Carol Perry - University of Miami

Transcription

3 “The Return of Graphic Design” by Arin
Ely
12 “Fate” by Thomas Berry
19 “Political reform in Mexico” by Dante
Trevisani
28 “The Liar’s Paradox” by Chris
33 “Juana” by Adriana Jaramillo
36 “I’m Idle, Henry” by Carol Perry
47 “War-Time Edition” by John Russ
54 “Equine” by Lauren Tapsell
63 “Western World” by Catherine Grant
67 “Identities” by John Parkinson
73 “Truth” by Manuela Londoño
79 “Ukraine” by Daniel Pedreira
87 “Mona” by Aldo Quintanilla
91 “Contemporary” by Stephen Danyew
98 “Dolls” by Carol Perry
Confluence is a student-run undergraduate
humanities publication at the University of Miami. The opinions expressed herein are the sole
property of their authors and do not reflect
those of Confluence’s editors but may reflect
the crunch of the designer The editorial staff
reserves the right to alter submissions as it sees
fit. so get over it.
The Return of
Graphic Design
by
Arin Ely
In terms of studying art history, it can be noted that every
few years a new art trend develops. Right now the trend appears to be beauty returning to the art world. But before the
contemporary movement, art was promoted for being uninteresting, mediocre, unconventional, and imposing. Often,
art during these movements was characterized by appearing
challenging to its viewers, and by possessing discordance and
disharmony. It is important to know where beauty in design
went and why, and to understand why it is coming back.
GRAPHICS BY NEUS
3
Confluence VOLUME III FALL 2006
What is beauty?
In order to understand the return of beauty, one must first know
how to define it. During an interview,
Jeanne Silverthorne, a contemporary
artist, commented on beauty by saying
that it is familiar to us; “We recognize
it when we see it.” The experience felt
from beautiful art could be described
as ecstatic, encouraging one to search
for an art work of the same scale and
quality. Another contemporary artist,
Jackie Winsor, describes beauty in art
as having a healing power - an ability
to counterbalance the horrific. Beauty also has been known to influence a
better society, as if its appearance positively affects people and their lives.
These descriptions of beauty still
hold up today when one describes a
work of art that contains beauty, but in
terms of beauty making a return to art
and graphic design, the type of beauty
discussed is of a different breed. According to the article “The Appearance
of Beauty,” the returning beauty that
is referred to involves, “sensory, psychological, historical, theoretical, philosophical, political, and ethical” issues.
The new beauty that is coming back
in art is seen in many different genres,
from painting, and architecture, to
film, photography, and fashion design.
The new beauty’s elements include the
following characteristics:
“glistening surfaces and warm, intense
pinks, golds, fushias, yellows, reds,
greens, and blues like aqua marine and
ARIN ELY | THE RETURN OF GRAPHIC DESIGN
peacock. Abstraction is not ruled out,
but nature’s centraility is evident in the
almost omnipresent tree, fish, flower,
fruit, animal, sunset, insect, cell, fauna,
water, and even in the case of Wolfgang
Laib, pollen, milk and wax.”
Wolfgang Liab places beauty in
his art by incorporating natural materials that lack permanence. He uses
beeswax, pollen, and milk because they
are linked to the natural world, which
he views as beautiful. Light and clarity
imply a sense of divinity that is associated with the beautiful as well.
The opposite of beauty, ugliness,
also plays an important role in the issue
of beauty in graphic design. For many
artists, a problem they often faced in creating art was how to make it functional
and beautiful at the same time. The
ending result seemed to feel that “ugly”
art could inherently possess beauty.
Ugly art was defined by being functional, non-traditional, containing confusing
messages, and challenging for viewers
to look at. An example that represents
this cult of ugliness, is Output, a publication done by Cranbook students. The
reason it is termed “ugly” by some is
because it is an unbound composition of
fragmentary blips, words, and graphics.
The interesting thing about this type of
graphic design, is that it slowly assimilated into popular culture and became
the new style. It replaced the traditional
form of beauty, giving the new “ugly”
design a type of beauty in itself. Heller
stated that it is possible to assume that
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in several instances, what was on the
surface of an art piece or design, blinded one from seeing its inner beauty.
The problem with “ugly” art was that
it was often associated as the opposite
of beautiful art in that it was poorly
done. But, this association between
the two meanings is not necessarily
true.
What happened to beauty?
Ugly design was a result of a
few different movements that sought
to make a statement against what was
currently used in graphic arts. Modern
art, Dadaists, and Formalism, all helped
to change the perceptions on beautiful
art. It was not uncommon for the design to purposely shock its viewers in
an attempt to encourage them to think
beyond appearance, and to look at the
reasoning behind the presentation.
During World War I, the Zurich-based Dada movement heavily
influenced the suppression of beauty.
They responded to the war by striking
out against beauty in graphic design
to convey the message that they were
bitter and angry about the country’s
decision to engage in war. Their artistic behavior stemmed from their belief
at the time that beauty was bitter since
the same society who agreed with the
war, respected beauty. “In unleashing a terrible war, it abused justice,”
which, as a result, caused the Dada
artists to abuse beauty.
Artists often used the shock and
educate approach in their work in order
to encourage a different idea or thought.
Art works from the Dadaists are good
examples of this approach. The movement resulted from a group of artists
who had a moral reaction to WWI. Max
Ernst, who joined the Dadaists, claimed
that his works at the time were not
meant to attract viewers, instead they
were meant to “make people scream.”
Art was seen as a vessel of beauty until it was pronounced dead by the Dada
movement in 1922. A line from Danto’s
article clearly states the role art played
at the time:
“Rather than presenting an ennobling
vision, art became a means for showing
the moral ugliness of the society that
had put them through such hell.”
Art became extremely symbolic, carrying definite messages to convey to its
viewers. Since many of the messages of
the Dadaists were of disgust and anger
because of the war, beauty was no longer used in their art.
It is possible that the development of modern art in the nineteenth
century helped push the disappearance
of beauty in art and design. Modernism banished beauty in an attempt to
promote the sublime. It was noted in
“The Appearance of Beauty”, that “during the post modernist heyday of the
1980’s, beauty was not a word that we
often used or heard, except historically.”
Post modern artists used the power of
art to achieve political reform and transformation. Since art had the potential to
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be influential on society as a powerful
medium, post modernism took full advantage.
Formalism, following the post
modern era, also resulted in works
that conveyed everything but the historically beautiful. Formalism was a
movement that was flanked by artists
using their works to call attention to
manipulation, which was often associated as an ugly characteristic.
Dieter Roth, an artist who did
not want beautiful things to be a part
of his art, commented that as soon as
he found beauty in a piece, he would
stop making it. Several other artists at
the time of the banishment of beauty,
and still today, have deliberately tried
to create pieces that are strange, irregular, and not possessive of the historical beauty. Eva Hesse was another
artist who was against beauty in art,
and instead hoped to find something
original. Jackie Winsor, commenting
on Hesse and other artists, stated that
historically, artists spent a great deal
of time trying to create a non-art art.
Although so many artists have tried
to escape the beauty in their art, some
find it difficult to achieve the strangeness they seek, and instead end up
creating art that contains beautiful elements anyways. Some find that it is
beauty that is easy and natural to create because of its familiarity.
Artists such as Marcel Duchamp
pressed the logic of disinterestedness
that characterized “ugly” art at the
time. Duchamp’s readymades, such as
the Fountain, are good examples of art
that lacked historical beauty, yet they
gained what is deemed a “strange new
beauty.” Another type of art that is
similar to readymades, are photographs
of found objects. These photographs
involve little effort from the artists, lack
aesthetic quality, and are often characterized as uninteresting.
Is beauty making a return to graphic
design?
Although beauty is reemerging in
the graphic design field, it is the new age
beauty that is being referenced. It must
be remembered that beauty referred to
now is not the same as it was during the
Renaissance.
Within the last few years, there
has been a renewed plea to bring beauty back in the realm of abstract ideas.
The art forms developed by the Dadaists, formalists, and modernists have
developed to now possess some of the
elements of beauty that were long forgotten. Because of technological developments, specifically the invention of
the computer, artists have had windows
of opportunities opened for them when
it comes to creating art. Designs possessing harmony, perfection, and wholeness
are now much easier to create. Also, the
computer screen represents the equivalent to a glossy surfaced painting, which
relates to the definition of new beauty.
The computer’s ability to perfect images
and essentially improve what is real, relates to the concept of idealization that
6
is now obtainable to artists.
The ancient city of Avignon
held an exhibition that celebrated the
year 2000 called, “La Beaute en Avignon.” This demonstrated that beauty
was recognized as becoming important again in art. The exhibit featured
ranges of different types of art, associating the pieces with the artificial,
transformed, virtuous, and the natural,
alluding to the concept that beautiful
art could possess strange qualities and
still be considered beautiful.
Beauty has always been associated with nature. One example of an
artist who has influenced nature’s return in art, is Mariko Mori, who brings
back this aspect of beauty in her glass
photographs. She is interested in the
four natural elements of wind, water,
fire, and earth that maintain the natural balance.
Similarly to nature’s return, the
effect of light and color has gained importance recently alluding to the fact
that beautiful works are becoming
valuable to the art field once again. In
films, especially, the lighting and enhanced color helps to achieve a sense
of beauty. “The Thin Red Line,” produced in 1999, is a film that was said
to depict “pure visual poetry” with a
story that took place in the presence
of nature. The Japanese film, “Hero,”
is a good example of a deliberate attempt to create beautiful scenes of
nature through its vibrant colors. A
fight scene with bright red and orange
leaves was beautiful because of its depiction of nature.
Two works of art that come together displaying the perception of new
beauty, are “The Well-Tuned Piano”
by La Monte Young, and a light environment called, “The Magenta Lights,”
created by Marian Zazeela. The combination of these two works presents a
colorful light scheme of magenta, red,
and violet, fitting in with nature and
technology in one exhibition. The colors are representative of a sunset – a
characteristic of new beauty.
Did beauty ever fully escape?
Robert Bunkin, who wrote “The
Figure: It Never Left,” comments on
beauty saying that it never left the
thoughts of most artists, whether they
chose to oppose it or reinvent it. Several
artists who were attracted to strangeness
in art, couldn’t always escape beauty no
matter how much they tried. For some,
such as Eva Hesse, it was hard to detach it from their work, as if it were an
inherent part of creation. It should also
be noted that others have the opposite
problem. Jeanne Silverthorne claims
that she has spent her whole life trying
to make beautiful things and has had
a hard time being successful. Instead
she ends up with strangeness, which for
some happens naturally, while others
find beauty to be familiar and inescapable.
Even though for so long the name
“beauty” was not even mentioned by
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artists, one can see that works of art
continued to be beautiful, but in other ways. The beauty was sometimes
harder to find, but surely it was there.
Some feel that beauty is simply a part
of art and several artists entered the
business specifically for that reason,
knowing they could always create
beautiful things.
In terms of graphic design specifically, the modern era didn’t crush
beautiful design. The technology and
machinery made items such as furniture not simply functional and uninteresting, but made these items have
a certain appeal to be attractive for
consumers. Graphic design is a different form than fine arts because it
is driven by consumerism and keeping
customers happy, which often results
in beauty.
One must recognize that, quite
often, art work carries a social and political presence. It sometimes serves
the purpose to shock and educate its
viewers. Art work is driven by so
much more than simply the artist’s
thoughts and motions on the page.
Content and design can be pushed by
exterior social forces. An art historian, Arnold Hauser, wrote about this
issue, commenting on how hard it is
for art to stand alone. It rarely exists
for its own sake and instead is usually affected by a social value or issue,
even to the point of being made for the
purpose of performing a social function.
Jonathan Lang, a professor in New
York City, feels that beauty is in the eye
of the beholder. He comments that individual thought has reached its height,
which gives people a better ability than
ever before to interpret art and the
beauty that exists, or doesn’t exist, on
their own. The beauty Lang refers to
in his article is one that brings a kind of
ecstatic pleasure to its viewer’s senses.
This kind of beauty can only be felt by
the individual who is viewing a work of
art at a certain time and cannot result
from comparisons.
There have always been artists
who would create beautiful works no
matter what artistic movements were
unraveling before them, yet the historic
beauty that was once noted in almost
every piece of good art work, was suddenly not seen. Beauty was something
to be avoided. Beautiful art and design
was seen as amateur, remote, and uninteresting. Artists decided their work
should serve a deeper purpose than simply being pretty, and responded with
the opposite, ugliness
Artists are beginning to realize that
art can be beautiful and complex. It can
convey hidden messages and make bold
statements even if someone feels pleasure from looking at it. Today, artists
are merely pushing the limits, questioning purpose, and leaving beauty open to
revision.
9
Notes
1 Bunkin, Robert. “The Figure: It
Never Left.” Visual Culture AD.
http://www2.parsons.edu/visualculture/text/BUNKIN.html.
2 Siegel, Jeanne. “Eva Hesse’s Influence Today? Conversations with Three
Contemporary Artists.” The Art Journal. Vol. 63, no. 2. New York: College
Art Association, Summer 2004. 73.
3 Siegel, 78.
4 Chagnon-Burke, Veronique, and
Mary Donahue. “The Appearance of
Beauty.” Visual Culture AD. http://
www2.parsons.edu/visualculture/
editorial/%20main%20/frame.html
5 Chagnon-Burke.
6 Kaufman, John. “And Why Be
Afraid of Beauty?” Visual Culture
AD. http://www2.parsons.edu/visualculture/text/KAUFMAN.html
7 Heller, Steven. “Cult of the Ugly.”
Eye. No. 9, Vol. 3, 1993. http://www.
typotheque.com/articles/cult_of_ugly.
html
8 Danto, Arthur C., “Kalliphobia in
Contemporary Art.” The Art Journal.
Vol. 63, no. 2. 27.
9 Danto. 25.
10 Heller.
11 Danto, 26.
12 Ibid.
13 Chagnon-Burke.
14 Danto, 27.
15 Chagnon-Burke.
16 Bunkin.
17 Danto, 28.
18 Siegel, 78-81.
19 Iversen, Margaret. “Readymade,
Found Object, Photograph.” The Art
Journal. Vol. 63, no. 2. New York: College Art Association, Summer 2004. 48.
20 Alberro, Alexander. “Beauty Knows
No Pain.” The Art Journal. Vol. 63, no.
2. New York: College Art Association,
Summer 2004. 37-40.
21 Chagnon-Burke.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Bunkin.
27 Siegel, 81.
28 Chagnon-Burke.
29 Ibid.
30 Lang, Jonathan S., “Placing a Finger
on Beauty in the Digital Age: Understanding anew that Beauty is in the eye
of the beholder.” Visual Culture AD.
http://www2.parsons.edu/visualculture/text/beauty%20in%20the%20digit
al%20age.html
31 Chagnon-Burke.
32 Lang.
10
CONFLUENCE LIGHTS YOUR TEMPLE.
tHOMAS bERRY
Fate, Facism and Free Will
“You will,’ answered the Cavaliere,
‘make my task somewhat more difficult thereby. As for the result, your
resistance will not alter it in the least.
Freedom exists, and also the will exists; but freedom of the will does not
exist, for a will that aims at its own
freedom aims at the unknown.”
- Thomas Mann – Mario and the Magician
Thomas Mann, the skilled German
novelist and winner of the noble prize
in literature, expertly layers his writing, so moral and philosophical questions are presented to the reader in a
subtle but very effective manner. Each
of his stories is beautifully intertwined
with thoughts on themes relevant today, many of which are universal and
others are unique to his homeland of
Germany. Through Mann’s stories, the
contemporary reader receives a deep
insight into a time long past. Though
the writing is not always about history,
it is rich in history. One is transported
by Mann into the time and setting of
the work.
Three of his stories in particular
reveal brilliant images of Mann’s time;
they capture themes not often expressed so well in other literary works
of the period and expressed too bluntly in historical texts, without the richness of social interaction and individu-
al experiences and relationships. Tonio
Kroger deals with the German bourgeoisie and artistic strife in a socially stratified atmosphere. Death in Venice also
deals with bourgeois morality and ethics but also reveals the deterioration and
decay of a rational mind. Though written before World War I, Mann gives the
reader the social and moral background
that helps him or her understand some
of the underlying causes of that conflict.
Mario and the Magician deals with the
threat and deceit of fascism and how it
corrupts a society.
Tonio Kroger provides and insightful example of identity crisis. The main
character, Tonio, knows he is a member of the bourgeoisie but realizes he
does not fit particularly well into that
class. This crisis stems largely from his
upbringing as the conflicted son of the
archetypical authoritarian father of the
German upper-class and a more creative
and artistic mother who plays piano
and mandolin. He is constantly fighting
with an inherent desire to live up to the
differing demands of both worlds. This
presents an immediate conflict, as his
artistic interests do not coincide with
his peers. He has thoughts which do not
conform to normal bourgeois morality.
