Masculinity versus Make-Up: In a period of flux, how big an impact will cynical advertising be likely to have ?

When David Beckham’s bulging Armani advert was posted on billboards and busses earlier this year it caused quite a stir. Some complained it was gratuitous while others just delighted in the spectacle of it all. But a quick glance at magazines and TV screen shows that there was really nothing unusual about a toned man displaying muscles to shift a few units for the sponsors. Yes, the male body has been commercialised.   

The advertising of men’s grooming products is on the up and only the finest specimens are chosen to advertise them. Even skin tone, defined muscles, chizzled jaw’s, intense eyes and a heavy brow are the common features that men are seeing every day. And it’s not just in models and movies, news readers, TV presenters, politicians, rock stars and footballers are all do a stint in the make-up chair before making public appearances. With the increase in the quality of our TV screens anyone who stands in front the camera stands to have every imperfection exposed.

If it is true that celebrity trends trickle down to the increasingly primped and pruned masses, then in coming years we are likely to see generations of men incorporate the application of make-up into their daily routine.

By Mimi Haddon Getty Images

The men’s cosmetic industry is thriving; companies like Clinique and L’Oreal have finally struck gold on a hereto untapped market and it’s an easy transition for them to make. To a large degree, the ground-work has been laid. For over 100 years cosmetics companies have employed the finest scientists and experts to brew potions and lotions to suit a wide variety of skin types and individual feature needs. It’s a simple rebrand, repackage, change of marketing strategy and hey presto it’s ready to roll out.

Many men rebut projections for the future of the sex. Some argue that because the male ideal physique is traditionally rugged and burly that these marketers cynical play on male vanity will not work. But they would be missing the point - the aim is to convince that these qualities will be enhanced, making them more striking, more sexually appealing and more affirming of masculinity.

There is an art in applying make-up and its greatest successes are the most subtle. No one is suggesting that men will start utilising the rainbow of eyeshades to match their manbags any time soon. Men’s cosmetics are more tactful; it is about covering up blemishes and the use of shadow to highlight the contours of the face. The product ranges of the most popular men’s lines like Calvin Klein and Clinique are all geared towards shine correction, concealment and enhancement. They have not yet dipped into the more decorative items.

The state of play is changing, but perhaps, not as quickly as cosmetics companies would like. The men’s fashion industry in the UK is now worth more than €25bn a year and rising; men’s cosmetics in the region of €870m.

The main buyers of ‘guy-liner’ and ‘manscara’ are the under 24’s and the market is expanding.  Beauticians are increasingly offering their services to men, there are hundreds of YouTube tutorials of how to achieve the no make-up look and – in short men are plugged into the beauty trade.

As fourth generation feminists continue the battle over unrealistic depiction of perfection having a distorting effect on young women’s body image – the question is what effect are these paradigms of manhood having on young impressionable men? 

The simple answer would be - it’s making them more conscious and concerned about their appearance. Not such a bad thing really, well not yet anyway. The industry has not yet reached the destructive proportions that marketing to women has had but the method of delivery is the same. Convince you that your appearance is inadequate and offer you a quick-fix solution.

The question becomes are men somehow immune to the influence that the exposure to images of perfection that populate the media? How will men fair when their insecurities are turned against them and the pressure to look a certain way becomes the norm?

One of the areas where it will really hit is when it comes to employment.  When men start to lose out on the jobs front because they are not aesthetically up to scratch, how will they react? There are host of recent surveys by recruitment companies that say a clean shaven, well groomed candidates is far more likely to gain employment than one that is not. The pressure increases when you suspect you are suffering personally from societies' ugly side.   

When we talk about pressure that is put on us to look a certain way, it is worth remembering that much of the pressure is self inflicted. While personal hygiene and general grooming are always welcomed and style and self-confidence celebrated, there is no pride in falling prey to astute marketing and succumbing to the pressures of insecurity and vanity that has been assimilated into ‘femininity’.  It is hard to detach, but it is not impossible and the result can be more rewarding.  

Nothing is constant and just as femininity has changed and adapted through generations, so too will masculinity. But this time, what it is to be a man is being reshaped to fit in with our evolving cultural values in a context where most of the major pitfalls of marketing influence are as obvious as the billboards that promote it.  


First published in Seamus Magazine June 2012

Turning 30 will always be a milestone, even if the road it's on changes.

“Age is just a number, it doesn’t really mean anything,” assures a friend. And yet here we are discussing how to celebrate my 30th Birthday. And besides, she can easily say that, she’s not turning 30 for another 10 months.

Planning these celebrations inevitably leads to questioning what exactly is so great about this particular anniversary. It’s a milestone, the passing of every decade is and although these annual inevitabilities only carry the significance we attribute them, leaving your twenties behind and entering into your thirties does seem to carry some extra weight. 

