TREATED LIKE ROYALTY — WHY I TRULY APPRECIATE UEA

Posted on February 12, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community, Student and tagged accommodation, campus, cost of education, higher education, monarchy, norwich, Queen, rent, rent prices, response article, royal illusion, study, teaching, tuition fees, UEA, university.

by James Anthony

In response to Lewis Martin’s article ‘Don’t Be Fooled by the Royal Illusion – The Failings of UEA.’

The Queen’s recent visit to the University of East Anglia was, in my opinion, rightly celebrated as a momentous occasion in the university’s history. I might not be hugely pro-monarchy, but I am definitely pro-UEA, and I could appreciate the enthusiasm and atmosphere on campus on the day of Her Majesty’s arrival. I followed the event closely on social media and thought it brought a sense of enjoyment and happiness to a cold January day, with large a crowd turning out to celebrate not only the Queen, but the university as an institution too, which was great to see. However, I found it interesting that not everyone saw it that way.Continue Reading

DEAR STUDENTS: IT’S OK TO BE RICH

Posted on April 21, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged access, Bullingdon Club, class, dear students, distribution of wealth, financial instability, financial stability, grant, international students, privilege, rent, rich, scholarship, society, student fees, student loans, students, study, tuition fees, university, wealth, work, working class.

by Candice Nembhard

As someone who prides themselves on coming from a Black, working class background, I can honestly say that my attitude towards wealth, especially inherited wealth is not as big a deal as many may think. I am fully aware that an institution such as university is a privilege, which in itself brings together people of different backgrounds and different experiences in their upbringing. That in part is what makes the experience of being a student all the more interesting — being invited into a world unbeknownst to you.

In that respect, university life is a microcosm of our society: people of differing economic status and political alliances co-existing (for the most part). As I said, my attitudes to wealth are largely unaffected, but I cannot deny that I have noticed that attitudes towards wealth from students who come from a ‘privileged’ background, often come with the feeling of shame.Continue Reading

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, Angela Carter, art, Arthur Krystal, books, China Miéville, commercial, Connie Willis, criticism, Docx, Don Winslow, fantasy, form, genre, Girl with all the gifts, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kurt Vonnegut, literary fiction, literature, Lord Dunsany, low brow, Melanie, Mervyn Peake, metaphor, mike carey, money, mr carey, myth, novel, Oliver Burkeman, pandora, politics, Pulp, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, reading, school, sci-fi, smart, study, Ted Chiang, Ursula LeGuin, writer, writing, zombie.

by Mike Carey

Continued from part one, published on The Norwich Radical two weeks ago.

I hate to rake up ancient history, but here’s another example from a little further back – dredged up because in this case it is a writer of literary novels (Edward Docx, in the Observer in 2010) who’s saying this, so the agenda is maybe a little more naked.

Even good genre… is by definition a constrained form of writing. There are conventions and these limit the material. That’s the way writing works and lots of people who don’t write novels don’t seem to get this: if you need a detective, if you need your hero to shoot the badass CIA chief, if you need faux-feminist shopping jokes, then great; but the correlative of these decisions is a curtailment in other areas. If you are following conventions, then a significant percentage of the thinking and imagining has been taken out of the exercise. Lots of decisions are already made.

Considering that Docx rails against “a fundamental dishonesty” in the way this subject is usually discussed, I’m going to pick my words with care.

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 1)

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, art, Arthur Krystal, books, commercial, criticism, fantasy, form, genre, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kidd and Castano, literary fiction, literature, low brow, Mark Liberman, mike carey, money, mr carey, novel, Oliver Burkeman, politics, Pulp, reading, sci-fi, smart, study, Terry Pratchett, writer, writing.

by Mike Carey

The argument about the relative merits of literary and genre fictions just keeps running and running. There’ll be periods of decorous silence, and then it will break out again, usually in the form of some egregious statement in a broadsheet or magazine, and it will be like it never left.

One thing you tend to notice after a while, though: it’s almost never writers of genre fiction who are picking the fight. To be fair, it’s often not “literary” writers either – it’s academics taking up the cudgels on their behalf; considerately telling us which stories are worth serious consideration and which aren’t. And I guess we appreciate the help, right? Because it’s a bewildering fictional landscape out there and an innocent young seeker after truth could easily go astray.Continue Reading

WHEN RESPECT GETS PREJUDICED

Posted on October 22, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged activism, app, control, Damon Young, drop out, feminism, Greg Savage, job, lateness, mental health, neo-liberalism, self care, study, studying, time, timing, university, women, women writing, work.

by Robyn Banks

Last year, I dropped out of uni. My life was falling apart around me, I’d run out of new excuses for extension requests on my assignments, I was failing to meet any of my responsibilities. My finances were in chaos, I wasn’t eating and I was totally failing to prioritise by continually allowing my grades and self care to slip in order to meet my obligations to other people, which I was barely doing anyway. I was always late, I couldn’t sleep, I managed to check my emails about once a month and consequently fell further and further out of the loop. I pushed my friends away, clawed them back, worried they all hated me and yapped on and on about just how irrevocably miserable I was. I was afraid of my lecturers, assuming they all had some kind of report card about me in their heads in which they totted up all of the missed classes, late assignments, and failings on my part and were sure to judge me for it. I became so depressed I couldn’t get out of bed, so I asked if I could drop out and try the year again in September.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS: ARE WE BETTER OFF WITHOUT THEM?

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged education, elite, opinion, politics, private, private schools, student, study, system.

by David Grounds

After Alan Bennett gave his sermon entitled ‘Fair Play’ at King’s College Cambridge, some of the conversations in my school have turned to the issue of private schools, and why we are attending one. The phrase that I have heard more than once, is a line from Tom Lehrer’s song, ‘Selling Out’:

I’ve always found ideals,
Don’t take the place of meals.

Or, put simply, there’s no point in abolishing private schools if it isn’t going to help on anything other than an ideological level. My objection is simple: it would help. Continue Reading

study

TREATED LIKE ROYALTY — WHY I TRULY APPRECIATE UEA

DEAR STUDENTS: IT’S OK TO BE RICH

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 1)

WHEN RESPECT GETS PREJUDICED

PRIVATE SCHOOLS: ARE WE BETTER OFF WITHOUT THEM?

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