Even his name, Tonio (of foreign origin)
separates him from the rest. From the
onset Tonio struggles to find his place in
12
the world of German bourgeoisie.
Though Tonio feels out of place in
the upper-middle class, he has a great
admiration for them and a desire to
be like them even though it is at odds
with his own sensual disposition. This
is a reflection of Mann’s own love for
the class of which he was a part, and
for a way of living that vanished after
the World Wars. It is no surprise that
Tonio’s seemingly homoerotic esteem
for his friend Hans Hansen is partially
based on the fact that Hans represents
much of what the bourgeois class represents. It is, of course, based partially
on Mann’s own sexuality. Hans is a
good student, takes riding lessons, and
goes rowing, sailing and swimming. In
short he is “always doing something
suitable, something everyone respects.”
Of course his unnaturally strong love
for Hans alienates Tonio even further.
Tonio admits to having a mind “full
of things no one else thinks about.”
This reveals his own awareness of
his identity crisis. Naturally he tries
somehow to fuse these two aspects of
himself, aspects which represent two
diametrically opposed facets of German society, the bourgeois and the
bohemian.
In attempting to reconcile this internal schism Tonio projects his own
dilemma onto those closest to him.
Hans and Inge, members of the upper
echelon of society, are not concerned
with Tonio’s poems, or the books
he’s reading. He hides the fact that
tHOMAS bERRY | Fate, Facism and Free Will
he writes poems from his schoolmates.
Hans feigns interest in Don Carlos, a
book Tonio is mad about. Tonio realizes
a little later in life that Inge, the object
of his desire at the time, is unconcerned
with the publishing of his poems. On
the other hand, when Tonio becomes
involved with the artist Lisaveta, who
truly understands Tonio’s sensual side,
he eventually finds her “invariably commonplace and unserviceable” because
she is absent the bourgeois upbringing
and manners he respects. She too finds
him to be merely a “bourgeois who has
taken the wrong turning…a bourgeois
manqué.” By the end of the story, it
becomes clear to Tonio that the two
sides of his inner-self are incompatible
and it deeply depresses him to the point
of resignation.
Tonio writes to Lisaveta: “I stand
between two worlds, I am at home in
neither, and this makes things a little
difficult for me. You artists call me a
bourgeois, and the bourgeois feel they
ought to arrest me…” Tonio rightfully
compares himself at times to Hamlet and
other tragic figures of literature. The
stratification of German society had no
place for a man like Tonio who tried to
bridge the chasm. In the end he had no
choice but to resign himself to a fate as
one who slipped between the social strata, leaving him with no definitive role in
a world so defined by class and custom.
In Death in Venice, Thomas Mann
uses Gustav Aschenbach as an allegory
to the declining of civilization into im-
13
morality and decadence (and in reality
into World War I). From the beginning
of the book, Aschenbach feels the need
to escape to new surroundings. This is
understandable, considering the political climate of the time. From the very
first line of the story Mann calls it: “the
year in which for months on end so
grave a threat seemed to hang over the
peace of Europe.” This immediately
sets the tone, which grows more portentous throughout the work. For the
upright, restrained, bourgeois Aschenbach whose “ancestors had been military officers, judges, government administrators; men who had spent their
disciplined, decently austere life in the
service of king and state,” the decision
to go to Venice represents being lured
toward moral decay.
Much like Tonio Kroger, the seeds
of Aschenbach’s despair were planted
when his father married a sensual and
exotic artist from the south. The odd
red-haired man who coaxes Aschenbach to travel to Venice (and who is
likely a depiction of Satan, and who
returns in similar form as a Gondolier in Venice) tips the balance of restraint and impulse too far. It sets him
on the path of deterioration. Everything Mann writes about Venice tells
the reader it is a symbol of corruption
and menace. The overcast sky upon
Aschenbach’s arrival, the old man on
the boat who has lost all dignity, the
Gondolier (mentioned above) who temporarily abducts Aschenbach and tells
him “You will pay signore!” Aschenbach even goes as far to make the connection from Greek mythology between
the Gondola ride and a journey through
Hades. It is so relaxing that Aschenbach does not even bother to protest
much. This implies that he is willing
to go along with the corruption. It is a
corruption that Mann seems to assert is
inherent in the south, unlike northern
European, epitomized by Prussia and
the Junker class.
Aschenbach would begin a slow
decay. It would come in the strangely
pure form of a young boy. He develops
a fascination and eventually disturbing
obsession with the 14-year old Polish
boy whose name is revealed as Tadzio.
The obsession begins as an artistic appreciation and a desire “to take the boy’s
physique for a model as he wrote, to let
his style follow the physique for a model which he saw as divine.” However, it
becomes quickly apparent that Aschenbach’s attraction to Tadzio is more than
artistic. He secretly admits his love for
the boy one night while alone in a garden. In these images Mann seems to be
illustrating the faltering foundations of
the old regime in Aschenbach’s slow degeneration from his role as the representative of the privileged class by the corruption of art and passion as symbolized
by Tadzio.
The metaphor of decay is further
reinforced by the news of a cholera epidemic that storms Venice coinciding
with Aschenbach’s growing obsession.
14
It is the disintegration of the disciplined
and austere world of bourgeois morality into passionate, artistic, corruption.
It is further exemplified by Italian officials trying to cover up the danger of
disease. Aschenbach becomes infected.
In his final moments he finds himself
fantasizing about being alone with
Tadzio in the Cholera ridden Venice,
having many adventures carefree of
the danger.
As Mann has led the reader to expect all along, Aschenbach grows seriously ill and dies from the Cholera. In
the end he pays for his corruption. His
death is an apparent symbol and prediction of the ultimate collapse of the
old regime which would be realized
after World War I. Upon the signing
of the Treaty of Versailles the German
ruling classes would be forever discredited and would slowly fade away
into history.
Of significantly more historical
relevance, one of Mann’s later works,
Mario and the Magician is an allegory of the dangers of fascism. Mann,
who wrote this novella in 1930, was
conscious of the growing threat of fascism in Germany and Italy under Hitler and Mussolini. Though Mario and
the Magician takes place in Italy it is
meant as a universal caution against
this fascist movement that was gaining momentum. By 1930 in Germany
the Nazi party was already receiving
20-30 percent of the vote across nearly
all the German states. By the elections
1932 the Nazis would receive an astonishing 38 percent and become the most
popular single party in the Weimar republic. Less than a full year later Hitler
would become chancellor and it would
be all downhill from there. Mario and
the Magician and its ominous message
about the lack of freedom of choice are
therefore a dark preview of the inevitable rise of Hitler. The Magician, Cipolla,
who is the symbol of fascism says, “As
for the result, your resistance would not
alter it in the least.” This implies that
the pull of fascism is greater than one
man’s resistance to it, as if it is predetermined in our fates.
In Mario and the Magician, Mann uses
a German family on vacation in a small
Italian town on the Tyrrhenian Sea with
which to convey his message. From the
outset Mann foreshadows evil. He sees
a preordained tragedy on the horizon.
The family has several bad encounters
in the town of Torre di Venere, almost
premonitions, before they encounter
Cipolla the Magician. In an altercation
at their first hotel, a woman complains
about their child’s cough. Despite a doctor’s assurance that the child is no threat
to public health they are removed from
their room. This first episode illustrates
the beginning of a departure from rationality. Though the child poses no
danger the staff still maintains that the
family should leave. Later on the beach,
when the father (and narrator) allows
his eight-year old daughter to remove
her bathing suit briefly to clean sand
15
from it, the family is harassed by locals and authorities and fined for what
seems like a ridiculous and victimless
crime. It is here that Mann hints at
one of the traits of fascist thinking,
fervent nationalism. Those locals,
who harangue the family, accuse them
of having “criminally injured, not only
the letter and spirit of the public bathing regulations, but also the honour of
Italy.” The concerned citizens make
an absurd charge, but Mann uses it to
demonstrate how unchecked, passionate nationalism leads to irrationality,
and, as shown later, to fascism.
The historical context is clear. Hitler based his party and his success on
a strong feeling of national pride. It
was said that the seeds of Nazism were
sewn with the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles, when such a harsh punishment was forced upon Germany that
the entire nation was outraged. It is no
coincidence that the Magician constantly recites his love for the “fatherland”
and uses shrewd tactics and sleight of
hand to win the crowd. The narrator
observes Cipolla, a very masterful orator, using rhetoric to put down those
in the audience who challenge him and
try to make him look foolish. He turns
it around to make them look foolish.
All the while he constantly maintains
that regardless of any active resistance,
the outcome will be the one he desires.
The narrator watches as he hypnotizes
the audience, captivates them, turning them into his tools. They can do
nothing to stop him. The narrator describes the whole scene as a profound
tragedy of the human race, of a willingness to be commanded by this man who
declares his ardent love for the fatherland. Mystified by his words and tricks
the audience is powerless to realize they
are being corrupted. When, at the end,
the confused and defiant Mario shoots
Cipolla after having fallen victim to his
most horrendous trick, it is not seen as a
tragedy. The narrator calls it “an end of
horror, a fatal end. And yet a liberation
– for I could not, and I cannot, but find
it so!” In that instant the audience is
seemingly released from a trance, never
knowing how close they came to total
corruption. Only the narrator seems to
truly appreciate the significance of Mario’s actions.
Cipolla clearly represents one face
of fascism, whether it be Hitler, Mussolini, Franco or a combination of them.
The way in which “he flung up his arm
slantingly above his crooked shoulder,
palm outward, in the Roman salute” is
Mann telling the reader what Cipolla
represents.
Many of Cipolla’s traits
are similar to Hitler’s, an unparalleled
shrewdness with which he handles even
the most articulate challengers. His oratorical skills are unprecedented, as were
Hitler’s. His nationalism, indeed everything about him could in fact find a
correlation in Hitler as well. Much like
Cipolla, Hitler used sleight of hand and
diversion to help gain power. Hitler’s
support of the ‘Stab in the back myth’
16
which played on nationalistic sympathies as well as his use of the Reichstag
fire to discredit the communists and
consolidate his power were examples
of this behavior. In addition, much like
Cipolla, Hitler made no bones about
his ultimate goal – to deny the people
of their ability to choose, to remove
their free will and place it instead into
his hands. It is most unfortunate for
humanity that no Mario appeared to
liberate history from the spell of Hitler
before it was too late.
The reoccurring theme of fate and
decay or corruption seems to connect
these three stories which deal with
different issues. In Tonio Kroger the
reader is shown how despite all of his
attempts and acting out of supposed
free will, the individual is no match
for the society in which he lives. The
world of the bourgeois does not mix
with the world of the artist. Falling between the two, Tonio becomes an outcast of both, a fate which seems imminent from the very beginning. By the
end he resigns himself to that fate. In
Death in Venice Mann shows how the
bourgeois, disciplined, moral class will
inevitably be corrupted by the artistic,
sensual and exotic. In Mario and the
Magician the idea of free will is shown
to be an illusion. In it the characters
are predisposed to corruption by the
irrational. It is only by the equally irrational action of Mario in the story that
the audience escapes the inevitable. In
all three stories the bourgeois austerity
of northern Europe is corrupted by the
irrationality and immorality of the artistic, the sensual – the traits of southern
Europe. Though the protagonists appear
to have control over their own destiny,
each story reveals that in they do not.
Their fate, unfortunately, is as certain
as Hitler’s rise.
17
Notes
1 Mann, Thomas. Death in Venice and
Other Stories, trans. David Luke, New
York: Bantam Books 1988, 139.
2 Mann, 138.
3 Mann,156.
4 Ibid.
5 Mann, 191.
6 Mann, 195.
7 Mann, 200.
8 Mann, 236.
9 Mann, Thomas. Stories of Three Decades, translated H. T. Lowe-Porter.
Knopf, New York, 1955, 551.
10 Mann, 536.
11 Mann, 565.
12 Mann, 565.
FOTOS. CAROL PERRY & FARAH DOSANI
18
Political Reform in Mexico
text. Dante Trevisani | foto. farah dosani
Early in his first term of office, President George W. Bush announced that forming an
agreement on Mexican immigration was at the top of the American policy agenda and pledged
to work with Mexican president Vicente Fox to form a bilateral accord that would be acceptable to both parties. Indeed, even Fox was eager to see immigration reform passed, and both
men seemed intent on utilizing their converging political interests to form a coherent policy
that would correct the decades of failed initiatives and lack of organization in that area. Yet,
nearly four years later, despite the unprecedented cooperation between the leadership of the
two countries, no such policy has been forged. In fact, the issue of Mexican immigration has
scarcely been entertained since mid-2001.1
19
It may be tempting to attribute the lack of reform to disagreements on the terms of such a policy
or the lack of commitment from either
side. However, both Bush and Fox
had appointed commissions comprised
of their most influential advisors; the
American team was led by Secretary of
State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft, while their Mexican counterparts were some of Fox’s
most important aides, Jorge Castañeda
and Santiago Creel. Fox himself announced, “[…] we must, and we can,
reach an agreement on migration before the end of this very year [2001].”2
Cooperation was not the problem; both
sides had agreed that a regularization of
Mexican immigration, which included
making it easier for Mexican workers
to cross the border, increased border
safety, and possibly even amnesty for
illegal immigrants, was the preferred
course of action.3 Thus, if cooperation
and commitment were not the problems, then what has impeded an agreement? Unfortunately for advocates of
Mexican immigration reform, forming
a coherent policy depends on factors
beyond international cooperation and
agreement. The domestic political concerns in both countries have played an
integral role in both initiating immigration talks and subsequently keeping the issue off the table since 2001. Thus, it appears that there are certain
factors beyond bilateral cooperation,
namely the domestic political issues
Dante Trevisani | POLITICAL REFORM IN MEXICO
following September 11, 2001, such as
national security, that affect the formation of an immigration policy between
the two countries. Ultimately, it will be
seen that such issues must be resolved
before an immigration deal with Mexico
can be formed.
First, it is important to examine
how domestic political issues served to
expedite the initiation of immigration
talks with Mexico before turning to
how those issues eventually forced the
issue off the agenda. Indeed, one reason that the issue became so prominent
early in 2001 was that it served both
presidents’ political interests. The proposed reforms were much more extensive than previous policies, which had
mainly sought to stem the flow of immigrants or legalize a small segment of
foreign laborers. As a result of a proposal that was such a radical departure
from the status quo, both leaders had
made certain that the reforms would be
acceptable to the proper constituencies. President Bush’s pledge to allow more
workers to legally cross the border appealed to small businesses that were eager to find willing employees. Moreover,
the promise won the approval of many
Latino voters, who also favored allowing
more Mexicans into the country. Even
labor unions, traditionally opposed to
such policies because of their possible
harm to American wages, realized that
immigrant workers were quickly becoming a significant part of their ranks
and backed the reforms. 20
President Fox’s commitment
to immigration issues was accepted
among many Mexicans because not
only did it offer the possibility of finding employment in the United States
more easily, but it also portrayed the
U.S.-Mexican relationship as one of
goodwill and mutual interests. This
appealed to many Mexicans who disliked the possibility of their government being at odds with their powerful neighbor to the north. Many
were even thrilled that Fox apparently
had considerable influence in American politics; they watched the Mexican president address a joint session of
Congress in early September 2001, and
accompany President Bush on a campaign trip through the Midwest, basking “in a flood of American political
and media attention unprecedented for
a Latin American head of state.” Moreover, Fox’s other political
benefits of promoting immigration reform came from the phenomenon of
circulatory migration, wherein Mexican immigrants cross the border to live
and work and subsequently return to
Mexico for other employment. From
an immigration deal that would ease
restrictions on border crossings and
legalize workers, President Fox would
gain the support of approximately 3
million Mexicans living illegally in the
United States who make this circular
trip. Thus, bilateral immigration reform served the domestic political interests of both administrations, and, as
a result, it was advocated by both presidents.
