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[Assistant] Only you can do this, my boy.


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[Assistant] Abanaza took a gold ring off his finger and gave it to Aladdin. This ring is magic and can protect you, he said. Be careful and bring me the lamp quickly. Aladdin


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[Assistant] Put the ring on the little finger of his left hand and began to go down the stairs. It was dark and he was afraid.


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[Assistant] But he was more afraid of Abanaza.


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[Assistant] And Aladdin was right to be afraid. Because Abanaza was not his uncle.


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[Assistant] He was a magician from Morocco.


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[Assistant] And he wanted this lamp very much. It was a magic lamp.


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[Assistant] And only a poor boy from the city could get it for him. A boy called Aladdin.


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[Assistant] Aladdin went down a hundred stairs and into the first room. Down here it was not dark and he went quickly through the rooms to the door into the garden. There were trees in the garden.


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[Assistant] With beautiful fruit of different colors, white, red, green, and yellow. He soon found the lamp under one of the trees.


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[Assistant] Why does my uncle want this dirty old lamp? He thought. He put it in his pocket.


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[Assistant] Then he began to take fruit from the trees.


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[Assistant] And to put it in every pocket of his coat. After that he went back to the stairs and began to go up.


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[Assistant] Soon he could see Abanaza and the blue sky. Give the lamp to me, Abanaza said and put out his hand. Quickly boy, the lamp.


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[Assistant] Aladdin could not get the lamp out of his pocket because it was under the fruit.


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[Assistant] He looked at Abanaza's angry face and was afraid. First, help me out. Then you can have the lamp, he said. Please, uncle.


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[Assistant] First, the lamp, cried Abanaza. Give me the lamp. No, Aladdin said. You good for nothing. You dog.


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[Assistant] Angrily, Abinaza ran to the fire and put more powder on it. Abracadabra, he called. The big white stone moved again.


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[Assistant] And now Aladdin could not see the sky. He was in the dark, under the ground, and could not get out.


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[Assistant] I'm nervous because there's a lot of proteins there and I was really hoping for dessert today, but the competition's a competition. You gotta fight yourself and go out of your comfort zone.


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[Assistant] There are eight people in this challenge and I picked the eighth knife. I'm feeling so nervous being the last to pick.


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[Assistant] 36. I'm gonna go with uhm, pork thigh.


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[Assistant] The dressing, I've got some palm sugar, fish sauce, and some fresh lemon juice. I'm gonna put a little bit of chili.


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[Assistant] I haven't had it for so long and my palette's so used to sweetness that I really like this dressing because it's sweet.


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[Assistant] I'm absolutely proud of myself I think it looks beautiful.


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[Assistant] I'm hoping that I've cooked the beef the way Curtis Stone likes it. And I'm hoping that the balance of that dressing just comes together in the dish.


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[Assistant] During the warmer months, especially at night during the full moon, horseshoe crabs emerge from the sea to spawn. Waiting for them are teams of lab workers who capture the horseshoe crabs by the hundreds of thousands, take them to labs, harvest their cerulean blood, then return them to the sea.


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[Assistant] Oddly enough, we capture horseshoe crabs on the beach because that's the only place we know we can find them.


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[Assistant] A female horseshoe crab lays as many as 20 batches of up to 4,000 eggs on her annual visit to the beach. When the eggs hatch, the juvenile horseshoe crabs often stay near shore, periodically shedding their shells as they grow.


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[Assistant] Once they leave these shallow waters, they don't return until they reach sexual maturity ten years later. Despite our best efforts, we don't know where they spend those years.


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[Assistant] Though we've spotted the occasional horseshoe crab as deep as 200 meters below the ocean's surface, we only see large groups of adults when they come ashore to spawn.


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[Assistant] Orshu crab blood contains cells called amoebocytes that protect them from infection by viruses, fungi, and bacteria. Amoebocytes form gels around these invaders to prevent them from spreading infections.


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[Assistant] This isn't unusual. All animals have protective immune systems. But horseshoe crab amoebocytes are exceptionally sensitive to bacterial endotoxins.


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[Assistant] Large amounts of them are released when bacterial cells die, and they can make us sick if they enter the bloodstream.


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[Assistant] Many of the medicines and medical devices we rely on can become contaminated, so we have to test them before they touch our blood.


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[Assistant] We do have tests called gram stains that detect bacteria, but they can't recognize endotoxins, which can be there even when bacteria aren't present.


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[Assistant] Today, the LAL test is used so widely that millions of people who've never seen a horseshoe crab have been protected by their blood. If you've ever had an injection, that probably includes you.


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[Assistant] Instead, horseshoe crab blood flows freely through the body cavity and comes in direct contact with tissues.


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[Assistant] If bacteria enters their blood, it can quickly spread over a large area.


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[Assistant] Pair this vulnerability with the horseshoe crab's bacteria-filled ocean and shoreline habitats, and it's easy to see why they need such a sensitive immune response.


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[Assistant] Horseshoe crabs survived mass extinction events that wiped out over 90% of life on Earth and killed off the dinosaurs. But they're not invincible, and the biggest disruptions they've faced in millions of years come from us.


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[Assistant] Studies have shown that up to 15% of horseshoe crabs die in the process of having their blood harvested, and recent research suggests this number may be even higher. Researchers have also observed fewer females returning to spawn at some of the most harvested areas.


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[Assistant] Our impact on horseshoe crabs extends beyond the biomedical industry, too. Coastal development destroys spawning sites, and horseshoe crabs are also killed for fishing bait.


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[Assistant] There's ample evidence that their populations are shrinking. Some researchers have started working to synthesize horseshoe crab blood in the lab.


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[Assistant] For now, we're unlikely to stop our beach trips. But hopefully, a synthetic alternative will someday eliminate our reliance on the blood of these ancient creatures.


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[Assistant] TedEd is a non-profit, and this video would not exist without the support of our incredible community on Patreon. You can learn more here.


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[Assistant] Residence of the River Turtle. I wonder if the demon is in here.


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[Assistant] How did you discover your passion or find your career? Were you exposed to it or was it trial and error?


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[Assistant] As child rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman said, you can't be what you can't see.


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[Assistant] Fortunately, we now live in a time when emerging technologies may help us to solve this problem.


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[Assistant] I could see myself as a scientist, because I enjoyed this game.


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[Assistant] Coincidentally, also in 2014, I met Mandy Holford, a marine biochemist, and Lindsay Portnoy, an educational psychologist.


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[Assistant] We discussed the research that showed that students felt comfortable taking risks when playing games.


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[Assistant] So, the three of us started an educational games company to bring science to life.


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[Assistant] Virtual reality seemed like a low-cost way of increasing access. In addition, academic research has shown that virtual reality may lead to increases in learning retention.


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[Assistant] This was perfect for us as we wanted to be in schools so that we could reach the most number of students possible, particularly students who have been underrepresented in science.


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[Assistant] So, with funding from the National Science Foundation, we began developing our Extended Reality program that combined virtual reality with personalized digital journaling.


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[Assistant] We worked with teachers while developing it to ensure that it would fit seamlessly into existing curricula.


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[Assistant] And empower teachers to use cutting-edge technology in their classroom.


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[Assistant] We designed the virtual reality for Google Cardboard, which requires only a smartphone and a ten dollar VR viewer made of cardboard.


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[Assistant] With this inexpensive headset, students are transported to an underwater expedition.


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[Assistant] Students use their digital journal to write down their notes, to answer questions, to construct models and to develop hypotheses.


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[Assistant] Students then go to the virtual world to test their hypotheses and see if they're accurate, much as scientists go to the field in their careers.


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[Assistant] When students return to their digital journal, they share their observations, claims, reasoning and evidence.


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[Assistant] The students' written answers and virtual interactions are all updated live at an educator assessment dashboard so that teachers can follow their progress and support them as needed.


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[Assistant] To give you a better sense, I'm going to show you a little bit of what students see.


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[Assistant] This is the virtual reality when they're underwater observing the flora and fauna.


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[Assistant] Here they're supporting that with qualitative statements. And this is the educator dashboard that shows progress and enables students to see the students' answers as they go.


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[Assistant] When we were creating BioDive, again, we really wanted to focus on access, so we designed it to require only one phone for every four students.


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[Assistant] We also knew how collaborative science work is, so we constructed the experience to only be solved through collaborative teamwork as each student is an expert in a different geographic location. Given that these children's brains are still developing,


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[Assistant] We limited each experience to last a maximum of two minutes. And finally,


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[Assistant] Because we know the importance of repeated exposure for internalizing knowledge, we constructed Biodive to take place over five class periods.


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[Assistant] We wanted to see students as they were using this new technology.


