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Crazy Like the Fox

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  1. Language and The Handmaid’s Tale

    11/09/2023 by axonite

    “My words when they speak me”

    Margaret Atwood often talks of “the slipperiness of language” as she acknowledges the part that Orwell’s 1984 played in the creation of The Handmaid’s Tale. Just as irony is at the very heart of every dystopia (both imagined and real), so it is with the language prevalent in such societies. In 1984, we have the ministries of “Love” and “Truth,” whereas in The Handmaid’s Tale we have “angels” and “Serena Joy.” Sadly, neither novel is entirely fictional – everything has happened (and is still happening) somewhere in the world. The choice of words can create meanings that manipulate people (Shakespeare wrote an entire play about equivocation – a key element in advertising and political speeches). Beyond this, The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis posits the notion that the words that we speak can shape entire societies (but more about this topic when we get to works in translation).

    “Standard English is defined by that group in society wherein power is most obviously invested” – Noam Chomsky

    Language can be a source of power for those who control it. Latinate language (using long, important sounding, words and sentences) can create a sense of authority – as we see in Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Have a go at the The Buzz Phrase Generator to get a sense of this. The danger when you come to write your essays and speak in your orals is that you too could fall into such nebulous nonsense.

    NEVER be tempted to write “through the use of his/her diction” or some other meaningless rot! When I grade IB exam papers, it is not unusual to see entire cohorts who use such vacuous expressions! Your job is to prove to the examiner that you are writing about this specific text and no other.

    Memorised guff like, “the writer uses irony, figurative language and juxtaposition” will make your examiner very sad. It will not affect your grade – but it is a waste of time. Instead, convince your reader that you are writing about this specific text and nothing else.

    Always express your terms as VERBS where possible, in concise what/how/why sentences (e.g. “juxtaposes x with y to say z” rather than “uses juxtaposition”). Where no verb form exists (e.g. metaphor), slip the term in almost ‘casually,’ like a name dropper (“…and through the peculiar metaphor of an onion to describe her heart, Plath seems to imply…”).

    The Language of Politics – Stephen Fry

    Jessica Lynch

    The Languages of Pao

    A Modest Proposal

    Spectacle and Media Propaganda in the War on Iraq

    How language shapes the way we think

    Category Advertising, Exams | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  2. Adverts for disgusting products

    12/11/2015 by axonite

     

    No one would have eaten Filboid Studge as a pleasure, but the grim austerity of its advertisement drove housewives in shoals to the grocers’ shops to clamour for an immediate supply.

     

    Inspired by Saki’s story of advertising psychology, Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse that Helped, Year 8 students designed their own advertisements for less than appetising products. Here are a few of their ideas.

     
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    Category Advertising | Tags: ,,, | No Comments

  3. The Scottish Play

    24/04/2014 by axonite

     

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    Macbeth (or The Scottish Play, as actors call it) is pure propaganda. Your teachers repeatedly tell you that “all stories are lies,” that everything we read (or every film or play we see) is an expression of the author’s views. Sometimes this is subtle, sometimes obvious – but human beings can never be impartial in their writing. The evidence suggests that this play was the result of one particular event in British history, a defining moment that is still commemorated yearly in the U.K. – The Gunpowder Plot.

    When Protestant monarch King James VI of Scotland became James I of England too, the Catholics were hoping for a lessening in religious oppression. However, as their early hopes were dashed, many became disgruntled. A group of conspirators thus decided to take radical action – they would attempt to blow up the king by planting explosives beneath The Houses of Parliament (and killing numerous politicians along the way). The Gunpowder Plot failed – and James was determined that no one should try this crime again.

    Despite being elected king (Elizabeth I died without an heir and appeared undecided whether he should succeed her), James was convinced that God had ordained him monarch. He believed in The Divine Right of Kings (no one could question him, since above him was only God) and so to kill a king was thus a crime against God.

    In the aftermath of the Gunpowder plot, James immediately subverted an existing pre-Christian festival and re-named it Guy Fawkes Night (after one of the conspirators, whose face you may recognise from V For Vendetta and the Occupy the City anti-Capitalist excess protests). He then appears to have commissioned Shakespeare to produce Macbeth, a play that tells us in no uncertain terms that those who kill their monarchs are creatures of the devil and will go to Hell.

    arnie 

     ➠➠➠➠➠➠➠Hero➠➠➠➠➠➠➠➠➠King ➠➠➠➠➠➠➠➠Monster➠➠➠➠➠➠➠➠➠

     

    The play is set in Scotland and contains some of James’ supposed ancestors (who, Shakespeare is eager to exonerate from any possible blame). It charts the moral decline of a man whose ambition leads him to listen to the voices of women (another of King James’ directions for the play, perhaps?) who, in terms of the drama, act as visual representations of the temptations within his own mind. At the start, Shakespeare repeatedly emphasises that this is a brave, fearless and heroic man, equating him with Mars (The God of War). He is like an American comic book hero – and when we first hear of him, he has just literally “carved” his way through the enemy ranks to disembowel their leader! (Think Captain America with a Scottish accent) However, when he murders the king to become king, this pivotal moment sets him on a course which will ultimately change him from hero to monster. This is why the play is a tragedy – a man with such incredible potential throws it all away by allowing himself to be seduced by evil desires.

     

    In the course of the play, Shakespeare never misses an opportunity to flatter King James (“What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?” Act 4, sc1, ll.112–117) and to assert that those who (like one of the defendants in the Gunpowder Plot) “equivocate” (deceive without technically lying), cheat and (above all) murder, will certainly be doomed to “the everlasting bonfire.”

     

    “His fiend-like Queen”

    In this play, very little is what it seems (A sense of paranoia pervades all). Lady Macbeth appears to be a monster – but Shakespeare later subverts and re-frames this perspective…

    Links:
    The play on-line
    BBC Bitesize
    MacDeath!
    The real Macbeth
    The Globe Theatre: Macbeth
    Shakespeare’s Life and Times
    Macbeth on-line lesson
    Macbeth cartoon
    Thailand bans Macbeth
    Enjoying Macbeth
    Macbeth: Paranoid Killer?
    Britannica study Guide: Macbeth

    Category Drama, IGCSE | Tags: ,,,,,, | No Comments

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