Myths and some puzzles

Myths and some puzzles

In the lecture he gave at Authors@Google, Rory Stewart stated that “nation-building is not a question of technical decisions. It is, in fact, an issue of myth, of legend, of identity, of culture, of history, of tradition.” (1). I found this assertion very intriguing. Even though it seemed true in principle, it did not suggest any answers to the fundamental questions: How is myth created? How is identity formed?

The past week’s readings provided me with a plausible solution to these puzzles (and with yet another puzzle). As Benedict Anderson observes, the “forms of imagining” and the “technical means” associated with them (2) – or, in other words, the different media – are major factors in the creation of the narratives that bind people together in communities of different kinds and generate a sense of belonging. I find this to be an immensely valuable piece of information as, if it is correct – and Anderson’s historically-grounded argument makes a very strong case for its correctness – it might be used to solve such urgent matters as those of nation-building in Iraq or Afghanistan.

However, when I explored the problem further, I was confronted with another intriguing point: which medium is the right medium for creating the right myth in a specific context? Neither Anderson, nor Benjamin answers this question. However, their reflections on particular media and on the types of communities and changes they generated offer some insights into this issue. Thus, reading Anderson’s account, I identified a kind of pattern as to the types of media that created communities throughout history. The first medium (chronologically) identified by Benedict Anderson – “sacred languages” (3) using ideograms – was image-based. Novels and newspapers, which succeeded the “sacred languages”, were, by contrast, primarily based on arbitrary signs (the written words of vernacular languages). With the emergence of photography and, later, of film, a most striking return to the image-based media occurred. If this pattern is respected, it follows that the next prevalent media creating the myths of the future will be primarily based – again – on the arbitrariness of the sign (written language). Would this be possible?

I think that this hypothesis is plausible and I would now like to consider Benjamin’s key argument in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction in the light of it. According to Benjamin, in the age of mechanical reproduction which, he argues, begins in the 1500s, the works of art lose their “aura” (4), their authenticity. However, I would like to point that Benjamin does not distinguish between the two different media types (that based on the arbitrariness of the sign and the image-based one) prevalent in the mentioned time span. I believe that this is significant as Benjamin’s theory is not relevant to the media based on the arbitrariness of the sign. For example, a novel, even if printed in numerous copies and different editions, retains its aura. The subsequent copies do not change the original. So, in reading both the 1922 and the 2004 edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, for instance, I encounter the same original model that has its source in the novelist’s thoughts. As a result of this point, I believe that the prevalence of a medium based on the arbitrariness of the sign may lead to an invalidation of Benjamin’s theory in the future, even in the age of “mechanical reproduction”.

As Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times suggests, image-based media are extremely powerful. There is no surprise, in my view, that the President of the factory appears on a screen when he passes an order to the workers in the factory, rather than having only his voice transmitted through a sounds amplifier. With these in mind, I cannot but ask another question: how powerful is a medium based on the arbitrariness of the sign (written or spoken language) in comparison to one based on image? The medium that will prevail in the future will probably enable me to answer this question.

Notes

(1) Rory Stewart, Authors@Google, 10 March 2008,

(2) Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso, rev. 1991), p.25

(3) Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (New York: Verso, rev. 1991), p.14

(4) Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in Illuminations (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1958), p.223