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[Assistant] But what really gives us hope is what we're hearing from students.


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[Assistant] I could see myself as a scientist, because it seems really fun. Our feedback wasn't always so positive.


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[Assistant] When we began developing, we started off by asking students what they liked, what they didn't like and what they found confusing.


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[Assistant] Eventually we began asking what they wished they could do.


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[Assistant] Their feedback gave us concrete items to build in to be sure that we were including student voices in what we were designing.


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[Assistant] We focused on science because we know we need scientists to help us solve our current and future challenges.


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[Assistant] But, virtual reality could support students in any area.


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[Assistant] How could we support students in exploring all of their desires with these eye-opening experiences and chances to learn from primary sources? Could we create


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[Assistant] Extended reality has the potential to change the trajectory of our children's lives and lead them to careers they never imagined by giving them the chance to see what they can be. Thank you.


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[Assistant] You're making a great deal of the kwandongs. Uhm, and also the honey, and uhm, I'd use some lamb bones as well. Oh, mine! And that's my roux resting. Nice and pink in the middle, yeaah.


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[Assistant] And if I can get a crunching nut on there as well. We'll get something, a praline of some sort.


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[Assistant] Dustin Daniel. Hey. Oh! Light us in Petersburg, Russia.


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[Assistant] Right side, I don't have to go to the toilet for at least another half hour. So toilet stop mid-race is always good.


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[Assistant] We were the first to get there and there was a lot of pressure on us when the other teams were running by.


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[Assistant] Chapter 4 Prison 888 Commander Zadak was in his room at the biggest hotel in Kisangani. Suddenly he heard the phone


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[Assistant] The phone went dead. Zadak put the phone down, stood up, and left his room.


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[Assistant] Was a big white building without windows near Gog's house. There were a lot of guards at the gate.


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[Assistant] And some more guards marched past the building. All the guards carried guns.


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[Assistant] Commander Zadak walked across the road to the prison. I want to visit someone. My name is Commander Zadak. I'm sorry, Commander, a guard said. We can't open the gate.


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[Assistant] Nobody can go in without a letter from Earth, Commander. That's all right, Zadok said, and walked along the road past the prison. A guard ran behind him. Excuse me, Commander, he said quickly. Please come back tonight. I can open the back gate at midnight.


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[Assistant] Zadok looked at the guard. Your captain's going to kill you. The guard smiled. My captain phoned you about the two people from OM 45. He's the brother of Captain Seru.


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[Assistant] The prison commander is going to kill you and your captain. It doesn't matter, the guard said. We want to help. Midnight, Zadok said and walked away.


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[Assistant] There were four guards at the front gate of Prison 888 and there was one guard at the back gate. The guard opened the gate and Zadok went in.


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[Assistant] They walked downstairs into a big room. A lot of prisoners slept on the floor because there were no beds or chairs. Kia and Rilla sat on the floor near the door.


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[Assistant] Kea and Rilla stood up. Good evening, Commander, they said.


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[Assistant] Zadok looked at the prisoners. Why are all these people here? He said to Kea and Rilla. They're in prison because Gog doesn't like them. I talk to Gog about rain, I talk to him about the AOL, but he never listens. Today,


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[Assistant] Someone told me about some fires in the new forest here in Africa, but Gog doesn't want to hear about those fires. Zadok laughed angrily.


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[Assistant] Andy doesn't want to hear about my trees in Australia. He never listens to me. He's always thinking about Mars, not about our beautiful planet Earth.


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[Assistant] Kea listened carefully. Take it easy, Commander, he said quietly. Please talk to Adai. Adai wants to help. He can come back from the moon and help you. No, Zadok said. I phoned Adai this afternoon. He's a good man and he wants to help. But I don't need help.


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[Assistant] I'm going to stop Gog. I'm going to kill him.


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[Assistant] Kea closed his eyes for a minute. Gorg's guards have guns. They can kill you, Commander, he said. You need more people to help. Wait for Adai. He can help you to look for more people. No, Kea, Zadok said quietly. I don't want more people.


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[Assistant] A die can come back to earth after Gog is dead. After I'm dead, perhaps. I don't want a die to die, too.


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[Assistant] Excuse me, Commander, the guard said. He looked at the clock near the door. Okay, let's go. Zadok said to the guard. He looked at Rilla and then at Kea. His eyes were very blue. Goodbye, he said. Goodbye, Commander, Kea said. Be careful.


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[Assistant] Early that morning, Earth Commander's house was quiet. A guard opened the door. Good morning, Commander Zadok, he said. Earth Commander isn't in his office. That's all right, Zadok said. I can wait. Zadok went upstairs and waited.


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[Assistant] At eight o'clock, Belle came into the room. Good morning, Commander, she said. You're early this morning. Are you happier today?


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[Assistant] Don't begin talking about rain or the AOL today. Zadak smiled, but his blue eyes were cold. No, he said. I'm not going to talk about rain today. Just then, Gog came into the room. He looked at Zadak. What's wrong?


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[Assistant] Why are you here at eight o'clock in the morning? Zadok took his gun from his pocket. Gog saw the gun and his face went white. His eyes were dark and afraid. For a second, nobody moved.


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[Assistant] Belle's black and white cat ran into the room. Gods! Gods! Belle shouted. The cat jumped at Zadak, and Zadak hit the cat away from him. Belle ran across the room to Gog, and Zadak at that second shot at Gog. But Belle was between him and Gog. She gave a cry.


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[Assistant] Three guards ran into the room with their big guns and stood in front of Gog. Kill him! Gog shouted and began to help Belle.


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[Assistant] Zadok looked at the guards and then at Belle and Gog. Kea was right. He was going to die. I'm sorry, Kea. I'm sorry I die. He said quietly. The guards shot Zadok. Slowly, he fell to the floor.


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[Assistant] If it's not us, we want Kat and Jessie to win, because they're our Kiwi compadres, is that the word?


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[Assistant] No, no, okay. Every time we got it wrong, we had to run right back to the start, grab another piece of chalk and attempt again.


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[Assistant] In the month of October, like this is an all time high for me. I've never read more than 20 books in a month.


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[Assistant] How to marry Keanu Reeves in 90 days. And this is a romance that says two friends take a wild road trip to stop the world's most eligible bachelor from making a big mistake, getting married.


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[Assistant] I mostly use my library for audiobooks, which is super helpful. So for the genres that I read this month, I read 16 horror books this month.


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[Assistant] I read five thrillers and one romance. And then as far as ratings go, this month was just all over the place, okay? It wasn't the best reading month for me because I only had one five-star book out of all of these 22 books that I read.


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[Assistant] I enjoyed the like atmosphere, like the spooky setting, but I also never really got invested enough to truly care about what was going on.


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[Assistant] And I had to reread that ending like five times to make sure I understood what just happened. I was like, oh my god, like that's, mm, okay. So yeah.


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[Assistant] outside of the cabin, they can hear voices, they can hear like somebody's out there, they can, they think they can see like shadow figures standing out there, and then,


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[Assistant] Less than 200 pages or almost exactly 200 pages. And this one is absolutely fascinating. I struggle with how to even talk about this book because I don't really know how to even explain what I loved so much about it. But we're just following this young woman and her dad. And this young woman has this lover that her dad doesn't approve of.


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[Assistant] Heal people in the town. Like that's kind of what they're known for. If people are experiencing like bad things, they'll come to them and then they can heal them. And it's just really interesting and really ambiguous and like,


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[Assistant] It's creepy. And the way that this pig is described is genuinely creepy as well. We also do get the perspective of the pig pearl in this book.


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[Assistant] But unfortunately, I ended up giving this book three stars, like I didn't love it, and I think


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[Assistant] The thing is that the romance in this book, I just wasn't on board with it. I just didn't feel their chemistry and it just felt very forced and I don't know. The romance wasn't great, but everything else about this book was very...


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[Assistant] You know, fall vibes. It was very like Halloween feels. I'm glad that I read this book in the month of October. I think it is the perfect October read. But also, would I ever read or think about this book again? No. And then I read White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson. This is the last book that I featured in that second reading vlog that I did in October.


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[Assistant] And oh my gosh, I really enjoyed this one. This one is a young adult, uh, thriller kind of horror book.


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[Assistant] Not my favorite. In this book we're following, there's this, you know, it's a typical kind of thriller setup where there's a husband and a wife and then


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[Assistant] I don't know. It was pretty mediocre. I ended up giving it 2.5 stars. I don't know what it is with this author. I just cannot connect with their thrillers. They just never do it for me and I feel like they're really hyped by everyone else in the community I feel like and then I just don't understand what the hype is. Like these characters drove me absolutely nuts. They were just so...


