In his book, John Carey explores the role of the masses in society and how mass culture has shaped us. Carey uses the book to criticise what many philosophers and ‘intellectuals’ thought of the masses and how they feared them. Ultimately, it was the introduction of universal literacy which caused this fear – the masses could now read and write and had a voice; the intellectuals’ positions in the top strata of society were no longer secure.
Carey uses the thoughts of others to put his ideas across. Below are quotes from the book which I have selected to best demonstrate the ideas of Nietzsche, TS Elliot, Lord Northcliffe, James Joyce and several others:
Newspapers were highly criticised by the intellectuals as the literature of the masses..
- TS Elliot: “newspapers affirm the masses as a complacent prejudiced and unthinking mass”
- Nietzsche: “The rabble vomit their bile and call it a newspaper”
- Northcliffe disagreed with this, asserting that a newspaper should deal with what the masses want (although this was in order to make money from them)
- Nietzsche completely hated the new educated masses – life under them was “suicide”. However he admired Hitler, believing in an undemocratic society where intellect puts you at the top. Spoke of the “master-race”, which many theorists say directly influenced Hitler in later years
- Yeates believed in innate knowledge and said “sooner or later we must limit the families of the unintelligent classes” – the beginnings of ethnic cleansing?
John Carey on Modernism: disliked the intellectuals’ ploy of making literature too difficult for the masses to understand
- Ortega: population increase leads to over-crowding, which is intrusive and leads to the dictatorship of the masses – there is an inevitability of dictatorship
- EM Forster: the effort of the masses to acquire knowledge is ill-advised and unsuccessful, because culture comes with wealth
- Virginia Woolf used her novels to explore the masses, portraying her character Miss Kilman as uncultured and, importantly, religious
- James Joyce, like all intellectuals hated newspapers, and essentially believed that the masses weren’t wealthy enough to be cultured
- Tinned food is hated by the intellectuals and becomes a symbol for the masses. It is suggested that the First World War wouldn’t have happened without tinned food. It is also seen as an offence against the sacredness of individuality
- Ortega says the quality that marks out a mass is a lack of ambition
CASE STUDIES
George Gissing and the Ineducable Masses:
- writing to his friend
- speaks of the vulgarity of the masses
- rise of the aristocracy makes a bigger class gap
- tried to appeal to people on the brink of joining the masses
- believed in the civilising power of poetry, although he didn’t think it would be successful on the masses
HG Wells, Getting rid of people:
- watched the urbanisation of Bromley and hated it
- anti-Catholic
- New-Republic: wanted to kill of undesirable people in a humane manor e.g. diseased people
- Wanted something like ‘Utopia’ – a new world
HG Wells against HG Wells:
- believed the human race is doomed
- however total destruction is both bad and good
Narrowing the Abyss: Arnold Bennett
- the hero of the book
- disliked by the intellectuals
- believed that the intellectuals should write to a wider audience and that what is popular with the masses should not be immediately discounted
- everyone is an artist – completely disagrees with the intellectuals
- the spread of education will heal the rift in English culture
- interestingly said “most people find life dull – it’s the journalists job to make it not”
Wyndham, Lewis and Hitler:
- The intellectuals’ intellectual
- TS Elliot admired him
- Sexist ideas: the intellectuals were warned that women and children would drag them into the masses
Believed that 20th Century cultural decay was the fault of women
- “democracy hates intellectuals because the mind has an aristocratic colour which affects the masses”
-
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
James Joyce – Ulysses
Chapter 15
Ulysses is a clear example of Modernist Literature, which tells the story of Leopold Bloom’s journey through Dublin on one single day. It is a parody of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’.
Below I have outlined the key points of Chapter 15 of Ulysses:
- Written as a play script
- Much of which are drunken hallucinations, creating confusing non-linear sections of writing
- Begins with Stephen and Lynch in Dublin’s red-light district. Bloom has followed them there but gets lost
- Joyce begins to descend into hallucinations from this point, discussing the characters’ fears and desires
- The chapter contains a lot of sexual confusion, as men transform into women
- The time-span is unusual and makes the action difficult to understand (Joyce actually said that this was his intention – the book isn’t supposed to be understood completely)
- Some critics suggests that the hallucinations are not necessarily from individual characters, but are from the novel itself- proving that the book has central themes and ideas which are more important to convey than creating fully-rounded characters. This is completely unconventional, as most novels are written for reader enjoyment..
