Student

Good morning everyone and welcome. As I hope you all know by now I am Caleb Thompson and it is my great pleasure to have the chance to present to you a selection of poems by John Foulcher, as well as mention on the movie classic, “Jaws”, directed by Steven Speilberg and reference to the latest Government alcohol awareness campaign, “Don’t turn a night out into a nightmare.” My lecture today is themed the “violence of things” and how in moderation, violence is unavoidable but essential for survival. The texts mentioned share similarities in themes and ideas concerning nature’s unyielding challenge, the eternal battle for survival. Spielberg’s thriller film, Jaws, captivates the audience by his use of an exaggeratedly huge shark as well as strategic camera angles. It also explores humanities instinctive reactions of self-preservation when placed in life threatening situations. The numerous television advertisements used by the Government’s awareness campaign are aggressive and all use the re-enactment of menacing situations where you are placed as the victim and see it through their eyes. Foulcher examines the inevitable presence of violence in our daily lives and our reaction, or rather lack of reaction to it. He sheds light on the underpinning forces of violence and it’s interaction with nature and society through the use of metaphors, similes and analogies. Even in the seemingly safe environment of our workplace, violence has still seeped in and grounded its roots firmly in its core. In “Harry Wood”, the violence of his job is unavoidable and is captured in the personification, ‘the mines nearly took him’. Foulcher described that Wood’s motivation for working was to “dig his way out of poverty” and it is this requirement of money that binds Wood to his dangerous job. Towards the end of the poem it describes how he works as a farmer, and how he violently, ‘pricks at their tubs of meat with a current-charged bar,’ bringing emphasis to the vicious cattle-rod in the assonance ‘current-charged bar’. The violence of Wood’s jobs is avoidable but Wood needs to submerse himself in this violence to earn a living to survive in the world. Foulcher uses this poem as an analogy for the typical, ‘Aussie Battler,’ where no matter how hard you work, you never seem to get on top of life. Likewise the Government’s television advertisements raising awareness concerning responsible alcohol consumption call upon the use of violence to push their point across to the viewer. In one such ad there is a re-enactment of a young boy who’s had too much to drink and stumbles onto the road laughing and consequently gets hit by a car. But there is captivating twist, you don’t see the boy, you are the boy. You’re the one who drinks the alcohol and your the one who stumbles carelessly onto the road and you’re the one who gets hit and falls down. This use of the camera view through the eyes of the victim in this violent scene is very effective in capturing the attention of the viewer and it successfully makes them come to the realisation that this could be them. This is just one example of a string of similar ads the government uses to help raise awareness of responsible alcohol consumption to prevent further injury and loss of life to ensure the survival of the general public. Similarly, in “Jaws”, Speilberg strategically uses specific camera angles to harness the intensity of the situation when Chief Brody and his two friends are in the deep ocean and the shark attacks their boat. When Brody kills the shark, he is high atop a banister of the boat with a gun aimed. The camera is close on his face showing the raw emotion of a man whose life is in jeopardy. Brody has a look of defiance and determination on his face, determination to win the battle against the shark. In the end Brody shoots the scuba bottle in the sharks mouth, brutally blowing it up and the shark with it. Even though the death of the great shark was gruesome and gory, it was necessary if Brody wanted to survive the attack. Correspondingly, nature’s natural order of survival is demonstrated by Foulcher in “For the Fire,” when he stumbles into the midst of a Kookaburra slaughtering a lizard for food. He harnesses the brutality and ferocity of the Kookaburra in the description, ‘Hacks with its axe-blade beak.’ He also elaborates on how the bird is unmindful to the suffering of the lizard, ‘Oblivious, the bird flays it still.’ Foulcher also gives us the image of the Kookaburra being some type of all consuming monster with the verbs chopping, chipped, hacks and smashed. It is through this poem, Foulcher shows that there are always by products of violence and in this case the violent killing of the lizard was essential for the survival of the Kookaburra as it provided the necessary food and it also provided Foulcher with the Kindling he desired. Foulcher also looks into the unavoidable interactions of violence in our daily lives, in his poem “Summer Rain.” When an accident occurs somewhere ahead, the cars clutter on the highway like abacus beads. Foulcher captures the uncaring attitude of the situation in expressions ‘Wrench yourself from the road’, ‘the cars slump into the dusk’ and ‘sift the dark trees for diversion.’ It is through the use of these phrases Foulcher shows how the people in the cars don’t practically care about the accident ahead, their only concerns seem to lie with what they are doing and how it is an inconvenience to them. This simple scenario draws attention to the lack of concern people have in a situation like this and how they have become compliant to the reoccurring and unavoidable violence of day to day life. It is through Foulcher’s mentioned poetry we can see how he views violence as a part of our lives and how in various situations, like in “For the Fire” and “Harry Wood”, a certain amount of violence is necessary for survival. Likewise the same connections can be made about Speilberg’s Thriller movie classic Jaws along with the Governments awareness campaign. Contrastingly, in “Summer Rain”, Foulcher also sheds light on how violence in unavoidable in our daily lives through imagery and metaphors. Although society may change with the times, our underlying instinct of violence will always be constant. We will always have those animalistic and sometimes violent responses when placed in threatening situations and we will continue to be surrounded by the inevitable presence of violence. Thankyou all for your time.