>I'm just wondering, here, now nobody get mad and start shouting at me
or
>nothing like that, but I'm just wondering...Do you, rc-am, or anybody
>else reading this, ever actually react to a body in a fiction show on
TV
>(spell it out - that wholly synthetic image, paid for by advertisers,
of
>a body that you see on TV) in any way as if it were a real body in
the
>real world?
well, no. but also yes. that is, i know it's a synthetic image, the play of light and dark and colours, i know quite intimately the processes that go into shaping this image, the techniques that are used to produce certain kinds of images. but that does not mean i react to these images entirely, or even mostly, through or with this knowledge, even whilst that knowledge is still in place. that is, there are those occassions when i watch the telly and i do not feel the least inclined to beleive they are little more than either colours and light, or attempts at manipulation, or even just not interesting enough to keep watching. ie., it doesn't work for me. what consitutes the difference between this and feeling more attached to a programme, to watching it on an ongoing basis, even if in a hostile way like i do with the news? surely i and others form these attachments for reasons which are well beyond enjoying the movement of colour? otherwise i could watch the sattelite weather channel. well, i have but that was only briefly and when i had jsut come out of hospital....
That "body" is so obviously fake fake fake, it's only a
>spray of colored lights intended to get customers to pay attention to
>advertisements, and all the viewers are fully conscious of this.
of course it's fake, but real bodies aspire to be approximate these fake ones don't they in all sorts of ways? not only in dress, but in gesture, etc. it's a kind of fetishism or maybe an idealisation, but that occurs both in relation to the tv and in relation to other people. and, there is such a variety of bodies in the world that there comes a time when either you do or do not feel any attachment to the image of bodies being presented - something which has prompted the attempt to make for a more real representation of what 'real bodies' look like. but ultimately, i don't think you can so easily say there's a representation of bodies on the one hand and a real body on the other that has no interaction, and an interaction that is quite central in the workings of sexism and racism, where certain attributes are said to adhere to certain bodily characteristics. as i said, it's not simply a question of whether i enjoy a certain presentation of a body, but also whether or not i enjoy (or not) the narratives that are presented therein.
hope the cold gets better.
angela