like deals with the rozz, or the greater system they represent, he shows oozhassny disregard for their conducts, practices and ideals. He nadmenny disrespects his pee and em, the Governor, and the education system. According to the traditional Stalky model Alex should still maintain an unspoken level of respect towards the greater system he is a part of; however, his actions undermine, on many different levels, all possible aspects of the society which he finds himself plennied.<br /> In conclusion, Alex fails as a Stalky figure in all places in the novel. From nachinatovat to end of the raskazz, there is no change in his jeezny, or his ideals. He refuses to allow vecks to enjoy in his performative pleasures, he like rebels against everything possible, whether it’s his pee and em, or the millicents, and actively alienates his connections to the very gruppa that defines him. This, in sum, is undeniably how Alex fails. By the end of the novel, he has ultimately become the antithetical Stalky.</li><li>O my brothers, I recently viddied the bezoomy American sinny of my razkazz, A Clockwork Orange, which is based on the version of my novel that omitted my 21st chapter. And let me tell you, O my brothers, it was real cal. Not horrorshow even a malenky bit. With this omission, my readers will not pony our droog as a progaonist and makes the work as a novel more sodding trivial. Our droog, dear Alex, can no longer be viddied as a dynamic lewdie. Without the 21st chapter, Alex doesn’t have the ability to change. He can’t like change his jeezny which is a quality that’s a real horrorshow dorogoy to the razkazz. The 21st chapter allows the reading lewdies to viddy Alex as a more human character. It skazats that our Humble Narrator to change his jeezny. On page 93, I govoreeted “goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose, he ceases to be a man.” I govoreeted this vesch again on page 125 just to make sure my reading bratties got my point real horrorshow. Without my final chapter, the reader can’t viddy this. The final chapter also shows the development of Pete. If the malchicks are meant to represent malchicks in real jeezny, without showing Alex and Pete’s change the Americanised razkazz suggests he cannot change, and if malchicks are morally bezoomy in youth, they won’t change, making them a clockwork orange as I referenced on page 175 and 178.<br />In conclusion, Kubrick can kiss my sherries! My grazny yarbles!</li><li>Burgess Creeching at the Bratchney Sod who Litsoed the End Out O' the Sinny<br />(In Defense of the 21st Chapter)<br />I appupolly loggy for my bezzomy grammar but I must be saying, O my brothers, that we're a clarking at the gloopy American-Ded that razrezzed the 21st-like chapter out o' this copy of the book at the biblio. It's all a bit horrorshow to let the writer-mooge hold onto what the bloody well wrote down, cause he knew well enough to plesk it from his gulliver way he did. Pony, we got a cozhassnay vhsnhr in style don't you know, savvy?<br />When the ending get nozh'ed and the novel's a babel. Skanzat to say the sodding shoot who thinks someone can't imagine a world where people change cuz Burgess wanted to think they could. He stuck it in all quiet like that; 21 is when boys be men and savvy their mozg instead of skriking their yarbles. If you go take a lomtick out of this last bit of oozhassay writing then boys are shown as real nadmenny prestopnik with no hope for growth.</li><li><br /> What’s it going to be then, eh? It seems to me, o my brothers, that you’ve been govoreeting about this malenky malchick Stalky and his prestoopnick droogs. He may have a real horrorshow jeezny. Right right right. But did he ever hold a pooshka or nosh, or give the old in out in out to some sweet devotchka. And unlike your droogie Stalky, no starry Millicent could change the rassoodock of your humble Narrator. I’m not poogly of any malenky grahzny vesh. You think I failed because I was loveted, but you can kiss my sharries! It only happened because my gloopy traitorous droogs left me for the rozz. Now I’m a real horrorshow chelloveck with a zheena and my son, so who’s the somny one now?<br /> Amen. And all that cal.</li></ol>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-25609430029277839792008-02-21T22:24:00.001-08:002008-02-21T22:24:56.210-08:00Office-Plant Blogging<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGJf-b7UogBcvVK3nWOaHV4nrDt2UHS7qyaPkxizhb2BXpWGWmOl793YnO6RFgLxGpFW7lasENHJuKM52Am-3oOKwcyme-vhxFwa0n9UM_PmglNQ0vdzQEK6wj_7dPpktOjufFhmhvXU/s1600-h/sendBinary.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5169607256317047090" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGJf-b7UogBcvVK3nWOaHV4nrDt2UHS7qyaPkxizhb2BXpWGWmOl793YnO6RFgLxGpFW7lasENHJuKM52Am-3oOKwcyme-vhxFwa0n9UM_PmglNQ0vdzQEK6wj_7dPpktOjufFhmhvXU/s400/sendBinary.jpg" border="0" /></a>It's always spring in hothouse environments....like my wonderful office.<br /><br />AQ6094: office hours are always as scheduled.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-88368725001627564512008-02-20T14:47:00.000-08:002008-02-20T18:13:08.187-08:00On Mid-term Question 1<a href="http://bu.univ-angers.fr/EXTRANET/AnthonyBURGESS/glass.JPG"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bu.univ-angers.fr/EXTRANET/AnthonyBURGESS/glass.JPG" border="0" /></a>In Office Hours today, I answered a student request for more information about Question 1 on the Mid-Term which it seems only fair to broadcast.