In Arlen’s earlier post on image he views the word, “image”, as how people see objects. But it’s not just objects but how people perceive everything. And as stated in New Keywords image “…has always been marked by a fundamental ambiguity.” (pg. 178) Leaving the term to be more than restricted to only objects. He also states that a seemingly nice guy can have an image of looking like someone overpowering and strong for their size. And some people may not see it or you that way but rather a self proposed image seen through a mirror, which can be deceiving. He discusses a phenomenon called “mirror strength,” which makes me believe it is just nothing more than just a one’s self-image.
Taking it to the video of Ali G, he is a funny character because of his image as a gangster-wannabe thuggish European foreigner yet doing a “serious” interview on media. I won’t discuss media per se, as I’ve already done so in a previous post, but more rather about image and how it can change the view of someone’s character. And as was discussed this week in class, he satirizes things to the point where it’s so ridiculous and innocently ignorant that it becomes comedic. Much like the Daily Show and many other comedies. They satirize what the media portrays as so important and serious, which makes them more entertaining than bland old regular news. Through these kinds of media we can ridicule and laugh at serious matters. Especially in the way that their film is edited. I forget where I figured this out but after I realized that the Daily Show cut and edits parts and puts them together to make it awkwardly funny I began to see the show in a different way and not too comedic and just silly.
For example, if a professor were to take the place of Ali G and carry on with the interview on media it would not give the same sense of satire. Being an accredited scholarly person, him asking the same questions to those people would seem insulting. The question, “Have you ever read a book?” has some seriously negative connotations to it. And because of Ali G’s appearance and image, the way he’s dressed, we can just laugh it off because it seems like “Oh, he doesn’t know more than that person so it’s funny.”
Most Sacha Baron Cohen’s characters (Ali G, Borat, Bruno, etc.) give off such an image that you know can’t be serious. Through the way he dresses, gestures he makes, his physical appearance, accent and speech are already comedic enough. And the people he supposedly interviews seem to take him seriously. And I’m wondering if this were just a thing that youngsters like me would take his appearance as? Or it could all be scripted and just for entertainment, because ratings matter more than telling truths.
And when Arlen states, “Only when the person really gets to know you, the image of you they see is actually what you truly are.” I don’t really believe people will supposedly change their image of you, but rather know more of where you’re coming from when they really get to know you through your personality. One’s image to me always stays the same.
2 comments:
This is a very compelling idea: "ratings matter more than telling truths." Do you think that "telling truths" is even an option any longer? (Even the unveiling of 'truths' must be done for ratings, right?) I find this problem quite curious.
How do images change, and when do they 'seem' to stay the same? Are there cases in which people *don't* have 'images'? I'm still unsure about this idea of "mirror strength." (Is there such a thing as "mirror weakness"? These 'mirror' issues make me think of Paris's most recent post.)
You have several sentence fragments throughout your post, such as: "Leaving the term to be more than restricted to only objects." and "Much like the Daily Show and many other comedies." and "Especially in the way that their film is edited." Include a link to Arlen's post, if this is a formal response.
Opps, yeah I write all my posts on MS Word before I publish them and sometimes forget to relink the words. And I'm not quite sure how to fix those sentence fragments? "Leaving the term more restricted than only objects"? "Much like the Daily Show and other comedies"? "Especially in the way their film is edited"? Sorry just wanted to make sure before I edit my post completely.
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