Monthly Archives: August 2021

Having successfully pivoted to offer an at home offering during various stages of lockdown, HIDE has fully re-opened the doors to its basement bar and two dining areas: HIDE (formerly known as Ground) and Above at Hide.

Very simply, these are two distinct and different restaurants: from the menus and opening times to the kitchens and teams that operate them, says chef Ollie Dabbous. Re-opening is the perfect opportunity to remind the public, restaurant guides and media of this.

First opened in April 2018, the venue is a project from Hedonism Wines and Ollie Dabbous, following the unexpected closure of the chefs Dabbous in Fitzrovia, one of Londons best restaurants at the time. At HIDE, Dabbous cooking style is very much reflected in the dishes and drinks served throughout, with the chef seemingly given far greater freedom to run with his ideas, with the upstairs restaurant representing the best expression of the chefs modern, seasonally-led cooking. Having remained closed since last March, Roux Scholar Martin Carabott has been brought in as Head Chef at Above at HIDE, showcasing the restaurants signature style.

Accessed via the restaurants now famous spiral staircase connecting all three distinct venues, Above at HIDE showcases both fine dining and equally polished service, but without being stuffy or uncomfortable. When it comes to the food selection, this is very much a tasting menu restaurant. An a la carte menu is available, but it seems superfluous when main courses are priced from around 40-120. The set lunch menu is also excellent, offering three courses for 48 per-person (plus canapes, bread, and petit fours).

As for the eight and five-course tasting menus, both are available with a selection of different wine pairings, while a huge range of wines can also be ordered direct from nearby Hedonism cellars, with some bottles dating back to the 18th century. While tasting menus are generally a superfluous exercise in self-importance, served for no reason other than to gently caress the chefs ego thats not the case with Above by HIDE. Sure, not every dish is a hit, but the overall experience is both gratifying and impressive. Although expensive, the food is mostly remarkable and executed with striking attention to detail, while the sense of occasion is also very welcome following almost 15 months in and out of lockdown.

From the eight-course tasting menu, a recent dinner began with canapes including a bowl of deeply umami mushroom broth to excite the palate, gem lettuce wedges picked from Crate to Plate that morning, and rich, salty cured pork alongside a sliver of cured goose with the richness of lardo but greater flavour. It should also go without saying that the Above at HIDE bread basket is very, very good, containing various different breads baked in house each day.

A celebration of figs followed, with a warm Bourjasotte Noire fig served alongside a fig puree and fig leaf granita: a clean, inviting dish that, although wasnt a particular standout, demonstrated plenty of skill and finesse. Far better was a dish of ripe tomato served in a pool of olive oil, peeled, hollowed-out and stuffed with a mixture of Stracciatella, basil, and black olive. Seemingly simple on the surface, its a categoric example of Ollie Dabbous style, with exceptional ingredients at the fore. The same can be said for the nest egg dish thats been on the menu since day one. An adaptation of a similar dish served at Dabbous, the coddled egg yolk was fortified with mushrooms and served in the shell, on a bed of hay, ultimately providing a rich, deeply comforting cream of deeply savoury egg and mushroom with a whisper of smokiness.

Although fine, the foie gras dish over promised and underdelivered. Gently cooked in a Moscatel broth, the foie gras was technically cooked perfectly, but failed to live up to the outstanding broth and accompanying summer corn and beans which brought a little texture to the dish but not enough to contrast the slightly challenging texture of the poached liver, whose place seemed unwarranted.

Another delicious broth featured with a tranche of steamed day-boat turbot which lulled in a warm nasturtium broth, which was one of the menus fish course choices. Although excellent, the other choice of Cornish lobster dumpling was the more exciting option, wrapped with daintily thin pasta, bathing in a thin pea velout. But perhaps best of all, a chop of suckling pig from Huntsham Farm was served pink (as it should be) alongside spring turnip and a puck of creamy black pudding. For a supplement of 18, a wedge of A5 wagyu was also available, capped with truffle shavings and joined by sparassis.