Furthermore, it would soon become apparent that the convergence of domestic
political concerns was not only conducive to the achievement of immigration
reform, it was in fact necessary. That
is, immediately following the terrorist
attacks of September 11, it became apparent that even though both sides were
committed to the agenda, greater political concerns would have to be resolved
before the immigration issue was decided. To date, however, these issues
have not been resolved and thus no coherent reform has been enacted. In no
area was this dilemma manifested more
than in that of national security. Robert
Leiken, director of the Immigration and
National Security Program at the Nixon Center, colorfully characterized the
problem: “September 11 intruded rudely
on the budding U.S.-Mexican romance
like an uninvited witch at a wedding.” Suddenly immigration was widely perceived as a dangerous threat rather than a
simple economic or social issue. After it
was discovered that six of the September
11 hijackers had overstayed their visas,
doubts arose about the efficacy of INS
personnel and charges of incompetence
were hurled about. To many members
of Congress and the public at large, amnesty for Mexican immigrants no longer seemed like a viable alternative. One
post-September 11 poll showed that 80%
of the country believed that the United
States had “made it too easy” for for-
21
eigners to enter the country, and 77%
believed the government was not doing enough to “control the border and
screen people.” To further illustrate the domestic opposition that hindered Mexican
immigration reform, one must look no
further than the Congressional opposition to the reinstatement of section
245(i) of the U.S. immigration code. Even after September 11, the Bush administration lobbied Congress to reinstate this section, which would have
applied to all immigrants living illegally in the United States who were on
a wait list for their immigrant visas,
or green cards. Under the provisions of
the program, they would be allowed to
pay a $1,000 fine and have their visas
processed in the United States rather
than at the American consulate in their
home country. Even though section
245(i) did little more than permit about
200,000 foreigners to undergo background security checks by the INS in
the United States rather than by the
State Department in their country of
origin, it aroused fierce opposition in
Congress that even transcended party
lines. Republicans in the House of
Representatives led the opposition,
going against the Republican White
House by increasing the membership
of the Immigration Reform Caucus,
which favored more stringent immigration restrictions. In the Senate,
Robert Byrd, a Democrat from West
Virginia, put a hold on the program
that eliminated any chance of its passage. The magnitude of opposition to such a
small change demonstrated to President
Bush that any suggestion of amnesty or
legalization would not be accepted by
Congress or the public. Consequently,
the historic immigration talks between
Mexico and the United States were postponed, and, when they finally resumed
early in 2002, they focused on increasing border security and preventing illegal entry – a far cry from the legalization
rhetoric heard only months before. The
next time the two presidents met was
in Monterrey, Mexico in March 2002,
when President Bush admitted that no
agreement could be reached at that time. Thus, it is apparent that despite the bilateral commitment, domestic issues of
national security prevented the American administration from even keeping
the issue on its political agenda.
Across the border, Mexico’s political situation also presented obstacles
that, without resolution, would eventually derail the immigration deal that
President Fox so ardently hoped for. Although Mexico’s political concerns
did not revolve around national security,
they did involve the deeply rooted party
loyalty and historic nationalistic fervor
that surrounded members of the Mexican Congress. Furthermore,
migration
had
been a central issue of Fox’s presidential campaign, and he now faced many
Mexicans that were expecting him to
deliver on his promise to change that
22
23
status of Mexicans crossing the border from “illegal aliens” to “laborers.” As the United States responded
militarily to the events of September
11 and, in the fall of 2002, began preparing its case for war against Iraq for
the United Nations Security Council,
President Fox now faced an interesting dilemma. On one hand, he was
the first Mexican president in history
to have a good working relationship—a
close friendship even—with an American president. On the other, Mexico
had always championed the principles
of national sovereignty and non-intervention and had historically led the
opposition to the U.S. interventions
in Latin American countries such as
Guatemala, the Dominican Republic,
Grenada, Panama, Chile, and Cuba. Moreover, the Mexican Congress was
filled with members of the opposition
party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who still remembered
those days with fondness. Some had even accused Fox of
compromising his loyalty to Mexico
in favor of American interests. Therefore, while Fox wanted to maintain his
relationship with President Bush in
the hopes of working out an immigration deal, he could not appear overly
approving of Bush’s pre-emptive actions toward Iraq, which would have
alienated the non-interventionist party
elders in the Mexican Congress. However, as Fox delicately toed
the line between immigration reform
and non-intervention, the tenuous balance was shattered when his Foreign
Minister Jorge Castañeda announced
that the United States had a “right of
reprisal” against Iraq and that Mexico
would not “haggle” over its loyalty. Predictably, the Mexican media, intellectuals, elder politicians, and the influential left-wing protested loudly. The
Senate accused Castañeda of acting as
a puppet for the Americans and called
for his resignation. In April 2002, the
Senate refused to allow President Fox to
travel to the United States. It appeared
that domestic politics had forced Fox to
discontinue pushing for an immigration
agreement if the agreement meant supporting the Bush administration. President Fox, however, had one last opportunity to save face. On October 25, 2002, at a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Cabo San Lucas,
Fox attempted to secure an immigration
quid pro quo: Mexico would support
President Bush in the Iraq war and cast
its Security Council vote accordingly in
exchange for an immigration deal with
the United States. But the events of September 11, 2001 prompted a national security uproar in the United States which
caused Congressmen and the American
public to suddenly voice their desire
for more stringent immigration laws. Bush, given that his constituents widely
perceived easier access to the U.S. as a
threat to national security, rejected the
proposal and was forced to abandon his
24
attempts to secure Mexican immigration reform. Obviously, Bush was
also acting on concerns of national security; however, as evidenced by the
issue surrounding section 245(i) of
the immigration code, he was willing, even after September 11, to take
steps toward a bilateral agreement on
Mexican immigration. But eventually
he rescinded his efforts because of domestic political protests. The ensuing
military action by the Bush administration brought about widespread protest in Mexico, especially by those in
the Mexican Congress, which forced
Fox to withdraw his support for Bush,
ultimately drowning any hopes of a bilateral agreement. In essence, “what
happened was a foreign policy collision
of domestic political forces suddenly
moving in opposite directions.” Consequently, although President George W. Bush and Mexican
President Vicente Fox were both committed to bilateral immigration reform
when they took office early in 2001,
no such reform has happened. Upon
examination of the political situation,
one will find that lack of commitment
or cooperation was not the problem;
both men were obviously serious about
reform, and they generally agreed on
the terms of the deal. However, after
September 11, 2001, domestic political
interests, especially those pertaining to
national security, suddenly overshadowed their desire for immigration reform. As a result, both leaders were
forced to abandon their pursuit of an
agreement in order to resolve domestic
political issues.
Notes
1 Jardine, Matthew. “Operation Gatekeeper.” Peace Review. September 1,
1998. Vol. 10:3, p. 329.
2 Leiken, p. 87.
3 Heppel, Monica L. and Torres, Luis
R. “Mexican Immigration to the United States after NAFTA.” The Fletcher
Forum of World Affairs. Summer/Fall
1996, Vol. 20:2, p. 52.
4 Leiken, p. 88.
5 Bustamante, Jorge. “Undocumented
Migration from Mexico to the United
States: A Legal or Labor Issue?” In J. E.
Rodriguez and K. Vincent, Eds. Myths,
Misdeeds, and Misunderstandings: The
Roots of Conflict in U.S.-Mexican Relations. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1997, p. 237.
6 Mitchell, Christopher. “The Significance of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks for United States-Bound
Migration in the Western Hemisphere.” The International Migration Review. Spring 2002, Vol. 36:1, p. 30.
7 Ibid. 8 Leiken, p. 88.
9 Ibid.
10 Polman, Dick. “Many Immigrants’
Hopes Another Casualty of September
11.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. October
20, 2001, p. A01.
11 Ibid.
12 Leiken, p. 88.
25
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.
16 Byrnes, Dolores M. Driving the
State: Families and Public Policy in
Central Mexico. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 2003, p. 81.
17 Leiken, p. 88.
18 Byrnes, p. 81.
19 Leiken, p. 88.
20 Ibid.
21 DeYoung, Karen. “Differing Agendas Chill Relationship Between Bush,
Fox; Mexicans Cite Stall on Border Issues.” The Washington Post. October
28, 2002, p. A13.
22 Leiken, p. 90.
26
chris hall
the liar’s paradox
Some of the most interesting and perplexing problems in philosophy are
those rendered by analyzing paradoxes. Perhaps the most interesting of
them in terms of the logical relationship between truth and falsity is the
Liar’s Paradox. Consider the man who
states, “I tell only lies.” At first, this
may seem like a simple play on words.
However, a careful examination of the
statement’s truth reveals some serious problems. Consider an attempt to
determine the truth of this statement;
that is, whether or not the “liar” is telling a truth or a falsity. When this is
done, it becomes exceedingly evident
that in either case a contradiction will
arise. For the sake of clarity and understanding, it would be much easier
to express this problem in terms of a
statement rather than a person. Consider a statement, which we denote
“L,” which expresses the fact that L
is false.
L=L is a lie
Referendum 1: Or
L = -L
The parallel to the lying man can be
seen easily, as the man asserted as a
truth that anything he said was a lie.
So, if he stated something which specifically addressed the truth of statements he made, we would arrive at the
statement given above; taking L to be
the statement “I tell only lies,” implies
that the statement itself is arguing its
own refutation, which is what we see
above in Referendum 1. Consider the
following table which addresses the
truth of L based on L’s assertion (what
L intends to say):
Assertion L is true
L
L is false
L is false
L is true
If we take the entire statement L as being true, then by L’s inherent meaning
we must arrive at the conclusion that L
is indeed false. On the other hand, if we
assume that L is false, we must arrive
at the conclusion (through the inherent meaning of L) that L is in fact true.
Perhaps the following analyses will clarify the issue further. Please take the ~
sign to mean “negation”. It can be treated as a negative sign as in mathematics. Therefore, two “negatives,” or two
~s, will yield a positive assertion (as two
negative numbers multiplied together
yield a positive number). Therefore,
if L implies ~L, and in fact L is true,
then L must be false, for we arrive at ~L
through the implication of L’s truth.
If L is in fact false, then we
28
arrive at ~L = ~~L, which yields L (via
multiplying through the two negations), making L true.
It can therefore be seen what the problem of the Liar’s Paradox implies. It
essentially states that If L is false,
then L is true, and if L is true, then
L is false. This pattern is completely
contradictory, but unsolvable with the
current tools of logic. Some have argued that L in fact cannot be a real
statement, for real statements cannot
assert the truth of themselves. In addition, others have argued that all paradoxes are inherently false, regardless
of the conclusions at which they arrive.
However, these are merely ad hoc explanations and assertions, for without
the Liar’s Paradox, no such assertions
would ever have been made. These
explanations serve only to ignore the
problem at hand. In this paper, I wish
to employ a method of sequential calculus in the analysis of this problem,
and in doing so, I hope to shed light
on the nature of this paradox and all
paradoxes in general.
Sequential calculus allows us to
analyze series of numbers in order to
determine whether they converge or
diverge when the sequences are extended infinitely.
By convergence
and divergence, I am referring to the
number that the limit of the sequence
essentially migrates towards as it is
applied an infinite number of times
(that is, as n ‡ ∞). For sequences in
calculus, these points of convergence
CHRIS HALL | The Liar’s Paradox
and divergence can be easily attained by
mathematically taking the limit or observing the sequences graphically. The
same can be done, however, for the Liar’s Paradox, given that the ~ is treated
as a negative sign (which is unproblematic because it behaves identically to a
negative sign). If we take the statement
L as our sequence name and ~L as its
formula, then we can easily transform
it into the language of sequential calculus. First, however, we need to see how
such a sequence would even arise. After all, isn’t ~L just one truth value after
all? This is a mistake, however, because
the statement L, which states ~L, can
be substituted in for the L on the other
side of the equation (the side that states
~L). Consider the following:
Referendum 2: L = -L (If L, then not
L)
Since L is essentially saying not L, or
~L, we can plug in not L for the bolded
L above, in Referendum 2 in order to
obtain:
L=~~L
Note that the first negation is left over
from the original (Referendum 2). While
the last part, ~L, is what was substituted for L.
This can be performed an infinite number of times to obtain:
2. L: ~~~ L
3. L: ~~~~L
4. L: ~~~~~L
5. L: ~~~~~~L
Since the value of L’s truth changes
“sign” at each successive insertion of ~L
29
into L, we immediately know that our
sequence is an alternating sequence
with a term (-1)ⁿ. Remember, it would
change ‘sign’ because we alternate between a negative and positive number
of ‘negative’ signs. If we insert L as a
constant, we arrive at the sequence:
∑ (-1)ⁿ * L
(n = [1,∞])
The sequence describing the Liar’s
Paradox is thus alternating (varying
between positive and negative values
after each successive n term) and has
an “amplitude” of L. If in fact this
paradox has an answer, it should converge either to L or ~L when n goes
to infinity (that is, when the limit is
taken). However, a graph of this sequence would show that it does not
converge, but diverges. Our sequence
gives a sinusoidal wave with amplitude
L. This wave will diverge as n goes to
infinity. That is, the truth value of L
will alternate between L and ~L, never
getting any closer to either of them or
any other possible truth value (for instance, 0, which is in the center of L
and ~L). If this sequence diverges, we
then can arrive at an interesting conclusion: a solution to the Liar’s Paradox
does not exist. This does not mean
that we are unable to solve it because
of some intellectual weakness or that
we lack some tool in logic that is required to arrive at a solution. No truth
value or substance of any kind can be
deduced from the proposition
“L” because a solution to it does not
exist. L, in fact, says nothing at all.
This is an extremely useful conclusion
at which to arrive, for the usual take on
the Liar’s Paradox, as far as logic class
goes, is that it is a contradiction. However, given that we have determined
that it has no truth value whatsoever, it
cannot be a contradiction of the form L
and ~L (a contradiction is basically any
conjunction of a statement and the negation of that statement).
This conclusion could have also been
arrived at through simple intuition. If
we simply visualize ~L being plugged
in for L an infinite number of times, it
can easily be seen that the truth value of
L will alternate back and forth forever.
However, the fact of the matter is that L
has no truth value, because at any given
moment ~L is being plugged into L an
infinite number of times (causing it to
propagate between L and ~L an infinite
number of times). Although we represented this as a graph in the interest of
clarity, the fact is that L can never have
any truth value at all. At any given moment, we have no true ability to halt
the subsequent insertions of an infinite
number of ~Ls into L. Being that this
nullifies any truth coming out of the
statement L, we can logically say that L
in fact has no truth value at all.
From this conclusion, we can say the
following about the statement L that
implies not L (the Liar’s Paradox). We
can say that it is not a logical proposition whatsoever. This is because all
propositions, as stipulated by proposi-
30
tional logic before the appearance of
the Liar’s Paradox, must either be true
or false (not both true and false and
not neither true nor false). Therefore,
we have the right simply to label the
Liar’s Paradox as non-propositional.
Doing this prohibits supporters of the
Liar’s Paradox, who declare that it seriously uproots symbolic logic, from
asserting that it is an existential contradiction (that is, a real life contradiction that does exist and cannot be
proven false with the tools of logic).
Now that we have avoided the contradiction, the power and mystery of the
Liar’s Paradox is gone, and it becomes
merely a misplay on words that results
in nothing.
I hope to have shown that the Liar’s paradox is paradoxical insofar as it
has no truth value. It is not the case,
as many have tricked themselves into
believing, that the Liar’s Paradox is a
contradiction, for contradictions require
two separate statements with conflicting truth values. However, given the
infinite substitution instances of ~L into
L, we arrived at the conclusion through
sequential calculus that the paradox is
in no way a contradiction because it
can never have any single truth value.
Therefore, the Liar’s Paradox has been
solved insofar as it is no longer problematic to the framework of propositional logic.
31
GRAPHICS BY NEUS. RING THE ALARM.
Sor Juana
by
Adriana Jaramillo
Sor Juana discarded traditional roles with the same airy swiftness that it takes to flip through the pages of a book. She redirected the course of her life with intellectual growth as her
compass leading her toward a life of scholarship. Through
this, Sor Juana embodied the ideals of feminism. Her defiant attitude toward social norms, intuitively spoken challenge against gender discrimination, and tug for equality all
come together and ignite her character with an electrifying
spirit that continues to empower women three hundred years
later.
33
Therefore, Maria Luisa Bemberg’s
film, I, Worst of All, could not have
been more accurate when she glazed
the tale of this woman’s life with a
feminist vision.
There exists a pattern, a unifying
characteristic in the film, the lectures,
and the document. All portray Sor
Juana as a woman who rejected the
roles fashioned for her by society,
choosing not a life of love and family, but rather one of knowledge and
facts. This battle against conformity
hovers over women of today’s generation, the reverberation of past societal
values and tradition pointing fingers
at single mothers, executive women,
and females in general. Although not
as fierce as earlier centuries, the pressure to obey social standards according to sex are as present today as they
were then, and ,with bold individuals
like Sor Juana who defy public expectations women, are able to break from
the chains of gender roles and meet
their male counterparts eye to eye.
The fact that Sor Juana had a “total disinclination toward marriage”1
and silenced her maternal instinct by
awakening a fiery hunger for edification speaks to all women (and men)
that the female sex need not be obligated to lead a married life of childrearing. In addition, as portrayed
in the film and reemphasized by the
document, Sor Juana took the veil not
only to nurture herself religiously,
but also because she “[wanted] to live
Adriana Jaramillo | sor juana
alone …and not have obligations that
would disturb her freedom to study
or [have] the noise of a community
that would interrupt the tranquil silence of her books.”2 Her own words
only confirm Bemberg’s accuracy and
strengthen one of the film’s most powerful quotes:
“Como no me pude vestir de hombre,
me vesti de monja” (since I could not
dress as a man, I dressed as a nun) by
depicting the similarities between the
film and Sor Juana’s letter to Sor Filotea
in that they reveal Sor Juana’s surrender to the convent as a way to continue
her studies and her conscious decision
to exchange an average life for that of
an intellectual.