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[Assistant] That was that great of a twist. It was just, it was fine, I didn't see it coming. And then I read The Last House on Needless Street. This was our Book Troop book club pick for the month of October.


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[Assistant] But regardless, this was a really short, quick, and easy read, and I'm really looking forward to checking out more of this author's stuff in the future. His writing style is so interesting and really unique, and I really enjoyed it. And I'm sorry if you can hear Tank snoring because he's sitting right next to me.


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[Assistant] And I don't know why I was expecting not to like this, not only because it's a classic, which I usually find classics to be pretty boring, but also because The Haunting of Hill House TV show is one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and a lot of people were telling me that this book is so different from the shows that they don't think I would like this book as much.


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[Assistant] Is the best thing on this earth. But this book was pretty good for what it was. Like I really loved the ambiance of this like haunted house. Some of the scenes were just so spooky and so well done.


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[Assistant] And has left her behind in inheritance and so she has to go to this


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[Assistant] So yea, kinda sad about this one. And then I read The Mother Next Door. This one is a thriller that I was really hyped to read because it's kind of described as like,


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[Assistant] And so we get to follow the perspective on Halloween, like the first chapter we get is on the night of Halloween, and it's like, one of us is gonna be murdered this night, and it's like this ominous, like, point of view that's-


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[Assistant] Seems like it's not one of the point of view of the women, like it's just a random point of view. And then in alternate chapters we follow the perspective of the new woman who just moved to the town and also the queen bee of this like Ivy Moms group.


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[Assistant] Like, real to me, they just felt kind of like stereotypical, like, cardboard cutout characters. Like, they never really felt very fleshed out.


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[Assistant] I also just feel like I've read a thriller like this before, again and again. It doesn't really feel like anything new to me. But the thing that I did love reading about this in October is the fact that Halloween is such a huge part of this story. And so that's what made this book special and why I still ended up enjoying it. Because the Halloween vibes, like the way this town just like loves Halloween and all the like,


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[Assistant] Slow and very boring and like the horror in this book was just very mild. I don't know if it was just something that like back in, back in its day this was probably very scary and very creepy.


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[Assistant] But now I just don't feel like it holds up very well, at least for me personally. I also do think it is like slightly strange, you know, for this man, Stephen King, to be writing about, you know, menstrual cycles and like periods and things like that. I just thought it was kind of like,


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[Assistant] But also at the same time, like literally 80 to 90% of the way through this book, she's still talking about how it's so hard for her to like live her life without him and like how she wants to reach out to him, but she shouldn't and like it was just very repetitive in that sense. But I will say there were some scenes in this book


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[Assistant] We just deal with this group of friends, you know, talking about how like they've all slept with each other and how they're like so salty towards each other and they're just like, oh my god, like you slept with them though, but like fuck you, like what are you doing? Ridiculous, like high school type of banter bullshit for the first 50 pages. And then once the creepy stuff finally starts happening though, it's like, it's creepy, but also,


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[Assistant] A theme running through these lectures, justifying the courses, chronological organisation, has been that various forms of literature bloom and flower at particular periods. And we can tie that phenomenon into the historical setting which gave the literature birth.


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[Assistant] Although we gather them and put them into a museum of the mind to be called English literature, those great products of the human mind originate in specific times, places, and socio-historical circumstance. That's the soil in which they grew.


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[Assistant] We can pluck them, organize them into syllabi and curricula and canons and courses.


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[Assistant] But we should also look carefully at where they first sprited. Now, to continue briefly with this horticultural theme, the 1840s saw a spectacular, hothouse growth of one particular branch of English literature. The realistic, or as the Victorians called it, matter of fact, novel.


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[Assistant] That mirror in the roadway of everyday life, as Flo Bear writing fiction on the other side of the English Channel called it.


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[Assistant] Now the 1840s is a dynamic decade, not just in Britain, but in Europe, where it's associated with a second wave of revolution, the first being that triggered in the late 18th century in France and America.


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[Assistant] 1848 specifically was the year of revolution.


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[Assistant] Now England escaped it, although it came close to social cataclysm in 1845, with a great Chartist uprising, which we'll be looking at more closely when we come to Disraeli's novel, Sibyl.


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[Assistant] In England, particularly, the 1840s were years of great social distress. Trade depression had thrown millions into unemployment. The Hungry Forties, they were called.


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[Assistant] Fiction, particularly the novel with a purpose, that genre invented by Dickens with Oliver Twist, took full note of the hard times the working and lower classes were experiencing, as we'll see when in a minute or two we turn to Mary Barton. That's the title of the novel.


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[Assistant] But the novel did much more than isolate social problems in the 1840s.


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[Assistant] The great thinker or sage of the Victorian period, Thomas Carlyle, coined another term which more aptly covers what we can call the large enterprise of 1840s fiction.


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[Assistant] The condition of England question, Carlisle called it. Where was the country now? And what was the country going to?


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[Assistant] Novels of the 1840s give us a sense of English society in a crucial phase of its evolution, with unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy. Even when, as many of them are, they're set in the past. They're symptomatic of the present.


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[Assistant] And novels were felt by readers of that time to be important. Fiction mattered in the 1840s in a way that it hadn't before and very rarely has mattered since.


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[Assistant] Thackeray, of whom more later, declared that the novelist role was as important as the parson.


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[Assistant] This, it should be said, at a period when Britain was much more religiously observant than it is today. It sounds pompous, but the Victorians, not least the Victorian novelists, believed it. Now, a minute or two ago I mentioned Benjamin Disraeli, a future Prime Minister of England, and in the 1840s a rising star in the Tory party.


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[Assistant] Then a moribund, top-heavy political faction, which Dizzy, Disraeli, would almost single-handedly revive. The future leader of England's revival program called it Young England.


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[Assistant] Uhm, One Nation Conservatism was another Disraelian concept.


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[Assistant] As I say, a mark of the prestige of the form at this period, that it could be used for such a purpose. You could use novels to define a political program. I mean, can one, for example, imagine


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[Assistant] George Bush or Tony Blair expounding their political philosophy in a series of novels of ideas.


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[Assistant] It's true that Saddam Hussein wrote novels, but that's something else quite entirely.


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[Assistant] To say it again, the novel mattered in the 1840s. Never has Jane Austen's ironic self-belittlement only a novel been more forcefully refuted.


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[Assistant] Now, there are a number of socio-economic and cultural factors which also combine to produce this flowering of fiction and its dominance at this particular moment.


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[Assistant] What we see in Mid-Victorian England is an enlargement of the reading public beyond that coterie, uh, probably no more than a few thousand, which for example had supported Jane Austen in her novel writing 30 years earlier.


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[Assistant] Fiction has become a mass market commodity by 1845. We can even apply the term bestsellers to writers like Dickinson. I've been doing so.


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[Assistant] The novel, unlike, say, the street ballad, is an expensive commodity to produce and distribute. It presupposes a large, literate public, which makes it a worthwhile financial proposition. Shakespeare could cater for audiences, many of whom could not read,


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[Assistant] Or at least could not read as well as they could listen and watch. But novels require a higher level of education in the population. Literacy.


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[Assistant] It is also the case that fiction is a complex literary form in which to respond intelligently to any one novel one needs to have read many other novels. Intertextuality, critics call it.


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[Assistant] And it's no coincidence that in the 1840s the great circulating, that's lending libraries, begin to appear and dominate the distribution of fiction in the country's cities.


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[Assistant] Is no accident either that cheap reprints begin to appear which make fiction accessible, relatively new fiction accessible, uhm, for relatively small amounts of money.


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[Assistant] Now, the Charles Dickens Cheap Edition of the early 1840s, for instance, made the great inimitables, inimitably great works available to audiences of hundreds of thousands for pennies.


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[Assistant] So, you've got this diffusion of fiction through, through large numbers of readers and that is a new phenomenon.


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[Assistant] The main factor in the quite remarkable flowering of the novel in the 1840s, however, is at first sight rather more remote and perhaps rather unexpected. The railway.


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[Assistant] There was a vast and incredibly rapid growth in England of a national railway network from the mid-1830s to the late 1840s.


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[Assistant] Britain, as it had led the Industrial Revolution, led the way globally in the age of steam transport.


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[Assistant] And the country had certain advantages, Britain had certain advantages, not least of course that Britain invented.


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[Assistant] The steam engine, or Stevenson did with his rocket train, and what with his discovery of steam generated power before him.


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[Assistant] In, in, in, in other ways, is a conveniently compact landmass with a concentrated population unlike, for instance, the continental spaces and dispersed population of the United States or the much larger and spread out territories of France and Germany.


