Carat Media Internship: Journal Entry #5

A couple of weeks ago I carried out some very interesting tasks on MediaMath and Double Click (the ad platforms.) I pulled the reports on the clients myself this time, the interfaces of both platforms being so easy to use and are quite intuitive, I found. All you have to do on MediaMath for example, is basically select your client and then the report type that you want to build (in my case, a keyword report, and then later a site transparency one,) and from here, you'll be prompted to select from a range of criteria to measure (such as CPC, CTR, CPA, CPM, Clicks/Impressions etc.) or alternatively, you can choose all the data available and export it as a simple (but often data-intense!) spreadsheet. When you've got the spreadsheet, you can then go and do what needs to be done with the data contained within.

As for Double Click, once you arrive at the main page, you simply select the "New Report" option and fill in the details i.e. client, report type etc. From here, Google will build a report featuring the data that you wanted to see and then you'll do the same as above. As you can probably see below, there's a very similar layout to both sites and both are very easy to use once you've gotten to grips with them, no different than the Facebook Ad Manager platform I used a couple of weeks ago and again this week.

I learnt a great deal from the analytics conducted, namely the difference between post-view conversions and post-click conversions; as the names imply, the former occurs only when a consumer sees an ad but does not click on it, but nevertheless, they then proceed to visit the page organically, thereby saving the company money and giving them a conversion at the same time; though that would also mean that content creators with the ad placed on their site would see a reduction in the amount they receive because, despite being part of the purchase path taken, they were not the sole way in which the customer was advertised to by Google etc. and the consumer did not click the ad; as a result, they would not receive the full amount for such an action. The latter conversion type is the bog-standard click the ad, pay for it, and then managed to get a conversion out of it as well, but at a cost to the client.

Without dwelling too much on the same tasks and becoming tiresome for you, I also completed another Facebook Ad Spreadsheet, but this time I decided to do something else that I wasn't asked for (largely out of wanting to spend the last twenty minutes or so productively.) When looking at the clicks for out client (their campaign had just come to an end on that particular day,) I separated the clicks into "social clicks" (a metric found within the data) and the normal clicks by using a calculator to take away the social clicks from the overall click total, thereby disclosing what amount of the clicks came from non-social platforms. I then placed this data into a simple pie chart, depicting the data as a percentage. Here are the results!

As you can see, most of our clicks came from outside of social platforms, so maybe out client's customers don't like being pestered when talking to friends! Not that you can really draw a conclusion from this data alone, but it does provide an interesting dynamic to look at don't you think?

Aside from the tasks, the work and the clients, I've also enjoyed the chit-chat over the last month that I've been here. It certainly livens up the atmosphere of the office that would probably be dull and lifeless without it. Finding things in common with people, talking about out lives, experiences, hobbies and anything else we can muster really places a nice slant on the experience of working, and just makes the hours go flying by without a clock fast enough to measure them! And until we meet again next week, I bid you a good day and hope that you can tune in again for the next chapter of my story, a romance about a marketing agency, because one can indeed love maths and analysis, (and this comes from someone who loathed the subject at school.) But in all seriousness, see you soon and have a good day . . .

Week 4

Week 6

Iain Duncan Smith: A Critique

Yes, I'm delving into another unconventional article that goes off the metaphorical track, on which the train of this blog rolls. Iain Duncan Smith is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom; a member of the current government, the Cameron Ministry (a coalition between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives,) as well as Conservative Party leader between 2001-2003 before he was defeated in a vote of no-confidence (BBC, 2003: Online,) thereby becoming the second Conservative leader to not contest an election since Austen Chamberlain in 1921-22 (Brown, 2001: Online;) the first being William Hague in 2001, although at least he contested an election while Duncan Smith on the other hand, failed to survive as leader of the party long enough to do that.

Iain Duncan Smith; Secretary of State for Work & Pensions

That is Smith's background as far as major positions are concerned. Most recently he has drawn considerable controversy since taking office, particularly regarding his attitudes to social security and its claimants (both working and non-working,) as well as controversies surrounding the DWP's iniquitous use of statistics (BBC, 2013: Online.) He has consistently claimed that his plans are working -using figures and evidence- even though when such evidence painted a picture to the contrary (according to the UK Statistics Authority, 2013,) he defended his claims by saying "I know I am right" (Wintour, 2013: Online.)

