CONTORTED PASTA

Been a while since I've done one of these ... but at the same time, it's been a while since I've been working on something that has allowed (or indeed necessitated) interesting words coming in my ears. But the last week or so I've been doing the most extremely basic colouring-in, so interesting radio has been essential.

Actually, the main thing I have to link here isn't radio at all, but rather a free(?!) course from Yale on African-American history. It goes without saying that I didn't learn much about it in school; for all my TV intake was heavy in history documentaries, they were mostly cheap imports from a British knacker's yard and so rather short on the existential struggles of Black America – and I'm not sure my interest would have been piqued if they were. There is a very long post about race, media, and unconscious bias brewing, so I will say no more here; suffice it to say that there's a gap in my knowledge that is overdue being fixed, and finding this link provided the perfect opportunity to fix it.

AFAM 162 with Prof. Holloway

If you want to go all-in, there are reading materials and everything on the site as well; I've mostly been listening to it as a 'radio' lecture, but I do highly recommend switching over to watching it when he's definitely showing something. It's not a bucket of laughs, but for the first time since getting into the Oregon Trail back in Grade 5 I find myself being inspired by American history, which had hitherto been little more than a history of acquisition, be it by war or purchase or just sheer bloodymindedness. It's like discovering a spinoff series that is better than the original, and even though I consider myself to be fairly well historically informed, it has completely upended my perspective on most things. Do give it a spin.

Having been deep in the guts of these lectures all day provided the most serendipitous moment when Poetry Please, a programme I don't dislike but only ever listen to by accident, came on while I was cleaning the kitchen. The guest was a sociology professor by day, Marvel writer by night, and being a Black woman from Chicago, laid down a killer hand of poems which I would not have understood nearly so well without the fresh contextualisation. Poetry Please with Eve Ewing

And then there's the usual roster of radio plays and whatnot ...

Journal of the Plague Year - Another not-exactly-radio, but made by someone from the radio! Daniel Defoe was only a wee bairn when the Great Plague hit London in 1665, but as an adult he researched the heck out of it and wrote this mock first-hand account. Simon read it, and I listened while sewing masks, back at the start of the pandemic, and I may have linked to it then. It has become no less relevant, and the excellent reading helps smooth over what might be awkwardly archaic language on the page. (Classical theatre training FTW!)
The Divine Comedy - Dante's epic poem of the afterlife is another gaping hole in my education, but a friend of mine is super into it, so I thought I'd give this a listen just to get my bearings. I'm sure a fan of the original would find it cringey, but I thought it rather good, so maybe you will too.
Sparks - I had trepidations about this musical which juggles grief with dating, but it turned out to be really touching and well-executed, with good tunes as well, so I pass it on to you.
London Particular - A three-part drama about living within layers of history; time travel is no new narrative conceit, but this does it in a fun way that goes some interesting places. It starts out a little slow, but by halfway through ep.3 I was hoping it would be a regular series.
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham's classic is not actually about killer plants so much as what happens to society when it's had the rug pulled out from under it, and as such, it's as timely now as it's ever been.
Cadfael: Virgin in the Ice - This was probably my favourite episode of the TV series, to which I was devoted as a teen; usually this is bad news for radio adaptations, but Bert Coules works his mystery-radio magic so well I don't even mind that it's not Derek Jacobi in the lead.
Elephant in the Room - Panel show in which weirdo comedians measure up their likes, dislikes, and life experiences with public norms. Worth listening for the made-up names of respondents alone.
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue - It's been an interesting year of live shows now being recorded in isolation – ISIHAC's recording tour was interrupted by the first lockdown, but the format actually made the transition to Zoom panel quite well, though the zaniness inherent in the show might be a good cover ...
Genius - Guests present to an certified genius (of some stripe or other) to ascertain if their ideas are, in fact, genius or not. Sadly the 'how to determine the opposite of anything' episode has expired, but they are all good. I especially recommend the Armando Iannucci one.
The Consultants - One of my regular favourites in the genre of Barmy Sketch Show. Often office-based but not always. Occasional songs.
What Does the K Stand For? - I have a bit of a soft spot for this sitcom about a first-generation Nigerian family in South London because it was airing when I first moved to London, and it was such a different perspective, with such strong characters.
The Brothers Faversham - Silly fake Victorian biographical sketches of an over-the-top family, with bonus "ads" and occasionally a surprisingly poignant moment.

Well, I'm off to continue getting schooled while doing my colouring-in (funny how they'd never let you do that in actual school), so, happy listening!

While I was packing and tidying in advance of travelling, I turned on Radio 4 and heard the most perfect spiel about the interdependence of mankind and how we've been conditioned to reject it. But I was busy, so didn't look it up, and failed to note the day or time so I could look it up in future, and so I thought it lost.

Tonight I was doing a bit of busy work, and as such was looking for something to stuff in my ears to keep the other half of my brain happy. Browsing the Radio 4 website I found a comedy show about philosophy. Sure, that sounds like my bag, I thought, and then most of the way through there it was! That speech! Only now I had context.