There behind each book, in the loops
of her letters, through the lens of her
telescope, Sor Juana demonstrated a
peaceful quiet rebellion against gender
discrimination. With a private library
that held 4,000 volumes and dreams
of following the study of theology, Sor
Juana challenged the power of men
by first challenging herself and seeking a life of wisdom, contrary to her
time’s way. Examined by a panel of
male professors at the University of
Mexico during her youth, Sor Juana
managed to stun her scrutinizers with
an in-depth understanding of physics,
mathematics, theology and philosophy.
She was able to stifle the criticisms of
these “all-knowing” male professors,
and be living proof that women were
just as competent and capable as men.
34
Adriana Jaramillo | sor juana
As portrayed in the film, Sor Juana is
victim to the glaring eyes of injustice
and disapproval from the educated
men, but epitomizes strength as she
shatters all preconceived notions of
a “damsel in distress” by answering
every examination question correctly.
The resemblance between fact and
the film’s portrayal and the symbolism behind Sor Juana’s success under
pressure fills the active feminist with
pride. Furthermore, the film exposes
the main crime Sor Juana is guilty
of—criticizing a male theologian. Her
reluctance to yield reminds us that
she renounced her intellectual activities to save her life, one that ended
shortly after we come to understand
that knowledge was her reason for
existence. It can be drawn from historical evidence that Sor Juana lived
in a man’s world; it can be seen on
screen in Bemberg’s film that the
injustice of gender discrimination is
palpable even through cinematography and Sor Juana was ready confront
it with determination.
Because Sor Juana betrayed the norms
and shed light on the unjust treatment of women through her own
personal experiences, her continuation
in pursuing her passion despite odds
reveals a fight for equality. Absorbing
the world with an endless curiosity
and disciplined wit, Sor Juana studied
her surroundings when deprived of
books and snipped at her locks of hair
when failing to meet study-centered
aims. By delving into a life of books
and questions, something previously
prescribed for men, Sor Juana was relaying a message of equality and hope.
The film portrays her indulging in
inquisitiveness, engaging in discussions
with males, and stretching her vision
of equilibrium into pictorial images
while still capturing her yearning to see
women hold the same rights as men.
Peering from behind her written words
are thoughts of equality, defiance,
and change. Sor Juana was a powerful woman with a revolutionary heart
ahead of her time. Her life was a difficult one, yet she chose the path of
innovation over conformity, and thus
transformed into a crest of scholarly
wisdom. Bemberg was more than just
fair in portraying Sor Juana in a feminist light—she perfectly accurate. It is
not difficult to see why Sor Juana has
become an emblem of empowerment.
Her legend lives within each and every
woman, summoning their imaginations
and reading under candlelight.
Notes
1 Matthew, Laura. On the Life and Ideals of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.
2 Excerpt from Sor Juana’s reply to Sor
Pilothea
3 Burkholder, Mark and Johnson, Lyman. Colonial Lat in America, 5th ed.
2003.
fotos. farah dosani
graphics. neus
35
I’m Idle, Henry.
FOTOS BY
Carol Perry
CAROL PERRY | I’M IDLE, HENRY
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
On The Iraqi Special Tribunal
BY JOHN RUSS
IMAGES BY NEUS
On December 10, 2003, The Statute of the Iraqi
Special Tribunal was enacted and signed into law. Thus, the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST), or the Supreme Iraqi
Criminal Tribunal and the Iraqi High Tribunal, was established. It held responsibility for trying high-ranking officials from the former Iraqi Ba’ath regime, under the leadership of former president Saddam Hussein. The officials were tried for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and violations of certain Iraqi laws during the time
period from July 17, 1968 to May 1, 2003.1 The Iraqi Special Tribunal, a
tyro of an institution in regard to bringing accountability for aberrations
of international law in the Middle East, became the sole legal authority
for dispensing justice and seeking retribution.
Forum
The IST is structurally a domestic court created to operate within Iraqi
borders by Iraqi nationals; yet, the IST
also has sizable support in resources
and legal advising from select countries,
most notably the United States through
the Regime Crimes Liaison Office in the
American Embassy located in Baghdad’s
Green Zone.2 The Statute of the IST also
mandates that non-Iraqi nationals be appointed in advisory roles by the President
of the IST, by the Chief Tribunal Investigative Judge, and by each Office of the
Prosecutor.3 The IST, in effect, is not a
purely domestic court.
Procedure, Law,
and Punishment Important to the structure of the IST, and
therefore on the retribution obtained, are
the laws, procedures, and scope of punishment implemented. Punishment of the guilty is meted
out according to the Iraqi Penal Code. There is one highly contentious aspect
regarding the Iraqi Penal Code’s effect
on the IST’s retributive goal: it allows
for the utilization of the death penalty.4 The repercussions on Iraqi society of
putting the guilty to death are far-reaching and potentially grievous. Other procedural concerns have
been verbalized. For instance, in contrast to the higher standard of proof applied in many western countries that requires judges or jurors to be “convinced
JOHN RUSS | WAR-TIME EDITION
beyond a reasonable doubt,” guilt can be
established in the IST if the judges are
merely “satisfied” by the evidence.5 The
questionable partiality of the judges of
the IST coupled with this lax requirement
for guilt creates an acerbic combination
to those concerned with fair trials in Iraq. Another key procedural lacuna of the IST
is the absence of an exclusionary rule that
would keep evidence out of court that was
obtained through unlawful measures such
as torture.6
Societal Hindrances to
Retribution
Ethnic strife in Iraq is not a new
phenomenon. The two major Muslim factions split over questions of leadership and
doctrine well over a thousand years ago
and continue to interact with each other
with fierce animosity.7 Iraq hosts a larger
population of Shi’ites than Sunnis despite the fact that Shi’ites number far fewer than
Sunnis worldwide.8 Accordingly, Hussein’s rule as a Sunni was perceived as giving the minority of the Muslim population
of Iraq disproportionate power-- power
intensely resented by the Shi’ite majority. In short, the ethnic conflict-- perhaps more
appropriately called ideological strife-manifested itself in the national political
sphere through a series of revolts and assassination attempts that were forcefully
punished and/or quelled by the Sunni government. That mutual revulsion was exacerbated when the United States invaded
Iraq in 2003 and deposed Hussein’s Ba’ath
48
A
Regime. Consequently, the IST, set up
as a domestic institution in order to confer more autonomy on the nascent, U.S.approved Iraqi government, is perceived
with mixed emotions by the Iraqi population. Many Shi’ites, enjoying their
fresh political brawn, see the IST as an
appropriate means of dispensing justice
on the former regime.
Conversely, many Sunnis are resisting what they perceive as an illicit
toppling of Hussein and an unlawful
usurpation of their political dominion. In the Sunni-rich area of western Iraq,
an area that thrives with dissension and
rebellion against both the United States
and the new Iraqi government, the popular sentiment is that the Shi’ites are unjustly avenging the past with the help of
the anti-Hussein Bush administration.9 These sentiments seem to be corroborated
by various broadcasted and printed news
sources. For instance, on November 16,
2005, a secret prison was found underneath the Iraqi Interior Ministry containing 173 prisoners--most of which were
Sunnis--in “weakened, malnourished
states” claims of torture were made by
the liberated detainees.10 Furthermore,
as Dexter Filkins wrote in an article in
The New York Times in late November,
“hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks,
most of them brought forward by Sunni
civilians”.11 JOHN RUSS | WAR-TIME EDITION
Punishment, Structure,
and Closure
The IST, adjunctive to the societal dilemmas that confront it, possesses a number
of serious downfalls both from omissions
in the Statute as well as from the structure
of the Tribunal itself. Of serious consequence is the ability for the judges of the
IST to consider the death penalty for the
accused. The IST must acknowledge the
intensely fragile nature of the war-torn
country and attempt to pull two factions of
the Muslim world together--a formidable
task. Toward that end, the last problem
the IST needs to create is one of complete
and utter Sunni disdain and rebuke of the
fledgling Shi’ite government caused by
the martyrdom of previously high-ranking Ba’ath officials. In fact, the ongoing
televised proceedings are already working successfully towards the creation of
Sunni martyrs. More important than debates about the IST’s rejection of the international legal norm of forgoing the death
penalty-- a factor that has disqualified it
from any assistance from the United Nations12--is the well-being of millions of
Iraqis and the minuscule success chances
of an already hobbling democracy. A more
appropriate and less severe route, which
would appear more tolerable to Iraqi society as a whole, would be to reject the gallows and strive for a just, fitting punishment of former Iraqi leaders that consists
only of imprisonment.
50
Politics
The largest inhibitor to the legitimacy and success of the IST lies in the
circumstances surrounding its establishment. The United States invaded Iraq,
deposed a despot, set up a new government, and helped to great extents to create a tribunal that could try, convict, and
remove former Iraqi leaders from any
further political positions. What makes
the IST such a contentious and interesting institution is not solely that a former
leader is being tried; the cause of the uproar is that the IST is an ostensibly political organ of the United States’ agenda. Literally billions of U.S. dollars
have been spent on the war in Iraq. President George W. Bush’s ratings, vestiges
of credibility, and presidential legacy all
pivot on the successful trial of Saddam
Hussein. Indubitably, Bush’s political
conscience reminds him each day that the
immeasurable resources directed to Iraq
from the United States’ coffers and thousands of U.S. lives have not been spent
so that Hussein can walk unscathed. Indeed, because the United States is so actively a part of the IST’s operation and the
new Iraqi government’s establishment, it
would be naive to doubt the political potency of the United States’ agenda in the
proceedings against Hussein.
Those blemishes exist because of structural inefficiencies, procedural voids, societal
imbroglios, religious animus, and political
concerns. Veritable retribution cannot be
obtained through political trials and lynchings of the accused--no matter how much
blood they may have on their hands. As
Amnesty International points out, the IST
does not begin to provide a mechanism
for uncovering the truth behind atrocities
in Iraq or for providing reparations to the
victimized peoples. If hope is to be had for the success
of the trials of former Ba’ath Party leaders in Iraq, those trials must be moved to
a neutral country not plagued by violent
conflict, procedural gaps must be filled,
political agendas must be removed, and
some mechanism for truth and reconciliation must be implemented. Unless these
hindrances to true retribution are solved,
the Iraqi Special Tribunal will reverberate
in the minds and textbooks of posterity as
a political institution in which the bench
was sullied, the gavel was tainted, and the
scales of justice were tarnished.
Conclusion
Sadly, the IST--a judicial institution meant to deliver retribution gained
from fair and just practices--is blemished. 51
A
Notes
1 Coalition Provisional Authority. 2003.
The Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal,
(Baghdad, 2003). Article 1, Article 38.
2 John F. Burns. 2005. “Lawyer’s Slaying Raises Questions on Hussein Trial,”
The New York Times; 22 October 2005.
3 Coalition Provisional Authority. 2003.
The Statute of the Iraqi Special Tribunal,
(Baghdad, 2003). Articles 6-8.
4 See Coalition Provisional Authority.
2003. The Statute of the Iraqi Special
Tribunal, (Baghdad, 2003). Article 23.
See Amnesty International. 2005. “Iraqi
Special Tribunal- Fair Trials Not Guaranteed,” available from http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE14007
2005?open&of=ENG-IRQ; accessed 17
October 2005; section 6.
See Iraqi Penal Code. 2003. Part 3, Chapter 1, Section 1.
5 Amnesty International. 2005. “Iraqi
Special Tribunal- Fair Trials Not Guaranteed,” available from http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE14007
2005?open&of=ENG-IRQ; accessed 17
October 2005; Section 5.6.4.
6 Ibid. Section 5.6.1.
7 Wikipedia. 2005. “Iraqi Special Tribunal,” ble from http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Iraqi_Special_Tribunal; 11 December 2005; accessed 17 October 2005.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.
10 Edward Wong and John F. Burns.
2005. “Iraqi Rift Grows After Discovery
of Prison,” The New York Times; 17 November 2005.
11 Dexter Filkins. 2005. “Sunnis Accuse
Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings,” The New York Times; 29 November 2005.
12 Human Rights Watch. 2004. “Iraq: Tribunal’s Flaws Raise Fair-Trial Concerns,”
13 December 2004; available at http://hrw.
org/english/docs/2004/12/16/iraq9907_
txt.htm; accessed on 13 September 2005.
53
FOTO. FARAH DOSANI
EQUINE
LAUREN TAPSELL
Horses have been portrayed in art since the first
cave paintings at Lascaux, France, in 28,000 B.C.1
From Lascaux to Leonardo to Landseer, the horse
has figured prominently in the history of art.
Though the style, iconography, and purpose of
horses in art have changed over time, the fascination with all things equine has not.
In the eighteenth century, the genre of animal portraiture was
established. Primarily an English trend, animal portraiture dramatically changed the existing traditions of depicting horses. The inclusion of horses in art had previously been used as a symbol of the
owner, as shown in royal equestrian portraits of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries by Velázquez and Rubens. 54
The English horse portraits of
the eighteenth century, epitomized
by the work of George Stubbs, were
unique; for the first time the horse was
valued more as a noble and exquisite
creature in itself, and less focus was
placed on the horse as a symbol of its
owner’s status.
Throughout Europe, the horse
served as a vital element of many royal
portraits. The royal equestrian portrait
dates back to the third century A.D.
bronze statue of the Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius.2 In 1490, Leonardo
Da Vinci studied the anatomy of the
horse in preparation for an equestrian monument for Francesco Sforza.3
Though the actual monument never
came to pass, Da Vinci’s drawings
of the horse show a concern for anatomical accuracy, a consideration that
would be seen again in George Stubbs.
The purpose of the equestrian portrait
was to depict the rider as authoritative
and able, characteristics that translated to the ability to rule a country.
The portraits often show horse and
rider in extremely difficult riding positions, and the relative command and
authority of the rider in such positions served to highlight the rider’s
capability in both horsemanship and
politics. Fine riding was “a form that
was understood in both a literal and a
metaphorical way as an indication of
the sitter’s station and character.”4
Titian’s depiction of the horse
in a natural trotting pose is similar
LAUREN TAPSELL | EQUINE
to the statue of Marcus Aurelius. The
equestrian portraits that followed Titian,
however, were quite different. These
portraits typically depicted the horse in
a levade, a controlled “rear” based on the
Spanish riding school’s haute école form
of riding. The levade “is a very important
feature in the repertoire of the Spanish
riding-school and strongly linked to the
imperial iconography.”6 The haute école
riding positions required intense command and control of the highly trained
horse by the rider, which was the basis
for their popularity among artists and
their royal patrons. Such portraits were
often set in dramatic landscapes or landscapes that depicted some military action or battle - an additional element of
imperial iconography.
Rubens painted numerous equestrian portraits and helped to popularize
the dramatic frontal pose of the horse7
and rider in the Equestrian Portrait of
the Duke of Lerma.8 His painting The
Riding School9 showed horse and rider
in three different positions.10 The study
served as the model for many other artists’ equestrian portraits. This fact highlights the interchangeability of the horse
in the equestrian portrait. While the animal shown was, on occasion, an accurate
portrait of the rider’s own horse, in most
cases the horse was a generalized figure
indistinguishable from the multitude of
other horses in equestrian portraits. The
purpose of these portraits was to use
the horse, and accordingly horsemanship, as an example of royal authority.
55
The horse served as a model of “obedient submission…how you ought to
be a vassel to your Prince.”11 It was
not until the eighteenth century that
creating portraits of individual horses
would become important.
Outside of preparatory studies, some of the only images of horses
without riders are Giovanni Stradano’s
prints of horses in landscape settings.
The prints show the horses in various
haute école poses, and served as models from which many artists borrowed
for their equestrian portraits.12 Ruben’s
himself quoted from Stradano in his
Equestrian Portrait of Philip II.13,14
Velazquez’s Equestrian Portrait of
Philip IV 15 is an excellent example
of haute école and absolute power.16
Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of
Charles I17 harkens back to Titian’s
Charles V’s and the statue of Marcus
Aurelius’ more naturalistic depictions
of royal horse and rider, but the imperial overtones are still quite obvious.18
On the other end of the spectrum is
David’s highly unsubtle 1805 portrait
of Napoleon Crossing the Alps.19 The
painting makes explicit references to
Charlemagne and Hannibal, and the
exaggerated, highly dramatic rearing
horse and rider is a blatant attempt to
show Napoleon’s imperial authority.20
Though examples like David’s painting continued to appear in art, the
eighteenth century marked a radical
change in the visual tradition of the
horse.
The major force behind this change was
England. The end of the seventeenth
century brought about dramatic changes in the political and social culture of
England. The Glorious Revolution of
1688 changed the political structure of
the country by securing a constitutional
monarchy and increasing the power of
the Parliament. The ramifications of this
change extended into the social, political
and commercial sectors. The prevalence
of Enlightenment philosophy in English
society promoted a spirit of scientific
enquiry and an interest in naturalism.
