GR: screaming

Rcfchess at aol.com Rcfchess at aol.com
Sat Oct 29 20:18:53 CDT 2005


 
In a message dated 10/29/2005 9:15:09 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
dmeury at yahoo.com writes:

Of  screams, existential angst, Luddism, and the city
of woe - - -  

Rcfchess wrote:

>>Also, this may be obvious or already  mentioned
(?)[see, Paul Mackin Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:59:09 -0400],
but  "The Scream" is, of course, a very famous painting
by Edvard Munch,  depicting existential angst, which
has 
become well-known and symbolic,  so it's possibly
another level on which the word operates as  well...?!
Anyone have  any thoughts on that?<<

You might  substitute an alternate technological
analogy in the following:

"Our  present civilization is a gigantic motor car
moving along a one-way road at  an ever accelerating
speed.  Unfortunately as now constructed the car  lacks
both steering wheel and brakes, and the only form of
control the  driver exercises is making the car go
faster, though in his fascination  with the machine
itself and his commitment to achieving the  highest
speed possible, he has quite forgotten the purpose of
his  journey. This state of helpless submission to the
economic and  technological mechanisms modern man has
created is curiously disguised as  progress, freedom,
and the mastery of man over nature."

Lewis  Mumford, The City in History (1961)



Yep...that too...I hadn't seen Paul's post before I wrote mine, but  
apparently great minds think alike...
 
In a way, too, the writing of the novel itself could be seen as a kind of  
screaming across the page, no?!
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