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Distance -near/remote-
Society -inside/outside-
Modern Stranger
“Distance means that he, who is close by, is far, and strangeness means that he, who also is far, is actually near” (Simmel, 126).
The stranger . . . intrudes . . . into a group in which the economic positions are actually occupied-the classical example is the history of European Jews.” (Simmel, 1950, p. 403)
No outsider, no wanderer : comes today and stays tomorrow.
Close to someone from a distance and of being far away from someone who is in our immediate environment.
societal benefit of strangers in the context of trade.
“The state of being a stranger is of course a completely positive relation; it is a specific form of interaction” (Simmel 126).
"Positive" Relation
objectivity
Positive for the stranger? For the society?
As Robert E. Park, the American sociologist who introduced Simmel’s theories to U.S. scholars, stated: “The emancipated Jew was, and is, historically and typically the marginal man, the first cosmopolite and citizen of the world. He is, par excellence, the ‘stranger,’ which Simmel, himself a Jew, has described with such profound insight and understanding” (1928. p. 882).
Graphic novel
Migrants, Shuan Tan (2007).
Everyone is a stranger there.
Nothing is what he is used to.
They don't even speak his language.
1. Other
2. "Extraneus"
3. Modern Society
Georg Simmel, “The Stranger”.
The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York: Free Press, 1950, pp. 402 - 408.
Lost in Translation, Dir. Sophia Coppola, 2003
17·12·2013
Julia Sinusía
The Mission, 1986. Roland Joffé
K-PAX, 2001. Iain Softley
objective attitude
POSITIVE participation
“He is not radically committed to the unique ingredients and peculiar tendencies of the group, and therefore approaches them with the specific attitude of ‘objectivity.’ . . (Simmel, 1950, p. 404).
Freedom
Sen to Chihiro, 2001. Hayao Miyazaki
(....) examine conditions with less prejudice” (Simmel 127).
Distance: generic humanity / intimacy.
Element of nearness is general.
Die Weisse Massai, 2005. Hermine Huntgeburth
Canino, 2009. Giorgos Lanthimos
“The objective individual is bound by no commitments which could prejudice his perception, understanding, and evaluation of the given” (Simmel, 1950, p. 405)."Superordination and Subordination" Pp. 216-221
Revolutionary Road (2008). Sam Mendes.
Dogville, 2003.
Lars von Trier
Stranger is:
far = unknown
close = possible to get to know him.
not connected to anyone significant = no threat
Dances with Wolves, 1990. Kevin Costner
General stresses what is NOT common.
Strangers not individuals, but part of a social type.
The element of distance is also general.
Conclusion: composition of these two aspects (distance, nearness) defines the stranger.
Amélie (2001). Jean-Pierre Jeunet
physically close but all alone in a faceless crowd of strangers.
Social type between stranger and flaneuse?
-Comic acceptance of strangeness
-Company
Desoriented:
-TV
-Language barriers
-Curtains, shower...
-Fascinated by city lights.
-Karaoke
-Stripper
One cannot look down upon Tokyo as upon a living map as one can in Kobe and Hakodate. Nor can one assume an order one cannot see, as in Kyoto. It is difficult to comprehend cities you cannot see all of from somewhere.
(Donald Richie, 32. Tokyo: A view of the city )
Charlotte
Graduated in Philosophy
Married to a photographer -work in Tokyo.
spends time alone in the hotel room, or wandering in the city
Crisis of identity? Looking for herself.
Bob Harris
Hollywood actor
Wife and two children in L.A.
Crisis of the 50. Marriage crisis.
Jet Lag, disorientation.
Blasé attitude
An individual can be a member of a system in a spatial sense, but not be a member in a social sense (McLemore, 1970)
Strangers meet and project their own individual alienation onto the city
DRIFTING
Nearness and strangeness at the same time?
“dehumanizes the Japanese people by portraying them as a collection of shallow stereotypes who are treated with disregard and disdain.
First look: elevator. Recognition of common features (strangers, foreginers, americans). Connects them both automatically? (General similarity, Simmel).
Strangeness in Intimacy (Simmel). They feel unique?
-From beginning they understand the features that make them close and the ones that make them far. No romantic because they know what unites them.
Are they strangers for each other?
-Their relation may be based precisely in that strangeness.
The seek of meaning of their life as stranger and Tokyo drifting overlap?
-Related, it's a way of inscribing, a way of establish a position.