Matthew Taft, The Conversation
Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for making us cry. But, 'Never Let Me Go' should make us angry
The novel is a representation of a vicious neoliberal class system, where those who can afford replacement can substantiate a fantasy of liberal individualism.
Matthew Taft, The Conversation
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News18
10 hours ago
- News18
How Shakespeare can help us overcome loneliness in digital age
Last Updated: Montreal, Aug 17 (The Conversation) Are you addicted to endless scrolling? Trapped by the algorithms on your smartphone? Theatre might just be the antidote. 'Denmark's a prison," says Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in one of Shakespeare's most famous dramas. In this scene, he is speaking to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who have been recruited to spy on him by his mother and uncle. Hamlet isn't imprisoned, but he does feel trapped by his circumstances. He comes to realise that his uncle murdered his father, married his mother and then seized the kingship. He is being watched. He wants to escape the surveillance of the Danish court. More than 400 years after Hamlet's first performance, experts have warned that we are trapped and manipulated by the surveillance of our smartphones. Our online behaviour has transformed us into marketable data, and addictive algorithms have bound us to an endless recycling of what we have 'liked." Digital tribalism threatens democracy This digital herding also affects who we interact with online. We often find ourselves gathering with others who like the same people and share the same politics, seeking both protection and alleviation from loneliness. This new form of digital entrapment has given birth to a kind of tribalism — a strong sense of loyalty to a group or community — that political and social researchers warn may threaten a foundational practice of democracy: the possibility of authentic conversation among people. The technologies of surveillance have drastically changed since Shakespeare's time. Today, our habits are transformed into data by a virtual panopticon of devices. The loneliness that many of us, especially young people, are suffering echoes Hamlet's sense of isolation and inability to voice his true feelings. While our culture is very different from Shakespeare's London, his plays — and those by others — still have the potential to bring people together and help us think deeply about our shared experience. Shakespeare's playhouse conversations In Hamlet, the prince knows something is rotten in Denmark, but he finds that he cannot speak publicly about it. All alone on stage, he says: 'But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue." Today, it seems, he could just as easily be speaking about how we curate ourselves online in our unquenchable desire to be seen and heard by others. But it doesn't have to be this way. Consider Shakespeare's playhouse, an extraordinary gathering place for thousands of people. It was a space where all kinds of people could have conversations with the actors and each other about all kinds of themes, like the justice of 'taming" an unruly woman (The Taming of the Shrew), how to push back against the power of a tyrant (Richard III) or how Christians might think differently about Jews (The Merchant of Venice). Shakespeare opened established ways of thinking to questioning, inviting audiences to see the world and each other in new ways. And audiences in Shakespeare's time didn't just sit quietly and listen. They interacted actively and loudly with the actors and the stories they saw on stage. Historical research suggests that theatre helped change early modern society by making it possible for commoners to have a public voice. In this way, Shakespeare contributed to the emergence of modern democratic culture. Conversation pieces Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most frequently performed tragedies, and his anguish under a surveillance state speaks to our struggles for freedom and belonging. In his soliloquies, he questions his indecisiveness, but he prompts the audience, too, searching for their support: 'Am I a coward?" he asks. His questions break the fourth wall, looking for answers in the audience. Sometimes they talk back: from an intoxicated spectator at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1960s who shouted 'yes!" to a teenager at the Stratford Festival in 2022 who whispered 'no," audiences want to speak with Hamlet, responding to his self-doubt with their perspectives. Hamlet knew about the theatre's liberating power, too. In his search for a public voice, he chose to stage a play to expose corruption in Denmark. 'The play's the thing," he said, 'wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." Psychology researchers agree. Attending a play is proven to provoke the awakening of conscience, helping audiences empathise with political views that differ from their own. This understanding leads to pro-social behaviour outside the theatre. Empathy, insight and social engagement After watching a play by American playwright Dominique Morisseau about the impacts of the 2008 auto plant closures in Detroit, audiences were more likely to donate to and volunteer with charities supporting the homeless. Seeing the vulnerability of fellow human beings onstage helps audience members become more empathetic towards each other's experiences. Theatre also helps the artists who make it rediscover their humanity. In the 2013 book Shakespeare Saved My Life, English professor Laura Bates writes about her experience teaching 'the bard" to men in solitary confinement who could only speak to each other through slots in their cell doors. One incarcerated person found a kindred spirit in Richard II, who is imprisoned at the end of his play. Reading Macbeth helped him understand the mistakes he made in his search for power. A woman in a similar program in Michigan saw herself in Lady Anne's grief in Richard III. Beyond empathising with the characters, prisoners also felt empowered to confront the roles they had played in their past and to imagine new roles for the future. Building community The path towards empowerment or freedom through theatre is not limited to incarcerated spaces or grand professional stages. Liberating theatre can take place wherever people gather: in living rooms and community centres; in parks and church basements; in a drama classroom or even on Zoom, where people can read plays aloud, improvise scenes from their own lives and create new stories together. These modest theatrical gatherings offer something our devices cannot: the