How do Stevenson and Rice present the conflict of good vs. evil in ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ and ‘Interview with the Vampire’?

Note: English essay

In Anne Rice’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ and Louis Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, the protagonists – despite committing ‘evil’ acts – are not presented as complete monsters. Instead, both Stevenson and Rice use their protagonists to embody the concept of the conflict of good versus evil through their own inner battles. In doing so, they present evil not as the preserve of a monstrous few, but as an affliction from which we all suffer. 

Stevenson presents the conflict of good and evil as a duality within our very nature through his characterisation of Jekyll. The narrative’s originally told in the third person, mostly from Utterson’s view, so we initially see Jekyll simply as a supporting character. By delaying the truth of Jekyll until the very end, it not only maintains the mystery surrounding Jekyll’s condition, but also allows Stevenson to draw a stark contrast between Jekyll and his alter ego Hyde in everything, demeanour and appearance. Jekyll’s ‘a large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty… [with] every mark of capacity and kindness’, whilst Hyde’s ‘pale and dwarfish [and] he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation.’ Stevenson describes Jekyll with sibilance, softening his description and giving the impression of all-round goodness and gentility, whilst Hyde’s description possesses more hard consonants, consequently hardening his description and subconsciously making him even more dislikeable to the reader. This mirrors the effect Hyde’s own appearance has on the other characters, a subconscious registering of his true malignance. By initially seeing Jekyll and Hyde as two separate entities, this further reinforces the disparity between them. In doing so, when Stevenson does reveal Jekyll’s secret, this further illustrates the original conflict that Jekyll battled with – of good versus evil – as well as the duality there can be in a person, ‘that man’s not truly one but two.’ Without disparity or duality, there is no conflict.

Whilst Stevenson uses Jekyll to present the duality of human nature and the successive inner conflicts involved, Rice splits this duality into two separate races in ‘Interview with the Vampire’, using mankind to represent the potential for goodness, innocence and redemption, and vampires to represent lost innocence, ruthlessness and evil. Rice uses her protagonist Louis as a construct to represent the age-old conflict of good versus evil by creating her own form of duality within Louis as he struggles to reconcile his human morality and his vampiric nature. Whilst the divide between the two natures is less tangible as it was with Jekyll, the division between Louis’s two conflicting natures is nevertheless clear, his birth as a vampire resulting in the vampiric ‘detachment that made [it] possible’ for him to kill mortals nightly, whilst still retaining that ‘passion, [that] humanity’ that causes him so much suffering.

Rice’s novel is initially narrated in third person, but this form soon switches to the first person narrative of Louis as he recounts his story to the young reporter. By choosing to have Louis narrate, Rice personalises the narrative, giving the readers a far more intimate portrait of Louis’s story than might’ve been possible if it had been narrated in third person; first person allows the reader to directly experience Louis’s struggles.

There are intermittent periods where the narrative switches briefly back to third person to remind the reader of the basis of Louis’s narrative, that he’s still talking to someone. Rice thereby reflects the duality of Louis’s conflict in the story itself by creating a dual narrative, Louis’s narration occurring alongside real-time events. Therefore, the reporter’s character is a narrative device used to draw forth Louis’s story, whilst also breaking up the plot periodically to comment and ask Louis the questions that the readers themselves are asking, from the mundane, ‘Rosaries have crosses on them, don’t they?’ to the more profound ‘He was just a killer. No regard for anything.’ The readers can also learn additional information through the reporter that Louis himself might not have conceded if Rice had structured the text to simply be one continuous first person narrative; this gives the text the tone of the confessional. By structuring her novel in this manner, Rice presents Louis’s inner conflict between good and evil as a journey of struggles and self-discovery that the reader can experience vicariously through his first person narrative.

Unlike Louis, though, the division between Jekyll’s two selves is more clearly defined. By splitting Jekyll’s evil so that it forms a separate, thinking entity, Stevenson further heightens the sense of conflict as good struggles against evil.