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[Assistant] Huge wealth had been generated by the industrial powerhouse of the English North.


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[Assistant] Forget Rome, says a character in one of Gisraeli's novels. Look at Manchester. That is the true wonder of history. The textile mills and factories of the time, he meant.


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[Assistant] By the city of London and by the British Empire, securely held now that France had been finally defeated on the field of Waterloo, it was the English Century.


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[Assistant] All that money in the city, all that power of the empire was floating around looking for somewhere to invest itself, something to do. Some of it went into municipal constructions, into bridges, and obviously people like Isambard, Kingdom Brunel,


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[Assistant] Created vast new things using the great, the great toys at their disposal, given them by the industrial revolution and the wealth which have been generated by it.


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[Assistant] But a bulk of this went into rail transport, the infrastructure, which would make Great Britain, the United Kingdom, with those new cathedrals of the 1840s railway stations, genuinely the United Kingdom.


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[Assistant] Now, I want, in this lecture, to look at four great novels of the 1840s. Dombey and Son by Dickens, Mary Barton by Mrs. Gaskell, Sybil by Disraeli, and Vanity Fair by Thackeray.


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[Assistant] In two following lectures I'll be looking in closer detail at two other great novels of the 1840s, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. A feast of great fiction, a banquet.


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[Assistant] Let's begin with Dombey and Son, or to give Dickens's novel its full title, Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son, Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation.


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[Assistant] Dombey and Son was first serialized in monthly parts from 1846 to 1848. There were 20 installments, each with its curtain line or cliffhanger at the end to keep the reader coming back.


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[Assistant] The installments came out under a uniform cover, and on this cover,


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[Assistant] We'll notice that Dickens, unlike the author of Oliver Twist, which was looked at earlier, is now confident enough and authoritative enough to use his own name. He's Boz no longer.


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[Assistant] He was now ten years into his career and the most famous novelist in England. Well on the way, I think, to being the most famous novelist in history.


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[Assistant] The cover, which was designed by Fizz, who we collaborated with all those years ago in Pickwick Papers, clearly reveals one of the main themes in the novel, capitalism. And so of course there's the title, point us in that direction.


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[Assistant] The cover has an image of the wheel of commercial fortune with its ups and downs. Now, Dombey and Son, like all the best titles in literature, is double edged.


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[Assistant] Superficially, it's how dynastic firms advertise themselves to the consumer.


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[Assistant] You know, Domby and Son, one can see it as a kind of, as a, as a kind of nameplate over a shop or an establishment or a factory.


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[Assistant] Those monthly parts of Dombey and Son, which I've been talking about, were sold at railway bookstalls by W. H. Smith and Son. Still the principal wholesaler of newspapers in Britain.


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[Assistant] But also, and this is the subversive theme in the novel Dombey and Son, the and son suffix indicates family relationships.


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[Assistant] Everywhere in the novels of the 1840s, one tracks the thinking of the philosopher I mentioned earlier, Thomas Carlyle.


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[Assistant] Carlisle's many potent arguments about signs of the times, about which he was rather gloomy, Carlisle argues that England must get away from cash nexus. The strictly financial relationships that capitalism sets up between people. Cash nexus must be replaced by something more organic, more familial.


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[Assistant] Society, as Carlisle saw it, was not a mere aggregate of buyers and sellers. It was more a gigantic family, or clan, with responsibilities and emotional ties to each other.


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[Assistant] Now, the story of Dombey and Son, which could as well have been called Dombey and Daughter, pivots on this Carlyleian theme.


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[Assistant] Mr. Domby, as we first meet him, is the proprietor of a large and hugely thriving firm, which imports, exports and merchandises. What exactly the firm of Domby deals in, we never quite know. It could be something very unpleasant. If this were the period when


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[Assistant] The British for instance were forcing the Chinese to import opium, uh, and deliberately addicting the Chinese population to that end, in return for Chinese tea and silk.


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[Assistant] He could have been mixed up in all that. Two punitive wars were fought in the 1840s to ensure the Chinese did as their imperial masters, the British told them. And what their imperial masters told them was to smoke opium.


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[Assistant] That's by the way, but as I say, Dickens doesn't tell us what the, the firm of Dom Behan's Town is dealing in.


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[Assistant] What Dickens does make clear is that Mr. Dombey is pride incarnate and inevitably pride is riding for a fall. The narrative opens with the birth of a son at last.


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[Assistant] It little matters to Mr. Dombey that his wife dies giving birth or that he had a daughter Florence in the background. He had at last a son to carry forward the Dombey dynasty, the Firm.


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[Assistant] Alas, the son, Paul, dies. Very prettily, it's one of Dickens' most heart-wrenching death scenes. Mr. Dombey, desperate for another young wife.


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[Assistant] He's not himself in the first flush of youth, nor physically attractive. Goes hunting for a mate in the marriage markets, in the spa resorts of England. And he marries a cold-hearted woman, Edith, who accepts his offer out of cynical motives. Cash Nexus motives.


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[Assistant] She subsequently elopes with Domby's villainous chief, chief clerk, Karka, who's embezzled the firm, by the way.


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[Assistant] Mr. Domby is financially ruined and emotionally shattered. Finally he realizes the true worth of his daughter. He realizes that family matters more than commerce. His pride is crushed, his heart is soft.


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[Assistant] He is like Scrooge on Christmas morning after the spirits have done with him, a changed man. Now the passage I want to quote from


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[Assistant] Dombey and Son illuminates another aspect of the novel. It is, I think, one of the most vivid scenes in all Victorian literature and it relates to the railway boom I talked about earlier.


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[Assistant] After the death of his son, the firm's son,


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[Assistant] Mr. Dombey goes by train to Lemington Spa in search of a new Mrs. Dombey. It goes to the marriage markets, as I said. The railway, what we now know as the Great Western Railway, is spit new. The rails gleam like silver.


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[Assistant] New 2 is a magnificent railway station from which, from which Mr. Dombey leaves London, Euston Station, with its magnificently newly constructed Doric Arch.


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[Assistant] Now Dickens captures perfectly that Victorian sense, as new to them as jet flight was to travellers in the 1950s, of being world along at the unimaginable pace of 50 miles an hour.


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[Assistant] But where was the speed, this awesome machinery taking them? Where was it taking England? The great Carlyleian question.


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[Assistant] This is the, the description of Mr. Dombey on the train. Uh, remember, he's just lost his son Paul.


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[Assistant] Flashing out into the meadows for a moment, mining in through the damp earth, booming on in darkness and heavy air, bursting out again into the sunny day so bright and wide, away with a shriek and a roar and a rattle, through the fields, through the woods, through the corn, through the hay, through the chalk, through the mould, through the clay, through the rock,


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[Assistant] Among objects close at hand, and almost in the grasp, ever flying from the traveller, and at a deceitful distance ever moving slowly within him, like as in the track of the remorseless monster Death.


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[Assistant] The rails weren't welded together, so in fact there was this kind of rhythm which Dickens, as I say, captures in his prose. But then there was that question at the end, where is it all taking us? Well, it is taking us, he indicates, to death.


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[Assistant] Dombey and Son is a novel which moves on very interestingly from this point. That's to say,


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[Assistant] This train journey is right at the middle of the novel and Dickens moves on from there to


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[Assistant] Great message, and Dickens makes it very convincing, is that family matters. It's his relationship with his daughter, which eventually saves him.


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[Assistant] Let's move now to a less sophisticated but equally powerful novel of the same period, Mary Barton.


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[Assistant] Which is subtitled a Manchester story. Manchester, you remember, is, as the Israelis said, the new Rome, the new wonder of the world.


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[Assistant] It's by Mrs. Gaskell. We always call her Mrs. by the way. Mrs. Gaskell, born Elizabeth Stevenson, was born and brought up in London in comfortable circumstances. Spent a lot of time in rural England.


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[Assistant] She married a unitary minister and moved with him, with William Gaskell, to Manchester in the industrial north. It was a jolting experience for this young woman. Manchester was the cauldron of the industrial revolution, the workshop of the world.


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[Assistant] It was also in the 1840s and the throes of industrial recession. The hungry 40s were hungriest there. Workers were starving. There were strikes, moves towards trade unionism, and a huge protest movement called Chartism, based on a charter with five basic principles, fair wages, security, work and so on.


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[Assistant] There was a march on London, riot and near revolution.


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[Assistant] The Chartist movement failed, but it was the basis for the growth of trade unionism and 50 years later the Labour Party in Britain.


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[Assistant] Mary Barton deals with all this, but interestingly, from the working class point of view.


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[Assistant] Mrs. Gaskell declared her intention was to give the dumb working classes a voice. And that voice would be her novel.