My family are the first to start commenting on it; the things I should know, own; wear and “not be at” now that I’m “turning the big three-O.” All said in that jokey way where the “but, seriously” is silent. My friends tell me to pay no attention; I take to the internet for solace. 

“21 is the new 30” reads a headline. Relief; But it’s not true, because turning 30 is something more, it is a passage into maturity.

When celebrities, particularly women, turn 30 the media mark the milestone with interviews and commentaries asking how they feel about it, what it might mean for their look and their career. And when our time comes we end up asking the same questions of ourselves. In the spotlight or not, the preceding months can contain a mixture of excitement and anxiety; and with all this talk of change it hard to keep the issue at bay. 

 Anne Hathaway and Beyonce recently turned thirty, and both gushed about the experience. They saw it as a badge of maturity and were happy to enter this new phase. Being 29 is an odd age in a way; you’ve done so much and are practically 30 without the title. Although saying I’m in my 20s is technically true, I don’t feel entirely honest, it really only feels about 10% true.  

However, some celebrity stunners like Kim Kardashian have spoken of their age anxiety. Psychologists Anne E. Barrett, Cheryl Robbins in Florida State University identify three main sources of age anxiety; fertility, declining attractiveness and health. But it is the latter two that cause the most distress and women suffer more of it than men. 

I don’t usually make a big thing of my birthday, but I have to concede that it does feel like the ending of an era, and it would be a shame to not hold a funeral for my twenties. 

I’ve decided on a simple celebration, close friends going out for dinner and then to the local late bar.  And instead of asking myself, what am I going to wear? I’m asking what I can wear?  Does my hemline have to drop an inch or two? Easy on the eye-shadow? 

 For all but few, by 30 the inherent, vibrant beauty of youth has passed. The beginning of a battle against the signs of ageing has begun; close inspections of foreheads for wrinkles, and eyes for crows-feet increase. And I can’t help but being more captivated by those pseudo-scientific terms that anti-ageing creams throw at you. 

Beauty experts say that prevention is better than cure. There’s no cure for wrinkles except Botox or surgery and it’s too soon for that. But it’s time to pay attention and start a routine that will keep it at its best, damage to skin will not be so easily repaired now. Heavy make-up ages you too, so the older you get, the older it makes you look. So from now on, less means more. 

Health-wise turning 30 is a pivotal point, especially for smokers. A recent study in the UK shows that women can cut the risks of tobacco- related death by 97% if they quit before 30. I stubbed my last cigarette out years ago but everyone should do some form of physical activity, and it needs to be tailored to age. Those that do tend to have lower mortality rates. 

For over 30s the World Health organisation recommends either 2 ½ hours of moderately strenuous activity or 1 1/2 hours of intense activity a week; and that is just for the minimum maintenance. There's much more work to be done if improvements are to be made and to delay middle age spread.  It might be time to pick up the pace on my nightly walks and start a new hobby or two.

In my twenties I created an image of who I wanted to be by 30; and like me many people created this image of the future in the boom years, basing it on projections of never ending opportunities. The only way was up. Life as a 30-year-old now is quite different to how most people who spent their carefree twenties riding the Celtic tiger thought it would. 

Laughing about how unrealistic our expectations were at 21, my nearly-30 friend confesses “I thought I would walk straight into a well-paid job after college and planned to be earning about €50k a year by the time I hit 30. But at least graduating at the dawn of a recession has taught me not to plan too much, and just focus on enjoying life and being grateful for what I have.”

So I didn’t shoot up the career ladder and instead of weekends in Europe and trips to New York I’m grateful for a few pints and later turning a friend’s kitchen tiles into a dance floor. And it’s difficult not to feel a little disappointed and frustrated at times.  

Your twenties are fun and can be wonderfully carefree by comparison to what comes later in life. But the experiences you have in these glory days should strip you of your naivety and prepare you for what is to comes next. So having seen Ireland, friendships, relationships and jobs go from boom to bust and back again over the past ten years, as well as promises from my mother that I will see it again someday, I feel more knowledgeable, capable and confident that I can cope with whatever comes my way. 

I head out the night before the big day, and half-way through my birthday celebration, my friend hands me a big leather book – a photo album of me, my whole life and so many of my friends had contributed to it. I was overwhelmed, not just at the thoughtfulness of the gift, but because looking through those photos I realised that most of the great things that happened to me were totally unplanned, unexpected and completely off course; and that some of the hardest times have made me stronger, smarter and better prepared for the future.        

As such I’d know this all along, but only really felt it then; and my thirties really began to feel more like a blank canvas, now standing on a sturdier easel. 