21
The Enlightenment’s emphasis on the
acquisition of knowledge also had a clear
influence on English artists.
The economic boom of the early
eighteenth century led to a large group
of newly rich families. Not only did the
nouveaux riche serve to open up the art
market to the bourgeoisie, but they also
opened up formerly aristocratic sports
like hunting and horse racing to a wider audience. The establishment of the
Jockey Club in 1750 and the creation
of racing centers such as Newmarket
served to further popularize the sport.
The popularization of horse racing made
national celebrities out of the horses. 22
Suddenly, the animal became the most
important part of the art; the humans
were secondary and served to support
the depiction of the animal. The English
had turned the tables on the centuriesold visual tradition, and from this a new
genre of animal portraiture was born.
56
The birth of the new genre of
animal painting prompted the appearance of a new group of artists. Due to
the subject matter, the genre was considered one of the lowliest in the artistic hierarchy. Animal painters were
valued for their abilities to render the
horse fairly accurately, and not for
any larger artistic talent. The group
included Gilpin, Garrard, Boultbee,
and Sartorius. The most famous of
the English animal painters were John
Wootton, James Seymour and George
Stubbs, the latter two being largely
self-taught.23
Throughout the century the
quality of horse portraits improved
significantly. Lida Fleitmann notes
that in early English sporting pictures,
the animals were highly stylized and
“anatomically incorrect and conventional as to action.”24 By the middle
of the century, Stubbs was painting
nearly perfect anatomy. Overall, animal portraiture tended toward naturalism, emphasizing accuracy over
idealization. A concern for accuracy,
however, did not deter owners and
artists from taking artistic liberties
for the sake of promoting the animals.
Often, the animals were depicted as
far larger and more imposing than
they were in real life.25 The new style
of animal portraiture also called for
profile views to best show off the features of the horse, a departure from
the frontal equestrian portrait that
Rubens popularized.26
John Wootton was “England’s foremost
sporting artist between c. 1710 and c.
1740”27 and the “originator of the horse
portrait.”28 Wootton’s horses are distinguished by their massive size: “the
purpose of Wootton’s portraits was not
to give a precise anatomical record, but
rather to convey the triumphal glory of
these early champions.” 29 One of his
most prominent paintings is The Bloody
Shouldered Arabian, of which over ten
versions exist.30 Wootton painted elegant, idealized background landscapes,
often featuring classical architecture.31
Wootton’s landscapes are clearly influenced by Claude Lorrain, as shown in
Members of the Beaufort Hunt.32,33
James Seymour was a popular animal portraitist during the first half of
the century. His talents, however, were
limited, leading Vaughan and others to
describe him as “an artistic primitive”
and to describe his paintings as “immature” and “inaccurate.”34 In comparison
to the landscapes of Wootton, Seymour’s
are far more simplistic and display less
talent than his predecessor. In his 1746
version of the painting Crab35, the landscape is extremely simple, consisting
horizontal bands of color denoting land
and sky, with only the faintest hint of
trees and buildings on the horizon line.36
His coloring and painting abilities were
largely derided, but he was praised as a
very good draughtsman.37 Seymour exaggerated the size of his horses less than
Wootton did, as his aim was to create
accurate, realistic portraits of the ani-
57
mals.38 His concern for accuracy set
the stage for Stubbs’ work. Seymour’s
paintings, such as Flying Childers39 no
doubt capture the likeness of the horse
and the spirit of the race, but they are
far from the anatomical perfection of
Stubbs: “His predecessors were made
to look crude and primitive, for he
was able to create a realism that was
both immediate and timeless.”40 Seymour and Wootton’s animal portraits
were by no means bad, but suffer in
comparison to the mastery of anatomy
and overall talent of George Stubbs.
George Stubbs was the preeminent animal painter of the eighteenth
century and his talents proved him
to be a masterful painter in general.
Some animal painters would collaborate with landscape painters and portrait painters, each completing their
area of expertise within the work.41
George Stubbs, on the other hand, did
it all - and better than most. “He was
great not only as an animal painter but
in his rendering of human character
and landscape and in his understanding of the abstract constituents of
pictorial composition.” 42 His talents
are so widely praised both by contemporaries and modern critics that author Stephen May actually called him
“the Leonardo of the eighteenth century.”43 While the praise may be exaggerated, Stubbs did share similarities
with da Vinci. Stubbs was a man of
the Enlightenment; he had a curious
and ambitious mind and was mostly
self-taught.44 He undertook a scientific
study of the anatomy of the horse, dissecting the carcasses of racehorses at his
home. He devised instruments that allowed him to position the body upright
and control the movements of the limbs,
leading him to a better understanding of the movements of the horse.45
From these studies, Stubbs published
The Anatomy of the Horse in 1766, a
comprehensive book featuring detailed
drawings and commentary.46 To this
day, no published work has surpassed
the excellence of Stubbs’ book. His intimate knowledge of the anatomy of the
horse helped him to become the best of
the animal painters in England. He was
considered “the best that money could
buy.”47
Stubbs combined extraordinary
anatomical accuracy with naturalism,
sensitivity and emotion. His talent for
landscape and portraits of people heightened the value of his animal portraits.
“His study of anatomy enabled him to
paint…with unsurpassed truth to nature,
while his innate sense of design enabled
him to achieve graceful, rhythmic composition.”48 One of Stubbs’ most important works is Hambletonian, Rubbing
Down.49 The painting shows the horse
Hambletonian, after his dramatic firstplace win at Newmarket, being rubbed
down by a stable boy and trainer. The
image conveys just how arduous the
race had been for Hambletonian, who
was pushed to extremes in order to win.
The horse’s owner, Sir Henry Vane-
58
Tempest, commissioned the image,
but was said to be unhappy with
the final result. Judy Egerton wonders, “Did Vane-Tempest perceive,
and with displeasure, that Stubbs observed and depicted reality rather than
glamour?”50
A similar scene of a horse being rubbed down is depicted in Gimcrack.51 This image is an example of
Stubbs’ tendency toward simplistic
landscapes. The buildings are stark
geometric forms laid out against a
vast sky. Despite its simplicity, the
landscape is still a realistic depiction
of Newmarket, except that Stubbs
“eliminated all extraneous detail,” including trees.52
Unlike the painters of royal
equestrian portraits who came before
him, Stubbs kept his backgrounds
simple. The simplicity of the landscapes kept the focus on the horse;
Whistlejacket, one of Stubbs’ bestknown paintings, contains no landscape at all. John Fairley comments,
“The purity of the picture against its
plain background heightens the impact.”53 The rearing body of Whistlejacket evidences Stubbs’ “neo-classical sense of outline” and mastery
of form and texture.54 The curving
lines of Stubbs’ horses set against his
sparse and often geometric landscapes
creates a contrast that highlights the
beautifully rendered contour lines of
the horse’s body.
While the majority of Stubbs’
paintings were sporting images, he did
produce a set of imaginative paintings
of a horse being attacked by a lion.
Characterized by detailed and dramatic
landscapes, the series depicts a number
of versions of a horse being frightened,
stalked and subsequently attacked by a
vicious lion. Stubbs infuses the image
of the horse with emotion; the animal is
clearly terrified. The works are a departure from Stubbs’ usually simple backgrounds and restrained style. The Lion
and Horse55 series appears more like history painting in its dramatic depiction
of the event then the animal portraits
Stubbs generally produced. The series
may have been an attempt by Stubbs to
elevate the animal portraiture genre, and
thus its painters, to a more esteemed
rank. In both types of painting, Stubbs
maintained the sensitivity and anatomical accuracy for which he became so famous.
Stubbs and his contemporaries
are remarkable for the role they played
in transforming the centuries old visual tradition of horses in art. Their innovative images warranted an entirely
new category of painting, animal portraiture. English animal portraiture in
the eighteenth century broke with the
iconographic tradition of depicting the
horse as a secondary element, as it was
in equestrian portraits, and made the
horse the primary focus of the work.
The changes in animal painting in the
eighteenth century can be traced in part
to changes in political and social struc-
59
ture of the country, as well as an economic boom that lead to a larger group
of art patrons. The English interest in
the Enlightenment and scientific study
contributed to the realism and naturalism of the new genre.
The importance of the horse in
upper class British sporting culture led
to the demand for animal portraits. The
owners of the racehorses also demanded accurate representations of their
animals, although sometimes, as in the
case of Wootton, the size of the horse
was exaggerated for effect. The accuracy of the images increased throughout the century, from the stylized and
“immature”’ works of John Wootton
and James Seymour to the anatomical
perfection of Stubbs in the later half of
the eighteenth century. George Stubbs,
due to his innate talent and anatomical
studies, was the undisputed master of
anatomical accuracy and horse painting
genre in general. The works of the English animal painters in the eighteenth
century are significant in the history of
art because they mark the first major
change in the ancient visual tradition of
animal painting. The changes wrought
by artists like Wootton, Seymour and
Stubbs would have a lasting effect beyond eighteenth century England, influencing the art of Europe and America
to the present day.
Notes
1 Ruth Zuelke, The Horse in Art (Minneapolis:
Lerner Publications Company, 1965), 6.
2 Walter Liedtke, The Royal Horse and Rider
(New York: Abaris Books, 1989), 38.
3 Ibid.,166.
4 Ibid., 35.
5 Ibid., 188.
6 Gorel Cavalli-Bjorkman, “Adriaen de Vries’s
Horses an Imperial Prerogative,” Art Bulletin
of Nationalmuseum Stockholm 6 (1999): 73.
7 Liedtke, Royal Horse, 228.
8 1603, Museo del Prado, Madrid
9 1612, destroyed in World War II
10 Liedtke, Royal Horse, 232.
11
Ibid., 42.
12
Ibid., 193.
13
1628, Museo del Prado, Madrid
14
Liedtke, Royal Horse, 249.
15
1634, Museo del Prado, Madrid
16
17
1638, National Gallery, London
18
19
Musée de Versailles, Versailles
20
21
William Vaughan, British Painting:
The Golden Age (London: Thames and Hudson, 1999), 8.
22
Ibid., 163.
23
John Fairley, Great Racehorses in Art
(Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1984), 11.
24
The Horse in Art: From Primitive
Times to the Present (New York: J.J. Little and
Ives Company, 1931),
276.
25
Vaughan, British Painting, 164.
26
Ibid., 163.
27
Stephen Deuchar, “Wootton, John,”
Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press,
http://www.groveart.com, 27 November 2005.
28
Graham Reynolds, “John Wootton –
Horse Painter and Landscape Artist,” Apollo
120,
60
no. 271 (1984): 210.
29
Fairley, Great Racehorses, 48.
30
Reynolds, Apollo, 210.
31
Arline Meyer, “Wootton at Wimpole,”
Apollo 122, no. 283 (1985): 215.
32
1744, Tate Gallery, London
33
William Gaunt, The Great Century of
British Painting: Hogarth to Turner (New York:
Phaidon Press
Limited, 1971), 72.
34
Fleitmann, The Horse in Art, 279.
35
1746, Private collection
36
37
38
39
1722, Private collection
40
Michael Seth-Smith, ed., The Horse in Art
and History (New York: Mayflower Books, 1978),
67.
41
42
Gaunt, The Great Century of British Painting, 230.
43
Stephen May, “Leonardo of the 18th Century,” British Heritage 22, no. 3 (2001), 38.
44
Dick Kagan, “Manely Art,” Art and Antiques 27, no. 7 (2004): 69.
45
Constance-Anne Parker, Mr. Stubbs the
Horse Painter. (London: J.A. Allen and Co. Ltd,
1971), 19.
46
Gaunt, British Painting, 230.
47
Judy Egerton, “A Painter, a Patron and a
Horse,” Apollo 122, no. 284 (1985): 265.
48
Judy Egerton, “Stubbs, George,” Grove Art
Online, Oxford University Press, 27 November
2005,
http://www.groveart.com.
49
1799, National Trust, Mount Stewart
50
“A Painter, a Patron and a Horse”, 269.
51
1770, Halifax Collection
52
53
Ibid., 57.
54
55
example: Lion Attacking a Horse, 1770,
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
FOTOS BY FARAH DOSANI
61
Western
World,
Text. Catherine Grant
Foto. Farah Dosani
Eurocentrism is the belief that Europe is
intrinsically and historically unique and superior to the rest of the world. This view is what
ultimately allowed Western people to oppress
and colonize other countries without any moral objections and also saw the use of slaves in
the Americas and elsewhere. Eurocentrism is so
deeply ingrained in the West that it allows for
many racist ideas to be viewed as scientific or
historical fact.
CATHERINE GRANT | WESTERN WORLD
Although xenophobia is certainly not a
Western invention, colonialism managed to
bring racist thought to a new level. The West
managed to halt world progress and control
the world’s trade, development, and wealth
– a legacy that we still currently exploit. For
many scholars, the West’s emergence as the
dominant culture is proof that Europeans are
some how more genetically, spiritually, and
naturally able to modernize, and that historically this has always been true. Eurocentric views affect us world
wide in many different areas. For example,
as American children, we are taught that
on Thanksgiving Day we shared our civility
toward savages, allowing them to share our
table, teaching them our modern ways, and
having them adopt our superior culture. The
story of Thanksgiving is not regarded as the
sordid racist tale that it is, illustrating to us
just how ingrained Eurocentric ideas are in
our everyday culture. Throughout our lifetimes, we are bombarded with thoughts and
images of the might and supremacy of Western culture. Eurocentrism has infiltrated
non-Western cultures as well; for example,
many people worldwide emulate the “American” way of life, watching American movies, wearing American fashions, somehow
believing that America is culturally superior. Eurocentrism also has another role: it allows Western countries to explain why we
are more technologically advanced than other
places in the world. After all we were the inventors of all things modern, from capitalism
to inciting the industrial revolution. Lastly,
Eurocentrism also helps us to justify why
we should invade other countries and set up
capitalist governments, diffusing our “American values” to others, liberating them of their
stagnant culture.
The Colonizer’s Model of the World,
by J.M. Blaut is an attempt to debunk the
idea that Europe forged ahead technologically and socially because of some biological
or environmental reason.1 Blaut does this
by explaining what Eurocentric writers have
published, both modern and historic, and then
64
refuting their ideas with examples from nonEuropean nations. Blaut focuses on the myth of the
“European Miracle.” This myth is the “Doctrine that the rise of Europe resulted, essentially, from historical forces generated within
Europe itself.”2 In other words – the rise of
Europe can be contributed to both artifacts in
the natural environment of Europe, and also
to the biological superiority of the European
people. Blaut’s basic refuting argument is
that prior to 1492, Europe was not unique in
its modernity, and that Europe achieved its
current high status through the use of slavery
and colonialism. Many respected historians
have written works based on the model of the
European Miracle.
Blaut’s main argument is that, prior
to colonial expansion, Europe had no qualities that made it more likely to socially and
economically exceed. If this is true, then how
did Europe manage to conquer the world? Blaut believes that the acquisition of the
America’s were key in Europe’s success. Blaut
makes a point of letting the reader know that
Europe was not more advanced in boating
technique or long voyages in the 15th century
than other countries, and that the “discovery” of America by Europeans was an accident, which could have been achieved by the
Asians, Africans or Arabs.
According to Blaut, the acquisition of
the Americas led to the rise of Europe because Europe now had an immense supply
of raw materials for their African slaves to
work with. This permitted Europe to achieve
industry without paid workers, and then sell
its manufactured goods back to the oppressed
nations, bringing Europe massive wealth and
ability to pursue manufactured goods and
modernizing inventions, which pushed Europe to the forefront world power. A common
argument is that European’s superior might
and intellect led to the easy defeat of the Native people in the Americas. Blaut explains
that it was not the European’s superior intellect or aggressiveness, but the American’s
65
inability to fight off European disease and (to
a lesser extent) gun warfare. Disease so ravaged the native populace in the Americas that
Europeans were able to conquer them with
relative ease. Guns alone would not have been
sufficient, due to the vast number of Native Americans verses the number of smaller
number of Europeans.
The acquisition of the Americas
brought Europeans major profit in an unprecedented way. Europeans now had access to
mines with gold and silver, new land for agriculture, and trade with the acquired territories
as well as continuing trade with the old world
countries. Blaut explains that all this new
money radically altered the European economy: “The rapid capital accumulation which
[production and trade] fostered directly and
(in Europe) indirectly, add up to a significant
vector force easily able to change the process
of economic transformation in Europe from
a sluggish evolution to a rapid revolution.”3
As a result of the new found wealth, Europe
was pushed towards capitalism, and continued
economic growth, thus firmly fixing itself as
the leading world power. If another country
had plundered the Americas (and else where),
and succeeded in the slave trade, they would
currently be the country who was ruling the
world. None of the actions prior to 1492,
natural or genetic, led to the rise of Europe
– it was merely a case of accidental discovery
and plunder.