Before the grand finale, an absolutely inspired avocado leaf ice cream worked as a gorgeous palate cleanser, followed by the dramatic serving of an iced bouquet, featuring a fulfilling platter of edible flowers plunged into liquid nitrogen to immediately freeze them, like texturally opulent sorbet: another case of Above by HIDE taking already excellent produce and showcasing it even further using innovative techniques and masterful attention to detail.

HIDE can be found at 85 Piccadilly, London, W1J 7NB.

RELATED: El Pastor Soho brings a taste of Mexico City to Londons West End

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Above at HIDE reopens with new Head Chef - The London Economic

I watch no fewer than eight romantic comedies a month. The formula a slightly outlandish meet-cute, some heady will-they-or-wont-they moments, and conflict that never lasts for more than 20 minutes makes my brain feel smooth, and I consume them as both workday background noise and an anxiety cure. The genre equivalent of The Comfy hoodie, the predictability of rom-coms is both cringeworthy and comforting.

Someone Great, the forgotten child of Netflixs late 2010s bid to revitalize the romantic comedy, slots into the genre perfectly, despite working overtime to subvert the trope of slapdash romances. Namely, the love story happens in reverse. When music journalist Jenny (Gina Rodriguez) gets her dream job at the mythological San Francisco bureau of Rolling Stone, her boyfriend of nine years, Nate (Lakeith Stanfield), dumps her, leaving Jenny to enlist best friends Blair (Brittany Snow) and Erin (DeWanda Wise) on a quest for closure and concert tickets. Jenny and Nates relationship unwinds in neon-tinted flashbacks of passionate sex and arguments about ambition, bifurcating the film into a buddy comedy and a searing exploration of what it looks like to outgrow your partner without meaning to.

The latter plotline is what makes Someone Great the perfect late (or early, depending on who you ask) pandemic watch. If I had to guess, were all emerging from these last 17 months a little worse for wear. Co-quarantining killed relationships we thought would last forever, and the routine of work-sleep-repeat has us leaving careers we thought wed have forever. In other words, life probably still feels shitty and uncertain to most people, and its reassuring to watch someone fictional come to terms with that as imperfectly as the rest of us.

The day after her relationship ends, Jenny melodramatically dives into singledom, binge-drinking and self-medicating with Molly (a.k.a. ecstasy) procured from RuPaul as she searches for tickets to a music festival. Jenny is endearing in her mood swings, with Rodriguez coming across light and airy when she shirks off her feelings and arresting while deep in them.

This messiness is what makes Someone Great so appealing. No one is looking for the perfect guy or a second chance or any of those other improbable rom-com asks. All Jenny wants is a few hours to get fucked up and forget about things, and thats something even a rom-com skeptic can get behind.

Someone Great is really a film about trepidation and how it manifests differently in all of us. For Jenny, it comes out in grand displays of emotion, crying in the corner of a bodega to Selenas Dreaming of You. For Erin, its in procrastination and denial as she avoids committing to the boutique owner shes sleeping with, in a final bid to delay adulthood. As for Blair, she deals with her anxieties through lopsided confrontation by cheating on her doting boyfriend with a lanky creative-director type.

The takeaway from their coping mechanisms? Sudden change doesnt require a sudden solution, even if it takes the films protagonists a mere 24 hours to reach that realization. Its a refreshing lesson, especially as were inundated with tales of hot girl summers and clubbing itineraries and primers on how to combat your fear of going out. We dont need to be okay with this new, awkward pace of life yet and yes, Im painfully aware of the irony of a film that celebrates hedonism teaching me that.

Someone Great is best watched casually, perhaps with a pile of laundry at your feet or while you complete some other mundane house chore. Like Set It Up and the rest of the Netflix rom-com set, its compulsively watchable, with a plot that gets better the less you think about it. Jenny, Blair, and Erins chemistry is breezy, and the film is at its best when it relies on their friendship for cheap laughs. Case in point: The clothing montage a staple of early aughts rom-coms feels like a natural extension of a night out as the trio takes shots and swaps outfits while rapping along to The Jump Off by Lil Kim.