- The characters frequently fall into Latin, another device to follow Joyce’s non-linear writing
- A stream of consciousness style of writing provides a novel with no real story-line
- Difficult to read because its in such short statements
- Explores morality – accusations constantly crop-up and are explored
- ‘Circe’ is thought to refer to the symbolic women in this chapter i.e. Bella Cohen
- “A times, time and half a time” is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgement, furthering the moral theme
- The Chapter ends with a moving passage in which Bloom’s dead son Rudy appears in a hallucination
- Does Bloom make up all the components of mankind? Many critics suggest he is symbolic of everyday man, making his hallucinations what we keep inside us all.
Ulysses is a clear example of Modernist Literature, which tells the story of Leopold Bloom’s journey through Dublin on one single day. It is a parody of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’.
Below I have outlined the key points of Chapter 15 of Ulysses:
- Written as a play script
- Much of which are drunken hallucinations, creating confusing non-linear sections of writing
- Begins with Stephen and Lynch in Dublin’s red-light district. Bloom has followed them there but gets lost
- Joyce begins to descend into hallucinations from this point, discussing the characters’ fears and desires
- The chapter contains a lot of sexual confusion, as men transform into women
- The time-span is unusual and makes the action difficult to understand (Joyce actually said that this was his intention – the book isn’t supposed to be understood completely)
- Some critics suggests that the hallucinations are not necessarily from individual characters, but are from the novel itself- proving that the book has central themes and ideas which are more important to convey than creating fully-rounded characters. This is completely unconventional, as most novels are written for reader enjoyment..
- The characters frequently fall into Latin, another device to follow Joyce’s non-linear writing
- A stream of consciousness style of writing provides a novel with no real story-line
- Difficult to read because its in such short statements
- Explores morality – accusations constantly crop-up and are explored
- ‘Circe’ is thought to refer to the symbolic women in this chapter i.e. Bella Cohen
- “A times, time and half a time” is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgement, furthering the moral theme
- The Chapter ends with a moving passage in which Bloom’s dead son Rudy appears in a hallucination
- Does Bloom make up all the components of mankind? Many critics suggest he is symbolic of everyday man, making his hallucinations what we keep inside us all.
Frederick Nietzsche: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Zarathustra is written as a prose poem that was written in ten days and explores Nietzsche’s concept of an Overman (a being beyond a human, without the prejudices of society, he creates his own values and purposes). Ironically written in a biblical style (Nietzsche was opposed to Christianity because it lacked individuality)
- Begins with the protagonist descending from a cave after ten years alone
- Here Nietzsche introduces the idea of the overman – Zarathustra wants to teach people about the overman
- Man is simply a bridge between animal and the overman – it is every persons goal to reach such superiority
- Advocates individuals separating themselves from the herd
- Values struggle and hardship i.e. climbing a mountain
- Free spirit of the overman is represented by laughter and dance
- Highly critical of mass movements – praised individuality
- Anti-Christian, nationalism and democracy because, in his opinion, they produce similar, weak-minded people
- Believed events will repeat themselves again and again
- Reminiscent of gospels in the Bible – highly ironic considering Nietzsche’s views
- Speaks of “the rabble” as the masses, who he disliked intensely
- Spoke of the “will to power” as the force that drives all life
- Nietzsche himself was insane for the last fifteen years of his life, and remained silent for the last ten.
- was famous for his use of aphorisms “God is Dead”, which shape and influence the style of journalism today and can be seen on a daily basis in headlines and advertising slogans
- Begins with the protagonist descending from a cave after ten years alone
- Here Nietzsche introduces the idea of the overman – Zarathustra wants to teach people about the overman
- Man is simply a bridge between animal and the overman – it is every persons goal to reach such superiority
- Advocates individuals separating themselves from the herd
- Values struggle and hardship i.e. climbing a mountain
- Free spirit of the overman is represented by laughter and dance
- Highly critical of mass movements – praised individuality
- Anti-Christian, nationalism and democracy because, in his opinion, they produce similar, weak-minded people
- Believed events will repeat themselves again and again
- Reminiscent of gospels in the Bible – highly ironic considering Nietzsche’s views
- Speaks of “the rabble” as the masses, who he disliked intensely
- Spoke of the “will to power” as the force that drives all life
- Nietzsche himself was insane for the last fifteen years of his life, and remained silent for the last ten.
- was famous for his use of aphorisms “God is Dead”, which shape and influence the style of journalism today and can be seen on a daily basis in headlines and advertising slogans
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Hannah Arendt - The Orgins of Totalitarianism
Below are the key points or themes I thought were most important in “The Origins of Totalitarianism”:
Hannah Arendt has a clear concept of totalitarianism – a regime in which there is no form of plurality and is strongly teleological. The fickle nature of the masses means that a totalitarian government can so easily be forgotten, but its use of terror to control the masses means it is unlikely to be over-turned.