Nothing exemplifies this kind of manoeuvring more than my own discovery a few months ago: Writing in The Guardian about his controversial Work Programme (a system wherein benefits claimants receive benefits from the government in exchange for working for companies such as Poundland- a particularly controversial case (see Morse, 2013,) IDS claimed in his humbly-titled article, 'I'm proud of our welfare reforms' which ran with the strap line: "I don't apologise for trying to make the welfare state fair- it's something only this government can do," that "Our Work Programme has launched and the industry tells us that so far 321,000 people have found jobs through it." The italics in that sentence represent a hyperlink to another Guardian article, the headline of which read: 'Welfare to work scheme failing to get people work, say figures' (my emphasis.) The strap line read: "Just 5.3% of people on incapacity benefit were helped into employment for at least six months by Work Programme." The article, from Butler (2013a) further stated that "Ministers were upbeat about the data, claiming that more than 130,000 jobseekers had "escaped long-term unemployment and found lasting work" as a result of the work programme." (My emphasis.) 

Far from being a good idea to want people to work for a private company for their state benefits, therefore degrading the value of the work carried out by current employees when those companies, like Poundland, have ample profitability to pay for such workers, which ultimately exacerbates our economic whims via more benefit claimants and low-paid workers, the fact that he linked to evidence running contrary to his opinion startles me beyond belief. How can a Cabinet Minister of Her Majesty's Government create such a transparent lie! 

Other exploits include Smith's 2012 Welfare Reform Act, specifically Section 69 Sub-section 344 Paragraph 2, which stipulates a means-tested approach to social housing (designated by local authorities) vis-a-vis bedroom size determinants, whereby 'extra' bedrooms not used by children or pensioners will suffer an "under occupancy penalty/subsidy," a decision commonly referred to as the "Bedroom Tax." This resonates memories with the so-called Poll Tax introduced at the end of, and which in part caused the downfall of, the Thatcher ministry in 1990; the Community Charge was amended to take account of individual bands and rates of social homes as opposed to being a simple flat tax that left some worse off than others. It was replaced by the Council Tax in 1993 by the Major ministry (BBC, 2005: Online.) The 'bedroom tax' has been criticised as being unfair by UN specialist Raquel Rolnik a couple of months ago (Johnston, 2013: Online) and has also been seen as a waste of money and government resources, as criticised by celebrity businessman Theo Paphitis on the BBC panel show Question Time in 2012. 

The main problem of course is that there isn't enough housing to move people into, with the DWP itself not knowing how many will need to be moved or where they will go; even if all pieces of such a jigsaw were fitted together optimally, the predicted £480 million saving (Butler, 2013b: Online- the figure is likely to be some £160 million less than predicted, according to a York academic) would be wasted on administrative costs associated with its implementation. Not only that but people will just not pay it. My source linking to the Poll Tax demonstrates this problem, with roughly 20% of people not paying the tax and simply not registering on the housing list or living in a 'single' room with a partner etc. This ill-thought out policy will, and has already in part, failed. Even a majority of the British public don't want it according to a ComRes poll (2013.)

A recent criticism of IDS has been his failed IT infrastructure surrounding the implementation of his Universal Credit scheme, a method of rolling all benefits into one package (Kirkup, 2013: Online.) The system has cost the taxpayers £425 million so far but with failures so consistent and manifold, £140 million of that, including numerous computer systems, faces being written off (Johnstone, 2013: Online.) This is yet another failure of IDS and is testament to his deficiencies as a Secretary of State; he is unfit for office in my opinion.  

I could go on with how much I personally detest IDS as a person, but I feel that this video taken from Question Time filmed in November of 2012 says more than I need to. If you need more evidence of how much of an unlikable person he is, search for his other defences of his workfare (the Work Programme) scheme and you'll see what I mean. It's much worse to hear it in person than to read his IQ-reducing, transparent, completely bullshit articles, that have about as much integrity as a desert has water.

I hope you have found this critique enjoyable and informative. As a final criticism of Iain Duncan Smith, HERE, is where he said he could live on £53 a week. And HERE is the petition that urges him to prove it, by living in such circumstances for a whole year. 

