Presidential perks

On the 9th March 2012, I was elected President of Comparative American Studies Society, or CAS Soc. Next month, I will hand over to my successor in a cavalcade of personalised hoodies and flags, provided I am not impeached beforehand. Here is my ten-point plan to running a society:

1)   Pick a society with a successful blueprint, and run with it: I was extremely lucky to have a predecessor who put an incredible amount of time and effort into the society, making it a friendly, fun organisation with many opportunities for inter-year group collective congratulating and sighing in equal measures. I could have started a society from scratch, but I’m not really sure many people would join my ‘Knitwear and Scampi’ Society.

Our risqué tweets: A hit with the DoS

2) Remember the good socials, forget about the bad ones: It’s fair to say that certain socials can be a disaster, for whatever reason. Equally, when our flagship event of Term One, Thanksgiving, came together, with over 30 people, some not even CAS students, dining on turkey and pecan pie, it made the previous week's work pale into insignificance. The temptation is to hold an inquest after every one, debating the whys and wherefores and pinpointing the successes and failures. The best thing to remember is that we’re History & Literature students, not experts in the field of Events Management. Laugh it off, shrug your shoulders, and move on to plugging the next Facebook event!

3) Use the things you love: It’s fair to say I’m an obsessive when it comes to social media, and the CAS Soc Twitter account has given me moments to cherish. I’m not sure how much information has ever been gleaned from it, but when you go to see your Director of Studies for talks over a Year Abroad and come out discussing which was his favourite tweet from the night before, it means as much as a successful social!

4) If you’re wondering about whether you’re running for the right reasons, trust me. You are: I ran for CAS Soc President for a multitude of reasons. It's difficult to rank those reasons, having fast-forwarded a year, but I'm fairly sure 'personalised hoodie' came close to the top of the list. I also wanted something to show from my time at university other than a degree of dubious quality and worth, and, with CAS Soc having delightfully impinged upon most of the things I did in Year One, this seemed like the obvious challenge.

5)  It’s your society. Your time. Use it wisely, young Jedi: Every year things get improved upon, changed, altered, trimmed, cut down, expanded, whatever. If a society’s events had the same appeal every year to every year group, there’d be no need for a committee, it’d be ‘CAS Soc: Just add water’. Thankfully, your creative licence comes to the fore. Who’d have thought that a quiz about the Super Bowl which had nothing to do with the Super Bowl during the Super Bowl would become one of my personal highlights of the year?

6) If you’re not enjoying it, you’re doing it wrong: There will always be times when you wonder if you’ve done it right. Remember the Events Management. If being a volunteer, in your second year of university, working amongst your closest friends to organise coffee mornings and celebrations for even more of your closest friends has become a chore, then you’re taking it too seriously.

A highlight

7) We’re not Warwick Finance Society, we’re CAS Soc: I’ll be the first to admit our society isn’t the biggest or indeed ugliest on campus. That’s why it’s great. When I come to graduate, I won't remember essays about Caste Wars in Mexico; it'll be the dance competitions, and the successful socials that will stick in the mind.

8) ‘The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them’- Richard M. Nixon: You will never get this chance to run an organisation and make so many cock-ups in such a forgiving environment ever again. The next time, if ever, I run a group again, we’ll be out of the pre-season of my career and into the harsh winter of real life. And trust me, it won’t be as fun out there with the real ball.

9) Surround yourself with an exec that no matter how tough a week it’s been, will still laugh at your jokes: I’ve been lucky enough to be accompanied by a tireless committee who have spammed Facebook walls, sent emails down the rabbit hole of communication that is Warwick SU at times, and have reminded me of points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 on an almost daily basis. You know who you are!

10) Smile, you’ve got a new nickname. And a hoodie.

El Presidente over and out.

Dickens, and a Q&A with one of Britain's top writers

The 2012 film adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, directed by Mike Newell, with an adapted screenplay written by David Nicholls, writer of One Day and Starter For Ten was shown at Warwick Arts Centre this afternoon, preceded by a question and answer session with Nicholls himself. I went along to listen to one of the most sought-after writers around.

Nicholls- looks writer-ish, doesn't he? Courtesy of guardian.co.uk

I read Great Expectations when I was in Year 9, having been assigned it by my somewhat ambitious English teacher. The plot is one that every young boy prone to falling in love should familiarise themselves with: the 'haughty and capricious' Estella, perceiving herself to be above Pip's station, intent on breaking his heart, egged on by her vengeful (adopted) mother, Miss Havisham; encountering a fortune and the morals of accepting it; in many ways, it is the ultimate bildungsroman. I would add 'assisting a convict' to the life lessons, but I didn't find many of them in middle-class Worcestershire, unless you count my uneasiness of celebrating Marlon King's goals.

It was a difficult read for a thirteen-year-old. I'm not saying I didn't finish it, but let's just say that Miss Havisham's death took me aback somewhat when I saw it on stage. If anyone thinks that's a spoiler alert, then I feel over 150 years since publishing date is enough grace for a writer to reveal certain elements of the plot.

