An Evolving Aesthetic of Research

And the award for most grandiose notion of self-worth goes to…

I have had a lot on my mind lately. As we all have, of course. Our modern time is one rife with a shortage of neither uncertainty nor information. It is a time that is loud, in more than one sense of the word, as we realize moreso every day how important our relationship to Data will be moving forward. Not only our relationship with Data, but I believe even our relationship with the Tangible (as so far that Data can be considered Tangible here). Our relationship to the Past, warts and all, will dictate our relationship to the Future, both our fears and dreams.

Of course we all ponder these great things about how to learn or help or grow. We consider all ourselves to be well-read, open-minded, and socially aware. And we probably all are, more or less, big picture. But how could we do this better? How can we shake up our current discourse with our peers, or our discourse with ourselves, even? I am increasingly becoming a supporter for the Decentralization of Education, and I am not even 100% certain what that entails. I certainly believe that there is ‘something’ to this notion of Decentralized Education – a type of research methodology or aesthetic that allows for both questions and answers, rather than focusing on one or the other. A type of academic discourse or engagement that need not specialize or prioritize one “-ology” over the other. Data is everywhere, history is literally breathing down our neck, and the “answers to the universe” are in the air we breath in ourselves.

As a firm believer that a Story can be directly converted to Data, largely inspired by my Archaeological study background, I find it difficult to imagine that learning, or simply the processing of certain Data, continues to be considered something that only certain people can do. I am a big fan of what the Academy stands for, and wake up disappointed every day by where the Academy is going. We need not complain about the same things here: the staggering prices, often mediocre administrative systems, impacted student matriculation count and a bizarrely Byzantine hiring protocol (don’t need to even mention the word ‘tenure’). I even wonder if I would be able to sincerely recommend going to university to an 18 year old right now given how many of the universities are responding to the current global crisis. I understand the social need to get a College Degree, and understand how many will feel, rightfully so, in a weaker position without one. But putting the social/career pressures aside, how much will one gain from a University that they need to pay a premium fee for? With major Universities being forced to resort to brief Zoom calls on a weekly basis, a closure of physical facilities, and consequential difficulties to continue to properly ‘network’, I am sometimes even wondering what the University of Leiden logo will truly mean on any degree post 2020.

Queue my recent recommitment to the idea of a blog, or some sort of online presence in this line of thinking. I know, I know, the last thing we need these days is more noise distracting from the signal. But I am too simple-minded to see a better course of action at this point, and I feel the need to try to express myself in some capacity. If I can figure out some way to work towards something that helps someone, regardless of the scale, I think I can sleep soundly. Now I just need to figure out what that what might be. And of the few skills I have to my name, research is one near and dear to my heart. And not just ‘scientific research’. A more of a “gonzo research” if you will. A research that keeps you up until 2am with curiosity and the upteenth pot of tea next to you. A research that envelopes itself into a worldview or theory without slipping too into any of the flashy Grandstanding. A research that flourishes from community, not just research presented to a community. If we distill the corporate concept behind the product of an “Education”, we can hope that customers leave with at least the ability to “Understand”. One need not be an expert before their thoughts are valid, simply the ability to just look at the information at hand is more than enough to spark true learning. We know we can do this, we witness the might of such a decentralized utilization of the Internet nearly every day. We just perhaps need a little more work on finding the frameworks, protocols, and vocabularies for how we can apply such methodologies and ideas to our daily lives.

I am new to such a grassroots “publication” of content. I have some ridiculous ideas: audio interviews with fellow early career researchers in and out of the Academy about how they learn, book and article reviews on a blog or newsletter sort of platform, a Theory Watch to give overviews of fundamental theories from the mainstream (post-processual archaeology, anarcho-primitivism, Science of Philosophy, etc.) to the fringes (Flat Earth conspiracies, Stoned Ape theory and other fringe-anthropological ideas), and no doubt other ideas (the Gamification of the logistics I find extraordinarily fun, as well as how Machine Learning concepts are changing our ideas for Education). Of course, a collection of any and all resources and cases of decentralized, ‘gonzo’ (or however you would like to call it) education that result from my countless hours spent chasing this, and related, rabbit hole both on and offline.

Perhaps you have some ideas you would like to add. This is a rather vague and general (read: almost useless) idea that is still very early in development. I see something there, for what that may be worth, I am just still not quite certain what it is. I suppose that is a great divider of humanity: those who are certain they can only think, and those who only think they are certain. Nonetheless, I think there is space for both camps to coexist healthily, but that is just me.

Tullepetaon is niet Roosendaal

In 1885, Emile Zola published Germinal – the seventh title in his magnus opus: the Les Rougon-Macquart series. With his unique voice and cultural sensitivity, Zola paints nothing short of a masterpiece depicting the merit of escapism in working-class French villages. In 2020, I went to Roosendaal, Netherlands to experience the height of the Carnaval celebration and what I found was an ode to escapism, the drudgery of everyday life, and above all, to community. I also drank a fair amount of beer that I somehow still have not paid for.

Disclosure: as far as Carnaval in the Netherlands (and beyond, to an extent) goes, there exists two schools of tradition: Rhenish Carnaval and Burgundian Carnaval. In Roosendaal (and Noord-Brabant as a whole) it is the Burgundian traditions that are followed. Though the Wikipedia article is as a good a place as any to start learning about these niche differences, simply remember these two things:

• Rhenish Carnaval derives from the Germanic traditions and Burgundian derives from the French traditions, more or less;
• Such differences are only measurable pre- and post-Carnaval, during the Carnaval celebrations there exists only one true division: those who have gotten a beer, and those who are going to get a beer.

For context: Roosendaal is a Dutch city situated in the region of Noord-Brabant (North Brabant). I will save an entire history lesson here focusing around the Dutch concept of ver­zui­ling (pillarisation), but the main takeaway is that the regions of Noord-Brabant and Limburg still harbour the cultural norms and practices of their “separate but equal” Catholic administration. For this main reason, there is one thing that is taken more seriously than any other day of the calendar year in the South: Carnaval. The festival of “sin-before-fasting” is a cultural anchor point whose presence applies a constant pressure on the culture of the region. The notion of a Feast of Feasts before the 40 day fasting leading up to Easter is nestled right in the middle of Religious Piety and Community Building at the local level. It is at this time that the mayor is allowed a weekend off – entrusting the literal keys to the city to the “Prince of Carnaval” (a title not awarded lightly, in fact, in some regions this is a job entrusted to a Council of 11 to vote upon the various members needed). It is a time where throwing garbage on the ground is not only tolerated, not only is it accepted, it is taken as a rule for those who wish to follow the first rule of the Netherlands: “Doe normaal (dan ben je al gek genoeg)” (literally: do normal, you are already crazy enough as is). It is easier, perhaps, to imagine all the different cities becoming a single Student Association – with all the petty politics, unnecessary bureaucracy, and ridiculous budgeting for beer included – and Carnaval being just their very best Zamibo (short version of zaterdagmiddagborrel or literally “Saturday Afternoon Casual Drinks”) of the year.

We keep all this in mind as we exit the train in Tullepetaon (as is tradition, all Carnaval-celebrating cities change their names for the Carnaval celebration. Train stations have temporary signs, songs tell the semi-mythical histories of these towns, even the locals self-identity no longer as their former city moniker. In a similar fashion to the gastronomical rituals surrounding the French consumption of Ortolan, the change of the city name is perhaps a way to “hide” the shame of the purge.) Despite a literal near-warning from the train conductor before even alighting, the station around noon was tame enough. Sure there were orange flags and banners everywhere, but that just seemed like par for the course in the South. We realize a small crowd amassing, however, and as we meet Joost (one of those brave enough to be willing to show us around) we inquire as to why.

“Easy. They are awaiting the Prince (of Carnaval, to my knowledge Prince Constantijn was nowhere near Roosendaal this past weekend).”
“How long until he arrives?”
“Still another forty minutes or so.”

Knowing it is a pretty important tradition, and Joost seems excited to see it, we reserve ourselves to waiting in the Carnaval-themed train station until Joost himself interrupts:

“Ok, I’m bored, let’s go.”

And with this flippant comment about the celebration ahead of us, our day (and night) was underway.

Arriving at the house of our hosts, we are quickly teleported to a bonafide Jan Steen Huis (a house with all the cacophony and life of a 17th-Century, working-class, Catholic family a la one famous painting by Jan Steen entitled Soo voer gesongen, soo na gepepen (translated loosely as: As the elderly sing, so smoke the young). Though it is widely accepted that the “truest” rendition of this painting is housed at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, I can now confirm a couple thousand just as true iterations of this painting exist just north of the Roosendaal city centre. Before I am able to recall the title of this painting and make the joke though, we are ushered up to the attic, the makeshift “costume room” to be placed into any combination of costume parts out on the bed.

