The Poor Print is recruiting a Managing Editor to take over the publication’s weekly operations for Trinity. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the outgoing team, with the expectation of taking on the Editor-in-Chief position in the following academic year. More details can be found here: Managing Editor Application Typical work-flow information is […]
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by Aidan Chivers After the dizzying blur of my first Oxford term, it was a strange feeling to find myself back, walking our dog, retracing the same route which had become a familiar after-school routine throughout my school days. After eighteen years in the same place, no tree, lamp-post or speck of moss on the […]
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by Madeline Briggs My high school had this motto – it was on a plaque in every classroom, repeated at chapel and assembly, hanging on banners around campus: ‘Wisdom more than Knowledge, Service beyond Self, Honour Above Everything’. I doubt many of my classmates spend a lot of time thinking about it today. Most stuff […]
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by George Prew How do we put together the history, society and beliefs of a civilisation from which we have no (or very few) written records? Such is the case with the Etruscans (the Italians before the Italians moved to Italy) and the Mycenaeans (the Greeks before the Greeks moved to Greece). After all, what […]
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by Tobias Thornes ‘Surely, this is Hell indeed. Except that these pour souls suffer not for their own but for someone else’s sins.’ The Monsoon breaks like a sudden breath of sweet, fresh air after a long asphyxiation. Across the dry, sun-seared northern states of India reverberates a wave of joyful exhilaration: the long-awaited water […]
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by Fergus Higgins ‘You see, it wasn’t the ordinary sort of Doubt about Cain’s wife or the Old Testament miracles or the consecration of Archbishop Parker. I’d been taught how to explain all those while I was at college. No, it was something deeper than all that. I couldn’t understand why God had made the […]
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by Jenny Potter Lips bruised by the cool taste of your Mouth still clinging to my tongue. College steps, Cool stone, Feelings of ineptitude. A physical catharsis: Tracing the shapes of words but Releasing only the sounds Of a metronomic breath. The kiss of the mist Frustration at the expectation of Social conformism. Steel steps […]
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by William McDonald ‘To remain in the EU is a more dangerous option for British security in its deepest sense economic, political, military and social.’ As the dust has settled on the recent EU negotiations and the date for the referendum has been set, one thing is clear: these negotiations have not fixed the great […]
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by Sam Wilkinson ‘We’re off; We’re starting’ This SMS message signalled the start of a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the people of Paris. That night in November, seven terrorists claimed 130 innocent lives in an act of abject barbarism that shocked the world. This brutality was swiftly followed by a heated media discussion […]
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by Max Clements Recently the European Union has been maligned both from the right, by the conventional Eurosceptic, and by the left – in the wake of the imposition of austerity measures on Greece – who increasingly view the European Union as an advocate of greater deregulation and privatisation. Leaving the EU would be economically […]
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh is a DPhil student in International Relations and an organising member of Rhodes Must Fall Oxford Since its inception, Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) has bent over backwards to accommodate Oxford’s ignorance. But the time has come to speak plainly. Oxford’s response to our campaign has been nothing short of shameful. Oriel College’s backtrack […]
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by Jonathan Yeung Hong Kong has two official languages: English and Chinese. Legally, both languages are meant to have equal status. This is clearest on the streets, where all road signs are bilingual; English on top, Chinese on the bottom. Before 1997, when Hong Kong was a Crown colony, English was the language of government, […]
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A recipe provided by Marjory Szuko To a pound of Flour, put a pound of Butter, eight Eggs, Yolks and Whites, three quarters of a pound of Sugar Powder, a glass of Water, a little Lemon-peel chopped very fine, and dried Orange-flowers ; work the Paste well together, then cut it into pieces of what […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #8 – Decline and Fall – can be downloaded here: Issue #8 – Decline and Fall
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The Editors For an aeroplane’s aluminium and composite canister to fly serenely through the sky, two great, guzzling turbines spin ferociously on each wing. These explosive extremities provide the force to carry those in the comfortable, quiet middle toward their destination. The Poor Print recently published a cartoon on the Rhodes Must Fall movement, in […]
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by Aidan Chivers The skin yields satisfyingly beneath my eager teeth, which dive hungrily into the citrus depths. Top teeth meet bottom, and the juicy pulp is happily sucked away, leaving a perfect, circular crater in an otherwise unblemished sphere of fruit. New things in life can bring with them immense pleasure and excitement. Fresh […]
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by Jacob Warn Green was the colour of day when clods stuck to corduroy on cool mornings as a boy. Green was aching for envy at the daisy chain she’d plucked and his chin gleaming with buttercups. Green was the lie of sucking grass – a child’s drug – and sap that boys claimed […]
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by Tacita McCoy-Parkhill
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by Tobias Thornes The Hunza Valley stretches out before me, reposing upon my vision like a verdant dream. Except that no dream could conjure such sparkling, vivid colours, nor invoke such unimagined beauty as that possessed by this high Green Heaven. Around it, a crisp crown of snow-capped mountains dazzles in the shimmering summer sunlight, […]