<br /><br />The question does not require you to give specific aspects of the Stalky model: or, at least, one is sufficient (although many more would work.) The requirement is twofold: one, that there is understanding of performative masculinity-- manhood can be lost by failed performance--in twentieth-century Britain; two, that a specific model of masculinity existed before 1945, encoded in British literature (that model being what I term the <em>Stalky</em> model; but, again, it is more important for the question that the fact of a model's existence be recognised than the specific model be anatomised.<br /><br />To give an example, using one of the <em>Stalky</em> characteristics, in <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>, the close-knit group of contrasting male companions exists, but it has gone awry: it has altered in some way (which you would detail by textual quotation) and thus fails to produce masculinity. This can be seen symbolised in the text--and specifically represented on the cover of the recent Penguin edition of the work--by milk. The glass of moloko on the cover, which should symbolise purity and growth, is, for the droogs, poisoned: poisoned by hallucinogentic drugs.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-85157732562207748262008-02-20T14:14:00.000-08:002008-02-20T18:16:30.539-08:00Droog-ism: "Happy Slapping"The wider relevence of this course study and material is indicated in <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/29/nslap29.xml">this article</a> from the <em>Sunday Telegraph</em>. Note, by the bye, that the article says the film by Kubrick rather than the novella by Burgess<em>:</em><br /><blockquote><p></p><p>The violence seen in the video obtained by this newspaper has echoes of the extreme violence portrayed in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film, <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>. In the film, a gang of youths travels the country to commit violent acts, including rapes and murders, for fun. Jan Harlan, the late director's brother-in-law, who helped to make the Oscar-nominated film, said that such violence was "beginning to make<em> A Clockwork Orange</em> seem like Bambi".<br />He said: "Violence is on a totally different level than it used to be. We do not realise how violent the whole world has become in the last few decades. The danger is that in the next 30 or 40 years <strong>there will be a huge crowd of uneducated young men</strong> with nothing to do except become more violent and anti-social."<br /></p></blockquote>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-91746404651176176462008-02-19T11:30:00.000-08:002008-02-19T11:41:17.409-08:00Thugs in British MediaI've been blogging British tabloid media stories on yobs: <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=515995&in_page_id=1879">one today in the DailyMail</a> suggests to me that things are intensifying. There is an increasing and an intensifying focus on violent young males, and these stories, and the reader comments that follow them, indicate that some political -- or even cultural -- change is imminent.<br /><blockquote>"The <strong>do-gooders - many encouraged by today's politicians - are doing nothing</strong> to frighten off the sort of thugs who left Christopher with his heart beating, but not really alive.<br />"Even ten years ago it was different. We still believed that out in the streets you wouldn't get mugged by gangs of youngsters who you didn't know from Adam.<br />"Now, the teenagers who strut about with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other are afraid of no one. I see them every day outside the pubs wherever I go."<br />Helen Newlove, the widow of Garry Newlove, who was beaten to death outside his home in Warrington, has <strong>called for a return to capital punishment</strong> in this country.<br />"I agree with her, and so do <strong>thousands of other ordinary people who are sick and frightened</strong> of what is happening."<br />Marion is not a political animal. But she has a reason to be angry.<br />She says: "I sat there, day after day, at the Old Bailey trial. <strong>It was all about the rights of Ashman, Wakeling and Patterson</strong>.<br />"The excuses given by the three teenagers and their legal team for why they had attacked Christopher, leaving him almost dead, were astonishing.<br />"<strong>One said he had eczema;</strong> another had been brought up by his grandmother. Yet the court took them seriously.<br />"Meanwhile, their friends in the public gallery were waving at them in the dock, and one of the gang's relatives was told to leave by the judge for swearing continually<br />"Wakeling, Patterson and Ashman even laughed and joked in court, just as they did after they left Chris all but dying in the street. </blockquote>The question for us, of course, is how the coming change will follow the pattern fictionally mapped in Burgess' (<em>not</em> Kubrick's) <em>A Clockwork Orange.</em>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-89756180501606256402008-02-18T22:38:00.000-08:002008-02-18T22:47:34.202-08:00"Life in Mars"<a href="http://www.bbccanada.com/lifeonmars/images/images/LOM_header.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.bbccanada.com/lifeonmars/images/images/LOM_header.jpg" border="0" /></a>Make sure you jot down notes of your responses to the <em><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/lifeonmars/">Life on Mars</a></em> episode today: specifically its representation of masculine culture in 1973 Britain, the roots of football hooliganism, and the relationship to the documentary section we watched, and any of the other course materials.