And no social-guillotine fell when I hit 30. There is still frivolous fun to be had, wild nights out and duvet days. There’s just a little more work to be done on the serious side of life and with the knowledge gained the results are more successful.

In general, there are signs that things in Ireland are picking up. But even if it doesn’t, at 30+1 month years-of-age, I can see how much I’ve learned, how much better I understand the world and how to navigate it. And I’m looking forward to the next ten years now I’ve an idea how much more is to come and that I’m prepared to make the most of it. 

They’re the best years of your life I’m told. And I believe it, they could be now that I know what to do with them. So now I’m telling my 30-minus-a few-months-old friend not to worry; that age is just a number, but if she thinks about it, it is one of the best.   

The last letter of a condemned man is a sad thing; a last letter undelivered, is tragic.

There is something about someone’s final words, the last messages they leave before they die, that are uniquely poignant. For most of us they are the only windows into the mind of one immediately facing what comes to us all, death.

They are the insights into final thoughts, the most deeply and long-felt emotions; the last chances to set old wrongs right and send messages of love and comfort to those who will grieve. The last letter of a condemned man is a sad thing to behold, but a last letter undelivered, is tragic.  

This year the final letters of executed prisoners, Jimmy Melia from Dundalk and Thomas McKeown from Bellurgan, made their way back to Co Louth; but 90 years too late and their intended recipients, Melia's brother and McKeown’s mother, never got the words of comfort.

Patricia Marmion, a relation of Alphonsus Marmion who was to deliver the letters in 1923, travelled from America to bring them closer to their intended destinations. It is hoped that descendants of the families may come forward and the messages of Melia and McKeown will, in some respect, finally make their way to their families.

“I am as happy as when I was christened,” Melia wrote to his brother; McKeown told his mother he was only going on a “long journey"; words that could have brought solace to the families who would mourn them.

They were young men, well liked, caught-up in a civil war, and whose deaths caused widespread grief. Copies of the letters are on display in the Louth County Museum, but their origin is in January 1923, in an Italianate Gaol, where two men awaited execution and another was to go free.

Thomas McKeown's letter to his mother who never read it.

The journey that brought Melia and McKeown to pen their final letters in a dank cell in the Dundalk Gaol is sketchy with records lost, memories faded and some parts untold.  

For almost two years Civil War, caused by the Anglo Irish Treaty, tore Ireland apart and its legacy is still seen in Irish society today. Civil war is a cruel master: capital punishment was reintroduced by a provisional ‘Free State’ government in September 1922, the war not yet won. It was reserved for those who engaged in terrorist offences and would be handed down after trail by military tribunal.

Thomas McKeown, an anti-treaty man and thought to be a member of the Irregulars, was found in possession of firearms; 20 year-old James Melia was charged with a similar offence having been found with arms at Dowdalls Hill, Dundalk, Co Louth. The ‘terrorists’ were arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. These condemned men spent Christmas in jail, and on January 12 1923, four months before the war came to an end, Thomas McKeown was shot by firing squad. Ten days later on January 12, Melia met the same fate.

Their deaths caused much outrage and sorrow: “perhaps the most poignant feature of the executions at the time was that three of the lads were barely out of their teens. Besides, all of them had been extremely popular and their deaths under such circumstances, saddened everybody no matter what their political views were,” reads an article about the executed men.  (Dundalk Democrat October 18 1924)

The first to face the firing squad was Thomas McKeown. On the night before he was to be shot, Thomas wrote to his mother. He asks her not to be sorry for him as he will be with his father in heaven and promises to watch over her. "I suppose all who know me will feel sorry for me but poor little James I fear will feel it the most. I wish yous all the best of luck one and all of you," wrote Thomas. He didn’t spend the night in the dark after he'd finished writing, he asked for a gas light to be brought in so he could spend his last hours speaking with God. 

Six men were executed in Dundalk Gaol that January, Melia was among the last and would have heard the shots that took his friends. James Melia, Jimmy to those that knew him, wrote to his brother: “Well old sport, there is not much you can do for me only pay Joe Murray 2/- I owe him. Then I will clear with the world.”  

Jimmy Melia's letter to his Brother written January 21 1923

A young man with faith, Melia seems to have made peace with his fate: “please don’t worry for me. I received the Last Sacrament of the church and Fr Kerr was with me for a couple of hours and I am as happy as when I was Christened. I am only going on a long journey and I am only going to meet my poor mother & father & Sheila we will be able to be together in a happier land waiting for you and Paddy,” he wrote.

Both men spoke of their reconciliation with god, and promised they would be waiting for their loved ones in Heaven. The men wanted their families to know their souls were safe, and that they would see them all soon.

