User:PaulRichmond
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Welcome to my user page.
I teach British and American studies and English at Copenhagen Business School, and Academic English to foreign exchange students at Copenhagen University, as well as working freelance.
I am currently writing a book (almost finished - awaiting suitable publisher - as of August 2005) about Nick Park's 1993 Oscar-winning animation The Wrong Trousers.
Most reviewers of The Wrong Trousers note subtle (and not so subtle) puns, in-jokes and references (in many cases the word allusions is more apt), but none has yet realised that these, taken together with a myriad of symbols and themes, form a coherent whole.
In particular, The Wrong Trousers uses allusion to many "classic" works, where Shakespeare's problem play "All's Well That Ends Well" is alluded to by verbatim citation of its title by Wallace, where Hans Cristian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes is alluded to visually by the bald Wallace drying his "hair" with a hair dryer, and where democracy is alluded to via Gromit's reading The Republic by Pluto (sic) (i.e. Plato). Although many commentators have noted various individual allusions in The Wrong Trousers, most take them only as innocent puns or in-jokes, not realising that, taken together, these allusions form other meanings (see intertextuality), and that The Wrong Trousers might be a well-disguised allegory or political satire.
My book reveals that The Wrong Trousers is actually a brilliant allegory and political satire on post-war Britain spanning a period from 1945-1979. It is my belief that The Wrong Trousers has all the credentials to become the new Animal Farm and that it should become part of the curriculum of high schools and universities around the world.
Recent geo-political events, such as 9/11 and the 2005 London bombings, reinforce the notion that The Wrong Trousers could also be seen albeit not quite as a metanarrative, but at least as a narrative that encompasses much broader spheres of history and geography than just post-war Britain, and this idea may be further developed in my book's final version.
In any case, The Wrong Trousers should be seen not only as a great animation but also as a supreme example of blending Art and Politics.
The Wrong Trousers as a political satire also points a finger at political correctness. My book asks why The Wrong Trousers was never promoted as a political satire. Do the plot and the puns, allusions and symbols have only coincidental coherence? Could it be that the forces of political correctness actually end up suppressing this work?
If that is the case, then The Wrong Trousers represents the supreme irony: a political satire on political correctness suppressed by political correctness itself!
As The Wrong Trousers touches upon race, discrimination and, in my interpretation, the welfare state, it is not hard to see why there may be a need to play down these aspects, especially as The Wrong Trousers was aimed essentially at a youth audience.
There could be other explanations for The Wrong Trousers having remained "merely" an animation. But I will not cease till I have uncovered the truth, or at least more closely approached it.
I am interested in establishing a dialogue with academics, educators, publishers etc who can see the potential in my ideas. Contact me at pr.ikl@cbs.dk
