After our conversation on Campbell's multifaceted discourse, Sojourning with Truth, one of the biggest questions I had concerning the two versions of Truth's speech was the sacrifice of reality for a more convincing and blatantly stereotypical dramatization of the actual event. When reading the version packed with the horribly punctuated and dramatized speech, the text plays on the emotions of the audience. It is engrained in our American history that the contexts of not only gender equality but the struggle for civil rights are marked with the horrors of unjust brutality, especially in the oppressive sins of the south's "Peculiar Institution."
Using dramatization as a tool for drawing attention occurs in many parts of our media, political, and cultural environment. All of our reality TV shows provide stark evidence for the audience's appetite for drama. Important events, both in past and recent times, that are televised or portrayed in TV shows or films, are almost always retold under the interpretation of the director and script author. In these cases, the facts of the actual event are often skewed, forsaking the perhaps bland but factual truth for something that will attract more viewers.
As complex as our social and cultural structure is, it becomes ever more important to hold onto the truth, to make our best effort at avoiding being completely sucked into a world of complete ambiguity and promiscuous information. When there is news coverage on an important sporting event or crime scene, the news team chooses specific words and devices to best grasp the viewer's attention. They will carefully choose where and what to shoot, and what to include or leave out of the report. As an audience in today's growing media world, the powers of TV and the Internet increase with every video watched, and every search posted. It may sound the the beginnings of a paranoid conspiracy theory, but the things we see on the internet, in magazines, and on every TV screen, are sources of persuasion that we must learn to discern between, to trust or disregard. Almost everything we perceive as an audience is part of the agency of an advertisement or information giant; they are aiming to sway our interpretation in a certain direction.
Due to today's culture, our reality is under fire. People wear uncomfortable clothes to appear a certain way, or make choices that are absolutely detrimental without realizing so. In the sense of Sojourner Truth, the drama is focused on the feelings of the audience. However the dramatization of life itself is something that seems to occur more and more in our culture, causing major misinterpretation about what we're supposed to be doing in college, how we're supposed to succeed, and even how we're supposed to be happy. In these respects, it is safer to stick to grounded reality.
Gabe, I also thought this was an interesting element in the reading and understanding of each version of the speech. I agree that the dramatization played a huge role in having the information reach people on a personal and emotional level, but I feel that along with the “horribly punctuated and dramatized speech” the diction, or word choice itself, is an equally important factor in changing the comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI think the first question that needs to be addressed, is who is the intended audience is for each version and what is the intended meaning is for the same. In each case, Truth’s words are altered and consequentially changed how she initially delivered them. Campbell’s version, the more grammatically correct one, is noticeably longer than Gage’s therefore causing the initial belief that words have been added resulting in a higher word count. It is likely that Campbell is addressing a more articulate, or upper class crowd, but has his alterations of the original presentation changed the meaning? Similarly, it seems that Gage is attempting to make Truth seem less intelligent than she actually is as to reach an audience that see’s her in that particular sense. This could be done so that people of similar standing are able to relate to her ideas; or, it may be so that those in a higher social class are not threatened by her stance and intellect.
As you mentioned above, even in today’s society people are constantly trying to transform themselves into images that seem ideal through a variety of techniques. Overall, I feel that in reference to this speech, both versions provide meager attempts at changing an originally inspiring message in order to appear more fitting and appropriate for the general population or people in mainstream social standing.