When I was looking for information on internet, I found this picture. This piece of art make me think about Cunningham's works, because it has different features that make me connect it to his books, or at least the one we are reading. First of all, what called my attention was the shape of the object in the image because it is loke the book The Hours in the sense that it puts three things together as Cunningham put three lives together in his book. This expresses the connection of the story, the link between the roles that are into the novel (the one we've talked in classes, that into the novel there were the three main important roles in literature; reader, character, and reader).
Apart from making me think about the novel intself, I noticed that this picture (piece of art) follows what we've talked in classes about what art is. Art connect things that are not commonly together, as in the case of The Hours that puts the three roles together. I really do not know how did this piece of art, but that artist I think did a great job because I feel when seeing/watching this image that we are as human beings complemented by other human beings. Indeed, I think that our necessity of not being alone is because we are all connected in way, and as I have mentioned before, our actions are all connected in our lives too. Art means connection, and this image for me is connected to what we are convering and to what I think about the meaning of life.
Another important feature of this piece of art that called my attention is the color; blue and purple. Those colors for me mean water, but further that water they mean ocean. It makes me thing about deepth, but in the sense that not everything has the same importance or that not everything has the same connotation for every person. The colors are mixed, so they also remind me that there is no limit between one thing and its oppossite, very simimar to what Cunningham illustrates in his way of writing, he shows us that there is no limit in life-death, men-women, black-white, etc. Cunningham's novel The Hours is for me like the image because it has almost the same features that are shown in the novel, but in a more abstract way.
I think that this image clarifies a lot the relation between author-character- reader. It also reminds me about an endless circle of connections in the novel, and how an event leads into something that affects the other character’s life. As the teacher’s explanation of how an act that is supposed to be an act of death leads into life, each action causes a reaction that (in the way I see it) seems to be endless and strongly attached to the destiny of the characters in the novel. In the same manner, as readers we can’t be separated from the analysis of the creation made by the author. As an endless and attached structure.
ResponderBorrarChristina Cortez Á.
Hi!
ResponderBorrarI really liked the image the very first time I saw it. As you pointed out, what called my attention was the connection between the circles and the colors used in them.
First of all, I agree with what you said about the three circles connected: besides showing connectedness, it also shows the cycles created by our relations with other people and the ripples that this causes.
The colors, on the other hand, are mixed together representing that there are no limits, as you said. I would like to add that, more than anything else, those colors represent the mixture between men and women or what is male and what is female. Purple is a color associated with women, while blue is associated with men. In the image, both colors are mixed together and forming only one unity. This represents the androgyny of some of the characters in The Hours: Clarissa is a lesbian living with a woman, and Laura refuses her role given as a wife and as a mother and decided to leave her family behind and find her own way to live. Conventionally, this is not what women are supposed to do because of the stereotypes related to them but, ironically, the stereotypes also establish that purple is for girls and blue is for boys and that they are separate entities. This inversion of stereotypes (shown in the picture by the blending of the two colors) is what gives The Hours this special aspect about how women live their lifes.
I think an image can show a lot more than what you may see in the surface, and you found a very good example to illustrate the connections in The Hours. Thanks, Ninoska!!