The style of Jerzy Kosinski's Being There is direct, simple and fable-like. It is a satire on the role of television in the modern age and on the American political system. (We can all think of politicians who have the ability to be all things to all men). Most importantly it is a story on the human ability for self-delusion and for seeing others not for what they are but for what we would wish them to be. .
A chain of misunderstandings leads all concerned to believe that Chance is not only a businessman but also an economic prophet. He is invited to speak on national television where he talks about the only thing he understands, gardening. A series of speeches about the changing of the seasons in the garden is taken to be a sign predicting an upturn in the economy, and the public love his supposed optimism. .
Kosinski's Chance is fairly young, attractive and "emotionally detached from his surroundings." This detachment allows others to treat him as a picture of one's wishes, a blank canvas onto which one can paint one's own desires. Each of the other characters sees in the supposed Chauncey Gardiner whatever he or she wishes to see. Rand, who has no children with EE, sees him as a possible successor to his business empire and almost as an adopted son. EE, sexually frustrated in a marriage to a much older man, sees him as a lover and a possible second husband after Rand's death. The President sees him as the perfect candidate for Vice-President. The American TV audience sees him as the man who will lead them out of recession and into prosperity. .
As might be expected from one who has led a sheltered existence, Chance has pretty limited social skills. All he really knows to do are to talk about the garden and to try to imitate things he's seen on TV, which actually works out quite well: "Thinking that he ought to show a keen interest in what EE was saying, Chance resorted to repeating to her parts of her own sentences, a practice he had observed on TV.
A myth, after all, is a story about superhuman beings of an earlier age, of ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome. ... There is text just to the right of the woman's head that says: "Yes, God is man". There is also text above the Chivas bottle in the lower right hand corner that says: "When you know". ... This is the myth being portrayed in this ad. Both of these ads used a "sex sells" approach. ...
A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF AN ADVERTISEMENT A logical place to start may be to ask "What is semiotics?" ... If there is some relationship between the meaning and what is being signified, it is known as an index (indexical), for example, smoke is an index of fire. ... Barthes approach has had an influence on popular culture studies. Dominic Strinati has a critical view concerning Barthes approach. ... Yet there is little effort on his part to be empirically persuaded, so it is necessary to be sceptical about the claims he makes" (Strinati, 1995:125) Daniel Chandler believes semiotics does...
As is always the case when broaching the forum of semiotics, there are many varying and sometimes conflicting theories that place different emphasis on certain aspects of the "sign". By drawing from specific areas of these approaches, it becomes obvious, however, that semiotics is an inseparable and integral part of performance. ... The basic linguistic model, composed of "signifiers" and "signifieds", is an effective tool in approaching performance analytically. ... This barrier emphasized the sense of isolation that the protagonist of the scene was feeling and is an example of the effec...
Employing various methods of analysis such as psychoanalysis and semiotics I aim to reveal some of the underlying currents throughout his work. ... Mapplethorpe once stated that "my approach to photographing a flower is not much different than photographing a cock. ... The images rely on being shown as a set for the code and coding can take place at all. ... The photographs that have been selected are all extremely similar in compositional terms, as well as semiotic interpretations. ... "Mapplethorpe approached flowers in the same way as his other subjects; by isolating them." ...
This is often achieved non-verbally or covertly, the semiotic use of the female form or hourglass figure and overtly sexualized imagery of women as sexual objects. ... There is very little noise in the advert and the imagery is very clearly suggestive of the act of oral sex. ... Therefore this advertisements meaning could be seen as ineffectively conveyed and problematic in its approach. ... The advertising industry does not take enough of an ethical approach in representing women and the diversity of women. ... The female being represented as a sexual object and the male being represented as...
We can see them entering a play inside which there is another play and in this there is an other again. ... The possibility is there, one of them is certainly Rosencranz and the other Guildenstern but they do not know who is who and they cannot chose. ... If a single man sees a unicorn he can think it was only his fancy for he knows that there are no unicorns in reality. ... Not being alone with the experience he will readily accept it. ... On the other hand, the Player's explanation of reality emphasizes the importance of the individual approach to reality. ...
This very straight forward history is opposed by more modern film historians, who cite changes in the theatre as being influential too. ... A semiotics notion is the key to Dyer's approach. ... There is no need therefore in "The Searchers" for John Ford to paint an elaborate back story for Wayne's character, the audience can see from his well established saddle-sore walk and gravely tones that he has been on the frontier a long time. ... This acceptance by the viewer of selective knowledge, assigns the star a classical aesthetic notion of "truth" and maintains a wide distance between...
By being caught by their eyes was invitation enough, yet the woman ignores the men no matter what: "They whistled and shouted but the legs did not move."" ... He is "annoyed- at the woman for being "stark naked- on a roof where people can see her. ... The working men are frustrated not only because the sunbather is out there on display and illustrating indigence towards them but maybe also because the sunbather is only relaxing while they are working hard. ... According to the Structuralist, Roland Barthes, there should be the death of the author in the text before any meaning can be constr...
There viewers may be unable to recognize how film translates the complexity and subtlety of the novel. ... In the process of dramatization, there is inevitably a certain amount of re-accentuation and refocusing of themes, characters, and plot. ... In film, there are several layers of perspective and "each voice has its own 'tone', which is determined by the consciousness" (Harrington, 1973:53). ... Moreover, such issues as framing, composition design, use of space, and angle of approach affect the presentation of a film. ... All these signs are a part of film's semio...
