In class on Thursday, we discussed Macherey and the concept of tmesis. I'm so glad I finally found the "official" word to describe the idea of placing your own thoughts into a text and making it your own interpretation. Machery discussed this idea mainly with text, but I'd like to expand it to different forms of media such as television and film.
With television, I think all of the drama and messages they are sending are usually pretty straight foward, however this is not the appeal of tv dramas such as Gossip Girl, Smallville, The OC, or any others I'm missing. What really draws people to any character really is personal experience. I doubt anyone has had to live with hiding a super power from the person they love because they fear it will be used against them or having relationship troubles in Cabo, but some have had an experience that was similar or felt the same way, and this is what draws not only teens but all viewers to television and film. It's not always just about the characters we are seeing, but about our own personal experiences. We like certain characters because we can relate to them in some way. This is how I see tmesis relates to television and film (or how I see it).
Another interesting thing is seeing what people take away from a film. I saw Slumdog Millionaire this weekend with my girlfriend and after the film we seemed to have different opinions on it. She thought it was good, but did not deserve all of the hype it is getting. She just could not relate to anything in it. I personally loved it and thought it was a great (even if slightly unoriginal) story about life, friendship, and love. This is another example of tmesis applies to film.
1 comment:
Good post. I liked how you linked tmesis with television and film and supported these connections with good examples.
-Starfish
Post a Comment