‘And this again, that that insurgent horror was knit closer to him than a wife, closer than an eye; lay caged in his flesh, where he heard it mutter and felt it struggle to be born; and at every hour of weakness, and in the confidence of slumber, prevailed against him…’

By personifying Jekyll’s evil, Stevenson gives Jekyll a literal enemy to pit himself against, allowing Stevenson to compare the nature of inner conflict with the nature of literal battles. At the end of Jekyll’s confession, even though Hyde really is simply another part to his personality, he refuses to acknowledge this fact, which is shown in how he refers to Hyde as ‘him’, ‘it’ or ‘Hyde’, rather than ‘me’ or ‘myself.’ He refers to Hyde as the ‘insurgent horror’, as if he is a parasite or invasion, and this can be seen as Jekyll’s attempt to disassociate himself from Hyde and a refusal to take responsibility for his own misdeeds. Jekyll even starts referring to himself in the third person, further emphasising Stevenson’s idea that inner conflict’s akin to a literal battle between two opposing sides.

At the time Stevenson was writing, the inner conflict of good versus evil was a popular concept in Victorian culture, a society that strictly followed the dichotomy of outward respectability and repression of all primal and emotional desires. The Victorians characterised pleasure and emotional exuberance as ‘faults’, and the absence of these characteristics are what Jekyll aspires to. However, as Jekyll himself observed:

‘It’s the curse of mankind that these incongruous fagots [good and evil] were thus bound together – that in the agonised womb of consciousness these polar twins should be continuously struggling.’

Stevenson thus presents Jekyll as a literal embodiment of the concept of good versus evil, Jekyll representing ‘good’ and Hyde ‘evil.’ By using the natural imagery of the ‘agonised womb’ to represent the human consciousness, Stevenson draws parallels between the mind and the uterus, for the mind is what gives birth to our thoughts and impulses, as well as the pain of conflicting thoughts and desires, as agonising indeed, as childbirth. By making these comparisons, Stevenson emphasises the natural aspect of such thoughts and desires, as well as how ‘sinfulness’ or ‘evil’ is a natural ‘curse’ ingrained in all of man.

From a Marxist perspective, Stevenson’s text can also be seen as a critique of Victorian society’s repressive nature, with the conflict of ‘good and evil’ serving as a parallel for the conflict between ‘pleasure/sinfulness and severity.’ Jekyll’s downfall serves as a cautionary tale that not even the upper-class are immune to such  ‘irregularities’, and that to repress what is natural is itself unnatural, resulting in your eventual consumption by your own hungers.

This is also a lesson Louis comes to learn throughout the course of Anne Rice’s text. At the time she was writing, Rice was suffering from a severe disillusionment with the world and religion, having recently lost her daughter to leukaemia. In her own words:

‘I felt that the vampire was the perfect metaphor for the outcast in all of us, the alienated one in all of us, the one who feels lost in a world seemingly without God.’¹

Her own experiences resulted in the creation of Louis, who also loses a beloved family member. Driven to despair and guilt, Louis is already on his way to becoming the ‘alienated one’ who ‘lived like a man who wanted to die but had no courage to do it himself,’ and it’s enough that when Lestat offers him human death, he plunges headlong into the abyss of evil. Consequently, Rice is able to push forward the conflict of good versus evil that Louis faces by combining it with the theme of innocence.

Although he felt such despair and guilt, Louis never had the courage to take his own life, an inclination he continues to show even as a vampire. Some people could interpret the way Louis clings to life and then human morality as Louis’s attempt to retain his own innocence, and as a refusal to accept that he’s irredeemably evil.

From a Marxist perspective, Rice’s presentation of evil can also be interpreted as a metaphor for wealth and status, with the vampires representing a whole new kind of ‘elite.’ Louis initially views Lestat with a sense of amazement, describing how he possessed an ‘extraordinary aura’ and as Lestat spoke to him, he ‘experienced only increasing wonder.’ Louis’s use of sensory, wondrous descriptions shows just how Lestat dazzled him, but once Louis becomes a member of this ‘elite’ himself, his status loses all its glamour and wonderment as he realises the true emptiness of his existence and that what he truly valued were the simple pleasures of his humanity. Therefore, from a Marxist perspective, the conflict of good and evil can be seen as a critique on the wealthy – the vampiric existence or the high life is ultimately empty because for all their powers and wealth, none of them are able to achieve true happiness. Indeed, it’s not powers or money that have true value, but humanity’s simple pleasures. As Louis tells Armand:

‘Dear God, even if there is no meaning in this world, surely there can still be goodness! It's good to eat, to drink, to laugh, to be together!’

