Chapter 50

This chapter discusses the ideas of Stuart Hall, a well known British scholar. In the excerpt he argues that "difference" is a key aspect of the way we make sense of the world. He also explains four different theories which explain "difference", which according to Hall is involved in how people find meaning in the world. The four ways he describes include linguistic, social, cultural, and psychic levels. Hall helps explain the first theory by citing Saussure. Saussure believed that meaning comes from the relationship that exists between concepts. For example we know what the color black looks like because we contrast it against white. Another theory works off the ideas of Mikhail Bhaktin, who argued that meaning comes from dialogue (dialogism). He makes it a point to explain that when people converse, they must keep in mind what is currently being said and what is probably going to be said. The third idea explaining difference involves the ideas of Mary Douglas, Emile Durkheim, and Claude Levi-Strauss. According to these theorists, difference is necessary because it is behind the classification systems that we make sense of the world. The fourth and final theory of difference involves psychology and stems from the role of others in our psychic lives. According to Freud, the way we define ourselves as human beings comes from our childhood. Difference focuses on the ways people strive to find meaning in relationships, objects, works of art and life.

Chapter 49

This chapter focuses on the ideas of Marx theorist Guy Debord and the role of media, popular culture and other forms of representation in justifying the status quo. Debord believes that life is now dominated by an endless succession of spectacles and we are now moved by representation rather than direct experience. He argues that images have taken over our lives and that now unreal aspects of life are now more important than real life experiences. According to Debord, the term spectacle, is not just a series of images, but the social relationships that exist among people that are mediated by these images. He goes on to discuss how the dominant class creates these images that control the rest of society and create false consciousness that runs throughout the common people. The "spectacles" or images are created by a group of artists and workers who are controlled by the dominating class. In fact Marx himself, argued that the ideas of the ruling class are always the ideas of the masses, because they control the media and can shape the ideas of society. I am somewhat confused by what Debord has to say in regards to the spectacle dominating a person's life. He does not cite any specific examples of this, which would help.

Chapter 48

Susan Sontag, author of Against Interpretation, describes interpretation as a conscious act of the mind, which illustrates a certain code, certain "rules" of interpretation. She believes there was an old way of interpreting works of art and now there is a different way. According to Sontag, the old way was insistent, but respectful. The new way of interpretation excavates, while at the same time destroying. She also mentions how human beings have begun to develop theories that explain many different phenomena from many different perspectives. The two perspectives mentioned in the chapter by Sontag are the psychoanalytic and the Marxist perspective. The psychoanalytic perspective argues that everything has manifest and latent functions; the manifest content being what happens in a story and the latent being what the events of the story mean and how they affect the reader. The Marxist perspective ties works of art to political and ideological considerations, arguing that these works are manipulated by the "ruling" class which often spreads "false consciousness" in the masses. Sontag argues that interpretation is the "revenge of the intellect upon art", however that is only true because human beings have intellects and feel it necessary to use them whenever possible.

Chapter 47

Since we may never be able to decide what art is, this chapter focuses on what art's function are and what they have been over the years. The chapter discusses four main functions of art that have been around for many years, including substitute imagery (photos, imagery, and other things that capture reality), illustration (works that tell stories or help to tell stories), conviction and persuasion (works that show beliefs, sell products), and beautification (works that please the mind and gratify the mind). According to Gowan, these functions help us to better understand art and are the only important functions in art. He believes that the styles of art may change over time, but the functions of art will always remain the same. In the chapter, Berger also compares the four functions of art with the four theories of art. He believes that substitute imagery is similar to the mimetic theory of art, illustration is similar to the objective theory of art, persuasion is similar to the pragmatic theory of art, and that beautification is similar to the emotive theory of art. People have spent thousands of years speculating on what art is, but in this chapter Gowan helps by discussing the functions of art and what art does.

Chapter 44

It must be pointed out in this chapter that Simon Lesser's views on fiction can be applied to all art forms and texts in media. Berger first discusses how criticism is always tied to the ideology of beliefs of the critic. This is the reason for many of the different types of critics we see and hear about today. According to Lesser, Psychoanalytic criticism, which focuses on the human psyche, the unconscious, various drives and mechanisms we use to keep our balance, has a large role to play because it explains the "secret significance" of stories and other texts and helps explain some of the inconscious reasons of why art speaks to us in the way it does. Lesser goes on to explain that we feel pleasure from understanding the hidden meanings in texts. He believes there is a certain type of communication from the unconscious of the artists of the texts to the unconscious of the readers and viewers of these texts. Works of art help a person deal with the ongoing conflict betweent the id and the superego, between a person's desire for pleasure and feelings of guilt. All types of art help a person deal with the feeling of unsatisfaction that is felt at every stage in life. The arts, provide for a more harmonious world, all the while helping people conquer different stages of life.

Chapter 28

In this chapter, Ian Watt's views on the novel Robinson Crusoe being classified as a myth are discussed. Watt begins his excerpt by describing the the three great myths of our civilization; Faust, Don Juan, and Don Quixote. All three of these myths exhibit a single-minded pursuit by a character including one of the characteristic aspirations of Western man. Faust, the single-minded pursuit of knowledge, Don Juan the single-minded pursuit of women and Don Quixote, the single-minded pursuit of chivalric ideal. Watt believes Robinson Crusoe can easily be compared to all three of these as his story is also based on the single-minded pursuit of something, in his case, the pursuit of achievement and enterprise. According to Watt, Robinson Crusoe, deals with three important themes found in modern civilization; back to nature, the dignity of labor, and the pursuit of economic gain. Not only do Crusoe's adventures reflect all three of these, but they also teach reader's to accept these values. In most cases, the readers tends to become one with the characters they see in movies or read about in books, therefore readers naturally accept the values put forth in Robinson Crusoe. Watt also points out an interesting assertion he made. "It is not an author, but a society that metamorphoses a story into a myth". He believes it is the public who has turned Robinson Crusoe into a myth, as it reflects the public's deeply held but unconscious beliefs and values. Writers often times have a good idea of what they are writing about, but they cannot perceive how the public will respond to it.

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