Raag Hindustani
© 2011, Sādhana

Welcome to Indian Classical Music

Hi there. My name is Sādhana, and you seem to have stumbled upon my website on North Indian (Hindustani) classical music.

Hindustani classical music is a very complex and beautiful tradition of music that goes back over 3,500 years, and since you're here, let me show you around.

Debasmita Bhattacharya (sarod)
Raag Bhimpalasi

The idea for this website came to me because I know many people who enjoy Hindustani classical music and would love to understand it better, but most of the information available assumes a certain basic familiarity with Indian classical music concepts to begin with. Also, people writing about Indian music in English sometimes use Western music terms, but they use them in the Indian sense, which can really confuse things.

So I decided to make an effort to explain the basic concepts of Hindustani music in a way that would not be confusing, using both authentic examples and simple audios with notations (both Indian and Western) for those who are interested. Even in simplified forms, Indian music is hard to notate because it uses a lot of ornamentation. But I think having a score, no matter how partial, is bound to be useful for beginners.

The sidebar (or menu icon if on a mobile device) is for easy navigation. I would recommend reading the pages in the order presented, as the concepts have been arranged to become increasingly clear as you go along, but feel free to go back and forth if you like.

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After a year of intense negotiation that seemed at times both fruitless and dangerous, the United States, Canada and Mexico reached an agreement Sunday night, avoiding a deadline by just hours. The USMCA brings sweeping changes to cars and parts, dairy and agriculture, labor, and a new “sunset” clause that requires the agreement to be renegotiated every six years. As NAFTA was agreed to in 1994, there are enormous technology advances that couldn’t be conceived of at its inception. This agreement looks to be more amenable to changes and updates as time passes, growing and evolving as individual countries change.

Auto and labor updates go hand in hand as Canada and the US seek to bring Mexico’s work force closer to equal wages. Under the USMCA, cars must have 75% of their components made by US Canada or Mexico to be eligible for free trade, in hopes to draw more auto parts from “domestic” sources and reduce the reliance on cheaper parts from Asian manufacturers. NAFTA required only 62.5% domestic parts. Another change focuses on the labor required to produce auto parts, stepping their pay up from 30% of workers making $14/hr by 2020 to 40% of  workers making at least $16/hr by 2023. While most agree these points will help reduce the flow of jobs out of the US and Canada to exploit cheap labor in Mexico, there’s a risk of car prices climbing to cover the added costs.

Canada finally relented in the case of dairy imports, allowing the US to increase their market share to 3.6%. The heavy regulations come from the Canadian government’s caution over farmers facing overly hostile competition that could negatively impact the trade of dairy, poultry and eggs from outside sources. The issue was a tough sticking point for both the US and Canada, threatening more than once to derail negotiations during the process. Additionally, the USMCA stipulates that Mexican trucks that travel into the United States must meet higher safety regulations; that Mexican workers must have more ability to organize and form unions; and female workers should be protected from from discrimination and hostile work environments. While there is a question about how these issues will be enforced, they are praised as long overdue for the countries involved.

The aluminum and steel tariffs will remain in place, but a side agreement is in the works to negotiate those outside the USMCA. Further negotiations under the USMCA are handled via Chapter 19 which gives the countries a way to challenge anti-dumping duties in front of a panel of representatives from each country instead of working through the courts in each country, significantly easing the process. Chapter 11, which gave the right to investors to use the dispute process against the governments, is essentially null. Chapter 11 was in place to allow those who invested deeply to have recourse if the government changed the rules around their industry. While energy and telecom industries will be able to use this instance, it’s severely limited.

Though the USMCA has been agreed upon, the nations still need to accept and ratify the agreement before it goes into full effect and it will still be years before the full impact is felt.


How to Prevent Ceiling Water Stains How to Prevent Ceiling Water Stains

What You'll Need
Roofing tar
Water pipe insulation
Stain killer primer

Ceiling water stains are unsightly and getting rid of them is fairly difficult. The best course of action is to ensure that you don’t get ceiling water stains in the first place. This usually requires good household maintenance. More importantly, it can save you a lot of frustrating work later on. If you have ceiling water stains, the problem might be located away from your ceiling and these repairs could end up costing significant sums of money.

Step 1 - External Leaks

The biggest source of leaks in a house is the roof. You need to check the roof regularly to replace lost shingles and to glue down loose shingles with roofing tar. You will also need to check the flashing. The flashing will be around the chimney and around any protruding pipework as well as skylights.

Flashing will eventually become loose where it has been battered by the weather. If this is the case, replace it and caulk all the seams as well as using roofing tar where it meets the shingles. This will prevent any water entering and causing a problem that could eventually cause a ceiling water stain.

If you have a gable roof with a low slope, you should climb up every fall and make sure the roof is clear since any debris could cause a blockage of snow and ice that could cause a leak. You also need to check your gutters and downspouts since a blockage can cause water to back up and leak into the attic. Clean gutters every fall once the leaves have fallen and make sure there are no blockages in the downspouts.

Step 2 - Internal Leaks

Check your attic. If you have warm air laden with moisture escaping up into the attic, it can cause mildew. Moisture can also condense or freeze in the winter. This can lead to a ceiling stain if it drips down into the ceiling.

Check that the kitchen and bathroom fans are ducted outside. If they’re not, you'll need to install an outside vent for them. The warm air could also be coming from small openings around the light fixtures below or even at the entrance to the attic. Use insulation or weather stripping to seal these areas. You should also make sure that your vents in the attic are unobstructed so fresh air can circulate.

Where you have an upstairs bathroom, you need to regularly check the caulking on the tub or the shower. If it’s not tight, water can leak through and this will cause a ceiling water stain over time. Remove the old caulk and recaulk completely.

If the pipe under your upstairs bathroom sink is wet, you need to do something about it before it causes a ceiling water stain. If the damp has spread all over the pipe, this is easily fixed with some pipe insulation.

Step 3 - Eliminating Water Stains

You can’t just paint over ceiling water stains. To hide them and prevent them showing again, you need to use a special stain-killer primer before you paint. You can also use shellac. Once these rectification measures have been used, ceiling can be decorated again using traditional methods although a coat of primer should be used before applying any topcoat to form a further protective barrier between the ceiling stains and the final choice of color.

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The Belgian government recently endorsed a series of legal initiatives jointly tabled by the Minister of Economic Affairs and the Minister of Finance. One of the main objectives is to make it easier for SMEs to raise funds through public offerings.

A company wishing to raise less than EUR 5 million via a public offering or EUR 8 million on an unregulated market (e.g. Euronext Growth) will no longer have to produce a prospectus and have it approved by the FSMA. Instead, the company will draw up a much simpler document in the form of a 15-page information note. For the smallest companies, raising up to EUR 500,000 willnot require a single document.

This fresh approach should ensure the right balance between proportionate protection of investors and inexpensive and straightforward access to fundraising for SMEs.


THE CSC team set a new record speed as they won the team time trial in yesterday's fifth stage of the Giro d'Italia.

The team rode at an average of 56.859km/h for the 35km course on their way to winning in a time of 36min 56sec.

The T-Mobile team finished one second behind CSC, a result which saw their rider Serhiy Honchar assume the overall race lead.


Abstractions blog

Nobel Prize Awarded for Cancer Immunotherapy

James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for developing ways to unleash the immune system more effectively against cancers.
Art for "Nobel Prize Awarded for Cancer Immunotherapy"

T cells (blue) of the immune system attack a cancer cell (pink) in this color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph. The 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded for work leading to new therapies against cancer based on unleashing the latent power of the immune system to attack tumor cells.

Steve Gschmeissner/Science Source

Two researchers on opposite sides of the Pacific were awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine today for their identification of molecules that normally act as a brake on the immune system. That work became the foundation for an entirely novel form of cancer treatment — immune checkpoint therapy — which has been credited with saving thousands of lives within the first few years since its approval.

James P. Allison, the chair of the department of immunology at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, and Tasuku Honjo, a professor at the Graduate School of Medicine of Kyoto University, worked independently on different molecular pathways that normally inhibit the immune system. In the eyes of the Nobel committee, however, both deserve credit for launching cancer immunotherapy into a new era.

What makes immune checkpoint therapy so innovative is that it doesn’t take aim directly at tumor cells themselves, according to Miriam Merad, an immunotherapy researcher and professor of oncological sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “It’s targeting the immune cells, the cells that are around the tumor, by making them more powerful.”

Going back as far as the late 19th century, medical researchers had sought to treat cancers by improving the body’s natural immunological defenses against it. Their successes were at best modest, however, because boosting the immune system against cancer proved difficult.

But just as the speed of a car depends on the balance between the pressure on the accelerator and the brake, the activity of the immune system reflects a balance between mechanisms that activate and inhibit it. Allison realized this in the 1990s while studying a protein called CTLA-4, which is associated with the T cells that organize and execute much of the immune system’s attack on cancer cells and other threats. He and others had seen that CTLA-4 suppresses immune responses; some researchers were hoping to activate more of it in order to treat autoimmune diseases. But Allison had a hunch that turning off CTLA-4 might unleash the immune system’s might against cancers, too.

In 1994, while at the University of California, Berkeley, Allison showed that by deactivating the molecule with an antibody, he could cure mice of cancer. Pressing on, he eventually developed this approach as immune checkpoint therapy and clinically demonstrated that it was effective in humans against the usually intractable skin cancer melanoma in 2010. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it as a therapy against metastatic melanoma in 2011.

