Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Walker Evans, Floyd and Lucille Burroughs on Porch, Hale County Alabama, 1936.

Walker Evans captured the life of the commoners in America during the great depression.  Agee and Walker traveled the states trying to see what life was really like during these hard times. In this photo, the dirty bare feet show not only a lack of shoes, but that the father was a worker in the fields. You can see the sweat that has plastered the father's hair back. Trying to sustain his family, this photo definitely describes what the book states as: "showing the terrible economic deprivations of the Great Depression of the 1930's."

As I looked at more of Walker Evans photos,  I thought of Charlie Chaplin's film Modern Times and the social message that it carried.  Photography, like film, also can send a social message and give an understanding to others without a single word. While the subjects of this photograph are dirty and wearing old raggedy clothes, Evans seems to have found the beauty despite the hardship. His use of lines and shadow is pleasant to the eye when looking at this image. The placement of his subjects helps the eye know where to start and finish.  His photographic eye helped to capture not just a documentation of how life really was, but beautiful images that are worth thousands of dollars.

The Eating Machine

This scene of Modern Times, the 1936 comedy directed and produced by Charlie Chaplin, is particularly interesting because it touches on all the major themes of this film. The idea that machines are more efficient, and more productive than humans is proven wrong as the machine goes haywire in the middle of the demonstration. As the main character is force fed screws and then later bashed in the face with the dessert, the machine is useless.

 

Just as our main character is a guinea pig for this brand new eating machine, so are the many workers who are forced to work crazy hours and put their lives in danger just to make enough money to feed their families. At the beginning of this era, many workers lost limbs and lives and only with time did this change. 

Similarly, just the fact that this machine was even considered by the corporation shows the need and push for better and more efficient production.  This machine would allow the workers to be fed while having their hands free to keep working.  Cutting out their lunch break entirely would put this company ahead of their competitors.  This insane machine was refused but only after it malfunctioned.  The eagerness to increase productivity outweighs humanity. Even their very personal moments of eating and choice of what to eat is attempted to be regulated, just as they all are during their work days.  All of the workers are treated as pieces of a machine.

Lastly, this scene is just funny! (Personal Side Note) My favorite was the sponge wiper thing that wipes his face off after each bite.  Especially when things go haywire, this part always makes me laugh. 

Moments of Movement and Life

Les Nympheas

Up close shot of water-lilies

Actual size of the panels created by  Monet

A single panel in Musee de l'orangerie, Paris

It is clear that Monet understood visual perception, the representation of the instantaneous impact on the eye, and the ever changing appearance of life.  His accurate depiction of light and it's changing motion changed the way art could be composed. His use of broken brush strokes helped to capture what really was happening and what the eye really saw. Monet, Manet, Renoir, and other famous impressionist artists began a revolutionary style of art very different from the traditional french way.

The Salon D'art which was in charge of accepting only the best of artwork and most traditional representations of France's artistic style, refused Manet and Monet's paintings on a regular basis. Because of this, they created their own salon: Le Salon des refuses-the salon of the refused. Making the traditionalists even more upset, the salon of the refused started attracting more visitors than the regular Salon d'art. His style was revolutionary.

A Cruel and Selfish King

Eugene Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, 1826

Violent emotions are shown here with broad brushstrokes in the romantic era style.  Just as we talked about in class, the horror and awe is portrayed in this painting, especially when understanding the back story.  The Assyrian king, faced with the destruction of his palace by the Medes decided to prevent his enemies from enjoying his possessions safter his death by ordering that his wives horses and dogs be killed. Just the way that the king is laying on his bed depicts his awful resolve and unmoving pride.

 He uses free violent brush strokes to portray the savage brutality. Just last month I was able to visit this painting in the Louvre museum at Paris. It is enormous sizing up to 145 inches X 195 inches. Standing in front of this cruel scene is breathtaking and it almost has an air of unreality. There is so much movement and the colors that are used are rich and warm.  The detail and emotion is moving and really tells a story that requires self-reflection.

