RHUL – Page 4 of 23 – The Orbital

21Jun

By Leah EdwardsNo Comments

Lifestyle

Vintage Kitchen: Victorian Sorbet

Now that it’s summer, the weather is warmer, and the daylight hours are longer, it made sense to wrap this series up with an iconic treat that we all associate with the season. BBC Radio 4’s podcast, You’re Dead To Me, did an episode exploring the history of ice-cream. The podcast mentioned horrifying 18th century flavours from whale vomit to ‘out there’ ones such as parmesan and artichoke. Towards the end of the podcast, food historian Dr Annie Gray described a recipe from the Queen of Ices: Agnes Marshall (1855-1905). Agnes Marshall was a pioneer of ice cream and frozen desserts, using liquid nitrogen to freeze ice creams, long before the invention of the modern freezer. In 1885 she came out with the patent freezer which could freeze a pint of ice cream in five minutes and is considered...

21Jun

By Bridget OSullivanNo Comments

Digital Copies

Connections: Issue Five 2021/22

https://issuu.com/orbital-royalholloway/docs/issue_five_-_connection

An Evening of Poetry with Rhiannon McGavin and Savannah Brown

31May

By Hannah ArmourNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

An Evening of Poetry with Rhiannon McGavin and Savannah Brown

In the basement of VFD Dalton, a queer arts and entertainment centre in Hackney, there’s a small bar and a singular bartender/bouncer/manager. Stools, benches, and miscellaneous chairs are arranged to face a bright pink wall, in front of which are two chairs and two microphones. Is this what being at the core of a literary movement looks like? Rhiannon McGavin, former Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, is reading from her collection titled Grocery List Poems. Her supporting act is poet and novelist Savannah Brown, born in Ohio but now a true Londoner, talking of her excitement for the Elizabeth line’s opening. Somewhat unexpectedly, each of these young American women are armed with a can of Strongbow. Brown, the ‘secret guest,’ introduces the set, starting with her most recen...

26May

By Bridget OSullivanNo Comments

Opinion

The Reality of Sex Work at University

All names have been changed to preserve anonymity. ‘I’ve been very lucky that all of the arrangements I’ve had have been with really genuine people’ – surely it indicates something foul when someone feels lucky to have encountered basic respect? Surely such respect, and ‘genuine people’, should be the norm? Are we so doomed as a society? I would like to believe we are not. However, when it comes to the industry of sex work, and young people entering it, it may be a different story. According to a pre-pandemic stat by Leicester University, an estimated 5% of UK students turn to sex work, and one in five consider it. Remember, that is pre-pandemic. If Covid generated any mainstream student story, it was the...

18May

By Jessica WoodNo Comments

Opinion

An Ode to Domino’s

Pizza is the love language of people all around the world; I’ll continue to endorse this until my lactose intolerance wins its ongoing battle for my attention. It is an incredibly versatile comfort food, from the variety of toppings to the versatile uses. Hangovers, date nights, cram nights or simply in need of a trusted companion - pizza consistently provides. It’s a student staple, providing us with more stability than most of our love lives. Thus, I feel it is my duty as a student to finalise the long-lasting debate: which is the superior pizza takeaway? Within my first week at Royal Holloway, it became abundantly clear that Domino’s would be draining my bank account. Yes, it is higher on the price scale than other take outs, but you can quite literally taste the difference, to quot...

Life 100 Years Ago: A Closer Look at our Alumni

14May

By Natasha GuptaNo Comments

Culture & Literature

Life 100 Years Ago: A Closer Look at our Alumni

It's almost impossible to walk past or through Founders and wonder what was Royal Holloway like back in the day that building was normal. Certainly, it was relatively leisurely and opulent. Until WW1, residents at RHUL would devote almost two hours a day to their four-course dinner and after dinner coffee. It might be odd to think of the RHUL students of yore as real people with bad study habits and addictions to hot beverages, who sat in your seat and slept in your room. But in reading first-hand these young women’s experiences, it makes you think about what has drawn the many minds that make up RHUL’s history. Tea Parties We’ll start south of Founders, overlooking the area sometimes called The Meadow Walk. These grassy alcoves, today furnished with flower beds and benches, used to...

Class Inequality is Still Rife in Cultural Industries – But is there Reason for Hope?

14May

By Ali MillsNo Comments

Culture & Literature

Class Inequality is Still Rife in Cultural Industries – But is there Reason for Hope?

Picture it. Your best friend is interning at the [insert name of fabulous workplace]. You ask how they got such a prestigious internship when you didn’t even see it advertised. Your question is genuine. You’re not trying to catch them out. For half a second you really believe there’s some big job site you don’t know about or an opportunity you’ve missed. Your friend blushes and doesn’t answer. Suddenly you understand. It’s one of those internships. … The cultural industries are notoriously hard to break into. Every parent faced with a child who wants to be an actor will tell you. Even if we all have the same 24 hours in a day (thanks for the reminder, Molly-Mae) that certainly doesn’t mean we’re all looking at a level playing field. This is a world where unpaid ...

14May

By Charlotte RadcliffeNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Has Political Correctness Gone Too Far?

Political correctness, by definition, is a term that is used to describe the avoidance of language, expressions or actions that can offend, marginalise or exclude targeted groups of people who are intentionally discriminated against. But how does this relate to literature? Surprisingly to some, political correctness is shaping literature as we know it. In Royal Holloway’s English department, the content has changed considerably in the last few years. For example, student feedback over struggles with essay writing has prompted the need for the second year module ‘Writing as a Critic’. Staff changes can also lead to certain areas of specialism being given as options to students, with a significant increase in 20th and 21st Century specialists, indicating a greater focus on how mode...

14May

By Eva Townsend BiltonNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

What’s So Bad About Bootlegs?

When it comes to bootleg musicals, conflicting opinions abound. Sure, they’re technically illegal, but isn’t it a victimless crime? Or are they doing damage to the art that writers, actors, and many more have put painstaking effort into creating? Do they wrongly cheapen what should be a top-drawer experience, or do they better the theatre industry by making it more accessible to the masses? Bootlegs are illegal recordings of musicals or shows made by people in the audience and distributed, often via YouTube, for people online to see. Nowadays, they’re usually taken on smartphones and the quality tends to be awful. Yet these recordings often fetch tens, even hundreds of thousands of views, despite normally being taken down after only a few weeks due to copyright laws. As a form of pirac...

Dark Academia and the Elitism of Education

14May

By Laura BloomfieldNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

Dark Academia and the Elitism of Education

Search ‘#darkacademia’ on Instagram, Pinterest, or Tumblr, and you’ll be graced with pictures of candles, leather bound books, typewriters, handwritten letters, turtlenecks, and gothic architecture, all filtered through the same brooding colour palette. These images are representative of an online aesthetic movement which focuses on romanticising education through (ironically) a rejection of technology. Novels like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and M.L. Rio’s If We Were Villains, and movies such as Kill Your Darlings (2013) and Dead Poet’s Society (1989) all play a huge part in defining dark academia on the internet. Quotes, gifsets, and screencaps abound, and Daniel Radcliffe’s portrayal of a young Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings has been the subject of many fashion inspiration p...