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Reflecting on the Armenian Genocide

April 2014 marked the centenary of the initiation of mass murders of Armenians in Anatolia—events now known as the Armenian Genocide. As Robert Melson notes in the below introduction to Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ virtual issue on the subject, Turkish governments have consistently denied that the persecutions resulted from a policy of genocide.

The six articles in the issue, including contributions by Donald Bloxham and Taner Akçam, examine various aspects of the Armenian Genocide and its denial.

Between the onset of World War I and the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 approximately 1.5 million Armenians, or more than half of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population, died as a result of deportations, starvation, serial massacres, and mass executions. Though there were individual survivors, by the end of that period, the Armenian community in Anatolia had been essentially destroyed. Not only were Armenians killed, but surviving elements of their cultural heritage, including churches and works of art, were either obliterated or incorporated into the dominant culture—which now claimed that they were of Muslim or Turkish provenance.

These events constitute what has come to be known as the Armenian Genocide. Ever since, the Turkish state has denied that the Armenians were victims of genocide. The official argument has been that massacres occurred on both sides during the First World War, and that, to the extent that Armenians were targets of Turkish or Muslim violence, this was due to Armenian provocations and not to a policy of genocide.

The Turkish “provocation thesis” blames the Armenian victims for the genocide, asserting that Armenian peasants living in the eastern vilayets (provinces of the empire) had nationalist aspirations and were thus prepared to join the Russian invaders at the beginning of World War I. Further, these Armenians aspired to carve out an independent Armenia in eastern Anatolia, and this, according to the thesis, would spell the demise of Turkey.

Though there were individual survivors, by the end of that period, the Armenian community in Anatolia had been essentially destroyed.

Armenians therefore had to be eliminated in order that Turkey might survive. What Turkish deniers leave out is any discussion of independent Turkish nationalist motivations or of policies that included the destruction of Christian minorities in the empire.

Even before the war, the Young Turks had advocated for the creation of a homogeneous Turkish and Muslim society from the multicultural mosaic of the Ottoman Empire. They felt that only a unified state could defend itself against the European Great Powers, and especially from the Russians, who in their view wanted to destroy Turkey. The Young Turks believed that though all Christian minorities were obstacles to Turkish unification, the Armenians in particular constituted a “problem” that needed to be solved. The Armenians living in eastern Anatolia could claim to be the original inhabitants of the area, preceding the Turkish invasion and settlement by centuries. They clung to their culture, language, and religion, and were unlikely to assimilate and become Muslim and Turkish. Moreover, the Armenian peasant masses were concentrated in regions of eastern Anatolia that bordered Russia. The Young Turks argued that, were there to be a Russian invasion, Armenians would support the enemy. World War I provided the Young Turks with the excuse and opportunity to “solve” the Armenian “problem.” That solution, involving deportations, mass starvation, and serial massacres, added up to genocide.

The history of the Armenian Genocide, like that of the Holocaust, and like all history, creates puzzles that seem never to be completely resolved. Meanwhile, for the survivors of the genocide, and for their children and grandchildren, that history is neither academic nor official; it is personal, and it hurts. It is even more traumatic when its truth is denied and its victims are insulted.

Featured image credit: Yerevan, Armenia by David Mark. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay.

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John Capgrave and a medieval view of scholarship as service

John Capgrave is one of the few medieval authors whose birthday we know. As he composed his universal history known as the Abbreviation of Chronicles, he recorded that on 21 April 1393, “the friar who made these annotations was born.” And lest this entry be overlooked amidst the doings of the powerful, he inserted his personal nota bene mark, a trefoil, beside it in the margin.

The Abbreviation of Chronicles, completed circa 1463, was the final work of a long and distinguished scholarly career. Indeed, the sixteenth-century antiquarian John Bale called Capgrave “the most learned of all the Augustinians.” Capgrave entered the Austin friary of his native Lynn, Norfolk, when he was about 17. During the 1420s, he studied at Cambridge, and after becoming a doctor of theology, he began to write. His earliest writings were voluminous commentaries on the Bible written in Latin, but his later works were mostly in Middle English and more popular in orientation. They include saints’ lives, a guide for pilgrims to Rome, and the Abbreviation of Chronicles. Historians of the English language have noted that he was one of the first English authors to aim for orthographical consistency, and the OED cites Capgrave’s writings for the earliest recorded usages of 117 words, including “expression,” “correct,” “monstrous,” “dynasty,” “ripen,” and “narrative.” All of his works except his Life of Saint Katherine survive in manuscripts he wrote and/or corrected himself.

