Sheikh's Spear - Coriolanus

The character of Coriolanus is commonly considered representative of Shakespeare’s play by the same name, critically regarded as unpopular and lacking emotion. This, however, does not take away from the complexities of the context and characterization of the play. In his play Coriolanus, Shakespeare characterizes Caius Martius Coriolanus as a war-minded hero in order to emphasize the disparities between military and political success, and the typical struggle to gain both.

When the word ‘hero’ is mentioned, images of quintessential heroes such as Superman or King Arthur may be evoked, however Coriolanus embodies a more realistic hero: the anti-hero. This suggests that although displaying heroic traits (which will be discussed), he also possesses notable flaws, perhaps even overpowering his heroism. From the beginning of the story, Coriolanus (or Caius Martius as he is known at this point) is portrayed as unlikeable, or in fact hated, by the general public, being described as “chief enemy to the people” (Act 1 Scene 1). This is a result of his distaste, even considered to be fear by some scholars, for the plebeians, or “curs” (Act 1 Scene 1), “rogues” (Act 1 Scene 1) and “parasites” (Act 1 Scene 9) as he refers to them among a multitude of names. This detrimental relationship, along with his excessive pride, is a prominent fault characterized within Coriolanus in the first act which foreshadows the hero’s inevitable downfall. It is the way in which this anti-heroic character is implemented by Shakespeare into the story of Coriolanus however, which provides the play with the complexity which it has.

The fact that Coriolanus is a political play and not that of war is frequently discussed when talking about Shakespeare’s characterization of his characters. As aforementioned, Coriolanus depicts a typical anti-hero, or tragic hero, therefore his role has greater significance as you delve further into the play. What seems to be the primary notion presented is that being a war hero rather than a distinguished political figure, the traits and attributes which provide so much success for Coriolanus on the battlefield are those which cause him to fail in the political battlefield. Although telling his soldiers, “You shames of Rome! you herd of – Boils and plagues” (Act 1 Scene 4) may motivate them to continue fighting for him and their country, speaking to the public saying, “Go, get you home, you fragments!” (Act 1 Scene 1) will not engender the same results, but rather enrage the plebeians due to his hostility and disregard for them.

In this way, Shakespeare uses Coriolanus as a tool, almost like the Roman society who consider the hero to be a war machine as seen when he exclaims “make you a sword of me?” (Act 1 Scene 6), to embody the disparity between military and political success, contrasting with characters such as Cominius who resides in the political game rather than that of war. Through the faults that Coriolanus exudes, Shakespeare intends on showing the audience that success in one thing may cause a fiasco in another, and success doesn’t always carry over.

WiradFURY - Wiradhuri>English?

In this task, we had to take the role of a lawyer supporting the language with previously discussed in our podcasts.

For Wiradjuri:

Intrinsic: Cultural connection, dreamtime stories, historical connection, connection to the land/heritage

Extrinsic: Building bridges that were broken during colonization, respectful to speak the language of the aboriginals

Functional: Specialized to Australia, the land and heritage

Opposing English:

Intrinsic: Definition of rich/noble is subjective; ‘Rich’ to Aboriginals is focused less on societal gain and more related to their land, way that English took over was not ‘noble’

Extrusive: English taught because it was forced to be taught, believed to be superior therefor taught, belief comes from West (like the teachers employed)

Functional: Spoken by all due to that above (forced upon all cultures through hegemonic imperialism), it’s a gateway with significant limits; it cannot open gates to the Wiradjuri people but rather causes alienation

SquadCast - Wiradjuri

Over the weekend and today, Joshua Toore and I took part in a project in which we researched an endangered language and created a podcast based off of this. I've never done a podcast before, but it was enjoyable to try to take in the knowledge we had found and intertwine it into an interview that flowed. I think I did quite well, this being my first use of the informational medium, regardless of Josh's endless attempts to bombard me with immoderate vocabulary with the malevolent animus of discountenancing me to the juncture of perplex turmoil.
Here is the link to Josh's soundcloud where the podcast is located:
https://soundcloud.com/joshua-toor-457044995/back-from-the-brink

Most Meaningful Takeaway Meal

“He holds thus, on a loose thread, the whole circle of shabby-looking trees, the bushes with their hidden life, the infinitesimal coming and going among grassroots or on ant-trails between stones, the minds of small native creatures that come creeping to the edge of the scene and look in at is from their other lives.”