After about 45 minutes of deliberation, out emerges a beer maiden (biermeisje), a police officer with a fur poncho, and a far-too-skinny attempt at Obelisk (this was me). Before too many jokes, or photos, can be made of our entourage, we are introduced to our next guide for the night: schrobbelaer. Schrobbelaer here becomes more than just a sum of its parts: a simple sweet liqueur of relatively low alcohol content (keyword being relative). Schrobbelaer here becomes the treat, the “Happy Pill” of Carnaval. Beer is constant, you will always be giving or receiving beers (Marcel Mauss would greatly appreciate this celebration), but Schrobbelaer, in either its individual stone jars (the reason for that is a story for another day) or in a communal jar to be poured into a shot glass that everyone seems to be wearing around their neck, harbours an importance. The drinking of Schrobbelaer is still always quite free in essence, but it is used as social punctuation.

I realize this bit as, in barely intelligible Dutch I attempt to explain to a middle-aged couple why I, as someone who is clearly not Dutch, am spending my Saturday in such a zany celebration. In my head, the conversation went something like this:

“I am from California, but I study in Leiden”
“Ah I see, but why are you here in Roosendaal”
“No I am not from Roosendaal, I am from California”
“Right, but why are you in Roosendaal today?”
“Oh, my friend is here (meant to say from here). Sorry my Dutch is really bad, I understand I don’t really belong here (I also know that this is not how smoothly it came out in Dutch)”
“Nonsense, are we speaking Dutch right now? Exactly, you are Dutch, let’s have some Schrobbelaer”

After which my shot glass is once again full for a solid three seconds and two strangers I will never see again gave me the real feeling Carnaval is meant to portray: a feeling of belonging.

The Dutch, as mentioned before, have a saying “Doe normaal” meaning “do normal”. This is an acutely Dutch phrase, filled to the brim with Calvinist moderation and reverence for the status quo. It is a very Dutch phrase, at least to me, because “normal” requires much more of a definition in a lot of other places in the world. The Dutch know people are unique, they even know they are strange as a culture compared to those around them. It is within this place that they know you can be an individual but not being too much of an individual. Even the “normal” is malleable in this case. No, I am not Dutch by definition. I have no familial ties to the region and I clearly do not look the same. But, even with the Carnaval version of normaal, I was doing as such. I was speaking Dutch, I was drinking every shot of Schrobbelaer I was given (and ones I was giving in return) and I even threw a piece of trash on the floor (oh lord, did I feel bad doing that. The only comfort available was the general acceptance of respect for the street sweepers. They do have everything cleaned up by the next day, and that is understood to be no easy feat. In fact, the waste management staff even had one of their trucks near the very front of the parade. Again, they were respected).

And that really was the highlight, and lesson, of Carnaval. Yes, it is a reverence of decadence. Yes, it is rather deprived in its own way; it is a festival of sin. And that is the point. It is, by design, a party thrown by the locals for the locals. Though it is hard to think just how much capital is tossed around for beer and other Carnaval-related purchases over the course of the celebration (if anyone is able to find better measurements, please let me know), with locals even saving up year-round for their “Carnaval budget”, it is all spent with the understanding that you will get back twice as many beers you put in. Our hosts even had a Felix the Cat-like bag of cheeses, bacon-wrapped sausages, and mustards. A drinking-Dutchman’s dream come true, that was shared with gusto. It is this communal understanding of reciprocity that it becomes worth it to invest into, even if out of fear of seeming too stingy.

Leaving Carnaval, even sitting here at my desk today in dreary Rotterdam, I still have flashes of elation. The type of feeling that one could hold on to and extract enough happiness to get them through 362 more days of the mundane and drudgery – until the titillating sound of Carnaval horns, the stench of two-day-old beer, and the traffic starts building up again next Carnaval. Hell, you might even find me there. After all, I am, at least, Dutch whenever I am in Tullepetaon – and you can be, too.

Thoughts on Dragonball Z: Kakarot

Escapism comes in many forms, and as humans, we all crave it. Both anime and video games have scientifically measured and capitalised heavily off of this quirk of human existence. Keeping that in mind, when it comes to escapism, at least for adolescent males, one cannot help but think of Dragonball Z. The unique blend of subtle sci-fi and martial arts worldbuilding elements. The rush of flying through Akira Toriyama’s beautiful crafted art landscapes. The primal yelling and shooting energy beams from your hands. Dragonball Z delivered some of the first flights of fantasy for many young boys in the West and many more outside of it who grew up in the 1990s and early noughts. The show that taught us the vitality of hard work, the strength that is evident in relying upon friends, and helped take the fear out of death itself is the show that impacted us in one form or another, even if we had to sit through the filler episodes, and believe me, there were filer episodes.

Dragonball Z: Kakarot, is one of those filler games in quintessential Dragonball Z fashion. This is not to diminish the merits of the game, and I do not wish to even claim that the game is necessarily bad. We already knew this game would be a filler game back at E3 when Tim Rogers predicted it (and even smugly reminded us of his foresight seven months later at the game’s release). In fact, I think the filler nature of this game is highlight of the game. Allow me to explain.

Dragonball Z is heavy on story, that is a large part of its popularity. The cinematic climaxes of the various “sagas” are memorable, breath-taking in scope, and destructive in their impact. These are the highlights that stick with the casual tourist to the world of Dragonball, and a cornerstone for its residents. However, the filler episodes focused upon a C side story or even a single emotion (queue memories of a defeated Trunks screaming in dismay and regret for a solid three minutes) are what made this world a place we wanted to visit. The travel guides for Dragonball’s Earth, if you will, highlighting the food, the scenery, the culture. Hell I can still smell Chi-Chi’s cooking while listening to the breeze pass through the palm trees around me (an experience also repeatable in Kakarot ).

What I mean to say here is, like the tired cliche says, “the downs help us appreciate the ups” and this game isn’t even really a “down”. Sure some of the RPG elements are shoehorned in (I am still confused as to how the Community Board system really works) and some of the fetch-and-kill quests get repetitive. I understand how it could seem that CyberConnect2 were not certain what exactly there was to do in the Dragonball Universe between the large fights.

But that is the whole point. Goku’s committed lifestyle to fighting comes at the high cost of his training. Training here is not confined to nine days in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, either. There is a lot of walking around with your son, fishing when the sun is just right, practice fighting against creatures and lesser-characters, and most of all, continuing to live in the world he is committed to defend. Perhaps even in our world also, it is the mundane that makes the sublime just that: sublime.

If you are looking for a brilliant Dragonball Z fighting experience, Kakarot may not be for you. Xenoverse 2 and Budokai 3 exist and will still be a fan favourite for the “what if”ism of the spectacle of a Dragonball Z fight. Where Kakaort piecemeal out the fighting experience (and the grand fighting sequences are grand) where the game really shines is in the visiting of this unique version of Earth. The visuals, though not otherworldly like other current games, are an utter joy to behold. The controls are a bit overwhelming, but you will soon find your rhythm and pace within them. And the telling of the stories is done with painstakingly good care, highlighting lowlights from the lore with grace and finesse. It is this “freer” experience, this RPG-heavy trip to Dragonball’s Earth that still puts a smile on my face after a long day at work. Plus, I get to utterly smash up some foes, which is an experience in itself, regardless of which Dragonball title it is exactly.

PRESENTATION – 85: yes, the graphics are a joy but nothing spectacular, and although the gathering of items is strange (literally jump into a tree to collect an apple) and the world could be a bit more populated, the colours, shapes, and vibrancy provides a solid statement that “You are in the world of Dragonball” and I appreciate that
GAMEPLAY – 70: the fighting is a bit overwhelming, as all fighting games can be, but it feels great to use the special abilities after a few fetch quests have gone by. The RPG elements are deeper than they appear on the surface, and though I am still mastering them, I am deeply enjoying what CyberConnect was trying to do.
SINGLE PLAYER – 75: Dragonball Z was a long-running anime, and cramming all that content into one video game would have been difficult regardless of who took on the task. The single player experience may leave one wanting for more, but not because of the lack of quality content, rather because of the strength of the IP.
MULTIPLAYER – N/A as of this time
PERFORMANCE – 65: The game loads wonderfully in times of fast-paced action. However, the semi-clunky nature of the RPG mechanics slows down the game during cutscenes and menu-scrolling which seemed out of place on the PS4.
OVERALL – 77/100 – The game will not be the greatest of all time, but it will, deservedly, be the current flagship Dragonball Z experience, and one that will be expanded in the future via an already released expansion pass. Hopefully this world will continue to evolve along the lines it already has. Plus it has fishing, that is always a plus from me.

