(Re)Creation Introduction

The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation i The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation The Kelvingrove Review 17: (Re)Creation Lead Editor: Hanna Greenblott Assistant Lead Editor: William Burns Editorial Team: Ellie Brown, Jenna Cecchini, Laura Scott, Mary-Kate Wagamon July 2018 i The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation Published July 2018 http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/esharp/thekelvingrovereview Cover artwork by Ben Yau Copyright © in all contributions resides with the contributors ii The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation Artist’s Statement A Chinese-Scottish visual artist based in London, Ben Yau interrogates the aesthetics of global conflict, historical narratives, and social tensions. Trained in lens-based media, he now works with found visual artefacts, such as images from British Ministry of Defence research papers, market data from the Financial Times archive, and YouTube videos of political leaders speaking at UN general assemblies. These artefacts are appropriated and re- contextualised to address systemic frictions within notions of power. He has exhibited in group and duo shows in London and Glasgow, and in 2017 cofounded the art collective against climate change, Decade Zero, with fellow artist Zaneta Zukalova. The covers for this year’s publication, on the theme of (Re)creation, makes use of largely bygone symbols of good and evil: an angel for one cover and a demon for the other. One is a Western rendering, and the other an Eastern one. They are displayed through cryptic coding to suggest a modern reinterpretation of these antiquated iconographies and elementary ideas. iii The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation Contents Artist’s Statement .................................................................................................................................................... iii Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. v Somebody I Used to Know ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Wendy Mitchell with Anna Wharton Reviewed by Joseph Wood Women & Power: A Manifesto ............................................................................................................................... 4 Mary Beard Reviewed by Pip Osmond-Williams Queer Eye ................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Created by David Collins Reviewed by Hope Fulton The Amateur: The Pleasures of Doing What You Love ...................................................................................... 11 Andy Merrifield Reviewed by Eirini Katsikea Norse Mythology .................................................................................................................................................... 14 Neil Gaiman Reviewed by Hannah Everett Annihilation ........................................................................................................................................................... 16 Directed by Alex Garland Reviewed by Toby Neilson Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes ....................................................................... 19 Michael Sims Reviewed by Charlotte Orr Druck / Skam ......................................................................................................................................................... 22 Directed by Julie Andem / Pola Beck Reviewed by Maike Niermeyer Stay With Me .......................................................................................................................................................... 26 Ayòbámi Adébáyò Reviewed by Maria Arvaniti Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There ............................................................................................... 29 Rutger Bregman Reviewed by Simon James Holton No Is Not Enough: Defeating the New Shock Politics ........................................................................................ 32 Naomi Klein Reviewed by Jack Anderson iv The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation Introduction The seventeenth issue of The Kelvingrove Review decided to break the mould. Following our theme of (Re)Creation, we proposed reviews of work that, by nature of their inclusion in this issue, interrogate and, we hope, redefine traditional academic review journal conventions. As an Arts and Humanities journal, we wanted our reviews to reflect the vast fields of research and work in our area of study. This issue includes reviews of television programmes, films, fiction novels, and scholarly texts. Ranging from political upheaval, to alien invasion, to human memory, this collection of reviews presents you with ideas and questions that we hope encourage your own paths of re(creation). Our issue begins with the illuminating insights of Somebody I Used to Know, a memoir that details Wendy Mitchell’s own experiences with dementia. Through recounting her own memories, Mitchell returns agency to those living with dementia by redefining what it means to live with the disease. In Women and Power, Mary Beard traces the history of women’s oppression through literal and institutional silencing in public and in governing spaces. In exposing these still-existing structures, Beard encourages readers to ‘challenge and reform’ their societies. Queer Eye follows five gay men as they makeover male participants in the United States. The show is a reboot from the original series that premiered in 2003 and similarly follows the structure of changing a transformee’s life by teaching him about outward presentation and self-care. The Amateur uses case studies and various theories to propose shifting away from professionalisation and institutional elitism in favour of a more egalitarian and democratic dispersion of knowledge and power. In Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman’s bard-like presence guides readers through an anthology of stories reimagining the Norse pantheon. Annihilation throws viewers into a shimmering alien ecosystem that forces its characters and viewers to reconsider our understandings of ‘nature’ and our relationship with it. Arthur and Sherlock details Arthur Conan Doyle’s life and the influences leading to the creation of his seminal Sherlock Holmes detective series. Skam and its German adaptation Druck are teen-oriented lifestyle dramas that revolutionised local and global broadcast campaigns through innovative production methods and a core value of authenticity. Stay with Me offers a complex narrative meditating on the fictional relationships between a man and a woman and their families, their society, and the constantly evolving Nigerian political climate. Utopia for Realists presents readers with theories of economic transformation and transferrals of power. Finally, No is Not Enough succinctly explains recent global trends to help readers understand how our current political climate was created. Through her informative analysis, Naomi Klein provides readers with the tools to recognise and prevent further unrest and take action against global injustices. We are so grateful for our reviewers who have lent their time, patience, and thoughtful insights to the Review. We would also like to thank Ben Yau for his striking artwork that is gracing our cover as well as the cover of this year’s issue of our sister publication eSharp. We are incredibly appreciative of the publishers who have v The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation contributed an outstanding array of titles under review in this year’s issue. The editorial board also offers its sincere gratitude to Professor Alan Riach for his support and the eSharp team for their tireless collaborative efforts. I would personally like to thank Ellie, Will, Jenna, Laura, and Mary-Kate for their hard work and dedication. Hanna Greenblott Lead Editor, The Kelvingrove Review (17th Edition) vi The Kelvingrove Review (Re)Creation Somebody I Used to Know by Wendy Mitchell with Anna Wharton London: Bloomsbury, 2018 (ISBN: 9781408893364), 320 pp. Joseph Wood (University of Glasgow) You could be forgiven for thinking from the first italicised page of Wendy Mitchell’s memoir Somebody I Used to Know that she is addressing a dead partner or relative. Mitchell describes a momentary feeling of total blankness, A big dark black hole and the passage ends ‘And the worse thing was, just when I needed you most, you were gone’ (p.1). Yet as these second-person flashbacks continue through the book it becomes clear that, rather than anybody else, the you she is writing to is her past self, somebody who was defined by her achievements and active lifestyle, somebody she used to know but who is now very distant from her. Despite this irrevocable rift between old and dementia selves, Mitchell’s book, written in collaboration with ghostwriter Anna Wharton, has already become a bestseller and my copy is from the fifth print run since its publication at the beginning of February 2018. Its appeal is clear: Mitchell writes to us from the other side of dementia, documenting how the disease subtly undermines her agency while demonstrating her own open-minded and frequently optimistic outlook on a disease which is so often just shorthand for dreaded old age and senility. Mitchell has young onset Alzheimer’s and her book sets out to prove that ‘dementia has a beginning and a middle, as well as an end’ (p.140). Alongside flashbacks

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