He has yet to rise to the challenge . . . 

Thanks for reading this post and seeing as you're here, give this a watch:

The Bedroom Tax Song!

More Recent Critique of UKIP

REFERENCES:

- BBC (2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3223853.stm [Online] [accessed November 5th 2013]

- BBC (2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/14/newsid_2495000/2495911.stm [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- BBC (2013) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22462265 [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Brown, D (2001) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/08/election2001.comment7 'Austen Chamberlain, history's first Hague' The Guardian June 8th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Butler, P (2013a) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jun/27/welfare-work-failing-figures?guni=Article:in%20body%20link 'Wellfare to work failing to get people work, figures say' The Guardian June 27th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Butler, P (2013b) http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/14/bedroom-tax-ministers-likely-savings 'Bedroom tax: savings likely to be '£160 million less than official projections' The Guardian October 14th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- ComRes. (2013) The People Bedroom Tax Poll February 13th-14th [Available from: http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/852/the-people-bedroom-tax-poll.htm] [accessed November 9th 2013]
  
- Duncan Smith, I (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/28/proud-welfare-reforms-fair-benefits 'I'm proud of our welfare reforms' The Guardian July 28th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Morse, F (2013) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/02/20/iain-duncan-smiths-explodes-on-lbc-over-workfare_n_2725765.html 'Iain Duncan Smith's anger over Poundland, Workfare & Cait Reilly boils over on LBC' Huffington Post UK February 20th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Johnston, I (2013) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/un-investigator-raquel-rolnik-calls-for-governments-bedroom-tax-to-be-axed-8807678.html 'UN investigator Raquel Rolnik calls for government's 'bedroom tax' to be axed' The Independent September 11th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Johnstone, R (2013) http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2013/11/botched-universal-credit-project-could-cost-millions/ 'Botched Universal Credit project 'could cost millions'' Public Finance November 7th [Online] [accessed November 9th 2013]

- Kirkup, J (2013) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10431631/Chaotic-welfare-reforms-should-be-postponed.html 'Chaotic welfare reforms 'should be postponed'' The Telegraph November 7th [Online] [accessed November 9th 2013]

- UK Statistics Authority. (2013) 'Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Andrew Dilnott CBE' Letter to Iain Duncan Smith May 9th [Online] "Department for work and pensions statistics" [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Welfare Reform Act 2012 (c. 5) London: HMSO [Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/5/notes/division/5/3/6] [accessed November 8th 2013]

- Wintour, P (2013) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jul/15/iain-duncan-smith-statistics-benefits-cap 'Iain Duncan Smith defends use of statistics over benefits cap' The Guardian July 15th [Online] [accessed November 8th 2013]

Fleshgod Apocalypse -AGONY (Album Review)

I know, it's strange and a massive departure from what this blog usually focuses on, but I just had to put my thoughts on this down somewhere.

Fleshgod Apocalypse, the Italian technical death metal outfit (and please don't let the label put you off!) released the concept album Agony back in 2011. In August this year they released a second conceptual work entitled Labyrinth, which I have not yet heard in full and so cannot comment on.

So who are Fleshgod? They came to prominence quite recently, releasing their debut album Oracles in 2009 and later an EP entitled Mafia in 2010. They have been seen within the international metal community as a force to be reckoned with as a result, blending together the brutality of death metal with the ambience of classical music, with all five members of the band being classically trained in their instruments, as is apparently common in Italy according to the band. And nothing exemplifies such training as listening to this album. It's warm, it's symphonic, it's operatic yet it's also cold, destructive, explosive and even eerie to the point of chilling. This album, is all of this and more throughout its 10 tracks.

According to the band, the concept of Agony surrounds the idea of the destructiveness of the human condition, which always ends, inevitably, in agony for the perpetrators. The track listing is the first indication of what they were trying to encapsulate (and boy did they succeed!) with an obvious pattern:

1- Temptation [Instrumental]
2- The Hypocrisy
3- The Imposition
4- The Deceit
5- The Violation
6- The Egoism
7- The Betrayal
8- The Forsaking
9- The Oppression
10- Agony [Instrumental]

Bonus Track- Heartwork (a Carcass cover; it's kind of separated from the main body with some 10-15 seconds of silence.)

