Psychical Distance: characters and situations in drama are unreal
"One of the best known examples is to be found in our attitude towards the events and characters of the drama; they appeal to us like persons and incidents of normal experience, except that that side of their appeal, which would usually affect us in a directly personal manner, is held in abeyance. This difference, so well known as to be almost trivial, is generally explained by reference to the knowledge that the characters and situations are 'unreal,' imaginary. In this sense Witasek, oeprating with Meinong's theory of Annahem, has described the emotions involved in witnessing a drama as Scheingefuhle, a term which has so frequently been misunderstood in discussions of his theories. But, as a matter of fact, the 'assumption' upon which the imaginative emotional reaction is based is not necessarily the condition, but often the consequence, of distance; that is to say, the converse of the reason usually stated would then be true: viz. That distance, by changing our relation to the characters, renders them seemingly fictitious, not that the fictitiousness of the characters alters our feelings toward them. It is, of course, to be granted that the actual and admitted unreality of the dramatic action reinforces the effect of Distance. But surely the proverbial unsophisticated yokel whose chivalrous interference in the play on behalf of the hapless heroine can only be prevented by impressing upon him that 'they are only pretending,' is not the ideal type of theatrical audience. The proof of the seeming paradox that it is Distance which primarily gives to dramatic action the appearance of unreliability and not vice versa, is the observation that the same filtration of our sentiments and the same seeming 'unreality' of actual men and things occur, when at times, by a sudden change of inward perspective, we are overcome by the feeling that 'all the world's a stage.'"
(Edward Bullough, 1912)
Edward Bullough (1912). "Psychical Distance" British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 5, pp. 87-117 (excerpt cited by Julie Van Camp, 22 November 2006).
Fig.1 Patricia Piccinini/Drome Pty Ltd. (2010) [http://leecasey.carbonmade.com/projects/2594595#9]
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Jane Campion: A Girl’s Own Story (short film)
"Jane Campion has been a dominant force in world cinema for nearly two decades. Shot delicately in black-and-white, A Girl's Own Story is an early short film that traces the stories of three suburban teenage girls (Pam, Gloria and Stella) in 1960's Australia. It deals with the difficulties of burgeoning sexuality, incest, friendship and family against the backdrop of Beatlemania and an era that valued the isolating notions of purity and wholesomeness over honesty and acceptance."
(Anton de Lonno 11 July 2010, Senses of Cinema)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Buster Keaton: one of the greatest comic actors of all time
"Buster Keaton is considered one of the greatest comic actors of all time. His influence on physical comedy is rivaled only by Charlie Chaplin. Like many of the great actors of the silent era, Keaton's work was cast into near obscurity for many years. Only toward the end of his life was there a renewed interest in his films. An acrobatically skillful and psychologically insightful actor, Keaton made dozens of short films and fourteen major silent features, attesting to one of the most talented and innovative artists of his time. ...
Often at odds with the physical world, his ability to naively adapt brought a melancholy sweetness to the films. The subtlety of the work, however, left Keaton behind the more popular Chaplin and Lloyd. By the 1930s, the studio felt it was in their best interest to take control of his films. No longer writing or directing, Keaton continued to work at a grueling pace. Not understanding the complexity of his genius, they wrote for him simple characters that only took advantage of the most basic of his skills. For Keaton, as for many of the silent movie stars, the final straw was the advent of the talkies."
(American Masters and The Public Broadcasting Corporation)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Charlie Chaplin: truth and naturalism through improvisation
"While Harold Lloyd played the daredevil, hanging from clocks, and Buster Keaton maneuvered through surreal and complex situations, [Charlie] Chaplin concerned himself with improvisation. For Chaplin, the best way to locate the humor or pathos of a situation was to create an environment and walk around it until something natural happened. The concern of early theater and film was to simply keep the audience's attention through overdramatic acting that exaggerated emotions, but Chaplin saw in film an opportunity to control the environment enough to allow subtlety to come through."
(Public Broadcasting Service, 28th August 2006)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
Aristotle's Rhetoric: modes of persuasion
"Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker [ethos]; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind [pathos]; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself [logos]. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible."
(Aristotle 1356a 2,3, translation by W. Rhys Roberts)
Aristotle, Book I - Chapter 2 : Aristotle's Rhetoric (hypertextual resource compiled by Lee Honeycutt)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
