Mao II and Optic Consumption
\nWhenever two distinct cultures come into contact with one another, there is always resistance \u2013 either resistance to assimilate, resistance to acknowledge the other culture\u2019s traditions, or whatever. Generally such an encounter results in consumption. One culture consumes the other, the other\u2019s traditions\/artifacts, or the other\u2019s land. The bigger the gap between cultures, the messier the encounter seems to be, historically speaking \u2013 Europe and Africa, Europe\/America with Native Americans, Brits and India, Spain and Anything South of Texas,\u2026etc\u2026add technology to the mix and things can get really out of hand.<\/p>\n
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\nImagine, its like 1840something and you and your tribe are living somewhere in present day Idaho \u2013 your day consists mainly of getting food, taking care of your family, sleep, etc and a stranger, who looks nothing like you or your friends and has this crazy machine that flashes and makes your face appear on paper. How would you rationalize that? Sure it might seem primitive (though to be honest I still don\u2019t understand the logistics of film and cameras) to conclude that said machine has somehow trapped or stolen your \u201csoul,\u201d but is the idea that a photograph or photographer can connote some kind of ownership, really that crazy?
\nThe motifs of mass vs anonymity in Mao II are fairly evident and the consequences, or the \u201cnext step\u201d inferences\/reaction from\/to such a situation \u2013 the inability to be recognized in a crowd, the desire to be isolated, etc \u2013 are present in the text. But more interestingly to me, is the focus on photography and its implications. Brit, a major character is a photographer\u2026that\u2019s gotta mean something right? Sure\u2026but first let\u2019s consider the \u201cmagic\u201d of photography.<\/p>\n
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\nSci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke (2001: A space odyssey\/the sentinel) offered the following statement as one of his \u201claws\u201d of future prediction: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So is it insane for the Native Americans to conclude that a photo can steal\/imprison one\u2019s soul? If we\u2019re dealing in a world of \u201cmagic\u201d that seems plausible. Or consider the practice of the voodoo doll \u2013 a likeness of an enemy can act as a sort of psychic remote control, giving complete ownership to the doll\u2019s creator. Or more recently, whether it should be termed postmodern, or pop art, or pastiche, or whatever, consider the re-appropriation of images of Mao\/Manson\/Hitler, whoever \u2013 using his likeness to subvert\/pervert\/remake their being. It\u2019s said that people don\u2019t just read books or look at art, but rather they consume\u2026with their eyes, rather than mouths. The act of photography (or other visual media) is the first step in a process of optic consumption.<\/p>\n
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\nBill, fears his picture being taken much like he is hesitant to release his newest work \u2013 presumably for the same reasons, that once both are no longer solely his own, they can be remade, subverted, perverted, reappropriated as the consumers see fit. He consents to a photograph under his own terms to, effectively, take control (yes a split infinitive!) over the frightening situation. Now I\u2019m not advocating that a camera actually captures some ethereal portion of our being, but if we look at other depictions of people via photograph, still or moving, we can see at least the political and social implications of reappropriation of another\u2019s image. Exp: Karen in the bedroom watching tv (with no sound so that she is able to re-author the scene) when film footage of a crowd appears. She describes a horrible writhing of thousands of people pressed into a fence and when it pauses into a still image, she describes it as a fresco in a tourist church..only as a master of the age could paint it. She redefines the image in her own terms but still the characters in said \u201cfresco\u201d remain anonymous in the crowd \u2013a girl\u2026men\u2026maleness\u2026etc \u2013 and she never speculates upon the event itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mao II and Optic Consumption Whenever two distinct cultures come into contact with one another, there is always resistance \u2013 either resistance to assimilate, resistance to acknowledge the other culture\u2019s traditions, or whatever. Generally such an encounter results in consumption. One culture consumes the other, the other\u2019s traditions\/artifacts, or the other\u2019s land. The bigger the … Continue reading Mao II and Optic Consumption<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[10,17,34,13],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-11-mao-ii","tag-film","tag-pastiche","tag-space","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2009\/660\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}