The programme revolves around a study done by psychologist Cyril Burt on separated twins to determine if intelligence was a heritable characteristic. The study suggested it was, and formed in large part the basis for the post-war educational system in the UK, in which children at age 11 would be tested and sent either to a grammar school, for the high achievers destined for University, or a comprehensive school, where the nation's future factory workers and shopkeepers would be taught enough to get by.* Later it was discovered that the co-authors Burt cites in that report quite probably didn't exist, his data was fishy, and he'd burned a lot of his notes and records before his death. But despite the shade this cast on the validity of his research, the educational system's method of testing and segregating students continued, along with the cultural ramifications of making education a competitive enterprise.

So then we come to this:

The two-tier system, built on Burt's fraud and bizarre fantasies, is with us to this day. It is a system built not on science, but on a brutal individualist dogma that flies in the face of what science tells us about the type of creatures we really are. We are social mammals. Not all mammals are social: polar bears, golden hamsters, and Siberian tigers are not social mammals. But Chacma baboons, gibbons, elephants and African hunting dogs, Alpine ibex, indri, bonnet macaques, and we, are. To be a social mammal doesn't mean to be gregarious at the weekends, but helplessly dependent on each other our whole life long. Our sociability is an ancient instinct that we share with other primates. Rhesus macaques, isolated from birth, quickly learn to press a lever that projects images of other Rhesus macaques on the wall, and there is some evidence to suggest that the macaque starts to pretend to himself that the macaques on the wall are real. He invites them to play, offers them food, cites them as co-authors on a paper on inherited IQ in identical twin macaques separated at birth. We have a profound and lifelong need for each other, against which instincts the education system inculcates the philosophy that the bulk of your peers are impediments and a block on your hopes for self-realisation.

Cyril Burt is, of course, on Wikipedia, and you can listen to the programme here: Rob Newman's Total Eclipse of Descartes

( And now, some navel gazing. )

*The two-tier system was largely abolished later in the century, but efforts have been made by the current government to bring it back, albeit in a somewhat disorganised way. It's a very contentious issue, and there was a lot of debate on it before Brexit took up everyone's available brain cells.

I do frequently wonder if the grammar/comprehensive test (known as the Eleven Plus) is why age 11 is so significant in British children's literature. Obviously that's the age at which you get your letter to go to Hogwarts, but it's an age that pops up in many previous books. Then again, it's also a great age to make your child protagonist – grown up enough to be rational and autonomous but not enough to deal with puberty – so maybe it's a coincidence, or comes from a much older tradition.

Imagination is fun. Imagination is grand. Imagination can make a hostile world livable, expand the borders of your life, make a new reality, connect you to others, fill a void, reveal deeper truths, and paper over ugly ones.

But sometimes you need Hilary Mantel to talk you down.

Back to the BBC this week. There's an embarrassment of riches. I can never stay away long.

COMEDY
Mark Watson Talks a Bit About Life - Mark Watson's series are always a nice half hour of apparent anarchy and lighthearted distractions, which I suspect are actually rather tightly written.
The News Quiz - The weekly quiz of the week's news is back, and with it a modicum more balance in the universe. This week, Susan Calman talks about cake, or possibly the soul of the nation, it's hard to tell.
Newsjack - Even more topical comedy, this time in the form of sketches.
Listen Against - This used to be vaguely topical, but is still funny enough to rerun out of date. As near as possible to proof that Radio 4 is its own universe.
Look Back at the Nineties - Never topical; it was a show written in the early 1990s as a prognostoretrospective of the later 1990s.
Safety Catch - A sitcom about a reluctant arms dealer, featuring also a very enthusiastic arms dealer and someone who works for Oxfam. Hilarity ensues.
99p Challenge - It's nominally a panel game, but ... like a panel game in a loony bin. What you really need to know is, it's hosted by Sue Perkins. Perkins forever.
Heresy - People are funny about controversial things.


DRAMA
The Idiot - I don't usually like 19thC drawing room dramas, but Dostoevsky has the gift of being able to see through all the upper class nonsense that other writers take so seriously. I am always perplexed when people complain of things that reflect slightly less positive aspects of reality as being 'dark' – THIS is DARK. Here, have a magnificently prepared feast of perspective.
Ivan the Terrible: Absolute Power - More Russian drama, this time historical. I haven't listened to this yet, but Mike Walker's historical epics are usually worth listening to, Sasha Yetvushenko is a dependable director, and David Threlfall is my Iago, so I forecast quality.
We - Yet more Russian; in this case a dystopian speculation something like Brave New World, but from the early Soviet era.
A Tale of Two Cities - A production from a few years ago, but always worth a listen when it comes back around. Andrew Scott makes Charles Darnay actually sympathetic, and Lydia Wilson gives Lucie Manette an actual personality. The text is messed around a bit but the drama is so good I find I don't mind.
A Dream of Armageddon - H.G. Wells' vision of the future of war. A reading, not a drama, but certainly not a comedy ...

There's probably a lot more to be found on the listings, but it's been a brain-heavy week again so I am not the one to bring it to you.