All the while that Allison was working on CTLA-4 in the U.S., Honjo in Japan had been studying a similar brake on the immune system, PD-1 (for programmed cell death protein), that reins in T-cell responses in a different way. First in animal experiments and later in clinical trials, Honjo showed that a blockade of PD-1 with antibodies could cure several types of cancer. In a particularly impressive demonstration in 2012, the treatment caused long-term remission with few side effects in patients with a metastatic cancer that was usually considered untreatable. The U.S. FDA approved immune therapies based on PD-1 for specific cancers in 2014 and 2015.

Today, immune checkpoint therapies based on PD-1 and CTLA-4, often used together, are in development against many more cancers. As the Nobel Prize foundation noted in its description of the merits of Allison and Honjo’s work, immune checkpoint therapy now stands alongside surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy: “Their findings have conferred great benefit on mankind; they add a new pillar to the existing cancer treatments.”

Immune checkpoint therapy “doesn’t work for everyone but lives have been saved, and it has sparked a revolution in thinking about the many other ways in which the immune system can be harnessed or unleashed to fight cancer and other illnesses,” wrote Daniel M. Davis, a professor of immunology at the University of Manchester, by email. He added that he thinks “many more medicines like this are on the horizon.”

Merad agreed that immunological blockades like the ones that Allison and Honjo have pioneered could become more of a focus for other areas of medical research. There are “many diseases where patients suffer from excess inflammation,” she said. “The same pathways are used to control other types of disease,” like autoimmune illnesses.

The more that researchers come to understand how the controls on the aggressiveness of the immune system work, including ones that involve other cells and molecules, the more that it may be possible to adjust that aggression as needed. Suzanne Louise Topalian, a professor of surgery and the associate director of the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins Medicine, noted that many of the side effects of today’s immune checkpoint therapy involve a spillover reaction of inflammation affecting normal tissues. “Currently, we treat those kinds of effects with corticosteroids” and other drugs with their own disadvantages, she said. “But there may be more specific ways to treat those side effects that don’t have such global effects on dampening the immune system.”

This article includes contributions from Jordana Cepelewicz and Jonathan Lambert. This post has been updated since its original publication with additional details about the award-winning work.

Read about the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in Physics and in Chemistry.

Comment on this article


Leveraging Technology for Social Good

In recent years, we’ve seen countless examples, from the Occupy Movement, to the Black Lives Matter Movement and most recently, the Me Too Movement, where large groups of people were brought together and mobilised in the interest of generating social change, using social media as their primary tool of communication.

How did this happen? I believe it required the right combination of a good idea, a strong purpose and the right tools to put that purpose into action In the interest of social good.

First of all, it helps if the idea and purpose behind your movement is authentic. Not only does authenticity make the communication around your movement more personable, relatable and impactful but it’s also a lot easier to sustain the time, energy and very real effort required to launch a successful social good movement, if you genuinely care about the cause you’re supporting.

In addition to authenticity, at Republic Bank, we have also found that when talking about the various social good projects of our Power to Make A Difference Programme (PMAD), visual content gets the message across most effectively, especially if those messages are being shared on social media. Because visual content is more engaging, it’s easier to encourage others to get involved in your social good efforts if you share messages that are visually appealing.

That said, when it comes to visual content, photos are great but the experts agree that nothing really compares to the power of video in terms of bringing attention and interest your social good messages and boosting the visibility of your online profile. The Authentic word is again key- So it’s more important for your videos to be authentic and for them to communicate a genuine interest in social good than it is for them to be expensive or professionally produced.

We have also been exploring the possibilities of applying data and analytics to the development of targeted messaging for our social media platforms and other forms of communication like email. These tools are still new to our industry but they have the potential to help us share our social good interests and efforts in more engaging and impactful ways. They can also help us better measure the impact of our messages to tweak and change as needed to ensure that we expand the reach of our social good messages all towards sharing and motivating the social good revolution towards the good of our wider society.

With social media and the new analytical tools at our disposal, I’d say the stage is set for us to leverage technology to create more powerful and impactful movements for social good. I’m ready to try! Are you?

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Sangel was a collective name for the many dialects spoken by the Shadowlanders. They were largely spoken in the southern Shadowlands beyond Dandha Presh mountains. They were likely variations of the Shadowlander language spoken in the Northern Shadowlands or Low Taglian.

This was the native tongue of Suvrin, whose name meant "Junior" in Sangel. "Tal" was short for Taglian in Sangel, which also meant "turd".


Aim of this presentation is to assess the man elephant
conflict in this wildlife sanctuary and its impact on the heath
status of the elephant population in Wayanad Wildlife

There are about 61 human settlement enclosures within
the sanctuary. They are spread mostly in the buffer zones
as well as in the core zone. There are three types of
households identified, residing within the enclosure. They
are customary right holders, forest leaseholders, and
revenue pattayam (land right) holders with a population of
12,000. They occupy approximately 1227 hectares of land
within the sanctuary. Most of them are residing near water
sources. Primary agriculture is paddy, coconut, coffee, and
pepper. During dry season water holes become scarce in
the deep forest. Elephants come to human settlement
areas where there is water. Also, crops grown around
these areas become an added attraction resulting in crop

Currently cash crops fetch poor price. Hence there is a
shift in the cultivation pattern by the farmers to banana,
which really lure elephants to raid. Apart from this, these
human settlers raise approximately 5000 cattle.
Semi-intensive farming is practised within the sanctuary.

Most of the cattle are nondescript with low productivity and
the primary income is from the sales of dung as manure.
Milk production is very low and the surplus animals are
sold outside the sanctuary for meat. Milk is neither
collected from the settlements nor distributed outside the
sanctuary in an organised way. During daytime, cattle
graze in the buffer as well as the core area, competing for
the biomass with the larger herbivores like elephant.
These animals can be a potent source of disease to the
wildlife and vice-versa. The use of pesticides, herbicides
and fertilisers used in agriculture pollute the water source
and pose a potential threat to the health of elephants.
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The Labyrinth 1986 Analysis Essay

Labyrinth (1986): Power, Sex, and Coming of Age

Many childhood favorites fall apart when re-visited twenty or thirty years later, but Labyrinth has aged well with its audience and holds its emotional resonance despite a more cynical, more familiar eye. Who in 1986 could have predicted David Bowie’s lip gloss would have such staying power? Yet Labyrinth remains a fan favorite nearly three decades later, loved partly for how closely it adheres to classic fairy tale structure… but mostly because of how it breaks those same rules.

The fairy tale aspects of the film are both obvious and subtle. At its heart the “fairy tale” is a code of instructions for passing into adulthood, and as such, the symbolism in fairy tales speaks to the most primal and difficult facets of growing up: sex or death, or both.

The stories written by Charles Perrault and collected by The Brothers Grimm are certainly darker than their Disney counterparts – in the earlier version, Snow White’s stepmother danced to death in red-hot shoes — but it is also true that even stripped down, a strong tale matures with its audience, becoming more full of meaning as a reader or viewer ages. Red Riding Hood’s famous cloak symbolizes a young woman’s first menses, and it evokes the murder in her tale as well. Symbols, humor, and metaphor a child will miss, or misunderstand, become outright lewd to the eyes of an older and more experienced adult. This fact horrifies many and delights the rest of us.

Like the story of Red Riding Hood, Labyrinth features a young woman entering a wild place, a place where sex and death cohabit in shameless abandon. In Sarah’s labyrinth death does not loom as explicitly as it does in Red’s forest, but both young women waltz innocently into the twilight of their childhood on the arms of monsters. Unlike classic fairy tales, Labyrinth is deliberately constructed to cross from the once-upon-a-time world into the “real” one. The movie’s opening shot is of Sarah speaking stilted language while wearing an ambiguously Old Timey gown, but then we soon see she’s rehearsing for a play and can’t remember her lines. This telegraphs the story’s willingness to subvert expectations. It also heightens the audience’s connection to Sarah simply because she more closely reflects them; she’s a “normal” girl.

Sarah is soon taken from “normal” and plunged into fantasies both delightful and dark; her labyrinthine journey is layered and contradictory. Jareth, Goblin King Extraordinaire, is tempting Suitor, stern Father Figure, and malicious Villain, all in one. He also has a measure of wicked, petulant Playmate thrown into the mix, though that is a face usually worn by younger, less powerful characters like Puck from Midsummer Night’s Dream. In all his roles, however, Jareth is much closer to Oberon than Puck — he is, shall we say, well-endowed with all the props befitting a larger-than-life leading man. In other words: the wardrobe crew stuffed his pants.

My, what big hands you have, grandma.

The internet hosts many jokes about Jareth’s pants, and I’m clearly not above adding a few, but the wardrobe decision speaks directly to the nature of the character and the story being told. Fairy tales feature archetypes. It is not enough that Jareth, King Tightpants, is David Friggin’ Bowie. He must be David Friggin’ Bowie turned up to an eleven. He must be a mature King, with the full bevy of fertility symbols on display, including that beautiful cane he uses to threaten and poke people, the BDSM-inspired clothing choices, and the fawning women in the masquerade ball.

It isn’t just Jareth, Bearer of Magic Balls, who displays phallic symbols. Sarah’s journey from childhood to young adult is fraught with reminders at every turn: she is changing. All that she has loved is fading, and it feels like dying, like she will die if she loses it all… and so she fights to hold on to what she knows. But during her struggle she is reminded constantly of the other world looming just beyond the barrier; neither she nor the viewer are allowed to forget that she is being stalked by time.

As an example of those “adult situations” on Sarah’s horizon, let’s look at Hoggle. Hoggle eventually becomes one of Sarah’s trusted advisors, but the first time we and Sarah meet him, he has his trousers open and is peeing into a pond.

