RIO PADSTOW MINEHEAD BRIDGEWATERPEWSEY FLINTOCK IS BASED ON PEWSEY Carnival can be a pagan festival to celebrate the coming of the new year Mardi Gras is now part of the Christian calendar to celebrate excess before the period of fasting that is Lent ID: 692010
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CARNIVAL
What do the images have in common?
RIO, PADSTOW, MINEHEAD, BRIDGEWATER,PEWSEY
FLINTOCK IS BASED ON PEWSEY
Carnival can be a pagan festival to celebrate the coming of the new year
Mardi Gras is now part of the Christian calendar to celebrate excess before the period of fasting that is Lent.Slide6
A licence for misrule
Pagan Spring Festivals
Origin of Padstow ‘
Obby
‘Oss can be traced to pre-Christian times
Padstow “morning song” is used in the play: “Unite and Unite…”
Sexual union is seen as part of the explosion of Spring and celebrates fertility.The ‘Oss
wasrebranded
to represent George and the Dragon
The ‘Oss is killed to indicate the death of the old year.
A continuing cycle of creation and deathCelebrated in Johnny’s incantation of his forebears?Slide7
Adapted over time
Christianity encourages such fertility revels to change
Linked to Church events
As religion relaxed its hold on society in Britain, paganism returned
A new paganism emerged based on shallow materialism and popular cultureSlide8
Flintock
changes
“It’s shit on toast”
“There’s a Lord of the Rings float… There’s a George and Dragon, Men in Black II. Crown and Goose have gone X factor. Same as last year…”
“It’s the brewery’s idea”
“How long’s the
Flintock men been going? / Six weeks”Slide9
Every revel must have a leader
Contrast: May Queen: A pubescent local girl; sexualised and presented to the onlookers for delectation
The Green Man – the pagan Lord of MisruleSlide10
Misrule
Flintock
Sponsored by business
Low level copies of modern spiritualism
Transvestism and racism
Alcohol and drug fuelled
Links to 1940 and last great threat to the Island
Rooster’s Wood
Flagrant threat to authority
The individual is freed to behave as he/she wishes
Drug and alcohol fuelledSome evidence of mystical power shownAttempts to link to a distant pre-historyDestructive and violentSlide11
Johnny as ruler
Snatches of old songs are sung – trying to reconnect?
Destroys TV before play – symbol of a dying society (Winter)
Clear terms of reference deep roots in the festival: St George,
Titania
and fairies, Oden, Gog and Magog, Jack of Green.
English heritage is held up against modern England.Slide12
Johnny as destroyer of the old year
P52
“Make merry. For tonight like a flaming flock of snakes, we will storm
Flintock
Village and burn every house, shop and farm. We will behead the mayor. Imprison the Rotary club
.
Pillage the pubs! Rob the tombola! And whip into a whirlwind a roughhead
army of unwashed, unstable, unhinged, friendless, penniless, baffled
beserkers
what haunt that Godforsaken town, and together, snout by jowl, we will rise up and ride on Salisbury, Marlborough, Devizes,
Calne, until the whole plain of Wiltshire dances to the tune of our misrule.”Slide13
Such language
Short, sharp imperatives
1
st
person plural for inclusion
Triplets – “Pillage the pubs” is most important and receives the first exclamation mark
Long sentence to conclude as passion supplants authorityUse of alliteration and negative prefixes
Animal imagery – “snout by jowl”
Whole plain of Wiltshire – the archaic world was small, as is Johnny’s (NB p101 Phaedra sees the inherent irony in this)Slide14
Dichotomy
Carnival looks both forward and back
Destruction is at heart of rebirth
Life will follow death and Spring will follow Winter
Johnny leads the revels and pollutes society
NB from a village perspective the wish to evict Johnny can be justified with ease: P30 Davey
Johnny is a total outcast from the village but hold court in the forest for the next generation (literally)
Johnny is pained by his position as scapegoat – p97 “Okay, stop….I said stop. Enough. SILENCE”
Johnny despises all that is based on business (who gets the kickbacks?” yet is a successful “business man”.