Capgrave’s East Anglia was a cultural center, home to such well-known authors as John Lydgate, Margery Kempe, and Osbern Bokenham; to the Pastons, famous for their family letters; and to a host of anonymous poets and dramatists. Bibliophiles among the East Anglian gentry collected the recognized masterpieces of literature, philosophy, and religion, but they also commissioned new works by local authors, including Capgrave. A strong interest in spirituality among the East Anglian laity found expression not only in Kempe’s autobiography and in the Revelations of Julian of Norwich, but also in enthusiasm for the Lollard heresy, whose suppression preoccupied Bishop Alnwick of Norwich from 1428 to 1431.

Historiated initial from John Capgrave’s Commentary on Exodus showing Capgrave presenting his manuscript to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Doubtless encouraged by this vibrant milieu, Capgrave refashioned traditional genres in surprising ways. His Abbreviation of Chronicles deals with more than the usual political and religious events; it is also a cultural and intellectual history—the first in the English language. Its “annotations” record the invention of the Latin, Egyptian, and Hebrew alphabets; mark contributions to the fields of astronomy, medicine, music, and theology; and commemorate poets, playwrights, and philosophers. His guide to Rome vivifies the edifices of the Holy City by relaying anecdotes about those who once frequented them, from Cecilia, the devout reader of Scripture, to George, the slayer of the dragon. When writing about holy women, Capgrave eschews the conventional obsession with virginity and instead celebrates those who enriched their communities materially, spiritually, or intellectually, whether as teachers, parents, spouses, visionaries, or benefactresses. His Book of the Illustrious Henries, written for Henry VI, is one among many biographical anthologies of classical and medieval times, but where prior anthologizers collected biographies of emperors, prelates, or saints, Capgrave was the first I know of to collect lives of people with the same name.

Capgrave’s greatest contribution to English literature is his life of Katherine of Alexandria, the legendary fourth-century queen and martyr renowned for defeating 50 pagan philosophers in a public debate orchestrated by the Emperor Maxentius. Capgrave embroidered the plot he inherited into a verse narrative of more than 8,000 lines that details Katherine’s upbringing and the difficulties she experiences as a woman governing a far-flung realm before turning to the conventional account of her spectacular trial and death. What is most remarkable about Capgrave’s Katherine is that she is far from perfect. A pampered only child, she has been left for 18 years to do as she pleased—and what she pleased to do was study. When her father dies, she wishes neither to marry nor to attend to the tedious business of ruling the realm she has inherited. Her self-indulgence, Capgrave shows, leaves her kingdom vulnerable to Maxentius’s occupation and leads to her martyrdom. In its moral complexity and in its nuanced portrait of a young woman torn between what she feels called to do and what society sets as her duty, Capgrave’s narrative is unparalleled in any saint’s life. It may also be read as prescient political commentary; by the time Capgrave was writing, Henry VI was being criticized for excessive piety and disdain for the business of kingship, flaws that would bring chaos to England and overthrow to Henry just as they had to Alexandria and Katherine.

One of the most appealing aspects of Capgrave’s character is that, in keeping with the spirit of his order, he viewed service to the community as inseparable from scholarship. Capgrave loved books and learning. He boasts of how he checks his facts, consults multiple sources, and weighs conflicting accounts of the same events to arrive at an accurate result. But he also makes clear that it’s not enough to be a passionate and conscientious scholar: learning must serve others, and thereby God. His Katherine is transmuted from willful adolescent into Christian heroine only when she leaves her books and uses her knowledge to challenge tyranny, to inspire, and to convert. Although many of Capgrave’s day decried anything beyond basic religious education of laypeople as liable to lead to independent thought and thence heresy, Capgrave wrote of theological matters in English and celebrated saints who used their knowledge to educate others. In so doing, he promoted an informed, intellectualized faith as the best weapon in the war against error.

 Featured image credit: Leaf from Book of Hours circa 1460 depicting Catherine of Alexandria, Walters Art Museum. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Debating the right to die

There are so many reasons why we value and promote choice and autonomy. The country and news media quite rightly protests with outrage when bad things happen to good people as their lives and civil liberties are destroyed by acts of terrorism and grievous crimes.

But what about all those many people who are living a life in situations they didn’t want or anticipate? There were no crimes involved, no newspaper reports about their tragedy, but they still got that life-shattering diagnosis. What about those people who, despite even the best care (ignoring the otherwise limited access to hospices, specialists in palliative care, and even GPS), live lives in physical and psychological distress? What about those people with capacity who simply want to make decisions about their life sustaining treatment, even if (perceived by health professionals or politicians) unwise?

