Wu Song, (武松;) one of the main “heros” of Water Margin is a handsome literary errant “hero” who while drunk kills a man-eating tiger with his barehands, avenges his brother’s murder by cutting off the heads of his brother’s wife and her lover and setting up the go-between in their affair to be executed. Sent into exile Wu Song helps a roadhouse owner/neighborhood exortionist recover his stolen property by beating his rival for the extortion business into submission an! d Wu Song’s martial capabilities are inversely related to his sobriety.—the more wine the better he fights. Link to podcast in english
Wu Song by Janney
Water Margin, like many popular stories of ancient literature and today’s popular tv and film, romanticizes violence. Victims of corrupt authoritarian political systems. corrupt individuals using political power for their personal agenda, bribery, honor, police doing questionable tactics because the law prevents justice and personal bonds—a “brotherhood of heros” overcoming establishment evils.
Along Alameda Creek you can see people doing all kinds of everyday things. People like to be outside
The difference between books and movies, between print and visual story telling, is that while reading we are able to imagine these characters and the visual is within our own control, unconscious though may be and many people may read the same book but each with their own eyes.
But in tv and movies the role of the actor is to create a vicarious bond between the viewer and the player and to this end film and TV uses visual “stereotypes” with the heroes, no matter what kind of despicable scum they are, will generally be attractive, usually sexually, which is an LCD that works to consistently create the vicarious experience— i.e. the audience viewer feels in their heart that they are living this experience.
Films/TV use actors who have professionally prepared scripts with which they rehearse while receiving direction and when it is not right they do it over again until it gets right— right being that magic of a popular film to have the viewer identify vicariously..
Not everyone is affected the same way at a particular film, nor are individuals personally affected the same at different viewings. A variety of films offers a variety of experiences, but the most popular experiences will generally have more of “that which works stuff” to communicate the vicarious experience.
Its not always the exact same “stuff, ”elements such as fashion, style and technology may change without the “basic stuff” changing — controlling for change can give you some meaningful method to measure it.
And sow what? For most of us this visual violent behaviour is not part of our “real” everyday life but is part of our TV and film life.
One popular idea is that when people watch violence on TV, in a film, or at a sports event it enables them to sublimate their personal violent urges—Ah! Like watching people kill people on TV keeps me from becoming a serial killer, or maybe I would just be better off shopping.
But if I make photographs of people doing normal everyday things it enables me to sublimate those urges inside myself to be normal and encourages me to be abnormal.
Yuki daruma, a snow darama. In Japan Daruma is a visual representation of the man who brought Dyhana (Zen) Buddhism from India to China, (Chan) and has become associated with human spirit –“Nana korobi, ya oki”—“seven times down, eight times up!”
At a Chinese temple Daruma taught the monks meditation (Dyhana) by mediating for nine years, its called Wall Gazing, and during that time he lost the use of his legs???. In Japan the daruma figure has a rounded and weighted bottom, when tilted it will roll back to an upright position—–seven times down, eight times up. Yuki daruma are a favorite and children make them out of snow and tree branches
Maybe I was just born with that skill or perhaps its not really a gift from God but just some bad karma punishment from a previous life in my fantasy as an outlaw from Water Margin.
Are we having fun yet at the University of Toledo or just getting through the day? It could depend which side of the camera lens you are on. about 1968. Some of these people really want to be in the photograph.
On the other hand, Nietzsche, Freud and Marx arguing the social structure of modern society is the cause of self imposed internalized repression and except for the history, Buddha is also in this group— existence is illusion.
Acadia National Park about 1970
Nietzsche—only the individual can awaken him/herself to take control of their life; Freud—understanding your repression resulting from the process of civilization will enable you to awaken yourself and change your life;
Toledo Ohio, about 1969, this image reminds me of how easy is for me to be a jerk and how much I lose by doing so, one of the few time I saw him look so serious.
Marx—the agent of change is in the oppressed class awakening to their material conditions;
Buddha—Awaken the Buddha inside of you—the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering.many awakenings.
So much awakening , it makes me so tired I just want to go to sleep.
Seal Script (篆書/Zhuan Shu) is a very old technique to draw Chinese characters before brush and the strokes, originally drawn with a hard tool such as a stick are a consistent width. It is time consuming to execute well, and used for seals and for the visual feel of antiguity. Adapting the brush significantly changed the visual feel of the characters but this Seal Script has a feel of its own that is worth waiting fore.
The last lines of The Heart Sutra written in Seal Script by Janney.
snaegele EmptyPage Blog 