The films soundtrack is both a welcome plot device and a crutch, with the song selections occasionally feeling a little too on the nose, like when Jenny scrolls through nearly a decades worth of texts and photos while Lordes Supercut plays. Writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson started off as a music blogger for Pigeons and Planes, and much of the films identity comes from Spotify playlists containing well over 500 songs, with most of the score coming together during production. That symbiosis is best showcased in Someone Greats final flashback, where Jenny and Nate have sex after a particularly incendiary argument. Mitskis Your Best American Girl plays in the background, like some sort of warning bell as Jenny realizes the best parts of her relationship are over and that their differences arent something you can argue through.

Make no mistake: Someone Great isnt earth-shattering cinema. Its not even the best rom-com to come out of the past couple of years. But it is a soothing, easy film to return to when pandemic life feels a little too daunting.

Someone Great is streaming on Netflix.

For more recommendations from the world of culture, check out the One Good Thing archives.

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One Good Thing: A rom-com that celebrates the joy of easy watching - Vox.com

Tributes have poured in following the death of John Hall, a 'Manchester gig legend' and passionate champion of the local music scene.

John, a 'perfect Mancunian mix of madness, love and music', died on August 18 of oesophageal cancer.

Key figures in the local music industry have been sharing their memories of the legendary character ever since, with a tribute concert taking place this evening.

Read more: Watch Andy Burnham belt out an acoustic version of Wonderwall while launching the Greater Manchester Music Commission

The For John concert will take place at Salford's Sacred Trinity Church, with all funds donated to the charity John was setting up before his death.

The John Hall Stage will support grassroots venues and musicians and hopes to provide free rehearsal space to new bands.

Following the news of his death, Manchester band The Slow Readers Club posted: "RIP John Hall, what a wonderful man, a legendary figure on the Manchester music scene and a passionate champion of our band and so many others.

"You will be greatly missed. Love to Mark and all his loved ones at this difficult time."

Tameside rockers Cabbage wrote: "We have lost the most infectious, charismatic and down-rght outrageous man in our lives.

"He acted as our Tony Wilson with extra hedonism, supporting every independent group that was worth something.

"There's a hole in the sky today and I speak for endless groups when I say John Hall was well and truly, one of a kind. Hope to see you on the other side John. We all love you dearly."

Dave Haslam said of John: "A massive music fan and a hugely loved man who went to all the best gigs, and was properly inspiring to so many of us in Manchester. Well miss you so much."

Photographer Nathan Whittaker, also known as Manc Wanderer, wrote: "One of the things I love most about going to gigs is seeing familiar faces, and that mutual love of music!

"John Hall - an absolute legend of the Manchester music scene and to say youll be missed is an understatement. The gigs wont be the same without that smile. RIP"

A post from Even The Stars blog said: "John Hall was the single biggest inspiration to this blog in the early days when I thought I couldnt write for s***, always encouraging.

"Hes done that for countless artists too. His loss is all our losses and Manchester will be a poorer place without him. Love you x"

Writer Peter Guy added: "Sorry to hear Manchester gig legend John Hall has left us. I met John at a festival & became friends, bonding at various gigs, he was as passionate a man about music you could meet.

"His humour & zest for life was infectious. A force of nature. Big love to his family & friends."

Photographer, director and author Paul Husband said: "John Hall was that perfect Mancunian mix of madness, love and music. Everytime a new band plays in Manchester his presence will be felt."

The O2 Ritz, which hosted a huge concert for John earlier this month, wrote: "Sending our heartfelt thoughts to John Hall, and his nearest and dearest. A true inspiration. All our love"

Ahead of that show, Louder Than War writer Wayne Carey posted a touching tribute to John.

It reads: "For those who dont know John Hall, you probably do. Hes probably been at a gig near you somewhere if you support the unsigned grass roots bands of our creative city.

"He also played an instrumental part in evacuating people from the flats above The Arndale Centre when the bomb devastated the bottom of Market Street back in the mid 90s.

