{"id":2672,"date":"2021-05-27T20:27:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T19:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/?p=2672"},"modified":"2021-05-27T21:54:49","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T20:54:49","slug":"thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration-by-the-english-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/2021\/05\/27\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration-by-the-english-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking in Crisis Times: A Collective Exploration by the English Department"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Thinking in Crisis Times: A Collective Exploration by the English Department 2020-21\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VbKtoxsUXHo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Thinking in Crisis Times: A Collective Exploration by the English Department 2020-21.<\/p>\n<p>For Thinking in Crisis Times, students at King&#8217;s responded to the first term&#8217;s readings with a series of poems (see <a href=\"https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/history\/\">https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/history\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In the Spring term, a call was issued for submissions on the topic of the Extra\/Ordinary, which elicited a range of powerful work in the form of writing and images.<\/p>\n<p>The selected submissions for Thinking in Crisis Times on the topic of the Extra\/Ordinary are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rosemary\u2019s Bodies<\/strong> by Sarah Arnold, <strong>Body Talk<\/strong> by Finlay Cousins and <strong>Living in lock-down<\/strong> by Lauren Mappledoram.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>(also published at: <a href=\"https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/extra-ordinary\/\">https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/extra-ordinary\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Rosemary\u2019s Bodies<\/strong> by Sarah Arnold<\/p>\n<p>I sit and recall<br \/>\nHow Rosemary\u2019s Bodies push through the doors,<br \/>\nA ruffle of coats and scarves and masked faces,<br \/>\nTraces of names and numbers on spreadsheets,<br \/>\nAs we carefully distribute bodies,<br \/>\n\/\/ ARE YOU ALL FROM THE SAME HOUSEHOLD? \/\/<br \/>\nNavigate space and time and streamline groups in a one-way system,<br \/>\nScattered around the perimeters of the bar.<\/p>\n<p>How table service changed our dynamics, for<br \/>\nThe government broke down our barrier.<br \/>\nBehind the wooden tiles and the ale lines,<br \/>\nWe had to emerge, and leave the bar to<br \/>\nLocate bodies on the floor, on a map by the till<br \/>\nTo find the throat down which the drink would flow.<br \/>\nBut Rosemary\u2019s Bodies, they\u2019re creatures of habit and keep coming up to the bar.<br \/>\n\/\/ SORRY LOVE IT\u2019S TABLE SERVICE \/\/ They just can\u2019t help it.<\/p>\n<p>So we blast the old rules and cast aside our dark colours<br \/>\nAnd we shuffle past you for a quick cig, and we ruffle past you for a soothing drink,<br \/>\nAnd we push ourselves into the arms of your dangerous comfort,<br \/>\nYour body up close, where the pub is an obstacle course of escape routes<br \/>\nWith particles of potential danger crowding the air,<br \/>\nAnd yet the only safe space, and so we hide our face, and rush on and off<br \/>\nAgain.<\/p>\n<p>I sit and recall<br \/>\nHow again we had to cry TIME<br \/>\nAnd after all,<br \/>\nWe need to finish all the cask ales.<br \/>\nAnd we burn through the kegs quickly, and the casks need more attention,<br \/>\nAnd the lines need to be cleaned in between,<br \/>\nAnd none of that matters now.<br \/>\n\/\/ HURRY UP PLEASE IT\u2019S TIME \/\/<br \/>\nRosemary\u2019s Bodies are never keen to leave,<br \/>\nWe circle them like shepherd dogs<br \/>\nTo drive them through the gates, abandoning all hope to return.<br \/>\n\/\/ HURRY UP PLEASE THAT\u2019S TIME \/\/<br \/>\nWe force their drinks into plastic cups and we force their bodies back out, out, out.<br \/>\n\/\/ ALL NEED TO BE OUT BY 10 \/\/<br \/>\nNo one\u2019s allowed on the property. \/\/ I\u2019M SORRY &#8211; WE DIDN\u2019T MAKE THE RULES \/\/<br \/>\nBut we\u2019re accountable (service, objects, kin).<br \/>\nWhen they leave, we are left to collect the heaps of glasses,<br \/>\nWipe their remains off the tables,<br \/>\nAnd cleanse the space from the spectres of bodies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Now, as I sit and recall, it\u2019s, indeed, another day,<br \/>\nAshy cigarette particles settle<br \/>\nOn the remains of the white gazebo<br \/>\nBelow into the garden of the Rosie.<br \/>\nPlastic drapes scattered, a skeleton on grass carpet,<br \/>\nThe wind has burst us into pieces.<\/p>\n<p>I gaze down from my balcony,<br \/>\nFrom the outside looking in, it\u2019s strange.<br \/>\n(Once the barmaid\u2019s left the bar, she\u2019s useless.)<\/p>\n<p>The weather\u2019s made its massacre<br \/>\n(What\u2019s the gazebo needed for without Rosemary\u2019s bodies huddled beneath?)<br \/>\nAnd so I sit still through another storm and recall<\/p>\n<p>\/\/ LAST ORDERS \/\/<\/p>\n<p>My lips twitch.<br \/>\nOne last time we rang the bell.<\/p>\n<p>\/\/ THAT\u2019S TIME \/\/<br \/>\nAnd that\u2019s time for another four weeks.