Notes
1 Blaut, James M. The Colonizer’s Model of
the World: Geographical Diffusionism and
Eurocentric History. New York: Guilford
Press, 1993.
2 Ibid, 59.
3 Ibid, 193. 66
s
e
i
t
i
t
en
Id
by
John Parkinson
Our world is in a state of flux. At this moment, teenagers
find themselves attempting to bridge the gap between those
who grew up believing that personal computers were entirely
within the realm of science fiction and those who have never
known a world without them. They are being forced to learn
about the multiple functions of these amazing machines so
that they can explain them to both the younger and the older
generations. At the same time, the technology is constantly
changing, and keeping up seems to be increasingly more
difficult. 67
The great potential of computers lies in their ability to network; it
is the Internet that has globalized the
world’s economy. It is the Internet that
has permeated every facet of our lives,
from media coverage to music sharing
to shopping. What is most fascinating
about the computer is that it has been
able to establish itself as the musthave technology in less than twenty
years. In an effort to understand these
rapid changes and their implications,
researchers have been studying the effects of the new, virtually ubiquitous
personal computer since it arrived in
the late 1980s.
Unfortunately, this research is
sorely lacking. The emergence of the
Internet is a revolutionary change, and
any attempt to understand its long
lasting effects is similar to attempting
to understand the effects of the Lexington and Concord battles the night
after they took place. From what we
do know, however, it is evident that
the ramifications of Internet use extend beyond the obvious economic and
scientific benefits of a more connected
world; in fact the web is altering humanity at a psychological and sociological level. The oldest aspect of the
Internet (and, subsequently, the one
for which the most research exists) is
that of computer-mediated communication (CMC), in which participants at
different computers separated by potentially great distances converse with
each other through textual messages. John Parkinson | identities
Personal web pages are also falling under the critical gaze of the psychological community. As mentioned before,
it is today’s teenagers who find themselves with one foot in the old world
and one in the new, and the strain can
become quite difficult. Adolescence is
arduous enough without the weight of
a shifting society on your shoulders. It
is a time of identity crisis, in which the
search for self and acceptance dominate
all other concerns. For modern teenagers, the availability (perhaps even the
expected use) of CMC, an entirely new
and duplicitous technology, is making
this search for identity exceedingly difficult.
It used to be that teachers were
wary about assigning work that would
require a computer, concerned that it
would be unfair to the students who
did not have one. Today, most assignments must be typed on the computer,
and even tests are taken online. If you
do not have a computer now, you’re
simply behind the times. To test the
validity of my assumption that most
students now own at least one Internetcapable computer, I conducted a survey
in my calculus class, which consists of
approximately twenty teenagers. The
results were not surprising: everyone
had at least one, and one student even
boasted of over twenty in his household
(granted, computer construction was
his brother’s hobby). As an additional
question, however, I asked about online
activity. It turns out that most of the
68
twenty students spend twice as much
time communicating to peers via chat
rooms, instant-messaging systems, email, or forums as they do on any other activity (ranging from working on
school assignments to simply surfing
the web). I found these results shocking.
When asked why they spend so
much time online talking to each other, my classmates said that they like to
be kept informed; they do not want to
be the last to learn what is going on. Real-time chat rooms are playgrounds
for rumors and provide a perfect medium for the rapid dissemination of
“juicy” information. Information that
might make you “cooler” than someone
who does not have the same information. At its core, it is an identity issue;
teenagers don’t want to be ostracized,
so they establish themselves through
online communication. Chat rooms
are very practical when it comes to ascertaining, say, when people are being
picked up to go see a movie. On another level, however, such “real-world”
social interactions tend to be replaced
with online conversations. Patricia
Wallace, in her definitive work The
Psychology of the Internet, addresses
this issue with the paradigm of the internet as a time sink. That is, people
are being sucked into disadvantageous
over-usage of the Web. “Some people
appear to be entering into patterns of
Internet use that resemble a pathological behavioral disorder […] while their
John Parkinson | identities
former real-life activities and social relationships deteriorate.”1 Essentially, the
purpose for engaging in peer CMC (establishing identity within a group and
becoming more socially active) is undermined by how social interaction outside
of the online world is decreased. This
pattern can become chronic. In fact,
behavioral therapists Hall and Parsons
consider Internet Addiction Disorder
(IAD) a full-fledged ailment similar to
pathological gambling.2 As of now,
they have failed to gain enough support
to warrant the establishment of IAD as
a psychological disorder. Though IAD
would only apply in extreme cases, it is
easy to see how even the most casual
user of the Internet can suffer from it to
some degree. In the same way, teens can
often waste hours upon hours talking
online as they grow increasingly distant
from their families and the very friends
with whom they are communicating.
A less apparent form of CMC, the
personal web page, also tends to ensnare
teenagers in a time sink. As more and
more people become computer literate,
services such as Yahoo’s Geocities and
SPHosting are offering more free services
and web space for individuals who want
to create their own home pages. Some
professionals, such as Wallace, find the
time spent on page building to be detrimental to the growth of teens. “Tinkering with a personal home page can be
very absorbing and time consuming.”3
But many teens see the personal web
page as a way to communicate to a po-
69
tentially massive audience exactly who
they are and what they believe. Teens
spend more time on their own pages
because they want to present themselves in the way that best identifies
them. In fact, some seek out who they
are by creating web sites. According to
Zizi Papacharissi, a web page provides
the ideal setting for self-presentation,
allowing maximum control over the
information disclosed. The absence of
nonverbal or other social cues restricts
the information exchanged to the specific facts the Web page creator wants
to communicate.4 In this way, it seems that teens
are able to express themselves as clearly as they want, especially since no one
is dictating what they can or cannot
place on their site, perhaps discounting the idea that it is becoming harder
and harder for teens to establish identity in today’s technological age.
Generally, there is a complete lack of
social context cues in a forum. As defined by Collins, the term social context
cue “refers to the various geographic,
organizational, and situation variables
that influence the content of conversation among persons.”7 This is what
is lost when people are not conversing
face to face: the subtle pitch change
in the voice, the awkward glance, the
non-verbally communicated gesture.
Additionally, the context of the environment is lost. For the same reason
that web page creation could be a way
for teenagers to find out who they are
(because no one stands over their shoulders and tells them what to include), forum members (who have no one standing over their shoulders, be it an actual
person of authority, a guilty conscience,
or simply the knowledge that what
would be said is inappropriate given the
time of day and location) feel they can
say anything to anyone, forgetting that
the people who they are insulting are
just that: real people. Some might attempt to justify flaming by stating that
it helps teens “let off steam,” but to date
there has been no observed correlation
between forum flaming and a decrease
in “real world” aggression.8
Yet we cannot discount the possibilities that anonymity brings to the
table, with the prime example being
Internet support groups. The Internet
provides a place where people can find
and communicate with others who are
sharing similar trials in their lives. This
is especially true for those with concealable stigmas (problems that can be hidden from the general public). “People
with concealable stigmas are far less
likely to find others in real life with the
same stigma to talk with, especially if
they have not ‘come out’ about their
problem.”9 Examples include hidden
drug addictions, homosexuality, and
sexual dysfunctions. Online, such persons (whether teenagers or much older)
can be more open about these issues
than they could be in face-to-face interaction. The mask of anonymity can
help them think more positively about
70
their actual identities.
Consider also how this anonymity could help teenagers search for
themselves. Traditionally, adolescents
have been known to try new things
that are not characteristic of the identities they had as children (to the benefit or detriment of the teen). Sturdevent and Spear claim that “to aid
identity development, adolescents often seek approval and test themselves.
They may ‘try on’ different lifestyles
or mannerisms, looking for the ‘right
fit.’”10 This seeking of approval plays
directly into the concept of imaginary
audience. As for trying to find the
“right fit,” anonymity and pseudonymity are perfect. Many forums consist
of role-playing games, in which participants might take on the role of a
powerful wizard or dark vampire. On
a less fantastic level, some males may
act as females to gain perspective. By
playing out certain archetypes, real or
imagined, teens can experience how
others would respond if they adopted a
similar identity in real life. All of this
occurs without the individual making
a real-world sacrifice by definitively
deciding which identity to assume.
Establishing identity through webpage creation and CMC in chat rooms
can both trap teens in a time sink and
help them establish themselves in social groups. Anonymity in forums
can lead to overt aggression, yet it can
also provide comfort in the form of
support groups or help identity-con-
fused teens try different roles on for
size without permanent damage to their
“real world” reputations. For each evil
the Internet brings, there seems to be a
good. The issues facing teens (identity,
acceptance, love, loss) are the same as
they have always been. It’s the medium
that has changed. Much like those living through revolutionary advances in
the past, adolescents are in uncharted
waters. Teens do not have guides to
lead them through the transition, but
this has been the case with every generation; they have all dealt with new
technologies, new methods of thought,
or new social codes. Being a teenager is
not only about personal transition, but
about societal transition as well. So is it accurate to say that finding
identity in a computer-mediated world
is no more difficult than finding identity
in a telephone-mediated world, or before
that, a correspondence-mediated world? Though this line of reasoning is tempting, it is simply impossible to compare
the computer to technological advances
of the past. The possibility of personal
(mis)representation before massive audiences (whether existing or imaginary)
was simply not possible until the rise of
the Internet. What is most unique about
the Internet when compared to past media is its popularity with the teenage
demographic. It is beyond popularity;
teens are expected to be computer-proficient. When the computer emerged,
the adolescent psychological slate was
exponentially expanded to encompass a
71
broad new range of interactions previously unavailable at such a young age. It is therefore impossible to logically
compare the difficulty of the teenage
identity search now to the search of
the past; they are in entirely different
realms. What we already know about
adolescents still holds true, but past
models cannot account for the new
psychological impact, both positive
and negative, of communication without social restraint, without context
clues, and without a face to attach to
the dialogue. 1992 < http://cac.psu.edu/~mauri/papers/flames.html>
8 Wallace, 129
9 Wallace, 120
10 Sturdevent and Spear. “Adolescent
Psychosocial Development.” Journal of
the American Dietetic Association Mar.
2002 pp. S30
Notes
1 Wallace, Patricia. The Psychology of
the Internet. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1999
2 Hall and Parsons. “Internet Addiction: College Student Case Study Using Best Practices in Cognitive Behavior Therapy.” Journal of Mental Health
Counseling 23 (2001): pp. 312
3 Wallace, 97.
4 Papacharissi, Zizi. “The Presentation
of Self in Virtual Life: Characteristics
of Personal Homepages.” Journalism
and Mass
Communication Quarterly Oct. 2002
5 Elkind, Daniel. “Egocentrism in
Adolescence.” Child Development 38
(1967): pp. 1025-1034
6 Wallace, 124-125.
7 Collins, Mauri. “Flaming: The Relationship Between Social Context Cues
and Uninhibited Verbal Behavior in
Computer-mediated Communication”
fotos. farah dosani & carol perry
72
Implications
for Truth
Manuela Londoño
graphics by neus
“A verified or indisputable fact,
A proposition, or principle;”
That is the simple definition of Truth given by
a college dictionary. As a knower, however, I have
experienced much more difficulty in defining truth,
and, as evidence has shown, so has the world for
centuries.
So how is truth defined?
73
The problem can be framed by
these two statements: “Different cultures have different truths” and “A
truth is that which can be accepted
universally.” Each of these opposing statements provides crucial implications that either obscure or limit
knowledge, yet they are both widely
accepted. The first statement about
different cultures having different
truths would imply that “if truth has
many faces, then not one of them deserves trust and respect.” In other words, if there is more
than one truth, then why should any
of them be considered valid enough for
acceptance? This would result in the
nature of knowledge being obscured,
which could eventually lead to a loss of
meaning in a person’s life. Accepting
the second claim, which suggests that
there is a “universal truth,” could imply that the world is closed to any new
ideas, which would result in an intellectual standstill. In other words, there
would be no further advancements in
science, technology, or any other related discipline. The second statement,
however, would bring about positive
results in that wars would be less likely to occur because of the decreased
propensity for disagreement. Therefore, accepting any of the two statements would imply massive changes,
both positive and negative, for all human kind.
Accepting that “different cultures have different truths” can bring
Manuela Londoño | Implications for Truth
about various consequences, the main
one being that knowledge would be obscured. What we accept or “know” as
truth would not be true for another culture. A situation such as this one would
confuse people everywhere because they
would not know if their “truth” were
correct as opposed to the “truth” of a
different culture. Basically, what we
accept as truth affects our reasoning,
and if there were more than one “truth,”
then how would we know which one
to trust? Consequently, reason would
become a rough pathway to knowing. Since all the pathways to knowledge
are interconnected, if reason is affected,
then the way in which we perceive situations would be drastically altered. Finally, if perception were
changed, both emotion and language
would be distorted. For example, a person that “knows” the Mayan calendar,
or Haab, to be “true,” “knows” that a
year is composed of 18 months and that
each month has twenty days. That same
person, when asked, would answer that
today is a completely different day and
month from the day that a Westerner
would believe it to be. Furthermore, if
you ask that person to meet you in London on May 25th you will never actually
coincide with him or her because his or
her reasoning dictates that the 25th day
of the fifth month of the year is completely different from what it actually is
to you. In this case, their perception has
been distorted by their reason or previous knowledge. Therefore, accepting
74
that there are “different truths” would
obscure knowledge by placing everything that we “know” in doubt. A further implication of accepting the existence of different truths
would be a lack of regulation or world
standards. “How is it that truth comes
always to be on ‘our side,’ whoever
‘we’ are.” This suggests that “truth”
can be manipulated to accommodate a
certain point of view. Consequently,
there would be no standards for anything. For example, some conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia hold it to be “true” that a woman
should cover herself and only remove
her abaya in front of the males in her
family such as her husband or father. The West, however, does not accept
this same “truth.” We, instead, have
ideas of a more liberated woman, and
overall there are no regulations or
standards on how a woman should
dress or carry herself. The same issue
arises with ethics. If there is no “universal truth,” then how can there be
any standards for ethics? There cannot
be. What may be ethical in one culture
may not be in another. However, there are some positive
implications if this statement is accepted, one being the mobilization for further advancements. If a single truth is
not accepted, then everything will be
constantly questioned, which eventually leads to new scientific discoveries
and technological advancements in all
fields. Copernicus, for example, did
not agree with the “truth” that the sun
revolved around the earth, so he, after
careful analysis, suggested that the earth
revolved around the sun. Evidence later
proved Copernicus’s statement to be the
new “truth.” “Nothing changed as a result of the ‘Copernican revolution’, and
yet everything changed. Or to put it in
Kantian terms, the objective world producing our sense date did not change,
but our a priori concept of it was turned
inside out.” The a priori mentioned
refers to aspects of reality that are not
supplied immediately by our senses. Thus, accepting that “different cultures
have different truths” results in various
implications, some negative and others
positive.
The second statement being dissected claims that there is a “universal
truth.” This again has various implications for knowledge. To begin with, accepting that there is a “universal truth”
would imply that the whole world accepts a single truth and that “truth” is
not challenged. Obviously, such a case
would be nearly impossible because the
world and people’s perceptions of it are
so diverse. However, if everything were
accepted without a challenge, then the
world would be closed to new “truths.” Take the Copernicus example. If everyone, including him, had accepted
the ideas back then as “truth,” then he
would not have challenged the theory
that the sun revolves around the earth
and today we would probably still accept that outdated “truth.” In Zen and
76
the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
the author talks about two modes of
understanding, the classical and the
romantic. “A classical understanding
sees the world primarily as underlying
form itself. […] The romantic mode is
primarily inspirational, imaginative,
creative, and intuitive.” If a “universal truth” were accepted, it would imply that everyone in existence has found a middle
ground between classical and romantic thought. This, again, is practically
impossible simply because there are
countless factors that affect a person’s
ways of knowing. Personal experience,
for example, molds a person’s emotions and perceptions. Take a woman
who has been raped, for instance. Her
emotions toward those who raped her
are of hatred and dislike. This might
affect her feelings towards men in
general and, as a result, her perception of men might be that men are
evil and cruel. Since no two people in
the world have the same personal experiences throughout their lives, I can
safely say that no two persons’ emotions and perceptions will ever be the
same about everything. Therefore, a
universal agreement between classical
thinkers and romantic thinkers would
not be possible.
Finally, one positive implication of accepting a “universal truth”
would be a lack of disagreement and,
consequently, an absence of wars. For
example, the conflict between the Is-
raelis and the Palestinians originates in
their differing “truths.” For the Israelis,
their “truth” says that Israel is rightfully
their land. The Palestinians, however,
believe that the land is rightfully theirs. So what we have here is a conflict of
“truths” culminating in a war. If a “universal truth” were accepted worldwide,
there would be no conflict of “truths”
and as a result there would be no more
war. A person living in the United
States, where there is mostly pro-Israeli
sentiment, for example, would experience the confusion of being stuck between two different “truths” if suddenly they traveled to Jordan or the United
Arab Emirates where there is greater
support toward the Palestinians. There,
the media and people expose new facts
about the whole conflict that might lead
that person to believe that perhaps the
Palestinians were also victims. Their
perception of the whole situation would
be altered. In a way, you could say that
their knowledge was obscured by the inability to trust one of the “truths.” This
confusion, however, might empower
them to become more knowledgeable
on the topic and propel them to further
advance their knowledge. The idea, although naïve, is that if these two cultures did not have different “truths,”
then there would be no conflict between
them and thus no hatred or bloodshed.