"Hes a shine of light on the music scene with a massive heart and a genuine love for all things music. A proper character who instantly charms his way into your life after your first meet."

John posted on Facebook in early July that his cancer had 'spread in the blood to my liver, inoperable, terminal.

He wrote: "I have been given 4 months to live. Details of wake (which I will be at hopefully) on 28/8 to follow. Stay cool and love one another."

But an update just a month later on August 4 read: "The cancer has spread so quickly Im too weak and ill to undergo ANY more treatment. So now its a few short weeks not months. Bleak."

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RIP John Hall, the 'perfect Mancunian mix of madness, love and music' - Manchester Evening News

Theres a new novel by Pat Barker and, once again, she reflects on the cost of war to those already regarded as expendable. Reading The Women of Troy, I recalled interviewing her when her Second World War novel Noonday was published, and asking her about a particularly striking image, in which bedraggled troops returning to London are briefly glimpsed as though they might be survivors from Boudiccas army. From the point of view of the common soldier, she told me, one cockup is the same as another.

Sometimes, the past seems to come closer. Recently, I went to talk to the distinguished academic Dame Gillian Beer, who has written a short piece of memoir called Stations Without Signs, much of it focused on her experiences as an evacuee. We talked in the garden and, as Spitfires from the local war museum droned overhead, giving rich folk a taste of danger, she remembered two young brothers whose mother had ordered them to return to London to be with her. They didnt want to and, indeed, absconded back to the countryside. Once again, they were summoned back to the city where, months later, they were both killed by a bomb. I told Beer about my father, who had also taken to life outside the capital and been allowed to remain in Burnley for the duration. He never saw his mother again; she died while he was away. He was seven. But he was still alive. Evacuation from war, to state the obvious, works.

As does isolation. Until I left the Irish countryside for a spell of work in the UK a couple of weeks ago, I hadnt seen my closest friends for what felt like years, but we had all remained well. Reunited, we went a bit over the top. It seemed as though there were no treat too frivolous to mark the start of happier times, any reckless expense justified by the reassurance that we hadnt spent any money enjoying ourselves for ages. Staying with two beloved pals, I was touched that they had turned their spare room into a luxurious hotel suite, complete with lotions, potions and even a miniature of gin.

They had also furnished me with a fluffy robe, the full significance of which only became apparent when the visits greatest indulgence arrived an inflatable hot tub, hired for the week. Being in middle age, we are all on various health regimes to counter our crocked knees and rising cholesterol, but during the visit we threw caution to the winds and ate red meat and drank coffee after 6pm. We agreed that we cant keep up this kind of hedonism, but it was lovely while it lasted. One day, I met another friend, who is of a more ascetic cast of mind. When I regaled him with tales of the spa, he was horrified. My God, he cried, youve got a sex pond! And that, I fear, has pretty much ruined hot tubs for me, and now for you.

Returning home, I was bemused to find that little had changed. Specifically, a garden bench was still in the dining room, whither it had been brought to provide extra seating during a recent family lunch another reunion. Keeping my tone as non-judgmental as possible, I remarked to my cohabitant that I thought he might have found time to return it to the outside in my absence. He countered that it was impossible, because the cat had taken to sleeping on it and he couldnt bear to upset her.

What could I say? Our pets have kept us on the straight and narrow, sanity-wise, during lockdown and I suppose now its payback time. And she does look very comfortable. Well get used to it.

Alex Clark writes for the Observer and the Guardian

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A war evacuee shares her recollections... and reveals how well it works - The Guardian

The position of Opinions Editor is something I have been working up to over the summer by writing opinion articles on various niche interests of mine.

My favorite opinion articles I wrote were about fanart of the television show Hannibal that was hung in the U.S. Capitol and putting people of color back into the narrative of aesthetics. Both topics are things I am obsessed with and can talk about for odd lengths of time.

