Episode 2 - The Flame of Our World

Whether it be shedding light on revolutionary developments, lighting up a city, or searching the light of your soul, this month’s selection of articles are definitely going to intrigue and illuminate your mind. With independence for nature, love in the air, and the spotlights of Hollywood, your guide to rabbit holes worth falling into is presenting quite a variety of topics.

Article: A Voice for Nature 

Author: Kennedy Warne

Media: National Geographic

“The great River flows from the mountains to the sea. I am the River, the River is me.” These are the words of the Maori tribes of Whanganui in New Zealand before they succeeded in awarding the Whanganui River legal personhood. This National Geographic exposé gives us hope for an environment that desperately needs more dedication like the one shown by the Maori Tribes. Accompanied by some extraordinarily moving photographs, “A Voice for Nature” is a perfect literary escape that will leave you curious about the process of legally awarding rights to nature…

Article: Do Not Wish Me a Happy Birthday

Author: Hannah

Media: The Devotee

In this social commentary about birthdays, Hannah puts forward an uncommon reflection about the sorrow birthdays can bring. Presenting the act of wishing a happy birthday as testimony of being an afterthought from individuals who ignore you 364 days a year. “Birthdays have always felt like mirrors, reflecting not just the light of celebration, but the shadows of absence.” She does not highlight this out of spite, but out of sadness that a full inbox reveals people from closed chapters of our lives, and that reopening them only brings forth a feeling of longing rather than blooming. Blowing out your candles summons a new year for you to move forward. What do you think about this?

Article: 'Whether rich or poor, it was the longest of nights': How a 2003 blackout brought New York City to a standstills 

Author: Myles Burke

Media: BBC

New York is the city that never sleeps. With the buzz and shuffle of Times Square, the never-ending shouts on Wall Street’s trading floors, and the glorious and lit-up skyscrapers. Yet, in 2003, it all came to a halt for up to 4 days when a power outage hit a majority of North America. In this historical piece, the BBC presents the solidarity and challenges of New Yorkers in this moment of confusion. With no phones, TVs, or radios, they knew nothing of what was happening. Some were trapped in subway cars, others in elevators, and many had to leave their homes to escape the summer heat. Yet, in this time of struggle, millions of New Yorkers marched together through the streets in attempts to get home, and others slept on the streets and learned of the conditions in which the homeless live. To expand your general knowledge and look at how the City of Lights ended up… with lights out, take a look at this article.

Article: Materialists Director Explains The Genius Idea Behind The Confusing Opening Scene

Author: Matthew Biggin

Media: Screen Rant

There is no spark stronger than the spark of love… Materialists, the new A24 movie that was released this past month, revolves around love in a new and original Rom Com. For those who have not yet had the chance to see it, the opening scene is one that inspires initial confusion until the pieces of the puzzle all fit into place. The creative scene directed by Celine Song aimed to trace back love all the way to the first romance. In an in-depth analysis of how impactful the composition is and how it prepares us for the themes of the film. Regardless of whether we like the film or not, it is undeniable that the first minutes of Materialists merit the attention of analysis and will most likely be referred to throughout the years… Read Biggins’ take on the matter in this Screen Rant article.

Article: 'You can't grasp her or replicate her': Why Anna Magnani is the overlooked 'goddess' of Italian cinema

Author: Anna Bressanin

Media: BBC

Whilst the world calls out Sophia Lorren’s name, there is one Italian movie icon who appears to have been omitted from the Hollywood credits. Discover the talent and glamour of the first Italian Oscar Winning Actress and Meryl Streep’s “goddess”, Anna Magnani. In this rabbit hole, the spotlight shines on the 1940s superstar who you probably have never heard of… but that is all about to change. Blocked from lead roles due to her lack of a “tiny nose and blue eyes”, Magnani forged her way to fame through her eccentric and fierce character. With rumours of mysterious origins and a complicated personal life, there is definitely lots to explore about the star of Rome.

Episode 1 - Humanity all around

In this edition, and in spirit of the theme of “cycles”, discover a selection of articles from amateur writers and more respectable institutions reflecting on self improvement, historical and cultural exposes, and commentary on society.