A recent news story on the BBC website told of the plight of Omid. The article starts with “Omid was diagnosed in 2014 with the neurological condition multiple system atrophy but is not terminally ill”. As a specialist I would challenge this statement. The public might see this differently from me but multiple system atrophy is an incurable and progressive condition that leads to death. When patients have a high level of disability they can deteriorate rapidly from a complication such as aspiration pneumonia. Omid should be afforded the rights given under the proper understanding of palliative care.

People should be given the facts. People should have their stories told, heard, and understood.

Currently the law in England and Wales allows people (irrespective of having a qualifying diagnosis) to make legally binding advance decisions to refuse even life-sustaining treatment. The law allows health professionals to make life-critical treatment decisions including not offering or the withdrawal of life sustaining treatment including resuscitation. There are legal safeguards in place supported by clear professional standards. The Suicide Act 1961 decriminalised the act of taking your own life but it is still unlawful to assist suicide. In certain circumstances the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) policy tolerates and rarely prosecutes potential acts of “acceptable” mercy where there is involvement of others in the act of suicide, including those who help loved ones travel to Switzerland. In such cases prosecution may not be deemed to be in the public interest, but the potential risk of a lengthy prison sentence undoubtedly adds to the burden carried by both the terminally ill patient and the friend or loved one willing to give them the help they are asking for at the end of their lives.

Another case currently in the news is that of Noel Conway, a retired college lecturer with motor neurone disease and a life expectancy of less than 12 months. He is pushing for terminally ill adults (who currently meet criteria set out in the CPS policy — namely that they must be over the age of 18, mentally competent, and, most importantly, have two doctors agree that their life expectancy is less than six months) to be able to make their own decisions about ending their lives. These criteria would not be met in Omid’s case.

The debate surrounding the issue of assisted suicide is a difficult one, but perhaps it should be up to the people to decide if there should be parity between the right to life and the right to die. Are some people more worthy or having better qualifying diagnoses than others? Who better than the patient (who has capacity) to judge their own quality of life? The Mental Capacity Act already empowers autonomy but this is not translated into what Omid wants: the right to die now before the inevitable later stages of his condition.

People should be given the facts. People should have their stories told, heard, and understood. Are the opinions of society’s privileged and powerful decision makers biased by the fact they are more likely to afford or be afforded better care?

Many people are still dying for this to be answered.

In memory of a very special patient of mine, her loving and supportive husband, and family.

Feature image credit: Sunset at Porto Covo by Alvesgaspar. CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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The mountains are calling and we must act

Muir knew that the wilds surrounding him not only fed his soul but sustain us all. Too many of our current elected officials have forgotten his lesson. They seek to sell off our public lands throughout my western home to view them as little more than sources of oil and gas, and to strip federal oversight that has kept these lands there for all of us, generation after generation.

Every time I watch my children run ahead in the mountains above my Colorado home I know why those public lands matter. My training in earth sciences only reinforced what’s always been personal. I’m a mother, a scientist, an educator, and like Muir of late, facing the call to fight for the treasures we all need.

Every year, I take more than my children to the lands around me. I take groups of undergraduate students out of the classroom and into the open spaces around the University of Colorado. I give them their assignment: observe the landscape closely and formulate a question, hypotheses.

Then I hand them shovels and bags and vials. I teach them how to collect soils, plants, water.

They work enthusiastically, even joyously. Then they take their labeled samples to the lab where those vials and bags become data points, data points become graphs, and graphs become the foundation for scientific narrative.

John Muir, American conservationist by Professor Francis M. Fritz in 1907. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

In telling a story of the landscape through data, my students follow their curiosity first and learn to think critically. And though they don’t know it, I am starting a movement in my classroom to encourage the growth of more keen observers who turn their knowledge into action.

I want my students to value the beauty of wild open spaces, to know why they matter. I want them to pass what they learn on to friends and family. And I want them to understand that the pressures Muir faced are even greater today, but that we can balance human needs while holding onto nature. But toss out the latter, and the former will begin to erode too.

The wild lands around us that purify our air and water keep us healthier each day even when we cannot be amidst them. According to Muir, the lands feed our souls, bond our families, and open our hearts. I cannot imagine a world where generations to come don’t know how it feels to wander into the wilds without another person in sight.

Now is a critical time to recall the legacy of John Muir: our public lands are not commodities to be bought and sold. They are not part of a real estate empire. They are as inalienable to our nation as the fundamental pillars of our constitution. We must commit to taking the long view and protect public lands, open and free.