To the young viewer, and all viewers with an Inner Seven Year Old, this is merely a joke about urination and is varying degrees of hilarious on that basis alone. The older viewer will instead contemplate the sexual undertones inherent in introducing a character with bare penis in hand, even though Hoggle himself is never a potential Suitor. Even so, when Jareth punishes Hoggle by sending him to the Pit of Eternal Stench it’s specifically for the sin of Sarah giving him a kiss.

Jareth: If she kisses you, I’ll turn you into a Prince.
Hoggle: <hopeful> Really?
Jareth: <with malicious glee> The Prince of Eternal Stench!

It seems Jareth is not above petty jealousy.

The symbolism in Labyrinth isn’t limited to the sexual. As an example: an older, more educated viewer finds an Easter egg in Hoggle’s introduction. If you aren’t too distracted by the, well, stream, you might notice Hoggle’s jacket has a face on the back – he’s two-faced; it’s right there. It’s the second-most obvious thing Sarah sees, but she doesn’t understand what it means. In addition to being a slang term for betrayal, a sin of which Hoggle is certainly guilty, the double face also invokes the two-faced Roman god of thresholds, Janus. And Hoggle is indeed the gatekeeper who shows Sarah the door to the labyrinth and how to open it. This is one example of the layered symbolism that allows Labyrinth to hold up so well to adult eyes.

Here’s another: The Babe With the Power.

Sarah’s baby brother Toby, aka The Babe With the Power, aka Plot McGuffin Du Bowie, is an interesting collection of symbols himself.

Life is full of things you can’t know until you’ve experienced them; some “first times” are given more significance than others. Certainly most acts involving sex or death are important thresholds, and whether the crossing of those lines is exhilarating, traumatic, or anti-climactic (sometimes literally), there is almost always a sense of a boundary being crossed. In this sense, innocence is more synonymous with ignorance than with purity.

In the pure symbolism of the fairy tale, sex and innocence exist in opposition, which is not so much a matter of judgment or slut-shaming as it is a function of knowledge gained vs. knowledge still to be learned. Toby sits on the cusp of this divide, steam of pure creation still rising heavy off him while his wide eyes view the world with wonder and trust. He is entering the childhood Sarah is leaving, which on some level she understands and resents… but he also represents, via motherhood, the exotic world of adulthood and adult pleasures which calls to her. His red and white onesie displays his ties to both sides of this divide: blood (and all that means) on the one hand, a blank slate on the other.

The Babe would have become a goblin if Sarah had failed, and one presumes that’s how Jareth’s goblin servants came to be. This means that he’s been stealing little brothers (and sisters, one supposes) out of cribs for a very long time, and further it seems that they themselves are the not the goal. What, then, would have become of Sarah had she agreed to stay? Would she have truly become Queen, as Jareth implied? There seem to be a lot of goblins – how many other elder siblings have taken Jareth’s offer, and what happened to them? Perhaps instead of becoming Queen, Sarah might have become one of the labyrinth’s deformed inhabitants, endlessly serving Jareth’s will.

Sarah’s trepidation regarding Jareth comes first from the fact that he seems to be responsible for keeping her from Toby, (although that, like so much else, was her own decision) and second from her well-earned distrust of his promises. But the myriad of conflicting archetypes he represents causes an even deeper level of unease. The roles of Playmate, Suitor, King, and Father are inherently in conflict, yet no matter which role he assumes, Sarah is too liminally balanced to fully accept him. She wants all and none of those, all at once, which eventually leads to Jareth’s statement that he is exhausted from living up to her expectations.

Consider her experience in the masquerade ball. This is what adulthood looks like to 15-year-old Sarah: painted masks, lascivious grins, a confusing cacophony of debauch and threat, and she the only one in a pure-white dress. The masquerade’s mixed messages are a function of Sarah’s conflict with Jareth – she desires to be privy to adult entertainments, yet they seem crass and false and dangerous. Too much, too soon, and it drives her to seek retreat.

Yet despite sexual and phallic symbols lurking throughout the film, and despite its adherence to fairy tale structure, Labyrinth breaks the rules at the climax, and it is awesome.

Vladimir Propp, in his work The Morphology of the Folktale, devised a system to categorize the plot structure of fairy tales as a way of classifying and comparing stories. A story can be said to qualify as a fairy tale based on how closely it follows Proppian functions. For example, the first function in Proppian analysis is I: One of the members of a family absents himself from home. In Labyrinth, we first meet Sarah in the park, where she has gone to escape her unhappiness at home. The second function in Proppian analysis happens when the hero is given an interdiction or command; Sarah is told to watch the baby.

For the majority of the movie, Labyrinth follows the Proppian functions almost exactly, making it a fairy tale by definition. There are, however, a few distinct and consistent differences which culminate in a major divergence in the resolution. One small but telling deviation happens when Sarah and Jareth first meet. In Proppian terms, that’s function XVI: The hero and villain engage in direct combat. The next step should be XVII: The hero is branded. The “brand” can be almost anything, from a wound to a ring, but Sarah doesn’t take anything that Jareth offers, nor does he wound or mark her in any way.

Thus Sarah remains un-branded – neither penetrated by a weapon nor claimed by jewelry – and this sets up a resolution that is far more feminist than fairy tale. While her hero’s journey seems full of blind corners and unfair hardships, it is nonetheless entirely dictated by her own choices. Even giving up Toby in the first place was a decision Sarah made, and with which Jareth complied.

Nearing the final confrontation, Jareth sings, “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you.” And this is the heart of the tale: it was always Sarah’s story, never Jareth’s. The power was hers for the claiming, as soon as she had enough maturity to grasp it. Jareth’s mis-matched roles, like his mis-matched eyes, were a function of Sarah not knowing or understanding what she wanted or where she belonged. He attempted to rule her – to woo her – by living up to her inexpert expectations of masculinity.

A classic, true-to-form fairy tale resolves with either an ascension to the throne or a wedding. In Proppian analysis, this is function XXXI: The hero is married and/or ascends the throne. Ostensibly, Sarah is given the choice to do both, assuming it’s true she would have been Jareth’s Queen had she stayed. Jareth offers Sarah her dreams, insofar as she is capable of imagining them, but they would always be dreams composed of his power, not built by hers. This is the standard fairy tale: Cinderella doesn’t conquer territory of her own, she marries up.

Faced with Jareth’s offer to be her slave if only she will fear him, love him, and do as he says, Sarah breaks the fairy tale mold by refusing her Suitor and the ascension. She thus comes into her own power, rather than the borrowed reflection of the power wielded by the Suitor. In their final confrontation, Sarah begins reciting the lines from the play she was rehearsing at the film’s beginning, but Jareth doesn’t physically step back until she gets to the phrase, “For my will is as strong as yours.” Before she can add, “and my kingdom as great” he interrupts to derail her by offering her another magic ball of glittery dream-stuff… which she again refuses.

Sarah verbally stumbles before she can conclude with the line she had such difficulty remembering at the beginning of her tale, but then it comes to her. “You have no power over me,” she says in triumphant epiphany, and with that she and Toby return to their world.

Thus our fairy tale princess returns victoriously home with neither wedding ring, nor wedding night, nor crown, nor King. Materially Sarah’s success is limited to a return of the status quo; the effects of her childish tantrum have been erased and Toby is back in his crib. Yet she has achieved, for the first time, some measure of understanding about the nature of her own power and the responsibilities inherent in adulthood. She knows that she is not yet ready for the full experience, and she accepts that. Just as when she made a choice to lose Toby, she has made a choice to take him back. She claims her sexuality as her own, and her innocence in this regard is not a win for the sake of purity, but a choice she makes with as much understanding as possible.

Labyrinth’s ending then gives us one additional surprise. Hoggle, and the other advisors and companions Sarah has made during her journey and struggle, do not stay confined to the fairy tale world of the labyrinth; they return with her. Once bound to Jareth, they are now Sarah’s – not servants, but friends – and their various qualities (honor, loyalty) are hers to call upon. They are, quite markedly, not included in the collection of childish things Sarah must part with in order to be a mature woman; they are part of the kingdom and power she has claimed.

And in the last scene of the movie, Jareth (in owl form) sits outside Sarah’s window. He has not been banished, but must wait to be invited in again on Sarah’s terms.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

David BowieLabyrinthaudio-visualityfilm musicalnarrativitysirenvoice

Sanna Qvick
Doctoral Student
University of Turku

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This article comments on the dual role of David Bowie in the film Labyrinth (1986) as actor and singer, in addition to Bowie’s star persona, puppets as a means of alienation, and the narrative world of Labyrinth in the realm of fantasy and fairy tale. However, the main focus of the article is on the role the songs play in the film’s narrative. In musicals, songs usually interrupt the narration, or narrative progression of the film, while expanding on emotional content or depiction. In Labyrinth, the sections of dance and song are not regarded as separate by the characters within the narration, although they might appear separate to the viewer. The film Labyrinth takes a different approach to the musical tradition, because it intertwines narration and songs. Labyrinth breaks away from the dual-focus mold of American film musicals (Altman 1987), as only the man in the main character pair sings. It utilises the traits of musical, but is it a musical? I aim to determine this by reviewing the genre of the film and analysing the roles and the meanings of the songs using audio-visual analysis and close reading (see Bal 2002; Richardson 2012).

The idea for the film Labyrinth (1986) came to director Jim Henson in the aftermath of his feature film Dark Crystal (1982). He dreamed of combining live actors with the puppets of his Creature Shop, which had appeared and were known from the television program The Muppet Show (1976–1981) (Inside the Labyrinth 1986.) Together with his writing and conceptualisation team, Henson started to compose a story about goblins that would combine fantasy stories like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and The Wizard of Oz (1900). For the role of Goblin King, the writers wanted a contemporary pop singer; they considered Michael Jackson, Sting, and David Bowie (Inside the Labyrinth 1986; see also Pegg 2004, 552), who were all at the height of their popularity in the 1980s. As director Jim Henson admits in the beginning of the documentary Inside the Labyrinth (1986), his obvious choice was David Bowie. When approached, Bowie embraced the challenge of acting as well as writing the songs for the film.