Louis’s speech is continuously peppered with exclamations and question marks, which serves to illustrate the ‘mortal passion’ that drives him on in his quest to find goodness within his vampiric existence. His brief listing of what is good ‘to eat, to drink, to laugh, to be together’, are notably all mortal pasttimes that the vampires can’t have, and highlight how he is still desperately trying to hold on to his humanity. Vampires cannot eat, and what they drink – blood – is depicted as both a solitary necessity and – almost like sex – a sinful pleasure. Some would argue that his birth as a vampire can be interpreted as a rite of passage, with Louis’s transition from human to vampire actually being a metaphor for growing up, and his inner conflict of whether to do good or evil as a parallel for the loss of innocence as one matures and becomes an adult. When Louis ceases to believe in goodness and finally ‘accepted [his condition]’, this can be viewed as him finally letting go of his youthful innocence and accepting the ‘degree of coldness [he] would have to attain to end [his] pain’ – that is, the maturity to deal with the world’s harsh realities.

The struggle of good versus evil is the oldest one of all human history and serves to illustrate the imperfection of humanity as well as life’s harsh realities. Although the protagonists continue to struggle with this inner conflict throughout the texts, the conflict ends when they accept the evil that they’ve become. Both protagonists fall prey to evil, and from the moment they commit their first sin, they damn themselves; all attempts at redemption are merely ‘the chasing of phantom goodness.’ Through their texts, Rice and Stevenson convey the idea that once you commit evil, that evil’s an eternal stain on your soul. Evil cannot be redeemed and there’s no salvation. In the end, you simply must take responsibility for your wrongs and pay the price for what you are. As put so eloquently by Louis, ‘… You cannot know love and goodness when you do what you know to be evil…’

Bibliography:

Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Louis Stevenson

Bertens, H. (2001) Literary Theory: The Basics, (The Politics of Class: Marxism), (pp81-83), Abingdon: Routledge

¹ http://www.annerice.com/Bookshelf-EarlierWorks.html

How does Carter use religion in The Bloody Chamber to infuse her story with gothic elements?

Note: English essay on Angela Carter's short story anthology, The Bloody Chamber.

Carter uses religion to infuse The Bloody Chamber (story) with gothic elements. What religious references she does incorporate are not usually overt, but much more subtle, adding to the story’s air of mystery, but because we know the stories well, we can pick up on the comparisons and identify with them more easily. By using religion, Carter further adds to the gothic elements of her story due to the fact that religion is something that defies cold, hard clinical sight; it defies the way of the world and its natural laws and logic, giving it an almost magical power. Religion propagates belief in a higher power. 

Historically, religion is very important in Gothicism. At the time of the Industrial Revolution – where science was making enormous developments (and pushing religion out), where advances in steam power and machinery were celebrated – gothic works such as Dracula focused on the importance of religion e.g. Dracula being warded off with crosses, holy water, etc. They largely focused on the positives of religion, celebrating its power by giving readers such monsters as Dracula that are so foul that they defy its laws. However, not only does Carter use religion to infuse her story with gothic elements, she subverts the way she uses it, for ‘God’, the Marquis, is not good. 

By incorporating religion into The Bloody Chamber, Carter creates an almost supernatural atmosphere that increases the tension of the story, making it something more than just a tale of a sexually depraved, egomaniacal murderer, because religion instils a believer with the sense that there’s something greater than us, far beyond our mere physical human limitations out there in the universe. 

Such is the way that the female protagonist feels towards her murderous Marquis. In the text, sex is the ‘religion’ as such, of the Marquis; it is what he worships, what he believes in. For the girl, though – naïve and initially innocent, ignorant to the nature of sexuality – the Marquis is the god of this religion, likened to such a position. When she discovered his chamber, ‘The light caught the fire opal on [her] hand so that it flashed… as if to tell me the eye of God – his eye – was upon me.’ Before, the Marquis had been likened to little more than a priest or a mere worshipper of his ‘religion’, his pornography described as ‘holy books’, and the Marquis himself even teasingly calling the girl his ‘nun’, his initiate into the dark arts of his religion. He was nothing greater than that, though. However, once the girl makes her discovery of the horrors he’s perpetrated, her fear of him and the knowledge of what he’s capable of elevates him to godliness, something beyond what any normal human would or could do to another person, especially since she’s within the chamber itself, his ‘heart’, where his presence is everywhere. The fire opal on her finger is his, the chain and collar he keeps on her, much more than simply a reminder of him; it’s the collar of all the previous wives and victims before her, a burden she now possesses. 