Hannah Arendt:
- Born in 1906 into a German-Jewish family
- Forced to leave Germany in 1933
- The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, is a study of fascist regimes
- The Human Condition, published in 1958, studied the vita active (labour, work, action)
The Origins of Totalitarianism
- Nazism and Stalinism
- Covers the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe
- Colonist Imperialism led to racism
- Nation state
- The transformation of classes into masses in a political manner
- The roots of modern imperialism can be traced to colonisation
- Propaganda
- The role of terror
Part One: Anti-Semitism
- An outrage to common sense
- Anti-Semitism does not derive simply from Nationalism and Nazism is an example of this
- “neither oppression or exploitation as such is ever the main cause for resentment, wealth without visible function is much more intolerable because nobody can understand why it should be tolerated”
- Jews are always the scapegoat – gives them perfect innocence as the victim
- Modern terror – used to control the masses
- Scapegoat theory – the victim has done nothing to deserve persecution but can’t change their fate
- Anti-Semitism is an eternal problem i.e. a natural hatred that has outbursts and lulls
The Dreyfus Affair:
- 1894 Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of espionage for Germany
- Bernanos: “The Dreyfus Affair already belongs to that tragic era which certainly was not ended by the last war. The affair reveals the same inhuman character, preserving amid the welter of unbridled passions and the flames of hate an inconceivably cold and callous heart.”
- Branding a Jew as a traitor… was it planted or simply a judicial mistake?
- “The mod is primarily a group in which the residue of all classes are represented”
- Clemenceau was convinced that the infringement of the rights of one man was the infringement of the rights of all
Totalitarianism
- the nation-state (as defined by google definitions) is self-identified as deriving its political legitimacy as serving as a sovereign entity.
- Arendt asserts that the nation state is contaminated by imperialism – which is the first stage in the political rule of the bourgeoisie
- “Any Nazi or Bolshevik will do anything to remain a member of the group”… the metaphor of a soldier helping at his own trial and ultimately signing his own death sentence = the power of totalitarianism
- Its aim was to succeed in organising the masses
Hannah Arendt has a clear concept of totalitarianism – a regime in which there is no form of plurality and is strongly teleological. The fickle nature of the masses means that a totalitarian government can so easily be forgotten, but its use of terror to control the masses means it is unlikely to be over-turned.
Hannah Arendt:
- Born in 1906 into a German-Jewish family
- Forced to leave Germany in 1933
- The Origins of Totalitarianism, published in 1951, is a study of fascist regimes
- The Human Condition, published in 1958, studied the vita active (labour, work, action)
The Origins of Totalitarianism
- Nazism and Stalinism
- Covers the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe
- Colonist Imperialism led to racism
- Nation state
- The transformation of classes into masses in a political manner
- The roots of modern imperialism can be traced to colonisation
- Propaganda
- The role of terror
Part One: Anti-Semitism
- An outrage to common sense
- Anti-Semitism does not derive simply from Nationalism and Nazism is an example of this
- “neither oppression or exploitation as such is ever the main cause for resentment, wealth without visible function is much more intolerable because nobody can understand why it should be tolerated”
- Jews are always the scapegoat – gives them perfect innocence as the victim
- Modern terror – used to control the masses
- Scapegoat theory – the victim has done nothing to deserve persecution but can’t change their fate
- Anti-Semitism is an eternal problem i.e. a natural hatred that has outbursts and lulls
The Dreyfus Affair:
- 1894 Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of espionage for Germany
- Bernanos: “The Dreyfus Affair already belongs to that tragic era which certainly was not ended by the last war. The affair reveals the same inhuman character, preserving amid the welter of unbridled passions and the flames of hate an inconceivably cold and callous heart.”
- Branding a Jew as a traitor… was it planted or simply a judicial mistake?
- “The mod is primarily a group in which the residue of all classes are represented”
- Clemenceau was convinced that the infringement of the rights of one man was the infringement of the rights of all
Totalitarianism
- the nation-state (as defined by google definitions) is self-identified as deriving its political legitimacy as serving as a sovereign entity.
- Arendt asserts that the nation state is contaminated by imperialism – which is the first stage in the political rule of the bourgeoisie
- “Any Nazi or Bolshevik will do anything to remain a member of the group”… the metaphor of a soldier helping at his own trial and ultimately signing his own death sentence = the power of totalitarianism
- Its aim was to succeed in organising the masses
Tabloid Nation
Chris Horrie- Tabloid Nation: From the birth of the Daily Mirror to the death of the tabloid
Chris Horrie’s book begins with the quote made by George Orwell in 1941 “Like the music halls, they are sort of saturnalia, a harmless rebellion against virtue. They express only one tendency in the human mind, but a tendency which is always there will find its own outlet, like water. On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.”
