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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: April 14, 2003
Latest Update: April 14, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Talking about Visual Narratives

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, April 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

On Saturday, April 12, Marlene Whittaker wrote:

Subject: Rock Climbing

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those were some of the most beautiful photos I have ever seen!!!!! Ansel Adams would be proud! Was the photographer the one staying at the Ahwanhee??

No, sorry. The photographer was Arnold, and I guess the guide for photos of Arnold. jeanne

Incredible!!! Peace, serenity, love, beauty, tranquility, something far greater than what man can do, those were some of my first impulse thoughts, viewing these magnificent photos. Calm-----untouchable, I wish!! Peace to mankind, and all living creatures that make this earth so beautiful. Why do we keep destroying it????

Yes, I think you and Arnold make a lovely playful, complimenting team, and yes being at the Ahwanhee, sucking up the quiet, and letting him go experience his manliness is applauding. Photos one and six were awesome, I Loved one, and six told me that Arnold has a nice tush!! Can't recall eight right now, but overall, I think you too should go play and forget the rest of this stuff. Who did take the photos? Arnold.

Wouldn't it be nice, as I said in the sixties, if we could all just join hands as a human race, and respect each other, respect mother nature, and relish in the God-given beauty of the world--It seems like this would be so much easier, than all the fighting. Seems like it takes much more energy to be hateful, than to love. Save energy. Love, Love, Love!! Peace, Marlene----May you have many more wonderful years of play, it was so nice just sharing in your happiness, thanks for sharing it with us. You are so special.

On Monday, April 14, 2003, jeanne responded:

I didn't put this up until today, Marlene, when Carla's response came in, too. You embarassed me. I didn't put the photos up as great art, I just thought the story was kind of precious. Arnold, who really isn't all that athletic, except for mountain climbing and marathons; I never sent him off to do his thing, except that my thing was sleep.

Years ago, on one of our month-long European trips, I passed my camera on to Arnold, and taught him what I knew of shooting. I agree. He learned well. Now, he shoots, and I paint. Like you, I loved the peacefulness of the deer. I'm glad they sensed no need to be disturbed.

Speaking of those deer, I remember a scene in David Lynch's Twin Peaks. They were in or near a hunting lodge, and instead of the mounted deer head on the wall, there was a dead dear slung across a table. Arnold and I laughed till we were sick. That's visual sociology. The sardonic statement for the eyes alone. For me, it summed up how I feel about showing off the animals you've killed in a hunt. For David Lynch, it may have meant something else. But for each of us, that image becomes a part of our memories, memories that help us make sense of our lived experience.

Maybe someday I'll go back to Yosemite with a cam recorder to catch those scenes, and ask David for a bit of his scene to contrast them.

Now, I'm not alone in this kind of lunacy. On Sunday, April 13, 2003, Jack Milan wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review:

" 'I resolved to die as I have lived -- in defense of flippancy.' The line comes from Brian Friel's play "The Freedom of the City," and it is spoken during the Northern Irish Troubles by an Irish patriot who refuses to succumb either to common sense, which would mean abandoning Irish nationalism, or to Anglophobia, which would mean abandoning thought altogether.

True idealism wears flippancy like a feather in the cap. Fanaticism, ever anxious beneath the frown, insists that you wipe that smile off your face, mister: It is nothing if not utterly serious. Salman Rushdie's second-greatest triumph, after the preservation of his life, has been the preservation of his flippancy. He hasn't yet had the last laugh, but he has had many an intermediate chuckle, while his opposition -- think of the visage of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini -- wears a terminal scowl."

From The Historic Rushdie
Backup.

Flippancy, laughter, play remind us not to take ourselves so seriously. Not to escalate anger and frustration to the point of killing the Other who sees the world differently.

Thank you, Marlene, for sharing. I think that narrative sharing may just be the start of illocutionary discourse. We should take more time for it.

love and peace and fun, jeanne