What’s more, due to his wealth, she’s surrounded on all sides by his influence and the sheer power that derives from his status, to which – as a ‘poor widow’s child’ – she’s completely unaccustomed to. To a commoner, his power is extreme, and the extent of this power, the true nature she’s learnt of him and this wide-eyed naiveté of hers all combine to create the impression of the Marquis being almost omniscient, omnipotent; it’s beyond anything she could ever imagine. 

By forbidding her entry explicitly to this room, he’s not only become teacher and preacher in the arts of seduction, but her tempter as well, just like God tempted Adam and Eve by placing the apple tree in plain sight within the garden of Eden whilst forbidding them to eat the deadly fruit. Eve and the girl might seem to be completely at fault for being tempted, but it was God and the Marquis who put the temptation right before their eyes.

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

Note: First 5 pages of the script for my short comic, One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, which is based on the Chinese myth of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. Two star-crossed lovers forever separated by a vast river, and fated only to meet once every year, this is the story of one of those meetings.

Page 1

Inside a little cottage, a young Chinese man (Niulang) is getting ready to go out. His home is simple and plainly furnished, a commoner’s home.

He stands before his bed, where he’s laid out three outfits: one blue, one green and one cream. He stares down hard at them, paralysed by indecision. Eventually, he snatches up the green outfit and puts it on, initially pleased with the result. However, when he catches sight of himself in the mirror, his confidence dissolves, and he throws his head and claps his hands over his face in frustration.

Page 2

Inside another cottage, a young Chinese woman (Zhinu) sits at a dresser before a mirror, also getting ready to go out. The dresser is a bit of mess, with makeup pots, brushes, flower vases and jewellery scattered on the surface. The rest of the room is elegantly if haphazardly furnished, with a beautifully carved wardrobe in left corner, and a divider on the right, clothes hanging off it.

Zhinu brushes her hair and ties it up in a half-bun, before applying red paint to her lips.

Page 3

Outside, it’s night. Niulang stands outside his cottage at the bank of a river, a cloth-wrapped gift clenched tightly in his hand. He’s fidgeting a lot, clearly nervous, but also excited.

Suddenly, he spies Zhinu emerging from her cottage on the opposite side of the river; she also has a gift for him, wrapped in embroidered cloth. Even after all this time, even across the distance of the river, Niulang’s breath still catches whenever he sees her. He can’t look away.

Page 4

Niulang stares, and he is lost.

As Zhinu emerges, she catches sight of Niulang, and stops in her tracks.

Even across the vast breadth of the river, their eyes lock, and for a moment, time hangs still.

Page 5

A full page illustration. Zhinu’s back is to the reader, and the camera is panned out to show the full width of the river, how great the distance separating Zhinu and Niulang.

Etsy Product Descriptions Copywriting

Note: Product descriptions I’ve written for my Etsy.

The Black Cloud Zine

A collection of conceptual black and white illustrations inspired by my recent struggles with mental health (particularly anxiety). After losing my job in 2017 and trying to restart as a freelance illustrator, there were times I struggled quite a bit with isolation and cabin fever, as well as physical health issues at the time. When I needed to vent, I'd doodle little sketches to try and visually vomit out the thoughts and feelings I was dealing with, before developing them into full-on drawings and paintings.

This zine is a collection of those illustrations (with a little introduction from me): for those who are also struggling, who have struggled or know someone who is.

Alice in Wonderland – Digital Art Print

High quality digital art print of my Alice in Wonderland book cover illustration, showing Alice tumbling through the rabbit's hole. Originally painted in watercolours and acrylic ink.

Christmas Dinner Card

Still looking for that special card for your loved one? This Christmas, order them this tasty Christmas feast of a card!

Robin Christmas Card

Still looking for that special card for your loved one? This Christmas, order this beautiful watercolour robin to come winging its way to them!

Christmas Bunny Card

Still looking for that special card to send to your loved one this Christmas? Looking for something unique, colourful and beautifully drawn? Send them this adorable Christmas bunny card! 

Framed Fantasy Demon Illustration Print

A unique gift to decorate your home. Perfect for fans of illustration, demons, fantasy or all things floral.

A hand-drawn pen illustration of my demon prince character, Thorne. Although a demon, he's sweet and gentle, with a passion for books and nature.

An A4 digital art print of my Thorns & Roses illustration, printed on 167 g/m2 high quality matte paper.

Framed Steampunk Illustration Print

A unique gift to decorate your home. Perfect for fans of illustration, steampunk, fantasy or Art Nouveau.

