SOLA FLARE MAGAZINE AUTUMN WINTER 2023

AUTUMN/WINTER 2023 E MAGAZINE SPARKING INTELLECTUAL FEARLESSNESS

We acknowledge The Traditional Custodians of the Land on which we work of the Dharawal People. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and future. They hold the culture, memories and traditions of their people. To contact or provide a submission to SOLA Flare contact: [email protected] All rights reserved @ SOLA FLARE publishing 2023. Views and comments of the individuals do not necessarily represent those of the publishers and no legal responsibility can be accepted by the publication for information or advice provided. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission of SOLA Flare



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Editorial Team Message: We are so excited to present the inaugural issue of the SOLA Flare magazine. This eclectic collection of writings has surpassed all our expectations of what our first issue would look like. We wanted to create a student magazine that was intellectually explorative, and which provided students with a forum to share their interests and academic skills. In bringing these wonderful submissions together, we have achieved this aim. The SOLA Flare editorial team would like to thank all of our writers for submitting to the magazine. Each submitter has created pieces which are filled with care and effort and insight. Each submission has its own distinctive flair, vibrant enthusiasm with thought provoking contributions. We would additionally like to thank Sophie for all her efforts in helping us with the promotional and editing processes for this first issue of SOLA Flare and we could not have accomplished this publication without her. We hope you enjoy reading all of our fantastic submissions. We have thoroughly enjoyed compiling our magazine, and we are so proud of everything SOLA Flare has achieved thus far. In terms of future ambitions, we are planning a themed issue for the magazine’s second publication. We welcome more submissions for the second issue, and we are looking forward to seeing how each submitter is differently inspired by the theme. Jess Hewett Phoebe Eldridge-Smith Managing Editor Managing Editor Aislinn McArdle Edwina Cooke Head Editor for Philosophy Head Editor for Student Experience David Allen Shanti Pillai Head Editor for Creative Works Head Editor for Literature, Arts, and Culture 05SOLA FLARE

CONT PHILOSOPHY LITERATURE, ARTS, AND CULTURE The Burden of Freedom The Art of Revenge By Riley Frankel By An extract discussing Ben Ballantyne existential dread, nausea An inquiry about Gentileschi’s Judith 10and despair Slaying Holofernes (1620) and Lingua Woke Brutalism Ignota’s I WHO BEND THE TALL By Luke Maher GRASSES (2021) 24 An essay exploring Beautiful Mistakes Ulysse Carrière’s book By 14‘Woke Brutalism’ Eli Horth A deadly cocktail A meta-analysis investigating the essentialist nature within the By Luke Morosin-Smith 30narrative of the Maroon Five A critical argument Songs presenting sexual arousal as comparable to alcohol in 18diminishing our free will 06 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

ENTS CREATIVE WORKS STUDENT EXPERIENCE Kronos To Be Defined By Mark Russell By A resolute poem scrutinising the David Allen A synthesis of reflection, review 42divine relationship and hope and requiem encountering the unfortunately certain nature of Baby 36reality By Mark Russell A tantalising poem probing the 44implacable nature of time and a craving for the present The agalma forever looks for heaven By Luke Maher A staccato poem examining the 46fascination of the self’s reflection, the immortality of art, and connection 07SOLA FLARE

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PHILOSOPHY SECTION



The Burden of Freedom By Riley Frankel Though existential schools can produce perhaps the greatest freedom, freedom over meaning, this freedom is not without fear. To accept a false purpose thrust upon oneself is bondage, but it is a comforting bondage. To search for your own foundation is freedom, but it is a terrifying freedom. Indeed, such are the burdens of freedom that their impacts have at least two dedicated existential concepts. Nausea and Dread Existential Nausea is the sudden anxiety impressed upon an individual when they realise that they alone are responsible for their choices, that they alone provide the meaning they crave. It is the fear that one may choose wrongly, may live falsely, may hope in vain. Almost counterintuitively, upon realising that my life truly is my own I am beset by the desire to destroy this fact. In accepting this, I have lost all traditional structures which have thus far given me meaning. I must now continue in a meaningless world; blind, without support, without guidance, without counsel. That realisation is sickening in the extreme. It appears that people, all people, crave an external structure to their lives, even if that structure is illusionary or false. Consider the most impactful decisions you’ve made thus far: Did you take internal responsibility for them or did you look to external sources to decide for you? I would guess the latter. Most people, myself included, are scared to live sincerely. When faced with a hard personal choice we strive to externalise. We might look to an authority figure, we might 11SOLA FLARE

