Quoted By:
>What is your major?
History BA, English BA, International Policy MA
>Teach us something interesting from your studies that is not common knowledge.
History: There was an expedition to explore Florida in the 1540s or so, and it was hit by a hurricane. About 150 people survived, built rafts, and sailed around the gulf to the mouth of the Mississippi where they promptly capsized in a storm leaving 4 alive, one being Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Alvar spent the next ten years traveling with a Moroccan slave and two other Spaniards around the gulf, at time up through what is now northern Mexico, the whole time pretending to have magic healing powers by making the sign of the cross. Eventually, after ten years the four came marching into Mexico City with thousands of Indians at their backs who thought they were gods. Alvar wrote an amazing account of this, and it's considered revolutionary in the field of ethnography and anthropology. Would make a fantastic movie.
English: It's very easy to comprehend and appreciate modern art if you understand the difference between a symbol and an image. A symbol has a predetermined meaning attached (ie the Confederate flag, liberty bell, etc.) and an image is just there, allowing the audience to make of it what they wish. Modern art is about the individual experience of art. It's not about meaning, but about presenting an image, whether it be in language through poetry or prose, music, video, etc., and presenting a piece that's not supposed to be easy to interpret. It's also about form over content.