She's the sinister steampunk circus ringmaster, beautiful and powerful, and ready to take the world by storm.

An A4 digital art print of my The Ringmaster illustration, printed on 167 g/m2 high quality matte paper.

Illustrated Postcard Pack

10 x beautifully illustrated A6 postcards. A mixture of coloured and black and white fantasy-inspired illustrations, this is the perfect to gift to your art-loving friend - or to yourself!

Vittori

Note: An excerpt from my short story, ‘Vittori.’

On the outside, it looked like any of the other clubs that lined the dark night street, the name 'tRiNity’ flashing garish pink in bright, searing neon above the door. The inside was no different, steeped half in darkness, half in flashing, oscillating lights of every colour under the rainbow. Dozens upon dozens of young, gyrating human bodies were crammed up to the walls, filling the place with an almost claustraphobic cloak of warmth, and everywhere, the sound of techno music blared and thumped through the speakers until the whole place became a vibrating, buzzing hive of activity and sound.

Alcohol, sweat... and the sweet, salty perfume of warm human blood pumping beneath the skin. It was a veritable feast of the flesh. However tempting it might be, though, Stacey knew she had one small part to play in her role as messenger before she could go off and have some fun (and food) of her own. Earlier, she had carried out her instructions dutifully, and delivered the message to Sydney, a request from her esteemed superiors for a meeting ‘that would be of much benefit to him.’

Now she dutifully led Sydney along, skilfully slipping through the heaving clusters of humanity before them until she'd reached the back of the room, unlocked the door there and passed through. Down corridors they went, and further corridors, until finally, they reached their destination.

A bright red door stood before them, manned by two guards, dressed in the traditional penguin-black and white. Flicking her short red hair and batting her eyelashes, she snickered at the younger of the two. "Stuck on guard duty again, eh, Felix? What'd you screw up this time?"

He glared at her, scowling, "Aw, shut ya face. None of your damn business."

"Well now, that's no way to talk to your superior," she said, her voice falsely sweet as she smirked at him. "In every way, might I add. Now, are you and Silent Bob over here going to let us in or do I have to make you? We've got a very important guest in to see the boss, and trust me, neither of them will be happy if you just stand there like some gormless muppet. Move it!"

Still glaring at her, Felix nonetheless obeyed, and with his partner, they dutifully opened the door and let them past. Stacey strode past them with a smug wink and the sharp click of her heels, smiling at the sight that greeted her. "Good evening, sirs. Here he is."

Creative Exchange: The Designer Craft and Art Fair

Note: An article I wrote for Palmers Green Life Magazine about Creative Exchange’s Christmas art fair.

This November, Creative Exchange had its first ever Designer Craft & Art Fair! On Sunday 17^th November, St. Monica’s Parish Centre was a hive of activity, packed with a near-constant stream of visitors from 10 until 6.

Fine art, jewellery, leatherwork, ceramics, glassware, graphic prints, fashion accessories… There was something for everyone! From Cheryl Powling’s stained glass pieces to Katherine Bree’s exotic, colourful semi-precious jewellery, the fair was brimming with a multitude of crafts and disciplines, alive with colour and artistry.

Around thirty artists and designers were featured that day, all of them specially selected for their first-class handmade crafts. Most were local creatives, but Creative Exchange events are also open to those outside of London. One such exhibitor, Lindsay Duff, came all the way from Cambridge with her exquisitely handcrafted silver jewellery!

As well as the various art and crafts, Creative Exchange application forms were also on offer, with a special discount on the membership fee for the day, reducing it from its usual £35 to £30.

However, this fair couldn’t have been realised without the hard work of Creative Exchange’s founders, Dan Maier, Christina Stavrinides, Denise Ryan, Rachel Lee and Ruth Berenbaum, as well as our team of volunteers. They worked tirelessly to bring this fair to life, from setting up on the day and welcoming visitors to providing exhibitors with refreshments.

We really hoped everyone enjoyed the day. Many thanks to everyone who donated £2 at the door, as well as to all of our sponsors. All of your donations go towards funding further events like the Designer Craft and Art Fair, our first ever event to have all exhibitors under one roof.

RNIB

Note: An article I wrote on the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) for Good Looking Optics.

Around 180,000 people are registered blind in the UK alone, with another 180,000 registered partially sighted – and this might not even cover the true number. According to statistics, the true number of blind or partially sighted people in the UK – registered and unregistered – could number close to 2 million. And as we all get older, that number will only continue increasing.