we might subsume our will to logic, we might even place the decision on random chance (ie. flipping a coin). All these routes of decision are insincere: They involve the rejection of our responsibility as existential agents, brought on by the fear of existential anxiety. Yet, if we are to be truly free, we must overcome this fear to live sincerely. To believe that: It does not matter what you choose, so long as you are the one choosing. Once you escape existential nausea, you are not yet free. You now face a darker opponent, that of existential dread. Existential dread is, in part, the truthful fear that, if you take this plunge into sincerity, into the black void, there is no going back and there is no guarantee you will even succeed. It is the philosophical call of the void, at once all too tempting and the height of terror. As Soren Kierkegaard writes: “Anxiety may be compared with dizziness. He whose eye happens to look down into the yawning abyss becomes dizzy. But what is the reason for this? It is just as much in his own eye as in the abyss, for suppose he had not looked down. Hence, anxiety is the dizziness of freedom, which emerges when the spirit wants to posit the synthesis and freedom looks down into its own possibility, laying hold of finiteness to support itself. Freedom succumbs to dizziness. Further than this, psychology cannot and will not go. In that very moment everything is changed, and freedom, when it again rises, sees that it is guilty.” (Kierkegaard 1981, p. 61) Existential dread and anxiety are insidious fears in that, unlike other phobias, they have no required object or cause. They are instead all-present features of the human condition. They reflect our self-awareness as existential subjects. There is no way to remove them, and one sincere being can avoid them. Thus, there is only one way to approach these fears sincerely; to accept it. To live in the knowledge of this fear, in the knowledge that your meaning may at any moment be overthrown, and to live with that meaning nonetheless. If we may do this, nothing can assault our sincerity. 12 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

Despair Yet, an understanding of the horror of existential nausea and dread prompts the question: why take the leap? Simply put, because it is the lesser of two evils. Though it is truly horrible, it is still outdone by the depths of existential despair. For the existentialist, despair plays a fundamental role in human psychology. The concept traces back once more to Kierkegaard. In his text, The Sickness Unto Death (1989), he asserts that the human self is made up of a dialectic which must be continuously synthesised through conscious effort. This dialectic is the finite, the limitations imposed by our physical constraints, and the infinite, those qualities which allow us to transcend limitations (ie. imagination and rationality). When the self cannot balance or synthesise these forces, the self is assaulted by existential despair. This despair is a state of being: It is the state of complete destruction of one’s true self. Despair, for the average person, is most often associated with its brother concept, the existential crisis. This crisis is a period of intense questioning and inner turmoil about one's life and purpose. It is a time when an individual feels their existence has no meaning. It is a time when the individual and their will to live has become subsumed by existential despair. They feel lost, confused, and isolated. Some will turn to external means of escape but a rare few will take the sincere route; take Kierkegaard’s leap of faith, and reorder their life to avoid despair, overcome nausea, embrace dread and find for themselves a greater sense of meaning. Reference List Kierkegaard, S 1981, The Concept of Anxiety, Princeton University Press, Princeton Kierkegaard, S 1989, The Sickness Unto Death, Penguin, Oxford 13SOLA FLARE

Photos from Ulysse Carriere’s website featuring the published book ‘Technically Man Dwells Upon This Earth’

Woke Brutalism By Luke Maher I like to imagine I have a personal philosophical project or that I read to understand myself. However, it would be more honest to say I read to understand Ulysse Carrière. She runs a meme account on Instagram, you can find her as @inherent_itgirl. I found her page last year. At the time I was thinking a lot about Plato, and especially the Symposium. I learned Carrière was a PhD candidate at Stanford, but she left her program after reading Plato’s Sophist. And because of transphobia. I have closely followed her because of this interest, and I have aimed to reflect her thought and research in my personal readings. Plotinus is the most salient example: if you know me personally, you know about Plotinus. She recently released her first book entitled Technically Man Dwells upon this Earth (TMD). It is a brief introduction to differential henology through the questions of beauty and artificial intelligence. I will review it when I have read it properly. There is also an essay of hers you can find online called Vandalizing the Subject. I might write about it too, but until then I want to talk about her next book coming in the next month. It is on the aesthetic of differential henology: Woke Brutalism. It seems oxymoronic. In a podcast Carrière quoted Novalis saying that “the book is the amplified object of the title, or the amplified title”. In that sense, Woke Brutalism will be an explication of its title. In a phrase, she said it is “an honesty regarding the materiality and plasticity of the means employed by art...” when those means are “the identities, lived experiences, and established narratives of wokeness [...] like sound and rhythm for music”. But what is wokeness? and what is brutalism? I can only offer what I make of her Instagram, but I hope it will interest you enough to follow her research and writing yourself. 15SOLA FLARE

