Dante or Die’s User Not Found stages an unsettling scenario in a small, cosy café. Through the use of smartphones and headsets, the talented actor takes the audience on an intimate journey through his mind and his late lover’s internet presence, asking one central question: what do you do with your loved one’s online presence…
Queerness, Sexuality and Cinema
There are, generally speaking, three types of films representative of queer relationships: those that pretend queerness is inherently asexual, those that oversexualise it and those that actually do a fairly good job of representing a range of sexualities and are widely embraced by the LGBTQ+ community. The veiled queerness is an old, old trope. It…
Costume dramas for the costume society
Period dramas are the pride of British cinema. They are addictive, entertaining, and oftentimes endearing. The servants are written as funny, the women seem to transgress societal norms, and the men are just adorable in their slowly changing misogyny. The smallest gesture of rebellion is a revolution. Yet this is precisely where the danger lies….
You don’t have to be middle class to enjoy art
There seems to be a general understanding that art is something sophisticated, refined, and inaccessible. The word ‘art’ conjures up images of royal portraits painted by aristocrats, stored in museums, which themselves are often old, imposing buildings. Art is something superior to the physical world and the people looking at it. It transcends real life….
Freshers without drinking
One of my best memories from my first year at UEA is Freshers’ Week. Not because of the LCR and clubbing nights, but because of the incredibly varied events the university organised. As an EU student, the UK drinking culture initially surprised me. My previous classmates liked to go out, but I never had alcohol…
Madeline Miller: a feminist perspective on Greek mythology
Author of The Song of Achilles and recent release Circe, Madeline Miller is perhaps the most exciting voice of contemporary mythology retellings. The Song of Achilles, her first novel, narrates the story of the Iliad, following the lovers Achilles and Patroclus; Circe, on the other hand, retells the life of the sorceress by the same…
“You definitely should judge a book by its cover”
You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover – or at least that’s what they say. Looking past the outside is supposed to help avoid superficial feelings and wronged expectations, and even develop a deeper understanding of the story. The truth, however, is that the work that is put into the design of a book…
Bangin’ good art
The novel: “Rubyfruit Jungle was released at a time when queer literature wasn’t really a thing. Most queer books published today shy away from a lot of things Rita Mae Brown just throws in your face. Its unapologetically gay heroine doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion. She gets into university with no money, and is soon…
Tokenism: the need for all-queer shows
While tokenism has arguably existed in the media we consume for a very long time, it has recently become much more acknowledged, and is finally getting the attention it deserves as a relevant issue. A few years ago, being queer meant there was barely any way to see yourself in TV shows, movies, and books….
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