 Aura and Me
Hello again. I was wondering the other day what it was that attracted people to fantasy fiction films, a genre that can be thought of as both quite new and very old at the same time. The reason for this is actually very simple; we have rediscovered a world where everything is unique with the help of these types of films. What I mean is this; the age we are now living in is mechanical and reproducible, where everything has lost its originality. This is what cultural critic Walter Benjamin calls "the loss of aura." That is not to say that every new idea or artwork is not original but since they can be reproduced so quickly and easily, there is seemingly no mystery left. Think about art in the past. To see Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" a person had to travel great distances because there was no other way. Now, it's everywhere: on mugs, books, etc. As people born into such a world we don't know what a "unique" piece is. The original has an authority over the reproductions of course, but the mystery, the "aura" is gone. This is where fantasy fiction films and novels come into our lives. We are given the experience of a world where everything is unique and does have an aura. To give an example, if you have seen the film "Lord of The Rings," you will know that the sword that cut the finger of the "bad guy" is displayed in the Elf lands. The heroes of the tale travel to the lands after hearing the story of the sword from bards and seeing some pictures, but still not knowing what it really looked like. The first time the character Aragorn sees the sword, the viewer gets a sense of what it must be like to see something for the first time. Vicariously, we experience that uniqueness and that solving of a mystery with the character. I know people might say that the tales and pictures of this sword are reproductions, but I argue that these were not massively produced, so most people did not have easy access to them. That is why the mystery was still there. I believe the reason this genre has risen up and become popular nowadays is because, in an age where it seems impossible to experience such a feeling, there is a need, or curiosity if you will, towards such a world. With the Internet evolving and making so much even more accessible to everyone around the world,people seem to have a need to feel such a mystery because it adds joy to life. This is such a basic need that even in Ancient Greece there where tales of Gods and immortal heroes. That is why I said in the beginning of this article that fantasy fiction is a very old and yet very new genre at the same time.
Well, who knows, maybe I'll continue to do research on this…
I fare you well for now… Alev Dešim (COMD/IV)
contactinspector@yahoo.com
 |