Over the summer I also worked on writing for Charleston City Council meetings. This felt like a step up from the Student Government articles I had been doing the previous year. My start at The Daily Eastern News as a reporter was, however, impeded by COVID-19 as I was stuck reporting on zoom meetings.

As for my major, my focus is a psychology major with a minor in journalism. What drew me to psychology was my interest in analysis and research. I also wanted to do something related to science but had to do something limited with math since my skills with it are not so great.

Currently, I am just gathering various kinds of experience to see what I would like to do after graduation. If I decide to go into journalism, then I would stop my education at the bachelors level.

However, if I were to pursue a job in psychology my options of consideration are to continue to a masters degree in clinical psychology here at Eastern. I would then continue to a doctorate program somewhere and go into research of abnormal psychology or child psychology.

The future is open though and climate change is real, so nothing is permanent.

I feel that my work at the Daily Eastern News would translate well into the writing required in the field of psychology, which was a major incentive to join. Both routes I can choose after graduation I still have developed skills along the way.

My hobbies include reading, and my favorite book right now is The Secret History. It is my favorite for its appeal to the dark academia aesthetic and themes of hedonism.

My favorite genre of movies is horror, specifically psychological horror which comes as no surprise at my major. I also love to play video games, one of which is Dead by Daylight. I do enjoy analysis videos on YouTube that I watch on a variety of topics like philosophy and politics.

As I go into my sophomore year, I am excited to be Opinions Editor for The News! I plan to feature a diverse range of opinions as I recruit a variety of staff to work along with us.

Helena Edwards is a sophomore journalism major. They can be reached at 581-2812 or at [emailprotected]

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Introduction to the 2021/2022 Opinions Editor The Daily Eastern News - The Daily Eastern News

The Shambino festival begins on Thursday and tickets are still available for the scaled down version of Shambala.

The four-day festival has been organised by the team behind Shambala and it is being held at the same Northamptonshire site where the latter would normally take place.

Due to the ongoing impact of the coronavirus, organisers again decided not to hold a regular Shambala festival this year, instead opting to hold Shambino for those who are keen to experience the event on a smaller scale.

Festival Co-founder Sid Sharma said: We were cautious when initially releasing tickets for Shambino and held back some while we worked through the implications of the Stage 4 announcement.

We now feel comfortable releasing a handful more tickets - though Shambino remains a third of the size of Shambala, so this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get all the magic of Shambala, distilled in an intimate, end of Summer knees up for a few thousand lucky people.

Designed as a dinky distillation of all things Shambala, Shambino has a capacity of 5,000.

It will still feature more than 100 acts performing across 10 stages with festival goers able to enjoy the likes of Steam Down, Snazzback, Wheel Up, HENGE, K.O.G and Maja Nela, Beth Rowley and Martha Tilston, The Nextmen, 2 Bad Mice, The Freestylers, DJ Dazee and Nicky Blackmarket.

True to Shambala form, the four-day programme is bursting with workshops, kids activities, debates and interactive, immersive nonsense, from old favourites like Power Ballad Yoga and the legendary Carnival Parade.

Festival-goers can expect venues and areas including Chai Wallahs, The Enchanted Woods, Sankofa's, Playtopia, The Carnival, The Roots Yard, Barrio, The Healing Meadow, Police Rave Unit and Dance Workshops as well as takeovers from the likes of Swingamajig, Rebel Soul, The Social Club, The Phantom Laundry and Compass Presents.

Shambino will also host The Shambolympics, with chaotically creative and delightfully daft games from sock wrestling to drag relay racing, interpretive dance racing and disco dodgeball all culminating in The Sunday Finals, where one team will be crowned Shamolympic gold medal champions.

Shambala has always stayed true to its principle of purposeful hedonism over its long history.

This means throwing the best party, with as little impact on the environment and inspiring people to make a difference.

The event will be meat and fish free and festival goers will need to bring their own water bottle and mug.

Boutique camping is available too for those who want to treat this as their staycation of the summer. From fancy tipis - kitted out with plush trimmings to pre-pitched salvaged tents from sustainable camping gear gurus Camplight.