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[Assistant] She would articulate in fiction their flight, their plight, and advocate connection, togetherness across the class divide between rich and poor, employer and employed. And the novel's epigraph, unsurprisingly, is from Carlisle on just that theme.


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[Assistant] Mrs. Gaskell took to writing as therapy after the death of her only son, William, from scarlet fever. And this understandably cast the pall of melancholia over the narrative.


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[Assistant] Her original intention was to call the novel John Barton, but her publishers, conscious of the library market, persuaded her to skew the narrative towards John's daughter Mary and the complications of her love life.


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[Assistant] Now the story is contemporary in its setting, simple in its outline and powerful. John Barton is a mill worker in a textile factory. He's a happy man. But when trade depression hits, he is thrown out of work and his wife dies. He joins a trade union. Mrs Gaskell feared and hated trade unions.


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[Assistant] He goes on the great Chartist demonstration to London, and when it fails he comes back to Manchester embittered, he takes to opium, and finally he murders the son of a factory owner. An act of class revenge.


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[Assistant] He's not a bad man, Gaskell emphasizes, but a good man made bad by hardship.


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[Assistant] The novel is melodramatic and in its conclusion, highly romantic. But as I said, it has power. And that power lies principally in the first hand depictions of what is to be poor. So poor that one starves to death in utter destitution.


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[Assistant] The following is a description of the dwelling place of a fellow worker whom John Barton and a friend go to help and this experience is something that predisposes Barton to his terrible act of assassination.


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[Assistant] They went along until they arrived in Berry Street. It was unpaved, and down the middle a gutter forced its way, every now and then forming pools and holes with which the street abounded. Never was the old Edinburgh cry of Garde de l'eau more necessary than in the street.


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[Assistant] As they passed, women from their doors tossed household slops of every description into the gutter. They ran into the next pool, which overflowed and stagnated. Heaps of ashes were the stepping stones on which the passerby, who cared in the least for cleanliness, took care not to put his foot.


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[Assistant] In other words, they have to walk through filth, human filth, excrement, uh, to get to the, the hovel in which it turns out people are starving. Very, very powerful, very bitter, very angry novel.


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[Assistant] Sympathy and horror mix in depictions like this, and something Mrs. Gaskell novel urges must be done. Of all the so-called social problem novels, Mary Barton, Amateurish and Morkish as part of its theme, is the most affecting. Part of it, I think, because it comes from a woman.


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[Assistant] I want to move now to the third of the novels, Sybil or the Two Nations. It's another social problem novel, another vivid snapshot of mid-Victorian England. But Disraeli was more knowledgeable than Mrs. Gaswell could ever be. Sybil is the middle segment in that political Young England trilogy I was talking of earlier in which


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[Assistant] In which Disraeli outlined his political philosophy. And Disraeli was less interested in changing hearts than in changing a political party and through that the power structure of England.


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[Assistant] His novel depicts many of the same things as Mary Barton, the distress of the working classes in the industrial north, the great Chartist rebellion, but Disraeli's more analytic.


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[Assistant] And his analysis of the need for a radical change in British class structure is still potent in the political party he led for 30 years. People still talk about Disraeli and One Nation Toryism.


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[Assistant] The plot of Sybil is simple. A young lord, Egremont, decides to see what England is really like. He changes his name to that of a commoner, and goes into the real world, the world of factories and commerce, of the workers at the face of the Industrial Revolution. There's a symbolic scene in a ruined abbey,


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[Assistant] Carlisle, incidentally, was also very keen on abbeys, seeing them as the ideal form of community in medieval England, something that should be recovered in modern England.


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[Assistant] But in Sybil, in the Abbey Grounds, Egremont, Franklin, Franklin as he now calls himself, has a highly instructive conversation with a trade union leader, Walter Gerard.


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[Assistant] Uhm, the new reign Aigremont mentions is that near the passage that follows is Queen Victoria, who came to the throne ten years earlier in, in 1837.


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[Assistant] Well, we live in strange times, this is the conversation in the abbey, said Egremont, struck by the observation of his companion, and relieving a perplexed spirit by an ordinary exclamation, which often denotes that the mind is more stirring than it cares to acknowledge, or at the moment is capable to express. Rather stilted.


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[Assistant] English that, that Disraeli has, which I think explains why it hasn't lasted as well as some other noblest of the period.


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[Assistant] When the infant begins to walk, it also thinks that it lives in strange times, said his companion. Your inference? Asked Egremont. That society, still in its infancy, is beginning to feel its way. This is a new reign, said Egremont. Perhaps it is a new era.


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[Assistant] I think so, said the younger stranger. I hope so, said the elder one.


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[Assistant] Well, society may be in its infancy, said Egremont, slightly smiling, but say what you like. Our Queen reigns over the greatest nation that ever existed.


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[Assistant] Which nation, asked the younger stranger, for she reigns over two.


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[Assistant] The stranger paused. Ekremont was silent but looked inquiringly.


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[Assistant] Yes, resumed the younger stranger after a moment's interval, two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy, who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings as if they were dwellers in different zones or inhabitants of different planets, who are formed by different breeding, are fed by different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.


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[Assistant] Egremont, after many travails, finally makes a marriage which unifies the classes, the rich and the poor. Society at large will probably have a harder time of it. But Disraeli's diagnosis, the connection


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[Assistant] The message in the 1840s. And significantly, as I say, he chose to enunciate it in a novel. You could only, I believe, do that in the 1840s.


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[Assistant] Now, Disraeli and Mrs. Gaskell have a somewhat narrow mission. They focus on specific aspects of England and English life. And I want to finish by looking at a novelist whose range and vision is panoramic.


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[Assistant] Zachary wrote his first novel after having been a writer for fifteen years, a professional writer, in middle age. He called that novel Vanity Fair. Now the name, you'll recall, was invented by Bunyan in The Pilgrim's Progress.


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[Assistant] Bunyan's Vanity Fair is London, Zachary's is all England, and all the century up to the point in which he's writing, the mid-1840s.


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[Assistant] Thackeray's narrative has a vast narrative in canvas, covering a period from just before Waterloo through that battle itself, which opened the way to England's century, and a hundred years with that English century of unprecedented imperial power, he comes right the way through to the Victorian era. The story follows two heroines, one


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[Assistant] Becky Sharp is clever, astute, and when pushed to it, criminal. The other heroine, Amelia Sedley, is not clever, but she's a good woman. Their careers are intertwined, and they see-saw up and down. As a moral Becky goes up, moral Amelia goes down, and vice versa.


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[Assistant] As we follow them from school days to middle age, Thackeray gives us a satirical, cynical, uh, his contemporaries sometimes thought, portrait of an England permeated with a word which Thackeray invented, snobbery.


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[Assistant] Ours, he observes, is a ready-money society, but it is also one which is distorted by the class system, by deference, truckling, as Thackeray saw it.


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[Assistant] Thackeray's Vanity Fair is a radical novel, but ultimately one which is rather world weary, rather than one which actually demands world change.


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[Assistant] And above all, it's the tone of Thackeray's fiction which is most beguiling. His view of life is large and tolerant and tinged, as his contemporaries relished, with a sardonic wit.


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[Assistant] But one feels he sees all life in its complexity. Of all the writers we've been talking about, and I include Dickens in this, had a sense of the largeness of the novel, if in fact you used it to its full extent.


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[Assistant] The ending of Vanity Fair is, I think, one of the most breathtakingly unexpected endings in all 19th century fiction. Becky and Amelia, the bad woman and the good woman, who began life together as schoolgirls in the same school, end as respectable women. But where else in Vanity Fair?


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[Assistant] Even Becky, who's we suspect a murderess, uh, ends up, uh, she doesn't, as it were, get the, as it were, the poetic justice which traditionally bad women, bad men get in fiction. That is part of, it seems to be, of Thackeray's


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[Assistant] Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? Or having it is satisfied?


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[Assistant] Come children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out.


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[Assistant] The novel, when apprehended, is not merely entertaining.


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[Assistant] Uhm, as Zachary pointed out earlier, any clown can do that. It can entertain us. It is instructing us how to live our lives. How in fact to actually make ourselves so that we can live our lives well.


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[Assistant] Now, the authority, the right to make such pronouncements, how to live your life, and have them taken seriously is something which, which even the greatest novelists rarely achieve.


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[Assistant] There are moments when in fact they're not allowed to achieve it because the spirit of the age is against it. In this lecture, what I've tried to show is that


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[Assistant] And that would be Dickens, I suppose, if one was thinking of the novelist of the age. But a whole generation of fiction writers achieved just that. They did achieve.