The Masterpiece that is Agony!

It's also worth noting that if you buy a physical copy (which I would highly recommend) the songbook, (which unfortunately doesn't have lyrics, but definitions of each word after which each song is named) has a quote from The Divine Comedy by Dante (Inferno Canto XXVI Verse 118-120.) The quote is written in Latin, but if you have copy of Dante's classic in English, then obviously look it up. This is a very nice touch I feel because it's almost like each track represents a circle of Hell e.g. Betrayal for the traitors like Mordred (from Arthurian legend) in the poem, (Inferno Canto XXXI: "him who, at one blow, had chest and shadow / shattered by Arthur's hand.")

But moving on from the overall concept, what is the music like? Well as you'd imagine, it's often frantic, fast-paced and the vocals are usually roared/grunted in low, animalistic pitches by frontman Tommaso Riccardi. But there are also high-pitched, operatic vocals emulating from bassist Paolo Rossi, which often weave rhythmically between the traditional tech death vocal style (you can see examples of this on the track, The Forsaking, a slower song.) However, there are also times where these vocals offer a whole chorus between the death-like verses a la The Violation or The Oppression. These are not standalone tracks or even the greatest on the album, because the whole work doesn't stand or fall on its singles. Why is this? To explain I'll now move onto the symphonic elements.

Symphonically, the album has a variety of ebbs and flows in its instruments, points where violins are more prominent or points where flutes and other instruments dance around the light-speed drumming. This is what makes the album doubly effective. As some tracks end with fairly slow outros, the next track will often pick up from that with a metallic sound, changing the orchestral arrangement to begin a new track that not only advances the work seamlessly but also sounds different enough to be recognisable. To put it simply, there are occasions on the album where an outro of one track acts as the intro of the next simultaneously, an effect epitomised by The Violation. The music video for this track below begins with the uncanny classical intro, before lurching into the thunderstorm of death metal delight! This is because that 'intro' for the video of The Violation is actually the end of The Deceit, but because it flows so brilliantly, they were able to take those two pieces of essentially different songs and merge them into one for a video. The same effect is also used oddly enough for the music video for the second single released, The Forsaking, with the intro, again, being in fact the outro of The Betrayal.

 The Violation: A thrill-ride of insane drumming, shredding guitars, haunting woodwind sections and brutal vocals.

The Forsaking: The slow song with eerie vocals, 

ambient echoes, and a beautiful piano overlay.

In terms of how this effect changes the album, it causes the whole work to flow so well that the whole thing on some occasions feels like a single track, a whole symphony, which is what they were going for to some extent. Some may find this to be too repetitive, but personally I don't really think it is because even though discerning the lyrics is quite laborious (here's a good site for the lyrics by the way,) you can tell that there's certainly a story being told, a journey being embarked upon, which is what gives this whole album a fantastic appeal to those who aren't even into popular varieties of metal (even my parents enjoyed it!) To put it short, the journey from a small Temptation through to blistering Agony is one that you will want to take again, and again, and again!

To finalise this review, I'm going to identify some standout points for each musician, the parts where they really show their talent!

Tommaso Riccardi: Although he has a brilliant voice throughout the entire duration of this album, the vocals are especially appealing due to the difference between this track and the others, which is why I'm identifying The Forsaking as the standout track for him, the echoes and reverberation are just so chilling when adjacent to the piano on this track, it's uncanny.

Paolo Rossi: Unfortunately, the bass work is often drowned out of the mix by the strings (a common criticism of the album in fact,) though there are some good moments across numerous tracks. But his operatic vocals are where he really shines! The Oppression, where he tackles the chorus is where he raises his voice so high yet unbelievably remains on key throughout, testament to his classical training no doubt.

Christiano Trionfera: The guitar work has very good standout parts in the track The Betrayal, where it penetrates the wall of drumming and symphonic parts with seamless shifts in pitch that match the surrounding sound in such a way that it just fits perfectly with the mix and makes a marked difference to that track compared to the rest of the album.

Francesco Paoli: The drumming is what really got me into the album, being a drummer myself! The fast-pace on The Violation in particular is what really got me sold on the whole thing, the sheer power and force just makes you want to quiver with adrenaline and break everything in sight, an effect that is maintained through the entire album, with a possible exception seen on The Forsaking.

