These are the postgraduate halls. This is the kingdom of postgraduates. Foreign, mostly. Very international. Drawn to the university because of its reputation, or they used to be.
The president of Congo used to live here. Kim Jong-Un, probably. And some of those WEF-trained Young Global Leaders. That Swedish guy who stopped lockdowns. Several African presidents – you know, the ones who were assassinated.
It was a veritable postgraduate hothouse. A postgraduate warren. Used to be completely thronged. Used to be a postgraduate hothouse. A postgraduate warren. Until the Chinese stopped coming. People will forget that there even were postgraduates.
Which is why the uni’s so skint. They’ll probably sell off the halls soon. All this real estate.
There’s a real last days feel to this building. It’s not going to last.
They’re not maintaining it anymore. They’re not carrying out basic repairs.
That’s because it’s deliberately being ruined.
The university will sell it off, anyway. A prime site. Right next to St James’s Park. And Leazses Park. And the tennis courts. Centre of the city. Elegant buildings. Georgian …
Corridors.
The hall’s echoey now, right?
Sleeping bags.
They’re occupying it, a whole load of them, it looks like.
This is, like, the last revolt of the postgraduates. The final effort of the humanities postgraduate. Their last gasp.
They want to renew it all. Let the humanities be reborn.
I think the paragraduates will be here tonight.
The paras? I thought they’d disappeared.
They might be living up here. They might have moved in here now. They’re mysterious. They come and go, you know that.
It’s their kingdom now. It’s like a squat …
They could start a new civilization here. It could all begin here. Another way of life.
No one lives here, surely? They used to live underground. They’re used to anything.
At least they live above ground now. At least they can get some vitamin C.
The sound of dripping water. I think they must like water.
There’s a leak. It’s actually raining in this room.
Why don’t they fix it?
All these pools of water. How come it’s leaking?
The roof. I don’t know.
I think they want it to leak.
It’s so damp. How come they haven’t died of TB, or whatever? It’s not hygienic. It’s no good for us. Everything is theirs, in the mode of not being theirs. They use things – they don’t possess them.
And that goes for their thought, too. They’d never publish a book. Never write things down – their findings. The testimony to their thought is their life. And vice versa.
They’re a school of philosophy – but a non school of non-philosophy.
It’s completely flooded.
Walk through the puddles! Never mind your shoes. The parargaduates are watching. Testing us. All of this is a test. How we comport ourselves to their … building. Their ruin …
They don’t think of it as a ruin. It’s an opening up. An … exposing.
Exactly!
Open doors. A room is full of sand. Of mini sand dunes.
It’s like some giant art installation.
Won’t it get very cold in winter?
They’ll have abandoned it by then. Moved on.
There are no stairs anymore. Seems impractical. There are ladders …
Have they pulled away the plaster? They … have. But why?
This is restoration, paragraduate style.
Iron bedframes, stacked up.
The tiled floor – underwater.
And there are fish. Where did they get the fish from?
There’s grass growing – a kind of grass.
Brick pillars. Bottles, left standing in the rain. Vases. Why do they want to catch the water? Standing in puddles of water.
A pile of bikes. Of e-scooters.
Empty bottles, in various colours. Standing under the rain.
Devil’s ivy growing everywhere.
The courtyard used to be enclosed … Now it’s open. Now the building’s part of the courtyard. Or the courtyard is part of the building.
And the electricity doesn’t seem to be working, not really. That light is just … flashing.
What do they live on? How do they survive?
What’s the opposite of regeneration?
Degeneration. That’s what’s happened here.
I’ll bet Cicero’s here. This is the kind of place she’d hole up. And Herwig, for that matter.
Look – a well. What’s a well doing here? Did they dig a well? It looks deep.
Drop a stone down.
There are birds … flying indoors. Or is this outdoors?
Are these wild dogs? They’re the paragraduates’ dogs. Bred underground.
I’ve never seen this breed of dog before.
Work in Progress 