In this article I aim to answer this question: if Labyrinth has narrative songs like a film musical, why has it not been categorised as such? If it is not a musical, why, or perhaps to what end, do the songs play such a substantive part of the film’s narration? To fully answer the question, I will also investigate the meanings conveyed in the songs more closely. I address these questions and tasks using the methods of audio-visual analysis (see Altman 1987; Chion 1994; Gorbman 1987), and close reading (see Bal 2002; Richardson 2012). Although this article comments on many issues, my main focus will be on the role of the songs in the film’s narration, and how the songs work to establish genre.

While the soundtrack of Labyrinth was a collaboration of Trevor Jones and David Bowie, their collective roles were clearly defined: Jones was in charge of score music, orchestration, and sound design, and Bowie concentrated on the songs. Labyrinth contains five songs, which are spread rather evenly throughout the film (see Table 1), and which were mainly performed by David Bowie, with the only exception being the song Chilly Down, which was performed by Charles Augins, Richard Bodkin, Kevin Clash, and Danny John-Jules, the four actors that voice the Firey creatures. In this sense, Labyrinth is not an ordinary film musical, where everyone (or at least the main characters) sing and dance (see Altman 1987, 16–27; Altman 2002, 41–51). For example, the main character Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) does not sing at all. Although the world of opera uses so-called mute roles, this is unusual in films and musicals.

SceneNarrationTimeSongKey phrase
Opening titlesEstablishing0:00:22–0:02:45UndergroundDown in the underground…
A land serene
Running homeEstablishing0:03:50–0:04:44UndergroundWalking away…
Life can’t be easy
Getting to know the labyrinth / Goblin CastleTaking action and pursuing the goal0:21:32–0:25:44Magic DanceBabe with power…
make him free
Firey creaturesInterference0:48:53–0:52:40Chilly DownThink small with the fire gang…
The mask ball

(dream sequence)

Straying from the goal1:01:15–1:06:51As the World Falls DownIn search of new dreams…
Escher stairsConfrontation1:23:28–1:27:01Within YouHow you turn my world…
End creditsAfter resolution1:31:53–1:36:56UndergroundNothing ever hurts again…

As in film musicals, the sections of song and dance in the film are not separate from the narration of characters, although the viewer might regard them as such. It could be said that Labyrinth breaks away from the dual-focus mold of American film musical (Altman 1987, 16–21; see also Cohan 2002, 42–45). These imbalances make Labyrinth a fascinating case study.

The structure of this article is as follows: in the section Labyrinth and David Bowie, I will introduce some parts of the film production, elaborate more on the film’s place in David Bowie’s career, and how his stardom has been taken into account. In Ambiguity of Labyrinth’s genre, I will discuss Rick Altman’s (1987) definition of the film musical through an analysis of the scene Magic Dance and try to find a solution to genre question. In addition, I will discuss the relationship between the songs and the flow of narration in Labyrinth while also exploring the role of song in the narrative film in general terms. In Metaphors and Motifs of Labyrinth, I will analyse the songs Within You and As the World Falls Down from the perspective of how they bring hidden topics to light in the film. Finally, I will draw my arguments together in a conclusion.

Labyrinth and David Bowie

David Bowie (1947-2016; born David Jones; also used the name Davie Jones in early career releases) was an unusually versatile artist: singer, songwriter, sound engineer, producer, actor, and painter among many other things. His keen interest in performance and different forms of expression made him a multi-skilled and devoted performer, and he even used his body as vehicle of expression (David Bowie: Sound and Vision 2002). As Mick Brown (2010) claims, Bowie made a career out of identity crises[1]. This is a rather bluntly stated and perhaps oversimplified claim; simply put, Bowie was a complex personality who utilized his body and personal experiences also in his music (see David Bowie: Sound and Vision 2002; David Bowie: Five Years 2013; Egan 2015, 308–310). Brown’s view could, on the other hand, have been the way the general public viewed Bowie retrospectively, but as Bowie’s official web site states:

Driven by an entirely deeper dynamic than most pop artists, the art of David Bowie inhabits a very special world of extraordinary sounds and endless vision. Unwilling to stay on the treadmill of rock legend and avoiding the descent into ever demeaning and decreasing circles of cliché, Bowie writes and performs what he wants, when he wants. (Bowie 2016; emphasis has been added.)

In The British Pop Dandy, Stan Hawkins (2009, 17–18) proposes that pop artists cannot be viewed only through the recordings they produce, because there is always a person and personality behind the talent. Hawkins introduces artists who, in his view, have internalized the Wildean idea of the total artwork, which refers to Oscar Wilde’s twist of an Aristotelian idea (“art imitates life”): Wilde wrote in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that Life imitates art far more than art imitates life”. Hawkins includes Bowie among those artists who live according to these principles. Hawkins (2009, 4–11) calls these artists “pop dandies” and applies defining characteristics to them, such as national identity, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. He asserts that, to an artist, performance is a theatrical act of displaying oneself, and successful pop dandies usually perform a unique and aesthetically ritualised identity, which can in turn open the possibility of ridicule or/and misunderstanding from audiences.

In the 1960s, the mod fashion community was fascinated with appearance. This partly influenced the naturally blond David Bowie to acquire long hair and an effeminate outfit as his distinctive look when he started to discover his own identity as a performing and recording musician in London in the late 1960s, after releasing two eponymously-titled albums (see Buckley 2015, 6 & 24–28). According to Buckley (2015), Bowie drew his early influences from dancer Lindsay Kemp and artist Andy Warhol. In Kemp’s dance classes while learning the secrets of mime, Bowie became aware of the bizarre, which he employed in his own performances (Buckley 1999, 44-47). Bowie was vastly attracted to Andy Warhol’s idea that stardom could be concocted, which Warhol had applied to “talentless” people in his Factory studio (Buckley 1999, 107). Bowie’s queer looks blurred his gender identity from the heteronormatively defined mainstream music scene, and consequently subverted the gap between gay and heterosexual cultures (Hawkins 2009, 158).

The 1970’s were Bowie’s most productive years, and soon he became the force to be recognised in the art rock scene with such album recordings as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars (1972, RCA), Aladdin Sane (1973, RCA) Station to Station (1976, RCA), Low (1977, RCA) and Heroes (1977, RCA). With performance personae like Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane, Bowie effectively elevated androgynism and transvestism into aesthetic and intellectual styles. By rejecting heteronormative constraints, Bowie challenged the macho stereotype that performers of that era (and to this day) like to flaunt: he ridiculed gender norms with imaginative, gender-fluid characters, which either horrified or entertained audiences by questioning the traditional and rigid images of masculinity. Bowie revolted against the conventions of pop and rock, both in his music as well as image. (Hawkins 2009, 18.)

Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto designed the essential costumes and concepts for Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. The kabuki-style garments, quick wardrobe changes during the performance as marker of personality changes, use of Mawari-butai (rotating stage), and other loans from kabuki theatre were sufficiently alien to unsettle western audiences. (Buckley 1999, 117–118.) In the film Labyrinth, Bowie returned to spiky hair (with a help of a wig) reminiscent of Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. The exaggerated facial lines from kabuki make-up and surprising costume changes (see Labyrinth 0:32:55–0:33:05) remind viewers of Bowie’s theatrical music performances. The slender, timeless male youth figure of Ziggy can be seen as analogy of Peter Pan (Buckley 1999, 119), the boy who never wanted to grow up. With Bowie’s reading, the role of Jareth is infused with a similar rebellious attitude.

Bowie’s success moved beyond his music in the 1980s as his film career started becoming more prominent. Bowie had acted in films before Labyrinth: he had a leading role in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), which is now considered a cult classic. The role of major Jack “Strafer” Celliers in the World War 2 drama film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) made Bowie into an internationally recognized actor. (Egan 2015, 102; Evans 2013, 58.) So Jim Henson’s idea of Bowie acting in a leading role was not far-fetched. In 1983, when Bowie was touring in the USA, Jim Henson approached him and pitched his film idea to Bowie, including artwork by conceptual designer Brian Froud and a copy of the film Dark Crystal (1982). Bowie found the idea fascinating and saw potential in the script. (Inside the Labyrinth 1986.) Although it seemed initially to be a flop, because it did poorly at the box office and received cutting reviews, the film Labyrinth brought new audiences to David Bowie (Buckley 2015, 81). For audiences born in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this was probably their first encounter with the artist David Bowie, for it was unlikely they had been exposed to the outlandish appearances of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and The Thin White Duke, and this curious look of Jareth could be seen as a homage to them. Yet against the backdrop of bustling puppets, Bowie finds a way to express himself with fine precision (e.g., the owl-like turn in the close-up in the Magic Dance scene). This ability to alter his physical expression also extends to his vocal abilities; for example, he overdubbed the baby voices himself in Magic Dance (Inside the Labyrinth 1986; Pegg 2015, 137).

Ambiguity of Labyrinth´s genre

From the beginning, it was clear to Brian Froud and Jim Henson that the film Labyrinth would be about goblins. As Henson worked on the story with Dennis Lee, Froud’s “mood boards” would set the feel and visual language of the film (Inside the Labyrinth 1986). The character development took more than a year before the crew could start shooting the film in Elstree Studios in England. But this meticulous pre-work was good news for the film and eased the shooting itself, as Jim Henson’s son, puppeteer Brian Henson tells:

There were some 48 puppets and 53 puppeteers in the Magic Dance scene, and to add to that mayhem, 8 to 12 little people were in harnesses jumping around. The scene was mainly improvised, for there was no choreography. The idea was just be goblin. The set looked like Swiss cheese without the puppets. (Inside the Labyrinth 1986.)

