Rashomon and Benjamin

After watching the Japanese movie, Rashomon, and reading the article by Walter Benjamin, the relation was evident in that the movie provided an example to the text by Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." He states that art has always been something that was reproducible or replicable by others. It's also interesting to know that many of what we have grown up with such as videos and cameras were not available in earlier times. They had to use other methods and means to reproduce a work of art.Benjamin mentions how it started off with engraving then print and then the invention of lithography moving on to the emergence of photography. With this capability, people were able to create films such as Rashomon and share it with other cultures. He also mentions that although it is great to be able to reproduce a piece of art,there are certain elements that are lost from the original piece. The film Rashomon therefore, is shown in its original black and white format only the the fact of subtitles. Although the film was not viewed how it was originally viewed when it first came out, I still sensed it originality and uniqueness.

The Work of Art & Rashomon

Watching the movie, Rashomon was very hard for me. Having the whole movie be in Japanese was difficult because I couldn't read the subtitles and watch the movie at the same time. Some of the parts, I had to rewind and re-watch because it just didn't hit home. The plot was very twisted and it was pretty cool to see the different points of perspective through the other people. The Work of Art wasn't as bad to read as previous texts but focused on, what I thought, was the different types of arts and how it affects the world and society we live in today.

Readings

S/Z was painful for me. I usually don't mind dry text, but the language of this just felt like hitting a mental brick wall, repeatedly. The intro to Rewriting, on the other hand, helped shape the concepts I was tentatively taking from S/Z. Initially, the idea of writing needing to prompt an interactive response from a reader sounded narrow-minded--but the clearer idea from Rewriting seems to be this: Readers are filters, and when they intake written pieces they inevitably are a part of considering, challenging and deriving/applying meaning to the material. This makes sense; it's a concept I can get behind.

Reading Strategies

The readings this time around made me more aware of the infinite possibility that writing contains. The Pillow Book could be written by any person in any period of time and if written as well as the original it could hold just as much weight and meaning. Each person has a perspective, another story to add to “all the world’s stories” and The Pillow Book does a good job at mapping out many of them from one perspective, just as in 1001 Arabian Nights. Through rereading ,evaluating, and trying to interpret every meaning or story that can be found writers of the future can determine what stories need to be told, what stories haven’t been told, and what people need to see in their own beans.

The Pillow Book, Rewriting, etc.

It so happens that I found the readings for tomorrow more enjoyable than the others scheduled so far. Maybe enjoyable is not the correct word, perhaps, relatable is more appropriate. The Pillow Book, with its modernish take on reality. A reality described entirely through the eyes of a narrator, so a reality that cannot be totally trusted is interesting to interpret. How much of what is described is truth? How close is it to the truth? We can never really know and that is what is so interesting, literature is only what we make it.

The Pillow Book & S/Z

I found the three pieces assigned to read much more enjoyable this week than last week’s. One reason The Pillow Book was more enjoyable was probably because I was finally given the background of the story and the circumstances in which she was writing. I loved how some of the entries were lists and the writer’s personality was really able to shine through. The Pillow Book became more interesting when I was able to look at it like “a written blog” (like someone had mentioned in class.) Keeping a diary with the intentions of publishing your thoughts was probably a very new idea back then. In reading S/Z I was most drawn to the part talking about re-reading. I find myself having to go back and re-read a text many times. I don’t particularly like doing it, but I feel that if I don’t I won’t be able to understand.

S/Z, Rewriting & The Pillow Book

Of the three pieces we read for today, I found S/Z and Rewriting the most interesting because they expand the understanding of what literature really is; I am confounded by how much literature includes. Just about everything we do in daily life is, in some form, an aspect of literature. Rewriting also contained some interesting points I will keep in mind for future reading and personal writing. The second excerpt from The Pillow Book sort of reemphasized what the other readings mentioned. Specifically, it proves that everyday life is literature and everything that can be produced into to writing to be read is literature. Literature’s boundaries are so endless and I think all three pieces we read illustrate that.