Brutalism should ring a bell. It is the architectural style we associate with Le Corbusier, concrete, and structure. The emphasis is on the material form rather than aesthetic value. I find there is a negative association with brutalism. It is reductive: stripped of character—of life. It reeks of totalitarianism. The stench of urban decay leaks from the social housing. However, Carrière reminded me of what brutalism really is. It is in la béton brut, the bare concrete. She is curious about what this might mean for art. We often think of art as profound or as ‘deep’: if we analyse a work, we find something special. We value art from this ‘something special’. Carrière would call it the agalma. It makes the art ‘real’ or authentic. Think of the hipster. Think of the blue channel at Silent Disco. But can we really make authentic art anymore? Can we really live authentically? The agalma is often a reaction to some other thing than an expression of some ‘authentic’ idea or feeling: blue channel is valuable now because it is not the chart-topping red channel. Our lives can be reactionary too: the hipster has value because he refuses to be like anyone else–the sell-outs. We all have our own hipsterism. Carrière would say art cannot be authentic, and that the agalma is as empty as the art-product it lives to hate. You can look to Vandalising the Subject for more on authenticity. She asks for brutalist art: completely shallow, no depth. She wants art that is ‘just itself’ and has no ‘value’: material affirmed as mere means, and the aesthetic sense is in the affirmation. In Technically Man Dwells she mentions Titian. He leaves visible brush strokes so that red paint is not blood, not a representation of blood, but mere paint. But wokeness... also almost a derogatory term–maybe we are too cynical. We see it commonly in the social justice movement, but even the most avid SJWs might not be woke. The concept eludes me. I feel it, but I cannot really put my finger on it. I can see it as Deleuzian for Carrière. Wokeness might be 1) when we love difference-in-itself, and 2) when we revolt against the ‘authenticity’ of identity. By ‘difference-in-itself’ I very roughly mean difference that is free of identity. It is not the difference between identities but a transcendental principle that causes identity, maybe like the infinite possibility for 16 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

identity. Wokeness then would be an ‘actionary’ force to the reactionary. We react to identity; we act out of wokeness. What Carrière means by ‘woke brutalism’ will become clearer by the summer solstice, as Pluto enters Aquarius (if that means anything to you). I wanted to start the conversation though. I think she is an exciting thinker. Though until we have the book we can only assume it is an honesty about identity and a yearning for difference. We will soon see. 17SOLA FLARE



A Deadly Cocktail By Luke Morosin-Smith This article is by no means legal advice if you do have legal issues, please consult a professional. In this article I will argue that given the society of NSW philosophic commitment that alcohol can undermine free will which is results in the voiding of consent, we should consider whether sexual arousal can present a comparable problem given its similar effects on the mind. The NSW society’s substantive submission that Alcohol has the capacity to void free will is evident in the NSW Parliament’s legislative efforts on the matter of consent. The Parliament has put in place legislation namely the (Crimes Act 1900 Section 61HJ Subsection c) that dictates that a circumstance in which there is no consent is present when \"the person is so affected by alcohol or another drug as to be incapable of consenting to the sexual activity, \". More importantly however the statute states that consent is predicated on a person’s capacity to understand the nature of the engagement in dictating that consent is absent when “the person participates in the sexual activity because the person is mistaken about”, “the nature of the sexual activity” (Section 61HJ subsection i paragraph i). The capacity of an individual to provide consent is therefore inextricably linked to the capacity to understand the nature of what the person is agreeing to. This capacity to understand consents cause and effect is due to the rational part of the brain namely the prefrontal cortex (Funahashi, 2017). This has been demonstrated by Funahashi to be the veritable executor of decision making within the brain that facilitates rationalisation which is critical to being able to understand the nature of the sexual act you are consenting to. Alcohol’s effect on the rational decision making of an individual is evident in (George, Rogers, Duka, 2005) which demonstrated that alcohol consumption has a significant effect on rational decision making submitting, that “alcohol given acutely impairs risky decision making”. It follows that the NSW’s Parliaments decision and by extension societies to regard alcohol as having that capacity to void free will and therefore 19SOLA FLARE

