Cross-Cultural Blog

All three of your topics are so unique and well thought out. The topics all seem to address a fundamental cultural issue that was being affected by the topic or text. Some sentences are a little hard to grasp, like "Hence, how could a city conceptualized from the statistics devoid of sentimental dimension accommodate a crowd that has cultural demand of the space that is in conflict with the national interest in nation building?" I understood what you were saying, but I had to read through it really slowly to get a handle on it. Breaking up the sentences would really help in situations like this. The best part of these ideas, I think, is how complex and well thought out that they are. I'm really looking forward to see how these ideas and theses develop.

Hi, This is yuguang. I have left out something really important, not deliberately of course. I may be a bit too ambitious to cover such a complex and wide topic in 10 pages. I decide to narrow it down to a specific conflict in space between urban planning and chinese traditional burial practice in Singapore. I would use Kong&Yeoh's text as an illustration of the points I have developed from reading Bauman and Certeau.

Hi Yuguang,

Your motive and thesis seem really interesting at this point. However, your thesis doesn’t seem to really answer your motive directly. Perhaps you could also address why exactly “such aspects are not weighed heavily as a factor in urban planning”, because it may not be immediately clear to the reader.

Also, perhaps you could make more explicit how the state “steer[ing] and bridl[ing] such sentiments by deploying different strategies” is related to making sure that “ordinary citizens in the city could be accommodated by the pre-determined model”.

I think that rooting your argument in the “specific conflict in space between urban planning and Chinese traditional burial practice in Singapore”. Are you planning to include this in your thesis?

Regards,
Melissa

Hi, Elliot, thanks so much for the constructive comments on my thesis statement. My topic deals with the way that rational urban planning reconciles with the sentimentality of city dwellers. Rationality and sentimentality appear to be in conflict with each other at the first sight however, in my paper, I am trying to look at the mechanisms and logics by which both parties make concessions to each other’s demands. As ‘sentimentality’ is a very abstract idea, I would root the discussion to the ‘sentimentality’ associated with Chinese traditional burial practice. Is this clearer?

Hi Melissa,

I think that this is an interesting topic!

However, I think that you need to be more specific in your explanation of the problem, paying particular attention in explaining the term “synoptic landscape”, and how it is supposed to tie in to your argument.

You will also need to clarify the nature of the relationship between the “synoptic landscape” and the “decrease in sentimentality and loyalty” – specifically, is it a causal relationship between the former and the latter, or is it just a correlation?

Last, I think that you may want to consider the relevance of this topic to reality – how can this “decrease in sentimentality and loyalty” that you mentioned be found in reality? Or can be found at all?

Chong Ming

Hi, Chong Ming,

Your idea sounds really interesting and presents a contestable argument that ‘narrative can be said to be the “lesser of two evils”, when compared to statistical representations’. Although you have admitted the inherent problem associated with representation of all forms, it is not clear to me of which subject matter you are referring to when you talk about representation.

Perhaps, you could also take into consideration of the purposes of representation specific to your context. All in all, representation is just a medium that transmits certain aspects of reality into something else by somebody to achieve a certain end. (Sounds really convoluted=D) By considering purposes of representation, the intended viewers or audiences would come into discussion inevitably.

Maybe you could also consider another aspect of representation from the perspectives of the viewers. How much could they perceive and how much would they want to perceive regarding different forms of representation?

The context of your argument is not very clear. Intuitively, there are preferred methods of representation in different contexts. However, I believe this problem could be resolved as long as you anchor your argument in a specific context.

I am looking forward to reading your full paper.

Hi Yu Guang,

It's great that you've received quite a bit of feedback! Hopefully this will allow you to clarify exactly what it is you want to argue. As fellow-bloggers have pointed out, you might try to simplify your sentences (if not your thoughts!) and try to express, as carefully as possible, what exactly you mean. It would also be good to try and make your thesis more concrete, e.g. by relating it to a particular source.

Good luck with the drafting.