Thoughts on Pokemon Shield

Looking back on how many of us have played Pokemon in the past decade and a half or so is a lot like rinsing a shampoo bottle in the shower before using it: we do it, but we aren’t entirely sure why.

Of course, we “know” why we do it, we all enjoy or enjoyed Pokemon at some point in our life. The legendary jRPG with training wheels is so prolific in our cultural psyche that even people who haven’t played video games will readily admit they at least played Pokemon. A lot of people grew up with Pokemon, witnessing its evolutions and earned their badges alongside anime, film, and video games. The ability to research, catch, and battle the “mysterious” (seriously, after what, nine full-time professors committing their lives to studying these creatures we still are told they are mysterious?) creatures known as Pokemon is something we have always thought has changed in a multitude of ways, and only die-hard fans are able to keep up. Pokemon Sword and Shield gently yet firmly remind us this is not the case. We can still do so with simply a new paint job.

The new Pokemon adventures hardly tough the sacred formula that hooked a generation’s attention way back in 1997, they have simply added more and more shiny accessories. If anything, as a casual gamer, it is remarkable to see what Pokemon doesn’t change rather than what it does. Hell, even while set in its pseudo-Great Britain setting, it opts out of any reference to Brexit or other contemporary British developments. This maintains the “purity” of Pokemon’s escapism, a genre that is being left behind as immature and advancing towards an era of social commentary being folded within our Build Worlds.

Now a quick caveat here regarding the latest Pokemon experience. A lot of hype was built upon the fact that Sword and Shield provided the first opportunity to enjoy a flagship Pokemon title as a console experience versus a handheld one as all previous titles have been in the past. I, personally, have a Switch Lite, making all my Switch experiences portable ones. Therefore, my Pokemon experience remains where I always hope for it to be: portable and handheld. I still cherish the moments on my morning commute, the down time on the train, or even running over to a friend’s house to catch some Pokemon and explore the ideological utopia that is the Galar Region. It is under this caveat that I will provide my go-to TL;DR for the new Pokemon titles: the best handheld Pokemon game on the market at a console game price.

To comment on heavy gameplay aspects is akin to talking about Gravity’s Rainbow by discussing bookbinding practices for novels over 500 pages; it is missing the point entirely. Pokemon is a brand in the truest sense of the word. Even the worldbuidling is focused upon marketability and branding. To play Pokemon is to put faith in both nostalgia and community to carry along our daily grind via ritual and familiarity. The new exterior simply allows for a refresh of the expected, like brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand, or taking a different route to work; a slightly new means to the same end.

The story is as light, wholesome, and simple as any Pokemon game should be. The dialogue is not much to write home about, though it does have its moments. The incorporation of Pokemon “hooligans” is fitting for the semi-British thumbing of the game, and though the Wild Area may be underwhelming for some, imagine the game without it; it is simply a fun new toy in a childhood playground. The notion of DLC does not worry me in this regard, it isn’t like many people were planning on not spending more money on Pokemon in the future, and with a DLC pass we will get the opportunity to do so far quicker than waiting for the typical “third release” in the Pokemon fashion.

I will admit, I have not “completed” a Pokedex since Pokemon Silver. Every iteration since required too much trading and grinding to complete the ever growing poked, and I was happy enough to be completing my experience with 97% of the Pokedex and my countless hours in the various Pokemon regions. With the current number of Pokemon up to 895, if I am to be missing out on 3% of the Pokemon available, I will have to give up about 26 Pokemon of my experience as is. Now, 895 is a very different number than the 400 or so Pokemon currently offered in the game. Keeping in mind, however, that the DLC has already announced new Pokemon to be included, and I do believe that Game Freak will be listening to the fans, even if at a slower rate than the Twittersphere is used to. I will still gladly begin grinding away the Pokemon they have available currently whilst enjoying the latest foray into the relaxing world of Pokemon.

PRESENTATION – 90: come on, it is Pokemon. Their design is beautiful, their artwork is world-class. You can practically taste the curries you cook at your campsite.
GAMEPLAY – 95: it is difficult to critique tradition. Yes it is a simplified version of a jRPG turn-based combat system, and it is simply what works. The camera gets a little strange at some parts, where the camera is trying too hard to provide a more interactive experience (i.e. looking around corners for a hidden item) but it is still a perfectly well-done game.
SINGLE PLAYER – 85: this is where the game will operate most of the time and the reason most will probably buy it. It is solid, no more or less solid than previous generations, though the story is not the strongest (X & Y is a hard one to beat)
MULTIPLAYER – 80* : I will admit, I have not done too much multiplayer here. I have enjoyed trading with some friends (really happy with my Sirfetch’d) and I think the “Raid lite” ideas with three other trainers is clever but requires development. Overall, it is nice to see Pokemon always pushing for collaborative approaches to the world, but I do not think they have fully cracked the code for the new generation of multiplayer
PERFORMANCE – 85: my Switch Lite handles everything with ease, though occasionally the loading times into or out of the Wild Zone seem longer, I am probably just nitpicking at this point.
OVERALL – 85: come on, it is Pokemon, don’t think too much about it, like it or leave it, and there is a lot to like.

Green Paper Idea

I know I have a laughably microscopic following here. But I have been working on this “Green Paper” for the past few days and I felt the desire to dump it at least somewhere online to hear some feedback on it. I think it can be an interesting idea, and would love to just hear the ideas about it.

The name LEAF stands for Literature Economics Anthropology & Futures, as I first read about from this tweet here. With that title encompassing a large amount of the human existence, but at the same time having a fairly understood epistemological approach to that human existence, I am hoping to help create, or at least find if there exists, a community to share information, ideas, or memes in this vein. Relaxed but informed, it will hopefully be a community driven by curiosity and a light-hearted sense of humor. Though I state it in the piece itself, this has just been typed up during my commute recently so it is nothing special to look at, it is just the idea that matters here:

Green Paper - LEAF News
Literature
Economics
Anthropology
Futures or Futurology

In recent years I have had a bit of a struggle to identify online communities that share some tenants of my academic-leaning worldview. Far from the elitist Ivory Tower opinions coming from places like Quora or, god forbid, Facebook, I have often hoped to find a community where memes about Hegal, a podcast about the anthropological importance of 90 Day Fiance, and “BreadTube” style videos would all be shared to equal enjoyment. Furthermore, I have often wished to see the highlighting of the Personal Academic genre of writing: a personal meta analysis of a few studies someone has read, a reflection of Greek Philosophical notions present in Frozen II, a book review of a recently released textbook. Many individual scholars can have great and exciting ideas about such things, but due to the slow-moving and intimidating process of academic publishing, they are stuck in the blogosphere or, worse, the author’s personal notebooks. Looking at communities online such as MetaFilter, Lobste.rs or Hacker News, I was rather envious that the Social Sciences and Humanities lacked such an active and interesting community. And, thus, an idea to create one was born.

Leaf News – tentative name – modestly wishes to become a central forum or launch page for those of semi-academic inclination. Leaf News does not wish to be heavily academic, as it wishes to maintain as much of a neutrality as possible (though it is never possible to be truly neutral). Utilising simple influences from pages such as Hacker News from Y Combinator or StackExchange styles of news and community.

Being built upon phpbb and hosted on very affordable cloud server hosting, the aims of the group are modest in scope. Simple bulletin board styles, like that of the Golden Years of Web 1.0, will provide the foundations of the community with a taxonomy of sections that is open to discussion. Some ideas for sections and subsections include:

Leafsheets – a section that will provide community edited and contributed “one pagers” in a certain field, specialisation, or topic. Part summary, part meta-analysis and bibliography for further reading, these LeafSheets will be able to be shared easily outside of the network, and due to their collaborative character, will be updated as consistently as the community dictates. These sheets can focus upon a broader specialisation, for example Space Archaeology, or can be geared towards specific theories or findings in a reactionary fashion, that is, as a response to a media highlight of an idea (Younger Dryas or Coronavirus, for instance).

Discussion of news and current events are encouraged on almost all social media. Leaf News will not be different here, allowing for the sharing of links and developments pertaining to a wide variety of news – though if the target demographic is reached these stories will remain political or academic in character. What Leaf News can offer in this area is perhaps views on Industry-level news or perhaps even OSINT for discussion of breaking news. The focus of news would come from those who know what the breaking news within a field is, and to share those larger to those willing to understand them, but who would otherwise probably not hear of them until they have matriculated through the deep Journalism of the Academy loophole.

