Bluffing kfooz

在書店工作, 大約每個月就會有一次介書環節, 每位同事都要介紹一本書, 增進大家的 product knowledge, 有助工作之餘, 亦可以長知識。以下是我介過的其中一本。

Titile:   Ways of Seeing (1972)

Author: John Berger

ISBN:   9780141035796 

這本書是大學時期我系的其中一科的 course require reading. 除了我主修的文化研究外, 後來我發現這亦是其他科目的 academic reading, 如美術、傳理、社會學等。因此, 這本書的銷量相當不俗, keep 住番貸 keep 住賣清光, 是我所謂的"看門口"書籍之一, 補貨必落。

書放在 Fine art section, 與一眾 art theory & art critic 書籍同居。這個分類其實有點尷尬。作者 John Berger 無疑是個藝術評論家, 文章當中亦涉獵不少西方油畫的分析, 但就內容主點而言, 這本書談及的主題更靠近 humanity 及 sociology. 

書分為 7 個 chapters, 其中4篇是 essay, 另外3篇是作者所謂的 picture essay, 只有圖片, 但主題緊扣後一篇 essay, 所以可以視為一個文章的引子。書的封面其實是主文的第一版, 超現實主義畫家 Magritte 的作品往往是符號學的入門教材, 上面那幅畫"La clef des songes" (The Key of Dreams) 更是表表者。

Chapter 1: 藝術在社會中的意義, 以及隨著因媒體發展而達至藝術普及化, 藝術以至圖象的用途產生了怎樣的改變。

Chapter 3: 由油畫中氾濫的女性裸體圖像, 說到社會對女性以及女性胴體的審視。

Chapter 5: 曾經, 油畫的價值在於所呈現出的身份階級。畫的內容和畫風都深受當時的社會對資產的觀念而有所轉變。 

Chapter 7: 現今社會中, 廣告影響取代了油畫的作用, 但用意仍是旨在展示一種最理想的生活。

第7節是在大學上課時有深入探討過的。雖然相比起日新月異的廣告, 這篇寫於1972年的文章中的例子顯得有點過時, 但是文章的主題非常貼近我們的生活, 對消費主義的批判仍是一針見血。以下是一些較精景的闡述:

- "Publicity is usually explained and justified as a competitive medium which ultimately benefits the public (the cosumer) and the most efficient manufacturers - and thus the national economy. It is closely related to certain ideas about freedom: freedom of choice for the purchaser: freedom of enterprise for the manufacturer."

- "Within publicity, choices are offered between this cream and that cream, that car and this car, but publicity as a system only makes a single proposal. It proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more. This more, it proposes, will make us in some way richer - even though we will be poorer by having spent our money."

- "The state of being envied is what constitutes glamour. And publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour."

- "Publicity is about social relations, not objects. Its promise is not of pleasure, but of happiness; happiness as judged from the outside by others. The happiness of being envied is glamour."

- "... the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her for the price of the product."

- "Any work of art 'qouted' by publicity servesa two purposes. Art is a sign of affluence; it belongs to the good life; it is part of the furnishing which the world gives to the rich and the beautiful. But a work of art also suggests a cultural authority, a form of dignity, even of wisdom, which is superiorto any vulgar material interest... with these it tries to persuade and flatter the spectator-buyer."

- "The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life... It offers him an improved alternative to what he is."

- "The only place relatively free of publicity are the quarters of the very rich..."

- "Money is life... The power to spend money is the power to live."

- "Publicity increasingly uses sexuality to sell any product or service."

- "Publicity principally addressed to the working class tends to promise a personal transformation..."

- "Its essential application is not to reality but to daydream."

- "The interminable present of meaningless working hours is 'balanced' by a dreamt future..."

- "Publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy. The choice of what one eats (or wears or drives) takes the place of significant political choice."

- "It (publicity) recognizes nothing except the power to acquire... No other kind of hope or satisfaction or pleasure can any longer be envisaged within the culture of consumption."

- "Capitalism survives by forcing the mojority, whom it exploits, to define their own interess as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation.  Today on the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable."

雖然上面的語句 out of context, 但不減其論述力量。 

此書改編至同名的 BBC 紀錄片節目, 該電視節目當年更榮獲 BAFTA。電視和書同樣分為4節, 論點一樣, 但內容不是完全一樣的。書的圖片黑白而且小, 看書時我都會自己在手機 GOOGLE。電視有影像和音樂的配合, John Berger 較容易與觀眾作互動, 他所闡述的論點亦十分明白。而文章則由淺入深, 將論述再進一步至一個更大的涉獵面。我建議大家可以先看該電視節目 (早已有有心人上載到 Youtube), 看畢後再看書。