Analysis Of The Moment By Alain De Botton

A composer can create images dependant on the form of the language of texts to shape a responders understanding of the ideas and themes prompted by people and their experiences. The German film, ‘Run Lola Run’ written and directed by Tom Tykwer, focuses on the experiences of the protagonist Lola to explore the themes of the inevitable force of time, and the issue of freewill verses determinism. Similarly, Dorothea Mackellar, in her poem ‘My Country’, relies on her experiences of the Australian landscape to convey her love and passion for the country using the language of the distinctive visual.

Through distinctive images composers develop interest, drawing the responder in and thus providing insight into the experiences of others. This is demonstrated in Amanda Lohrey’s novella ‘Vertigo’ as Luke and Anna find themselves in a new and disorientating environment as they attempt to build a new life and in the ‘The Red Tree’ composed by Shaun Tan, through the nameless girl’s journey as she attempts to find herself and her place in the world. Meaning created by distinctive images creates interest thus permitting the responder to gain a greater understanding on how the experiences help shape one’s self.

People and the landscape are inextricably linked and consequently each play a role in shaping the other. The texts we have studied show the implications for the individuals present based on their treatment of the landscape, highlighting the connection between the two. Both Judith Wright in her poems “Brother and Sisters” and “The Hawthorne Hedge” as well as Michael Wilding in his short story “As Boys to Wanton Flies” showcase the emotional ties between the individuals and the landscape. Both composers, through their chosen text demonstrate how the individuals are connected, influenced and shaped by the landscape showing that they are not merely inhabitants but are a part of their chosen landscape. This has been done to highlight the involvement

The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.

The distinctively visual is a prominent characteristic in which the composer shapes a unique visual perspective for the responder to interpret. Using a variety of techniques and languages, the composer is distinctively able to create vibrant and lively visualisations within their work. The poetry of Douglas Stewart, in particular ‘Lady feeding the cats’ and ‘Nesting time’ and the image of ‘’Firefighters at twin towers attack’’ photographed by Todd Maisel are particularly effective. Douglas’ poems uniquely portray ordinary people and outsiders at touching and meaningful moments, experiences and connection with nature that creates an image to the reader the relationship of man and nature and how nature can challenge

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen of the Multi-cultural convention, I have been selected to address the statement, “The Language used by composers has the ability to present responders with opportunities to challenge their perception of self and the world”. I will be doing so by closely analysing the language used by Komninos in ‘Hillston Welcome’ and ‘Back to Melbourne’ and John

Through the immersion of one in a variety of physical environments, the manipulation of genre, form and perspective presents a polysemic representation of a diverse range of landscapes, in turn allowing responders to develop complex understandings into the human psyche. Specifically, through the interwoven utilization of complex allusions and personalized outlooks Alain De Botton’s The Art Of Travel shapes humanities greater knowledge of traveling’s impact on the human behavior and perception. Likewise, this notion is extended amongst Kenneth Slessor’s minimalistic, poetic piece North Country in which the composer highlights man’s dichotomous relationship with the physical world, and how ongoing, differentiated experiences cultivate interpersonal growth and develop individualized standpoints towards the wider globe. Consequently, both texts elicit portrayals of innumerable landscapes, which foreground the intricacies of civilization through the construction of a piece that reveals the subjectivity of our human mentalities today.

In the romantic era, British authors and poets focused on nature and its influence. Two of those poets, Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, wrote many pieces on the beauty of nature and their personal experiences with the beaches of England. In “Far on the sands” and “It is a beauteous evening,” Smith and Wordsworth describe their respective experiences on the shore at sunset. Both authors use structure, theme, allusions, and imagery to effectively convey their perceptions of nature. While the sonnets share a setting and the topics of nature and tranquility, Smith’s has a focus on introspection and Wordsworth’s is centered around religion. These have different focuses which achieve different effects on the reader.

Albert Einstein spoke of nature and its value when he said, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” As Einstein pointed out, by looking into nature you could discover something new about yourself and the world around you. John Muir and William Wordsworth both discovered joy when they looked deep into nature. This joy gave them a new perspective on nature and life and they each expressed this joy through different works of writing. Both authors have a unique outlook on nature and its impact as well as different thoughts on how to share their relationships; Muir used diction and connotation to show his relationship in his essay “The Calypso Borealis” where Wordsworth used tone and syntax in his poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”.

