Amazon, 'Harmful' Literature and Theatre, Lighter Moments
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| The Smiling Amazon Alexander Christie (1901-1946) Photo Credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums [CC BY-NC] |
Hundreds of Amazon employees have stopped work at the online retailer's warehouse in Tilbury in Essex in response to a pay rise of only 35p - about 3% - compared with inflation that is now forecast to hit 13% later this year...
It is understood workers at the facility earn a minimum of £11.10 an hour, with those employed for at least three years on a minimum of £11.35. They are calling for £2-an-hour raise but both groups are being offered the 35p deal...
Amazon does not recognise trade unions in its UK warehouses, or in most other countries, but the GMB said it would support members on site who had faced disciplinary procedures.
The UK action comes after Amazon workers in New York voted to form a union in April as they seek and an hourly wage of $30 (£24), up from a minimum of just over $18 per hour offered by the company...
Amazon's current starting rate of £10.50 is above the £9.50 legal minimum for those aged 23 and over. Heavy competition for warehouse workers during the pandemic led to Amazon offering hiring bonuses of up to £3,000 last autumn.
However, delivery drivers have complained of real terms pay cuts since the peak season last year.
(Sarah Butler, The Guardian, 2022)
(The founder of Amazon, a certain Mr Bezos, earns over £215 million a day.)
'Harmful' Literature
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| A Portrait with Books Madge Gill (1882-1961) Photo Credit: London Borough of Newham Heritage Service [CC BY] |
Universities have started removing books from reading lists to protect students from "challenging" content and have applied trigger warnings to more than 1,000 texts, an investigation by The Times has found...
The classic play Miss Julie by August Strindberg has been withdrawn from a module at Sussex University because it includes discussion of suicide. English students at Aberdeen University are also told they can opt out of discussions about Geoffrey Chaucer and medieval writing as the course "sometimes entails engagement with topics that you may find emotionally challenging"...
Some of Britain's most influential authors - including William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie - are among those whose works have been deemed to require warnings...
Students on the courses accused their professors of censorship and treating them "like children". Politicians and free-speech campaigners said the decisions harmed students' education as it was impossible to learn properly about atrocities such as slavery while sanitising the reality...
(Paul Morgan-Bentley, James Beal, The Times, 2022)
So, some of the reasons given for warning students include: "Graphic description of violence and abuse of slavery"; "contains discussion of suicide"; "shocking or controversial language/subject matter"; "Racist, sexist, bigoted, Islamophobic satirical press cartoons with strong language"; "Humour that is not inclusive of people who are trans or non-binary"; "Fatphobic content"; "Upsetting scenes concerning the cruelty of nature".
A course on critical thinking and a willingness to question received wisdom if there is the evidence for it would help to dilute this ludicrous nonsense.
*Sir, Can anyone explain why some adults seem to think that students who have been brought up on Game of Thrones (which features rape, torture and murder), and who unfortunately have been exposed to misogynistic online pornography since their early teens, need to be protected from gruesome literature?
(Ruth and Karen Godden, Redhill, Surrey, The Times, 2022)
*Sir, As one of Sussex University's foundation year I read with interest of the trimming of its book list. A far cry from 1961 when our idealistic tutors thought they were updating and fostering renaissance man. The intention was to expand awareness, stimulate far-reaching debate and challenge ingrained assumptions. My tutors must be whirling in their graves.
(Margaret Brown, Burslem, Staffs, The Times, 2022)
*Sir, I fear overprotection from such literary content will have the same effect as overprotection from bacterial infection. Young people will fail to develop intellectual or emotional resistance and be easy prey for anyone peddling dangerous concepts.
(Jane Wood, Manchester, The Times, 2022)
Theatre Audiences
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Despair, Eric Harald Macbeth Robertson (1887-1941) Photo Credit: Glasgow Museums [CC BY-NC-ND] |
…The policy will bring accusations of indulging politically correct, over sensitive parts of society, something denied by the theatre’s executive producer, Henny Finch. “I don’t think we’re pandering,” she said. “I think it is just about being considerate to all audiences, making sure everybody feels comfortable and making the theatre as accessible as possible.
…there are five specific advisories for its new production of David Greig’s Europe, which opened last week. They include: “In the first half of the play, a man repeatedly places his hand on a woman’s leg, to her discomfort.”
“In the second half of the play, a man beats up another man due to his status as a migrant.”
“in the second half of the play, a man describes a violent attack on a woman.”
”Hopefully, they give people enough information about whether they want to prepare themselves for a show, or decide whether or not they want to come,” she [Finch] said. “I think the world is changing and audiences expect different things, and we have to be responsive to that in the theatre.”
The move could be seen as mirroring the “trigger warnings” that are increasingly used by universities and colleges to warn or shield students from potentially disturbing content.
The theatre critic Mark Shenton, president of the Critics’ Circle said the move was a step too far. “Theatre is all about surprise, and by accommodating the sensitivities of some of its audience it could be ruining that surprise. You can’t protect people from everything. It will ruin the theatre.”
(The Guardian, 2019)
*Theatre at its best aims to be entertaining, unpredictable and ground-breaking.
Unexpected moments and plot twists hold the audience’s attention, prompting people to ponder bigger questions and perhaps even shift uncomfortably in their seats as they do so. This must come as news to those running London’s Donmar theatre who see it as their role to guard against causing any potential distress to members of the audience or showing anything on stage that might trigger challenging emotions.
…But isn’t the point of a play sometimes to take people out of their comfort zone? Isn’t the surprise effect – an essential component of any good drama – ruined by such trailing of specific content?
…This pandering to the smallest likelihood of offence is blighting modern culture, with “trigger warnings” commonplace. Universities routinely use them to warn students of content they might find upsetting. Twitter is dominated by people expressing fake outrage over something because it is deemed to have hurt their feelings.
It isn’t the job of theatre producers to police everything for the audience, even in this hypersensitive age: causing offence is part and parcel of any good drama.
(Jawad Iqbal, The Times, 2019)
Lighter Moments
*A Yorkshire widower wanted the engraving on his wife's headstone to read:
"Lord, she was thine."
The stonemason etched:
"Lord she was thin."
"You've missed out the 'e'", said the husband angrily.
When he returned the next day it read:
"E, she was thin."
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| Laugh of the Moon Dora Gordine (1895 - 1991) Photo Credit: Dorich House Museum, Kingston University [CC BY-NC-ND] |
I'll say. Not since a student was slammed in a cell for calling a police horse "gay" has there been a bigger overreaction (the horse was furious. It was bisexual.)
(Carol Midgley, The Times, 2022)
*Sir, I was smiling at the wit of George Bernard Shaw: "Martyrdom ... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability," when it occurred to me that the great man evidently never foresaw the advent of Love Island.
(Lynette Cassidy, Huddersfield, The Times, 2022)
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