Opera in Romanticism

Opera Garnier

1861-1875

The opera garnier is one fo the most famous opera houses in the world. As the text book emphasizes, the opera flourished in the romantic era, and enthusiastic fans came together (as 1/3 of the population lived in cities at this time) to enjoy this form of art all over the world. As the industrial revolution brought people together, opera's became more and more famous. As we saw in the example of La Traviata, these operas placed an emphasis on personal feelings and expression, emotion rather than intellect, and an exploration and dissection of personal hopes and fears.  As viewed in La Traviata, the woman's tuberculosis and fear of death is explored as she refuses to delve into a deep love.  Instead she touches only the surface of life's gifts because she does not want to get hurt in the already painful state she is in.  When she does give into love, we see a love of the fantastic and exotic creative imagination. mystical attachment to the world of nature that was also the result of the search for new sensations, and individual emotions.

The Old Lady Speaks Again

I chose a quote from the same old maid who I previously quoted in my last blog about Candide.  I think she always has interesting insights and her story is so full of experience that I feel like she has the right to share the knowledge she has gained over her lifetime.

"I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fé, being dissected and rowing in the galleys—experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed—or else just sitting here and doing nothing? —It’s a hard question, said Candide. These words gave rise to new reflections, and Martin in particular concluded that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom." Candide, Voltaire Part 2

Although Candide and his companions have been through so much misery, when they finally have everything that they want and are settled down, they are so bored they don't know what to do with themselves.  The old maid points out that at least going through all those miseries was adventurous...whereas just working their garden and sitting around is unhappy and boring. This ultimately drives the theme of the entire story home- that life is not happy or fun and people who are always optimistic are fools.

Candide's long journey

The Glass is Half Empty

"A hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our worst instincts; is anything more stupid than choosing to carry a burden that really one wants to cast on the ground? To hold existence in horror, and yet to cling to it? to fondle the serpent which devours us till it has eaten out our heart? In the countries through which I have been forced to wander, in the taverns where I have had to work, I have seen a vast number of people who hated their existence; but I never saw more than a dozen who deliberately put an end to their own misery."  Candide, Voltaire Chapter 12


As opposed to Pangloss the tutors outlook on life-  Everything is not for the best as Candide travels the world enduring misfortunes and viewing other people in terrible situations. As Cunegonde's maid points out, many people hate their existence but still cling to life for some unknown reason.  This quote fits one of the main themes and ideas that the book presents: that there is little virtue and little happiness in the world.  This depressing outlook on life is confirmed as Candide finally has everything he ever wanted and is still unhappy. Just as the rich count who has everything but enjoys nothing, Candide finally gets the girl (Cunegonde) who now gives him little happiness because of her ugliness and boring nature, as well as his tutor Pangloss back (who wasn't actually killed by the hanging) as well as his valet Cacambo. Despite all of this, he is unhappy and is full of misery.
Although the book begins with Candide's optimistic outlook, every experience proves that bad always seems to win and even if it doesn't, people are miserable with what they have. By the end of the book Pangloss's philosophy seems foolish and idealistic. Candide renounces this naive belief as he sees others tragedies and goes through his own turmoil 

Sancho the Simpleton

"..Even though he'd read the first volume of his master's history he'd never believed that Sancho was as funny as he's depicted there; but when he heard him talk about a will and codicil that couldn't be resinned instead of a will and codicil that couldn't be rescinded, he believed everything he'd read about him, and set him down as one of the greatest simpletons of modern times, and thought to himself that two such madmen as this master and servant could never have been seen before on the face of the earth."  Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote- PG 531

In this quote, there are different frames of reference that overlap and enhance the reader's experience.  The graduate Sanson Carrasco who has read the book (first part) about the adventures of Don Quixote is amazed by the fact that Sancho really is as hilarious as he is depicted in the book.  However, we are reading the book about the book that is very funny, and in both books, Sancho is equally hilarious.This quote emphasizes the fact that this is a book about reading books, which is a new and interesting idea that is one of the reasons why it is so famous.

The way that Sanson Carrasco describes Sancho as one of "the greatest simpletons" perfectly captures the squire's nature and his description of Sancho made me chuckle just thinking about the many time he has said or done things in this manner. His illiteracy and common sense combined make him a character worth examining.