experience of being present with others in shared creative work. When we step into the roles of characters, we step outside the algorithmic predictions that have come to direct or define us online. top videos View all When we collaborate to tell a story, we build the kind of community that allows us to bear witness for each other. Hamlet ends with the Danish prince asking his friend, Horatio, to tell the truth about what has happened: 'In this harsh world draw thy breath in pain to tell my story." The theatre's liberating power belongs to anyone willing to gather with others, turn off their phones and tell stories. Each small theatrical gathering becomes an act of resistance — a reclaiming of our capacity for connection and conversation. (The Conversation) SKS GRS GRS (This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI) view comments First Published: August 17, 2025, 13:15 IST News agency-feeds How Shakespeare can help us overcome loneliness in digital age Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- New Indian Express
Embracing coding and culture: The humanities find a home in IITs
These shifts raise more fundamental questions. What do we mean by 'valuable' knowledge? Who has the privilege to decide what counts as literature, or art, or insight? For instance, take the Nobel Prize in Literature. When Dario Fo, the Italian playwright, won in 1997, and Bob Dylan in 2016, many critics baulked. They were not 'real' writers, some argued. While others saw it differently. After all, Fo and Dylan were both storytellers in a more encompassing way. Their stories were never supposed to just be read; they were meant to be heard, felt, and performed, like the epics of Homer and Kalidasa, the plays of Shakespeare. Maybe this was a return to the roots of literature. This very rethinking is happening in the humanities classrooms of IITs. Scholars are not only analysing printed texts; they are exploring how Instagram captions and hashtags shape public discourse; how digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook become the repository of language, art, and practice, indigenous or otherwise; or how algorithms control what we read, and how digital archives are reshaping our cultural memory. Discussing interdisciplinarity is much easier than doing it. Conventionally, research funding happened horizontally, but now momentum is building towards the diagonal, raising the question: what role should academics (and academic institutions) play in an evolving world characterised by technological acceleration and cultural upheaval? For decades, STEM disciplines were measured by quantifiable outputs: patents, products, and market impact. But that feels increasingly small in the wake of climate change, AI ethics, and social disconnection. Hence, the questions we face today are not only scientific; they are also social, cultural, and moral. What is emerging within these IITs is a conscious reframing for seeing code and computation in the larger context of history, ethics, language, and social practice. As India endeavours to establish itself as a globally relevant knowledge hub, this interdisciplinary current that is developing within the IITs is likely to be one of its greatest assets beyond metadata and computation. These institutions are not only edifying engineers and scientists but also training the next wave of thinkers who will grapple with the ethical, social, and political implications of their work. The growth of interdisciplinary research in the IITs will not simply depend on institutional changes, but is contingent upon the gradual shift in academic outlook and engagement. Moving in this direction will require institutional and intellectual courage to move beyond the comforts and legacy of established models, and seek a more inclusive, responsive way of 'knowing.' However, should the preliminary signs be considered, the journey has already begun. References Frodeman, Robert, Julie Thompson Klein, and Roberto C. S. Pacheco, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. Kaur, Ravinder. 'Locating the Humanities and the Social Sciences in Institutes of Technology.' Sociological Bulletin 54, no. 3 (2005): 412–27. (The author is an Associate Professor of English and Gender Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Patna)
Time of India
07-08-2025
- Time of India
Orry on bringing half of Bollywood in his birthday video: It wasn't a production, it was a devotion to my fans
Orry turned a year older, and in true Orry fashion, the internet exploded — this time, with a birthday reel that casually brought together the kind of lineup you'd expect in a Farah Khan's movie. But the man of the moment insists there was no grand plan. 'See, that's the thing — I didn't. I wasn't sitting here plotting a mega reunion. People just kept sending me videos. One after the other. I thought, why not share this love with the public? It wasn't a production, it was a devotion to my fans — a collaborative art piece that kind of made itself. I just pressed 'post'," he says. The video, which includes everyone from global music icons to Bollywood A-listers (and even a few alleged rivals), felt less like a reel and more like an international summit — and yes, Orry got arch nemeses Badshah and Honey Singh in the same frame. 'It's true; people say I'm a great unifier. I gave these two one shared enemy: missing out—missing out on wishing me along with people far more relevant than myself, that is,' he laughs, before casually dropping this: 'I am known to broker peace, and even Greta Thunberg just reached out to me this morning asking if I'll attend the Nobel Prize ceremony with her," he quips. Katrina Kaif also made an unexpected cameo. So how did that happen? 'Katrina knows it's kay to be me, and she really wanted you to know that,' says Orry. As for how long the entire thing took to make? 'No idea. It wasn't that kind of project. There was no call sheet, no master plan. It just kept growing — I was editing between fights, diva tantrums, and existential spirals.' Meanwhile, Reddit has its own theories claiming that Orry paid a few Hollywood celebs for the birthday wishes. 'Yes, I'd really like to thank @bollytitties69 and others on Reddit for officially placing me in the same category as the moon landing, Avril's alleged body double, Covid, and theories that I was grown in a Louboutin shoebox by shadow billionaires and Bollywood elite. And it's true — it wasn't a party, it was a psyop," he adds. So what's the verdict from the industry? 'They're already asking if there's a sequel. Some are even trying to recast themselves in it… and some fresh faces are even offering to pay to be in it," he concludes.