“Do not be sorry for me for I will soon be with my Father in heaven and I will watch over you while you live. The longest life is but short so you will soon be with me,” wrote Thomas McKeown.

Their families never read their final words, and for a time, they went without their bodies to bury too. The Government of the day only returned the men’s’ bodies to their families in October 1924.  Their burial was one of the most renowned events in local history, one that has been seen at many civil war funerals since.

An article from the Dundalk Democrat at the time describes “the scene as of the most extraordinary occurrence to which Dundalk was ever treated.” As the two men and four others were buried three volleys of shots were fired from revolvers as a gun salute, in response the nearby Military rushed the mourners with bayonets extended and a graveside gun-fight ensued, with hundreds caught in the crossfire.

As the men were laid to rest to the sound of gunfire and panic, their last letters, their calls for prayers and to fight on, the words of comfort for the families who stood by their graves were en route to America where they would stay for the next 88 years.

 20 years old Jimmy Meila bids a final farewell to his brother, Peter. 

Alphonsus Marmion was freed from Dundalk Gaol sometime after the men’s’ deaths and took the men’s letters with him. Here again, the story breaks down, little is known for certain and there is much room for guessing:

What is certain is before arriving in Dundalk Gaol, Alphonsus had been imprisoned in Newbridge, Co Kildare for 10 days. He had been found using a knife to make a ring out of a royal coin and was arrested for disfiguring the Kings Coin. He prized the instrument of his imprisonment dearly and passed it onto his son, Harry who also treasured it too, passing it back to a niece in Ireland not long before he died.

The descendants of the Marmion family gathered together to see the letters passed to Louth County Museum, but even with so many memories gathered, Alphonsus’s journey and the letters, is unclear.

Some of the family remember being told that Alpholnsus was associated with bombing of the Dundalk Gaol on July 26, 1922 by anti-treaty factions, freeing more than 100 of their comrades, including Frank Aiken. Many of the men had been recaptured. (Incidentally the bombing of Dundalk Gaol is an astonishing and gripping story in itself – more to come on this) Alphonsus’s name is not in the registry at Dundalk gaol at the time but it is still believed that he was in prison with the men when they were executed. Another thing is certain, that Alphonsus, who they knew would leave prison one day, was given Melia and McKeown’s letters with instructions to deliver them to their families.

Melia and McKeown were executed in January 1923 and it seems certain that Alphonsus had the letters from then to the day he left Ireland for Liverpool in 1924. The Civil War was over only in name, in the hearts of many it raged on and the scars of war were raw still. There may have been safety concerns, some of the family suggest he had gone into hiding in the area before fleeing for his safety. Nothing is known and the stories that have emerged are different and incomplete.

But what no one knows is why they were never delivered. Alphonsus did not disregard the letters; he kept them safe and secures all his life. He did not keep them secret either; his family who visited him in America knew of the letters, a few were allowed to see them, fewer again to handle them.

With his death, much of the story passed away with him. But his son, Harry, had the same reverence for the letters his father had and he too kept them safely. In 2008 Harry Marmion passed away, his wife, Patricia, thought that it was time the letters returned home. Patricia, their daughter, Elizabeth and granddaughter, Niamh, brought them back to Ireland, to Dundalk, home.  

Even with much of the descendants of the Marmion family in one place piecing the puzzle together, only snapshots of the past emerges and much of the story is supposed. These final words, unread by those that mattered most, are among the sorriest of letters to read, their story incomplete, but what is clear is that they are steeped in tragedy and saddest parts of their tail are yet  untold.

Thomas Mc Keown’s last letter the night before his execution

13^th January 1923

My Dear Mother,

Do not be sorry for me for I will soon be with my Father in heaven and I will watch over you while you live. The longest life is but short so you will soon be with me. All you can do now if to pray for me as my soul may be waiting at the gates of heaven for your prayers. I was at confession tonight and will be at holy mass in the morning and also will receive holy communion which will be offered by Rev Father McKeown Administrator Dundalk and Eamonn Donnellan P.P. H. Town for the welfare of my soul so I feel quite happy and fully reconciled to Gods holy will. Indeed I would not be better done for if I were at home. Father McKeown has obtained permission to have the gas lighted in my cell all night so I am not going to bed. Instead will spend the night speaking to god in whole presence I shall be before this time tomorrow.

I suppose all who know me will feel sorry for me but poor little James I fear will feel it the most. I wish yous all the best of luck one and all of you. I shall see you no more; But let none weep for me when I am gone for it is for Ireland and Ireland’s freedom I die. And it is also the holy will of god. And you my comrades, pray for me and remain true to the faith and to the I.R.A. And I will pray for you and Ireland in Heaven.

