View allAll Photos Tagged gratification
This image was shot in early Spring last year at Merriwa in the Upper Hunter region of NSW.It was actually taken at the local showground.Merriwa sits on the Golden Highway which was once upon a time the busy route by which wool from the farms of the Central Tablelands was moved to Sydney for market.Image was shot on Kodak colour 400 film and developed in Tetenal C41
This was my first colour developed film in quite some time,as I have been saving the shot films up in the fridge until I had enough to develop,it is always a nice surprise when they get scanned,as one never quite remembers what was shot on theat particular roll,delayed gratification rules!
Models/ BW
NF BW Doing a series of black and whites of various models. I am trying to go for a edgy look. Let me know if I was successful. Please comment!! WWW.IL-PHOTOGRAPHY.COM
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(artwork: Bruce Collin Paulson) This is an announcement!!
We all grew up with film, mostly 35mm as the go to way to record our snapshots in life. Grandparents came home from vacation and had a slide show of their trip. Friends would pass photos around at school of their birthday party, car they’re working on, camping trips, and whatever they felt meant something to them enough to share. And quite often the local one hour photo lab would be the place to go. After waiting so long, two hours was sometimes too much to ask. But it was the wait that made it as special and magical as the capture at that moment. When you pay for the prints and get ready to open that envelope, you’re crossing your fingers. Maybe you can’t even remember what you shot.
That is so far from what we’re used to these days. Instagram and various social networks allow nothing but instant gratification, with little impact. Double tap, scroll. Double tap, scroll. Algorithm fed, mind-numbing state of subconsciousness–an environment where marketing doesn't even have to be sneaky. A lot of lifestyle blogs borrow any and everyone else’s images to weave together their idea of what they think life should look like. Sharing our photos were never that way before. When you opened that envelope of prints you saw the good, bad, and everything in between. No edits, just the honest human views of the moment, several instances later. We all see life through a unique point of view. We aim to show that, to share those stories, and to convince others to do the same. This is to inspire and push ourselves to take a different approach to how we record we memories. Maybe it will mean more to you. We know what it means to us. We hope you get the picture.
If you’re in Portland on Thursday, the 26th of June, please come join us from 6-10pm at 333 NE Hancock(at MLK near Broadway). This is a show for the love of film, the love of sharing, and for the benefit of photography. It is a smattering of good people, people you might know, showing and sharing 24 4x6 prints each along with a good old fashioned slide projector filled with memories from our lives. We encourage you to take part, hang out with us and bring photos to trade, as nothing will be for sale.
(EDIT: We will make a few simple and quality film cameras available for $20-$50 with a couple rolls of film for those that are inspired to take it up.)
I’m very excited about this. It’s going to be a great time and we hope to see you there!
Sitting, standing, walking, sleeping — Janie Lee's remarkable new "augmentation" makes everything she does difficult. But her fabulous appearance and personal gratification makes it all worthwhile!
inspired by liquid paper's recent photo of her beautiful ribbons.
since i'm into instant gratification, i couldn't wait to buy an actual dowel and properly make this so i used a garden stake and some jewelry wire and two nails right in my bookshelf to hang it. but it works and i love it!
roid week 2011 summer edition | day 1
the soundtrack to the picture. The Naked And Famous - Punching In A Dream
Maha Shivratri is a Hindu festival celebrated every year in reverence of Lord Shiva.It is also known as padmarajarathri. Alternate common names/spellings include Maha Sivaratri, Shivaratri, Sivarathri, and Shivaratri. Shivaratri literally means the great night of Shiva or the night of Shiva. It is celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day of the Maagha or Phalguna month of the Hindu calendar. Since many different calendars are followed by various ethno-linguistic groups of India, the month and the Tithi name are not uniform all over India and Nepal. Celebrated in the dark fortnight or Krishna Paksha(waning moon) of the month of Maagha according to the Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama or Phalguna according to the Vikrama era.[2][3] The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael or Bilva/Vilvam leaves to Lord Shiva, all-day fasting and an all-night-long vigil. All through the day the devotees, chant the sacred Panchakshara mantra dedicated to Lord "Om Namah Shivaya". In accordance with scriptural and discipleship traditions, penances are performed in order to gain boons in the practice of Yoga and meditation, in order to reach life's summum bonum steadily and swiftly. A week-long International Mandi Shivratri Fair held at Mandi in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh every year is one of the major tourist attractions in the state.[4]
On Mahashivratri, Nishita Kala is the most perfect time to observe Shiva Pooja. On this day, in all Shiva temples, the most auspicious Lingodbhava puja is performed during this time.[5]. In Nepal, Pashupatinath Temple is very famous for celebration of Shivratri.
