Sunday, September 11, 2005

Sunday, September 11, 2005

English K-nig-hts I was introduced to an interesting concept in my film studies class this week. Umberto Eco says we are all at this point "instinctive semioticians". Sounds like one of things someone says just to sound clever but it's actually a cool idea. It means that we are so surrounded by the media (film for example) that we internalise things from the movies and they actually become a part of the way we think. I realised I do this all the time with the knight from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When I (or someone else) have done something either particularly stupid or great, I see the image of the knight in my head saying "You have chosen (insert dramatic pause here) poorly" or "wisely" as the case may be. I sometimes even say it out loud. My teacher made the point with Mel Brooks movies. You have to be an instinctive semiotician to get most of the jokes in his movies. That's just a thought that's been roaming around my head all week. I've also been thinking about the issue of control. You do have control over the things you do. You make choices that give you a certain amount of control over your life. However, no matter how much control you exert over your own life, you cannot control what other people do. What they do can upset the control you've been trying to maintain in an instant. You can only sit back and say to them, "you have chosen....poorly". Currently listening : Magic and Medicine By The Coral Release date: 10 February, 2004