consent given alcohol’s effect on the brain particularly rational decision making is a logical legislative effort. While our society has made commendable legislative efforts regarding alcohol it seems that our attitude to arousal is the complete opposite. Our society seems silent in terms of substantive discourse on the possible dangers that sexual arousal could pose to our model of consent. This danger is due to both arousal’s impact on the prefrontal cortex and the similarly the impact shares with alcohol. Arousal as demonstrated in “The Impact of Sexual Arousal on Sexual Risk-Taking and Decision-Making in Men and Women” (Sparling, Cramer and Shuper) study demonstrated that arousal influences decision making. The study found that given a situation whereby individuals could choose between a risky or non-risky option in a modified game of blackjack, those who were aroused were remarkably more likely to choose the riskier option than when they were not aroused. This effect in lowering inhibitions that being the brains capacity to stop you from acting based on emotions is strikingly similar to the effect alcohol has on the rational decision-making capacity of the brain. Sparling in “The Effects of Sexual Arousal on Risk-Taking and Decision-making” argues that the effect that arousal has is a tunnel vision effect on the 20 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

comprehension of the subject. Thus, while this by no means is sufficient evidence to warrant immediate legislative injunction my hope is this confronting evidence is sufficient to prompt substantive discussion as to what effect if any this has on our conceptions of arousal and consent. Moreover, this concern has the capacity to be even more pronounced as contrary to the consumption of alcohol which in most cases is a consensual activity, sexual arousal is most assuredly not consensual. This is to say that while you normally know as a matter of fact if you choose to consume alcohol which is consensual the same is not the case for when one is aroused. In this capacity, arousal if you take me seriously presents a far greater danger as it is itself not a consensual engagement in that one does not chose who they are attracted to. Additionally, arousal has the potential to seriously lower the requisite amount of alcohol that can void consent. This is dangerous as while one may expect a certain amount of alcohol to render them unable to give consent their arousal has the potential to lower the required effect on the prefrontal cortex to render them unable to provide informed consent. I wish to make clear that I am by no means submitting that arousal does void consent in terms of legislative injunction as that would result in a significant number of additional engagements being viewed as sexual assaults. Conversely, I am arguing that given the potential impact that is possible if I am correct to the furthest extent, we ought to at least engage in substantive discussion on this matter less we relegate ourselves to intellectual inconsistency. References Crimes Act 1900 - Section 61HJ Subsection 1 paragraph c, paragraph i subparagraph i Funahashi S (2017) Prefrontal Contribution to Decision-Making under Free-Choice Conditions. Front. Neurosci. 11:431. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00431 George S, Rogers RD, Duka T. The acute effect of alcohol on decision making in social drinkers. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2005 Oct;182(1):160-9. doi: 10.1007/s00213-005-0057-9. Epub 2005 Sep 29. PMID: 16032411. Skakoon-Sparling S, Cramer KM, Shuper PA. The Impact of Sexual Arousal on Sexual Risk-Taking and Decision-Making in Men and Women. Arch Sex Behav. 2016 Jan;45(1):33-42. doi: 10.1007/s10508-015- 0589-y. Epub 2015 Aug 27. PMID: 26310879. 21SOLA FLARE

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LITERATURE, ARTS, AND CULTURE SECTION

‘A. Judith Slaying Holofernes’., Gentileschi Exhibited: Palazzo Babernini, Rome. Painting: oil on canvas. 1620.

The Art of Revenge By Ben Ballantyne Revenge is powerful. Revenge is empowering. Art, in its capacity for emotional and personal expression, is a powerful vessel by which the emotion and passion of revenge is most impactfully conveyed. Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting Judith Slaying Holofernes (1620) and Lingua Ignota’s song I WHO BEND THE TALL GRASSES (2021) engage with the conception of revenge as a means of transcending and overcoming oppression. In this way, Gentileschi and Ignota explore both the personal journey of coming to terms with, and transcending, misogynistic experiences. Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes is a confronting Baroque depiction of a biblical heroine. Judith, widow from the besieged Jewish city Bethulia, seduces and murders the Assyrian general Holofernes. This biblical story of feminine resistance is a typical subject of Renaissance and Baroque artists of Gentileschi’s time. Judith Slaying Holofernes is different. Gentileschi’s depiction of Judith, in resemblance to the depiction of herself in her other works, is undeniably a self portrait. Likewise, Holofernes, the victim, is not just any man. It is a portrait of Agostino Tossi, the man who abused her. Thus, Judith Slaying Holofernes transcends the biblical story it depicts, and is a visceral image of Gentileschi killing her abuser, encapsulating the bloody, and satisfying, revenge she longs for. Gentileschi’s depiction of the scene is notably much more violent than other depictions of the same period, such as Caravaggio’s 1599 work Judith Beheading Holofernes. Whereas Caravaggio’s Judith is elegant, and seemingly repulsed by the murder, in an expression with the grandeur and drama typical of Baroque art, Gentileschi is aggressive, and seems to revel in the destructive work of her hands. This departure from the conventions of the Baroque style emphasises the emotional intensity of the scene, and Judith’s personal passion for justice that can only be realised in the murder of Holofernes. A small detail, 25SOLA FLARE

