In a relaxing departure from our usual days, we watched the 35 Up edition of the Up series this morning. Two of the characters have positively surprised us in their demeanor, outlook on life and just general accomplishments - John, the kid politician, has grown up to be successful but is very in touch with his Bulgarian heritage and has married a Bulgarian immigrant. His stated purpose for participating in 35 Up was to bring more publicity to his foundation for Bulgaria. And Suzie, the very annoying emotional teenager and withdrawn 21 year old has started a family and settled down - for the first time she seems genuinely happy and content with things. However, the story of Neil, the middle class student from Liverpool, has been really heartbreaking. In a time in Britain when depression was still either left untreated or grouped in with complete mental illness, Neil was suffering from something but seems to have never been able to get it treated. The bright enthusiastic seven year old seemed to begin to collapse under the pressure of academics and expectations around age 14 and fully withdrew from his "set life path" when he dropped out of university and began working around London. In 35 Up, it's shown that he's been homeless since then and has been joining squatters communities until he ended up in a relatively more stable community on the Shetland Islands. He is a struggling writer and actor but is still sinking deeper into depression. Our class was horrified as the interviewers continued to ask him questions about whether or not he felt he was a failure... the poor man is only 35 at this point! Let him get help, re-establish his footing, and try again and then maybe, just maybe you can begin to ask him life-summing questions in his 70s and 80s. I was downright furious in their treatment of Neil and complete coldness.
The 35 Up presentation prompted a whole slew of discussion, questions and new thoughts among our group. As much as the participants changed from 7 to 21, they changed even more from 21 to 35! While most of us have spent all of our lives thinking about the transition TO college and have worked to get into universities and succeed at them, the battles and work doesn't end with graduation. The participants were being asked at 35 whether their lives were failures or successes and it honestly frightened me that one's life could be summarized after such a short time.
With these questions still swimming inside of all of us, we went to the White Cube modern art gallery by Oxford Square and viewed exhibits from Antony Gormley. His installation, Breathing Room III, was an excellent, simple piece which questioned depth perception and space. Specifically, Gormley's structure boxes one into smaller and smaller spaces but then uses light tricks to showcase the real freedom one could still enjoy but does not see.
After our latest modern art foray, we took the tube up to the village of Hampstead and then hiked into the virgin forests there to Hampstead Heath. It was absolutely gorgeous forest which we were very surprised to find in the center of London.
We went up to Kenwood House and saw their valuable art collection there before engaging in an epic game of kickball which my team lost 20-17 (though we rallied from an 18-11 deficit late in the game).
Finally, we took the tube back to Baker Street and then Molly, Alex, Jill and I went to the Globe Pub for some world cup action (Brasil!) and dinner. Then we all went back to Regent's and read Macbeth to prepare for our discussion, reading quizzes and trip to the Globe to watch the show tomorrow.
Cheers!
-Simon
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