50 results
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Revolution in the Head
I was aware of the rumblings before that: the dim awareness that going to the pictures meant receiving a warm embrace from big-sounding music, and that covering my ears when I was frightened made more sense than covering my eyes, as somehow the worst thing I could hear would be much worse than the worst […]
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Tania Branigan
More than 50 years on, the Cultural Revolution’s scar runs through the heart of Chinese society, and through the souls of its citizens. Turning family members against each other, sending 17 million young people from the cities to the countryside, the deaths of at least two million people, the Cultural Revolution engulfed society. Stationed in […]
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The Universality of Orwell’s Message
There were other books that ought to have been more frightening – War of the Worlds and Lord of the Flies are just two examples – but the sheer bleakness of Nineteen Eight-Four left a more lasting impression. As with Franz Kafka’s The Trial, the impact of Nineteen Eighty-Four is in the fact that there is no way out. ‘If you want a picture […]
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Is It Time for Universal Basic Income?
In recent years, interest in Universal Basic Income (UBI) has grown around the world. UBI is an unconditional income paid to every individual. It is a payment that is not means-tested or made conditional on work-status. Advocates of UBI argue that it represents a fair, simple and efficient way of supporting individuals, in contrast to […]
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Adrian Wooldridge
Meritocracy is the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their status at birth. For much of history this was a revolutionary thought, but by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world’s ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from […]
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Early Film Pioneers: Orphans of the Storm (1921)
Set in late-eighteenth-century Paris, this epic melodrama tells the story of two orphaned sisters – Henrietta (Lillian Gish) and Louise (Dorothy Gish) – caught up in the early days of the French Revolution. It provides damsel-in-distress thrills, romance and astonishing technical accomplishments while delivering a worthy message about different social classes working together without hatred […]
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Coleridge Series
The annual series inspired by the lectures delivered in Bristol by Coleridge in 1795.
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An Introduction to Nineteen Eighty-Four
This blog provides background to the novel. Plot Outline Winston Smith, a re-writer of historical records at the Ministry of Truth, lives in London, the main city of Airstrip One, a province of the state of Oceania. Oceania is engaged in a perpetual, unwinnable war with one of its two neighbouring states. One of the […]
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My Life on Screen
It has helped me formulate ideas, create a bank of memories, forge friendships and develop philosophies. It has provided inspirations that have illuminated my world and given me a new language with which to interpret it. My treasured cinematic moments have taught me about feelings and made dreams come true. Writing has given me the […]
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Is It Too Late to Create a Mayoral Model That Works for Bristol?
Clive Stevens was a Bristol City Councillor (Green Party) 2016-2021. He is the author of After the Revolution, Lessons from Local Government on Designing a Dynamic Democracy (Bristol: Tangent Books, 2020). This article is part of Bristol Ideas’ Referendum 2022 debate which looks at all aspects of city governance as part of ongoing work on democracy and […]
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Changing Bristol's Governance is a Distraction
Estella Tincknell is Associate Professor in Film and Culture at UWE Bristol. She was a Bristol City Councillor for Lockleaze between 2013 and 2021 and was Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Culture and Equalities from 2016 to 2017. The article is part of Bristol Ideas’ Referendum 2022 debate which looks at all aspects of city governance […]
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Reading Bristol
Over the centuries, Bristol has provided the backdrop to many colourful novels and poetry, and has been the subject of much rich historical analysis in biographies and non-fiction works. With help from our friends, colleagues, booksellers and librarians around Bristol, we have compiled this reading list of some of the best examples of Bristol in […]