but nonetheless significant, is Judith’s bracelet, adorned with portraits of Artemis. This divine figure of female empowerment inspires Judith in her quest for vengeance, suggesting female solidarity and community emphasised by the female figure aiding her. Artemis herself is a goddess renowned for protecting women thus, her bracelet is also an amulet of protection. The presence of the Greek goddess of hunting characterises Gentileschi as not a murderer, but a huntress. She is absolved of her moral responsibility because Tossi is not human, but a vile beast. The title, “Slaying”, further connotes this idea of overcoming a physical, yet simultaneously mental beast. In this way, the artwork is a visceral realisation of her revenge against an oppressor. ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes.’ Caravaggio. Exhibited: Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Painting: oil paint on canvas. Approx 1600. 26 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

Lingua Ignota’s 2021 album Sinner Get Ready examines the duality of blind devotion as as both an aspect of spiritual and romantic relationships. I WHO BEND THE TALL GRASSES is the second of nine gruelling, intense tracks on the record, a desperate plea to God to kill her abuser. Much like Gentileschi, Ignota finds empowerment and strength in reclaiming her oppression through art. However, unlike the facade of a biblical tale in Judith Slaying Holofernes, her intentions are all but hidden. Religious imagery is embedded in the musicality of the song. The haunting production, stripped back to only organs, a skin drum, and Ignota’s enchantingly dark voice, recontextualising the traditional Christian gospel hymn. The opening line of the song, “Glorious Father / intercede for me” supports this first impression, a desperate plea for God’s salvation or forgiveness. This is subverted in the following line, “If I cannot hide from you, neither can he”, as her malicious intent begins to unravel. She simultaneously calls on God’s omniscience, for the reveal of the truth, and His omnipotence, begging for divine retribution. The violence of her desire, “Take hold of my gentle axe and split him open / Gather up my quiet hammer and nail him down”, is an act akin to the crucifixion of Christ. Although immoral and seemingly unjust, it is a necessary action for her own personal salvation; he must suffer. The eloquence of this language is short-lived. Ignota shouts, in a gut-wrenching, guttural voice “Just kill him / You have to / I'm not asking”. The delivery and high modality of these pleas emphasise desperation. She asserts authority over God Himself, a blasphemous connotation that reiterates the conflict between the Christian immorality of revenge, and her own personal desire. In recognition of God’s moral incapability to help her perform such a deed, she claims “It is I, I am the one / I am the only one”. Ignota takes complete agency over her own revenge; if God will not help her do it, she will do it herself. Much like Gentileschi and her Judith, Ignota takes agency over her own revenge from a patriarchal figure. This powerful assertion of individuality claims her own godhood as her desire is pervasive and inescapable. The tall grasses, who once bent for God, now bend for her. The song closes with the repetition of the opening lines, “Glorious Father, intercede for me, If I cannot hide 27SOLA FLARE

from you, neither can he”, however the meaning of these words is dramatically transformed. This is a plea, no longer for God’s assistance, but for Him to hold her back, as she knows that ultimate revenge is inevitable. Much like Gentileschi, Ignota expresses her revenge in appeal to God and biblical stories, however in contrast, implicitly conceals her own personal agency for revenge. References: Caravaggio. Judith Beheading Holofernes. Palazzo Babernini, Rome. Painting: oil on canvas. https://www.caravaggio.org/judith-beheading-holofernes.jsp Gentileschi, A. Judith Slaying Holofernes. Exhibited: Exhibited: Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Painting: oil paint on canvas. https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/judith-beheading-holofernes Hayter, K. 2021. I WHO BEND THE TALL GRASSES. Lingua Ignota. SINNER GET READY. [Vinyl]. Sergeant House. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRRNwWnI_w 28 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