One day my children will be grown and able to camp alone under a wide, starlit sky. I want them to know that this gift, initiated by Muir, was stewarded through the years. That I stood up for safeguarding the cool air, the towering trees, the shadowy canyon walls that surround them. And that millions of others did too.

Featured image credit: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and nature preservationist John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, on Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. In the background: Upper and lower Yosemite Falls, 1906. Photo by Underwood & Underwood, Library of Congress. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Helping small amateur choirs to survive and flourish

Choral singing has been, for some 150 years, one of the mainstays of local music-making and entertainment in the rural regions of Britain. As Director of Music at the University of Plymouth and musical director of several singing and orchestral ensembles in Devon and Cornwall, I keep an eye on the activities of the region’s numerous choral societies – and some rank among the best in the UK.

Many towns with a population of just 2,500 boast their own singing group, with a membership of anywhere between 14 and 50 members. The larger towns and cities in the South West such as Plymouth, Truro, and Exeter accommodate regional choirs of up to 150 as well as specialist chamber groups performing a wonderfully diverse repertoire.

However, many of the smaller outlying choral societies struggle to survive. On several occasions over the past 30 years, I have been invited in as a troubleshooter to ‘save’ or at least revitalize such groups. Some of the issues they faced included ageing choruses with dwindling membership and audience, unsuitable repertoire, a recently retired musical director, poor finances, weak administrative infrastructure, and inadequate publicity. These factors have often combined to generate a lack of motivation in members and communities.

Encourage, cajole, and convince to form your committee

Establishing a strong committee is another must. Identify those members of the choir who can offer skills in basic financial management, record-keeping, communication, and organization. Encourage, cajole and convince them to commit their time to the choir for a year.

Promoting your concert

As for promoting concerts, do not overlook the standard tools of well-written press releases to the local and regional media, posters, banners, announcements on regional radio and television, listings on what’s on websites and social media. However, face-to-face selling is also an effective way to generate ticket sales. Having a choir website is essential (Making Music can offer advice on this if you need it), and Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can all play a valuable role in raising the profile of your choir and its concerts.

Sending publicity to a regularly updated and targeted database is also important. I would suggest that handing out forms at concerts inviting people to add their names to the mailing list is a good start. Feedback is valuable: include a questionnaire asking for responses on the various aspects of their experience of the evening – what music did they most enjoy? how did they like the venue? did they make use of the town’s facilities (pubs, cafes and shops)? This kind of information can often be useful for funding applications.

Repertoire, soloists, and orchestral players

How can you reactivate a choir musically? Choose repertoire for the next performance that is well within its capabilities and invite everyone involved to a big party afterwards! The choir will sing well and with confidence; the audience, however small, will respond positively. Ensure the concert is reviewed in the local press. It is important that the singers receive praise for a good performance so celebrate your success.

I strongly believe that the very best players and soloists should be contracted. This raises the standard of music making and motivates the choir to work hard at its performance and at selling tickets. It is not always necessary to attempt Elgar and Verdi with a 40 to 50-piece orchestra when there is so much early and classical music which is equally uplifting and fulfilling. Why not employ just 20 top-quality orchestral players? The success of a higher calibre performance will stimulate an enthusiasm to sustain this quality and might motivate the members to address fundraising.

Why not join Making Music?

In setting up or maintaining a small amateur choir, the first port of call I would recommend is Making Music, the organization for amateur music. It offers a wide range of training and support opportunities to help its members be effective. These include guidance in administration, promotion of events, and commissioning new music and opportunities to take part in national initiatives such as the ‘Listen Up!’ festival and their adopt-a-composer scheme.

National and regional training programmes are run by Making Music to help groups with their marketing, fundraising, and project development. Members are encouraged to look to the future, both in terms of responding to the needs of their communities and of their singers, past, present, and future. Most choral societies will already be members, but some may have lost touch with the current benefits that Making Music has to offer.

One final note to conductors

So much can ride on the personality and music interests of the conductor and his or her connections in the local, regional, and national music scene. Being well prepared for rehearsals and concerts should go without saying — and if you are new to the job these are essential. It helps to have a sense of fun. I also always make a point of being secure on translations of foreign texts before rehearsals begin.

Featured image credit: ‘Reims, France – July 25 2016 : Canadian choral in the Notre Dame cathedral’ by Pack-Shot via Shutterstock.