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by Sophie Barnes We have produced more plastic in the last ten years than we have over the last hundred, yet it takes approximately 500-1000 years to degrade. Zero Waste is an attempt to reduce what we throw out to zero, making our lives 100% sustainable. It’s a growing online community. The Zero Waste Bloggers […]
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Daniel Hurn, 28, electrician and maintenance supervisor, has been working at Oriel since he was fifteen. He brews his own beer, bakes his own bread, and likes the mutual respect in his team. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “I wouldn’t say that I have much of a relationship with students. Sure, when I happen to […]
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by Aidan Chivers Wondering what to have to accompany your steak next Monday formal? The highly-regarded freshers’ wine team give you the definitive verdict on the range of wines on offer, with a single adjective on each and a score out of 111: 8 green bottles, standing on the wall 8 green bottles, standing on […]
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by ZX Taiwan’s president-elect, Tsai Ing-wen, is a skilled politician who brought her party from its worst scandal to its greatest electoral victory, and she is the first woman to officially lead a Chinese-speaking nation since the eighth century. Ms Tsai, who was introduced in one British newspaper as a ‘democracy campaigner, gay rights champion, […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #7 – Green – can be downloaded here: Issue #7 – Green
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by Elizabeth Stell and George Prew Very often archaeology in its perverse way will present us with an object with no obvious function. It may have been a misshapen Stone Age mousetrap, a Mayan hole punch, or a Roman cat carrier – we will never know. When the artifact turns up in a modern day […]
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by Tobias Thornes It was with some trepidation that I prepared to board a boat to Iran. It’s ironic that in the interlinked world of today borders are more sharply defined and suspiciously watched than ever, so that it’s no longer possible to travel freely, like our ancient ancestors on their long, slow trek out […]
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by Ben Koons There is an absolute hush, and even kneeling as close as I am to the priest I can only barely hear his whisper, ‘Hoc est enim corpus meum.’ He speaks these words of consecration softly to what was mere bread and what is now Our Lord and then as he kneels a […]
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by Jacob Warn This article may be disturbing to some readers, particularly if they are meat-eaters. To understand my story, you have to understand my perspective, which is, currently, about as dark as you can get. Blind, bald, skin-seethed, dead. The action began just three hours ago, although life stretches back six whole weeks. I’m […]
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by Alex Waygood ‘Twas in the early hours of Monday morn That in the libr’y, one could plainly see A boy: who, with hunch’d back and bended neck, Didst type away on music theory. The clock struck three, then four, then five! The college soundly snored – Yet still the lad did keenly strive […]
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by Lizzie Searle Coffee coffee coffee Coffee coffee Coffee Fuck off everybody Coffee
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by David Maw Thursday’s Child Pierre Boulez was born on Thursday 26th March 1925 in the quiet provincial Loire town of Montbrison. An older brother of the same name had been born in 1920 but survived only a few months. His older sister, Jeanne, born in 1922, was to be a staunch supporter and confidante […]
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by Aidan Chivers I barely had time to walk over to my seat, sit down, and look up nervously before my interviewer fired me the question: ‘So what’s the point of literature?’ Fumbling around frantically for a suitably profound response, I remember stammering something about its potential for uniting people and the common ground it […]
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Kathy Goudman, 65, lodge porter receptionist at Oriel, takes the rough with the smooth and doesn’t mind being a shoulder to cry on. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “My mother was the Yorkshire girl, my dad the Londoner. He was too short for the army in World War II, so he was sent down the […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #6 – Ritual – can be downloaded here: Issue #6 – Ritual
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by Jacob Warn Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. So too with happiness. Or so we’d like to believe. But our culture of happiness has long since faded into an Arcadian past, and we are really only left with […]
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by Zixin Jiang Wheaton College’s decision to fire a professor for claiming that Christians and Muslims worship the same God made me think again about an article titled Praying to Aslan, by Bill Wood, which addresses this question and was published in The Poor Print last November. What does it mean for two persons to […]
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by Peter Gent ‘You cannot pass,’ said he, despite his foe. Then all the Orcs stood still among the stone; Retreated eight, dead silence fell, and woe. No fellowship-for Gandalf’s will alone Did face the Balrog’s dreams when he did leave His morbid home and search a higher life. ‘No pass,’ said Gandalf, ‘shall you […]
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by Tobias Thornes Down the dusty road from Jordan into Saudi Arabia I make my slow but steady way. The bus takes me southwards through this dry desert peninsula, on another route frequented by pilgrims from far and wide down the ages. They travel in their millions to Mecca and Medina – those great, ancient […]
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Andrew Boothroyd Strident, assured, passionate, virtuoso. These are not words normally associated with the viola, one of the more modest and inconspicuous members of the orchestral family. But anyone who hasn’t heard the distinctive sound of this unheralded stringed instrument should have been at the Oriel Champagne Concert in Michaelmas Term 2015, where we heard […]
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Dawid Adam Piekarz, 30, barman and scout at Oriel thinks this year’s students are an especially amazing bunch. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “I first came to Oxford on a Friday. I had flown over from Poland for a job interview, because a friend of mine was working in Hall and had told me that a position […]
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