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[Assistant] Thackeray said the novelist at his greatest could achieve the authority of the person, the person who tells us how to live and not only just tells us how to live, gives us useful advice on how to do it.


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[Assistant] This, as I've stressed throughout, is a decade when fiction mattered. And we can still enjoy it, even though we're not readers of the 1840s. And we can still respect it, even if it isn't speaking directly to us. We can respect the fact that it is saying something supremely important.


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[Assistant] And using literature at its highest capacity to say those things and to do those things.


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[Assistant] Don't worry, I got you. Come on, let's catch you up.


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[Assistant] Mother, together we will reclaim our world. And I know exactly how we can do that. The promised land.


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[Assistant] This planet too. For I have been chosen.


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[Assistant] Go. To come second is a good effort and we want to sit down and feed up and enjoy coming second. We don't want to have to sacrifice that all for not a real pit stop.


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[Assistant] Creep this guy. Is this Murfkowski's shi-sation?


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[Assistant] You could tell they were a little bit surprised, but extremely disappointed.


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[Assistant] You don't need to always reward people for mediocracy and if you come fifth and sixth, you don't deserve it. We hustled, we came second and you deserve it. Welcome to your room.


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[Assistant] So we thought about- We said, we'll give you a coke mate, the Mars bar is pissing you in a bit.


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[Assistant] We made sure all Aussie groups went to the same room together. I'm gonna do all the top ones. And we searched for anyones.


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[Assistant] The Vibe in Your Show team was really good. I found a, the red on blue. We started finding pieces, pieces, pieces.


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[Assistant] Myself and Ash, we had our five pieces. Sally and Tyson had their five pieces. The two boys, they were missing their real tiny bit out of the babushka doll.


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[Assistant] Hey guys, when we got there we saw the other Aussie boys had already set up camp. You just get the fire going, and I'll just pump the water. Put paper and kitties down the water. You alright Ash? Yep. So I start building a fire. Build the fire up slowly, once it gets going, then put the big ones on. Okay, I'm pretty confident with this.


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[Assistant] What Ash did is she put so much timber on the fire and it had just gone out.


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[Assistant] Guys, where's your bucket? Ours? Actually, I need that other bucket. Where did we put it? I don't know where the bucket was. I couldn't see it.


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[Assistant] All we had to do was have the fire running when we got it signed off and then we could jump in.


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[Assistant] We've got one bit of paper, it's just not lighting. We were getting very nervous because we knew we had to make a fire, but we only had one piece of newspaper left. It's just going out every time we light it.


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[Assistant] The wood was half frozen. Our fire was going nowhere. Ah, his matches just kept going out. And it wasn't looking too good. Still going out? This is pointless, Ash.


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[Assistant] It's just going out every time we ride it. All we had to do was have the fire run in when we got it signed off and then we could jump in.


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[Assistant] There are five marked houses. We're gonna go from house to house together. We're looking for each others.


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[Assistant] We're losing so much time here. We were pretty worried.


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[Assistant] There it is, over there in the middle. See the red and yellow? So we've got to the town square. I think we've got the ace rally driver here. And our driver.


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[Assistant] So we're wearing on air weights at the pit stop. You get these two trucks and this gap that's barely big enough for the car.


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[Assistant] We understand, totally. John, Murray, you're eliminated from the race.


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[Assistant] Can we sort of feel that Daniel and Ryan sort of, they're the nice guys, everybody loves them. Nice guys to your place. Beautiful guys to your place.


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[Assistant] Cool. I had to choose a horse and then I had to dress that horse in its attire.


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[Assistant] Oh my god. I didn't realise that I'd put my horse's bridle thing on the wrong way, so here you go, they've got an egg on their face.


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[Assistant] Turns out the bridle was on the wrong way and the horse didn't have that mouthpiece running through it so I had to take the full bridle off.


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[Assistant] A tango, which was a quite difficult tango dance.


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[Assistant] To be able to have another go up on the main stage, you had to go back and rehearse the bits that they didn't find satisfactory.


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[Assistant] Alright, we're gonna get this jazzed all good. I'm stuffing up. So back downstairs we went to do a little bit more rehearsing. So I have to cross with this leg.


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[Assistant] Yes, I know. Because of the polo challenge, I was already starting off the day in a bad way.


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[Assistant] You know you're a pretty good rower? When you need to be? Don't sit down on that seat, right? So, when you were in pretty good hands? Yep.


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[Assistant] Then, how about I go on ahead and clear the way for you guys? I'll be careful.


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[Assistant] You'd better. Cool. See ya at the reactor.


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[Assistant] Except the planet's huge. Mako will never run out, right?


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[Assistant] I've always wondered, how does materia let you cast spells exactly?


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[Assistant] And let me guess, villagers don't have a clue about this.


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[Assistant] But when we got there, Sephiroth locked himself in his room.


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[Assistant] He left. Didn't tell us all where he was going.


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[Assistant] Took a look around the place, but Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen.


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[Assistant] The name of Sephiroth's mother and Ancients.


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[Assistant] Plan for love. Gemma was hungry. Time for lunch, she thought. She went down to the hospital canteen, got some sandwiches and a cup of coffee, and looked for a table. But it was one o'clock, and the canteen was very busy. There were no free tables. Then, at the long table by the window,


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[Assistant] She saw a tall man with fair hair. It was her friend, Luke, and there was a seat next to him. She walked across to him. Hi, Luke. Can I sit here? said Gemma. Luke did not look up and did not speak. Perhaps he didn't hear her. Gemma tried again.


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[Assistant] Can I sit here? Or are you waiting for someone? Oh, hi Jammer.


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[Assistant] No, no, I'm not waiting for anyone. Come and sit down.


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[Assistant] Gemma put her sandwiches and coffee on the table and sat down.


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[Assistant] She and Luke worked in the physiotherapy clinic in a hospital in Bristol. Usually Luke was friendly, but not today. The canteen's very busy, Gemma said. Where did all these people come from? Luke did not answer. Luke, are you okay?


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[Assistant] He moved his coffee cup around on the table and did not look at Gemma.


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[Assistant] Then Luke put his cup down and looked at Jammer.


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[Assistant] Gemma, we're good friends, aren't we? Can I talk to you?


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[Assistant] Yes of course, Luke. What is it?


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[Assistant] There was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair at a table near the door.


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[Assistant] Gemma's hair was short and black, and she wore glasses.


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[Assistant] You mean Charlotte? She works for Dr Howell, doesn't she? That's right. Well, I really like her. She's, well, look at her. She's beautiful. I want to talk to her. I really do.


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[Assistant] But I can never find the right words. What can I say? I open my mouth and nothing comes out. And she goes away and I feel stupid.


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[Assistant] Gemma smiled at him. Poor Luke. But that's not like you. When you're with me, you talk about lots of things. Like this weekend. What did you do this weekend?


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[Assistant] They talked for a few minutes. Then Gemma said, Luke, you're on the social committee, aren't you? Yes, that's right, said Luke. Why? Well, I've got a plan.


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[Assistant] We make you a list of questions.


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[Assistant] About music and free time, nights out, things like that. Then you ask Charlotte these questions.


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[Assistant] You're asking them for the social committee, you see. And she answers, and you ask some more questions, and there you are. You're talking to Charlotte.


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[Assistant] I know, said Jammer. Let's try the plan now. You're Charlotte and I'm Luke. I do the questions and you do the answers. Okay? Uh, yes, said Luke. You mean


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[Assistant] I must ask you all these questions now. Uh, no, said Gemma. It's like, uh, well, we're playing. I'm playing Luke and you're playing Charlotte. For now, you are Charlotte. Okay?


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[Assistant] We want to plan some days and nights out for people from the hospital. What do you like doing? Is it okay to ask you some questions?


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[Assistant] Yes, of course, said Luke. Okay, first, what kind of music do you like? That's easy. I like Black Phoenix and the tree rats. Do you know the tree rats? They're really good. No, I don't, said Jammer. But I saw Black Phoenix last month. They're great.


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[Assistant] Okay, what do you like doing at the weekend?


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[Assistant] I like running and swimming, said Luke. And I like going out on my bike.


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[Assistant] You see? said Gemma. It's easy really. You just need the questions.


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[Assistant] Later that afternoon, Luke stopped in the office. Gemma was at one of the computers.


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[Assistant] Hi Luke, said Jammer. Have you got a few minutes? I've got some questions here. Come and see.


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[Assistant] Luke read the list of questions on her computer. Oh, that's great, Gemma, he said. Do you want to put any more questions on the list, she asked. Luke thought for a minute.


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[Assistant] Do you like going to music festivals? He said at last. Yes, that's good, said Gemma. She put it on the list. Soon, Luke had the list in his hands. Wait for the right time, said Gemma. And good luck.


