Topic > Reflection on "A sea of ​​pain is not a stage" Article by Levi Strauss

Rwanda. The name of a country that today is known only for an unofficial and blatantly ignored genocide. A million people massacred in the space of one hundred days, but nothing was done to help. In Levi-Strauss's article "A Sea of ​​Sorrow is Not a Proscenium", he seems to indicate that the reasoning behind this was that these types of images are too common and their meaning has been taken away. Images do not push us to act but instead guide us towards acceptance, they act as a reminder of what we are free of. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay I believe that Levi Strauss' main argument seems to be that the media coverage of the Rwandan genocide was too little and too late and lacked any kind of meaning and therefore effect on readers. This disconnect between what the camera captured and reality leads Levi Strauss to a piece by Alfredo Jaar titled “The Eyes of Gutete Emerita. The piece consisted of two light-boxes that showed a block of text in each box, there were ten lines of text in each box and they stayed there for forty-five seconds. The text then fades out and new text appears, this time five lines per box and lasting thirty seconds. This then fades out to allow for the next lines of text, this time only two lines remain "I remember his eyes", "The eyes of Guete Emerita". These last two lines say for fifteen seconds, then suddenly the image of Gutete's eyes flashes into view filling the two frames. Then, before you can react, they disappear, leaving you with that image burned into your brain. The reason I think Levi Strauss believes this work conflicts with the thesis that there is no more power in photography is because it does not focus on the object. bigger picture. He quotes a statement by Stalin saying: 'A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." When you focus on an individual rather than a group, you get to know them, their story, who they've lost, what they're doing now to try to move forward, you give them a name and that consequently humanizes them and makes you care. If you looked at a picture of a pile of dead bodies, it would probably make you sad, but you don't know that their death has no personal effect on you. Jaar told you the background, the story of a woman who lost most of her family and had to continue hiding to save her life as no one came to help her. Only after learning her story are you introduced to her eyes, the eyes of someone who has seen it all personally and looking into her eyes perhaps we see the massacre through her eyes.