An eerie vision of the future?

At the second attempt I have finally got round to finishing P. D. James' 'The Children of Men'. I first tried to read it about 18 months ago. It's not a 'hard' book, it's just something that happens to me sometimes. I read in 'waves'. Last year was particularly productive. I must have read about 20 books and they were all quite a reasonable length too. I hit a literary 'wall' though a couple of months ago when reading 'The Audacity of Hope'. Christmas should have freed up time for reading but I was probably too busy eating and drinking. Nevermind, with February on the horizon I polished off Barack's sanitized vision for America (see previous post) and ploughed into dystopia.

I am quite a big fan of the genre. I enjoyed Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World and A Clockwork Orange. Next on the list is A Handmaid's Tale. Anyway, back to the point...The Children of Men is set in 2021, 25 years after the last human baby has been born. Civilisation is slowly dying out because of man's failure to successfully deal with it's own destruction of the environment. As a result most people are apathetic and parliamentary democracy has been brushed aside, along with most vestiges of liberty in favour of the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt - brother of the novel's protagonist Theo Faron. Faron is an Oxford Don who is contacted by a group of freedom fighters called the 'Five Fishes'. Initially pessimistic, he is soon won over when it is revealed that one of the fishes (Julian - a woman who was christened incorrectly!) is pregnant - the first in 25 years. The rest is basically a 'road-book' (is there such a phrase? I'm looking for the literary equivalent of 'road movie') where the main characters attempt to escape the clutches of the State Security Police (SSP) and find a suitable place for Julian to give birth. Along the way, the other fishes are killed under various circumstances, Theo eventually faces Xan, shoots him and the novel ends with the baby healthy and Faron about to become the new 'Warden of England'. All in all, a great novel - it's strongest quality is the overall premise of a dying world simply because of all the questions this throws up. What do previously religious people now think of God? Are we still duty bound to obey the law? At what point do we cross the 'boundary' and return to a Hobbesian/Lockean state of nature? To what extent should liberty be sacrificed under these circumstances? Exciting stuff!

I am now reading 'Birds without Wings' by Louis de Bernieres - a recommendation by James both because of its subject matter (WW1) and the fact that it is set in Turkey - a country that I will be visiting in August.

I perhaps ought to briefly mention the bands and films that I have seen recently. Let's start with Bloc Party..I managed to get standing tickets for myself and Dougie, Head of Geography, back in January. So we rolled up - Wednesday night, and had a thoroughly cracking time. The band were note perfect, the drummer sublime and overall they're well worthy of their position as one of Britain's foremost indie bands. What I couldn't understand was why people would pay to go to a gig only to throw glow sticks at them? The crowd was a bit 'impotent' to say the least - maybe because it was mid-week. Nevertheless, the two encores were well received. On the second occasion we were outside when we heard the first few bars of 'Flux' and had to race back in. It really was a great song to finish off with and sounds so much better live, partly I suspect because they have less technology to rely on.

Just over a week later me and James went to see the NME Shockwaves tour. I wanted to go so I could see a band that I have really 'discovered' this past few months. White Lies are from West London and play Joy Division/Interpol/Editors inspired post punk. The singer, like his forbears, sports a baritone voice and their own tunes are a bit poppier than previous incarnations - think The Killers. Nevertheless, I thought they were fantastic even though the keyboard packed up half way through the set.

Florence and the Machine were also on the bill. I'd never heard of them and it's always a pleasant surprise to see a band live for the first time and to actually like them. Florence has a cracking voice and I will look forward to the album. She came back on stage during the White Lies set to duet with the lead singer and it was absolutely fantastic.

The least said about Friendly Fires the better. James was really up for seeing Glasvegas. I can't say that I'm a fan. It sounds horrible I know but the strong Scottish accents really grate on me. Although to be honest it's probably the triumphalist and over the top nature of their melodies that doesn't really appeal either.

Last Thursday we went to see Secret Machines. This was a completely different experience altogther. The gig was at the intimate 'Ruby Lounge' near the Arndale and it was pretty impressive to see this 3-piece here given that they've supported Interpol and played the Academy. Anyway, they place a Pink Floyd-prog rock inspired blend of rock, punk and metal. Anyway you say it, it's pretty 'deep'. Average song length is about 10 minutes - they probably only played about 7 songs in over an hour. All in all they were pretty impressive. All prior assumptions regarding the volume levels that three guys could produce were brushed aside. This band was loud!!

I'm getting a wee bit tired of typing now - I'll finish by saying that two films I have seen recently have really impressed me. It goes without saying that Slumdog Millionaire is good, excellent in fact. I was also impressed by Frost/Nixon by its ability to turn an interview, albeit a high profile one, into an intruiging political thriller. It has ignited my interest in the Watergate scandal and the Nixon presidency in particular. This bodes well considering that it appears that I'll be teaching this at A2 Level next year. Yipes! :-)