In the latter 21st century, puppetry transformed from an undervalued and neglected children’s and folk performance genre to a meaningful art form in stage, film, and television productions (see Kaplin 1999). Jim Henson and his Muppets are a clear example of this process. With his company, Henson was able to develop new materials and production technologies for puppetry, which made an impact on the field of puppet animations, particularly special effects (Kaplin 1999, 28)[2]. Although the puppets in Labyrinth are lifelike in their appearance and movement[3], the set and the lighting brings forward their artificiality, which in turn highlights the effect of alienation. This effect can also be seen in Bowie’s eccentric costume and his blond kabukish wig, which turns him into a puppet-like character (see Image 1). Granted, the fantastical atmosphere of the film’s world also underlines this impression.

There were productions in the early days of sound films that could not accurately be classified as musicals but still employed a large amount of music and song. This is because the use of sound in films was a novelty, and the format of narrative films (and film musicals) was still fluctuating. Songs could pop up anywhere in the film: the narration would be halted by some non-essential song and dance routine and would continue after the song as if nothing had happened. (Barrios 2009, 299–300.) The development of film sound technology was also a firm step in the development of film musicals, and the immigration of film composers from Europe brought the awareness about theatrical practices such as vaudeville and operetta, which affected how the song numbers would ease their way more fluently into the film narration. Over time, film musicals developed into narrative, feature length films, which used music not only as instrument of sound engineering, but also as foundation of motion, whether it is the dancing movement of the characters or the camera movement (see Altman 1987, 101–110).

In his book The American Film Musical (1987), film theorist Rick Altman approaches the definition of film musicals from the viewpoint of narration and meanings that film musicals convey. Altman introduced the idea of musicals utilising the normative narration, which rests partly on psychological motivation. Altman understands narration as a formation between two centres of action:

The American film musical has a dual focus, built around parallel stars of opposite sex and radically divergent values. This dual-focus structure requires the viewer to be sensitive not so much to chronology and progression, but to simultaneity and comparison. (Altman 1987, 16–19.)

Altman’s theory of dual focus narrative might be useful when contemplating Labyrinth’s genre. Labyrinth tells the story of Sarah, a teenager at the brink of adulthood. She is pampered, beautiful, and vainglorious. As Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is once again left at home to babysit her little baby brother Toby, she makes a wish that goblins would come and take him away. This wish sets the events of the film in motion. Her counterpart in the story is Jareth (David Bowie), the goblin king, who is egocentric, moody, and noticeably queer in his appearance. If applying Altman’s theory to this format, these two main characters should be opposites. Sarah and Jareth are opposites in sex and they come from different backgrounds (she lives in the “real world” in a middle-class home, and he lives in a fantasy world as a king in a castle). But the two characters also have similarities: both are stubborn and egocentric. Despite their differences, the couples that Altman discussed all share one essential feature: they both sing (Altman 1987, 19). However, in Labyrinth Sarah does not sing. Her power originates from a previously written chant-like text that she cites in the beginning of the film and again in the final scene with Jareth. The only characters that sing in the film are goblins and their king. Does this suggest that singing belongs to the fantasy world, the land of the goblins, and it is a truly fantastic act?

In Altman’s example of New Moon (1940), the main characters are introduced in a juxtaposing scene that brings out their contrasts (Altman 1987, 17–19). In Labyrinth’s song scene Magic Dance (see Video 1), Sarah and Jareth both apply their own problem-solving methods (Sarah with action, Jareth with contemplation), which are paralleled (see a table of Magic Dance scene analysis). While Sarah is depicted as seemingly alone in the quiet labyrinth as she tries to find her way to the castle with her steps as the loudest sound, Jareth is presented in a noisy and busy castle hall with baby Toby crying and goblins causing havoc. Jareth starts a conversation, which turns into a song with the goblins. Together, they plot how to hinder Sarah’s journey. When Sarah is shown in the labyrinth, the set is light, airy and spacious. In contrast, Jareth is shot in the darkness of castle suffering from congestion. The music in this scene mirrors the image in various ways: singing of Jareth and goblins is shown in the castle shots (music as onscreen). When Sarah is seen in the labyrinth, the song continues playing in the background. We can hear it, but Sarah does not seem to react to it, so we can assume that she does not hear it. Hence the music is both off-screen and non-diegetic. This is a question of perspective. If we underline the song’s connective role, then the emphasis is on the off-screen, but if we highlight Sarah’s point of view, then the song becomes non-diegetic. Either way, the music is acousmatic (see Chion 1994, 73–74).

Video 1. Magic Dance scene.

In The Fantastical Gap between Diegetic and Nondiegetic, Robynn Stilwell suggests that although diegetic and non-diegetic music might be easy to distinguish, the power lies not in their difference, but in the fantastical gap between (Stilwell 2007, 200). So could it be that this slow rippling between the two scenes is actually an attempt to appeal to the viewer and request that we choose a side and make an emotional commitment? Regardless, in this scene the main characters of Labyrinth are contrasted in numerous ways.

As Altman (1987, 16–27; see also Altman 2002, 41–51) emphasises the role of the main characters in the fabrication of form and the dual-focus structure, in Labyrinth, the main characters are also the objects of the viewer’s attention, although this might be due to casting. The alternation between the male and female point of view is the starting point of dual-focus narration, as traditional narration rests on suspense, psychology, motivation, and/or plot. While traditional narration has an Aristotelian dramatic arch, dual-focus narration advances to the resolution of differences. (Altman 1987, 20–21.) Labyrinth uses traditional narration as well as dual-focus narrative. Suspense is created through the different hindrances Jareth places in Sarah’s path, and how she ultimately solves them. Although the dual-focus narration sets Sarah and Jareth up as a potential romantic couple, the decisive final scene between the couple doesn’t offer reconciliation or heteronormative consummation, because Sarah rejects Jareth’s magical world.

Labyrinth combines different narrative strategies as it tries to immerse the viewer in the world of goblins. At the same time, it uses songs to highlight the process of drama at the expense of the psychological perspectives. This can be observed partly in the songs’ lyrics, which focus more on the narrative action in the case of Magic Dance than on the description of either of the characters, their emotions, or the circumstances. Therefore, I am not ready to classify Labyrinth as a film musical in the classical sense.

To evaluate Labyrinth’s genre, we have to take into account the period in which it was manufactured. In the 1980s, the traditional audio-visual media (cinema and television) were in turmoil, as personal computers were developed for leisure use in homes. People began to use television sets as their display, and computers became more user-friendly with graphic-based operating systems. At the same time, home video systems became more common, so traditional media had to develop new measures to attract audiences. One solution for attracting audiences was hybrid popular cultural texts like music videos and music television channels. Indeed, music videos could be seen as a cultural continuum to film musicals, since they were seen in various studies as cinematic miniatures during the same period (Mundy 1999, 223–224). Films like Fame (1980), Flashdance (1983), and Footloose (1984) used their music video likeness to augment back to the format of film musicals.

It is clear that Labyrinth’s storyline binds it to the tradition of fantasy and fairy tale films. Contemporary cinema favoured fantasy as a genre, as evidenced by films like Excalibur (1981), Clash of the Titans (1981), Legend (1985), The Neverending Story (1984), and Return to Oz (1985), which were made just before Labyrinth. All of these films deal with fantasy, although the two former are also set in mythical worlds of the Arthurian age and Ancient Greece. The distinction between fantasy and fairy tale film is a fine line: in her thesis Magic Code, Maria Nikolajeva points out that the difference between the two lies in the structure of their story worlds. Where the story world of fairy tale is omnipotent and closed, the story world of fantasy is divided into realistic and fantastic realms. In that sense, Labyrinth is a true fantasy film like The Neverending Story and Return to Oz, for they all have the mentioned polarisation. Therefore, Labyrinth’s genre is a hybrid, as it negotiates its narration through the genres of fantasy and film musical.

Metaphors and Motifs of Labyrinth

The film Labyrinth can be seen as a story of sexual awakening and a teenage girl’s coming-of-age story. Mark Spitz (2009) reads into the ballroom dance scene between 39-year-old Bowie and 14-year-old Jennifer Connelly an intimidating amount of sexual tension. According to Spitz, no other actress ever achieved the same level of connection with Bowie as Connelly did. (Spitz 2009, 457.) The labyrinth itself can be seen a rite of passage to adulthood, or it can symbolise a sexual awakening. It can also be considered a metaphor of knowledge or a cognitive model (Shiloh 2010, 90). The idea of the labyrinth lies in problem solving, because finding the right path can be perceived as learning and acquiring the knowledge of the secret structure of the labyrinth. The answers emerge by applying various mind-sets.