Shambino takes place from Thursday, August 26 to Sunday, August 29.

Tier 3 tickets for adults cost 149 and a 40 Community Indemnity Pledge.

Concessions are available for different age groups.

For more information, visit https://shambino.org/before-you-book

Read more here:

Shambala team return with mini festival Shambino this week - Northampton Chronicle and Echo

Fish dart across mosaic floors and into the ruined villas, where holidaying Romans once drank, plotted and flirted in the party town of Baiae.

Italy, home of the ancient Roman Empire, can show you a new dimension about what it is like to go diving back in time with the Underwater Archaeological Park of Baia near Naples in Southern Italy.

Statues that once decorated luxury abodes in this beachside resort are now playgrounds for crabs off the coast of Italy, where divers can explore ruins of palaces and domed bathhouses built for emperors.

Baia, in the Phlegrean Fields, in the province of Naples, at the time of the ancient Romans became a thriving health and holiday location, near the important commercial port of Portus Julius and the base of the military fleet of Capo Miseno.

Due to the eruption of the Vesuvius Volcano, Pompeii was buried in ashes, and Herculaneum was swallowed by mud. However, it is a different seismic phenomenon that brought Baia underwater: bradyseism. Unlike earthquakes which move mostly horizontally, bradyseism makes the ground move upward or downward.

Baiae was once a popular coastal resort famous for its idyllic location and therapeutic mineral springs. Some described it as a den of licentiousness and vice" and a "vortex of luxury". Baiaes hedonism was as notorious as that of Las Vegas today. Seven emperors, including Augustus and Nero, had villas there, as did Julius Caesar and his rival Marc Antoine.

But Baiae wasnt just a spa retreat. It was a party town, a place for Romans to bathe and banquet, flirt, and frolic. In one of his many elegies to his lover and muse Cynthia, even the poet Sextus Propertius, no great prude, wrote despairingly in 25BC:But you must quickly leave degenerate Baiae;these beaches bring divorce to many,beaches for long the enemy of decent girls.A curse on Baiaes water, loves disgrace!bbc.com/travel

To protect all this, in 2002 the Archaeological Marine Park of Baia was created with an incomparable historical and cultural value. There are 7 underwater sites, ranging from 5 to a maximum of 13 meters of depth.

There are paved roads flanked with buildings, magnificent villas owned by the elite Roman families, dozens of marble statues, and bath complexes. Most of the buildings have collapsed walls but the different rooms are discernable.

Visitors can view the crumbled structures and amazingly preserved statuary of the city through glass-bottomed boats, snorkeling, or even scuba dives which allow people to actually swim amongst the copious ruins. While the city is no longer a resort, its waters still hold wonders.

See the rest here:

Discover Baiae: Imperial Capital of Debauchery at The Bottom of The Sea - Al-Bawaba

In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis wrote of a fundamental quandary facing modern Westerners: We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. How, he asks, can we expect people to exhibit virtues which they have never been taught? How can we require honor from men without chests?

The 14th-century romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written before the great deconstruction of Christian virtues in the modern mind. But the film adaptation, The Green Knight, could not be a more post-Christian, more 2021 storyfor it is a film about honor full of men without chests, distributed to an audience that has been raised to disdain the search for greatness.

One might question whether in our society so full of quislings and tyrants it is really honor and chivalry that need debunking. But pushing that question aside, even to deconstruct honor meaningfully, a narrative must understand it. The Green Knight does not. Part moody fantasy and part impenetrable A24 art film,The Green Knight evokes honor culture only aesthetically, and thus it fails even at deconstruction, for it is impossible to effectively deconstruct a culture you do not comprehend.

The story begins on a snowy Christmas day, when the Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) bursts into King Arthurs court. The knight bids some warrior to strike him down, and sinceand this is a notable choiceArthur (Sean Harris) is too frail and aged to take up the challenge, the kings young nephew Gawain (Dev Patel) responds in his stead.

Remember, croaks the haggard legend, Arthur, it is only a game.

