Year Report of The English Society 1999

YEAR REPORT OF THE ENGLISH SOCIETY 1999
COMMITTEE:
Fiona Wade Marcelle Olivier Robert Schumann Pieter Kriel Lara Dafert Frances Lubbe Roy Havemann Johan Hugo Jackie Rapson Raphaella Scholz Johan van der Merwe Melanie Daly
Chair and Table Vice-thing and Tree-lover Secretary and Quantum Advisor Treasurer and Token Rock Token Blonde Provisional Support Sad BComm (w)Re(c)k Resident Brain Normal Person Occasional German and Chef Subliminal Spiritual Counsellor Undercover Reporter Johan Hu gos poetr y. A boring li st of Thin gs We Ha ve Done T his Year f ollows, al ong with a slightly more inter esting de scription of each of these Thi ngs:
This is an attempt to reflect the nature of the English Society by not giving the same boring formulaic merde (i.e. pretentious crap) that e very year report in school and varsity magazine always has. Unfortun ately this is the way one is supposed to present it, I think. Peer press ure! No! This will be an informal year report, as written by someone who neve r remembered their grammar rules and has never before written a yea r report. Fortunately the English Society is a really informal society, d edicated to bringing Fun in the shape of Literature to the Masses. Thi s includes literary fun-ctions (pun alert), film screenings, discussio n groups, theatre outings, writers groups and anything else that look s as though it might fall within our scope (such as bad punning). Tra nsport and much of the real costs of the functions are subsidised fro m our membership fees (R20 a head). The actual membership of the Society is around 1300 people, as all those who take English as a s ubject are automatically members. We also count aspirant lawyers, e ngineers, computer scientists, accountants, actors, theoretical physi cists and other confused people among our numbers. This year we became an officially SR-registered society, which mean t that we now have a place on the Societies Chairs Committee, and actually had to be vaguely transparent and democratic. Thus we had to write a Constitution and hold an AGM. Our Constitution is a miracl e of Spartan brevity, and so was our AGM (which was almost as well attended as the Debating Societys, and we didnt even offer sherry), but at least were doing things properly. We are still represented on the LWSK (Arts Faculty Student Committee) as we are also a departm ental society. We thus work with the English Department as well as wi th the SR and make everybodys life just that little bit brighter. We ha ve also been granted Room 590 in the English corridor -which is at t he very far end- in an attempt to hide our light under a bushel. We began Litterati (misspelling intentional) - an official mailing list fo r the members of the Society. Run by our resident physicist and secr etary, this informs anyone who cares about the wonderful activities t hat we offer. It also drags people into the evil world of chain stories, thus expanding our literary skills via e-mail. The Writers Group continued in its usual spasmodic and low-key fa shion. It did however move into Dadas, which seemed to make it mu ch more friendly and accessible (although maybe that was just the pi zza and wine we supplied to the starving writers). Several regular me mbers did however do rather well in the SR Skrywerskompetisie, Mar celle Olivier winning the English poetry section, and Delene Gird taki ng second for English prose, while the occasional visitor Sarah Lawr ence won the prose and came second in the poetry. We also took tw o aanmoedigingspryse in the Afrikaans section, with Pieter Kriel and
heads on pointed sticks #5 100 happy people eating with their h ands and drinking copious and bad wine #6 passing glasses of gluhwein #7 yards of ale competitions (won, oddly enough, by Debating Society members) #8 a hyperactive jester #9 renamin g all the romantically dressed people with suitably mediaeval na mes #10 dancing til everyone had left. Next year we will aim for more literary content in this function.
LITERARY FUN-CTIONS
Bad Poetry Evening 11/3

