Concentration, Visual Messages
John Berger said “Seeing comes before words” and I have a feeling that someone like Nietzsche would agree with him. It is intrinsic to the majority of the human condition to use sight, to recognize and compartmentalize objects, draft mental images and words are born of these. Stories, narratives first were born of vision, drafted in an oral tradition and in present day many stories are crafted using the written or spoken word. Even, silent films fell out of style, I know how much that hurt Chaplin, too.
Modes of narration and storytelling have now mostly melded together in forms of the contemporary novel, film, and song. Songwriting has long since been a conveyor of tales. An ancient form of passing down stories, which are only successful based upon one’s prior understanding of the spoken material. Each story is abstracted further and then further as it is transmuted through people. To imagine a leaf falling, is for one person to see maple, another oak, so on and so forth. Maybe there has never been a perfect story told, no two people could ever understand it in the same exact way. Of course, this is not exclusive to age old narratives, no, not even the contemporary pieces. Language as whole, before it is even skewed by the mere thought of translation, which is also fundamental to our human condition, is based upon a faltered understanding, a guaranteed miscommunication, however accidental.
No story told the same way twice, and that is even so if it were recited verbatim, as the translation from human to human, even of the same language would fall short, lose words here, replaced or littered with “um” and “uh”. How is it that we can arrive at a story like that of The Hotelier’s “Housebroken” depicting scenes between man and dog and arrive at the conclusion that it was made to liken and create a tangent to a human case of domestic violence? According to Berger there is a clear distinction between the social presence of a man and a woman. A man, spoken in regard to power, status whilst women are regarded alongside clothing, appearance, voice, taste thus, forcing women to act more aware of this so called social signifiers. In assigning characteristics to a dog, a mental image of a dog albeit Chihuahua or Tibetan Mastiff, arises we understand that this dog is speaking, and in the case of “Housebroken” when the anthropomorphized character is likened to a bitch, in both its literal and mal-intent senses provides the listener with their own distinct yet well understood scene as the scape unfolds further.
This is not a motif that carries throughout the entirety of the album, however the album “Home, Like Noplace is There” deals largely with characters however real or fictionalized that attempt to cope with loss, or several types of abuse. This tool of story telling, whilst I do not believe is intended to belittle domestic abuse but rather create a viable point of access for people of any age, creed, etc. To imagine a canine with no say in it’s home, helpless and kept completely at bay creates an incredibly poignant scene. Which is more successful as it demonstrates that more often than not people involved in abusive relationships are not free to up and leave with ease. There may be no home on the outside, be it in the form of shelter or people, no stability in finances or mental health.
A tactic like this intends to call attention to itself, using the image of a dog is not a writer afraid to speak the whole truth but rather seeking an alternate channel to showcase. Woman are commoditized, exemplified in the world of media and advertising, where woman get objectified through the male gaze. There is a capital consumption as well as an element of visually consumption. All the while imagery of battered pets garners the utmost sympathy.
By considering the visual images that will inevitably become associated with a spoken or sang piece, it allows the writer or speaker to craft a wholly enveloping story, or narrative that when used well, creates multiple entry points for understanding. Tools working in tandem to tell a multifaceted tale. As with any story, it starts off visually.