There is but one condition for this contest: The challenger must be willing to take the same blow he deals the Green Knight one year later, at the knights chapel in the forest. Gawain, not the worlds greatest long-term thinker, lops off the immortal knights head, thereby signing his own death warrant. Months later, having procrastinated in drinking and whoring, he begins an episodic and dark journey to meet his doom.

Despite its neglect of the interior worlds of its characters, The Green Knight excels at exterior worldbuilding. Its cinematography beautifully establishes a strange and hostile outside world glimpsed through the windows of claustrophobic dwellings. Gawain's Britain is at once unmapped and very possibly unmappable. Giants and talking animals and haunted houses abound. Around every corner is something elemental and hostile. Nature is the antagonist, and man is the pest that entropy and time will exterminate.

This is dramatically and effectively evoked on screenan impressive feat given the films slim budget of $15 million. And this middle section, as nave squire Gawain stumbles from one perilous side quest to another, is the best part of the story. He lands in a version of the legend of St. Winifred, where he must help the headless lady to retrieve her skull. He meets a talking fox and encounters alarming scavengers on a smoking battlefield. The film threatens to be fun. But The Green Knights lack of interior worldbuilding and its grim tone drag it back into ponderous emptiness.

The films central problem is that it is about a questtraditionally an archetypal series of moral tests illustrating the search for wisdombut Gawains experiences never seem to amount to much of anything. Indeed, whether the quest itself is worth pursuing is very much up for debate. "Why do you need greatness? Isn't goodness enough?" asks Gawains prostitute mistress, Essel (Alicia Vikander). A wise question, but one posed by a woman whose own characterboth in personality and in virtueis not clear. What does goodness mean to Essel? Presumably were supposed to fill in the blanks with our own ideas of goodness and greatnessand assume that the two are somehow inherently opposed. To seek greatness is inherently to disdain goodness.

This strikes me as a very modern, secular, andtrope-wisefemale point of view that carries with it several unexamined assumptions. Its not that this is a bad plot device, but it must be executed well. A a woman asking the hero to abandon his ambitious ways and commit to humble civilian life is a common trope in films critiquing honor culture.

The greatest treatments of the theme in American film are in classic Hollywood Westerns, which offer a valuable contrast to post-Christian myths like The Green Knight. (Indeed, in a sense the Western is the American Arthurian myth. Robert B. Pippin, paraphrasing a German commentator, writes, the Greek had their Iliad; the Jews the Hebrews Bible; the British the Arthurian legends. The Americans have John Ford.)

The classic Western reveres the honorable man in the wilderness (while also being far more critical of the archetype than is commonly assumedsee The Gunfighter, The Big Country, The Searchers, etc.) It sees in him qualities of integrity and character, not simply a performative martyr complex.

This ethos could not clash more dramatically with modern mores. Many of the major on-screen stories of the last five years feature a beat where an ambitious male hero is humbled by a woman. Hamilton, The Greatest Showman, The Last Jedi, Minari, Enola Holmes, Loki, On the Rocks, Knives Out. I like and even love some of those stories, but the inherent badness of male ambition has become so axiomatic in modern storytelling that some films dont even bother to explain why it is that this ambition is bad. In The Last Jedi, for instance, acts of derring-do by men are condemned while similar actions by women are lauded. The film never offers a plausible philosophy to distinguish between these actions. Similarly, The Green Knight shirks its responsibility to define terms.

John Fords Westerns offer an excellent contrast, clearly defining the terms and the values of the honor cultures they examine. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Ford portrays a town ruled by a cruel tyrannous outlaw who can only be ousted by a dangerous man cut from the same clothspurred by an eastern lawyer bearing the virtues of truth and courage. Competence and virtue are both necessary to achieve peace, though the conclusion also hints that civilization and the post-honor world can only be brought about by betraying the honor code. In this complex web of characters, Ford intends us to love both the civilized man and the honorable, uncivilized gunfighter, for each has his virtues.

