'… ometimes maternally plunged earthward, sometimes ecstatically raised, the actor's face seems to unite with his celestial home in an ascension without haste and without muscles, quite contrary to the onlooking humanity which, belonging to a different zoological class and capable of movement only by the legs (and not by the face), must return to its apartment on foot. 'This generally intellectual character of the panoramic vision is further attested by the following phenomenon, which Hugo and Michelet had moreover made into the mainspring of their bird's–eye views: to perceive Paris from above is infallibly to imagine a history from the top of the Tower, the mind finds itself dreaming of the mutation of the landscape which it has before its eyes through the astonishment of space, it plunges into the mystery of time, lets itself be affected by a kind of spontaneous anamnesis: it is duration itself which is panoramic' (Barthes, pg. The Bourgeois Art of Song - same as Shock Photos/New Theater except for Songĭining Car - examines how the dining car aims to be a luxurious stable image in the midst of rushing movement The Tour de France As Epic - Barthes makes the best sports commentatorĪfrican Grammar - actually useful in breaking apart some of the abstractions used in news articles to justify things Barthes explains how style and overpassion functions in theater.

Two Myths of the New Theater - kinda similar to the above. News photo is more shocking because spontaneous. Shock Photos - pretty good statement on why style gets in the way of actual shock when it comes to photographers who try to depict the horror of war. If this was written during Hurricane Harvey, Barthes would be crucified for his insensitivity. Paris Is Not Flooded - interesting and surreal outlook on how the flood in Paris causes a shift in the signs. The Eiffel Tower - most expansive of all the essays in its myth-unearthing Making didactic attacks on the cold/lifeless/quantified - that steamrolls over great nuances. Esoterically reading modern stuff like it harkens back to Classical traditions.

Stating that something is empty which allows it to be a vessel for meanings. Trying to make one case into a contradiction of another. A series of thought bubbles, mildly interesting, but after a while you can start to see the same tricks being done.

The eiffel tower and other mythologies