This was held at the Spice Cafe in Church Street. Tickets were R 10 apiece. There were 65 available, and we sold out two days b efore the function. Various disreputably dressed people claimed to have had a good time. Forced into the horrified public gaze were poetic gems by the eminent Scots Poet and Tragedian Willi am McGonagall, Mike Myers (So I Married an Axe Murderer), Mo nty Python (on the poet McTiegle), Dorothy Parker, and some fo rtunately anonymous, vulgar and amusing limericks. Brave and ti psy volunteers from the audience gladdened our hearts with exe crable Westerns and even worse original lyrics. The Mr Happy Pr ize for the Worst Dressed went to a young man in paisley boxer s and polka dot braces.
SR-Kultuuraand 18/3
We were invited by Kabous Meiring (SR for Culture) and her mer ry cohorts to take part in a multicultural Kwaito-Mampoer Evenin g. There were Afrikaans, English and Xhosa contributions to the evening. We of course were the absolute highlight. From our sid e, we gave the masses Tom Dreyer reading his own poetry, Joh an Hugos winning English essay from last years SR-Tafelberg Skrywerskompetisie, a brief token original Afrikaans limerick fro m our token rock Pieter Kriel, English folksongs sung by Marcell e Olivier and Jacques Coetzee, and a repeat of the Poet McTieg le, by Sven Tietz and Rob Schumann. I believe the evening was a hit although it became rather blurry towards the end. The best thing about the whole event was that we didnt have to organise a thing except ourselves, which is always enough of a challeng e.
Mediaeval Feast 21/5

While not quite on the scale of drunkenness, debauchery and fo od-fights that apparently attend such events at other universitie s (no overt references being made here to UNDs Tolysoc feast, we still contrived to have a good time. It was held at the Bergzi cht Heerenhuys in Bird Street, a restored Cape Dutch house whi ch we cunningly disguised as a mediaeval banqueting hall by se veral brilliant expedients: #1 night #2 flaming torches lighting th e walkway #3 large banners and flags #4 a number of dressed up in various literary forms and helped the English Dep artment man their stall at the Universitys Open Day. We handed
out Shakespearean insults, stuck up literary limericks and gene rally amused the public. Apparently we were a Hit.
From Bad to Verse 22/9

This is happening the same day as this report must be in, so all I can say is that UCT has invited us to perform a rerun of our Ba d Poetry evening as part of their attempt to be as amazingly cult ural as we are. So tonight we give the people more McGonagall, Python, and Parker, plus Dahl, Milligan and Lehrer. DIVERS ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS
The Compleat Wks of Wm Shksp (abridged) 23/2

This was a cultural excursion to the Baxter to see a trio of idiots give us every work of Shakespeare in an hour and a half. It was very impressive and most amusing. About 30 people went, with all sorts of people included in the mix. We provided transport a nd organized the tickets, to bring joy to the lives of the car-less and cultural.
Spectacles 1/9
This was partly a supplementary to a third year English elective course, and partly for fun. It was a one-man satirical show by Guy Willoughby at the Baxter. Fourteen people crammed togeth er all the way to this cultural hotspot hoping that our driver woul d stay on the road. If he hadnt, I might have been spared writin g this year report. Theres a lesson in that for everyone. We did however enjoy ourselves and feel culturally enriched, and even went to a cultural coffee-shop afterwards to discuss our blindin g insights into the world of satire. Oh, and for the smokers to c hain before having to cope with the drive back. BEING DEPARTMENTAL AND HELPFULLY ACADEMIC
Apocalypse now 20/4

This was a Helpful Film Screening supplementing a course on H eart of Darkness. Apparently it Helped.
Open day 21/4
In which divers members of the English Society Committee
English III discussion groups

This years English III class is remarkably enthusiastic and supp orts discussion groups on setworks in great and impressive nu mbers. Because of this, there have been successful discussion groups organised by us for each predicate and exam, which ha ve been very helpful. Hopefully the other years will catch onto t he usefulness of these groups and support them equally well in years to come. All in all it has been a successful year in which we have expanded ou r sphere of influence quite remarkably. There is, as always, room for improvement, and under the able guidance of our brilliant 1999-2000 Chair (i.e. me again) we can but go, in our own words, from Bad to Verse.
Fiona Wade Chair 1998-1999

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YEAR REPORT OF THE ENGLISH SOCIETY 1999

Bad Poetry Evening 11/3

Mediaeval Feast 21/5

From Bad to Verse 22/9

The Compleat Wks of Wm Shksp (abridged) 23/2

Apocalypse now 20/4

Open day 21/4

In which divers members of the English Society Committee

English III discussion groups

Fiona Wade Chair 1998-1999

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