solitude #18


It is said that one photograph can hold so many words and emotions. I completely agree. This modern days have brought us to the digital era where people love smartphones attached to their hand. And surely, it must be embedded with megapixels camera so they can capture moments flawlessly. Or their own faces. However pictures have dramatically turned our brain to love interpretation. I myself sometimes get bored with textual discourses as Barthes proudly says on the Death of the Author that might free us from the limitation and constriction of ways of interpreting. The messages are up to the reader. Things are getting funnier lately when I thought i know what i read. Because it turns out i am not getting closer to the substantial meaning that the author has sent through his writing. I'm lost. But thanks to Barthes, it's not a big deal for me, right? It is because he says that the direct intent of the author may be muddled due to the translation from author to text to reader, the text ending up more of an “immense dictionary” than anything else (Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author.” Art and Interpretation: An Anthology of Readings in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. You should read it by the way if going to barbershop is the least important thing you should do).

Anyway, back to the digital things which most people really like, i am not sure if one photograph can be less confusing than one paragraph or vice versa. It has to be said that if one picture can contain thousands words, then what about words? is the meaning multiplied? Because, you know, words can be interpreted freely. The Death of the Author, right?. So if a photo means thousand words and a word means thousand meaning combined with another words, what would it be?

If i have one piece photograph of someone having an illicit sexual relationship, would i say that someone is having an affair? No, what does it mean? Oh maybe, they're just practicing biology. So much for optimism. But you got to hold that optimism high if you wanted to date somebody this day. In particular case, if your dating target has obsession with their social accounts they keep posting many words and pictures here and there: FB, twitter, instagram, path, blogspot, foursquare, vine, and many more. Knowing deep through their personal pictures and thoughts are tempting but I personally wouldn't date someone who are digitally open.I just can't take the heat. It just feels nicer if we find out the true personality of whom we love by some personal encounters. It makes one or two accounts is still accepted but it doesn't reduce the ambiance of personal encounters.

Are you a paragraphs or photographs person?

Anyway, words are adorable for me. They can shift letters and spaces become one meaningful sentence that drives us crazy or one useless utterance that drives us crazier. So, i might prefer reading a book to staring a painting. How words can shape my imagination and memories that taunt me to another past events and reliving those. And sometimes it brings me to peek of my future through hopes and dreams crafted by words.

Thing is different with you. I like words very much while you like picture so much. And having your writing and your picture is something that i am grateful for. When what we feel intersects those two, no pictures or words can describe it. Only us. You make the photographs, i make the captions. The meaning is still the same.




[ Knowing your words means knowing yourself. I'm just happy knowing your words are still flowing out of your hands, that i like to hold. So i can peek the little  restless self of you in the midst of your writings :) ]

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