I WHO BEND THE TALL GRASSES Song by Lingua Ignota Lyrics Where does your light not shine? Glorious Father, intercede for me Where does your light not shine? If I cannot hide from you, neither can he I have never loved him more than I do now Always your voice bites the back of a cold wind But I can't do it again And the tall grasses bend for you I have to be the only one Where does your light not shine? I'm not asking Where does your light not shine? Do you understand? Take hold of my gentle axe and split him open He belongs to me Gather up my quiet hammer and nail him down Do you understand? Use any of your heavenly means It is my voice that bites the back of a cold wind Your golden scythe It is my voice that bites the back of a cold wind Your holy sword And I, it is I who bends the tall grasses Your fiery arrows studded with stars It is I, I am the one I don't give a fuck I am the only one Just kill him I have to be You have to I don't care that he can't help us I'm not asking I can't do it again I have made my body your vessel I can't do it again I preach your word in every room He belongs to me I have walked the earth weeping Where does your light not shine? I whip my back with my many sorrows Where does your light not shine? Are my sacrifices not extravagant? Glorious Father, intercede for me All I have is yours If I cannot hide from you, neither can he And I swear I can't do it again I swear to you, Lord, he has to die There is no other way, there is no other way 29SOLA FLARE

Payphone She Will Be Loved This Love Beautiful Mistakes Maps Sugar Don’t Wanna Know Misery Moves like a Jagger Memories Troublemaker

Beautiful Mistakes: A Meta-Analysis of The Lyrics of Every Maroon Five Song By Eli Horth Within the narratives of every Maroon 5 song, two attributes will always appear. Songs such as “Payphone” or “She Will Be Loved” on the surface seem to portray radically different narratives and ideas. Yet, they all contain two similar messages. These two messages are 1) Adam Levine is in an unhealthy relationship with a woman. 2) Yet, despite the unhealthy relationship, they cannot stop themselves from having sex with one another. The oddly specific nature of both criteria is necessary if we are to paint the clearest picture of Maroon 5’s style, especially the first criterion. Whether in the lines of ‘This love is taking its toll on me’ in their first hit “This Love” or the throwaway line of ‘You’re like a broken home to me’ in their most recent pop smash “Beautiful Mistakes”, the idea of an unhealthy, destructive relationship continues. Whether it is of a partner not being there for you in “Maps” (‘Where were you? When I was at my worst’) or of the broken nature of the people within the relationship in “Sugar” (‘I’m so insecure’) or even the pain of the relationship within “Animals” (‘You’re like a drug that’s killing me’), the relevance of these criteria becomes extraordinarily clear. At least for now, this criterion seems to be quite consistent. The relevance of the second criterion is clearer. Even in their milder narratives, there is always the context of sexual desire. “She Will Be Loved”, a beautiful love ballad, maintains its sexuality with the line ‘I’ve had you so many times but somehow I want more’. “Don’t Wanna Know” still establishes Adam’s desire as sexual; ‘Even in my head, you’re still my bed’. In their more risqué songs, Maroon 5 leaves no room for interpretation. “Beautiful Mistakes” describe the woman being ‘naked in my bed’. In “Misery”, Adam Levine sings of ‘your salty skin and how it mixes with mine’. “Moves Like Jagger” states Adam’s desire clearly; ‘take me by the tongue and I’ll know you’. As a result, the necessity of the second criterion is extraordinarily evident. 31SOLA FLARE

Yet, as we explore the catalogue of Maroon 5, it seems these criteria need to be refined. Another facet of the criteria that may need to be amended is the present tense of both criteria. “Memories” describes the object of love in the past tense; ‘When I felt all the hatred was too powerful to stop’. “Payphone” places the story of the song in the past tense but the emotional desire for the second criterion is in the present tense (‘You turned out the lights’/‘But is it too late to try?’). The criteria need revision to remove the connection to the present tense. Yet, “Payphone” brings up another point of contention. Instead of Adam Levine and the woman being unable to stop themselves from having sex with one other, songs like “Payphone” and “Don’t Wanna Know” portray Adam Levine as wanting to have sex with the woman but not being able to. ‘But is it too late to try?’ wishes for a return to the life between Adam Levine and the woman in which she was ‘here next to me’. “Again, in Don’t Wanna Know”, he has the desire to be back sexually with the woman, with ‘even in my head, you’re still in my bed’. Thus, the second criterion needs to be re-described as an unstoppable longing for sex rather than the unstoppable action of having sex. Again, though, the second criterion needs to be updated to account for the lack of desire shown by the woman in having sex with Adam Levine. Adam is the acting agent in the song, not the woman. His desire is the focus, rather than the woman's. In songs like “Sugar”, Adam is pleading with a woman who is indifferent about sex. ‘I gotta get one little taste/Won’t you come and back it down on me?’. In “Animals”, the nature of his desire becomes almost predatory. ‘Maybe you think that you can hide/I can smell your scent for miles’. The women's desire within a Maroon 5 song is unimportant. It is not an important criterion in identifying this dubious ‘Maroon 5 style’. Finally, we have arrived at a complex, yet oddly specific criterion for the style of Maroon 5: 1) The subject of the song is an unhealthy relationship between Adam Levine and a woman. 32 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