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[Assistant] Every day Luke looked for Charlotte in the canteen. On Tuesday she was with Molly. And on Wednesday he did not see her. But on Thursday


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[Assistant] Hi Charlotte, said Luke. My name's Luke. I'm on the social committee.


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[Assistant] We want to plan some days and nights out for people from the hospital. Can I ask you some questions? Okay, said Charlotte, and she smiled at Luke.


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[Assistant] I like the good girls and Sadie Moonlight and lots of girl singers, really. Oh, and Bobby, of course. Bobby? said Luke. Really? He's wonderful.


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[Assistant] Love me, love nobody but me, sang Charlotte happily.


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[Assistant] Who? said Charlotte. Uhm, it doesn't matter, said Luke quickly. Let's see, do you like swimming? Swimming? laughed Charlotte. Just look at my hair. Me swimming?


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[Assistant] Have you got a bike? No. I rode a bike when I was little, but not now. Not in these shoes.


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[Assistant] Do you go to festivals? Only in good weather, with no rain and no tents. So you never go to festivals, Luke said. Never, said Charlotte. What do you like doing in your free time then? Facebook, Charlotte said. I'm on Facebook every night.


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[Assistant] I, uh, use computers at work.


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[Assistant] But Charlotte was not interested in listening to Luke.


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[Assistant] Do you know, I've got 778 Facebook friends. Lots of them are in America. And I've got some in Japan, Australia, oh everywhere. And photos.


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[Assistant] You don't go out much then? Luke asked. You just go on Facebook? Of course not, said Charlotte. Don't be stupid. I hang out with my friends.


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[Assistant] Monica, Jess, Ellie, Alice. We go to clubs and we go shopping. I love shopping. We're going to Eastwater next weekend. Me and Jess and Alice.


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[Assistant] Do you know, there are more than 250 shops there. We're going into every one of them. I can't wait.


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[Assistant] Well, I, uh, Luke said. He began again. Two hundred and fifty shops! Wow, that's a lot of shopping.


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[Assistant] Have a great day with your friends, Charlotte. Thanks for your time. Nice talking to you. That's okay, Luke, said Charlotte. Bye.


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[Assistant] Gemma looked up. Luke was at the door. And in his hand was the list of questions.


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[Assistant] Hmm, she said. That's not a happy face. Three out of ten? Two out of ten?


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[Assistant] Zero out of ten, I think, said Luke, unhappily. She doesn't like swimming, bikes, or festivals. And she doesn't like Black Phoenix. She likes Bobby. Bobby, said Gemma. She laughed. Oh no. Yes.


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[Assistant] And she loves shopping and can't wait to go to Eastwater.


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[Assistant] Bad luck, Luke, said Gemma. You got all the answers, but they're all the wrong answers.


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[Assistant] You and Charlotte are very different people. Very different said Luke unhappily. You're right.


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[Assistant] He walked away and Gemma watched him. Oh, Luke, she thought.


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[Assistant] On Sunday morning, Luke went out on his bike. He rode along the streets of the city and thought about his week.


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[Assistant] I'm stupid, he thought. Charlotte is the wrong girl for me. She's beautiful, but we like different things.


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[Assistant] Suddenly, he saw a lot of people by the road. He stopped to look.


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[Assistant] Why are all those people clapping and shouting?


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[Assistant] The race, said Luke, what race is that? It's the city road race, said the policeman. Look, here come the runners now.


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[Assistant] The first man finished the race and Luke clapped.


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[Assistant] He put his bike against a tree and ran across to Gemma.


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[Assistant] Hello Luke, said Gemma. She was in her running clothes, black and green, and she looked good.


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[Assistant] I only ever see you in hospital clothes usually. And you came third too. That's wonderful.


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[Assistant] Luke could not take his eyes away from Gemma.


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[Assistant] You're a runner, he said. I never knew that. You never asked me, said Gemma. She smiled at Luke, a long, slow, warm smile.


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[Assistant] Wow, he said again. I never saw your eyes before. They're beautiful.


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[Assistant] Gemma laughed. I wear glasses at work, she said. That's why.


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[Assistant] Hey, you're tired. You just ran a race. Let's sit down.


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[Assistant] They sat down on a low wall together. Around them, other people talked about the race. But Luke and Gemma did not hear them or see them. They sat quietly, and Gemma drank some water.


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[Assistant] Luke wanted to say a lot of things, but he could not find the right words. Then he opened his mouth, and all the right words came out.


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[Assistant] Jemma, have you got a bike? he asked. Yes, she said.


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[Assistant] Last year I went to Utrecht for a week in the summer and I went everywhere by bike. Do you like swimming?


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[Assistant] And you like black phoenix, and the tree rats. And dark water, said Jammer. They're like the tree rats, but better.


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[Assistant] Dark water? said Luke. I like them, they're really great. Hey, they're at the mountain club tonight. Would you like to, I mean, do you, you don't want to come with me, perhaps? Gemma laughed, a long happy laugh.


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[Assistant] Of course I want to, she said. What time shall we go?


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[Assistant] Two things, Luke thought. You only need two things, the right questions and the right answers.


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[Assistant] Chapter 4 Aladdin's Love Five years later, Aladdin had a shop in the market, and three market sellers worked for him.


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[Assistant] The sellers liked Aladdin because he was good to them. The market children liked Aladdin too.


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[Assistant] Because he gave them money when he walked past. Everybody liked Aladdin.


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[Assistant] Aladdin's mother never called her son a good for nothing now. They had a nice house near the gardens, and she had many beautiful things.


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[Assistant] But only Aladdin and his mother knew about the magic lamp and the genie.


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[Assistant] One day, Aladdin heard a noise in the street and stopped to listen.


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[Assistant] The Sultan's daughter is coming, he heard.


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[Assistant] Princess Badur Al-Budur is coming.


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[Assistant] Six slaves carried the princess through the streets in a litter. And the people stopped to watch. Princess!


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[Assistant] Princess Badur al-Budur, they called.


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[Assistant] Aladdin watched when the litter came past him, and he saw the princess's face. She was beautiful, with big dark eyes.


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[Assistant] The most beautiful woman in Arabia. The litter went past Aladdin.


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[Assistant] But for some minutes he did not move. Then he ran home.


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[Assistant] Mother! Mother! I saw the Sultan's daughter!


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[Assistant] Princess Badur al-Budur, in the street. Aladdin's face was white.


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[Assistant] I must have the princess for my wife. But Aladdin, his mother began, no buts, mother.


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[Assistant] I love the princess, and I want to marry her.


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[Assistant] Go to the Sultan and ask for me. Me?


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[Assistant] Go to the Sultan's palace? Ho ho, no, no, no, Aladdin's mother said. Listen, my son.


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[Assistant] The daughters of a sultan do not marry poor boys from the city.


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[Assistant] But we are not poor now, Mother.


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[Assistant] And we can give the Sultan something for his daughter. Wait. Aladdin went away and got the fruit from the magic garden under the ground.


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[Assistant] Now, of course, he knew it was not fruit, but white, red, green, and yellow jewels. Take these jewels, mother, on a gold plate, he said, and give them to the Sultan. So the next day,


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[Assistant] Aladdin's mother carried a gold plate with many beautiful jewels on it to the Sultan's palace. She went into a long room, but when she saw the Sultan, his vizier, and all his slaves, she was very afraid.


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[Assistant] So she waited quietly in the room and spoke to nobody.


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[Assistant] In the evening she went back home again with the jewels.


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[Assistant] Aladdin was very angry with her.


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[Assistant] Mother, you must speak to the Sultan, he said.


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[Assistant] I have no father to do this for me. You must help me. I must marry the princess. I love her. So the next day, and for many days after that, Aladdin's mother went to the palace.


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[Assistant] But she was always afraid to speak. In the end,


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[Assistant] The Sultan saw her and asked his vizier, Who is that woman?


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[Assistant] Why does she come to the palace every day? The vizier spoke to Aladdin's mother.


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[Assistant] The Vizier took Aladdin's mother to the Sultan.


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[Assistant] And she put her head on the ground at his feet.


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[Assistant] Why do you come here every day? The Sultan asked. Speak, woman. Your Majesty, Aladdin's mother said quietly, I have a son, a good young man. He is called Aladdin. He loves your daughter.


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[Assistant] Princess Badur al-Budur.


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[Assistant] He cannot sleep or eat because of her. He wants to marry her. The Sultan laughed. Hahaha. What? Marry my daughter? Your son? Your Majesty, these jewels are for you, from my son, Aladdin. And Aladdin's mother,


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[Assistant] Put the gold plate with the jewels in front of the Sultan's feet. Everybody looked at the jewels.