The term labyrinth originates from the pre-Greek word labyrinthos, which means a large building with an intricate underground passage. In Latin, labyrinth alludes to domus deadali, Daedalus’s house, which refers to the builder of the mythical labyrinth. (Shiloh 2010, 90.) According to antique myth, the Cretan king Minos constructed a labyrinth where he placed the bastard child of his wife and a bull, Minotaur. The resulting monster had a man’s body and bull’s head, and it devoured those who entered the labyrinth (see Reed Doob 1990, 11–13). The classical Cretan labyrinth is a structure where one winding path inevitably leads to the centre (Shiloh 2010, 89; see also Eco 2014, 52), and the Minotaur was usually positioned in the centre of the labyrinth. Although it is said that a person entering the classical labyrinth is usually nearer the solution than those deeper inside, this lucidity of structure does not reveal itself, since labyrinths simultaneously represent order and chaos, clarity and confusion, unity and multiplicity. Doubling and mirroring also determine the internal structure of a labyrinth. While most labyrinths constructed before modern times were centre-oriented, the opposite is true of postmodern labyrinths. (Shiloh 2010, 93–94.) According to semiotician Umberto Eco, the Mannerist labyrinth is full of alternatives, which is why all of its pathways are dead ends, except one (Eco 2014, 52–53). He also sees the labyrinth as a network where every intersection connects to others (Eco 2014, 53-55); however, in the case of Labyrinth, there is no exit. In these contemporary mazes, the fear of the Minotaur has been replaced with terror of getting lost for eternity (Shiloh 2010, 94).

In the film, the labyrinth is shown on many occasions. In the beginning, it appears as a self-contained structure, and only parts of it are revealed as Sarah enters it. There are many structures inside the labyrinth: the never-ending passage, the rambling wall, the network of underground tunnels, the turf maze, a bog (which can also be characterised as a kind of maze, as nature is filled with ambiguous routes; see Eco 2014, 37), and finally inside the castle, the Escherian stairs[4]. These different parts of the labyrinth confuse Sarah in various ways, and her escape solutions differ based on the challenge she encounters. The Escherian stairs set the scene for the song Without You (see Image 2). This song has a focal role in the narration: it is the only song that Jareth performs in Sarah’s presence. In fact, he actually sings to her. The Within You scene (see Video 2) functions as a prologue to the final conflict between Sarah and Jareth, in which Sarah confronts Jareth and demands her baby brother back.

Video 2. Within You scene.

The song Within You deviates from other structurally conventional songs of the film. For example, the format of Magic Dance is ABAB, while As the World Falls Down is AABAB (A for verse, B for refrain). The free-form Within You is founded on the melody of the first phrase (see Music example 1.).

The remaining part of the song Within You modifies this melody with syncopated rhythms and a descending melody line after the highest tone. The modifications are made with various techniques: using the melody partly (either its beginning, the syncopated ascending line, or its end, the steady descending line), adding a larger gap before the syncopated rhythm (see Music Example 2), or changing the rhythm (e.g., by adding an extra syncopated note).

The melody line rises during the song, along with Bowie’s singing register. In the beginning of the song, the starting tone of the melody is either F# or G. After four phrases, the starting tone is twice A before leaping to E, and at this point, only variations of either the whole melody or its syncopated beginning are used. The motif A4[5] (Music Example 2) can be seen as a breaking point of the song, for it is actually repeated three times, and it leads to the highest starting note, G, which is an octave higher than in the beginning. From G, the descending motif A5 (see Music Example 3) is repeated three times, and the last time is spaced for the dramatic effect of sighs. This high register starting from G sounds like it strains Bowie’s voice, and with diminuendo his singing turns into sighs. Of course this could be a stylistic device or the aim, as the lyrics are tragic:

… Live without your sunlight,

Love without your heartbeat,

I – I can’t live within you… (Labyrinth 1986).

The labyrinth is not the only mythical aspect in the film. Since Jareth (Bowie) is the only singing human character in the film, this elevates him and his voice to mythical proportions. In the world of ancient myths, Orpheus was the legendary musician who could charm everyone with his music and song. In his travels as a member of the Argonauts, Orpheus met the other masters of song and singing, the Sirens. Homer, in his epic Odyssey (ca. 700 BCE), described the Sirens singing so blissfully that those seafarers who heard them became so senselessly enchanted they were desperately drawn to their deaths on the rugged shore (Peraino 2006, 13). I find it noteworthy that these mythical tales do not tell us why the singing of Sirens is so mesmerizing; in other words, we do not know what the Sirens’ song sounds like. It seems that it is a bit unimaginative from Homer and easier to only relate the reactions of Odysseus, or to tell how Orpheus used his own music to muffle the Sirens’ song. Homer’s Odyssey does not even portray the Sirens’ visual appearance, but Homeric pottery and tomb ornaments repeatedly illustrate them as half human (mostly female) and half bird. (Peraino 2006, 13.)

It is commonly assumed that someone’s life and personality can be heard in their voice (Frith 1996, 184–185). Singing in its corporality must be one of the most subjectively revealing traits. It has a direct connection to an artist’s physicality and identity, as the voice can also be understood as part of a performance strategy, which collaborates with individual style and fortitude (Hawkins 2009, 121.) As a human being, it is easy to sympathise with the sound of one’s own kind: the sound of voices. They entail their own unique, psychological content, because people use voices to comfort, amuse, and appeal. The pop voice is commonly considered more personally and emotionally expressive than the voice of singers in classical music, where the emotion and character are mainly dictated by the score. This is in part a case of sound convention and meaning-making. (Frith 1996, 186–187.)

In his book Performing Rites (1996), Simon Frith tackles the voice from multiple angles: as an instrument requiring skills and techniques to master it, as part of the body (i.e., as a physical phenomenon involving breathing and muscle control), as conveying a recognisable personality (colour, register, huskiness), and as a culturally coded characteristic (Frith 1996, 187–199). I agree with Frith that voice is a multilevel operator and that vocalisation utilises intersubjective communication. As a conveyor of desire, the singing voice is ambiguous, because one of its functions is to translate aural representations into many meanings (Hawkins 2009, 124).

A part of music’s enduring appeal, and part of its cultural work, is that it delineates a space and time wherein gender and sexuality lose clear definition (Peraino 2006, 7). Enjoyment and meaning making is left to the listener (which does not exclude the performer). If we take account how Hawkins (2009, 4) demands the de-naturalizing of gendered behaviour in musical performances, does this lead to elevating the meanings of a performer’s gender and identity before enjoying their talent? Furthermore, if we acknowledge David Bowie’s ability to challenge our perspectives on gender, could he also be challenging gender perspectives in Labyrinth? To the older generation of the 1960s, long hair and make-up were regarded as female features, but to the new Romantics of the 1980s, the self-serving spirit was perhaps not an atrocity for men. While Labyrinth’s Jareth is a male role, Bowie acts with heavy make-up and long hair extensions. Additionally, Jareth is capable of shape shifting, as seen in the beginning of the film when an owl enters Sarah’s bedroom through the French doors, and Jareth enters Sarah’s room through them in human form. Jareth’s shape-shifting abilities are shown again after the film’s final conflict, when Jareth turns into an owl before Sarah’s eyes. The 1980s fashion style was rather taken with large shoulder pads that might explain Jareth’s wide padded shoulders, which make his legs appear scrawny like a bird’s. If Jareth establishes himself as an entity between human and animal, his queer position deals not only with his gender identity or sexuality, but with his human status as well, or, queering humanity itself, as a familiar trait in queer sci-fi (see Latham 2002, 119–120; Merrick 2008, 216–232). David Bowie saw the role of Jareth as a continuation to his collection of characters. He said: “I think Jareth is, at best, a romantic, but, at worst, he is a spoilt child, vain and temperamental… like a rock’n’roll star!” (Hewitt 2012, 175.)

“The singing” of the Sirens is essentially an act of seduction that entraps listeners. So if we think of Jareth as a Siren, a point enhanced further by his queer birdlike appearance, it becomes evident that with each song, Sarah is lured in closer to Jareth. However, we cannot be sure whether she hears all the songs Jareth sings (as mentioned in the analysis of Magic Dance). Furthermore, in the end, when Sarah is in the castle, the song Within You presents a hesitant Jareth; he is amazed by Sarah’s capacity to solve the puzzles he has given her. The lyrics of this song appeal more to Sarah’s guilt than her desire. The only song with a Siren-like quality is As the World Falls Down (see Video 3), in which Jareth speaks about the Sarah’s beauty, his feats of valour and, of course, about falling in love. Sarah hears this song in a drugged state after eating a peach that has been drugged. Her drug-induced dream presents the masked ball she has always dreamed of – she is even dressed as the figurine from her music box – and her vision includes Jareth as a gallant. Although Jareth seems to bewitch Sarah for a moment by dancing with her and singing directly to her, she soon begins to doubt her surroundings and ultimately escapes.

Video 3. As the World Falls Down.

To encounter the song of the Sirens is to succumb to a desire that can deprive and ravage but also energise and sustain. Later readings of the Sirens accentuate the “rite of passage” aspects such as the acquiring of covert information or the testing of faith against seductions of the flesh (Peraino 2006, 19). As Jareth seems to fail in his attempts to seduce Sarah so she will forget her quest, it becomes clear that Sarah has learned many things during her journey. She has taken steps towards adulthood and is mature enough to see that she is not ready for everything that being an adult means. There are obvious nods to psychoanalysis and Freud, for example the baby brother can be interpreted as Sarah’s own innocence, which she is trying to preserve at the brink of maturity and in the presence of a highly sexualised character, Jareth (Pegg 2015, 553).

As a fantasy film, Labyrinth has direct contact to the myths of western culture and the mythical fantastical worlds. To its credit, the film includes references to popular culture in the form of children’s film and fairy tales. Sarah eating a drugged peach can be seen as a tribute to Snow White and the masked ball scene Cinderella (Pegg 2015, 553; see Image 3).

In this section I have pointed out that Labyrinth did not only highlight the visual concept of the labyrinth, it also gave an audible example of being lost in the free-form of the song Within You. And in addition to this, both the Siren-like appearance and the voice of Jareth accentuate the feeling of getting and being lost.