Accepting either of the two statements brings about many implications
about knowledge that can be both posi-
77
tive and negative. The existence of
“different truths” in different cultures
implies that knowledge can be obscured
because one would not know which
“truth” to accept. As a result, there
would be no standards for behavior or
ethics. However, believing that there
are different “truths” is what makes
the world continue to investigate those
truths that they do not agree with in
order to come to a more agreeable
truth, resulting in scientific advancements as well as onward movement in
every other field. On the other hand,
believing in a “universal truth” implies
a closure to other ideas and therefore
no advancement in knowledge, but
it does provide the hope for a world
without war.
lization, 4th Edition. California: Wadsworth
Thomson Learning, 2000.
Notes
1 Ernest Gellner. Relativism and the
Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 83.
2 David Bloor. Knowledge and Social
Imagery, 2nd Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, p. 3745.
3 Robert M. Pirsig. Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance. New York:
Perennial Classics, 1999, p.133.
4 Ibid., p. 70.
5 Adam Morton. A Guide Through
the Theory of Knowledge, 3rd Edition. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing,
2003.
6 Jackson J. Spielvogel. Western Civi-
78
Daniel Pedreira
Ukraine
Since gaining independence in
1991, and in particular since the 2004
presidential elections, Ukraine has
made its integration into Europe a key
priority in its foreign policy, chiefly by
attempting to join the European Union.
In order to understand the significance of this issue, one must analyze
the historical background of Ukraine’s
quest for membership in the European
Union, the advantages that could make
membership a positive goal, the disadvantages that could make it harmful
for Ukraine, and answer the question
“Do the pros outweigh the
cons?”
Membership in the European
Union requires that a country have
“stability of institutions guaranteeing
democracy, the rule of law, and human rights; respect for and protection of minorities; the existence of a
functioning market economy as well
as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within
the Union.” The fact that the economy
has not been a full market economy
combined with the violations of human
rights and civil liberties on the part of
the Kuchma government have made EU
membership something that, at best,
was in the very far off future. In several
meetings between the Ukrainian government and the European Union from
1991 to 2004, the EU did not seem willing, or at least ready, to accept Ukraine
into the Union in the near future.
During the presidency of Leonid
Kuchma (1994-2005), Ukraine’s institutions were anything but stable. Several corruption scandals hurt his popularity both at home and abroad after his
re-election in 1999. He has also been
accused of ordering the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze in 2000. The
United States, along with other Western governments, became involved in
the situation more directly when a recording served as proof that Kuchma’s
government had transferred the sophisticated Kol’chuha radar system to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. After that, both the
United States and European countries
tried to purposefully avoid any associa-
FOTOS. FARAH DOSANI
79
Confluence
VOLUME III FALL 2006
tion with Ukraine or with Kuchma’s
government in particular.
A major underlying issue evident throughout Ukrainian history is
its East-West dilemma. Ukraine can be
seen as a Janus with two faces. One
face looks towards the West for modernity and development, while the
other looks towards the traditions of
the East, particularly those of Russia.
The European Union appears to be a
viable solution to this dilemma. When
looking at Ukraine’s turbulent history,
it is clear why people such as President
Yushchenko would promote Ukraine’s
membership into the European Union.
From Ukraine’s perspective, there are
several advantages to its membership
in the European Union. First of all, the
European Union represents a large export market. It is also a source of consumer goods and investment products
for Ukraine.
If Ukraine becomes a part of
the European Union, it will be able to
trade with other EU member states on
a more equal footing and with more
benefits than if it were trading with
a separate entity. Overall, manufacturing and production technologies in
Ukraine are less advanced than they
are in other European countries, but
this sector can improve with the help
of other EU states. The EU can also
help Ukraine by giving it the capital
Daniel Pedreira | Ukraine
that it needs to modernize the manufacturing sector. Ukrainian businesses
have been traditionally isolated from
the global market, and entry into the
European Union would let the country
compete with leading foreign producers
and manufacturers. This competition
is important because it would improve
the productivity and quality of domestic
producers. The EU would help Ukraine
consolidate a free market economy and
help ensure that it is able to sustain itself economically.
From a social perspective, Ukraine
would benefit from EU membership
through improved standards of living
and public welfare. It would also enjoy
“European-level standards of personal
security, education, medical care, environment, public information, and the
free movement of labor.” Membership
can also help Ukraine tackle issues such
as international terrorism, drug trafficking and abuse, human trafficking, and
the illegal exploitation of women for
prostitution. Where now Ukraine has to
deal with all of these problems nearly on
its own, within the EU it can draw upon
support from neighboring countries.
Ukraine can also benefit from the
EU’s anti-corruption policies. Rampant
corruption and electoral fraud has consistently taken place in Ukraine. The EU
has a policy aimed at avoiding “conflicts
80
Confluence
81
Confluence
of interest and at introducing systematic checks and controls.” Highlighted
by the 2004 Presidential elections, the
misuse of public office for personal
gain in Ukraine has been widespread,
and, although membership in the EU
cannot end corruption, it can certainly
decrease it dramatically.
From a security standpoint,
Ukraine’s membership in the EU could
be beneficial because of the EU’s commitment to using force as a last resort to solve conflicts. This stance will
make it less likely that Ukraine will
become involved in military conflicts,
and more likely to participate in solving
conflicts through the use of peaceful
means. Ukraine also believes that by
becoming a member of the European
Union, it can help in bringing Russia
closer to Europe “and will strengthen
Ukraine-Russia relations.” It would
also help in severely reducing any military threat that Russia may pose visà-vis Ukraine, since any attack on the
Ukraine would bring Russia serious
political and economic repercussions
on the part of the European Union.
Ukraine can also significantly
decrease its historical dependence on
Russia. Although Ukraine gained independence from the USSR, certain
ties that go back centuries link them
historically and culturally. However,
Russia has been able to use these ties
for its own personal gain, usually put-
ting Ukraine’s national interests second
to its own. Russia has also been heavily
involved in many of the problems that
Ukraine has faced since independence,
especially in the political arena. Yushchenko’s dioxin poisoning, presumably
caused by his opponents, made Ukraine
seem archaic in the eyes of the world, a
relic of a Soviet empire that eliminated
any opposition and dissent. By becoming a member of the European Union,
Ukraine can break from that old view
and create a new “Westernized” view
that shows Ukraine as progressive, modern, and open. EU membership will help
ensure that these changes towards modernity and away from authoritarianism
will be more permanent than they would
be if Ukraine were more influenced by
Russia.
Accordingly, the most significant
disadvantage to Ukraine’s membership
in the European Union is the fact that
it will upset Russia. Not only will Russia be displeased, but it may also impose
economic sanctions or try to use political maneuvers to prevent membership
from happening. These political maneuvers can be in the form of external pressures placed on Ukraine by Russia, such
as sanctions, or in the form of internal
pressures, such as pro-Russian political parties in Ukraine that can serve as
a strong opposition to the ruling proWestern government. Russia has significant support in parts of Ukraine, and it
could mobilize those groups in order to
82
Confluence
destabilize the government and make
Kiev more submissive to Moscow.
Ukraine’s security could also
be negatively affected by its inclusion in the European Union. In the
case of any military attack by Russia
on Ukraine, the European Union may
use the country as a buffer to prevent
any further Russian aggression from
occurring, or to prevent the aggression that has already taken place from
spreading to other EU member states.
Although it may seem that Russia is
unlikely to carry out a military attack
against Ukraine, statements made by
Russian President Vladimir Putin may
indicate otherwise. In his Annual Address to the Federal Assembly on April
25, 2005, President Putin stated that
“we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major
geopolitical disaster of the century. For
the Russian nation it was a genuine
drama.” Putin views the collapse of the
Soviet Union as the division of Russian territory and considers the former
Soviet Republics to be part of Russia even if they are independent. In
the same address before the Federal
Assembly, Putin stated that “tens of
millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory. Moreover, the epidemic
of disintegration infected Russia itself.” Putin’s harsh vocabulary when referring
to former Soviet republics reflects Russia’s paternalistic views towards countries such as Ukraine. By calling disintegration an “epidemic,” he is alluding to
the separatist movements in provinces
such as Chechnya. If one is to apply the
same violence that Russia has used in
the past decade to crack down on the secessionist movement in Chechnya, then
a scenario in which Russia would apply
the same methods to Ukraine is not unforeseeable.
If Ukraine is accepted into the European
Union, it will deepen the ethnic conflict
between the country’s pro-U.S. West
and pro-Russian East. Western Ukraine
is today considered “the heartland of
Ukrainian national identity and the
home of the Ukrainian national movement.” However, the early Ukrainian
national identity emerged in Eastern
Ukraine. While western Ukrainians primarily speak Ukrainian, eastern Ukrainians speak Russian.
The same West-East division occurs with ethnicity. During the 2004
Ukrainian presidential election debacle,
eastern Ukraine threatened to secede if
Yushchenko won. Officials in the area
vowed to join Crimea in creating an
autonomous “East South” republic. In
reference to the pro-Yushchenko rallies,
Alexander Lukyanchenko, the Mayor
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Confluence
84
Confluence
of Donetsk, stated that “if they don’t
clear people out of Kiev square […] we
should, in an orderly, constitutional
way, stage a referendum of trust to
determine this country’s make-up.”
Eastern Ukraine is highly industrialized and generates much of Ukraine’s
wealth from coal, chemicals, and steel.
Ukraine’s membership in the European
Union may also create a stronger secessionist movement in eastern Ukraine.
Since eastern Ukraine is pro-Russian,
Russia can mobilize its support within
Ukraine to oppose membership.
Consequently, after analyzing
the pros and the cons of Ukraine’s
membership in the EU, one must conclude that, overall, Ukraine will be
better off joining the European Union.
In part, these benefits will come from
the EU’s membership requirements.
By demanding that Ukraine establish a
stable market economy, the EU is motivating Ukraine to get its act together
in order to become a member. Ukraine
can benefit from the EU’s large export
market and can trade more equally with
other European countries. The EU can
also help Ukraine improve its manufacturing sector and can give it the capital that it would need to modernize it.
Membership will also let Ukraine compete more effectively with other foreign producers and manufacturers. The
EU’s requirement of stable democratic
institutions will help Ukraine become a
more respected European state and will
help put behind the mistakes of the past.
With Ukraine being surrounded by other
democratic states, its neighbors can help
it consolidate its democratic institutions
and assist in stabilizing the country.
85
Confluence
Notes
1 Ukraine and European Integration.
Embassy of the Republic of Ukraine
in Sweden. March 20, 2005. <www.
ukrainaemb.se/EU/ukraine_and_EU_
integration.htm>
2 A Comprehensive EU Anti-Corruption Policy. European Union. April
28, 2004. April 28, 2004. <http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33301.
htm>
3 Ukraine and European Integration
4 Putin, Vladimir. Annual Address to
the Federal Assembly. April 25, 2005.
April 25, 2005. <http://kremlin.ru/
eng/text/speeches/2005/04/25/2031_
type70029_87086.shtml>
5 Ibid.
6 Hughes, James and Sasse, Gwendolyn, eds. Ethnicity and Territory in the
Former Soviet Union. Portland: Frank
Cass Publishers, 2002, p. 72.
7 Pro-Russian Eastern Ukraine Threatens to Secede if Yushchenko Wins.”
The MoscowNews. November 26,
2004. April 28,2005<http://www.
mosnews.com/news/2004/11/26/eastukraine.shtml>
86
Aldo Quintanilla
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona
Lisa, though painted 500
years ago, remains to this day
quite possibly the most famous painting in the world.
Its popularity stems primarily
from its mysterious qualities
that baffles experts and fascinates the masses. Many theories have arisen about the true
nature of these qualities, some
going as far as to suggest the
unintentional role psychology
played in its creation.
There is little doubt that the
cause for all this commotion is Mona
Lisa’s famous smile. She gazes upon
the viewer with a soft, sensuous, mystifying smirk that appears on many of
Leonardo’s female figures and is now
recognized as a feature trait of the artist. In fact, it is rumored that he himself was so enamored with the Mona
Lisa’s smile that he included it in his
other works thereafter, including on
Mary in his Virgin and Child with St.
Anne and even on John in St. John the
Baptist.
To fully attempt to comprehend
the mystery behind her smile and the
phenomenal popularity she has achieved,
however, one must first go back to the
beginning of the story. Leonardo was
commissioned to paint the portrait
somewhere between 1502 and 1503
by Francesco del Giocondo, “completing” it (Giorgio Vasari didn’t consider
the painting ever to be finished) somewhere around 1506. The portrait is of
Francesco’s wife, Lisa Gherardini, a girl
born into a middle class (by contemporary standards) family, who then married into nobility by wedding del Giocondo. This of course is the generally
accepted history of the Mona Lisa, but
there are several dissidents to this belief. Some believe the painting really is
of Isabella d’Este, at the time a very rich
woman who was intent on getting her
portrait done by Leonardo. Other possibilities include Costanza d’Avalos (the
Duchess of Francavilla), or Isabella Gualanda. There are even some interesting (though improbable) theories of the
Mona Lisa really being either a portrait
of his mother, Leonardo’s ideal woman,
87
or even of Leonardo himself.
A major argument of Freud’s
psychoanalysis of Leonardo’s art is
directly tied to Leonardo’s homosexuality. Leonardo had been accused of
sodomy along with 3 other men, and
it is believed that his lover was Andrea Salaino, or “Salai.” It is also well
known that Leonardo valued beautiful
male youths, possibly because he too,
was considered to be a man of favorable appearances. Freud believed then,
that Leonardo chose and adored his
youths because of these homoerotic
desires, and that narcissism played a
major role as well. However, in this
instance, Freud has come under attack in the last half-century. His psychoanalytical work on Leonardo was
possibly flawed in this matter in that
Renaissance culture all but demanded
Leonardo choose male youths rather
than male adults. It is entirely likely
that da Vinci was indeed homosexual
(he often alludes to it when speaking
of Salai or in his more lewd cartoons),
but in his times, the adolescent models
he used were common practice.
Freud also focused on Leonardo’s
fixation with his mother, something
to which the “vulture fantasy” is attributed. In this dream of Leonardo’s,
Freud interprets the insertion of the
vulture’s tail into the infant’s mouth
as a subconscious desire for both the
nurturing breast of the mother, and as
an act of fellatio. This fixation continued on and increased with the absence
of a father, and it is Freud’s belief that
it was a woman’s smile that captivated
Aldo Quintanilla | mona lisa
Leonardo, and influencing him in painting the Mona Lisa; Freud believed the
painting reminded him of his mother
and that is what we see in the famous
smile. However, a major problem with
Freud’s theory lies in that he relied on a
translation of a translation of Leonardo’s
quote, and therefore misinterpreted the
word “nibio” as vulture, when in fact
in means hawk or kite. Freud was also
aware of the Ancient Egyptian belief that
the vulture only existed as a female, so
this translation into the word “vulture”
was vital. Proven wrong on that end, his
entire thesis was discredited.
Two such errors were enough to
for critics to attack other sections of his
book, one such critic suggesting that in
Virgin and Child with St. Anne, Anne
very well could have been 16 when Mary
was born so the youthful appearance of
both Mary and Anne would be possible
and not necessarily attributed to an unconscious recollection of Leonardo’s two
mothers. However, at this point such
criticisms seem like an attempt to further
discredit some of Freud’s more plausible
ideas about Leonardo’s subconscious
when painting simply for the satisfaction of taking on a giant such as Freud.
Wayne Andersen’s suggestion that both
Anne and Mary could have been 16 at
the time of their pregnancies points to
this, as he doesn’t mention how apocryphal stories have Anne as an older
woman (thus creating the dilemma of
being barren), and iconographically she
was portrayed as an older woman, such
as in Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel.
88
The most notable critic of Freud, Meyer
Schapiro, agreed with some of Freud’s
psychoanalysis of Leonardo’s work, but
disagreed on both the vulture fantasy,
and the origin of Mona Lisa’s smile.
Schapiro is the one who pointed out
the mistranslation of the word “nibbio”, but continued on with Freud’s
path and instead suggested that rather
than the vulture, a good mother, be
the bird in Leonardo’s dream, instead
it was the correct bird, a kite, notoriously known for being a cruel mother
to its litter. Perhaps, Schapiro believes,
Leonardo does not have this dream as a
fond memory of his mother, but rather
he never truly forgave her for having
him illegitimately.