Francesco Ferrini: The conductor of the orchestra and pianist; whilst his work with the whole symphonic arrangements is quite possibly the most innovative contribution to the work, his piano skills are fantastically exemplified on the outro track Agony. This classical track is so haunting and so skilful that upon listening to it I could tell that the journey had ended; I could just imagine it being played over a video of someone being tortured and therefore in agony, the epitome of the concept and a clearly marked difference to the intro, Temptation, which begins with a crescendo of drum rolls and strings, building tension throughout. The track Agony only has a piano on it, and makes full use of it's player!

I hope that you enjoyed this rather long review, and if you like it (the album or the review) please, get in touch!

Carat Media Internship: Journal Entry #4

* Written last week, but also needed managerial approval.

So here we are again; in the world of AMNET at Carat! One of the first things I did today was attend a short lecture from the Head of Social on the industry developments surrounding SMM and its implications within Carat. It was very enlightening, featuring several infographics and colourful images demonstrating the power of the tool in such a concise and imaginative way; (unfortunately I haven't been able to get a copy of the Powerpoint to show on here yet, but hopefully I'll come across it next week and update this post!)

The presentation was very interesting, specifically the idea of interaction on the part of consumers when it comes to social, the interaction with brand pages being conceptualised as the "Zero-th Moment of Truth," the stage preceding the point at which you see a product on the shelf (1st moment) and then buy  it (2nd moment.) This contributed massively -I thought- to the idea of social commerce (where we 'sell' goods to each other) because most social interactions tend to come from a viral or 'eWOM' effect, (I may discuss this more in a future post.)

After the presentation, the real work commenced: First of all I was shown through the various metrics surrounding new platforms such as MediaMath & DFA (Doubleclick for Advertisers.) These programmes are essentially cross-reference programmes for advertisers and publishers showing the performance of ads placed on various channels. This makes it particularly important for display advertising, the transaction process for which I've reconstructed below for your benefit. Check out the advertising I'm giving Carat right now!

Display Marketing: A Simple Transaction Process

It was quite daunting listening to someone explain how it all worked, a great deal of it going over my head initially to be honest. I was shown the process -using Excel- of creating a VLOOKUP, a tool with which you can link together two different spreadsheets, which I have yet to actually use in practice so hopefully we'll see how much I can remember next week!

What I did today primarily consisted of working with Excel reports sent over from DFA and MediaMath, analysing some keywords and campaigns along with CPC/CTRs as well as CPAs (Cost per Acquisition.) The workbooks tended to consist of greater numbers of spreadsheets, which can easily snow you under with too much to do of course if you're not very organised. Fortunately, after a bumpy start, I got the hang of organising the data through KPIs such as Clicks and Conversions, highlighting data as I went and sending off the workbooks to my colleagues.


In all, today I've worked with interesting people and have enjoyed working with the programmes I've been getting used to over this last month or so. It's really proved useful so far, so much so in fact that one of my assignments for university will be needing some Excel skills like Pivot tables, something that I was completely clueless about until I came to Carat! And it is with great anticipation that I will see you next week, when I will probably be going through the results of the campaigns I've been analysing!   

Week 3
Week 5

Carat Media Internship: Journal Entry #3

* Please note that this was written a couple of weeks ago because it needed managerial approval before i could be posted. Thanks!

Last week proved rather eventful at work. I completed some more tasks for our clients through Facebook, made recommendations and wrote a lot of it down. But this week I moved onto something else! The new task still revolved around using Excel but instead of Facebook, I used Google's Display Network (GDN) to find the info.

Unfortunately I haven't yet used the actual platform but instead manipulated the data to discern some useful information. I used the Filter option within the spreadsheet to select certain data that fell within a certain range e.g. CPCs at £0.25+ only. This was usually in conjunction with another function such as selecting the column for CTRs and setting the filter to have the values in descending order from the highest. When used together, those two functions should leave the top of the table filled with the data ranges containing the highest CTRs only with 25p CPC or more. Combining several filters is how you can really drill right down into the most significant factors and when you discover bad/good data, you can highlight it appropriately.