<br /><br />There is a sequel now running to <em>L.o.M</em>., named, after another David Bowie song, <em>Ashes to Ashes</em>.<br /><br />(The hotlink on the titles here is to a useful interactive BBC page for <em>L.o.M</em>.)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.kudosproductions.co.uk/">Kudos Film & Television</a> is a Jane Featherstone and Stephen Garrett production company who have a golden touch in Britain. The link gives their impressive list of successes.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-15433825070782511882008-02-16T12:32:00.000-08:002008-02-16T20:03:15.098-08:00Unwinese<a href="http://www.bigbadugly.com/StanleyUnwinIndex_files/image024.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 173px; CURSOR: hand" height="197" alt="" src="http://www.bigbadugly.com/StanleyUnwinIndex_files/image024.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div>Lots of links on the England parts of the internets <a href="http://www.stanleyunwin.com/">to Stanley Unwin's work</a>: he being one of Burgess' inspirations for the language in <em>Clockwork Orange</em>. Unwin seems plain odd to North Americans, but his invented inverted speech hits something deep in the brain stem of the body England. Monty Python were obvious devotees; and John Lennon virtually wrote his <em><a href="http://www.geocities.com/soho/lofts/8498/spaniard.html">Spaniard in the Works</a></em> in Uniwinese.<br /><br /><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=duOhkSwMjKg">Here is Mr. Unwin</a> in a television advertisement for a word processor.</div><div></div><div>Gratuitous literary progenitor mention: <em>James Joyce</em>.</div><div></div><div><em><strong>Nb</strong></em>: What I imagine attracted Burgess to Unwin was the fact that his language games are not nonsense. Take "eyebold," for instance, from the advert: in relation to "eyeballed" it is a reasonable jocose intensifier, and, in context, "eyebald" and "eyebowled" (a cricketing pun) are effective possibilities. It is for certain no less inventive or reasonable than much in Joyce (albeit less sustained.)</div>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-14134439808402919842008-02-14T11:09:00.000-08:002008-02-14T13:15:35.634-08:00Guest Lecture on "A Clockwork Orange"<a href="http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/files/fall_2006/green.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/files/fall_2006/green.jpg" border="0" /></a>We will open our February 25<span style="font-size:78%;">th</span> class with a special guest lecture by the venerable Mr. Stanley Green, Doctoral Candidate in our Department and <em>afficianado</em> of classical music, on Anthony Burgess' use of music in <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>. I have experienced this multi-media lecture before and am certain you will be find it memorable.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-20170612327589671902008-02-12T11:54:00.000-08:002008-02-12T17:15:19.952-08:00On Justice versus HumanitarianismFrom classfellow S.R., the following scholarly analysis and article recommendation for a fuller understanding of <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>. <span style="font-size:85%;">(Referenced article in hotlink & the title of this post.)</span><br /><blockquote><p>Throughout class discussion last night I was reminded of an essay I read years ago by C.S. Lewis. I found it in one of my books this afternoon, and thought you might be interested in reading it, if you have not already done so. It's titled "<a href="http://www.angelfire.com/pro/lewiscs/humanitarian.html">The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment</a>", and it was printedin 20th Century: an Australian Quarterly Review in 1949. I know Burgess wasa fan of Lewis, but I'm not sure how intimate their friendship was. My edition of <em>Mere Christianity</em> has a quotation from Burgess on the backcover, but I doubt Lewis ever read it. As I read the essay 'for the third time' I couldn't help but think that maybe this could have been a major source for some of the content in <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>. I don't know of any other author whose essays could inspire such a tightly argued case; and I think<br />Burgess had the skill to turn such a scholarly argument into brilliant fiction<br /></p></blockquote>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-10365695529836758152008-02-11T23:16:00.000-08:002008-02-11T23:43:27.215-08:00Mid-Term Essay Topics<ol><li>On the performative model of masculinity--that manhood is conditional on performance--encoded as a model in British literature by Rudyard Kipling in <em>Stalky & Co</em>., arrange <em>Clockwork Orange, Success and High Fidelity</em> into a devolving sequence using direct quotations from the three post-Kipling British novels.</li><li>Terrence and Gregory are Martin Amis' modernisation of the 'body-soul dialogue' literary trope. Provide a forensic analysis of Amis' text which shows the accurate anatomy of this reading.</li><li>Explain how <em>High Fidelity</em> represents a male dystopia that inverts the <em>Stalky </em>model of confident and fulfilled masculinity.</li></ol>Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1183412216719990159.post-91615105577181150632008-02-08T10:23:00.000-08:002008-02-08T17:25:25.489-08:00Stalky & Co.I am relieved to report that <em>Stalky & Co.</em> is now in at the BookStore. Please pick up your copy as soon as possible, as the shelf space will be required for next term stock in the next week or two.Dr. Stephen Ogdenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16765689515656935339noreply@blogger.com0