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Gravitational waves, black holes, and astronomy without light

On 25 September 2015 scientists at the LIGO experiment detected something that no human had ever seen before: a gravitational wave. This wave was emitted by two black holes that lived and died more than a billion years ago. Each of the black holes was around thirty times as massive as our own sun, and when they merged they gave out so much energy that they temporarily outshone every star in the observable Universe put together. However, the energy released from this cataclysmic event was not in the form of light, but in form of gravitational waves. The existence of gravitational waves was predicted by Einstein in 1916, but it took the amazing technological and scientific breakthroughs of the LIGO team in order to observe it, almost a century later. This was the first time in history that humans were able to see distant astrophysical events without light, and what we saw was one of the most incredible events that occurs in nature – two black holes colliding.

“Seeing without light” may seem like a nonsensical phrase, but it’s very close to what actually happened in the LIGO detectors. This is because the attractive part of the gravitational field, with which we are very familiar, is not the only thing that exists in Einstein’s theory of gravity. There also exist wave-like solutions to his gravitational field equations. So while light is the wave-like disturbance that results from the electromagnetic interaction, a gravitational wave is the propagating disturbance that results from Einstein’s gravity. We’re not generally aware of the existence of gravitational waves, because their amplitude is very small in the relatively calm and stable environment of the solar system. But the theory is clear; gravitational waves should exist in nature, they should get emitted from massive bodies in relative motion, and they travel through space at the speed of light.

So, if we can build detectors that are sensitive enough to detect gravitational waves then we should be able to use them to “see” distant astrophysical events, in a way that‘s almost directly analogous to the way that ordinary telescopes let us “see” using light. And while normal telescopes are excellent for viewing stars and galaxies, gravitational wave detectors are excellent for viewing black holes. The LIGO detection in September 2015 was the first of this new type of observation to be made, but it certainly will not be the last. In fact, the LIGO team have already announced a second detection that occurred on Boxing Day 2015. It seems inevitable that more events will follow, and that a new field of astronomy will be born. This is a particularly exciting prospect because observations of merging black holes gives us information not just about the life and death of stars, but also about the details of how Einstein’s theory of gravity operates in the most extreme of environments.

The amount of work that went into the detection by LIGO is almost as amazing as the detection itself. Many, many scientists and engineers have spent decades building and operating one of the most sensitive pieces of scientific equipment that has ever existed. The detectors in the LIGO experiment are so sensitive they can measure disturbances that cause its internal mirrors to move by less than a thousandth of the width of a proton (about a billionth of a billionth of metre). The technical and scientific work needed to reach this mind-boggling level of precision is immense, as is the theoretical and mathematical efforts that were required to make sense of the signal it measured. Nevertheless, this huge amount of industry has ultimately all been worthwhile: we now have first light on an entirely new and exciting way to view the Universe, through gravity itself.

Featured image credit: An artist’s depiction of the binary star series, J0806 by unknown. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons .

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Managing stress: mind

There are a variety of both mental and physical ways to manage stress and associated anxiety. As noted in a previous post, changing the way you think about stressors to reduce catastrophizing is one way. Another mental approach involves using your mind to relax. Techniques such as mental imagery and meditation can be used to decrease your stress response. In mental imagery, relaxation is achieved by a few minutes of deep focus on a peaceful scene, often somewhere in nature. In meditation, relaxation is achieved by a few minutes of mental repetition of a word or phrase, usually in conjunction with relaxed breathing.

Relax with mental imagery

Imagery typically works best with eyes closed and muscles relaxed. The relaxing place you visualize can be one that you’ve actually visited, one you’ve seen in a picture or a movie, or one you create by using your imagination. Make this experience as real as possible by imagining as many details as you can. For example:

The soft warmth of a sandy beach while sunlight glistens on blue-green waves and palm trees sway and rustle in the tropical breeze.
The scent of ferns and wet earth as you recline on a mossy boulder and dip your feet into the coolness of a gurgling brook that flows through a lush green meadow.
The lapping of tiny waves against your canoe as you drift across a pond under the glow of a full moon while owls hoot and crickets chirp in the distance.


Paradise beach by Walkerssk. CC0 public domain via Pixabay.

Relax and enjoy your imagery for a while. When you’re ready, gradually bring your attention back to the room you’re in. Slowly open your eyes and gently move your body, noticing the things around you as you end your relaxing mental imagery experience.

Relax with meditation

Meditation is another powerful mental stress-reduction technique. While people have meditated for centuries, interest in this practice is growing as scientific study convincingly demonstrates its ability to improve physical and mental health and well-being.

One form of meditation involves silent repetition of a word, often called a “mantra.” Sometimes Sanskrit words, such as “om,” are used, but English words, such as “relax” or “calm,” work just as well.

To try meditation, sit down, close your eyes, breathe slowly and deeply, relax your muscles, and silently repeat “relax” or another mantra each time you exhale.