However, once discovering the data needed, I wrote explanations for why the data was how it was, analysing the source of the traffic and -when looking into the Google Keywords spreadsheet- evaluating the most effective websites in addition to discussing not only the keyword used, but also the Ad Group into which it fell i.e. a keyword of "things to do 2013" would fall into the Ad Group of "things to do," with possibly several options added for as many keywords as were deemed necessary when the campaign was initially set up.

As the weeks go by I find myself going through the Excel sheets with greater speed as the processes become memorised and I jump from place to place, setting the controls appropriately as I go. Not only that, but I find that my analytical skills are improving and as I become more confident with Excel, I try to do things to the sheet that aren't on the list e.g. re-setting the filters in yesterday's case to try and prove a hypothesis about the data that I had, organising the filter through the keyword and Ad Group to see the frequency of failure in a specific campaign that I had doubts of.

 My Professional Development Assignment for the university; I need to prove that I've developed some sound skills and competencies, as well as a mature approach to work behaviour and a good attitude to the job/field.













Sorry if this post is a little short/sparse on info, I didn't want to fall into the trap of repeating myself week in week out and boring you to death! Not only that but yesterday I had to take a slightly longer lunch break because of a university meeting that unfortunately clashed with the work hours. But I did stay a little longer than usual though so I suppose I made up for it!

Week 2
Week 4

A Clockwork Orange (Book Review)

Well here I am, writing the book review for Anthony Burgess' classic novella A Clockwork Orange (1962,) a book that was banned alongside its film adaption directed by Stanley Kubrick (1972) for its extreme violence and depiction of sexual crimes. The film was only one of four films to ever be banned in the history of British cinema, requested by Kubrick himself upon receiving death threats over it; the film adaption was reinstated upon his death in 1999, as was agreed. The story is supposed to be an argument against the ethics of taking away the choice of being good or evil so that good will flourish, thereby transforming someone into a 'piece of clockwork', incapable of something intrinsically human and therefore ceasing to be human.

The trivia on the film is not entirely relevant however, though I should possibly point out that before reading this book, I had seen the film a couple of years ago and so could draw upon some visuals or pinpoint from memory, the whereabouts of a scene in the film, in the book. Watching the film is not necessary, though I would highly recommend that you watch it for its brilliant acting and soundtrack. The book is just as good but for very different reasons.

One of the main reasons why many people -at the time and even today- found problems with this book is the fact that it uses very idiosyncratic language (adapted from Russian dialect called 'Natsat') in its first-person narration. Words like 'tolchock' (punch or beat,) 'gulliver' (head) and 'horrorshow' (good) are used to abandon. This can easily put the tired reader off but fret not, for you will get used to the neologisms. Personally, I picked up the context of the words fairly quickly and as a result blasted through it, which is why I finished it these last three days. This is the first reason why it may not be for everybody, the second of course is the violent/sexual content, which, for some odd reason, I found amusing if anything. There are scenes in the book where people are beaten to pulps, humiliated and killed, but it isn't just a book that's violent for the sake of it. So why should you read it, even if all that was off-putting for you?

Well this leads me to my review of the protagonist, Alex; a fifteen-year old lad who spends his time roaming the streets of an unnamed British city, terrorising all who cross the path of either himself or his friends, (named 'droogs' in the book.) Alex is more than that though, he is our narrator, writing his life-story almost in a cross between broken rhyming slang/Natsat/Middle English as he describes in vivid detail, the dystopian world in this future England; his exploits, the violence, the destruction and even his love of classical music, namely Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, all described in wonderfully-constructed detail, weaving between fast-paced dialogue that keeps you turning the page at lightning speed.

Now I don't want to give away any actual scenes, since pretty much all of them advance the plot in some way, the work being so short at barely over 150 pages. What I will say on narrative devices however is how brilliantly Burgess manages to reintroduce certain aspects of the book explored near the start, and use them as means of making something go full-circle and as a result, advances the character development of Alex page-by-page and scene-by-scene, making us actually like him by the end!

But what are the cons of this book: The book is mainly for those who are comfortable reading something that isn't entirely orthodox as far as language is concerned. To get around this however, you can always consult the glossary at the back or -my main tip- would be to just try and think of a substitute for the neologism and you should find yourself at a regular, Standard English sentence, and thus, you may even learn a new language by doing so! After all, who wouldn't want to tolchock someone in the gulliver real horrorshow?