However – the RNIB is on hand to help.

What is the RNIB, I hear you ask?

The RNIB is the Royal National Institute for the Blind, one of the major charities that offer support, advice and information to those with partial and total blindness, as well as preventing unnecessary sight loss.

Many people don’t realise that organisations such as the RNIB exist, and can spend their lives thinking that the impairment of their sight will completely limit what they can do their in life.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Being blind or partially sighted doesn’t mean the end of your autonomy. At the RNIB, information and advice on housing, employment, money, eye health, local services, welfare and education is widely available through their booklets, helplines and advisers. The RNIB seeks to support the blind and partially sighted in living as independently as possible, and is able to help people from all walks of life, including children and families.

Run by a combination of volunteers and paid workers, the RNIB has its main office located at King’s Cross on Judd Street, open Monday to Friday. It hosts over 70-80 departments, including an Eye Health Department helpline, with trained experts present to answer all your calls.

The RNIB also provides their own specialist learning institutions such as the RNIB Sunshine House School for children, and the RNIB College Loughborough. The RNIB College not only helps the blind or partially sighted, but people with a wide range of disabilities, from autism to severe learning difficulties, offering day and residential programmes. Further education opportunities are also on hand, with custom-made plans based on a student’s individual goals for the future, whether it’s an education, independent living or being part of the community. Additionally, they are able to offer you help getting into the workforce, such as through their Adult Employment programme at the RNIB College.

Sight impairment needn’t mean isolation. The RNIB provides information not only on the practicalities of daily life such as work and housing, but the RNIB seeks to create a supportive community that the blind and partially sighted can be involved in. It hosts events such as the upcoming RNIB Products’ Roadshow, which will give visitors the chance to see and learn about all the latest adapted products. Furthermore, it puts you in touch with other organisations and societies such as the Hackney Peer Support and Social Group and the Royal London Society for the Blind, and provides info on events and activities you can participate in, such as the 37^th National Athletics Championships for Visually Impaired People.

Of particular note is their Resource Centre at King’s Cross, which sells specially adapted products for those with impaired sight, including Braille and audio books and talking scales and jugs that allow you to hear the measures and weights. Here, some of the latest technology for the visually impaired is available, such as the RNIB pen friend voice labeller, or the Colorino colour detector, which can check the colours of a variety of surfaces and items and announce it to you.

Sight impairment doesn’t mean your life is over. Contact the RNIB, and you can find yourself on the way to a better life than ever.

All products are available by mail order, for those unable to leave their house.

For more info on the RNIB, you can visit their website at www.rnib.org.uk

You can visit the Good Looking Optics website at www.goodlookingoptics.co.uk

Framed! Contemporary Eyewear in Fashion Review

Note: An article I wrote for Good Looking Optics about the Framed! exhibition at London College of Fashion.

When you think of glasses, what are your immediate thoughts? Intellectual? Nerdy? At best, a necessity – not a fashion accessory?

Well think it no longer! For Framed! Contemporary Eyewear in Fashion has unleashed a new series of events and exhibitions at the Fashion Space Gallery. One of its first events, ‘Elements of Fashion’, has lasted from 12^th September until 3^rd November 2012, and through it, has explored how culture and time have come to shape contemporary eyewear and how it’s been presented in fashion and advertising.

This exhibition showcased 200 frames ranging from the sleek and stylish to the downright outlandish, featuring designers and companies from all over the world: Prada, FK-Brainwear, Givenchy, the Kirks Brothers, Sol Amor… The list is endless! Through an illustrated timeline, Framed! charts the history of eyewear from the 1950s right up until the present day, featuring iconic glasses-wearers such as Elton John and the likes of such celebrated fashion labels as Versace.

Not only did it demonstrate the evolution of glasses in fashion, style and popular culture, but Framed! also examined new innovations in eyewear technology, from Studio Swine’s ‘Hair Glasses’, crafted straight from real hair combined with acetate, to Edward Gucewicz’s horn-carved spectacles.

All in all, Framed! presents an extensive and fascinating examination of one of fashion’s most overlooked accessories, and at long last, celebrates it in the manner it truly deserves.