For more personal discussions, there will remain dedicated community areas for discussions of cinema, book reviews, video game theory (#archaeogaming), and, of course, the fabled off-topic section of the boards.

More uniquely, Leaf News will hope to one day promote file sharing for those lacking institutional access to academic journals or paywalled journalism. Though we do not wish to become a piracy website (there are plenty others anyway) the pillars of Freedom of Information and Privacy, much like those of the International Pirate Party, will be lauded by Leaf News.

I am open to any and all criticism, feedback, ideas, collaboration, or even just some websites that are already doing this better than I am envisioning. If this ever takes off, there could exist ideas to build it out more (with help from proper web developers) and added features. I do wish to keep this network as open-source as possible, not wishing to monetise it in any way shape or form (if it gets large enough, I might personally ask for a few dollars once in a while, but that is a large if) and I have no interest in Paid Accounts or similar ideas.

This was hastily written on a few train rides between work, but I would love to hear any ideas from the community, I have a hard time imagining I am the only one who wishes to see something like this.

Thoughts on Edward Snowden’s Permanent Record

The name is one few would fail to recognize. Edward Snowden has, for better or for worse, become virtually synonymous with the term whistleblower after his 2013 revelations that shed a bright light upon the reality of a post-surveillance America (and post-surveillance World). The book released amongst rumblings of lawsuits from various US government bodies before it went to press, but sure enough, Freedom of the Press stood firm (at least in the English edition of the book – the Chinese translation already has violated publishing agreements by censorship as pointed out by Snowden himself) and the book’s contents remained untouched.

After receiving the book as an early Christmas gift, I have finally completed the 339 page memoir and I thought it was a remarkable piece of published literature; Snowden can write much more than scripts to make a desk job easier. Even though a majority of the book is focused upon the story of what led Snowden to leak the classified information to the public (roughly fifty pages cover any details of post-leak Snowden) this is done with such composure and self-reflection as to feel more as a whistleblower manifesto (similar to the Hacker’s Manifesto mentioned early on in the story of many technophiles, Snowden included) for future generations than a narcissistic boast of the work he has done.

Full disclosure: I harboured a tremendous amount of respect for Edward Snowden, a fact only made stronger upon viewing Laura Poitras’ masterpiece Citizenfour upon its release. The making of the documentary is briefly mentioned, more as technical reality simply of the presence of Poitras’ film cameras present in the Hong Kong hotel, as well as Snowden’s commendation of Poitras’ foresight to film as much as she could. While I cannot recommend the film enough, I believe the book to be complimentary to the documentary in a number of ways.

For starters, the book perfectly answers the first question directly following the massive leak of 2013: Who is Edward Snowden? Additionally, why did he decide to take such impactful action? These two questions are the pillars of the thesis of this book and, holistically, Snowden knows that he is more than just his decision to leak information to the public, which he artfully is able to express. A journey into the mindset that went behind the decisions that led to 2013 is a glimpse into the mind of an “ordinary revolutionary”. Snowden is gifted, clever, and has a tremendous ability to learn, but he is nothing terribly superhuman. His “powers” of computing and synthesizing technological progress in his mind stem not from divine intervention, but merely exposure and dedication to understanding a system set that intrigued him since childhood: computers.

His witnessing of the erosion of the Internet that raised Generation X and half of the Millennials happened more outside of his work as a public servant or government contractor, it came from consistent utilisation and reverence for the notion of a connected world, a feeling that I doubt is terribly alien to anyone reading this post around the world. The good news here, is thanks to the efforts from Snowden, amongst many others, there is increasingly more to be done to combat and resist such bastardisation of the Global Network.

I will only keep these mentions of tools brief, as there exist plenty of experts far more versed than I am, and although it is nice to know these tools exist, for the average user they are still just beyond reach of regular utilisation. To begin, the work of the Freedom of the Press Foundation must not be understated, and the connection to the book is rather direct with Snowden being elected President of the board in 2016. Additionally, Snowden has publicly lauded the efforts made by Open Whisper Systems, creators of Signal Messenger: the messenger service maintaining industry-standard encryption practices (even Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, has converted to the service after Facebook changed his vision for WhatsApp as an encrypted messaging service, going so far as to donate $50 million to help start the Signal Foundation), as well as Quebes OS, an operating system that Snowden implies was utilised during the writing of his book. Other tools worth mentioning are TOR Project (and a related full operating system Tails), Fastmail or ProtonMail for secure email, HTTPS Everywhere, or really any of the work done by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, such as Privacy Badger.

The list could go on and on, but that deviates from the impact of the book. The foundations above provide a more than adequate starting point to the problems and solutions currently facing Internet freedom and its related issues. For those of a more political minded bend, there is of course, always the opportunity to join up with your local Pirate Party and see what can be done from there.

In closing comments regarding Snowden’s book itself, it was, in my opinion, not even Snowden himself that provided the most impactful glimpse into this story, but a wonderfully honest and open look at the diary of his better half, Lindsey Mills, that were written during the days Snowden was making his escape, leaks, and public headlines. The impact from this final chapter provided almost an even better answer to the question that Snowden addresses directly in Chapter 17: What does it matter if our Internet activity is collected en masse by a government? Though Snowden’s analogy of such disregard for the consequences is akin to one believing “I don’t believe in Freedom of Speech because I have nothing to say” the logical fallacy of that being almost painfully evident, it is in Chapter 28: “From the Diaries of Lindsay Mills” that the personal impact of the weight behind the surveillance machine of the US government are illustrated. And I will not say more than that for fear of spoiling the impact of the end of the book.

In conclusion, the book was a joy to read, an inspiration for my own career path, and an educational glimpse into the mechanics of government-corporate relations in the 21st Century. What is amazing to me is that all this is accomplished by Snowden not saying much that we don’t already know: thanks to Snowden himself, we all know about metadata being collected, about NSA and other agency spying programmes, and a lot of us even cover our webcams on our laptops. All Snowden really states in this book is what we already know, contextualized in the world we live in. The impact is almost intrinsic, coming from “right in front of your nose” style revelations during the reading of the book. The fact that Snowden is a gifted writer is just the cherry on the top.

Thoughts on Graham Hancock and the SAA – Part II

Though my thesis has kept me from maintaining any schedule of writing (or anything else for that matter) this post in particular was pushed back in order to review some of the responses to the Society for American Archaeology’s thematic issue covering Pseudoarchaeology and specifically looking at Graham Hancock’s recent book America Before. Going through a number of the Twitter threads, YouTube videos/streams, as well as blog and Reddit posts discussing the SAA’s Record has certainly taken some time, and I have probably only gone through 20% tops of the responses. That said, I will continue my brief overviews of the individual articles in the Record and then link to some videos and posts that have been shared in the (roughly) two months that have passed. Without further ado:

The next article in the Record is by Jason Colavito, an independent historical researcher over at his blog jasoncolavito.com/blog (this is the link provided by the Record, but it does not seem to be up at the time of this writing). His article focuses upon the “Whitewashing [of] American Prehistory” found within Hancock’s latest work. The focus is upon the Mound Builder research during the early days of the USA’s existence and, though parts of the article diverge from Hancock and focus upon Wills DeHaas, Thomas Jefferson, and even the Theosophical Society, albeit briefly, there is one interesting meta-connection Hancock himself here.

Within the first two paragraphs of the response, Colavito references two pieces of literature both penned by himself (a frequent note of criticism from those more sympathetic to Hancock’s side of the argument). Though his book The Mound Builder Myth: Fake History and America’s Hunt for a “Lost White Race” is still unpublished as of now, the other article, itself a review of the Hancock work in question, was written in 2019 by Colavito for Skeptic magazine (volume 24 number 2, table of contents here). Skeptic magazine is the product of the publishing branch of the Skeptics Society. Amongst his many hats at the Society, a gentleman by the name of Michael Shermer happens to also be the current Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, and it is via Shermer that the small yet interesting connection to Hancock arises. As referred to in the previous blog post, both Shermer and Hancock (as well as Randall Carlson, the “Renegade Scholar”) had it out for each other on the Joe Rogan Experience #961, streamed back in May of 2017. Though the episode does not always revolve around the Hancock vs Academy rivalry (a “beef better than MMA” according to the top comment of the podcast), it does show some of Hancock’s frustrations with misrepresentation of his material specifically from other writers for Skeptic.

Though the Colavito article brings up a few ideas showcasing some intrinsic disagreements between the Academy and Hancock’s worldview, I will save that for later in this post, or perhaps the follow up post.

