metonymy.

One of my favorite concepts we discussed in class today was that of metonymy. I wasn’t familiar with what this meant, but once examples were given, of course I realized our culture is full of metonymy. We talked about how in Postmodern Society the parts stand in for the whole. Instantly my mind flew to Current TV. If you scroll through the TV guide, they randomly label their shows, since essentially there is no difference from hour to hour (excluding specials). Titles include Slices of Life, Sum of the Parts and Parts of the Sum. Each title hints at multiple ideas. On the surface it’s means all the mini-films by random people come together to create a show, or in this case, network. Then it could also hint at the parts (2D films on screen) standing in for the whole (3D actions in life). Either way, Current TV comes to represent a very Postmodern expression.
Another very interesting concept, which constantly needs to be considered in life, is film as manipulators. We spoke of how film is made by the creator in a certain way. Their cinematic choices shape how we understand the scene. For instance, there are so many films on Africa with dreary and dull colors. (Lindsey and I were actually discussing this today…) We are drawn into this very sad and negative view of the continent. Then, you have “The Water Carriers,” (Yip! Yip! GPFF!) which uses very vivid colors throughout the film, and as a result, we walk away with a more hopeful point of view. The film made me laugh and made me smile! Anyways, we like to feel like we are part of the production of a film, and I think this allows us to take things in more easily, without really critiquing what we are ingesting. So oftentimes even though we could be critic, we just take what is before us and internalize it (or at least I did before CMC got a hold of me).

Kelsey. 9/18.