So now, Good night, and Good-bye

Forever.

Jimmy Melia’s Last Letter

Executed on Monday 22^nd January 1923 in Dundalk Prison,

Dear Brother,

Received your cigarettes sweets & oranges and I am very thankful for them. Well old sport, there is not much you can do for me only pay Joe Murray 2/- I owe him. Then I will clear with the world. Well Peter, please don’t worry me I received the Last Sacrament of the church and Fr Kerr was with me for a couple of hours and I am as happy as when I was Christened. I am only going on a long journey and I am only going to meet my poor mother & father & Sheila we will be able to be together in a happier land waiting for you and Paddy, Nellie, Maisey, Frank and James.

Well Peter I am thankful to almighty god for is kindness to me and my pals for giving us such a long time to prepare before we go to meet him.  Remember me. To all my old pals and give them my best regards and tell them to say a prayer now and again for me and don’t forget to say one yourself. Well Peter, I might to have saying that and know you will pray for me because you loved me as a brother as I loved you. Well Peter, I think  I shall come to an end trusting that they Almighty God in heaven will be good to us as I am sure he will and also to you and all my pals.

I am ending up now until we meet again in Heaven, So keep your heart and fight  for the old cause till it’s won.

For dearest of Brothers, your loving Brother

Jimmee  XXXXX

“Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” – Cady, Mean Girls.

French maids, sultry secretaries and no doubt a few virginal Anastasia Steele’s will all be making appearances this Halloween Night. But for many  men and women putting together a Halloween costume is less about the scare factor and more about the sex factor.

After the unprecedented success of 50 Shades of Gray, this year women in particular are likely to be as confident as ever to display their sexuality. One of the most remarkable aspects of the phenomenon was it was women bringing sex into everyday life as they read the book on trains, cafe and lunch break. Just a quick dose of arousal before it’s back to the grind stone. And that is what Halloween is all about.

This year it started when Kim Kardashian tweeted pictures of herself shopping for a Halloween Costumes in L.A., all of which were chosen to extenuate her ample assets “Rawarrrrrr!” she teases, “Shopping for Halloween Costumes.” Seizing the opportunity the tabloids ran with photo galleries of top 10 sexy celebrity Halloween costumes. And right on cue, feminist blogs began the annual demonization of the women to don the Risqué outfits and those who promote them. They talk of the hyper-commercialisation of Halloween and how sex is used to ‘sell’ it in the same way it’s used to sell just about everything else. 

But this is just another calendar date in the sexualisation is slavery versus sexual empowerment debate which has been raging among women since they first realised that showing a bit more leg can sometimes get them ahead in life.  A worthy, but heavy debate, and its Halloween- surly time to let loose and have some fun?

Yes, Halloween, like everything else in western society and been sexualised for commercial gain, but unlike Mrs Clause costumes that would make a French maid blush or Easter’s Playboy bunnies, Halloween remains rooted to its ribald history and at least in this respect – nothing has changed. Old customs find new ways of expression and it would appear especially at Halloween. Even the elaborately carved pumpkin began as a humble turnip, scooped out to create a simple lantern.

Initially as autumn harvests were brought in, people took stock of what they had prepared for the winter and then they celebrated by praising gods of harvest, fruits and seeds, the gods of reproduction- and it was sexy then too. Halloween has a long and fractured history with origins in the world’s pagan Harvest Festivals and is generally celebrated in some format wherever autumn descends.

Even when early Christians rolled all these festivals into one 'All Saints Day' it was regularly celebrated with costume parades that descended into wild parties and licentiousness. Up to the mid-18th century it was celebrated in rural areas with ritual fertility rites and cities erupted in carnival-style parties.

With the emergence of Victorian morals, Halloween became less public and more a private, family holiday. Costumes became more demure, homemade, and it became an event that was largely focused on children. But, it wasn’t long before opportunities to shed the daily obligations of manners, humility and chastity were seized upon by adults too and Halloween could scarcely escape its rather virile origins.

By the turn of the century children celebrated the ghouls and ghosts that emphasised the pagan and the Gothic. Meanwhile adults were inspired by the emerging pop culture and started to use Halloween to emulate the sirens of the silver screen and an excuse to show a little more flesh than was usually acceptable. Then when Hollywood started making heroes for kids, they adopted their guises at Halloween too.

By now the deconstruction of this strict moral code is almost complete with a particularly rapid decent in recent times and we regularly see displays of and everyday outfits designed to titillate and excite. Raucous parties fuelled by alcohol and lust are a standard weekend for many. But at Halloween it has an added Oomph! as the feast-day continues to invite modern revellers to draw on its origins to inspire costumes and capers.