Meditation isn’t limited to focusing on a single word. You can, for example, meditate by focusing on short phrases, such as a prayer. Or you can meditate while focusing on mental images, for example, picturing the air flowing in and out of your lungs.

Meditation also doesn’t need to be done with eyes closed while sitting still and alone. You can learn to meditate while walking, swimming, or otherwise moving about. You can also meditate with others. Many yoga classes incorporate meditation practice along with physical exercise.

It’s normal for your mind to wander to other topics as you meditate, even more so when you are under stress. When you notice this happening, gently bring your attention back to your breathing and mantra or other focus. With practice, your mind will gradually grow more skilled at remaining focused during meditation.

Practice mindfulness

“Mindfulness” is a term for a type of meditation similar to that described above. However, mindfulness also incorporates an approach to life in general that involves greater awareness and appreciation of the present moment, rather than unproductive focus on the past or future.  Mindfulness training also encourages adoption of an attitude of non-judgmental observation as an alternative to emotional over-reactivity.

Mindfulness training programs, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, have been shown in many research studies to have beneficial effects on health and well-being. For example, researchers have demonstrated measurable growth in important regions of the brain after just a few weeks of mindfulness meditation practice.

Live mindfulness meditation training programs are available in many communities. Such live instruction and the group support that goes along with it are generally best at motivating participants to practice meditation enough to make it a long-term habit.

Previously, we covered how to reduce stress and anxiety by not exaggerating the likelihood or badness of an undesired outcome and by looking at your goals in new ways. In this post, we covered how to use your mind to quiet the stress response through mental imagery and meditation. Next, we will turn to ways of using your body to relax.

Featured image credit: Canoeing Girl by Unsplash. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay.

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Misogyny, cheap sweets, and daydreams

Some of the most startling expressions of misogyny over the last century have been directed at girls and young women enjoying themselves.

By the 1900s women were reading novels in large quantities. Heavy, three-volume works of fiction were disappearing in favour of single volumes in light bindings: paper covers were beginning to sport colourful, inviting designs. The newer style of volume appealed to wage-earning women who could pop them into their bags to be read on the bus or train, travelling to work. They could also be propped up in bed more easily for night-time reading. Women wanted to read about love, relationships, and romance. Books by Marie Corelli, Charles Garvice, E.M. Hull, and Ethel M. Dell sold extremely well and could also be borrowed from Booklovers’ and Circulating Libraries. The publishing firm of Mills and Boon was established in 1908, although their specialization in romantic novels for women came slightly later, after the First World War. This period also saw the appearance of a number of inexpensive periodicals aimed at working class women, which were dominated by romantic fiction, the most successful of which was Peg’s Paper (1919-1940).

The literary output of romantic story writers was disparaged by critics whose real disgust was directed at their readers. They sneered at the cheap pleasures, the ‘lurid’ and ‘unwholesome’ taste of typists, cooks, and domestic servants: there was particular contempt for what was often labelled ‘the shopgirl’s romance’. ‘Shopgirls’ suggested ‘shopsoiled’. This denigration of popular romance and those who consumed it was riven through with class and gender snobbery and could be vitriolic. At best, readers were accused (by George Orwell, for instance) of living in a fantasy world of cheap sensationalism.

These and similar concerns about women enjoying ‘cheap’ literature contaminated by glamour and eroticism fed into the condemnation of ‘good time girls’ in the 1940s and 1950s. Psychologist Professor Cyril Burt, writing about ‘The Causes of Sex Delinquency in Girls’ in 1926, had insisted that he had seen many young girls become ‘habitual little courtesans simply for the sake of sweets’. Easy pleasure might segue into easy virtue. The language is revealing: too much enjoyment was almost bound to be immoral.

 We might ask what is wrong with daydreams. There is a long history of women being condemned for having them.

A similar tone crept into some critics’ observations of teenage girls’ pleasures in the 1960s. The ‘Teenage Revolution’ saw younger girls exercising increasing clout as consumers through their developing interest in pop music, boy bands, and fan behaviour generally. ‘Beatlemania’ was a phenomenon widely discussed. Some were appalled. In one of the most vicious condemnations of teenage behaviour, journalist Paul Johnson described girl fans as ‘bloated with cheap confectionery and smeared with chain-store make-up’; their ‘sagging mouths and glazed eyes’ revealing a ‘bottomless chasm of vacuity.’