Distinctively visual images have the ability to convey complex ideas and concepts about environments and people’s connection to places. The use of distinct images can cause individuals to reinforce their own perceptions or confront their value systems to perceive the world in a different way. In the postmodern Australian novella ‘Vertigo’ by Amanda Lohrey, distinctively visual images are used to convey the schism between urban and rural environments and how it impacts the Luke and Anna’s relationship. Additionally, Lohrey uses unique images to highlight Luke and Anna’s grief over their loss son also demonstrating the how the rural environment allows them to deal with their grief. Similarly I have used distinctively visual images in my collage

Distinctively visual is not just about images but also the power of language that enables composers to transport us to their world, specifically to the place indicative of the time during which the text was written. Henry Lawson’s collection of short stories in particular ‘In a dry season’ and ‘The drover’s wife’ and my related text, Art Spigelman’s graphic novel ‘Maus’ bring their unique ideas to life shaping and challenging our perspective and understanding of various human experiences of pain, suffering ,courage, resilience and perseverance ultimately bringing personal and social issues to life.

Coleridge’s ‘This Lime Tree Bower My Prison’, is a poem describing a man’s changing views as he contemplates the natural word which he has been prevented from seeing. Coleridge’s poem demonstrates the ability of individuals to modify their morals and values upon receiving a cathartic release from their relationship with nature, as predicated almost entirely on the imagination. Through allowing the persona to visualise the encounters his friends are making with nature along their journey, Coleridge first demonstrates the capabilities of the imagination in allowing us to picture things in certain detail, as shown through “now my friends emerge,” which in all exemplifies the presence of imagination in our relationship with nature. Furthermore, the description of their journey demonstrates the liberation received from engaging with nature, as shown where they “wander in gladness,” which relates to the cathartic release obtained from viewing nature that pushes us to reassess our ideas and perceptions. By showing his gradual change in tone, the influence of the persona’s imagination is shown, which when in conjunction with his exclamation of “yes!” reveals our emotional capabilities if becoming engulfed in our imaginations of nature. Also, by choosing to allow the persona to speak in a melodramatic tone, the poet is able to again explicitly demonstrate his

The poem “I Am Learning to Abandon the World” by Linda Pastan is closely similar in context with Sharon Olds’ “Still Life in Landscape.” Each of the two poems narrates an ordeal with the persona being the writer of the poem. The persona directly speaks to the audience. However, these two works differ in the number of lines, the length and appearance of each line and the entire apparition of the poems. The two authors employ a similar tone as both use a melancholic and reflective tone. The poets present their thoughts in a simple diction and understandable language. It is evident that both authors have an impeccable interest in narrating their story.

By analysing the structure (shift from external to internal landscape), language (tenses, pronoun), and presentation of the experience of seeing the daffodils, I seek to demonstrate that feelings of the sublime are only evoked when the narrator’s imagination participates in the scene he has internalized in his memory. While the first three stanzas exemplify a merely physical stimulus and response mechanism to nature, the last stanza shows how active poetic imagination enables man to recreate and amplify emotions encountered, thus resulting in feelings of the sublime. Why does the observer not recognise the ‘wealth’ the scene brings in that moment? How does poetic imagination connect the physical eye and the inner eye to allow for sublime, transcendental experience? Hess argues that the poem “depend[s] for [its] power on the narrator’s ability to fix a single, discrete, visually defined moment of experience in his mind, to which he can later return in acts of private memory and imagination” (298). An example of the recapturing of emotions is seen where “gay” (I. 15) is recaptured as “pleasure” (I. 23) at the end. Active imagination, which draws inspiration from memory of the initial encounter, is now a permanent possession that

Again the description is bleak, (‘the sun beats .......the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief.’ ) Life-giving water is again absent, (‘the dry stone no sound of water.’ ) And moving transversally forward to section 5 brings the reader into the desertscape where there is an intensification of the oppressiveness . The absence of water is emphasised through repetition: