Free Essay About Reading Response

The introduction.

After reading the introduction to the cinematic city and the quest of modern, we can make a conclusion, that there were no single medium that has ever captured the city and the experience of urban modernity better than a movie. The images and the sounds, which are present in a movie nowadays are strong and well-established, that they gather and bring the thoughts and ideas of people regarding the city that they may never visit. In other words, a single film can bring those feelings to a person, that individual can acquire without visiting that kind of place. A movie can relatively describe someone’s feelings, when he or she stand in the middle of the street and feel little wind howling and blowing the cheeks of the person and letting that scarf raise in the air, all these can be felt by watching a movie. In introduction the author is trying to tell us, that the movie captures the mentality of the society, disclosing much about its inner as well as outer life. This idea flow is supported with “The Eyes of the Poor”, where boulevards literally exposed the poor to a world. We can agree that boulevard can displace the poor people homes, but cannot displace the poor people itself. Boulevard can be explained, as a new mode of freedom, which creates conditions of anonymity. You can feel this by watching a movie, but have you considered how much time it took cinema to be able to provide this? The ability to work with capturing images and processing with them allowed to fully capture the experience of modernity. And it took only half century before movies could provide this. The author is trying to tell us that, cinema synchronized its narrative and representational techniques which has grown into something new – into urban conditions. Existed literature which existed between cinema and city, while being well researched couldn’t demonstrate any deep engagement with urban space. To make engagement with urban space be possible two additional dimensions had to be contributed: urban had to become a fundamental part of cinematic discourse and film had to be raised to a proper status – to an analytical tool. Author was trying to tell that his project was not only about analyzing cities as they appeared in a movie, but is also to understand how new theories of the urban emerged from cinematic space. He is trying to say, that unlike other works that deals with the cinema, which only focused on learning the cinema or capturing the cities, his work was based on learning about built spaces in the society. We are trying to understand the difference between reality and virtuality, which has inspired the author on the first place. His book is trying to tell the story of built environment, which first emerged when cinema started inflicting and shape the urban life. The main idea is not to only understand urban development, but also to see a prerequisite of interrupting the socio changes, which can occur during this time.

Chapter 1

In chapter 1 named Industrial Modernity, author is describing the time how industrial capitalism has affected the city. On the beginning of describing, he is trying to tell us that two sociologists: George Simmel and Louis Wirth were among the first who literally theorized the relationship between the individual and the modern city in the context of rapidly industrializing world on the beginning of the early twentieth century. George Simmel model of modern city was determined by intellect and calculations, rather than by intuition and feelings. Modern big city resident were determined as “genuine individuality”, because this man was driven by intellect and was protecting himself with blazing attitude. George Simmel also pointed that being specialist in certain things and the division of labour in the big city disheartened self-employment, which had led individuals feel socially free. The dark side of this was the part that personality was still economically dependent and vulnerable. As time and space became one of the biggest sources of the social power, the firmness of time-space brought a result of the rise in modernism. It is described as a cultural force. As the time passes, the relationship between the city and industrial modernity brought it to a new level – appearance of transportation. Transportation changed the lives of people itself. The beginning of eighteen and nineteenth century is described as city of pedestrians and horse-drawn transports, and bringing the idea of transportation has brought a degree of social integration, which seized different options and opportunities for both rich and poor people. A statement that in modern city life, distance is measured in time. This happened when faster transportation, such as subway was opened. Such thing as time become one of the major things, which attention was kept in most occasions. Workers had some opportunities to escape working time and still got paid, but this didn’t last for long. Each activity that workers did had been stop watched, so estimated time to do a certain work was established. Society was brought to a new level. In that society survive the fittest and the most obedient. The main idea of that the hard work would bring a sense of high morality and well-being raised in many people lives. Wage increases were also meted, but not everybody would be able to achieve it. The only people who were able to use their time consumption, were the only one who achieved it. But the system failed itself, because many managers refused to try such system.

Questions:

Introduction.
Do you agree, that images and the sounds, which are present in a movie nowadays are strong and well-established, that they gather and bring the thoughts and ideas of people regarding the city that they may never visit?
How does single film can bring those feelings to a person, that individual can acquire without visiting that kind of place?
What kind of thought do you come up with when you heard that boulevard can displace the poor people homes, but cannot displace the poor people itself?
Chapter 1

Why the author did name chapter 1 as “Industrial Modernity”?

What were the first two sociologist who theorized the relationship between the individual and the modern city in the context of rapidly industrializing world on the beginning of the early twentieth century? What were their main idea?
With what occasion was statement that in modern city life, distance is measured in time associated with? How did it affect industrialization?

References:

Alsayyad, N. (2006). Cinematic Urbanism: Introduction (1st ed.).
Alsayyad, N. (2006). Cinematic Urbanism: Industrial modernity (1st ed.).