<br \/>\nAnd what\u2019s time but another four weeks?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Sarah Arnold is an MA Modern Literature and Culture student at King\u2019s College London. The poem &#8216;Rosemary&#8217;s Bodies&#8217; is about the ordinary\/extraordinary experiences as a barmaid at the Rosemary Branch and is very much informed by her studies in modernism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Body Talk<\/strong> by Finlay Cousins:<\/p>\n<p>Body Talk<br \/>\nHolding<br \/>\na phone riddled with<br \/>\nthe rumour<br \/>\nof how many,<br \/>\nthe rumour of death,<br \/>\nthe rumour of<br \/>\nrevolution.<br \/>\nWrite one that makes us ache<br \/>\nwith remembering,<br \/>\none that doesn\u2019t let<br \/>\nthe language slip<br \/>\nthrough the seasons.<br \/>\nOne that trespasses<br \/>\nclouded horizons of<br \/>\nsoot, walls, brick,<br \/>\nmortar, screens.<br \/>\nStop us losing<br \/>\nthe real talk,<br \/>\nthe body talk,<br \/>\nwhen every word<br \/>\nis another life<br \/>\nand who<br \/>\ndoes life belong to?<br \/>\nAnd reading the news<br \/>\nis reading each other,<br \/>\ncredit,<br \/>\nenterprise, distraction,<br \/>\nlashings of calls into<br \/>\nradio stations<br \/>\nbecause the more<br \/>\nyou hear<br \/>\nand are heard<br \/>\nthe better.<br \/>\nAnd the host<br \/>\nframes the stories,<br \/>\ngold-rimmed<br \/>\nbread crusts<br \/>\nready to be<br \/>\npolished off<br \/>\nuntil even thinking<br \/>\nbecomes gluttony<br \/>\nand life,<br \/>\na cocoon.<br \/>\nWhat happens<br \/>\nto the landscapes<br \/>\nin our rooms? The soot,<br \/>\nbrick, screens, mortar,<br \/>\nwhen we turn<br \/>\nin the street and embrace,<br \/>\nshake the dust<br \/>\noff solitude,<br \/>\nwhat happens to the moon<br \/>\npinned<br \/>\nby a safety clip<br \/>\nin the corner?<br \/>\nThe small<br \/>\ntracks of<br \/>\nfootsteps that<br \/>\nsunk into<br \/>\ncornices of the carpet.<br \/>\nWhen we drive a hook<br \/>\nthrough a cheek and<br \/>\nslip away,<br \/>\ndo they slip away?<br \/>\nHow much does<br \/>\ntrauma pay?<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Living in lock-down<\/strong> by Lauren Mappledoram:<\/p>\n<p>When my watch stopped and days melted like ice cream \u2013<br \/>\ndid I come to my senses?<\/p>\n<p>I saw how the sofa would sag<br \/>\na little more each week,<\/p>\n<p>how disco music thudding through the wall<br \/>\nwould sound so distant \u2013<\/p>\n<p>I pressed my head to the bricks and heard blood rush,<br \/>\nthe sea roared in my ears like a conch.<\/p>\n<p>Under my door, smells of cooking drifted,<br \/>\nginger, rich makani sauce<\/p>\n<p>and sounds of muffled laughter. I counted three voices,<br \/>\ntheir words clear as custard.<\/p>\n<p>One morning, my peppermint tea got infected<br \/>\nby dish soap that slipped in, tasting of hospital visits.<\/p>\n<p>Now, outside my window the sky stretches stark blue<br \/>\nand I can do nothing but stare.<br \/>\n&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>(also published at:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/l\/living-in-lockdown\/\">https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/l\/living-in-lockdown\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>If you have suggestions or want to become more involved, please contact the Thinking in Crisis Times organisational team.<\/p>\n<p>This initiative is organised by the Department of English, King&#8217;s College London. Please get in touch if you&#8217;d like to be more involved or have any suggestions.<br \/>\nContact: <a href=\"mailto:thinkingincrisistimes@gmail.com\">thinkingincrisistimes@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\"><i>Blog posts on King\u2019s English represent the views of the individual authors and neither those of the English Department, nor of King\u2019s College London.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>You may also like to read:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/2020\/08\/12\/the-plague-lit-pod\/\">The Plague Lit Pod: Reflections on New Radio, Learning in Lockdown and Global Pandemic<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/2020\/09\/27\/the-lion-series-8-carving-your-own-path-or-guidance-for-students-from-underrepresented-groups-at-kings\/\">Carving Your Own Path, or, Guidance for Students from Underrepresented Groups at King\u2019s<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/2020\/07\/15\/lockdown-reading-recommendations-from-the-english-department\/\">Lockdown Reading Recommendations from the English Department<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thinking in Crisis Times: A Collective Exploration by the English Department 2020-21. For Thinking in Crisis Times, students at King&#8217;s responded to the first term&#8217;s readings with a series of poems (see https:\/\/thinking-in-crisis-times-a-collective-exploration.webnode.com\/history\/). In the Spring term, a call was issued for submissions on the topic of the Extra\/Ordinary, which elicited a range of powerful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aesthetics-philosophy-theory","category-insights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2672"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2686,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2672\/revisions\/2686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}