Johan Geertsema

Hi Melissa,

I must say I find your planned paper on The Truman Show intriguing! I agree that it's quite striking how the audience of the show, at the end of the show when transmission ceases because Truman has actually left, so quickly appear to move on. This is perhaps most strikingly dramatized by the two security guards who, right at the end of the film after Truman's left the show, wonder what else is on tv. But I must agree with Chong Ming's comment: what do you mean by "synoptic landscape"? You will need to clarify this concept. And: how does this landscape "cause" the decrease in affect in the audience? It seems to me that this would constitute a central aspect of your argument.

All the best,

Johan Geertsema

Chong Ming:

We've already had some discussions about your topic for the essay. I think that an investigation into Certeau's ideas is certainly warranted. As mentioned before, I think you need to take care with the terms you use: be sure to know exactly what you mean e.g. by "representation," "narrative," "poetry," "poetics," and "statistics." Additionally, I am not sure what you mean by "the lesser of two evils": how is it that statistics is "evil," and is it the same kind of "evil" as "narrative" (and do you mean poetic language)?

In any case, the question of representation and its complicated relation to the "real" -- the realm of Certeau's pedestrians, whose movements are missed as they are read from above by those Certeau thinks of as voyeurs (calculating city planners in particular, but also those given to the abstractions of theory, such as philosophers ...) -- is certainly fascinating and seems to be directly relevant to an inquiry into the relation between power, space and pleasure.

Best of luck with the drafting!

Johan Geertsema

Hi Yu Guang, Melissa and Chong Ming,

I enjoyed reading about your projects.

Yu Guang -- you have a fascinating project, yet I could not understand this line: "how urban planning is mostly grounded in the calculation of supposedly objective statistics gathered from the inherently subjective quantification of human living conditions" -- is there a way to rephrase in order to reach a broader audience? Might you also, in presenting your research topic, offer concrete examples of "sentimental dimensions" or secondary sources about this aspect so that readers have a clearer sense of your focus? Are you putting statistics in contrast to human emotional connections with architecture? What do you mean by statistics exactly? I do like the thesis -- what ideas do you have for "different strategies"? I look forward to learning more!

Melissa -- your focus on viewers of “The Truman Show” offers an intriguing approach to the film. I did not quite understand what you meant by "the pleasure that the viewers derive from the all-encompassing power the show allows them to possess." Can you relate this to the theory of Scopofilia? Or is it more of a Foucauldian model? I'd also like you explain what you mean by "the synoptic landscape" as this term is new to me! Good luck with this fascinating project.

Chong Ming -- you introduce your theoretical source with the most sophistication here (which builds your ethos as a writer). And I'm impressed at how you explain and elaborate upon your claim, stating how Michel de Certeau uses narrative to simplify the complexities of urban actions. But what's impressive to me is that you have decided to defend de Certeau. I wonder how you will define "evil" (for whom? according to whom?) and, as I asked of Yu Guang, what do you mean by "statistical representations." It sounds like an ambitious and important paper!

Good luck everyone!
Alyssa O'Brien

Hi Melissa,

It’s great that you’ve chosen to dwell on why viewers of “The Truman Show” switch channels so quickly the minute transmission ends. On face value, one can look at it as the director’s way of telling us that “The Truman Show” is so popular that it is the only thing people watch on TV. But as you’ve pointed out, there’s more to it than meets the eye... Good job with the ‘close reading’!

You mentioned that ‘the popularity of The Truman Show can be seen to represent the pleasure that the viewers derive from the all-encompassing power the show allows them to possess’. I’m not so sure how you’ve come to draw such a conclusion because it’s doubtful if the show truly gives the viewers power. It’s possible that they may have power over viewer-ratings (within the movie itself), which might then in turn influence the Truman Show director’s decision on the story line (within the movie itself)—resulting in the viewers having indirect power over the show. But this might not really be ‘all-encompassing’. However, the viewers do not have any direct control over Truman’s actions. They’re merely spectators, anxiously anticipating events in Truman’s life which are to follow.