City Stars

Note: A short piece of flash fanfiction I wrote for the Paris Burning fandom, about personified cities: https://thecitysmith.tumblr.com/

When she was young, Kuala Lumpur could spend hours gazing up at her night sky. Sprawled on rooftops, curled up on the grass, perched in a tree sipping sweet coconut water, it didn't matter how or where - she could spend hours counting those stars, raised fingers tracing patterns, pictures, writing in all her different languages. They said the stars told tales, containing the souls of immortalised heroes, heroines and creatures, and she liked to imagine them, how even in the galaxies above their stories were still playing out.

Now the pollution has set in, has seeped into her skies, her air, as a dull, but constant itch down in her lungs, she can't see her stars anymore. But whenever she misses them, she'll take her car out and race along her roads and soaring freeways, stepping hard on the gas until even her humid night air whistles with a cold breeze that whips her long hair behind her.

When she wants a quieter moment, she'll go up into the Petronas Towers, right up to the very top floor.

And down below and all around she'll see them, the thousands, the millions of lights of her cars, her houses, her schools, her offices, her towers. She might not have her stars anymore, but here are her heroes, her heroines, but above all, her people. She makes her own stars, red, orange, gold, white, neon, their lights illuminate her from within, and she smiles, that faint, lazy smile.

For there's nothing more beautiful than a city at night.

The Flower Maiden

The Flower Maiden

The first five script pages for my short horror comic, 'The Flower Maiden.'

Page 1

            Poppy had always hated the way she looked.

Nose too big.

Eyes small, dull and mud-brown.

Hair limp and mousy.

She longed to make friends, but whenever she looked at those beautiful, shining, smiling girls, her confidence withered, and she shrunk back into her own little world.

Poppy would never be like them.

Page 2

During the summer, Poppy liked to explore the woods near her house. It was one of the few places she felt at ease, with nothing to fill her mind but the call of the birds, the scent of the flowers and the warm dapple of sunlight across her skin.

She thought she knew every inch of these woods, but one day… she came across something new.

A garden.

Page 3

Dazzled and envious of its beauty, in a moment of melancholy, she cupped a flower in her hands, and wished:

“I wish I could be as beautiful as one of you.”

At that… a figure emerged.

She looked like a pale, blonde young woman dressed all in white, but her face was completely covered by white flowers.

Page 4

Flower Maiden: If it’s beauty you want, beauty…

The Flower Maiden plucks a bud from the garden and hands it to Poppy.

Flower Maiden: … you shall get. Look after this flower, nourish it, nurture it, coax it to full bloom… and its beauty shall be yours for as long as you have it. Do we have a deal?

Poppy nods, and takes the flower home, planting it in a pot she keeps on her windowsill.

Page 5

The Flower Maiden’s words spoke true. As time went on and the flower blossomed, so too did Poppy. Her previously limp, mousy hair grew long, glossy and wavy, her dull, mud-brown eyes – always downcast – were now warm, gleaming and hazel, and as her transformation began, she positively glowed with confidence. Girls and boys she never even would’ve dreamed of speaking to before were slowly drawn to her, and her confidence bolstered, she soon became the shining belle of her village.

A Walk in the Woods

I live just at the edge of London, a place that exists in a strange, wonderful limbo of both the urban and the rural. I’ve lived here all my life, and so have been in the unique position of a Londoner with easy access to a great deal of green space. Public transport is only minutes away, there are shops, restaurants, cafes and all the other trappings of urban life, and yet there are also horse’s stables, a farm, flower fields and the park, a beautiful green space of rolling fields and towering, twisting trees. It's one of my favourite places to go for a quiet walk.

Perhaps partly because of her past as an artist, my mother’s always been fascinated by trees, something which she’s passed down to me. While I was growing up, we would often go on walks through Trent Park, strolling leisurely down the paths and through the woods, my mother pointing out the unique texture or the unusual shape of a tree or the clusters of fungi growing along the trunk.

The woodland is always different every time you see it, the flowers blooming, dying and changing with the seasons, the trees’ leaves shifting through a myriad of vivid, dazzling colours, before shrivelling and falling away into brown, crunchy heaps around their roots. In a city that’s always so busy, going for a walk through the relative stillness and quiet of a forest is incredibly soothing. There are always so many things to discover and note, and yet at the same time, your mind is allowed to rest, to simply be.

Even now as an adult, nature still has its hold on me. It inspires so much of what I do and create, because nowhere can you find more unique and interesting shapes, forms and textures than nature. It’s an escape from the frenetic pace of modern life, a space to reclaim the quiet and empty of your mind of everything but what you’re experiencing right there and then. Sometimes, a walk in the woods is just what I need to quiet my thoughts.