Sun Vampires Evaluation

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Samah Siddiqui

8/12/07

Sun Vampires Evaluation

The Big Issue is a magazine that is published so it can be sold by the homeless. It does not have a fixed fee; instead buyers are welcome to donate any sum they choose. Sold by the homeless at vendors, outside supermarkets and on the High Street, its buyers are usually young, sympathetic pedestrians, cyclists or shoppers who wish to help those who live on the street.

The magazine is aimed at a generally affluent, young adult audience and this is indicated by the reference to the popular celebrities of the time (Bros and Peter Andre), which most young adults would be aware of and interested in, and the inclusion of certain social issues, such as smoking and anorexia (applicable mainly to young adults). Also, the writer’s use of everyday language, for example “And let’s face it” and “fork out” (instead of formal language), relates to a younger audience. The informal language and light-hearted tone show that Williams expects her readers to be young and willing to read ‘lively’ articles rather than boring text. Her tone is persuasive and informal but with a serious note to her subject of ‘tanorexics’. She writes about tanorexics in a sort of sardonic way, as though implying that the typical reader is intelligent and sure to agree with her views on them.

‘Sun Vampires’ is a very strange, intriguing title. The image it evokes is quite unusual and striking as two very opposite, contrasting elements are being thrown together. The paradox is quite a clever way to attract readers and encourage them to read on, as vampires are usually associated with nighttime and the sun is fatal to them. It appeals to a young adult audience because they are usually very interested in horror and fantasy.

The sub-heading is a further ruse to attract the reader’s attention, as it does not clearly explain the subject of the article. It conjures a variety of images and makes the reader curious as to what the article may be about. “Desperate for a sun fix” makes a casual browser think of desperados looking for something to end their ‘misery’ – perhaps drugs or something similar. The word “incarcerated” brings to mind corpses, which makes the article’s subject seem even more sinister, from the first mention of “desperate for a sun fix”; this is cultivated by the use of the word “coffins”. The play-on-words, “tanorexics”, coined by Williams herself, suggested tanners with the desperation of anorexics. This further intensifies the reader’s interest as suntanning is not usually as serious an issue as anorexia. The use of anorexia here is very adroit as it is makes the situation more serious and also dangerous, rather than if Cayte had ‘invented’ the word “tan-aholics” for example. Finally, the phrase “hi-tech coffins” is used to make us feel as though sunbeds are a new way of killing humans. This escalates the situation because it gives the feeling of death and danger.

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The tone of this piece is generally light-hearted and humorous, but with a subtle mixture of seriousness and amusing expressions. The mood is cleverly set by Williams, who manages to manipulate our feelings by creating a more sombre tone for example when Jane Horwood is giving an account of her experiences with sunbed-tanning and also when the dermatologist gives us her views on the subject. The article switches between humour and gravity, but scorns sunbeds and their users throughout. This is immediately established in the first paragraph where Cayte Williams puts the reader into a sunbed and makes them feel ...

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