Moving on, we see the return of John W. Hoopes from University of Kansas – who also wrote the introduction of the Record. Hoopes focuses upon “The Mysterious Origins of Fringe” and, in my opinion, almost immediately hits upon the fundamental difference professional and pseudo-archaeology: the notion of “speculative metaphysics”. Though his article does veer off into a list of examples of Victorian-era researchers and theories that are largely ignored today for a variety of reasons, I believe that Hoopes, perhaps unintentionally even, provides a bit of a bridge between the two camps. According to Hoopes, Hancock deeply laments the inability of so-called Orthodox Archaeology to “synthesize metaphysics and science”. It is through this lens that the reason pseudoarchaeology and “mainstream” archaeology are seemingly intrinsically incompatible, mainly their definitions and weight put behind terms such as “empirical evidence”.

I will discuss this more at length down the line, but Hancock comes at the synthesis and interpretations of any data (archaeological or otherwise) that deals with the Human Story from a fairly “psychedelic” point of view. The unknown unknowns of human consciousness (itself an utterly fascinating field of study) play just as important role in the archaeological record as pottery found at Göbekli Tepe. Hoopes, on the other hand, as well as the voices behind the Record seem to be far more comfortable keeping a “reality-first” view of science. And understandably so. This is not to speculate at all upon the relationship any archaeologist has with psychedelics and what can be learned from their utilisation, but few scientists are ready to fully question the validity or superiority of our “baseline, problem-solving” state of consciousness, a fact that Hancock himself has questioned.

This thought transitions us to the final direct response to Hancock’s book in the Record, “America Before as a Paranormal Charter” by Jeb Card from Miami University (an author of Spooky Archaeology). Card observes the tendency of what he calls alternative archaeology to confabulate material evidence with myth-cycles as a way to interpret data from the past in a vastly different way. He raises a very interesting point in the following sentence: “For a book focusing on archaeology of the Americas, America Before spends a lot of time on Dynastic Egyptian texts and the Book of the Dead” (emphasis as is). Card continues to provide a number of examples of Victorian-era theories being hinged upon “comparative mythology treated as quasi-historical record” which is a fascinating list itself to continue research in this area.

Card’s conclusion is one more upon the media analysis lens, deeming Hancock “the rock star of alternative archaeology”. And although he fundamentally disagrees with him, Card does admit that Hancock has become a rather popular figure in the realm of alternative or sacred knowledge due to his engagement with podcasts such as Joe Rogan’s. This is further discussed in a stream directly responding to this same issue of Record by a channel called UnchartedX. I am rather new to UnchartedX’s channel, but I have seen a few streams and interviews with him and he seems to be an extraordinarily passionate student of history and, I believe, even personal acquaintances with Hancock himself. You can find his website (with links to his twitter, etc) here. To close his article, Card offers, in my opinion, an unforgiving assessment of Hancock’s persona as a researcher, explicitly deeming him “not a failed version of an archaeologist. [Rather] He is a successful mythographer of a post-science age”. This is rather different than what some would say about proponents of alternative theories of science, rather that they are “scientists who have lost their way”.

While this is not a perfect view of the issue in my opinion, it is one that is softer on the division lines, and seems to be more intrinsically created to provide a bridge between the two opposing camps. While there are pros and cons on either side, a healthy example of the “softer” approach could be found in the Netflix documentary Behind the Curve. At some point during the film, at a Science Stand-up night of all things, a young scholar says that he views Flat Earthers, also an alternative view of current scientific data and evidence, as scientists who have been led astray. They harbour many characteristics that are widely acknowledged as commendable within the scientific community, curiosity, commitment, a discomfort of accepting the status quo with no questions, but that some of that is applied in a different path (and perhaps led astray by some more “conspiratorial” mindsets, a marker that you cannot separate from these alternative views of science). I found it surprising here that Card would provide such a harsh line in the sand, even if only because it seems to play more into Hancock’s narrative that the Academy is knowingly keeping Hancock out as a personality (a notion that is discussed in the UnchartedX stream above).

It is also in Card’s conclusion that I feel a noticeable appreciation for what has been sparked from “fun” or “engaging” versions of archaeology. Hoopes, in the previous article, for example concludes with a passage that sums up a wonderful appreciation for what has helped get Archaeology to where it is today, for better or for worse:

As much as archaeologists complain about pseudoarchaeology and its esoteric milieu, we do also enjoy some of the its fruits. It is out of an esoteric tradition in fiction that came Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and all of their associated products (including thousands of video games [shouts out to #archaeogaming]). These entertain us and stimulate our imaginations, whether they reveal timeless truths or are simply good fun. Some even inspire new archaeologists.

John W. Hoopes

I believe it is healthy to recall what it was that once drew us to the wonders of Deep History and the Human Story, and if we are being honest, I believe many of us will find some form of “esoteric” or “pseudo” versions of archaeology that sparked that passion deep within us. For me it was Indiana Jones. For others it might have been the thrill of secrets told by Erich Von Däniken. For others, still, it might have been the narrative brilliance of C. W. Ceram’s Gods, Graves and Scholars. I have no doubt that a generation of future archaeologists have been inspired by hearing about some of these studies on a Joe Rogan episode featuring Hancock or even finding one of Hancock’s books at a book sale. For that we should remain thankful, as the story of the Human Experience is deep and magnificent. On that, I believe both camps can agree

Thoughts on Graham Hancock and the SAA – Part I

As some may have noticed from the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) latest issue of their journal Record, Graham Hancock’s website post, and the Archaeological Twitter community at large, Graham Hancock and the SAA are crossing paths this autumn once again. This seems to have been sparked by the latest issue of Record which was devoted to “Pseudoarchaeology, Scholarship, and Popular Interests in the Past in the Present”. Of course, I was interested, but it was not until the aforementioned post from Graham Hancock discussing his prevalence in the issue (which he is not too wrong, with pages 8-30 mostly focused around the claims in his latest book America Before: The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization) that I decided to really add it to my reading list and, although I should really be finishing up thesis (yes, I am still quite behind) I am just finishing up reading through the bulk of the Record issue and, though I did not finish up America First back when it came out in April, I have listened to about half a dozen of the lectures by Hancock in his America First lecture series, and I will simply be providing some of my thoughts on this latest development of the strained relationship between Graham Hancock and both the SAA and Archaeologists in general.

Full disclaimer here, I do not wish to dive too deeply into the scientific debunking or proving of any of Hancock’s claims, contemporary or historical, as the space for such discourse is elsewhere at the present time in my opinion. I merely wish to discuss my personal thoughts on Hancock and “Psuedoarchaeology” in general in regards to #SciComm and Public Engagement. That said, let’s begin with the Introduction to the Hancock section of the Record and a brief overview of how the issue is laid out.

The issue is not really a review of the book, John Hoopes of the University of Kansas says right at the beginning in the Introduction:

The following articles do not specifically review America Before or similar works of pseudoarchaeology. Instead, they seek to place this material in a broader context and make it easier to answer questions from students, journalists, or members of the general public that derive from incorrect information.

And as Hoopes concludes the brief Introduction, he expands upon this sentiment as follows:

We intent our articles in this special thematic section of the SAA Archaeological Record to place this material within a deeper historical context, one informed by a familiarity with the Western esoteric tradition, folklore about paranormal and supernatural phenomena, the impacts of popular culture on scientific literacy, the misuse of scientific data, and persistent beliefs in mythological explanations about the ancient past.

Right of the bat, this seems probably net good for both parties. I will revisit this idea later, but this seems to be partially what Hancock wishes to be awarded over the span of his career: tangible and respectful engagement of the mainstream scientific community, and I am uncertain how much more “mainstream” one can get than the bulk of a thematic section of the SAA Archaeological Record. While the articles do address the scientific merit of Hancock’s claims, I will admit they do so mostly loosely and wrapped under the larger direction of Received History or Public Engagement than the raw science (which, in fairness, it would be difficult to grapple with the heavy-lifting of a scientific proving or disproving given each article being no longer than five pages) but it is a start. Hoopes ends the Introduction with a welcome reminder that “[w]hile it is easy to mock and dismiss fringe theories, from Bigfoot to Atlantis to ancient aliens, appearances of elitism or superiority harm legitimate archaeology and turn public opinion against us.” which I agree with completely, and as this twitter thread (among others) reminds us, many of us who are interested in the past of our species were once equally fascinated and enthralled by similar stories told by Hancock, von Däniken, and others.

