define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); Comments on: Playing at being real? http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/ One part facial hair. Two parts moxy. Tue, 15 May 2007 20:23:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: ogre http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-10937 Tue, 15 May 2007 20:23:28 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-10937 t think of a better man to pose for." I was once actually asked to pose AS Jesus--by a Mormon artist I worked with. For some big LDS church contest. My wife still giggles when she thinks about that. And I just told our minister that somewhere in the Mormon world, there's an image of me as Christ in Gethsemane; she wants to know where, now... I'll just offer that the word "person" as in personality... is rooted in the Latin "persona" which comes from the Etruscan "phersu" (the h is aspirated, it's not an "f")... which means "mask." We've been at this, I think, for a very, very long time.]]> “But as for following Jesus of Nazareth, I can’t think of a better man to pose for.”

I was once actually asked to pose AS Jesus–by a Mormon artist I worked with. For some big LDS church contest. My wife still giggles when she thinks about that. And I just told our minister that somewhere in the Mormon world, there’s an image of me as Christ in Gethsemane; she wants to know where, now…

I’ll just offer that the word “person” as in personality… is rooted in the Latin “persona” which comes from the Etruscan “phersu” (the h is aspirated, it’s not an “f”)… which means “mask.”

We’ve been at this, I think, for a very, very long time.

]]> By: chutney http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-10115 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 02:03:47 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-10115 Jenn: But I think she’s saying that it wasn’t anywhere but in very privileged society until then.

I want a giant clay army!

]]> By: Jenn http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-10064 Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:27:27 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-10064 We have modern day carnivals: marti gras, the superbowl…If you went to the University of Georgia in its partying heyday, you have seen a modern day carnival every wednesday night during greek socials. And those also included a fair amount of posing…

If Jesus thought there were posers, then posing is not a modern development beginning around 1500. My guess is that posing has been around for a lot longer than this woman’s theory suggests. Just think about any royal European court and all the posing that went on there.

And, don’t forget, the Eastern world was making paper and giant clay armies while our ancestors in “the West” were still making handprints on cave walls. I was taught that in ancient Eastern cultures “saving face” could be more important than life itself. Your reputation and who you were perceived to be was paramount. Whether or not you actually were that person might be another thing altogether.

]]> By: chutney http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-9795 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:49:27 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-9795 But that’s a hard pose to pull off.

]]> By: chutney http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-9794 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:49:07 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-9794 I think what she’s getting at with Carnival is the complete letting go of self-consciousness, the fool playing the king, the king playing the fool. All the roles are put away for a few days.

She tells the story of an Ethiopian noble who was in a bit of depression. Her prescription? Several days of drinking and dancing with her friends. Works every time. ;-)

]]> By: anonymous http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-9788 Thu, 05 Apr 2007 03:53:26 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-9788 And some might say that the death of modern society began at the dawn of the modern age; that it has merely been a slow burn, much like how a star dies out over time.

But as for following Jesus of Nazareth, I can’t think of a better man to pose for.

]]> By: Philocrites http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/comment-page-1/#comment-9779 Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:40:14 +0000 http://www.makingchutney.com/2007/04/03/empire-and-something-on-the-isolation-of-the-selfp/#comment-9779 That’s really interesting. I’ve read that some intellectual historians mark another point on the history of the emergence of what we think of as “the self” when Paul says “the soul is willing but the flesh is weak,” and again when Augustine begins to describe the divided self. I find it really provocative to think that Jesus might not have had any idea what Augustine was talking about.

I haven’t read Ehrenreich, but can you say something about Carnival? Does she say that the play-acting there is less self-conscious? Or that Carnival roles are less deeply internalized than roles in a modern play?

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