2) Despite being in an unhealthy relationship, Adam cannot stop himself from wishing to have sex with the woman. Why does this matter? By finding a style, we can come to an understanding of essentialism; that is, objects can be placed into specific categories based on the characteristics that they exhibit. In nature, essentialism struggles, as categories such as human or Australian or even chairs, seem more and more uncertain. Yet, we may classify artistic narrative style into the broad category of essentialising. By essentialising, we are also able to create connections between different artists and contrast each of their abilities to provide a similar message. Maroon 5 has made a narrative stylistic category that would allow us to categorise narratives in songs as Maroon 5esque. One close example of a non-Maroon 5 song that fits into the Maroon 5 narrative structure is “Troublemaker” by Olly Murs. While being in an unhealthy relationship that causes Olly problems, with ‘I swear you’re giving me a heart attack’, the singer still wishes to continue having sex with the woman, with ‘I see your silhouette every time I close my eyes’. Essentialism in this way allows us to notice general trends within the popular narratives provided to society through art. We have been able in the past to identify trends in more simplistic ideological messages such as the genre of anti-war music in the 60s, yet it seems that few have continued to apply that any further. By analysing these complex narrative messages, we can understand societal attitudes to a greater extent. 33SOLA FLARE

34 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

STUDENT EXPERIENCE SECTION



To Be Defined. By David Allen In the middle of the second semester in 2022, I chose to write an essay upon Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. It was possibly the most difficult essay I have ever written, not because the content was difficult, though it certainly wasn’t easy, nor was it because I didn’t know what to write; but because there was too much to write about. The first iteration was to focus on the fleeting moments in which the protagonist speaks. After finding no clear correlation, I decided to instead write about the armour of the protagonist. However, before that essay could fully form, there was another essay that took its place, the essay I ended up writing, Duessa’s Duplicitous Deception Within Canto V of ‘The Faerie Queene’. After the final exams for that same semester, I attempted to write a dirge for those essays that never quite were. It was streamed from my consciousness through my marker onto a whiteboard. It quickly accelerated past, but not through, my goal and onto something new. As much as I might try to chain my hand and mind which were working in union against me; I could never succeed in transferring the fragmentary beauty impressed in my consciousness onto that board. Just as I tried to write an essay on The Faerie Queene, the beginning was never the herald of the end. In reading China Miéville’s The Scar, I found the perfect description, spread throughout the text, of my tribulations with writing. As I iterate through what could be described as multiple drafts, but are better described as different texts, a reflection exists within the fantastical magic of possibility-theory, a remnant of the long dead Ghosthead Empire. Within the novel, Uther Doul explains to our protagonist, Bellis, the basics of possibility-theory: “If I were to toss a coin, most certainly it would land on one side or the 37SOLA FLARE

other; its just possible it might land on its edge. But if I were to make it part of a possibility circuit, I'd turn it into a coin of possible falls. A possible coin. And if I toss that, things are different. One of either heads or tails or just maybe edge will come up as before and lies there as strong as ever. That the fact-coin. And surrounding it, in different degrees of solidity and permanency, depending on how likely they were are a scattering of its nighs – its close possibilities, made real. Like ghosts.” (Miéville, 2011, pg.544) It is this quotation which unified the writing of this essay, the essay on the Faerie Queene, the dirge to those nigh-essays, and my reluctance to draft. When creating a piece, I begin with the seed, the core, and from that seed-core any number of nigh-essays could flourish. And many do, each partly following the paths of the prior roots, but diverging where its predecessor found an obstacle. My drafts are invariably fundamentally different texts. Take this text for example; it had three prior nigh-texts that were partially written. The first version of this essay referenced my frustrations with The Golden Bowl and the finale of The Scar; the second version, a WCIV 101 tutorial and subconscious knowledge; the third a reference to writing styles. There was also a myriad of nigh-texts that could have been but never were written. These were not just drafts or variants of this text, but texts within their own right. Whilst certain themes carry over between nigh-texts; reading one nigh-text would not reveal the secrets of the other nigh-texts. . 38 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