Article: Become the person that you would like to be around

Author: Hassif

Media: Postcards by Hassif

We tend to remember the people who aren’t there for us more than we appreciate those who are. And despite how quick we are to judge those who don’t give us the undivided attention we think we deserve, we are less inclined to look within and reflect on whether we have done the same for others. Have I been paying attention to my loved ones in the way I want people to notice me? Why do I want to be the person who lights up a room, yet I never stop to wonder why that isn’t already the case? In this letter-formatted article, Hasif encourages self-reflection, facing the reader with an uncomfortable truth: we want the world to love us without taking the time to acknowledge those who already do. He isn’t judging us for this fact, but instead asking us to consider how we can become “someone worth knowing” and “the reason [our loved ones] don't feel invisible”. 

Investigating the cycles of attention and neglect where we fail to mirror what we seek from others.

Article: 'They hold hands, they embrace, they kiss': The woman who changed our view of chimps - and human beings

Author: Myles Burke

Media: BBC News

You may have heard the name Jane Goodall before - the real-life Jane of ‘Tarzan’ (her idol as a child). The woman who didn’t back down from her morals and values, despite her male colleagues believing her approach to be too “emotional”. In this article, Burke covers the beginnings of “a young English woman with no formal scientific background or qualifications [who] would become a pioneering [researcher] studying wild chimpanzees”. She showed the world how similar chimpanzees and humans really were, and humanized these ‘savage animals’ to the general public. Burke was prompted to write about Jane Goodall after finding a 1986 interview where she first explained to the BBC the affectionate nature of these chimpanzees. Her achievements and her determination as a woman in a male-dominated field are most definitely worth the read. 

Understanding who this admirable woman, with a connection to animals like no other, truly is and why we should all know about her.

Article: Do we owe people kindness or just politeness

Author: Ayushi Thakkar

Media: Milk and Cookies 

In this social commentary, Thakkar depicts politeness as a “choreography”, digging deep to reflect whether goodness has been replaced by politeness in order to avoid putting in the emotional work to be truly kind. As she self reflects, Thakkar shares her insights - that kindness requires presence whereas politeness is the smoothing of time, and further elaborating on how kindness has become “aestheticised” on platforms such as social media. Acts of kindness in our modern society are performances to look morally good but they are rarely out of true belief in good. The article contains multiple aspects of the topic, including how youth are conditioned to be polite in order to survive in their households and recognizing the “expensiveness” of kindness (emotionally). Coming to the conclusion that kindness is not something that we owe to everyone, but it is in the little kindnesses of noticing and valorising our brethren that “shift[s] the emotional gravity of a life”. This metaphysical question addresses the cycle of performance where we rinse and repeat this ritualized "kindness" until it holds no more depth and meaning.

Article: Anti-intellectualism and the commodification of books

Author: Dylan Joseph

Media: So It Goes

In this social commentary, Joseph examines how our expectations of literature have evolved with the emergence of social media. He was prompted by the realization that “we have forgotten what it means to fall in love with literature.” He also elaborates on the origins of the term “anti-intellectualism” and its connotations when it comes to literature. My favorite analysis is on the trend of modern admiration for the quantity rather than the quality of books. For example, the growth of platforms like BookTok promoting repetitive tropes that hold no deeper meaning or symbolism from the authors, and literary classics being seen as boring or outdated to modern readers. Without using a condescending tone, Joseph expresses his frustration with the death of literary passion and reflects on the effects it is having in mainstream media. In the cycle of consumption, literary passion fades, ceding its place to recycled story trends that receive recycled critiques. He examines why that cycle is not yet broken - but rather reinforced - by our generation.

Article: 'He owed his life to those Chinese fishermen': Dongji Rescue and the true story of a forgotten act of WW2 heroism

Author: Emma Jones

Media: BBC News

One of my favorite aspects of media is that it teaches us about cultures and historical events that we wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. In this BBC article, Jones explores an 80-year-old tale worthy of an adventure novel: wherein British prisoners of the Battle of Hong Kong were rescued from their Japanese captors by Chinese fishermen. It is a lesser known moment of the Second World War that is interesting to learn about due to its link to our region. Should you be looking for a new story to entertain your friends, ‘The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru’ is a tragic but uplifting story. The article compares the real events with the infamous blockbuster film ‘Dongji Rescue' and whether its “lavish” production strays too far from the truth to be an accurate representation; and how that bodes for the historical legacy of this rescue.