Representation
This is certainly not the first time I came across the material that keeps record of moments in nature. But the thought about the representation in it, that was something new to me.
Mother emailed me interesting PowerPoint slides containing several brilliant pictures caught on the act－the instant of animals’ lives. The first one is a mantis, obviously shocked by the photographer, therefore stands tall, puts its forelegs up high, and fans its wings outward to make itself look bigger, more threatening in order to defend itself; another picture shot an eagle just flying away above the lake and, from the splattering water, picks up a living fish it just stooped upon. Other picture with images of more quiescent state are like young swans cuddled by their mother and a squirrel lying face down on a wooden shelf, so relaxed in the mild sunshine.
Above is one recent experience of my “nature” encounter on pictures. It furthermore leads back to the film Microcosmos, we watched last week, much alike these pictures, that caught many fantastic moments of creatures, oft in a tinier scale. Where the film ended was incredibly unforgettable, in that, topped off with the beautifully melodic soundtrack, the image was an annoying mosquito’s eclosion. Responding to the weekly reading, the affectionate intimacy between the two slugs was also a brilliant shot.
Nevertheless some scenes, such as the predation of an Argiope, or more commonly known as the “black and yellow garden spider”, still aroused my doubt. One grasshopper, one after another, tragically fell onto the adhesive trap of the spider and fell prey of it. It was horrifying enough but when I came clear that, just like many of the Discovery or National Geography documentaries, these shots may very likely to be the manipulation of photographers, which means that the grasshoppers were so unlucky that they were skillfully thrown by people to the deathly spider web to create the sensation a film wants to achieve.
What am I saying here is not meant to be a mere exposé of the natural narration like films, photography, or even essays. The main point is my reflection on the capability of the representation human beings can achieves through different medium. When touching the material like these, we get a look of what nature is like. Moreover, we get emotionally triggered or disturbed for the amazement of this little word we seldom come close or detailed enough for observation. This is a brilliant way of representing the natural wonder for audience to see and to feel.
But, last semester, having read Wordsworth’s poems in English Literature by Professor Kuo, how can students, though shown with the pictures of rainbow and lake views professor took by himself in England, actually comprehend the appreciation or the spiritual elevation by the poet? Just two days ago, we were screened a film called Dead Poets Society. A fantastic work, I have to say. What the main character, Professor Keating, reaffirmed is the importance of truly be in the passion of poems instead of literally apprehending the meaning or the form of them.
If we rely solely on the representation of nature, our sensibility would be gradually withdrawn. There are only pictures photographed by lens, HD images projected by laser beams onto a computer screen, from which I detect no clue of the fluctuation or the flowing force of great Nature. Quoted from Saussure, those were only “nature morte”.
More than ever, I am afraid of the numbness of failing to feel our existence within the Nature and vice versa. Even in the campus of NCU, I have seen the nymph of a greenish mantis, without its wings fully grown, still wanted to threaten me by putting its forelegs up high; also the molting process of a cicada at the evening; even once held a lost sparrow in my palms, directly receiving the tremble, the warmth, and the softness of its feathers from my skin. These are not able to be represented through vocabularies, footages, or pictures. A person has to go through all of the above to understand what I meant by the softness a bird’s feathers are like and how amazing it could be to spot the toil a cicada removing its old skin and the relief when it successfully complete the metamorphosis.
I at time feel futile from the lack of power to show my friends the true beauty lies in the nature around us. But I am pretty sure that if anyone can come with me, we get much more possibility of observing the natural wonder. No works or production of man can ever replace the importance plus the authenticity one can get in the open environment. The mental crisis can’t be healed by reading Lord Byron’s depiction on landscape. But we can surely bath ourselves in the real scenery with just a step toward the world outside that enclosing door.