Maybe not everybody, since this is the second non-criticism of the book; those who don't like a great deal of violence or weirdness might not like the story. I personally found it all quite tame, though I recognise that some people have different limits, so don't come back at me thinking I'm soft or some kind of pussy either! In the end we all have different views of what we like or don't in terms of the media we consume, and A Clockwork Orange is most definitely a book that I loved for its fast pace, interesting characters and innovative language use in its highly-intimate first-person narration, which kept me turning the page again and again.

My Edition: The Good4Books Store is Linked

Brave New World (Book Review) & Comparison to 1984

As a preface to this particular review, here is my review of Nineteen Eighty-Four: http://jbwalkerwriting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/nineteen-eighty-four-book-review.html

Last night I finished the dystopian classic, Brave New World, written by English author Aldous Huxley in 1932. Because I've been quite busy recently it took a little longer than I originally anticipated to finish; but after two weeks of reading a chapter here and there I finally finished it. And I'm very glad that I did!

First of all I wish to recommend the edition of the book which I purchased, the Independent's Banned Books series, which can be bought from Play.com in the store: "Good4Books" This particular edition is in hardcover format and comes with a high-quality dust jacket; number 4 in the series of 25 novels and novellas that were highly-controverisal, (I have just bought Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" from the same store in fact!)

But enough of the aesthetics, let's move onto the meat of the story! First of all I should note some similarities between both this novel and the novel published 17 years later in 1949 by George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four. Aside from tackling the same genre, they also have similar characteristics in terms of their execution of what a dystopian society would look like. The trademark conditioning of oppression as normality is embedded within the world's of both stories, yet the two authors tackle the subject very differently. The main way in which this is implemented is in the methods in which oppression is applied to society, and the breadth of scale (don't worry I'll not spoil any plot details!) Namely, Huxley focuses on the scientific perspective of how humans would be 'manufactured' and innately stunted to a certain caste of society via biological engineering on a world-wide scale, whereas Orwell on the other hand, decides to confine us to a single country that is entirely regressive in its technology and focuses on the socio-political issues of censorship, taking info and rewriting it a la doublethink.

Linguistically, the novel is not as innovative as Orwell's seminal work, lacking in concepts such as "Newspeak" and "Doublethink," but does some interesting things with common language, taking expressions with "God" in them and replacing them with "Ford," because (Henry) Ford has been elevated into a god-like status in this Shakespearean "Brave New World" e.g. "cleanliness is next to Fordliness." This idea was borne of Huxley's view that science and technology was ultimately a dehumanising process, taking us down a materialist and consumerist path to being subdued by our own consumption. Looking at the world today he, like Orwell, may have been right!

I will not go into detail about the protagonists, but what do I think of the antagonist? Personally, I thought that all the characters were quite strong though I don't see the novel as character-driven, more world-driven (as it should be in this particular genre, perhaps?) And it is because of this, that one of my favourite scenes in the novel occurs towards the end where, like in 1984, the antagonist attempts to persuade the protagonists that the world is better the way it is under his control in that way. On this particular ground, I think that Huxley was more successful in making the character more likeable/empathetic than Orwell. I won't spoil why though!

So overall, what do I think? Huxley's writing style is simple enough, easy to understand and even the scientific concepts are easy to grasp. If you want me to judge this novel against Nineteen Eighty-Four however, then I'm afraid I must disappoint. It's hard to compare the two because of the ways in which they implement a similar idea; it's just a matter of which story you prefer personally due to individual tastes. There really isn't anything about one or the other that could be deemed as 'superior' in any way. In closing this review however, I would definitely recommend the book to absolutely anyone. It's easy to get into, it's a good, page-turning read and a much more fun world to inhabit -it seemed to me- than the darkness that pervades Nineteen Eighty-Four, as much as I like both novels' settings for different reasons. So if you read Orwell's work and didn't like the world in which it was set, then I would also recommend this on those grounds because despite the fact that Brave New World is dystopian, the methodology of its application is much brighter and high-key, making things seem at least a little less bleak!

The Banned Books Edition