The first “real” article in the section (we will hear from Hoopes a little later on) comes from Jennifer Raff also from the University of Kansas. The section dives heavily into it by starting off with the chuckle-worthy title of “Y Not a Pacific Migration? Misunderstandings of Genetics in Service to Pseudoarchaeology”. This article is written knowing full-well its position in the early days of the “genomics revolution” in archaeology, and while it is a fascinating topic it is not one that is easy to dive into. Blimey, my good friend’s thesis is currently about genetics and ancient DNA and despite countless hours of readings and discussions with her over the past year I don’t fully understand the nuances of this field of study. Poor Raff is expected to explain the misapplication of such minute and vague findings and theories in under three pages. What results is a wonderfully concise (though perhaps noticeably incomplete, which is by design) summary of the merits and shortcomings of the Trans-Pacific Migration Model, the Paleoamerican (or Paleoindian) Morphology Hypothesis, and a brief introduction to the Population Y genetic footprint (the very Population that the title of the article derives its name).

Again, despite my recent readings into the subject and my personal curiosity, a bit of the terminology was over my head both as a non-geneticist and as not having as much exposure to the archaeology of the Americas in my education to date. However, the article is straightforward enough, and although it does claim some finality among current geneticists, it allows for the facts that the current limit of data availability and technological advancements do provide a “ceiling”of answers that can be gleaned in 2019. Due to the focused direction of the article, choosing only a few select studies to discuss, the further reading from this article would provide quite a fair “jump in the deep end” to anyone interested in the exciting work being done in this field, even if it is a bit daunting (or absurd) to see some citations take up half the entire column in order to cite an article with 100 (literally and exactly) authors. And no, they aren’t even in alphabetical order, but such is academia.

The next article is from Carl Feagans, an archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service. This article in particular is of note because the Feagans in question is mentioned by Hancock himself in his response post mentioned at the beginning of this post. Hancock expresses grave concern over the fact that an Amazon account by the name of “cfeagans” – assumed to be the same Carl Feagans as the author of the article – giving America Before a two-star review on Amazon. What Hancock is really upset with here, however, is the fact that some 319 people “found that review helpful” and this sizeable public approval, under the Amazon review framework, was enough to push the disappointing review to the top review section. Hancock expresses dismay, or perhaps just confusion, at the fact that a vast majority of reviews for the book are four or five star reviews, and even goes so far as to imply that it is due to “structured and organized” forces that this review in particular has jumped to the top. Whether this is evidence of a large scale “coverup” or simply audience approval seems to be left in the air, but I think that the fact that the cfeagans review is easily the longest and most comprehensive review on the product page, even going so far as to include a Works Cited at the end (that is how you know it was an academic who wrote it) easily speaks for itself.

This article is also interesting as it covers the Cerutti Mastodon, which is a fascinating find and developing story and easily one of the highlights of Hancock’s most recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s Podcast #1284, which was released a day prior to the US publication of America Before (skip to roughly 22:10 for the beginning of the Mastodon discussion). The discussion of the finding, dating, and validity of the Cerutti Mastodon finds is nothing short of exhilarating (relatively) to follow. I will not delve into that here, but the original publication in Nature as well as this response are as good as any places to start.

That said, Feagans provides an introductory view of the case, though for such a nuanced discussion his Works Cited may prove to be a better place to begin for those interested in the details. What Feagans really starts to get into in his piece, as well as one of my absolute passions in academia, is why it seems to be the case that archaeologists are unable to engage the public’s attention as well as many other fields of study (history or physics) or non-academics (Hancock and others). Though perhaps basing such measure upon what comprises of the New York Times Bestseller list is too simplistic in scale, for such a short article it paints an image of an understandable trend in public consumption. I really appreciated the self-awareness behind the idea that academics are often unable to bridge the divide between communicating within the halls of the Academy and outside of the Academy:

As professional archaeologists, we are proficient at communicating with ourselves. We present to each other at conferences and through journals that we write for ourselves. […] If we can give academic presentations to each other once or twice a year, surely we can give interesting, engaging talks to the public in our local libraries, historic societies, and public schools. If we can write articles for peer review, can we not also write trade books? Blogs? Podcasts?

I would like to see this assertion taken even one step further. In a modest monograph I wrote as a final essay for a Deep History course I took this last semester, I raised a few questions regarding why Archaeology and archaeologists are rarely, if ever, a Voice of Authority, and merely relegated to being Voices of Curiosity. Not to say that documentary series, trade books, or podcasts for curiosity sake are a bad thing, I, as many here, adore consuming such media whenever I can find it. However, I do often wonder why it is that it is rare to see a news expose, a radio call-in hour, or even members of public service involve archaeology or archaeologists. As archaeologists/anthropologists our research touches on many of the “Big Questions” facing society today: mass migration, climate change, and resource distribution among others. These are all issues we research on a daily basis from a myriad of time periods, geographic locations, and worldviews. Where, then, is the disconnect between this plethora of research and the public’s desire to know “What does an Archaeologist think about this?”

In our field, we have access to the entirety of human existence to tell our stories and teach our lessons from. This provides quite a blanket of material to engage, enthrall, exhilarate, as well as educate the non-archaeologists at large. Why does the assumption seem to stand that the public wish to digest this content as merely “debunking” of false narratives or subpar interpretations of fact? What can Archaeology, or more widely Academia, do to regain the respect or “clout” needed to again be involved in the discourse the same way economists, political philosophers, climatologists and other equally important fields find themselves? Of course this would have to begin with personal actions, and I know I am not doing nearly enough, but what is it that is missing that we can do together? I have left the monograph for that course, which can be found on my academia.edu page here, open for comments, and I would greatly appreciate any and all criticisms or advice given the topic. I continue to wish to grow and learn in the regard and would no doubt appreciate any comments, good or bad.

To end this little tangent of ranting and shameless self-plugging, I will provide some initial closing thoughts on the Record articles in question and end this Part I here, with Part II coming within the week. I do think that this thematic issue is a bit of what Hancock wants (or at least what I believe he would want given his statements in the past) in so far as it is serious engagement with his work from the “mainstream” academics. Though I do not believe that all mainstream academics are the problem given confusion over details of our human past, many confusions which will always persist given the very nature of studying any time or place directly inaccessible to the observer, I wholeheartedly believe Hancock probably has encountered some individual academics who are dogmatic, pompous, self-entitled, and unwilling (or worse: unable) to incorporate newer finds and information into their world view. There are problems within the Academy, and I highly doubt that any academic would attempt to state that academia is perfect (in my opinion, it is far from that), but a lot of qualms with the Academy can be blamed upon systemic incompetence rather than malice or Draconian desires to never be proven wrong. I will continue to unpack such notions in Part II, as this has gone on long enough for now, but in closing I would like to make a modest plea to those on either side of the debate to revel in the ambiguity, we are all equally confused by the realities we are presented and merely wish to make sense of it all to the best of our ability. And for one additional (almost) shameless self-plug.

See you all next week.

Thoughts on Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop

Since my reading schedule has folded in on itself (one book lead to another which lead to another) and I am finally working my way out of that rabbit hole for the book that was supposed to be for this week, I will delay that post for the time being and, instead, as my friend recently returned my loaned copy of Scoop, I will provide my modest and perhaps overly-enthusiastic thoughts on Evelyn Waugh’s Novel About Journalism.

There is not much that can be said about this book that has not been said. It is well-established that The Great Fleet Street Novel shed a light on the journalistic forces at play in manipulating public opinion with almost prophetic accuracy way back in 1938, even more so now than in 2011. If it is true that almost every D.C. “political junkie” journalist carried a copy of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72 then the same must be said for the same breed of Foreign Correspondent “political junkie” journalist (the origin of this claim of Thompson’s presence in the bars of DC still eludes me, but if anyone knows who originally stated this, I am almost positive it was in book form, please do let me know). Hell, it was my personal aspirations of being a conflict-zone journalist during my Undergrad years that led my picking up Scoop and devour it almost overnight.

As one can gather from the above, the book reads rather quickly. It is a simple story at heart, one of a slight confusion that sends the wrong “correspondent” to a fictional African nation to cover the political and social happenings at the time. The book is filled with Waugh’s trademark witticisms under the guise of “The Wrong Man Abroad” style antics (in reference to Karl Pilkington in An Idiot Abroad).

The book, the so-called “novel of pitiless realism; the mirror of satire held up to catch the Caliban of the press corps, as no other narrative has ever done save Hecht and MacArthur’s ‘Front Page’ and, to a smaller extent, Michael Frayn’s ‘Towards the End of the Morning.’ ” (quote by Christopher Hitchens as written in the Introduction section for the 2000 Penguin Classics edition of Scoop), is not one of Waugh’s most popular works. That title is perhaps better awarded to his 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited. Regardless, Scoop remains a wonderful glimpse into the criticisms of journalism already exisiting as early as 1938 and how difficult it would be to differ the criticisms of the time from modern criticisms of the very same industry.