Rituals of Maha Shivratri
Very early morning, Shiva temples are flocked by devotees, young and old, who come to perform the traditional Shivalinga worship (puja) and hence hope for favours from the god. Devotees bathe at sunrise, preferably in the Ganga, or any other holy water source (like the Shiva Sagartank at Khajurao). This is a rite of purification, which is an important part of all Hindu festivals. Wearing clean clothing after the holy bath, worshippers carry pots of water to the temple to bathe the Shivalinga. Women and men both offer prayers to the sun, Vishnu and Shiva. The temple reverberates with the sound of bells and shouts of “Shankerji ki Jai” meaning 'Hail Shiva'. Devotees circumambulate the lingam three or seven times, and then pour water over it. Some also pour milk over it.
According to the Shiva Purana, the Mahashivaratri worship must incorporate six items:
Bathing the Shiv Linga with water, milk and honey. Wood, apple or bel leaves are added to, which represents purification of the soul;
Vermilion paste is applied to the Shiv Linga after bathing it. This represents virtue;
Offering of fruits, which is conducive to longevity and gratification of desires;
Burning incense, yielding wealth;
The lighting of the lamp which is conducive to the attainment of knowledge;
And betel leaves marking satisfaction with worldly pleasures.
Tripundra refers to the three horizontal stripes of holy ash applied to the forehead by worshipers of Lord Shiva. These stripes symbolise spiritual knowledge, purity and penance (spiritual practice of Yoga). They also represent the three eyes of Lord Shiva.[8]
Wearing a mala (rosary) made from the rudraksha seeds of the rudraksha tree (said to have sprung from the tears of Lord Shiva) when worshipping Lord Shiva is ideal. A rudraksha seed is mahogany-like color, or could sometimes be black. They might also have traces of sacred sandalwood powder, turmeric, kumkum, or holy ash if the rosary is used in worship ceremonies or annointations.
I (thankfully) don't see the early morning condensation in the car now, but I got up early to drive over to Fish Records in Stone to buy a copy of the Ramones' "It's Alive 2" - a live album recorded in 1977 - that I attended as a sixteen year old - that hadn't been released until now. That's what you call delayed gratification.
Mid-air between Denver, CO and Casper, WY
May 20, 2011
This shot is from a different journey, but I've just arrived in Hyderabad, India after 26+ hours of travel. Hyderabad will be my home base for the next 6 weeks or so. I'll be volunteering at a school for kids with Autism, taking photos, and trying not to melt. Photos will definitely be forthcoming, although you'll have to wait a bit longer as I'm shooting much more film stuff nowadays.
If you need more immediate gratification, you can follow me on Instagram: pketron
Nah ...I won't try to pull the wool over your eyes. This was the afternoon of the 5th and I'd actually found this spent rocket lying flat on the ground. In the age of instant gratification people haven't the patience to wait until 5th November to let off their fireworks, as was always done in my day. Distant pops and crackles are heard during the evenings for several weeks in advance, and the nights on either side of the 5th are uproarious with pyrotechnics. There are lesser repeat performances at Christmas and New Year, with distant, isolated whizz-bangs to be heard every time some clot has his birthday and thinks everyone else for a square mile around is interested. As for deliberately "posing" the rocket ...well, Robert Doisneau's famous "kiss at the Hotel de Ville" is now acknowledged to have been fraudulent insofar as it was offered as "candid", and I don't know how anyone can believe that the "iconic" Life cover of the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on VJ Day was not a set-up. All those "decisive moment" chaps were charlatans ...businessmen as much as photographers. You can't blame them I suppose: we all have to earn a living, and taking snaps beats working. They just had the brains to come up with a good con-trick.
THIS is the slogan of The Party in 1984. You find it in the first chapter, up front with what lies ahead.
I found a discussion of this at LITERARYDEVICES.NET under that slogan. Time to read the book if you have not done so, and time to reread it if your compass is in doubt of TRUE NORTH.
The truth is, the ignorance of the populace grants strength to the Party, to the government.