My aim in this article was to examine the film Labyrinth by opening up and questioning its genre ambiguities, while also bringing forward the metaphors it contains. Narrative roles in the songs of Labyrinth are more action based either in their lyrics (Magic Dance) or in their usage as a narrative strategy (As the World Falls Down, Within You). The lyrics of Magic Dance talk about possible actions to hinder Sarah’s journey, and the songs As the World Falls Down and Within You are used as weapons of interference. They are the tools of a Siren who wants to lure Sarah away from her quest. Although the Magic Dance scene brings forward Altman’s dual-focus narration, it is probably the only glimpse of his definition of an American film musical. Although the scene did not tick all the boxes for defining dual-focus narration, the greatest shortcoming is the fact that Sarah does not sing in the film. Singing seemed to be a trait of the goblin world, which places it in opposition to reality. The character of Sarah could be seen as equivalent to the audience’s role: she experiences the wonders of the fantastic goblin world just as a viewer would.

Regardless of this juxtaposition, Labyrinth is not a film musical, at least not in a traditional sense. As the song scenes are spread out evenly through out the film and do not follow each other, Labyrinth cannot be considered an extended music video, which was a creation of the 1980s, with the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1984). During the 1980s it became a common practice in films to use particular representational strategies of music videos and music television, which expanded the audio attraction of the films (Mundy 1999, 227). This might explain why the soundtrack of Labyrinth was released six months before the movie premiere (Buckley 1999, 381–382).

Perhaps the songs of Labyrinth should be considered as fantasy components, thus rendering the film in the category of fantasy film. In The American Film Musical, Altman (1987) acknowledges that not all film musicals yield to his definition, especially if narrative content is romantic coupling. Altman suggests that as there is a difference in musicals due to their display (film and stage), which is often represented in their narrative content. He sees these musicals about musicals as subgenres of the American film musical. (Altman 1987, 129–131.) Also according to Altman, in fairy tale musicals (another subgenre to film musicals), music conveys the transition from childhood to maturity with thematic ingredients of fantasy and wish realisation (Altman 1987, 104–105). So it seems that Labyrinth’s genre exists somewhere in between fairy tale musical and fantasy film, or it could be seen as a hybrid of those two.

Labyrinth was the first film with a soundtrack that all songs were written by Bowie, not to diminish the orchestration and mood score of Trevor Jones. Unfortunately, the soundtrack did not enjoy the same chart success as Bowie’s other projects, and it is seen as an aberration among his albums. In Paolo Hewitt’s book Bowie. Album by Album, Hewitt identified the limitation of creativity as the cause of the aberration, because Bowie could not follow his own instincts and chosen muse within the limiting subject of the film. (Hewitt 2012, 176.) Still, the references to myths of classical periods are clear, as I have demonstrated with this article.

All links verified 8.12.2016.

Audiovisual material

David Bowie: Five Years. Director: Francis Whately, sound: Sean O’Neil, and Adam Scourfield, cinematography: Louis Calfield, and Richard Numeroff. BBC: Events Production, London. 2013. 60 min.

David Bowie: Sound and Vision. Director: Rick Hull, original music: Alan Ett, writer Rick Hull. Prometeus Entertainment, and Foxstar Productions. 2002.

Inside the Labyrinth. Director: Desmond Saunders, written by: Jim Henson, music: Trevor Jones, cinematography Barry Ackroyd, Rafi Rafaeli, and John Warwick, starring: Jim Henson, David Bowie, Charles Augins. Jim Henson Television. 1986. 57 min.

Labyrinth. Director: Jim Henson, music: Trevor Jones, songs: David Bowie, story: Dennis Lee, and Jim Henson, screenplay: Terry Jones, cinematography: Alex Thomson, starring: David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, Toby Froud. The Jim Henson Company & Lucasfilm Ltd. 1986.

Songs (in order of their appearance in the film):

Opening titles including parts of Underground. Music & Lyrics David Bowie. Performed by David

Magic Dance. Music & Lyrics David Bowie. Performed by David Bowie.

Chilly Down. Music & Lyrics David Bowie. Performed by Charles Augins, Richard Bodkin, Kevin Clash, and Danny John-Jules.

As the World Falls Down. Music & Lyrics David Bowie. Performed by David Bowie.

Within You. Music & Lyrics David Bowie. Performed by David Bowie.

Underground (as End Credits). Music & Lyrics David Bowie. Performed by David Bowie.

Online videos

“David Bowie DANCE MAGIC” Labyrinth Music Video”, YouTube 24.10.2013.

“Labyrinth (1986) – As The World Falls Down (David Bowie) FULL HD 1080p”, YouTube 12.10.2014.

“Labyrinth-Within You”, YouTube 9.4.2009.

Web pages

Bowie, David. 2016. About David, the official David Bowie web page.

News articles

Brown, Mick. 2010. “Bowie. A Biography by Marc Spitz: review.” Telegraph.

Altman, Rick. 2002. “The American Film Musical as Dual Focus Narrative.” In Hollywood Musicals, The Film Reader, edited by Steven Cohen, 41–51. New York: Routledge.

Bal, Mieke. 2002. The Travelling Concepts in the Humanities: A Rough Guide. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Barrios, Richard. 1995. A Song in the Dark. The Birth of the Musical Film. New York: Oxford University Press.

Buckley, David. 1999. Strange Fascinations. David Bowie: The Definitive Story. London: Virgin Publishing.

Buckley, David. 2015. David Bowie. The Music and the Changes. London: Omnibus Press.

Chion, Michel. 1994. Audio-Vision. Sound on Screen. Edited and translated by Claudia Gorbman. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Cohan, Steven (ed.). 2010. The Sound of Musicals. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Eco, Umberto. 2014. From the tree to the labyrinth: Historical studies on the sign and interpretation. Translated by Anthony Oldcorn. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Egan, Sean (ed.). 2015. Bowie on Bowie. Interviews and Encounters with David Bowie. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press.

Evans, Mike. 2013. Bowie Treasures. London: Carlton Books Limited.

Frith, Simon. 1996. Performing Rites. On the Value of Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gorbman, Claudia. 1987. Unheard Melodies. Narrative Film Music. Bloomington, IN & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

Hawkins, Stan. 2009. The British Pop Dandy. Masculinity, Popular Music and Culture. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Hewitt, Paolo. 2012. Bowie. Album by Album. London: Carlton books Ltd.

Kaplin, Stephen. 1999. “A Puppet Tree. A Model for the Field of Puppet Theatre.” The Drama Review 43 (3): 28-35. The MIT Press.

Latham, Rob. 2002. Consuming Youth. Vampires, Cyborgs and the Culture of Consumption. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Merrick, Helen. 2008. “Queering Nature: Close Encounters with the Alien in Ecofeminist Science Fiction.” In Queer Universes : Sexualities in Science Fiction, edited by Wendy Gay Pearson, Veronica Hollinger, and Joan Gordon, 216–232. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Mundy, John. 1999. Popular music on screen. From the Hollywood to music video. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Nikolajeva, Maria. 1988. The Magic Code. The Use of Magical Patterns in Fantasy for Children. Göteborg: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Pegg, Nicholas. 2004. The Complete David Bowie. Revised and expanded third edition. Surrey: Reynolds & Hearn Ltd.

Peraino, Judith A. 2006. Listening to the Sirens. Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig. Berkley: University of California Press.

Reed Doob, Penelope. 1990. The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity through the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Richardson, John. 2012. An Eye for Music: Popular Music and the Audiovisual Surreal. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shiloh, Ilana. 2010. Double, the Labyrinth and the Locked Room: Metaphors of Paradox in Crime Fiction and Film. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.

Spitz, Marc. 2009. David Bowie. Translated to Finnish J. Pekka Mäkelä. Original title Bowie, A Biography. Keuruu: Otava.

Stilwell, Robynn J. 2007. “The Fantastical Gap between Diegetic and Nondiegetic.” In Beyond the Soundtrack. Representing Music in Cinema, edited by Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence Kramer, and Richard Leppert, 184–202. Berkley: University of California Press.

[1] This is actually an unintentional (or not?) quotation from Mike Brown’s interview with David Bowie in December 14, 1996 for Telegraph Magazine (UK). See Egan 2015, 309.

[2] For example, in the film Labyrinth, Hoggle is the most complicated puppet creature. Its face is technically elaborate, as there were about 18 motors that controlled all the different proportions of the face. It took four people to operate these motors from the outside by radio control. The fifth person was the actor Shari Wiser, who was inside the costume of Hoggle and could only partly control the puppet. It took from the team several hours to rehearse just to create one expression (Inside the Labyrinth 1986). The complexity of Hoggle could be compared to the Japanese bunraku puppets, which are considered the most difficult to master out of the non-mechanical puppets (Kaplin 1999, 33–34).

[3] For example, Labyrinth’s character Ambrosius is played by a puppet and an old English sheepdog. The interchanges between an inanimate and an organic dog are extremely subtle.

[4] This refers to the artwork of Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (1898-1972). He was interested in impossible objects, explorations of infinity, reflection, symmetry, perspective, and tessellations. The film Labyrinth has adapted his lithograph Relativity (1953), which is a study of gravity and perspective.

[5] The number in the name of the motif indicates the number of variation.