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[Assistant] And the long room was suddenly very quiet. Then the Sultan spoke.


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[Assistant] These are very beautiful jewels, he said.


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[Assistant] No man in Arabia has jewels more wonderful than these.


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[Assistant] A good husband for my daughter.


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[Assistant] The vizier did not like to hear this.


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[Assistant] Because he wanted the Princess to marry his son. Your Majesty, he said quietly in the Sultan's ear.


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[Assistant] Your son must wait for three months.


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[Assistant] And then, perhaps, he can marry my daughter.


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[Assistant] Aladdin's mother went home to tell Aladdin.


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[Assistant] And the Vizier went away to speak to his son. And every day, for two months, the Vizier's son came to the Sultan and gave him gold and jewels and many beautiful things.


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[Assistant] For two months Aladdin waited happily. But one day his mother came home from the market and said, Oh, Aladdin, Aladdin, the princess.


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[Assistant] Is going to marry the vizier's son. I heard it in the market. Everybody's talking about it. When Aladdin heard this, he was very unhappy. What can I do? He thought. He put his head in his hands and thought for a long time. And when night came,


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[Assistant] He took out the magic lamp and rubbed it.


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[Assistant] What is your wish, master? said the genie of the lamp.


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[Assistant] Bring Princess Badur al-Budur to me, said Aladdin. To hear is to obey. In a second, the genie was back.


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[Assistant] With the princess asleep in his arms. He put her carefully on a bed. And then the princess opened her eyes and saw Aladdin.


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[Assistant] Who are you? She asked, afraid. Aladdin took her hand and looked into her eyes. My name is Aladdin, and I love you, he answered. I cannot live without you, and I want to marry you.


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[Assistant] Badur al-Budur saw the love in his eyes and smiled. She closed her eyes again, then


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[Assistant] The Ginny carried her back to the Sultan's palace. The next morning, she remembered Aladdin's eyes.


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[Assistant] There is no love in the eyes of the vizier's son, she thought.


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[Assistant] He thinks only of gold and of jewels.


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[Assistant] So the princess went to her father.


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[Assistant] I do not want to marry the vizier's son, she said.


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[Assistant] My daughter wants to marry this man Aladdin.


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[Assistant] He is a rich man, it is true. But who is he? Ask him, said the vizier quickly.


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[Assistant] For more of those beautiful jewels on forty gold plates and forty slave girls with forty slaves. Nobody is that rich. Very good, smiled the Sultan and said to his slaves,


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[Assistant] Bring Aladdin's mother to me. When Aladdin's mother arrived, the Sultan said, So.


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[Assistant] Your son wants to marry my daughter.


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[Assistant] But first, he must give me...


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[Assistant] 40 gold plates with jewels. 40 slave girls.


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[Assistant] With forty slaves must carry the plates to me. Then.


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[Assistant] My daughter can be his wife.


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[Assistant] Aladdin's mother went home and told her son. And Aladdin smiled.


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[Assistant] This was easy for the Ginny of the lamp, of course. And the next day, when Aladdin went to the palace,


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[Assistant] Everybody in the city came out to watch.


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[Assistant] First came forty slave girls in dresses of gold.


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[Assistant] And every girl carried a gold plate with wonderful jewels on it.


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[Assistant] After them walked forty slaves in coats of gold. And last came Aladdin.


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[Assistant] On a beautiful white horse.


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[Assistant] What do you say now? The Sultan said quietly to the vizier.


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[Assistant] When he saw all these wonderful things.


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[Assistant] Aladdin must marry my daughter. How can I say no?


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[Assistant] And the Sultan went to Aladdin and took his hands. My son, he said, you can marry my daughter tonight. Tomorrow, your majesty, said Aladdin, because before I marry your daughter, she must have a palace, the most


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[Assistant] Beautiful palace in Arabia.


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[Assistant] And the next morning, the Sultan saw from his window a beautiful new palace.


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[Assistant] That night, Aladdin married Badur al-Budur.


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[Assistant] And they lived happily in the new palace.


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[Assistant] But in reality, these are poor people with no choices.


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[Assistant] But these places are not unfamiliar to me, because since the age of six, I accompanied my father, a doctor, who treated patients in the slums of Bombay.


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[Assistant] Wanting to do something about these habitats, Aydat has decided to become an architect.


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[Assistant] But quite early on, I realized that the beauty of architecture was only for the rich. So I decided to do urban planning.


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[Assistant] And joined an NGO in India that works with the urban poor who organize themselves to access basic services such as water, sanitation and housing for poor living in cities.


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[Assistant] I unlearned many things, but there are two myths about the poor that I would like to share that we live with.


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[Assistant] The first myth is a perception that migration of poor people into cities is a problem. Is migration really a choice?


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[Assistant] This is the Mumbai International Airport. All that you see in blue are large informal settlements around it. Close to 75,000 people live here. So who are these people?


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[Assistant] We professionals love to make choices for others, especially for the poor. Let me share an experience.


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[Assistant] In a workshop that looked at designing 250 new houses for poor families from a slum nearby, there were different building materials that were presented.


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[Assistant] But during this presentation, a lady from the slum humbly spoke up, and she asked the presenter, would you choose to live in it?


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[Assistant] So should we force our choices on them, or should we broaden their choices?


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[Assistant] Now, they faced constant evictions, and in response to it, they organized a women's network called Mahila Milan.


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[Assistant] Not only did they fought against evictions with those in power, saved money and bought land, but they also designed and helped construct their own houses. Well, these were illiterate women, so how did they do that?


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[Assistant] And everybody loved this option that had a loft in it, simply because it did two things. One, it accommodated larger families to sleep in. And two,


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[Assistant] It allowed home-based work, such as bangle making, jewelry designing, embroidery, stitching, packaging items, et cetera.


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[Assistant] Now these are smaller examples. Let me share some larger contexts.


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[Assistant] So what do cities and those in power choose to deal with them?


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[Assistant] They move them into vertical housing, which in reality looks like this.


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[Assistant] On one hand, poor people are not involved in the participation of design, and there is poor quality of construction. And on the other hand,


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[Assistant] They do not understand how to do maintenance. You know, keeping bills, keeping records, forming societies, this is all very difficult for them.


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[Assistant] Now what happens if cities and governments could work together, if governments acknowledge poor people and they could build it together? This is Mukuru.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So to give us a glimpse, this is the condition of housing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And pay nine times more than what anybody else in the city could pay. Simply because there is no water infrastructure and water is sold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Many come back from work to find out that their houses do not exist, because they've either been bulldozed or they've been burnt down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they presented this with the government of Nairobi. And for the first time in history ever, a city has agreed to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which means that people could come up with their own plan. People could decide to come up with their own norms and standards. Because the standards that work for the formal citizens do not work in informal settings. So what does that mean, to give us an instance?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If these are roads in Mukuru, you can see that there are houses along both sides of the road. Now, in order to bring in a city bus,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As per the standards, planners would have gone for a luxurious 25-meter-wide road. Now that would mean


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So instead of doing that, we came up with a 12-meter-wide road which had the structures intact and bought the city bus without compromising on much services.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On another instance, let's talk about community toilets. You know, in high-density areas where there is no scope for individual toilets, like the public toilets that we have here. So we would go for a male section and a female section. But imagine the situation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the morning, rush hours to the toilet when everybody is in intense pressure to relieve themselves. And if you're standing in a queue of 50 people and there is a child standing behind an adult, who wins? Children end up squatting outside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's why women decided to come up with a separate squatting area for children. Now, who could have thought of something like that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The idea here is that when poor people choose, they choose better. They choose what works for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead of choosing what is right for people, for the poor, let's acknowledge and empower their choices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that is how we can build better and inclusive cities for tomorrow, completing the imagery of cities built by the choices of its own people. Thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I'm a crime cook and pushing myself outside my comfort zone is really important.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My caramelised white chocolate has been simmering on the stove. It's thickened up really nicely and developed a really beautiful, rich caramelised flavour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I strain it through a sieve into a tray and pop it into the blast chiller to cool down before I can use it for the 3D printer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could buy an eggs, sugar, butter, lemon juice and zest.


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[Assistant] I've never worked with nitrogen in my life. So this is quite a nerve wracking experience. This isn't working.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Too much of the mixture comes out at once and you need to get perfect spheres. So I scoop the ruined mixture out, I throw it onto the bench and I start over.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm really happy with the fennel shots, they look perfect, and now I've gotta move on to my ginger snow.


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[Assistant] Everything needs to be exact, otherwise it's going to not reference Brendan's and I don't want to go home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but my internal shots aren't in the freezer. Time's up and...