In &/or Out

[ink_ling]

Last night, dom_ino and I watched Elizabeth. The movie more than held up on its third viewing. One of the obvious strengths of the film is Cate Blanchett's ability to show the process from vulnerable to powerful, indecisive to resolved, all in a flicker of her face, in her every gesture and movement

Comments

[jawnbc]

It's a truly wonderful film on so many levels.

But I'll be base here: The French Ambassador!!!!!!!!!!!

*schwing*

And also

[jawnbc]

the public sphere has been sold off. The discourses on privacy and transparency really are a smokescreen for the commodification of all sorts of space--including virtual.

For those of us working in knowledge industries, it's scary. Unless one has no conscience, then it's exciting and ripe with opportunity.

Re: And also

[ink_ling]

I'm curious about what you are referring to when you speak of discourses on "privacy and transparency", since I am trying to flesh these ideas out for myself now.

I guess, as a response, I am seeking for alternate discourses -- particularly within anachronisms and anarchisms, we'll say. :) An unsettling project, since I'd like to avoid nostalgia and irrelevance.

I went through school during the heyday of "postmodernism" and saw some potential there, though now, many of the ideas involved seem potentially to have contributed to the current state, being as extremely taken with pop culture, materiality, and virtuality.

Is there no better preservation of the public in your country?

Re: And also

[jawnbc]

I think that, superficially, everyone loves the notions of privacy and transparency. They give the impression of empowerment and fairness. But privacy can be wielded to obfuscate or derail human rights, and transparency can be used to render one's enemies vulnerable by "being truthful".

It's kinda like how the religious right have taken the methods of the real left, applied a much larger critical mass of supporters behind it, and really spectatularly changed American politics. Ditto for transparency and privacy--they've been hijacked by neocons, used selectively, and become weapons.

In Canada, or any country with reall public broadcasting, it's a bit better. But I'm a Foucauldian so I'm as obsessed with the spaces of resistance as the mechanisms of resistance. Power/knowledge baby!

[shawnsyms]

The point when I learned how social definitions of public and private space were decreed rather than natural/normal/commonsense was the point when my life started to get really interesting...

Thanks for your thoughts about journalling. For me, everything about it has to do with public rather than private, with reaching out to others.

[ink_ling]

I'd love to hear, in a little more detail, what made that realization exciting for you, Bub! Out of curiosity.

I understand you about the journalling, and you do an incredible job of reaching people in a number of ways through your journal. I'd have to say that the journal is surprisingly reminding me that there is potential to speak publically, even now, by forming smaller communities, by making available a fairly ready forum of people's voices.

[shawnsyms]

I'm thinking back to the time when I came out in the late 80s/early 90s. I was doing a lot of reading/thinking about public/private issues, spurred in good part by a book I read called The Regulation of Desire.

In terms of their manifestation in the material world, my revelations mostly lead me to have a lot of public sex! It did influence my thinking and approach to the world more broadly, as part of a larger rejection of "commonsense" notions about how society is organized.

[ink_ling]

Public sex! :: Happily wipes brow :: Let's just say I'm normally too private for that sort of thing, but I truly believe it can definitely change perspectives about how we see our sexual selves.

Man, I have to say it seems like -- from your stories about your earleir days up til now -- you've certainly led a fruitful and mostly fearless life. I'd say you've found plenty to re-direct how you understand what you want to be private and what you want to be public.

[cherrybellering]

i think there may be some people that mostly live their lives in public, needing the validation and attention. i have known people who were not introspective at all. oddly enough it makes me think of something Warren Beatty said to Madonna in Truth or Dare, "she doesnt want to speak if not on camera. why would you say something if it wasnt on camera." as if never formulating thoughts in the brain,"what are you thinking about?" "Nothing".... can we ever really think about NOTHING? a philosophical question, "why is it that only i see through my eyes?"...private or public, self or "the other".

[ink_ling]

Interesting points! I think we always exist, speak, think, and act in dialogue. There is no such thing as being purely alone or purely dissolved into the public. The extremes of public and private (like individualism and collectivism) are myths, but I think they are myths that are helpful for us to believe in -- only provisionally, as if they are true, so that we can balance our dialogues appropriately.

Huh?! :)