With all the confusion of a world pandemic in our day, do not lose sight of the prize.....your Freedom, Peace, and the Truth.
The Emperor’s New Clothes? Even a child can see, he is naked as a jaybird. Take another look around for yourself. Don’t be fooled.
ADDED 2020 06 12
1984 was also part of a Utopian/Dystopian literature class long before 1984 rolled around. It was “only” literature then....today it is unbelievably realistic.
Another one is IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, Sinclair Lewis laid out the path to anarchy back in the mid-1930s when fascism was grabbing Europe by the throat. A review in the NYTimes in 2017 notes the similarities to today’s political scene. www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/books/review/classic-novel-tha...
What puzzles me, is where are the wise men meant to hold the system in check? They seem caught in this spider web of intrigue to destroy our Noble Experiment in Democracy.
No doubt the current president is a mere puppet with a narcissism that eclipses his brain powers. I cannot help but think of lab experiments on apes where they keep pressing the button for gratification, stimulus, until they are sated vegetables.....WE happen to stand in the way of this Emperor of All Vanities. What tricks does he use, what siren song does he play, to seduce those would-be Guardians of our freedoms?
Is Freedom only for a chosen Few? And what about this nation being built by IMMIGRANTS? Everyone here, except for Native Americans, descend from IMMIGRANTS. It is the wave after wave of new blood, seeking a better life, accepting any work to start, and rising rising rising..... don’t allow anyone to put a knee on their necks,.
One never thinks to find lessons in movies or books written years ago, but literature is the handmaid of wisdom, a “spoonful of sugar.” Thus I also recommend an oldish movie with Warren Beatty, PARALLAX VIEW, very dystopian, done in the 1960s I think. Also, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, the movie about a culture in revolution......a story of the human condition.
As an individual with a literary approach to current events, not a political activist per se, my voice is silenced in these times by the hazards of dissenting from the prevailing attitudes. I have not changed....THEY have. I am a stranger in my own land.
I AM A WITNESS. I mourn for the Land of the Free.
Link to free audiobook:
Headed out to capture the tail end of the fall foliage season. Was short on time this afternoon, so stayed close to home, scoping out this scene in a nearby neighbourhood. Which of these compositions do you like more? I prefer the one with less foreground and more sky. Anita seems to like the other...
Shot with a Fuji Instax 210.
The Burlington Arcade is a covered shopping arcade in London, that runs behind Bond Street from Piccadilly through to Burlington Gardens. It is one of the precursors of the mid-19th-century European shopping gallery and the modern shopping centre. The Burlington Arcade was built "for the sale of jewellery and fancy articles of fashionable demand, for the gratification of the public".
The arcade was built to the order of Lord George Cavendish, younger brother of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, who had inherited the adjacent Burlington House, on what had been the side garden of the house and was reputedly to prevent passers-by throwing oyster shells and other rubbish over the wall of his home.
The pedestrian arcade, with smart uniform shop fronts under a glazed roof, has always been an upmarket retail location. It is patrolled by Burlington Arcade beadles in traditional uniforms including top hats and frockcoats. Present tenants include a range of clothing, footwear and accessory shops, art and antique dealers and the jewellers for which the Arcade is best known.
I have chosen this location for my series which I hope will make a comment on the socio-political situation in this part of London.
Hope you like the oyster shells reference, in this first image. www.blurb.co.uk/b/9546912-coffee-houses
Like so many things in my life, photography isn't a destination. It's a journey that I strive to keep at a walking pace. Consistently in steady motion ready for the long haul. It's all too easy to jump into something head over feat at a full sprint initially passing everyone by. Moving full of momentum and pride with nothing left to finish the race. Our culture is one of instant gratification and impatience. I ultimately don't know where I'll place in this journey among others, but I don't want to loose sight of today's blessings and opportunities.
I took this shot back when I was just starting to wrap my head around longer exposures and I have tried processing this several times since last August when I took this, never fully satisfied. It took the wonderful support of so many of you to get to this point. Many very talented photographers have helped critique my work sharing their advice and teaching me their secrets. This shot reminds me of their selflessness and I want it to be motivation to strive for humility and to helps others when I can.
I shot this on the way out of New Orleans. This is off Canal Street. The one way sign says "QnA Way".
PZ 680 Color Shade film. Canal Street, New Orleans.