So perhaps what we are seeing at Halloween is simply all the layers of traditions past piled on top of one another, from trick or treat to the humble origin of the carved pumpkin as a turnip. Bonfires harking back to pagan times are still lit to ward off evil spirits with effigies of Guy Fawkes thrown on top.

And so it would seem that the costume parades of the All Hallows were bound to find a place in modern society where we still celebrate bounty and are partial to a carnival; where the call to emulate screen sirens is in the daily papers and we still need an escape from the daily rules and routines.

The classic benefits of the Classics

30/01/2013

By Niamh Kirk

Waves of modern publishing phenomenon like 50 Shades of Grey are adding more books to reading lists, but the growing virtues of Classic Literature could be set to topple the pile.

At first they may appear irrelevant and dull compared to some contemporary classics and modern bestsellers. They may bring back memories of school years spent grappling with antiquated language and Victorian etiquette which can be alien to a teenage mind.  But reading the pioneering novels of western literature is proving to be more beneficial to contemporary readers than their original audiences.

Classic literature helps boost brain-activity researchers from the Science and English Departments in Liverpool University have found.  The challenging prose of Shakespeare and Wordsworth triggers more electrical activity in the brain than the same texts written in modern language.

Using scanners, researchers observed the brain activity in volunteers reading the works of authors like The Bard and Thomas Hardy. The results showed that their brain lit-up when they encountered difficult phrases or unusual language. Prof. Philip Davis who worked on the research found that the syntax locks into, shifts and modifies established pathways in the brain. It triggers moments of refection and helps with self-understanding.

He says the research is still in process but is looking to the effects of authors like Charles Dickens who he believes have a similar effect.  Another phase of the research will look at their therapeutic benefits.

So, not only can the Classics help make us smarter, they could prove to make us happier too. And, there are also indications that the Classics really do make for a good read, they stimulate the brain and they encourage you to read on.

Despite being bumped further down the all-time bestsellers list by Da Vinci Codes and rampant 20-somethings they continue to top must-read lists the world over.  They retain captive audience whose brains are lighting-up, and reaping other rewards too.

For the past three years the Gutter Bookshop in Templebar hosts a monthly classics bookclub that has not only been full since its inception, but has a waiting list crammed with members eager to join. Getting involved encourages members to read the books they always meant to but never did. “Sometimes people need a little prompt to read the classics,” says owner Bob Johnston.

The group just took advantage of an extended Christmas beak to tackle Alexandre Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo. For Valentines’ Day they are reading Charlotte Bronte’s, Jane Eyre.   

“The themes are still relevant and capture your imagination. True love, or being hard done by, those themes carry; and mixed with a great story make a great read,” he says.

They earned their place in the cannon due to their accessible and engaging narratives as well as their exposition of universal themes.  And because of this, most avid readers have at least one classic they hold close to their heart. ”Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites,” says Christine Mullaney a TEFL teacher whose preoccupation is crime thrillers.

“It’s not stuffy; it’s about Female self worth, faith in personal beliefs, and overcoming societal requirements. Family ties, sisterly bonds, fatherly love, and of course the realisation that outward pride and conformity does not always mean inward conceit and unpleasantness.”That’s a lot of life-affirming messages from one novel published in 1813.

In libraries they are still in high demand as new generations joining find their way to the classics section. There are arguments that the Classics are not the best introduction to reading for younger people, but many libraries host additional classic sections specifically for teenagers and find they too are keen to gain the knowledge of the canon and escape to the foreign country that is the past.   

Younger people will take interest in the big literary sensations like Harry Potter and Hunger Games says Mr Murphy, Acquisitions Officer for the six libraries and two mobile libraries in County Louth. But this doesn’t distract from their literary heritage. These phenomena act as a gateway to the Classics. “People who read will come to the classics eventually,” he says.

But it is the older readers that cause the spikes in demand for a classic in libraries and bookshops. Brought on by the entertainment industry’s frequent revision of the past; the classics are mined for good and relevant story ideas for big and small screens and are ever-poised to reenter popular culture. And it is these adaptations, although not always as loyal as they could be, help keep classic literature alive and well.

So, while the Gutter's bookclub were in Marseille, 1815, following young Edmund Dantes and that accursed letter from Napoleon, cinema audiences were being transported to the same year, where only miles away convict Jean Valjean was meeting a Bishop.

The industry around ‘Les Mis’ the musical has sustained interest Victor Hugo’s classic but the release of director Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables spurred a surge in reprints and rising sales.

However, according to the County Louth librarians TV adaptations in particular stimulate a return to the original. The 2012 BBC version of pre-WW1 novel Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford being the most recent to lure viewers from screen to page. 