Waugh himself, a travel writer and journalist by career, had, by 1938, had a fair share of experience amongst the “writers in a foreign land” scene. After a lengthy trip to South America and two seperate trips to Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia) representing a number of news publications, Waugh already had his feet wet as a foreign correspondent as well as somewhat of a critic of the journalism industry (as implied by his diaries, he hardly looked upon his time as correspondent in Abyssinia with much discernable seriousness).

His reflections upon this time in his life have since been heavily criticized for its pro-colonial attitudes towards the Italian intervention in the area, calling the region, “a savage place which Mussolini was doing well to tame”. He is, of course, a product of his time, a time in which acceptance of perceived merits of colonialism would have been roughly the status quo, especially for a young writer recently graduating from Oxford – cut from the same cloth of those intellectuals of the Bloomsbury Group and, more specifically, responsible for The Dreadnought Hoax. That said, he was, by all accounts, a far more unpleasant individual to be around in person (more of the interesting accounts of the “nastiest-tempered man in England” abound amongst the number of biographies written on him, see below).

Politics, dialectics, and colonial theory aside, Scoop plays its role perfectly apolitical, as the absurdity of most beliefs portrayed walk a thin line of the author’s veiled opinioins, or simply the opinions of those around him; the exact population he wished to criticize.

Upon his death in 1966 after attending Easter Sunday Mass due to heart failure (he had been in declining health for well over a decade), however, the position in which his sizeable bibliography found itself in was one of legal confusion. The date of the inclusion of his works into the Public Domain has resulted, as is often the case, in a limited amount of his work publically available in France, Canada and others, leaving the United States Waugh-free until 2024 at the earliest, and the fate unknown in other countries where his work has been published. It takes a bit of digging, but to begin this interesting Rabbit Hole dive, this statement from the Waugh Estate combined with the work of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain out of Duke University is a great place to start.

Waugh himself is an interesting character, and although the main body of his work has its impact firmly elsewhere in the halls of the Academy and various other literary circles. His character, extensive library, and ideas of a “simple yet educated writer from Oxford” are the point of much deserved discussion and debate. That said, his influence amongst the journalist crowd is already written in stone, no questions asked. Scoop continues to inspire countless journalists, writers and students across the world. Merely look at its inclusions of various top 100 lists by the likes of The Observer or Modern Library. Scoop is a short novel, a joy to read, and will continue to be a book I frequenly recommend to friends. The work of Waugh himself, however, I do not recommend as readily, interesting as it may be.

To see more about the book, or to refresh your memory if you read it many moons ago, check out this Cultural Op-Ed from one William Francis Deeds, a contemporary of Waugh’s.

For another interesting view into Waugh’s life, The Evelyn Waugh Collection from at the University of Texas Austin not only includes an entire inventory of his library, but also many of the objects within the library itself, in addition to countless other Entangled Things Waugh encountered in his life. A Catelogue of the collection made in 1981 can be found here.

What is India without its Music?

A friend of mine recently was accepted to a dream programme in India for the month of January and as a whim, I was asked to send her some music to get her in the “mood of Enlightenment”.  As is often the case with someone who does not know when to shut up, I figured I would make a bit of a list to share the songs and provide a bit of context for the songs included, or at least why I included them.  The layout will likely follow a two-pronged approach, Part I following basics of Hindustani music moving to contemporary Bollywood hits and Part II, inspired by my Brit-Punjabi, NRI upbringing, a focus upon the birth of a modern British-Asian fusion culture.

 

Without further ado:
Part I

Mera Joota Hai Japani from the film Shree 420– I believe this was one of the Deadpool films in some capacity, leading to a resurgence of its popularity in the West.  However, the song, and its beloved sentiment is still rather respected, especially under Modi’s current Hindu Nationalist regime.  The lyrics paint an image of a recently independent India that is not unfamiliar to us in a contemporary context: one of materialistic globalisation.  The hook of the song lists a number of goods coming from differing countries – shoes from Japan, pants from the United Kingdom, hats from Russia (then-USSR), but the singer quickly reminds us that “mera dill hai Hindustani” or that his heart is still of Hindustan (India). The happy-go-lucky character of the song takes a darker turn given 2019’s India, with a resurgence of Hindu Nationalism dictating a majority of domestic and foreign policy, policy seemingly carried out with a similar amount of insight and situational observation that the singer in the video showcases.  But that is a discussion for another day.

Darling from the film 7 Khoon Maaf– Speaking of Russian influence in post-colonial India, one has to mention this cross-cultured gem from the 2011 film 7 Khoon Maaf (literally 7 murders forgiven).  Bollywood’s beloved Priyanka Chopra’s acting is perhaps at her best in this film and this song is not even her best acting in the film.  In preparation for marriage to her Russian husband, this Desi-fied version of the 1860 folk choral Russian classic Kalinka showcases the malleability of the Bollywood “Item Song”.

Munni Badnaam Hui from the film Dabangg –  What is the Bollywood “Item Song” (or Item Number)?  Well, apart from being one of the reasons the films are so long, it is often the most flamboyant, upbeat, and dare I say, sexy, song of the film; the “single” to the film’s “album”.  It is hard to pin down where exactly they came from, they seem to be a staple to Bollywood films as early as the mid-50s.  One thing is for sure, and I will no doubt get a lot of crap for this, Munni Badnaam Hui is Item Song number one (no, Sheila Ki Jawani doesn’t even come close).  The choreography, the music production, and yes, even the outfits are all top-notch.  It even includes my favourite Hindi pickup line, hands down: Hai tujhmein poori botal ka nashaor “there is the intoxication of a whole bottle in you”.  I have never had much luck with it, but perhaps it is because I simply wasn’t dancing as well as I should have been.  Interesting to note, this song was heavily inspired by a song called Larka Badnaam Hua from a 1992 Pakistani film entitled Mr. Charlie.  For more information about this, and a glimpse into the petty Bollywood-Lollywood rivalry see this attempt of journalism from exactly midnight on October morning back in 2010 as it does harbour with it some interesting names to begin your own research.

Pretty Woman from the film Kal Ho Na Ho– Ah, 2003 was a lovely time for Bollywood’s over-produced, cookie-cutter romantic drama films, wasn’t it?  Shah Rukh Khan was easily within the height of Desi “DILF”-dom already at the age of 38, and political undertones were limited to family-friendly American stereotypes and the joking inclusion of the Punjabi Sikh as the taxi driver even in New York City (oh, so funny and sincerely not offensive).  This track is nothing less than a joy to listen to, even if it was guilty of the horrible Bollywood attempts of “African-American influenced raps”.  I am unable to apologise for that monstrosity, however.

Hot Hot Hot from the film Bend It Like Beckham – Many have probably already heard of this film, but the cultural impact of it cannot be understated.  I can still recall fairly well the day my father dragged me to a cinema in the middle of the more Hispanic epicentre of my home town to go to the only dollar theatre in the entire valley playing this film, with one matinee showing, to an audience of four – the two of us included.  Filmed in Hounslow, a neighbourhood of London not known for being the nicest (Chabuddy G from the brilliant show about Pirate Radio in London People Just Do Nothing can illustrate this better than this post can here) this was the first film to focus upon the Punjabi Sikh Londoner generation, and the Clash of Cultures a lot of first and second-generation immigrants felt as the 90s promise of prosperity and peace were shaken by the cold realities of the Post-9/11 West (also note, still a few years away from the 7/7 bombings at this point).  The film sparked a feeling of normalization of race relations (albeit temporarily) for the confused NRI teens and tweens, and allowed for a glimpse of the future of English football (as well as the future of one Kiera Knightly).  This song was used at the closing credits, played to the behind the scenes clips, but to those who have not seen it, I cannot recommend the film enough, truly a gem of cultural genre-cross overs, and about a decade ahead of its time in that regard.

Kya Karoon? and Wake Up, Sid from the film Wake Up, Sid– 2009 will no doubt be remembered as a key turning point for Bollywood.  Sparked by the monumental film 3 Idiots (a film I implore anyone reading this to watch, even if it is a hell of an emotional roller coaster) and continued by two equally powerful films Rockstar and Wake Up, Sid, 2009 showed us that Bollywood did not need to be tied to the anchor of Hindustani traditionalism that had so far been the status quo.  These films were far more liberal, “modern, and yes, Westernized, but they are still intrinsically Bollywood not a mere imitation of a Hollywood film.  There is a thesis worth of analysis to be provided for any of these films, and I will refrain from sharing any song from 3 Idiots as I fear providing even an iota of a spoiler for that story.  So much so that I will refrain from further elaboration, but if you would like to discuss any of these films, message me.