Fan behaviour is no longer new and a number of women academics and journalists have written about their teenage crushes on the Beatles, David Cassidy, and other male heartthrobs of the last century. Common themes are the posters on the bedroom wall, the obsession with the idol’s favourite colours and other preferences, the yearning, the daydreams. Social scientist Barbara Ehrenreich saw Beatlemania as reflecting a new form of self-assertion in young women, an ‘opening salvo in the Sexual Revolution’. Adolescent girls had begun exploring their evolving sexual identities. Sexuality was becoming something to be learned about: no longer a fragile, precious commodity which could only be ‘bartered for by an engagement ring’. Fan behaviour can incorporate friendship and bonding with other women, too, a sharing of daydreams and a trying out of the language of desire. From Billy Fury singing ‘Once Upon a Dream’ in 1962, through David Cassidy‘s album ‘Dreams are Nuthin’ More than Wishes,’ down to the songs of Justin Bieber today, lyrics of songs popular with young women have been saturated with references to day-dreaming about love and romance.

We might ask what is wrong with daydreams. There is a long history of women being condemned for having them. But are daydreams always a form of self-indulgence, of passivity, or escapism? Gloria Steinem once observed that ‘without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning’. Similarly, Slavoj Zizek wrote ‘through fantasy, we learn how to desire’ in his introduction to Jacques Lacan. In the end, the condemnation of women’s pleasures and women’s daydreams as vulgar, cheap, and dangerous probably tells us more about misogyny and a fear of social change than it does about women themselves.

Featured image credit: Daydream, ca. 1905, by Paul Fischer. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. 

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Avenues of musical interactions for students with autism spectrum disorder

Singing (vocalizing) 

Students on the autism spectrum have a natural ability to perceive pitch and to reproduce melodic patterns. These natural inclinations become building blocks to learning in music. Students experiment vocally by creating sounds in response to the leader’s directions. This may begin with activities in which they follow the conductor’s lead, producing sounds that are high and low. As well, groups of pitches may be produced to create ascending or descending tonal patterns. Through vocal imitation, students begin to greet others by singing hello. Over time, students may begin to sing complete songs or portions of songs with the clarity of the lyrics improving as they practice this skill.

Moving (psychomotor)

Students may engage fine muscle movements by interacting with a variety of stuffed toys that motivate their involvement with others through music and enhance their enjoyment of music-based activities. For example, a student who likes cats might stroke a stuffed [toy] cat’s fur while the teacher sings a song about cats such as Dean’s Pete the Cat: The wheels on the bus (2013). Many students on the autism spectrum are able to demonstrate the beat through movement activities with ease. These students may appear to automatically stroke the cat in imitation of the beat of the song. Teachers who model the beat may find that, with repeated experiences and practice, student may refine their fine muscle control to model the beat.

Varied experiences in music activities also provide students with opportunities to develop and practice gross motor skills by moving in place (non-locomotor) and space (locomotor). For example, a student stands in place while making a bird puppet fly by moving it higher and lower; the student moves through space using hand movements to create the bird’s flight path and crouching down to make the bird land on the ground. A teacher uses a kazoo to improvise ascending and descending melodic patterns in response to the student’s movements. Students engage in musical problem solving when they devise movements to accompany listening experiences such as the movement Hens and Roosters from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the animals.

Playing instruments

Students on the autism spectrum have opportunities to develop and practice fine motor movements and visual/motor awareness when playing instruments. Musical activities also provide avenues for tactile understanding when students discover what percussion instruments are made of, how they are held, and how they are played. Through experiences in music students gain an awareness of sound. As they become familiar with the variety of sounds emanating from their music classrooms, they become better-able to tolerate a variety of sound frequencies such as the high metal sounds of a triangle or the relatively low sounds of a drum. They also learn how instruments comprised of different materials produce varying timbres. This provides students with an increased awareness of sound and greater understanding of sound sources. These experiences may help students tolerate the sounds they encounter within their everyday environments.

Summary

Children on the autism spectrum interact with music by singing or vocalizing, moving, and playing instruments. Singing may begin with vocal experimentations with melodic patterns and proceed to singing select words, parts of songs, and complete songs. Moving to music may begin with hand motions that reflect the beat, to activities that promote locomotion. Playing musical instruments provides students opportunities to explore tactile understanding and to increase their awareness of sounds and sound sources. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder all demonstrate their understanding in unique ways. Educators are encouraged to use the ideas shared here as a starting point for interactions, using the children’s reactions to guide moment-to-moment decisions in their classrooms.