Referring to the Nineties adaptations of Jane Austin’s novels, Mr. Murphy, said that this is why she weathers so well. It helps dispel prejudices that the classics are drab. “When it’s on TV it reaches people who wouldn’t think of picking it up,” he says.

And despite being long deceased, the cultural gravitas of the authors can still send sales figures upward according to publishing industry ratings company, Nielsen Bookscan. “Dickens had a strong year in 2012 helped by all the media attention around the bicentenary of his birth,” says Nielsen BookScan researcher, David Wailte.     

Now new mediums are bringing the heroes and heroines of classic literature back to life. Graphic novelists are turning to the classics, giving them a whole new dimension and fresh perspectives.  Taking advantage of public domain books, authors from Bram Stoker and Mary Shelly to Leo Tolstoy and James Joyce have all been given a graphic makeover and gained legions of fans.

The Classics have even been 'zombiefied.' The parody novel, Pride Prejudice and Zombies, by Seth Grahame-Smith who credits Jane Austen as his co-author is also being made into a film.

When expensive copyright goes out, classics are in. As well as giving contemporary creative industries a free reign with the text, the Classics are also the cheapest books on the market, saving big readers small fortunes. There are hundreds of websites hosting freely downloadable copies of out-of-copyright novels.   Project Gutenberg was the first. Set up in 1971, the volunteer-led digital archive’s aim is to encourage distribution of their 44,000 free public domain literary works.

Tens of thousands of people visit the site daily to get a free read, and they are mostly going for the classics. In the past month alone more than 112,000 Charles Dickens, 92,000 Arthur Conan Doyle and 85,000 Mark Twain novels have been downloaded. Hugo’s Les Miserables is currently being downloaded more than 10,000 times daily. The project and its spin-offs get millions of hits daily. It is safe to say that the classics have secured their places on future digital bookshelves.

There is more going on between the covers of the works in the old literary canon than we might have supposed. And it might just be time to ignore the hype surrounding the next big literary release and put one of these free, brain-boosting, and beloved by many novels to the top of the pile. 

Stepping from stage to screen, Les Miserables.

30/01/2013

As a medium, theatre and cinema have been weighed against each other since the first actors stepped off the stage and on to the silver screen. But rarely are the two so directly comparable than with Tom Hooper’s Hollywood treatment of stage show sensation, Les Misérables

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There have been 61 film adaptations of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, and despite being arguably the better medium to showcase this epic, none have matched the success of Herbert Kretzmer’s adaptation of Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel's stage musical. For more than 25 years ‘Les Mis’ has surpassed any of its onscreen counterparts in terms of box office success and the cult following it commands.

Hooper brings the musical to the big screen free from the confines of the theatre and takes the opportunity to show fans much more of Hugo’s world. Not just in terms of setting, but also by offering a much closer look at the characters and a more personal experience. 

He filmed the solo pieces live on set in one sequence and because of this you still get the onetime-only performance feel that will resonate with fans of the stage show. There are arresting moments when shots are momentarily out of focus or oddly framed and it adds a raw, real-time quality that complements the gritty atmosphere.

During these performances, the actors are not lost in the vastness of an empty stage with their inner turmoil’s emanating from largely the music and vocals alone. Here, however, we see Hugo’s characters in the true depth of their personal hells and the sets are meticulously constructed to his vivid specifications. The physical and emotional decay of Fantine in her grotty corner of a brothel and Valjean’s crime in the humility of the Bishops home is far more palpable when you’re brought into the room with them.

Anne Hathaway’s Fantine is more vulnerable and defeated as she has no need to retain the sense of composure a stage performer must to deliver the mighty, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’. It is during these solos that it sounds quite different to the musical but the quality of the performances coupled with the intimacy the closeness it affords, gives audiences a more authentic experience of their misery and hope.

It is easy to see why Hooper refused to make this film without Hugh Jackman in the lead role as the convict seeking redemption, Jean Valjean. Jackman is a veteran of stage musicals and film alike, and it shows. His lonely battle of conscience in ‘Who Am I’ is graphic and emotionally charged. The anguish of Valjean is much more clearly seen, if more quietly spoken.

However, Russell Crowe’s Javert is disappointing; he clunks through the lyrics and embodies mostly his stoicism and little of his complexity that should mirror Valjean’s. The fact that some of the rhyming couplets in which the lyrics are composed have been changed jars the ear and strikes discord with Javert.

It was inevitable that in the move form stage to screen some of the vigour in the ensemble pieces would be lost. The reverberations from a hundred strong cast booming ‘Do You Hear the People Sing’ charges an audience.

The big choral numbers are still thunderous, but can be undone by such a simple thing and
something one would never consider in a theatre, the volume. It needs to be loud; the intensity of the insurgence will be somewhat deflated if the songs of rebellion compete with the rustle of crisp packets.