View Startrails on Lake Chelan on Black
View Startrails on Lake Chelan Map/EXIF
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II + 16-35 mm @ 16 mm - 3600.0 sec at f/11, ISO 100
Manual mode @ 0 EV E.C - Pattern metering - no flash
Subject Distance: unknown
My camera chewed on this one for 2 hours. 1 for the exposure, and 1 for the dark frame. The output was incredibly clean...much to my happiness. Of course, once the hour long exposure was finished, I packed my camera away to finish the dark frame in my bag. The delayed gratification this caused reminds me of when I shoot film...just waiting to see how it turned out.
I was very happy with the results, although, for once in my life, I actually over-exposed a night shot, making PP a bit challenging. Call it overcompensation for years of exposing too far to the left when confronted with dark conditions :).
Some more info here: f128.info/2011/how-i-spent-the-night/
47°50'11.74" N 120°3'12.97" W, 363.4 m
Lake Chelan Shoreline, Lakeside Park
Chelan, Washington, USA
Taken on 02.19.2011, uploaded on 02.21.2011.
©2011 Adam James Steenwyk. Please contact me at ajamess [at] gmail [dot] com if you would like to use this photo. Blog: www.f128.info
Caroline is Stranger 100! She is a barista in SE Portland where I stopped for coffee. There was such great light from the window to Caroline's right it would have been a shame to let the chance pass by. Caroline is also a photographer who shoots film on an Olympus SLR. We had a nice conversation about digital vs. analog, someday I'd like to try film again but for now I am too accustomed to the instant gratification of my digital camera.
My first stranger, coincidentaly a barista as well, was posted December 10, 2008. (3 yrs, 5 months, 3 days from start to finish according to timeanddate.com)
This is number 100 in my 100 Strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100strangers.com
I used to work as a newspaper photographer. Used to use this stuff by the block. I never realised I missed the tactile quality of film. I’m learning again that it makes me think more about composition and framing. It costs money. It needs to be developed.it’s not instant gratification like digital is. I’m looking forward to shooting more
a bit of lo-fi art I occasionally play with. I'd welcome some critical input to decide if it's worth carrying on with?
it's not so much about climbing as much as human traits - greed, selfishness and self gratification. Hopefully these themes will be more evident in the final piece that I hope will be bigger with a whole lot more s--t going on.
First shot taken with our Hasselblad, using the Instant film back. We wanted instant gratification with it when we first used it!
Hoo👀oray for a little gardening immediate gratification. I love pines and I've felt like this is a tree I just had to start for my collection.
I always end up with seeds that require stratification, have long germination times/low germination rates, or are so small when they sprout that I need to mist them for the first month or two after germination. When I got a packet of Bristlecone Pine seeds a little while back, I was happy to follow the seed company's planting instructions & skip any pre-treatment. They were sprouting within a week & now I have 24 small seedlings growing under a grow light in my bedroom (sitting next to some Ficus religiosa/Baobab cuttings, Ginkgo seeds, & teeny tiny Eucalyptus sprouts.)
Looking forward to Spring when I can get these outside & stop paying for these grow lights to be on in the Winter 😄
The Hymn of God's word "All Men Live in God’s Light"
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/hymn-all-men-live-in-god-...
The joyous exaltation in men’s hearts (woo …) fills every place on the face of the earth (woo …), the air is brisk and fresh (woo …), dense fogs no longer blanket the ground (woo …), and the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent.
On this jubilant occasion, at this moment of exultation, God’s righteousness and His holiness (hoy), have gone abroad throughout the universe (woo …), and all mankind extols them without surcease, and all mankind extols them without surcease. (Ah … ha….) The cities of heaven are laughing with joy, and the kingdoms of earth are dancing with joy. Who at this moment is not rejoicing? And who at this moment is not weeping? (Yee yeah.) Earth in its primordial state belongs to heaven, and heaven is united with earth. (Hoy.) Man is the cord uniting heaven and earth (ha), and thanks to his sanctity, thanks to his renewal, heaven is no longer concealed from earth, and earth is no longer silent toward heaven. The faces of humanity are wreathed in smiles of gratification, wreathed in smiles of gratification, and secreted (secreted) in their hearts, is a sweetness that knows no bounds (sweetness that knows no bounds). Man does not quarrel with man, nor do men come to blows with one another. Are there any who, in God’s light, do not live peacefully with others? Are there any who, in His days, disgrace His name? (Yee ya.) Earth in its primordial state belongs to heaven, and heaven is united with earth. (Ha.) Man is the cord uniting heaven and earth (ha), and thanks to his sanctity, thanks to his renewal, heaven is no longer concealed from earth, and earth is no longer silent toward heaven. The faces of humanity are wreathed in smiles of gratification, wreathed in smiles of gratification.