This single statement is one that stood out to me astoundingly. Within this text, all the focus is on the unsung relationship between the author and other man, however this sentence shifts the focus, just long enough to emphasize the eerie silence, as the man stops to recognize the amazement surrounding him, all connected to the Aboriginal man. This chilling imagery sent me back to Australia for a moment – something I wish I could do much more. I reminisce about the silence as a group with nothing needed to be said. This situation offered the silence, but a completely different tone.

In my days of camping in the Australian outback, there many times daily where everything would stop and I could take a moment to appreciate the beauty that girthed me (classic Australian anthem reference there), but the author provides a twist. He mentions the nature, but the notion that the man holds this nature “on a loose thread” delineates his natural-born connection to the land, found only through a historical relationship between man and the land, highlighting the influence of culture on others’ views of you.

The author demonstrates an amazing contradictoriness in that there is a dead silence but concurrently he is able to bring too it so much life. There truly is a sense of restlessness in the outback of Australia, and the power of language is demonstrated through the author’s ability to bring this to life and to create resonation between myself and a land that I may not have a historically deep-rooted connection with, but have adopted as my own.

Strength in Numbers... And Words

Colonial power is one that has always been longed for by superpower countries and developing countries alike. Throughout history, notable empires such as that of the British, French and German have colonized countries such as Australia, USA, Madagascar and Cameroon, creating their own settlements even in places where they may not be wanted. Although it may not be noted as more influential than violence and discrimination, language actually has had immense effects on historical colonialism, and it is without doubt that it has contributed to colonial power today and may continue to do so.

Considering it is my country of origin and as a result of my previous education on my country’s history, I will be making reference to Australian colonialism. As previously discussed both within the article ‘Back to Babel’ and in class, a language is much more than a compilation of words and punctuation; it creates more meaning than simply the words and can almost be described as a living being. I like to compare a language with a human. The language begins its life with simplicity and little behind it (like a baby), then develops with history and memories within it. These memories are like our own: special to the person who has them but is not as special to third parties because they have less meaning. There are some things that only make sense in a single language and are only special to that language. Once that language disappears, or dies (like a human), as have many, these memories are lost, or the significance of these memories are. Given this significance, people tend to develop based on their lingual background and taking their language away is equivalent to taking away a part of these people.

It is not surprising therefore that colonialism often involves stripping indigenous people of their language in order to strip part of their identity, making it psychologically easier to discriminate against them due to the dehumanization of the indigenous inhabitants. This colonization caused major controversy as a treaty was never signed when the First Fleet arrived, and following attacks back-and-forth, the British superiority in technology and numbers led to their victory. As has been the case in most colonized countries, the indigenous people are forced to speak the dominant language, thus causing the gradual integration into that colony as prior culture, traditions and beliefs are partially lost with language.

Language even has an effect on how this historical event is viewed today. Aboriginals (indigenous Australians) frequently refer to the colonization of Australia as an “invasion” rather than a celebration, and while many celebrate Australia Day which is coming in the next few weeks, it is beyond doubt that several protests will carry out from indigenous activists on the day. This simple choice of words demonstrates the opposing perspectives and ultimately demonstrates the power of language in dictating historical attitudes to events such as colonization.

Language may be overviewed as a colonial catalyst, however it has immeasurable influence and power over the success of colonization considering its ability to dehumanize and record events of colonialism. 

