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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Sanford Meisner: acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances

"[Sanford Meisner] said 'acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances' now he had worked on that sentence for 71 years, funny he didn't use the word 'talent'. He said it's an ability and an ability is a skill. And the cool thing about a skill is it's learnable."
(Martin Barter)

Anatomic Illustrations of Japanese Mythological Creatures

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Corporeality is situated in dwelling space: the revolution begins at home

"[Henri] Lefèbvre gives an interpretation of [Satz] Hölderlin's assertion that the 'human being' can only live as a poet. The relationship of the 'human being' to the world, to 'nature', to his desires and corporeality is situated in dwelling space; this is where it realises itself and becomes readable. It is impossible for him to build or to have a home in which he lives, without possessing something that is different from everyday life, that points beyond itself, namely his relationship to potentiality and the imaginary. This desire is encapsulated in even the most destitute hut, the most dreary high-rise apartment in [e.g. kitsch] objects. In objects possessing exactly those qualities that modernism wanted to do away with."

(Park Fiction 1995/98)

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