Beginning a text is easy, you begin with one stroke, writing a text is more difficult. Writing a text is like wielding a Possible Sword, “’Fighting with a Possible Sword, you must never constrain possibilities. I must be an opportunist, not a planner – fighting from the heart, not the mind. Moving suddenly, surprising myself as well as the opponent. Sudden, labile and formless.’” (Miéville, 2011, pg.546) – such a description may remind you of T.S. Eliot’s Tradition and the Individual Talent. Just as one who wields a possible sword must not be precise, one must allow the text to spiral into its horde of nigh-texts Precision limits possibility. From that tumultuous horde of nigh-texts, the author must now destroy. For the final fact-text to genesize all the other nigh-texts within that vortex must cease to be. Once the manoeuvre is complete, there are no more possibilities, the past is defined. The manifest text becomes complete and precise, as it is conjured from the waning vortex of nigh-texts that will never be. Until I send this text in an email, declaring it ready for publication, it remains a possible text albeit with few nigh-texts. And until our technology meets the point of fantasy, art itself shall remain factual and defined. But whilst a book cannot change its contents as it is read, the audience that reads it is a possible audience, one that brings with it a maelstrom of nigh-interpretations. But for those diverse nigh-interpretations to flourish, the writer must be imprecise in their text, leaving possibilities open . . . . . . to be defined. References: Miéville, C 2011, The Scar, Macmillan, London 39SOLA FLARE

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CREATIVE WORKS SECTION

Kronos By Mark Russell Atoms shaking— Quaking in their quantum state of indecision. Observation limited by speed of flight. The light that ricochets in space Against the empty panes of glass That pass against the grazing grain of stars That harden—feed the meddling God That shakes the Earth and sees the stardust Fall from it in human form. The hungry eyes of Saturn glazing over gods— O’er Neptune, Pluto, planets passing Under stars that guide the eye on high And quake with their mistakes— That see the sky so turn to night And never see the light of day. That claw inside their corneas And scratch the side of fate. And in the belly—in the maw— Contained within the blackened jaw There lay a baby, thundering with rage, Who sees the dark of night Escape the jaw—who sees The trembling day and Dreams for more. 42 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023



Baby By Mark Russell I was a baby once–baby-boy reaching Like Tantalus t’wards a tinkling mobile Hanged by a hook o’er its baby-bird bed. A baby, blue in the cheeks with a baby-boy Flu of the mind–in malady bound and confined– Beholds all the bears hanging from the mobile. The baby-boy, straightening chubby, pink arms T’wards the bear nearest it, coo-coo- Crying with glee at its spinning surrounds. And baby-boy seeing the bear float away– A mysterious force taking baby-bear far– Far away, and th’next baby-bear coloured green. So baby-boy, crying, at bear coming new To the view, saying baby-boy-bye-byes To baby-bear out of its view, blue in hue. 44 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

And baby-boy splutters–his innocence gone With the blue-ish maroon of the baby-boy bear Saying bye to the green–in with the new of maroon. So baby-boy clings to the red baby-bear in the sky, Just as baby-bear red bids goodbye to the boy And he’s left with a sly baby-white baby-bear Like an angel disguised in a baby-bear suit. And angel is gone as the baby-boy, suit-laden, Cries for the blue baby-hue that it once waited for. 45SOLA FLARE

‘Narcisuss,’ Caravaggio, Exhibited: Galleria Natzionale d’Arte Antica in Rome. Painting: oil on canvas. Circa 1597-1599.

The agalma forever looks for heaven By Luke Maher Across the face of a lake a butterfly fluttered and disappeared Narcissus looked for himself in the pool once again But was it him the world cannot see Narcissus and neither can he Only his linework flesh and flax cheek blush like Titian mere material But silent looking is fruitless and futile Pages and pages looking for the miracle him-self He traced fingertips over crystal a phantom saw it glistened and disappeared In the vacuum overhead so deep in the pool Narcissus melted away 47SOLA FLARE

The butterfly might never fly again it wouldn’t matter Caravaggio brought him back now in chiaroscuro reason pinned him down again beneath a glass Black dream injected with pure venom of the pen Torn piece by piece remade until with resin eyes and wax skin he cried Someone please look at me am I anymore Perfect marble no strokes hair fallen cheek like the morning stars in his eyes but they forever look for heaven The miracle was crystal we refract we reflect but I see through you Nothing left but a memory in and as a picture frozen in vein 48 AUTUMN/WINTER 2023

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