Anyway, I like Dickens. I like the devil-may-care attitude to his characters' names- this is the man, after all, who called a cruel schoolmaster 'Gradgrind'. (He makes the character of 'Jock Strapp' in Carry On Dick look positively subtle). I like the simplicity of the plots, and I like the misery that comes with seemingly every chapter. If that's a bleak outlook, then consider that eight-year-old me hated Enid Blyton's stories because they were 'too happy' and 'unrealistic'. I'm more at home with plague and rickets than I am with lashings of ginger beer.
I was sceptical about the event for two reasons. Firstly, I've got what I can only describe as 'Dickens fatigue'. 2012 being the two hundredth anniversary of his death (pass you by, did it, what with all the jubilee and sports, did it?), I religiously watched the BBC's documentaries and adaptations, safe in the knowledge that we probably would live a Dickens-free diet for the foreseeable future. And then I see a bus with a poster for more fucking Great Expectations. Only this time with Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham-Carter and Robbie Coltrane. With a cast like that, I begrudgingly admitted that it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

Secondly, I read One Day, Nicholls' most famous novel (or at least part of it), in the upcoming days to the event, and I wasn't overly enamoured. The staccato, oh-so-dry humour of Emma coupled with the raffish charm of raffish Dexter with all his... raffishness. It didn't do a lot for me.

Courtesy of flickeringmyth.com

But he was pleasantly charming, self-effacing for a writer, and an extremely successful one too. The Q&A took place prior to the screening, which wouldn't have been my preference, and most of the questioning was done by a Leamington-based writer. There were roughly sixty people in attendance, students, and the silver-haireds of Warwickshire, including a bloke who wheezed like he might expire on us at any moment. He spoke of the challenges of adopting the novel and remaining faithful to the text. He was reluctant about taking on the project due to the book's much-loved qualities- I neglected to tell him that I failed to finish it. He talked about the cinematic aspects of Great Expectations, (in the process answering the question that I had lined up); and also how Dickens is unfairly described as someone who creates two-dimensional characters. I apologise for the earlier Gradgrind quip, Mr Nicholls. He also said how he is in the process of adapting another Thomas Hardy novel (I gleaned that he meant Far From the Madding Crowd- one of my favourite novels), and his awareness at becoming restricted to 19th century novels.

I even asked a question myself, one of only four to be posed. It wasn't particularly grilling, something along the lines of 'I likes your work Mr David, but do you find it frustrating that Mr Charles has already writed the descriptive bits of the novel and you can't really be as creative, yes, you know?'

Like I said, it wasn't Watergate. But he answered it completely and engagedly, explaining how essentially anything you do is an adaptation of some sort, but yes, he wouldn't be adapting many more works as he liked the challenge of creating the next Miss Havisham. Good luck with that one.

The film itself? It won't change your opinion on Dickens particularly. A fresh adaptation, one that was bleak, but not dreary, and still conveyed the humour of the novel. Yep, Dickens could do funny too, perhaps the greatest revelation to come out of the film for those who absorb the loaded term 'Dickensian'. Ralph Fiennes apparently channelled the eel-man from The Mighty Boosh in his terrifying but ultimately unoriginal portrayal of Magwitch, and Helena Bonham-Carter was Helena Bonham-Carter, which is to say, she played a very convincing turn as Miss Havisham. I've seen three versions of Great Expectations now. One on stage, in Stratford, one on the BBC, and this one. And, sadly, each portrayal of Pip has been instantly forgettable. It's a hard role, probably the most multi-dimensional role in the novel, and as such impossible to do justice to in two hours, but maybe the next version will leave a lasting impression.

Just, you know, leave off the Dickens for a while, okay? Good.

A Brief Tribute

'Each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow'- George W. Douglas

Whether it be the time Darren Carter was about to take the most important penalty kick in our lifetime and your first thought was 'just' to turn to me to make absolutely sure I could see.

Or the time you ran downstairs for the post, scrabbled around, and ran back upstairs to tell me I'd passed the entrance exam for RGS, grinning like a madman. 

Or when we were told we weren't allowed into Old Trafford hospitality areas with our chips and home-made sandwiches, so we stood and wolfed them down on the spot, in the process making ourselves feel sick for the rest of the game.

Two years since my Dad's passing

Or whenever I was getting dogs' abuse when I was a referee and you'd 'just' have a word with me at half time, and for some reason the second half was never as bad.

Or if I had to go to bed at half time in the football and you'd 'just' sneak up to my room to tell me the final scores.

Or if I fell asleep in the car on the way home from a night match and you'd 'just' carry me up to my room instead of waking me.

Or all those times we'd 'just' sit and watch the worst piece of televised sport ever, but it was alright cos we were 'just' discussing how many points Blues would get from the final ten games.

They weren't grand gestures, but they were 'just' the best 17 and a half years anyone could wish for. 

Keep Right On xxx