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philosophy Archives - IUVMPRESS

In a supplication on visiting Imam Hussain (a.s.) (a ziarat of Imam Hussain) which is recited on the day of Arbaeen, there is a very meaningful sentence which reads: “the one who did his utmost to invite the people to the right path to the point that he lost his life and his loved ones for awakening the people and saving them from negligence and ignorance. The philosophy of Imam Hussain’s self-sacrifice is introduced in this sentence. The pilgrims of Imam Hussain’s shrine says to God the Exalted that, this slave of yours- your Hussain (a.s.)– gave his blood to save the people from ignorance; to save the people from the bewilderment and chaos that deviance entails. Look how rich this sentence is [in meaning] and what a deep and advanced implication it has.
The problem is that mankind has always been affected by the malignancy of devils. Major and minor devils always sacrifice humans, nations and masses of people for the sake of their own goals. You have read this in history through stories of tyrannical and oppressive rulers, and how they treated nations; you see the situation of today’s world and the methods used by the major powers of the world. Humanity can be affected by deception and trickery of the devils. Humanity needs help to save themselves from ignorance and deviance and get rid of bewilderment and perplexity.
Who can stretch this saving hand to mankind? Those who are attached to worldly desires and lusts are not fit for that. Because they are themselves mislaid. Those who are captive of their ego and self-centeredness cannot save humanity; they themselves need to be saved by someone. Or, if blessed by God’s grace, they will find the will-power to save themselves. The person who can save humanity is someone who can sacrifice his desires, who can get rid of selfishness, avarice, jealousy, meanness and other decoys that often affect humans so that they can lighten a candle that would brighten the pathway ahead of humanity.
Islam grants adherent nations the ability to lead humanity. Our nation could, thanks to Islam, raise a flag which the oppressed nations of the world regard as a rescuing flag. When you go beyond the propaganda disseminated by the Zionists and the Front of Arrogance—which always present a reversed version of the truth—you will see that the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolution, the image of Imam Khomeini and our nation have been a cause for hope among other nations and have granted them motivation and audacity. This is a blessing of Islam.

 Imam Khamenei, September 12, 1990

Yousafzai wrote: “Stop the violence. Today we have seen pictures of small children killed by Myanmar’s security forces. These children attacked no one, but still their homes were burned to the ground.

On Saturday, Johnson sent a message to Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel peace prize for her pro-democracy activism, to use “all her remarkable qualities” to end the violence.

He said: “Aung San Suu Kyi is rightly regarded as one of the most inspiring figures of our age but the treatment of the Rohingya is alas besmirching the reputation of Burma.

According to the UN’s refugee agency an estimated 73,000 people have crossed the border into Bangladesh since violence flared on August 25, leaving relief camps near full capacity.

Yousafzai, who narrowly avoided death in 2012 after being shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban for her outspoken campaigning over girls’ rights to an education, called for more countries to offer the Rohingya food, shelter and schooling.

Awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2014, the youngest ever recipient, she recently celebrated a place at the University of Oxford to philosophy, politics and economics.


Morphological Brain Changes after Climbing to Extreme Altitudes—A Prospective Cohort StudyReportar como inadecuado

Morphological Brain Changes after Climbing to Extreme Altitudes—A Prospective Cohort Study - Descarga este documento en PDF. Documentación en PDF para descargar gratis. Disponible también para leer online.

Findings of cerebral cortical atrophy, white matter lesions and microhemorrhages have been reported in high-altitude climbers. The aim of this study was to evaluate structural cerebral changes in a large cohort of climbers after an ascent to extreme altitudes and to correlate these findings with the severity of hypoxia and neurological signs during the climb.

Magnetic resonance imaging MRI studies were performed in 38 mountaineers before and after participating in a high altitude 7126m climbing expedition. The imaging studies were assessed for occurrence of new WM hyperintensities and microhemorrhages. Changes of partial volume estimates of cerebrospinal fluid, grey matter, and white matter were evaluated by voxel-based morphometry. Arterial oxygen saturation and acute mountain sickness scores were recorded daily during the climb.

On post-expedition imaging no new white matter hyperintensities were observed. Compared to baseline testing, we observed a significant cerebrospinal fluid fraction increase 0.34% 95% CI 0.10–0.58, p = 0.006 and a white matter fraction reduction -0.18% 95% CI -0.32–-0.04, p = 0.012, whereas the grey matter fraction remained stable 0.16% 95% CI -0.46–0.13, p = 0.278. Post-expedition imaging revealed new microhemorrhages in 3 of 15 climbers reaching an altitude of over 7000m. Affected climbers had significantly lower oxygen saturation values but not higher acute mountain sickness scores than climbers without microhemorrhages.

A single sojourn to extreme altitudes is not associated with development of focal white matter hyperintensities and grey matter atrophy but leads to a decrease in brain white matter fraction. Microhemorrhages indicative of substantial blood-brain barrier disruption occur in a significant number of climbers attaining extreme altitudes.

Autor: Raimund Kottke , Jacqueline Pichler Hefti , Christian Rummel, Martinus Hauf, Urs Hefti, Tobias Michael Merz

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Jeremy Bentham founded Utilitarianism.

With the help his long-time companion , Mill became a powerful champion of lofty moral and social ideals.
's (1861)is an extended explanation of utilitarian moral theory.

It doesn’t show what is unacceptable in utilitarianism.

Utilitarianism is the greatest goodness for the greatest number of people.

Utilitarianism is focused on quantity rather than quality.

Jeremy B. and John S. Mill argue that this is the theory for morality and economics. However, there are different types of utilitarianism but am going to focus on Mill’s argument on utility.

I will first explain the arguments of the utilitarianism ideal.

Utilitarianism has been describes in different ways. Most of them have been accepted and are used to explain it. According to mills, “Utilitarianism comes from the word utility, or the existence of pleasure, that is- the absence of pain, as both the basis of everything that people desire, and as the foundation of morality.” He further argued that utilitarianism does not simply allow happiness to come to people by any moral standards! Utilitarianism for a layman is the greatest good for the greatest number.

Utilitarianism mainly focuses on the possible consequences of a decision....

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Similarly, the second patient-actor- whose recovery from the cancer disease is adversely affected by his admission to the hospital, should be given the same drug. In this situation, administering the experimental drug to the patient alleviates him from his disease and therefore save him from the harm he would face if not treated. Although, prescribing the experimental drug to the patient infringes the rules and regulation of the hospital, it is the best and moral choice for such a scenario, as Sheng and Sheng (2004) said that there are things that somebody must do “no matter what” (194).

When facing a decision to make, utilitarianism provide us the evaluations of actions taken based upon their consequences (Sweet, 2013)....

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An analysis of the theories of baratz bachrach and lukes on the implicit power of politics

2) lukes’ 3 faces of power posted by sam cook ⋅ october 13, 2011 ⋅ 2 comments stephen lukes said sociologists should study power as having 3 “faces”. Lukes’ two dimensional theory of power is an elitist view theorized by bachrach and baratz, as a critique to the one dimensional pluralist view (lukes, 1974: 16) this two dimensional view acknowledges the observable power of dahl’s theory but asserts that power is exercised when issues are arranged specifically so that some are not . Request pdf on researchgate | divided by a common language: political theory and the concept of power | power is probably the most universal and fundamental concept of political analysis it has .

“social theory of international politics” and the constructivist challenge’, peter bacharach and morton s baratz, power and the concept of power: a constructivist analysis . The other, and sounder, theory of baratz, bachrach, and lukes, maintains that actual power lies within the manipulation of issues from behind the scenes in answering the question of power, the arguments of baratz, bachrach, and lukes, go beyond the those of hunter and dahl, and show that the most effective uses of power are those which are the . Power and conflict major problems in a conceptual analysis of power cannot be said that the guard exerted power (bachrach and baratz, 1970: 20) . Conceptions of power in organisational analysis and in the wider social theory which informs, and is informed by it discussion focuses on how a foucauldian approach to power and power relations.

The political analysis and political economy of events introduction tourist events are both explicit and implicit political occasions bachrach, p and baratz, m . What is stephen lukes's classic definition of power a exercises power over b when a affects b in a manner contrary to b's interests according to bachrach and baratz, 'non-decision making' is. Lukes’ analysis of what he called the three ‘dimensions of power’ has spawned a series of debates and studies about how power affects not only who participates in decision making processes, but also who does not, and why. The expressions ‘power over’, ‘power to’ and ‘power with’ have recently drawn the attention of scholars interested in the analysis and evolution of power relations in both national and international politics.

3 peter bachrach and morton s baratz, power and poverry: theory bachrach and baratz, lukes 'the economic approach to the analysis of power and conflict', . The idea of power as only two-dimensional would include the pluralists concept of power and the neo-elitists bachrach and baratz’s second face of power but would exclude lukes conception of the third face and any possible fourth face. Testing theories of american politics: elites, interest groups, and average citizens - volume 12 issue 3 - martin gilens, benjamin i page multivariate analysis .

The second face, as proposed by theorists such as bachrach and baratz, adds the more subtle system of power, where decision is made within a complex system in this situation, power is not just about making decisions, but also about setting the agenda that leads to decisions. Writing a short book in 1974, steven lukes outlined a 'conceptual analysis of power, benefiting from the debate between pluralist and their critiques. Power in world politics ‘the use and misuse of power analysis in international theory’, in r palan (ed) bachrach, p and m s baratz power and poverty: . Lukes’ “three faces of power” is a holistic theory that tries to encompass the several ways in which such ends can be achieved the central concept of this paper lukes 2006) he differs from the view commonly held by pluralists and behaviorists who focus on the visible exercise of power.

  • Steven lukes' monograph power: a radical view (lukes 1974) offers a critical analysis of pluralist and nondecision theories of power, leading on to a suggested `three-dimensional view' of power.
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Power and politics study questions – 1 bachrach and baratz’s view of power 11 list the shortcomings foucault might have made of dahl, bachrach & baratz, and . Development of the literature on this subject by placing power and politics at from bachrach and baratz (1962), through to analysis of power developed by . Of power that are necessary for critical social analysis but insufficient as a normative bachrach and baratz, and lukes, a theory of power has, as a first .

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