In a message dated 2/4/04 10:13:04 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:
<< Subject: Principle of relevance >>
Warren,
Your further elaboration leaves me with the troubled impression that the
dialectic implied by the principle of relevence may work fine for those expository
circumstances where the verification of the success of meaning strategies is
both available and important, but have little "relevance" to the
interpretation of works of art. This is revealed in the expression "literal meaning" of
the film. In what way do films have literal meanings and how relevant is the
'literal' meaning to the overall meaning of a given work? I can see that scenes
and shots may more likely be described as having a literal meaning, but
ambiguous, or unresolved meaning is a necessary feature of art, I would argue.
Second, as you point out, the disposition or predisposition, of the viewer
influences the requisite processing required. Because stipulated meanings
have their root in convention they are more universally processed, but if an
individual has a particular point of view, and most of us do, the "work" required
to "process" different kinds of evoked, or in your terms perhaps, ambiguous
images, will vary wildly. For instance, I agree that many "art" films are
"hard to watch", but I find myself more at home with ambiguity than most people
and therefore, not all of them take more work for me to process, in the sense
that I necessairly find it harder. It's different kind of work, and may take
more time. Sometimes I would call it harder, but if the work is "great" and it's
giving me the kind of meaning of which Robert speaks in his eloquent post,
the experience of variable, evoked meaning doesn't FEEL ambiguous. Resonant
meaning is potentially more relevent to the intention of the filmmaker than
resolved meaning. But that's me, and to whether it's more a "software" or
"hardware" issue with my being the way I am: I actually think that's as spurious a
question as nature/nurture, but that's another whole discussion.
Dan
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