Personally, I see the popularity of the show as a result of the innate voyeuristic tendencies humans possess. Having the opportunity to track Truman’s every move gives viewers a god-like perspective of Truman’s world. This ties in with Certeau’s idea on voyeurs—people who have ‘voluptuous pleasure’ in ‘seeing the whole’ and ‘looking down on’ and ‘totalizing’ human texts. They’re merely on-lookers who have no effect on Truman’s life. Thus when Truman leaves, they simply switch channels because they have no loyalty to it, having had no part to play in it in the first place. What do you think? :)

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your comments! Let me attempt to clarify what I mean, as I really didn't manage to put it across quite well.

Certeau believes that the use of statistics - and after an enlightening discussion with Dr. Johan Geertsema, the use of narrative as well - do not do justice to the "anonymous [heroes]" - the city-dwellers, for they do not manage to capture all possible complexities of the activities of these people. However, I think that Certeau, too, does not manage to capture all possible the complexities; even though Certeau has written in a "poetic manner", it still remains that, invoking a cliché, "words are just words", and Certeau can only manage to represent things and activities that have words for them.

So, how is Certeau actually any better? I think it is because Certeau's "poetic manner" of representation - particularly through his use of metaphors, metonymies, clichés, etc - does more justice to the "heroes" by not claiming itself to be representative, by acknowledging that it is just a partial representation of reality. This stands in contrast to the fact that, as Certeau believes, statistics and narrative claim to be total representations of reality.

As already mentioned above, I will defend Certeau on the grounds that it is the nature of representations (that they inevitably miss things out) that allows Certeau no choice but to commit the mistake I accused him of (nat managing to capture all possible complexities), and that he is actually committing less of an "evil" because he admits that he cannot totally represent reality.

In my essay, I will consider the uses and limitations of the use of statistics, narrative and poetics to serve as representations of reality. Preliminary drafting and research has singled out Aristotle's "Poetics" and Plato's "The Republic" (particularly Book III) as possible sources. I am currently considering using Martin Heidegger's "On the Way To Language", as well as possibly using Steven Pinker's "The Stuff of Thought".

Also, please pardon my loose use of the word "narrative" earlier, as i had quite gotten it mixed up with "textual representation".

Anyone has any comments on this? Thanks!

Hi Alyssa and Shu Ting,

Thanks for your comments! They made me realise that I hadn’t made clear enough exactly what I meant. As Shu Ting pointed out, the “power” I had in mind was more along the lines of “having the opportunity to track Truman’s every move gives viewers a god-like perspective of Truman’s world. This ties in with Certeau’s idea on voyeurs—people who have ‘voluptuous pleasure’ in ‘seeing the whole’ and ‘looking down on’ and ‘totalizing’ human texts” (to quote Shu Ting’s comment. I was, indeed, planning to use that part of Certeau’s text to partly explain the possible relationship of the viewers to the show). I also thought of bringing in the idea of media providing instant gratification in that they “provide the sense of experience without the accommodation required in true participation.” (Wiebe, Two Psychological Factors in Media Audience Behavior, 527) in order to help explain the show’s popularity as well as the fickleness of the viewers, since, as Shu Ting also pointed out, “they simply switch channels because they have no loyalty to it, having had no part to play in it in the first place”.

As for scopophilia, which Alyssa brought up, I was definitely planning to link voyeurism to the idea of instant gratification mentioned above. Also, I was planning to use Bauman’s idea of the Synopticon-a sort of updated version of Foucault’s Panopticon, wherein the “many” watchers (here, the viewers) are the targets of the system, instead of the “few” being watched (here, Truman). The “few” are “Celebrities” who “rule” the masses who watch them globally through indirect guidance. While the Panopticon used direct force, the Synopticon relies on coercion and is a better model for mass media. The “Synoptic landscape” of The Truman Show, seems to contain elements of the Synopticon that influenced the viewers’ attitudes towards Truman and the show itself. Thanks for pointing out the things that I should clarify in my paper. I’d like to know if either of you (or anyone, really) has further questions or comments. You’ve definitely been a lot of help!

Melissa

Good blog entry, but I think you need to be more specific.