Socrates Fortlow, History, and Anna Deavere Smith - Essay Example

10 November Socrates Fortlow, History, and Anna Deavere Smith The story“History”, in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, takes a special significance on what can be considered as one of the most concerning and persistent problems of mankind: the social injustices caused by disenfranchisement based on race and culture. Walter Mosley, the author of the story, reflects a special tie to what Anna Deavere Smith considers as the greatest lost that could possibly arise in an artistic work: that is, reducing the reality in how a story is being transferred from the actual to the duplicative form. In Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, Walter Mosley responds to the feasibilities for a person who has been incarcerated for a long time to readjust and to play a role in the society. The main character, who is Socrates Fortlow, has been contending with the life after and outside of prison after his release. By means of a series of unified and interrelated events focused on Socrates and his outlook, the reader will stumble across a system of problems, interlocked and tessellated the forms the backbone of the story. Socrates lives in the streets of Los Angeles; and from this haven reflect are the upshots of urban dilemmas such as poverty, crime, discrimination, violence, and white racism. Although Mosley leaves out the limits of mystery in writing this book, he has manifested his knowledge and observation of what really happens in real life; things that are answered by the most common questions: What is my future? Where to go? What to eat? What about racial discrimination? How do I measure up against the White gangster on the streets? These are typical questions that provide answers to what make up human history. In the book, Socrates has to deal with the many complications of human existence, especially among the Blacks in urban Los Angeles. One particular contention that is being subtly reverberated is how the truth about the severity of street violence, discrimination, and white racism towards the Blacks are reduced by the transition of these real events into texts or videos or whatever medium used to record a historical event. History does not necessarily tell the real events that have occurred in the past. There could be a lot of things that will be lost in translation or be left out deliberately. Nevertheless, the perspective or context in which historical texts are written provide clue to the network of issues or problems that blighted the past, and which can still be in existence up to this moment. Socrates stresses the importance of studying history and literature because it is in the texts that careful thinking is carried out in order to ensure that the voice of the past will still be the voice of the present. The way we understand history is based upon the ideas that we read on historical books; and without them, there is no reason for us to critically imagine about the past. While there are many media that could keep details of history such as videos and pictures among others, oftentimes, these media are misrepresented. This is the point that Anna Deavere Smith would likewise want to stress out: “the video of Rodney King Keating, which seemed to "tell all", apparently did not tell enough, and the prosecution lost, as their lead attorney told me, "the slam dunk case of the century. The city of Los Angeles lost much more” (Smith xxi). Smith believes in the power of literature to be able to reiterate perspectives of the past to the present. However, in the case of Keating, who was a victim of beating, the jury favors to convict him even though the video clearly evokes how he was beaten mercilessly. Smith argues that “what most influences my decisions about what to include is how an interview text works as a physical, audible, performable vehicle. Words are not an end in themselves. They are means to evoking the character of the person who spoke them.” The most ideal thing of using literature as a first medium to record a historical account is that nothing is being left out. The text allows the readers or interpreters to think about the characters first, who is being represented, what is the issue, and how do these issues relate to the other historical records about subordination, violence, racial discrimination, etc. Smith believes that the purpose of literature is “to fill the loss.” The problem with videos is that the diversity of culture, the differences in race, color, and ethnic backgrounds are often overlooked. In this case, history is being duplicated wrongly, thereby evoking a different picture of what exactly happened in the past. Smith argues that “the solutions to these problems will call for the participation of large and eclectic groups of people.” It is not enough that events in the past are simply captured by the lens; instead, they should initially be contextualized to fit to every human perspective in terms of race, ethnicity, culture and others. This class has really opened myriads of ways to appreciate the literary and visual contents of artistic objects. Personally, I was placed in a framework wherein I do not have to simply follow instructions and do things according to the rules but I was chanced at looking at the various perspectives of arts in my own way. The so-called “experience of looking” has really changed manifold things about me and how I view art. I realized that art is a manifestation of wisdom as every feature, every faction of it has something to tell about history, culture, language, events of the past, etc. We can only ponder about how well the bits and pieces of a sculpture or a painting or a theatrical presentation merge together to form a unified context of the things they represent. Because of the profound knowledge that I have developed about the dynamics and purpose of arts, I learned how to use art to communicate visually. Art is not simply putting things together, painting the weirdest of images or building anything that comes to mind; art is a combination of knowledge, experience, and heart: it is the ability to see the things around us and what they resemble and use manifest those elements to create an object that would trigger visual curiosity and intellectual awareness. In addition, the FIG presentations of theatrical arts place me in a position wherein I would learn to see the elements that contribute to a perfect play. I found that it is really the costume that drives the entire play. Costumes are the main object of the play; characters are only reinforcements. Perhaps, many would argue against this contention; however, the point is that in order to represent something with excellent accuracy, there is a need to duplicate the original conditions of things, including dresses, settings, locations, the lights, the environment, etc. and everything can be obtained by simply tweaking the costumes. The successes of theatrical arts depend on how well the production is able to bring the audience to where they want the audience to be. Furthermore, I have already learned that arts, particularly fine arts, give a glimpse of the society as a whole and also represent the fashion of that age too. For it is impossible to ignore such impacts in the lives of human beings and since artists are sensitive beings, they are prone to changes even by the slightest notion. It may differ that whether the fine artist approves of the fashion and consumer culture or disregards it in his paintings or a sculpture, which thoroughly depends on the nature of that artist but these influences, will find their places in the nooks and crevices of the work of art. Being an artist means that they live a life of their own pattern and standard. It is universally accepted that the artists’ especially fine artists do not have a limit and that artists consider art as their religion. For this very reason, artists from various sects in the society are scorned for their waywardness which for the artist is the way of life. This being established, it can be said that most artists live a life of their own choice and that a 9-5 job cannot bound them. There are various universities in the US where 24 hour studio is available for their fine arts students. However this does not mean that the fine artist can just excel in painting and drawing but there are fields like digital and graphic painting and also art marketing where the fine art students do get white collar jobs. Hence, a clear resolution for their profession cannot be drawn with a mathematical formula. In a nutshell, studying history and literature is one of the best ways to really have a good knowledge of how the past evolved and how events in the past still affect the present. But, the visual and textual ingredients should have to be carefully picked such that “we are at a stage at which we much first break the silence about the race and encourage many more people to participate in the dialogue.” Read More