Generation 'Like for a Like'

Dear Mr. Fisk and Board,

I would like to bring to your attention an exciting opportunity which I firmly believe that Starbucks should take advantage of. In my years of working for this company, I have observed significant growth, however I think here at Starbucks, we have unused capacity and haven’t reached our full potential in reaching out to our consumers and the people who should be our consumers but aren’t yet because we haven’t worked hard enough to persuade them to join us.

If you’ve kept up with the people drinking your coffee and buying your foods, you will observe that the age of Starbucks consumers is steadily decreasing, and I believe we need to adapt to suit our target audience. Coffee is for everyone, but the brilliance and variety found in our bistros appeals especially to teens and young adults, and there is one thing that connects these people and that is social networking.

I’m sure by this time you’ve heard of the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’, ‘Rickrolling’ or GoPro’s renowned video of a skateboarding cat. These three phenomena seem strange or unorthodox, however this is the power that social media has in today’s society. With the right creativity, which I very well know our company has, we can pick up a storm on social media, thus improving our consumer base and ultimately increasing sales and success. 

Today’s world is centred around ‘likes’, ‘follows’, ‘retweets’ and ‘shares’: imaginary things that are as simple as a click of a button, but have the potential to provide unlimited amounts of data. 14-year-old Jade from Dubai loves the new ‘Pumpkin Spice Triple Mocha Extra Shot Cappumochaccino with Double Caramel Cream and Soy Milk’? Why not let her friends know by ‘tweeting’ about how it kicks off her day and ‘following’ the official Starbucks Facebook page to let us know?

Social media is like nothing we have ever seen before. Never have consumers been able to interact with us so easily, and interact with their friends to build the consumer base even further. These days, as a large corporation, if you aren’t heavily invested and involved in social media, you are missing out and will be left in the dust.

In this way, our consumers are part of our campaign. They don’t even have to enjoy Starbucks coffee, but if we can convince them to share our content – whether it is an ad, a competition, a collaboration, anything – we suddenly have an influx of people all around the world seeing our products and brand and associating them with success, creativity, humour etc. This is the kind of relationship that is vital for the success of our business, and is imperative for further development.

Put simply, the benefits of social media campaigning and interactivity outweighs all other methods of advertisement in today’s society, and investing in it today would not only improve our relations with consumers, renownedness and data collection, but also encourage further development and open new opportunities (e.g. fan ideas from competitions and consumer input), undoubtedly leading to success for years to come.

I hope you consider my preposition which seems to be a step forward for Starbucks.

Kind Regards,

Ben Thomson

Starbucks Marketing Associate

Responsibility Fragility and the Possibility of Susceptibility

When was the last time you went anywhere or did anything and didn’t see advertisements? It doesn’t matter what you do – go to the park, watch a movie, play a game, visit a website, go to a football match – you see advertisements. We are exposed to them even when we don’t know it from birth. There’s some strange belief constructed by corporations that the more you see their name or logo, the more likely you are to invest in them. And when the revenue of the U.S. advertising and related services industry in 2013 exceeded 100 billion dollars (Statista.com), you’d have to guess that advertising works.

There is, however, consistent controversy around the ethics behind some of the ads that end up everywhere, and for good reason. I’d like you to imagine something for me. Imagine you’re walking to school one day with your 6-year-old cousin, and look to your left to see a poster with a man lifting a car advertising protein powder, look to your right to see a billboard with women shopping advertising Gucci, and look forward to see televisions showing a grease-covered giant of a man fighting a shark advertising Bruce Willis cologne. You slowly turn around praying there are no outrageous displays. Of course your cousin follows suit, to see an ad for an adventure camp claiming only the manliest can handle it. Your little cousin turns to you and says “I’m going to be strong because I’m a boy!”

We may recognize advertisement exaggeration, but others may not, and the more they are exposed to it, the more something seems to be true. That’s why it’s crucial that advertisers consider who will see their ads and how it will affect them. These companies are gaining more and more power, but as the great line goes, “with great power comes great responsibility”.