Featured image credit: Piano Music by allegralchaple0. CC0 Public Domain via Pixabay

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Why banning the Jehovah’s Witnesses won’t work for Russia

The Supreme Court of Russia has a decision to make this week about whether to label the Jehovah’s Witnesses an extremist organization and liquidate its assets. This act would transform the religious community into a criminal network, and make individual Witnesses vulnerable to arrest simply for speaking about their faith with others. While the court case has attracted recent media attention, this move is the culmination of two decades of increasing state hostility to Witnesses. In the late 1990s, Moscow took the Witnesses to court to deny them legal standing in the city limits. After several years of court hearings, the city banned the organization. In more recent years, anti-extremism laws drafted in the wake of domestic terrorism have been turned against Witness magazines and books. Currently, over eighty publications have been placed on the federal list of extremist materials. Even their website is now illegal. So is My Book of Bible Stories, an illustrated book for children, listed alongside publications by terrorist organizations.

If the state criminalizes the Witnesses, it will represent a major deterioration in religious toleration in post-Soviet Russia. It will also put Russia at odds with the European Court of Human Rights, which has repeatedly ruled in favor of the Witnesses in the past two decades. It may make other minority faiths vulnerable to similar legal challenges. In the 1990s, scholars spoke of a newly opened religious marketplace, in which post-Soviet citizens, freed from the constraints of state-enforced atheism, shopped around among the faith traditions. It is fair to say that these days, this marketplace has fewer customers, fewer stalls, and more regulations.

If history is any guide, Russia will find it nearly impossible to eliminate Jehovah’s Witnesses. Soviet dissident author Vladimir Bukovsky once admiringly wrote of the Witnesses’ legendary persistence under ban. When the Soviet Union barred religious literature from crossing its borders, Witnesses set up underground bunkers to print illegal magazines for their congregations. When Soviet officials prohibited Witnesses from hosting religious services, they gathered in small groups in their apartments, often in the middle of the night. Sometimes they snuck away to nearby woods or out onto the vast steppe, where they could meet with less scrutiny. When the state told believers that they could not evangelize their faith to others, Witnesses chatted up their neighbors, coworkers, and friends. When these actions landed them in labor camps, Witnesses sought out converts among their fellow prisoners. Witnesses are certain to revive many of these tactics if placed in similar circumstances in the future.

Moreover, technology makes it far more difficult for Russia to control the religious practices of its citizens. Although the Witnesses’ official website is no longer available in Russia, individual members can easily share religious literature through email or dozens of other social media platforms and apps. While Soviet Witnesses had to write coded reports and hand-deliver them through an underground courier network, Witnesses today can text this information in seconds. Technology will also facilitate meeting times for religious services in private homes.

The Russian government simply does not have the manpower to enforce its own ban. It is hard to imagine that local officials could effectively prevent over 170,000 people across more than 2,000 congregations from gathering together multiple times per week, as Witnesses do worldwide. The case of Taganrog is instructive. Several hundred Witnesses lived there in 2009, when the city declared the organization illegal. A few years later, it convicted sixteen Witnesses for ignoring the ban and continuing to gather their congregations for services. The state spent over a year in investigations and court hearings for sixteen people, a tiny fraction of the total congregation, and then suspended the sentences and fines rather than waste more resources in following through on its punishment guidelines. There are not enough police officers in Russia to monitor the daily activities of each and every Witness, and the Witnesses know it. Under a ban, everyone will face more scrutiny, a few will be dealt more serious consequences, and most will continue practicing their faith regardless.

Russia may nonetheless decide that all of this conflict is worth it. After all, Soviet officials were fairly successful in relegating Witnesses to the margins of society. Few Russians will complain if Witnesses no longer come to knock on their door. After all, even Americans rarely have kind words for religious missionaries at their own doorsteps. In my own research, I have never heard a single Russian, other than a scholar, say anything positive about Witnesses. For the record, my experience with Americans has been similar. On a more basic level, Russian citizens may not even notice the Witnesses’ absence from public life. While the post-Soviet period saw a religious revival for all faiths, far fewer joined the Witnesses than the Russian Orthodox Church. For all their recent growth in membership, the Witnesses remain a tiny minority in a largely secular society.

The vocal determination of Witnesses not to acquiesce to state demands should not cause observers to overlook the very real damage a ban would do to this community. Yes, Witnesses have faced similar challenges before and have dealt with them. For decades, they held their baptisms in local rivers and lakes under cover of night. In the post-Soviet period, new members were finally able to celebrate their baptisms in full view of their fellow believers at public conventions. A long-time Witness who attended one of these events in the early 1990s recalled, “What happiness, what freedom!” A new ban would mean a return to this underground life, to a hushed ceremony in cold waters. This is not what freedom of conscience looks like in modern states.

Featured image credit: “Standing Still” by Per Gosche. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr 

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