Manali Trance from the film The Shaukeens – Speaking of the “liberalisation” of Bollywood, this 2014 remake of the 1982 film Shaukeen showcases this further.  Openly portraying the use of marijuana as a recreational drug and the inclusion of Instagram famous rapper Honey Singh, a rapper who enjoyed a relatively successful career of producing Punjabi and modern songs with, perhaps, unfortunate lyrics (hey, globalisation has pros and cons but this isn’t to say that Honey Singh was able to act with impunity, however), allowed this subpar film to express the generally accepted trend of allowing Western influence into the Bollywood canon.

That is enough about a few random Bollywood songs.  Of course, there are thousands of other songs that could be included, but let me know what other ones you enjoy.  As a side note, this hilarious clip from AIC, an Indian comedian group, showcases a lot of the stereotypes and tropes found in contemporary Bollywood and rightfully satirizes the industry’s reliance upon them.  Skip to about 3:00 for the music video itself and don’t forget to turn on captions if you are less than confident in your Hindi.

Part II – Brit-Asian Fusion

Alright, now let’s get into it.  The godfather of underground Desi proliferation.  The burning voice of at least two generations of immigrants, the product of the epitome of colonialism.  The story of the Punjabi diaspora is far too large to put here, but we all know the framework.  They were promised a state, Partition in 1947 forgot to include it, and thus began the exodus in large of Punjabis to all corners of the world.  USA, Canada, Kenya (where my family ended up) and of course, amongst others, the United Kingdom.  Though the godfather of the modern Bhangra genre (Channi Singh who would go on to receive an OBE for his service to culture) hailed from Southall, London with his band Alaap, it is from the working-class city of Birmingham (or as the locals call it: Birmingham) that the modern rendition of Bhangra was to be born.

Gawardiyan by Stereo Nation – THE true portrayal of folk instrumentation, socially modern lyrics combined with Anglo sonic production of the time.  This song perhaps truly put Bhangra on the map so to speak as a genre carrying with it the same potential of societal change and observational skills of the hip-hop Revolution a few decades earlier in The Bronx.  This song was thrust readily upon the British music scene by the late and great Joe Strummer, that is, frontman and songwriter of The Clash, during his tragically shortlived radio show London Calling (the entirety of which can be streamed here with limited commentary, an excellent example of curation on the airwaves at the highest level.  The episode showcasing this song is episode 5).  It is perhaps unfortunate that there appears to be a bit of a confusion by Mr Strummer, however.  He does state that the song was sent in by a listener, and then proceeds to identify the song as Gwandir by someone named Nasha.  I have been unable to fully locate where this confusion came from, perhaps the listener who sent the song went by Nasha, or perhaps something else altogether.  If anyone has any insight here I would love to hear it.

Darshan by B21 – A second song from the film Bend it Like Beckham and firmly within the beloved modern Bhangra realm.  Hard to say much about this song that isn’t already implied by its riveting tabla beat, simple lyrics relying heavily on a call and response pattern, and hyper-traditional breakdown; it is easy to see why this song is perhaps played at every Punjabi wedding.  Not of the song itself, but of note is the name of the album by B21 as showcased in the lower right corner of the video above: “Made in England”.  This already communicates where the modern Bhangra music scene saw itself in regards to its origins: authentically British.  This will be discussed further below, but it is good to keep it in mind.

 

Mundian To Bach Ke by Panjabi MC – well now is as good of a time as ever to bring out the glorious, brilliant elephant in the room.  The star child of the modern Bhangra movement, the Don of Desi Dancehall, the Khalistani Gangsta, Panjabi MC (the name being an alternative transliteration of Punjabi).  This will just one of his songs portrayed in this list, and you have probably already heard this one.  Becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time thanks to the remix Beware of the Boys featuring Jay Z and its inclusion on the soundtrack for the film The Dictator (as can be seen by the initial video).  Still to this day, this song implies more than the simple beat could ever hope to portray on its own.  Globalisation, Arabization, hip-hop collaboration, are all easily understood with this song playing in the background of a wedding in Nairobi, a party in Rio De Janeiro, or a film premier celebration in Hollywood.

Jogi by Panjabi MC – The second track from Panjabi MC here is also massively popular.  Those who have played the video game Far Cry 4 will remember the iconic scene utilising its mesmerizing sitar hook, and those who have remotely heard of modern Bhangra have heard this song in some capacity before.  With its lyrics a heartbreaking portrayal of what we give up willingly to fall in love, and the warnings we wish to not heed prior, this song is nothing short of a sampling masterpiece.  Utilising what some call the “most sampled drumbeat in history” from Skull Snaps’ “It’s a New Day”, Panjabi MC solidified himself as a genre-bending guru.

Moorni by Panjabi MC – the third and final song from Panjabi MC is the most recent single from 2010, again massively popular and, again, deservedly so.  Returning to a simpler production style, Moorni relies upon three major instrumentation tracks, a talented vocal cast, and the simple lyrics sparked by pure romantic adoration.  This song continues to be covered, remixed, and utilised at all sorts of celebrations around the world.  If you have not heard this song yet, keep your ears open if you are ever around a party environment, you will hear it eventually.  Of note again is the album cover’s reminder of the geographic origin of the music.

Bhangra Ishqe Da by Balwinder Matewaria –  moving on from the seminal Panjabi MC, this song is a simple party song, through and through.  The production value perhaps sounds skewed towards a muffled bass, and while I wish I could say that is for a calculated reason, that seems to simply be the way producers like it.  The sound of a slightly distorted bass speaker in a car driving through Southall will remain the real sound of the Bhangra culture, and perhaps I even enjoy it that way.

Gabru Punjab Da by JK – A bit dated at this point, but a great example of younger and independent voices in the modern Bhangra scene.  This song is voraciously Punjabi while still being typical Britain.  Though he is not as big as Panjabi MC, JK is more than just a spark in the pan, however.

Shindeh Di Tape by JK and Tru-Skool – Though not as boisterous as the previous song, JK’s collaboration with fellow artist Tru-Skool provides a throwback to the 80s and 90s hip hop, both Western and Punjabi.  Though yet to have the cross-over event that defined Panjabi MC’s career, these “sounds of the street” are still real, and probably exist not terribly far from where you are currently reading this blog.

Cornershop – For the final item on this list, I wish to not highlight a song individually, but a group in its entirety.  The group Cornershop fronted by Tjinder Singh of Wolverhampton has been a radical spark of cultural genius dating back to 1991, but rising to global fame in 1997 with their track “Brimful of Asha” largely thanks to a remix made by Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim).  Fatboy would not be the first recognizable name to cast its gaze upon modest Tjinder and his boys, their first album being enough to convince David Byrne of Talking Heads fame to sign them to his Luaka Bop label in 1994. Cornershop would go on to be highlighted not only the aforementioned radio show from Joe Strummer London Calling, but would even strike a chord in Belgrade, being one of the top ten albums of the year according to revolutionary student radio station B92 during the Yugoslav Civil War (for more on the remarkable story of this radio station see the book This Is Serbia Calling by Matthew Collin).  Though this band has pioneered their very own genre of British-Asian fusion pop/punk fusion, jumping from genre to genre between their albums, I will highlight briefly three songs of note:

Spectral Mornings  – Nearing the end of their concept album Handcream for a Generation this 14 minute long journey highlights the Punjabi language, sitar hooks, and even Noel Gallagher’s guitar.

6am Jullandar Shere – Opening their 1995 album Woman’s Gotta Have It it is easy to imagine many mornings being awoken to prayers during Tjinder’s childhood and many others.  Easily stuck in one’s head, this song is easily recognizable, even accounting for linguistic separations, and ends far too quickly.

Norwegian Wood – Finally, this little gem of a cover is powerful not only because of the original song itself but because of the literal translation of the lyrics to Punjabi (rather than attempting to poetically create rhythm in the translated language).  Additionally, this track was both Yoko Ono and Sir Paul McCartney approved, so perhaps that says something.

So this just about sums up my modest list of Desi-influenced music.  What started as a simple recommendation for a friend turned into a bit of a pedantic and opinionated rant on Desi culture and music, but perhaps that is what a blog is for.  Let me know what you may think, what you agree with, what you disagree with, and what I tragically did not include in the list.

To end this off, I will leave the mixtape Strictly for my Jatts by Lil India and Genie here.  Showcasing desi music from a span of decades seamlessly mixed in with the hip hop and club music of the past twenty years, the mixtape is named after the largely pastoral class of individuals (of varying ethnic and religious backgrounds) of the Northern regions of India and Pakistan, the Jats.