Blog 9 Modernity Spectatorship Power

Recently, I have spent many hours in Shields Library. I always sit at the same desk on the fourth floor; sometimes reading the material I have laid out in front of me, or else gazing out the window at the people below. Sometimes, I block out everything else, whether I am reading or looking out the window, and I do not realize that someone is suddenly standing inches away, looking at the various books on the shelves. Other times, I look across the street at the art building, to see people busy at work or looking across the street, and back at me. There is something uncanny about reading in a library; you become immersed in what you are reading, you would never realize that you are being watched, should a stranger stop to observe you. Yes, I am also one of those strange people. I have a lot of weird thoughts when I'm in the library. This was created from one of those thoughts.

Production Notes

Purpose: The promotion of reading and writing literary works

Target Audience: Adolescents 12-19, and Young adults 20-25

Scene: Young man sitting casually in a library reading classic literature

Exposition: Promotion will support an ironic change of power between the so-called “age of information” and “classic culture”. The purpose is to illustrate that although we live in the age of information, the information is nothing but news and commercials; and because we are surrounded and awed by the titanic nature of technology, we do not realize that our culture is slowly fading. Empathizing this is the empty library scene: a building that was once the resource for all the information anyone could ever need, now stripped off its books. Libraries and books once shared a symbiotic importance; now they share a common void in our culture. A young man (the Other), dressed in a rebellious style, considered to be outside the norm of culture , is depicted reading from a book of poetry. His pose and contemporary dress is reminiscent of the the classic art figure, the pilgrim: a traveling man of letters and sciences on a lifelong journey of self-discovery through knowledge. This will illustrate the idea that literature, one of the very essences of culture, is also outside the norm; the culture of technology, which has destroyed the importance of libraries and possesses little need for literature, has become the norm. A Voice Over will appeal to its target audience, the youth of America, to improve their creativity by reading, and perhaps, be inspired to write literature of their own.

Scene Synopsis:

[Fade In from Black]

A shadowed walkway between two long, empty bookshelves. Seated on a window sill at the end of the walkway is a young man, late teens or early twenties; he leans back casually against the inside of the window sill. His left hand rests on his right thigh, supporting his right arm; his right hand is holding up a book for him to read.

Voice Over begins as camera slowly moves forward through the walkway, towards the young man. Voice Over expresses sorrow that libraries and the literature therein have become under-appreciated within a culture centered in technology. Voice Over continues, expressing how the our culture is slowly becoming devoid of thought, because the voices of past philosophers, writers, poets, and other literary artists are disappearing from the minds of the youth; the empty bookshelves emphasize this cultural void.

The camera is now close enough for the audience to see clear details about the young man seated in the window sill.

He is dressed in rebellious, but nonthreatening clothing: faded blue jeans with black leather belt and skull belt-buckle; thick, black boots; slightly ragged white T-shirt; black bandanna with white skull prints; beige trenchcoat; black sunglasses. His hair is long, and falls just below shoulder level; he wears silver stud-earrings.

The title of the book he is holding reads: The Poetry of William Blake

Voice Over asks the audience where these voices have gone, when they began to fade, and what will happen if they disappear forever. As the voices of the past fade, says the Voice Over, so will the voices of our future.

Young man lowers the book, looks toward the camera and quotes a line from Blake's poetry: “Some are born to endless night.” Then asks the audience: “Are you?”

[Fade to Black]