Adbusters Nov/Dec - #68 Volume 14, Number 6
I was in Waterstones a while back looking at magazines and went to pick up the usual Creative Review to see if the new Sony Bravia advert was mentioned in it... nothing. I've been becoming more and more bored with the content of Creative Review since they redesigned it a couple of years back (definitely not an improvement as the majority of it is taken up by adverts for one thing or another - none of which are relevant to me at this stage.) Then my hand glanced over Adbusters, I had heard of this magazine but it was never one readily available in my local newsagents. I flicked through the pages and was instantly enthralled, sucked in, and consumed.
The page that caught me the most was on about a woman’s memories of being a small child in the car on a journey with her family as she contemplates the meaning of family and how wrong it is. Instantly I was reminded of the book The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the style of writing and the content and the way in which it played with my mind and thoughts. We take it all for granted, the way our family is run, the way in which things should happen. Like in my previous post I said how I wouldn't be happy with a bucket of KFC as a Christmas dinner but maybe for other families that's normal? Maybe even special.
This has all become more apparent in my life of late; the Christmas period was certainly an odd one for me this year. I was working thirteen hour shifts at a local pub/club back home and crashing at my boyfriend’s house almost every night which saved me the half hour drive back to my house where my family lived. The Christmas spirit failed to creep up on me at all... not even now do I feel like I should be feeling Christmassy - it usually happens eventually but I think I missed the bandwagon this time. Anyway, living in Leeds with five other people from other types of family backgrounds and lifestyles it has become ever more clear that the way my family do things isn't the way other families do things. When different families happen to merge - such as living with new housemates or staying with a boyfriends family it becomes ever more relevant that it's all a case of compromise. In past conversations with my parents about their childhood traditions it is easy to see how they have compromised, merged and added new traditions through out their life together to create what I consider to be a "normal" family Christmas.
Check out the Adbusters website here
The page that caught me the most was on about a woman’s memories of being a small child in the car on a journey with her family as she contemplates the meaning of family and how wrong it is. Instantly I was reminded of the book The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the style of writing and the content and the way in which it played with my mind and thoughts. We take it all for granted, the way our family is run, the way in which things should happen. Like in my previous post I said how I wouldn't be happy with a bucket of KFC as a Christmas dinner but maybe for other families that's normal? Maybe even special.
This has all become more apparent in my life of late; the Christmas period was certainly an odd one for me this year. I was working thirteen hour shifts at a local pub/club back home and crashing at my boyfriend’s house almost every night which saved me the half hour drive back to my house where my family lived. The Christmas spirit failed to creep up on me at all... not even now do I feel like I should be feeling Christmassy - it usually happens eventually but I think I missed the bandwagon this time. Anyway, living in Leeds with five other people from other types of family backgrounds and lifestyles it has become ever more clear that the way my family do things isn't the way other families do things. When different families happen to merge - such as living with new housemates or staying with a boyfriends family it becomes ever more relevant that it's all a case of compromise. In past conversations with my parents about their childhood traditions it is easy to see how they have compromised, merged and added new traditions through out their life together to create what I consider to be a "normal" family Christmas.
Check out the Adbusters website here
Labels: Articles
posted by Nikkeh at 2:30 PM
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