Below are my notes on the book...
Foreword by John Tulloch:
- The assertion that the Daily Mirror is the most loved, loathed and untrue tabloid.
- Do tabloids hold significant authority in today’s society? For example, have tabloids changed how we view the Royal family, or even damaged their security? Its an interesting idea that tabloids have the power to change how society is run.
- Are all tabloids the same because they follow the same format? Do they still have a strong journalistic ethic?
- Dick Rooney wrote in 2000 that tabloids have “abandoned the public sphere” and are not “anything other than vehicles for non-serious material”
Part One: Those Horrible Hamsworths
- The book begins with the birth of the Daily Mirror, which transpires as a conversation between Alfred Hamsworth (Lord Northcliffe) and Hamilton Fyfe – the first editor of the new Daily Mirror. Northcliffe’s attitude towards women is clear “women can’t write and don’t want to read”. The new tabloid is re-born with a new image, away from the disastrous beginnings as a newspaper written for and by gentlewomen.
- Fyfe compares firing the all female staff of the old Daily Mirror to like “drowning kittens” but Northcliffe decided a fresh outlook was needed to rescue the newspaper
- Alfred Hamsworth’s early life:
- Born near Dublin 1865 to a barrister and a mother who he adored (even to the extent that he wrote to her almost every day and named the editorial offices Geraldine House)
- Educated at public school in London but left school early to pursue a career in an illustrated magazine for boys.
- Became a reporter on The Illustrated London News
- Aged 21 became part of the editorship of Bicycling News
- Used his instinct and stole paper and used Bicycling News’ printing press to print his own magazine – Answers to Correspondents On every Subject Under the Sun or Answers. This was a complete rip-off of Tit-Bits, the best selling weekly magazine. “Facts” included “What the Queen Eats” and “Why Jews Don’t Ride Bicycles”. The beginnings of this magazine provide valuable insight into what Northcliffe did professionally in later life.
- Un-winnable competitions boosted circulation
- Daily Mail May 1896. Sold 397, 215 copies on the first day of sales
- Kennedy KJ Jones
- Dreyfus Affair
- 1903 Daily Mirror – women based which after eight weeks was selling less than 25,000 copies
The Pope of Fleet Street
- Hannen Swaffer was one of the first journalists to be head-hunted and hired by Fyfe in 1904 when The Mirror was re-launched
- Beginnings of The Illustrated Daily Mirror, which saw circulation treble to over 71,000 overnight after pictures of the Royal family were published
- The Mirror’s fake seriousness and sincerity won over their audience through the medium of campaigns and crusades, and the editorial team believed that pictures were easier to understand than words so filled the newspaper with full pages of images
- Within a month circulation reached 140,000 and after a year reached 290,000
- Alexander Kenealy
- The crusade of the pit ponies’ plight was a massively successful campaign for the Mirror which saw the paper even buy a pony
- Revolutionised photography
- Ideology of making your own news – proving that you can make honey in the middle of London caused a frantic bee hunt leading to increased sales and advertising
- Always self advertising
- Deathbed photos of King Edward VII
- Printed the same picture the next morning, which was an extremely well thought out move. The previous day copies had sold out, the next day they did not make the same mistake again and managed to sell a record breaking circulation of 2,013,000
- The fights between Swaffer and Kenealy and Northcliffe which lead to the downfall of the paper. Disagreements about the coverage of the Titanic – Swaffer wanted all pictures. Northcliffe wanted “real reporting”
- Coverage of the Johnson and Jeffries boxing game, which sparked race riots
- The Chiefs death in 1922
Ghouls, Criminals… Animals Beneath Contempt
- The Times – Northcliffe’s new newspaper, his brainchild
- Northcliffe became increasingly less interested in the Mirror and sold his shares in 1914
- Lord Rothermere took over but used the paper primarily for shares purposes, eg hyping particular shares
- “The forces paper” – during the First World War
- Came out of the First World War with highest sale of any daily paper
Herald of Doom – The Free Gift War
- Daily Herald proved to be competition in 1922 after it was taken over by the TUC, had the philosophy of ‘buying’ readers with free gifts and competitions
- Spent £3 million a year on promotions
- The Mirror was used to finance other papers, buy shares and finance other projects… it was doomed
A Helping Hand
- Ties with Hitler
Bart – El Vinos Veritas
Bartholomew and king lay the foundations of tabloid Britain
Chris Horrie’s book begins with the quote made by George Orwell in 1941 “Like the music halls, they are sort of saturnalia, a harmless rebellion against virtue. They express only one tendency in the human mind, but a tendency which is always there will find its own outlet, like water. On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.”
