Post-Revisionist International Relations Exams, Plotting My Own Murder and Drawing Parallels

Benedict Churchus
Nov 5 · 6 min read

The last exam I did at university was on Post-Revisionist Interpretations of International Relations Theory. I remember this because as I get older I believe that my brain is attracted to simple ideas. I remember the last sentence I ever wrote in an exam incredibly distinctly:

Ultimately, politics is about people.

Impressively mundane, there may be a grain of truth that I was wasting money/time/effort on studying politics to make that sort of statement.

When I talk about Murakami there are loads of themes to dissect: coming of age, cats, sexuality, Japan, reminiscence. But again when talking about Murakami I often come to a simple conclusion; the reason I connect with it is because it is about people and their lives. Apologies, another woefully obvious statement. Maybe I’m just projecting.

But it’s a projection that is potentially easy to make. I went to Aberystwyth University for a year. I was incredibly lonely, and rather sad, and really confused. When I left I read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage following that year it really resonated. When I ran the half-marathon last month I had What I Talk About When I Talk About Running fresh in my mind. I read 1Q84 when I was in London and the whole world seemed huge and I had no clue how to look after myself — again projection or parallels. Maybe it’s the way I am wired but I find it hard not to draw parallels to all sorts of things. I get that I’m being intentionally vague here; I’m unsure of how much of myself I want to put into this.

I’ve recently finished Murakami’s most recent set of short stories Men Without Women — seven shorts about romance and snippets in time. Some have been published before some are new. There’s a real variance to them, I loved the short Kino and if you haven’t read Men Without Women that would be my pick of the bunch. I’ll add a link for Kino below. I have a lot more written about the collection and a lot more to say. I’m unsure if this blog suits a dissection of the story by story. I may leave that for a one off bit of writing — if at all. It may suit a video essay.

Aside from Murakami I’m also a huge newshound. Satire at the moment is a difficult medium because it’s either missing out by minutes due to the speed political change or just depressing and bleak. Perfidious Albion by Sam Byers is avoids both of these satire pitfalls with its focus on characters. One office scene had me laughing out loud. It was Michael Scott-esque. I checked the reviews on Good Reads after I finished and one reviewer mentioned how their copy of Byers’ first book Idiopathy was littered with inserts and post-its. Looking at my finished copy of Perfidious Albion it’s similarly littered with post-its. Enough so that I have a project in mind around it that I can visualise. Will update if it comes to fruition. It’s commentary on social media facades and how it actually impacts people has real insight.

Trials of the State by Jonathan Sumption (a former supreme justice) was a gift for my birthday and has been my first steps back into non-fiction. It was published in August and probably the non-fiction I have read so close to release. It needs it as its arguments both well argued and prescient. I read it just after the Supreme Court Judgement in September: “R (on the application of Miller) (Appellant) v The Prime Minister (Respondent) Cherry and others (Respondents) v Advocate General for Scotland (Appellant) (Scotland)” and the nature of the judgement gave even more weight to Sumption’s hypothesis. One of my key takings was that democracies at their core rely on separation of powers and as a legislature splits it forces a reliance on judiciary is one that is a dangerous game. One thing Sumption does incredibly well is track the history of the rise of judicial judgements on non-judicial matters. If you have an interest in the current state of things this is a great legal perspective on the state of things and why they may be happening.

Thankfully, I did not read Perfidious Albion and Trials of the State back to back. I think it would’ve sent me into a tailspin. I read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles in between and honestly I think that it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. Charming, funny, interesting and has the incredible ability to be resonant alongside nostalgic. The main character is so likeable and the vignettes of his life almost remind me of books I read as a child like Emil and the Detectives by Eric Kastner. Great individual moments serialised by a cast of characters with their own arcs and personalities. It’s going to be a book that’s a go-to recommendation for any reader I know for the classic ‘recommend me something’ question.

I’ve always been a murder mystery fan and aside from (occasionally) writing this blog, I’ve been writing a murder mystery idea I’ve had as a TV Pilot for the last year and a half. I celebrated my 25th birthday last month and wrote a murder mystery dinner party for that too (I of course was the victim)… I read Agatha Christie again beforehand to remind myself of how things should be done. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd perhaps won’t be made by Kenneth Brannagh but is surely one of Christie’s greatest contributions to the genre. The playing with the idea of narration and narrators is an absolute master class.

I read an article by Booker Prize judge Afua Hirsch titled ‘What I learned from my year of reading outside the box’. She ended up reading 151 in 6 months. With writing this blog (ish of sorts). She points to a Murakami quote from Norwegian Wood “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” Also adding her own insights that “I realised that, like so many of us, I filter my book choices to reflect the world I already know…”

Maybe that’s why I’ve drawn parallels, because I’m unconsciously reading books I know I’ll be able to project onto. This can be an issue as whilst occasionally being challenged or exposed to new viewpoints still within my safe framework of what I already think.

In particular looking over my prior reading lists there has been a western male focus. Life is bigger than that; reading is more than that. All reading is good, but I want to widen horizons so I’m going to take some inspiration from Afua Hirsch’s and Murakami’s perspectives. I’m rather excited for it.

P.S. I did finish that half marathon I wrote about. It was well good. Going to do another one and definitely a marathon at some point.

What I am reading:

How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia — Mohsin Hamid

What I have read:

Trials of State — Jonathan Sumption

A Gentleman In Moscow — Amor Towles

Perfidious Albion — Sam Byers

The Murder of Rodger Ackroyd — Agatha Christie

Batman: White Knight — Sean Murphy

Men Without Women — Haruki Murakami

Things I Mentioned (that I haven’t previously mentioned):

What I learned from my year of reading outside the box — Afua Hirsch — The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/10/reading-booker-prize-judge

Kino — Haruki Murakami https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/kino

R (on the application of Miller) (Appellant) v The Prime Minister (Respondent) Cherry and others (Respondents) v Advocate General for Scotland (Appellant) (Scotland)” — Lady Hale and Lord Reed Giving the Judgment of the Court: - https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2019-0192-judgment.pdf

Emil and the Detectives — Eric Kastner

Read a bit, write a bit, stand up a bit, sit down a bit

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