In many Westerns, men motivated by martial virtues of honor, heroismthe values required in a violent state of naturemust be domesticated by women, who value commitment, politessethe virtues of civilization. This is essentially the story of The Green Knight (sort oftheres also plenty of symbolism in the rather muddy film that presents femininity as wild uncivilized Paganism). But while Ford sees the dark side of honor culture, he also recognized that there is something admirable in acts of great courage and willpower, in the courageous self-definition of a brave man in the wild.

Green Knight director David Lowery doesnt offer us anything like this nuanced reflection on honor and civilization. For him, pursuit of honor is simply hedonism. There is no conception that with achievement of honor could come self-respect or even salvation. Gawain speaks of honor, but what does honor mean to him? Keeping a promise? Yes, this, at least. But dimly we intuit that there must be more to the virtuous life than simply winding one's weary way to the doorstep of the grim reaper. Gawain does not start asking these questions until late in his plodding way.

The films treatment of Christianity is important in this calculus. Christ is born are the first words of the film, spoken in a brothel, a nest of hedonism and thoughtless lust. For Lowery, Christianity is simply shorthand for all that is safe and civilized and decadent. In an interview, Lowery said that Arthur is the only character to reference Christianity, and analogizes this to rot at the heart of that court. While Gawain is not an articulate hero, his conception of honorthe thing driving him out to finish his questis surely shaped by the Christian milieu of his youth. His desire to be a legend like his uncle is inspired by hearing of the legend of his uncle, a Christian hero.

In paralleling Christianity and honor, the film is onto something. Christians are able to conceive of honor as the search for integrity, a quality which ultimately finds its only reward in Gods approval. All I want is to enter my house justified, says the protagonist in one of my favorite Westerns, Sam Peckinpahs Ride the High Country. This line is meant to explain why the man pursues honor even against his own physical self-interest. And it echoes Christs parable of the humble tax collector, who, Christ says, went down to his house justified for he had pleased God. All I want, then, is to enter my Fathers house justified. If there is no God, then such honor-seeking really is mere vainglory. We should rather live practical, compromised lives that dont take extraordinary risks for nonexistent spiritual rewards.

It is no surprise that the post-Christian Green Knight cannot conceive of spiritual rewards and does not think of honor-seeking in terms of integrity. Very modern, the film can see greatness only through the lens of oppression. Gawains striving for legendary status must really be a brutal, selfish process in which he gives little heed to those he leaves behind. His lust and vitality and ambition are the forces which propel him through the film.

To be fair, there is half of a good critique here. Using smuggled Christian virtues, Gawain comes to understand that the consequence of a hedonistic, nihilistic society (represented in the film by red, the color of lust) is death and horror (represented by green, the color of the plants that will one day blanket your bones). Abuse and unchecked desire lead to deaththe wages of sin. The Green Knight, therefore, accurately diagnoses the problem (using Christian virtues that it does not name), but gropes blindly for a solution. Seeking something older, the ancient virtuesit can only find paganism, blood sacrifice, oblivion. Oneness with an uncaring natural world instead of hard-bought reconciliation with a loving god.

A Christian vision of humanity is profoundly different. Man is not simply an animal, subject to the same decay, violence and entropy as a fox or a tree. Man has an eternal soul and thus is part of a rich narrative in which, by exhibiting moral virtues, even at great cost, he can rise above the great mass of humanity living and dying mindlessly.

And in this great narrative, a man might even dare to live to be a legend. In The Green Knight, true honor is bought only through utter self-effacement. This is not to dismiss the possibility of an honorable death, but to acknowledge that embracing oblivion through death is not a virtue in a Christian honor culture. Death, after all, is not oblivion. It is not the final word. We are, at the end of the day, more than just our red passions or our green decay.

Kneeling before the knights axe, weak-kneed Gawain asks, desperately, Is this all there is? Christmas bells ring dimly in the background as if in answer.

But all we hear is the Green Knight, a kindly executioner, rumbling in response, "What else ought there be?"

Read more:

'The Green Knight' Has No Chest - by Hannah Long - The Dispatch