Below are my notes on the book...
Foreword by John Tulloch:
- The assertion that the Daily Mirror is the most loved, loathed and untrue tabloid.
- Do tabloids hold significant authority in today’s society? For example, have tabloids changed how we view the Royal family, or even damaged their security? Its an interesting idea that tabloids have the power to change how society is run.
- Are all tabloids the same because they follow the same format? Do they still have a strong journalistic ethic?
- Dick Rooney wrote in 2000 that tabloids have “abandoned the public sphere” and are not “anything other than vehicles for non-serious material”
Part One: Those Horrible Hamsworths
- The book begins with the birth of the Daily Mirror, which transpires as a conversation between Alfred Hamsworth (Lord Northcliffe) and Hamilton Fyfe – the first editor of the new Daily Mirror. Northcliffe’s attitude towards women is clear “women can’t write and don’t want to read”. The new tabloid is re-born with a new image, away from the disastrous beginnings as a newspaper written for and by gentlewomen.
- Fyfe compares firing the all female staff of the old Daily Mirror to like “drowning kittens” but Northcliffe decided a fresh outlook was needed to rescue the newspaper
- Alfred Hamsworth’s early life:
- Born near Dublin 1865 to a barrister and a mother who he adored (even to the extent that he wrote to her almost every day and named the editorial offices Geraldine House)
- Educated at public school in London but left school early to pursue a career in an illustrated magazine for boys.
- Became a reporter on The Illustrated London News
- Aged 21 became part of the editorship of Bicycling News
- Used his instinct and stole paper and used Bicycling News’ printing press to print his own magazine – Answers to Correspondents On every Subject Under the Sun or Answers. This was a complete rip-off of Tit-Bits, the best selling weekly magazine. “Facts” included “What the Queen Eats” and “Why Jews Don’t Ride Bicycles”. The beginnings of this magazine provide valuable insight into what Northcliffe did professionally in later life.
- Un-winnable competitions boosted circulation
- Daily Mail May 1896. Sold 397, 215 copies on the first day of sales
- Kennedy KJ Jones
- Dreyfus Affair
- 1903 Daily Mirror – women based which after eight weeks was selling less than 25,000 copies
The Pope of Fleet Street
- Hannen Swaffer was one of the first journalists to be head-hunted and hired by Fyfe in 1904 when The Mirror was re-launched
- Beginnings of The Illustrated Daily Mirror, which saw circulation treble to over 71,000 overnight after pictures of the Royal family were published
- The Mirror’s fake seriousness and sincerity won over their audience through the medium of campaigns and crusades, and the editorial team believed that pictures were easier to understand than words so filled the newspaper with full pages of images
- Within a month circulation reached 140,000 and after a year reached 290,000
- Alexander Kenealy
- The crusade of the pit ponies’ plight was a massively successful campaign for the Mirror which saw the paper even buy a pony
- Revolutionised photography
- Ideology of making your own news – proving that you can make honey in the middle of London caused a frantic bee hunt leading to increased sales and advertising
- Always self advertising
- Deathbed photos of King Edward VII
- Printed the same picture the next morning, which was an extremely well thought out move. The previous day copies had sold out, the next day they did not make the same mistake again and managed to sell a record breaking circulation of 2,013,000
- The fights between Swaffer and Kenealy and Northcliffe which lead to the downfall of the paper. Disagreements about the coverage of the Titanic – Swaffer wanted all pictures. Northcliffe wanted “real reporting”
- Coverage of the Johnson and Jeffries boxing game, which sparked race riots
- The Chiefs death in 1922
Ghouls, Criminals… Animals Beneath Contempt
- The Times – Northcliffe’s new newspaper, his brainchild
- Northcliffe became increasingly less interested in the Mirror and sold his shares in 1914
- Lord Rothermere took over but used the paper primarily for shares purposes, eg hyping particular shares
- “The forces paper” – during the First World War
- Came out of the First World War with highest sale of any daily paper
Herald of Doom – The Free Gift War
- Daily Herald proved to be competition in 1922 after it was taken over by the TUC, had the philosophy of ‘buying’ readers with free gifts and competitions
- Spent £3 million a year on promotions
- The Mirror was used to finance other papers, buy shares and finance other projects… it was doomed
A Helping Hand
- Ties with Hitler
Bart – El Vinos Veritas
Bartholomew and king lay the foundations of tabloid Britain
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