However, how the various scenes that comprise the ensembles are linked broadens the narrative and compensates. We see it all, Javert plotting in the police headquarters, as Valjean plans his escape, all the while behind the barricades Marius agonises over Cosettee. The subplots no longer share the stage, but set in their different location and it enhances the sense of the plots intricacy.

It is an intense two and half hours. The film, like the musical and book, is an emotional deluge. But not endless, there are uplifting numbers; the rambunctious Mater of the House by Helena Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen as the Thénardiers. As well as the cheeky and charming introduction to the ‘Second Act’ by Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche who is reminiscent of lovable rogue, The Artful Dodger in Oliver. 

Both theatre and cinema have virtues the other can never reproduce, only compensate for. Hopper has a powerful foundation in Victor Hugo’s classic, and another in the musical which has almost upstaged it. This adaptation will be enjoyed by fans of the stage show for its return to the gloomier roots of its illustrious stage success, and its more authentic experience of Hugo’s masterpiece. And newcomers will get an insight into lure of Les Miserables, whether written or sung, that has captivated so many

By Niamh Kirk

Craft Community News - European Sustainable Craft Network

http://www.ccoi.ie/content/view/360/186/

What the F.F.F?

12/03/2010

From their first appearance at ‘Jamburger' in 2009 the girls have been busy with face painting and poi performance as well as delving into their bags of tricks for some new acts, making any event an extravaganza. So I caught up with Sarah to see what they have been up to and what the future holds for the Festival Face-Painting Fairies.

If you haven’t come across the F.F.F. yet you are in for a treat. Sarah Hopkins (22) and Grainne Murphy (20) have been adding a bit of magic to local events as the Festival Face-Painting Fairies for a few months now. On inquiring as to how it all got started Sarah is more than willing to give an honest account. “We wanted to get into Jamburger for free so we said we would do some face-painting at it, we decided to go as fairies and it was a festival, so Festival Face-Painting Fairies. It all took off from there.” Since then the girls have worked at various fairs, festivals and parties. They delighted crowds at Christmas in the retail park and in the Spirit Store in the post-Jamburger revels.

The girls are keen to keep up the good work and hope to soon start entertaining at children’s parties and other local outdoor occasions. “I have always loved everything creative and have painted for years. It seemed like a natural progression to move into face painting. It’s something that combines my love of painting with getting out and meeting people."

Like everything in life this has its weird side “The weirdest thing I’ve been asked to paint? A kid once asked me to paint him as Dr. Who! The best I’ve ever done was my mate Gav; he was painted as Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit. The worst, a guy asked to be done as a ‘scary metaller’. I tried to do red spirals on his cheeks but he ended up with rosy cheeks and lip-stick.” Terrifying indeed.

But the girls are not limited to face-painting and regularly perform poi; recently they were seen at the live performances in the Dundalk’s Market Square on St. Patricks Day."I love Poi because I have a passion for music and doing Poi allows me to visually represent the rhythm and the mood of the music or song, which is a lot of fun". Grainne agrees, "Jeez I like spinning because it’s addictive and relaxing ...as well as keeping you fit and it’s a good feeling to see people enjoy something you’re creating." 

It was Grainne that first started poi and got Sarah interested, after that they worked together. They are self taught, but always help each other out with new moves and ideas. “ My favourite song to do poi to, and it’s only because I started to listen to it around the time I started to get good, is Pretty Visitors by Arctic Monkeys, Grainne’s is pretty much anything by Infected Mushroom.”

Sarah is full of helpful advice for anyone interested in starting poi too. “The best thing to do is go to YouTube and look up ‘how to make sock poi’.  Always practice listening to your favourite songs and above all, have fun,”

The summer is coming and Fairies are becoming more active. “Well we are going to a Poi Festival, Sothern Lights, in the U.K. this summer and hopefully performing Fire Poi at the Electric Picnic”.  F.F.F. are also currently working on including hoola hoop, staff and contact ball into their already program of spectacular skills.

The girls are big supporters of the local music scene and I had to get one or two tips before I left. “Go see Insanity or I’d Fight Gandhi, or maybe DJ Yea Buzz from Drogheda.” 

We couldn’t help discussing the scene in general which begged the question was there anything lacking in Dundalk music scene? “Venues, especially for under age gigs somewhere like the AOH would be good. Yea brings back the AOH... imagine if the AOH was around now, Facebook would have a heart attack.”

But venues are no issue for these adaptable ladies. Fuelled by an entrepreneurial spirit and creative energy The FFF are set to paint the town red, and yellow and pink and green.....

By Niamh Kirk
Published www.highway67.net March 2010