Schapiro makes
a similar argument to that of Andersen, but provides much more powerful evidence: Leonardo drew sketches
of Anne in Virgin and Child with St.
Anne, some being old, some young.
Other evidence he presents, such as a
cartoon for the Virgin of the Rocks,
Verocchio’s David sculpture, and previous paintings by Leonardo’s master including women smiling all suggest that the Mona Lisa smile was not
unique to her.
As for the other half of the cause
of the Mona Lisa’s popularity, the public, there are some thoughts on that
as well. Why has the public been so
enamored by Leonardo’s most famous
work? Perhaps it was the publicity the
painting received when stolen from the
Louvre in 1911 and then attacked by
acid in 1956. Maybe it was Napoleon’s
fascination with her, or even the belief
that the artist himself being obsessed
with his own painting. It is likely that
all those events have contributed to its
fame, along with 20th century marketing, but I believe the true reason it has
become such an icon is embedded in the
painting, not it’s history. There is some
effect that she has on the viewer that
has been passed on for generations, a
lasting impact one receives when viewing her. Paul Barolsky explains this perfectly: “Yet so overmatched are we by
the probing, animated gaze of the Mona
Lisa, who sits on high in a state of superiority and serenity, both psychological
and physical it is as if the importance
of our gaze upon her were diminished
by the weight of her gaze…we are more
fundamentally the subject of her attention than she is to ours.” Barolsky goes
into detail in his article “Mona Lisa Explained” about how Leonardo allows us
to see the inner psyche of the woman in
the portrait. He refers to it as the “animus”, or soul. The Ancient Greeks were
some of the first to write about the existence of a soul, most notably the legendary Aristotle in his controversial “De
Anima.”
Over the course of two millennia, his work on the soul has been at the
center of debate of existence of a soul,
of a war between faith and reason. This
never-ending conflict has affected not
just the philosophers and priests, but it
is a question that causes inner conflict
within the common person. The soul
has always been a mysterious and unexplainable topic, and Leonardo here plays
(quite possibly by accident) on this fas89
cination with the soul by giving us a
chance to see into Mona Lisa’s animus.
Her smile allows us to understand
what her inner thoughts are, or rather,
offers us an opportunity to conjecture
as to just what could this woman possibly be thinking about that makes her
smile in such a way. She is triumphant
in her chair, not at all aware of the outside world, her troubles, or the misery that life brings us all. It’s as if she
knows the secret to happiness in life,
and is very much amused at the fact
she knows something we do not. She
sits at a comfort level that most of us
dream of achieving, totally confident
in herself, unlike her insecure viewers.
We envy the serene pleasure she experiences as we walk into the room. The
mystery for 500 years has been: just
what is she smiling about? We need
to know in order to be able to be in
her position; we desire it; we desperately need it. It is this curiosity of the
viewer, then, that makes this painting
so famous. Ultimately, the meaning of
the painting has little to do with her,
and everything to do with us.
Notes
1 Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci
(New York: Moffat, Yard, and Company), 83.
2 Donald Sassoon, Becoming Mona Lisa
(New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2001), 2324
3 Serge Bramly, trans, Leonardo: Discovering the Life of Leonardo da Vinci
(New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 363
4 Freud, Leonardo, 34.
5 Freud, Leonardo, 90.
6 Bradley Collins, Leonardo, Psychoanalysis, and Art History (Evanston, IL:
Northwestern University Press, 1997),
86
7 Wayne Andersen, Freud, Leonardo
da Vinci, and the Vulture’s Tail (New
York: Other Press, 2001), 6
8 Andersen, Freud, Leonardo, and the
Vulture, 5
9 Andersen, Freud, 46-47
10 Laurie Schneider Adams, Art and
Psychoanalysis (New York: Harper Collins, 1993), 2
11 Adams, Art and Psychoanalysis, 27
12 Paul Barolsky, “Mona Lisa Explained,” Notes in the History of Art 13,
no. 2 (1994): 16
90
Stephen Danyew
The Contemporary Audience
It seems difficult to argue that in
the twentieth century, the world of art music has seen a larger disconnect between
music-makers and music-takers than in
previous eras. But to what degree has this
gap between art music and American society grown? And is it possible to point
to certain causes of this growth in disparity? Certainly, it is possible to suggest
certain forces that have influenced this
separation, but it seems brash to claim
definite reasons when the environment is
so subjective. A few forces that can be
suggested are the break down of tonality and the absence of that language, the
lack of exposure to contemporary music,
the obscurity of form, indeterminacy, and
the boundaries of popular and art music. Possibly the most important aspect
to consider is our proximity in time to
the music being discussed. As a society,
we generally lag well behind the present
art music, and thus we must return to the
old at a later point to categorize and understand it. Therefore, perhaps it is too
early to decipher the problem at hand,
and perhaps the present situation is only
slightly different than the art music and
society relationships of the past. A common and valid claim behind
the waning support for contemporary art
music is the absence of a communicative language such as tonality.1 Although
common practice tonality took on many
forms and variations, it stood as a recognizable identity for nearly 150 years. Even before the classical period tonality
was very much a part of the music, it was
simply used differently. During the time
of Beethoven and into the romantic period,
tonality is pushed and pulled and stretched
in all directions until it finally breaks in
the early 20th century. This movement
was caused by the increased sentiment of
self-expression and emotionalism. Yet
the further that composers reached away
from traditional tonal bounds, the further
the American audience felt distanced from
the music. In Europe, there were two distinct
reactionary attitudes to the “new music”
at the turn of the twentieth century. On
one side, people hailed the new directions
of art music and welcomed the new experimental age. On the other hand, others greeted the abandonment of traditional
practices with stern resentment. This disparity was no more clearly
evidenced than in 1913 at the premier of
Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” in
Paris. Undoubtedly, a cause for the traditionalists feeling of disconnect with the
new music was a lack of language and reciprocal communication. It seems as if
this would effect everyone, but those who
accepted the new directions with more
open arms represented Europe’s modern
musical exposure. This is the difference
between Europe and America at the time;
Europe had long been the home to everything new in music, and America had been
receiving everything second-hand. 91
Thus, it would come as no surprise
that a larger population of Americans remained traditional in their musical values. These Americans were still being
fed music by Mozart and Beethoven at
the turn of the 20th century, and they had
become so accustomed to it that Stravinsky and Schoenberg seemed outrageous. American’s had grown up hearing music
only of the classical period, American
folk song, and popular music, so when
the majority first encountered a contemporary work they rejected it. Clearly, this
demonstrates many American’s lack of
exposure to contemporary art music. It
is natural for humans to reject what they
do not understand, and since the first exposure usually comes as such a shock to
these individuals, it is very much a misunderstanding.
There seem to be two clear causes
of this misunderstanding and rejection
- the lack of both form and language in
contemporary music. This idea of a universal language of music is extremely
important, and yet equally difficult to
quantify. In a tonal-based system, the
accustomed listener can experience certain events in the music that allow them
to expect future events, such as resolution. The balance between consonance
and dissonance in traditional music is
one that relies on the resolution of dissonances. As listeners are accustomed
to this tradition, when they hear a long
sustained dominant chord, many can feel
and anticipate the arrival of tonic. This
expectation and satisfaction is due to a
common language present in that music, which is harmonically based.2 As
composers treat harmony with more and
Stephen Danyew | The Contemporary Audience
more freedom, the general public loses
that sense of connection that they had to
the music. They no longer understand the
language that the composer is using, and
the reciprocal communication has been
lost. Yet is this not the same situation
that the public faced when all musical
revolutions took place? When the brilliant Bach was busy composing his fierce
contrapuntal works of the Baroque period,
the public scoffed at his compositional approach. And when Beethoven presented
his daringly dark works of the early romantic period, the public questioned his
direction and aesthetics. However, in both
these cases, it simply took time and exposure for the people to understand and appreciate the works.3
An effect of the lack of common
language is the obscurity of contemporary
forms, which represents yet another piece
of this puzzle. In the classical period, the
prevalence of the symphony, concerto, and
sonata form made listening a very intellectual activity. Listeners became so acquainted with sonata form that when they
approached a symphony or concerto, they
listened for the large divisions and even
smaller ones. Beethoven was the first to really
exploit the predictability of sonata form,
as he morphed and expanded the sections. Of course, sonata form and its principle divisions are based on harmonic structures. Thus it makes sense that in the twentieth
century, when the traditional harmonic language is lost, the traditional sense of form
is also abandoned. As Anotine Bonnet argues in his article Ecriture and perception:
on Messagesquisse by Pierre Boulez, “The
92
operations which underly the work are
not necessarily audible.”4
Therefore, people are then approaching music with an expectation of
communication and formal structure, and
they receive neither. Unfortunately, most
people find it easier to reject the new direction and move backwards, rather than
trying to understand the new music.
Again, this is not uncommon, and
we should not expect the majority of the
public to accept the new trends without
clinging to some degree to the comfortable past. What is uncommon about the
20th century is the incredible proliferation of many different styles and trends
at once. This is yet another possible factor in the hesitant acceptance of new music, as listener’s expectations have been
further inhibited by the wealth of various
possibilities that a composer can present.5
One of these trends, which formed
in the 1950s, was termed “indeterminacy.” The direction, lead by American composer John Cage, questioned all
music of the past and approached music
and sound with a philosophical mind. This new school of thought liberated all
sounds as free and removed all restraints
from music, in theory to allow music to
simply “happen.” Of course this further
expands the dilemma of formal obscurity, as Cage and his followers were now
presenting music that was indeterminate.6 In other words, neither the composer or the performers had a complete
idea of where the music would lead. Stephen Danyew | The Contemporary Audience
Listeners that valued structure and predictability were turned away, as the music
to them seemed random. The culmination
of Cage’s movement came with his work
4:33, a piece in which the performer(s) did
nothing, and the music presented was only
the sounds in the performance space. The
work intrigued some, but outraged more,
setting off claims of what music was and
what music wasn’t. There has always been a need in
history to distinguish popular music from
art or concert music; the 20th century is no
exception. There has also always been a
fervent group of admirers surrounding art
music at any time, but some suggest that
this group has shrunk in the 20th century. Christopher Ballantine suggests in his
book Music and its Social Meanings that
“...today new works by the avant-gardes
are greeted with holy approval by their
tiny coterie of devotees. Those few who
know, approve; the rest keep away and do
not seem to mind.”7
He also claims that for the first time
in history, this “tiny coterie” of supporters
is shrinking. This is not hard to believe,
though it seems difficult to place blame on
one side or the other. Unfortunately, many
people are quick to blame composers and
those who have been termed “elitists.” It
is true that some composers felt as if they
didn’t need the public’s approval or attention, but they are unquestionably the minority. Harsh words by composers such
as Arnold Schoenberg and Milton Babbit
successfully drove away many possible
listeners. Unfortunately, this represents
94
yet another case of a few individuals
causing a problem for the majority. “If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is
for all, it is not art.”8 Schoenberg’s words
here can be taken in several different
ways. On one hand, it seems he is discounting any music that has a wide appeal, and suggesting that art music rests
on a pedestal far above all other music. Taken another way, it would seem he belittles the general audience, making the
assumption that the whole public could
not understand a work of art music. The obvious question stemming from
Schoenberg’s thoughts here is, “if it is
for all, and it is not art, what is it?” The
answer: popular music. In the twentieth century, there
was not only a proliferation of art music
styles, but also popular music genres. As
more people lost communication with
many new works of art music, Americans
turned to other emerging trends such as
dixieland, jazz, blues, and rock & roll. This is not to say that art music lost all of
its audience; that was hardly the case. The
group of composers termed the “American Traditionalists” brought back a more
communicative and distinctly American
music back to the concert hall, and they
were greeted with excitement. But for
the European art music, whose trends at
the time included serialism, total serialism, and textural music, added with the
American indeterminacy, the American
audience just wasn’t supportive. Since
many of Europe’s greatest composers
had immigrated to the United States in
the early to mid twentieth century, much
of the epitome of European art music was
being produced on American soil. All of
our young composers were studying with
these masters of contemporary art, but
what this seemed like for the public was a
cycle away from communication.
Ever since the time of Beethoven,
it is become more and more difficult for
composers to write a work of greatness,
and of wide appeal.9 It seems that a work
with astounding artistic integrity is valued
less by society than a work that is simply more popular. And by popular, it is
meant that the work communicates with
a larger body of people. Using the factors described above, this situation makes
complete sense. American audiences value a common language and the ability to
communicate with a work and understand
its message. In the early to mid twentieth
century, the audiences could not communicate or understand much of the art music that was being so tirelessly produced. Thus of course they will find new works
of their common language, such as Copland’s Appalachian Spring, or return to
understandable works of the past such as
Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.
Therefore, as audiences continually
reach back to coveted works of the past,
they overlook most anything being created
anew. “New music” has a stigma due to
the extremely small amount of time when
this communication was lost in the early
twentieth century. Just as it is unfair to
blame composers for this shift, it is also incorrect to point to the public as causing the
separation. Though many casual listeners
do not know of the exact history behind
the musical revolutions of the twentieth
century, they know why they do not like
the new music. The problem of exposure
comes full circle here, because audiences
95
often reject a work of new music before
hearing it, automatically assuming that it
will sound like Schoenberg.10 Unfortunately, many non-musicians tend to disregard all music of the twentieth century
after only hearing a few select works. There is a common misconception that
all contemporary music sounds the same,
but if the average listener indulged him
or herself in a wider selection of the music, they would likely find something of
interest to them.11 Yet again, it is difficult to blame the listeners, as their first
exposure to this music may come so late
in their development that it seems completed erroneous and foreign. To a certain degree, it seems as
if scholars and academics speak of the
twentieth century as radically different
from the rest of music history. And to a
certain degree, they are correct. However, several aspects of the relationship between new music and its audience have
remained the same. The most important
and relevant aspect is the public’s place
in time relative to the music’s place in
time. Throughout practically all of music history, the public has found itself
discovering, appreciating, and categorizing music long after it has been composed. For example, Mozart’s music has
never been more greatly appreciated by
the public than in recent times. Unfortunately, Mozart is unable to reap any of
the benefits of that success, and since he
died a poor man, that should say something about his relative public success at
the time. Throughout history, not until music has reached a new crossroad can
scholars and the public classify the music
and evaluate its place in a greater history. Therefore, it may be necessary for music
to reach a new milestone before American society can return to the music of the
twentieth century and truly appreciate it. Already we have begun to see movements
back to a language of communication in
music, but because the public lags behind
somewhat, the majority sentiment is that
“new music” is still serial. Throughout the
last two decades, many of America’s foremost composers have returned to a language of tonality, albeit a “new” tonality. Unfortunately, the public is understandably hesitant and approaches the music
with a feeling of caution. It will certainly take time, as everything does, for this new music to be
understood. It is very possible that with
enough exposure, the general listener will
understand many types of twentieth century music, with the growth of a new language, or the understanding that maybe a
common language isn’t needed to appreciate the work. Nevertheless, composers
today work in an exciting time of pluralism and eclecticism, where virtually anything is possible. Unfortunately, due to
the waning audiences at large concerts of
the previous century, orchestras and other
large-scale performing groups have been
forced to reduce programming new works
so that they can stay afloat. This promotes
a dangerous cycle whereby great music
may not have the opportunity to be performed simply because it is “new,” and the
audience turnout is likely to be less than
if Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony was
programmed instead. Thus, it seems as if
it will require a group to take the leap of
constantly programming great new works,
96
and some amount of the public to risk
attending the concerts. Then, once this
truly new music can reach its audience,
it will spread like wildfire and maybe we
will have reached a new period in music.
Notes
1 Ballantine, Christopher. Music and its
Social Meanings. New York: Gordon and
Breach, 1984. p. 94.
2 McAdams, Stephen. Music: A science of
the mind? McAdams, Stephen, ed. Music and psychology: a mutual regard. New
York: Harwood, 1987. Volume 2, part 1 of
Contemporary Music Review.
3 Etter, Brian K. From Classicism to
Moderinism. Burlington: Ashgate, 2001.
p. 122.
4 Bonnet, Anotine. Ecriture and perception: on Messagesquisse by Pierre Boulez
McAdams, Stephen, ed. Music and psychology: a mutual regard. New York: Harwood, 1987. Volume 2, part 1 of Contemporary Music Review.
5 McAdams, Stephen
6 Morgan, Robert. Twentieth Century
Music. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991. p.
481
7 Ballantine, Christopher. p. 94.
10 Boulez, Pierre : Timbre and composition - timbre and language
McAdams, Stephen, ed. Music and psychology: a mutual regard. New York: Harwood, 1987. Volume 2, part 1 of Contemporary Music Review.
11 McAdams, Stephen
FOTOS. FARAH DOSANI
98
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flager flea
market
by carol perry
nw 37th avenue & nw
7th street, miami
free parking.
50 cents to enter
99
carol perry | flagler flea market
100
101
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