The joyous exaltation in men’s hearts (woo …) fills every place on the face of the earth (woo …), the air is brisk and fresh (woo …), dense fogs no longer blanket the ground (woo …), and the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent. The joyous exaltation in men’s hearts fills every place on the face of the earth, the air is brisk and fresh, dense fogs no longer blanket the ground, and the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent. And the sun shines resplendent, the sun shines resplendent.
from “The Eighteenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh
heavenly *earth day*...this is engineer mountain in colorful colorado...
^i^
When you walk on Mother Earth, tread softly. She has a dented spirit which needs healing. She is as lonely as a lone pine tree in a desert, for lack of those who turn to her for her love. Who in turn go to her realm to give her love. She is a Nurturer and Creator, but no longer do the people hear the lullaby at night as she sings all creatures to sleep. Nor do they feel the warmth of her caresses at dawn and sunset or hear her words of wisdom on clear moonlit nights. She is at one with all creatures large and small, and they attune themselves to her heart beat, all except mankind. They are so concerned with surviving in this world that they build concrete and steel, dam rivers, fill the air with toxic fumes and metals, and block out the Creators energy with rays that slowly kills all that lives on the surface of the planet. The seas and all the waters are contaminated and her animals are hunted, and her plants are destroyed, not just for food but for self gratification and so called sport, or to build a temple to the god of sex in their lives. Mother Earth weeps with sadness and pain for she must do what is needed for this planet to keep it in harmony with the Universe. This might mean using the so called "natural disasters" to call heed to her needs. Yet, still few hear her cry, for all to listen to her. Many love her and all that she is, yet even though they rise up and speak to others to care for her, they do not ask her to reveal herself to them. She is a sentient being with a Soul, a Body, a Heart Beat, and Love, Joy, Beauty, but now also Sadness and Pain. She is able to communicate and will do so if you truly believe in her and love her. She has her own form of communication which has no need of language, yet you will know what she is asking and giving you, not in words, but in feelings. It is not just the gifted but all who should be embracing with open arms, the Love of Mother Earth. For then, there will be more happiness on Earth.
^i^
Concentrating on trying to capture an in-flight image of the biggest Bumble Bee I've ever seen in the flowers out front, yesterday, I just happened to have my camera set on "sports" mode. All of a sudden, this little guy flies right in front of me, hovers long enough for 3 quick pics and off he goes.
I have not been very attentive to the Hummingbirds this year --- filling the feeders a couple of times, but always missing who was emptying them. This was a sweet reminder of just how darn CUTE and wonderful they are.
2 photos below in first comment sector to make a set:
PS: The green on his belly is the reflection of the foliage beneath him caused by the just after Noon sun.
The narcissistic manager will have two main sources of narcissistic supply: inanimate (status symbols like cars, gadgets or office views); and animate (flattery and attention from colleagues and subordinates).,Teammates may find everyday offers of support swiftly turn them into enabling sources of permanent supply, unless they are very careful to maintain proper boundaries.[The narcissistic manager's need to protect such supply networks will prevent objective decision-making.. Such a manager will evaluate long-term strategies according to their potential for gaining personal attention. "the will," in echoism. In contrast to the feeling of perfection.This is the place for two remarks. First, how do we differentiate between the concepts of narcissism and egoism? Well, narcissism, I believe, is the libidinal complement to egoism. When we speak of egoism, we have in view only the individual's advantage; when we talk of narcissism we are also taking his libidinal satisfaction into account. As practical motives the two can be traced separately for quite a distance. It is possible to be absolutely egoistic and yet maintain powerful object-cathexes, in so far as libidinal satisfaction in relation to the object forms part of the ego's needs. In that case, egoism will see to it that striving for the object involves no damage to the ego. It is possible to be egoistic and at the same time to be excessively narcissistic—that is to say, to have very little need for an object, whether, once more, for the purpose of direct sexual satisfaction, or in connection with the higher aspirations, derived from sexual need, which we are occasionally in the habit of contrasting with ‘sensuality’ under the name of ‘love’. In all these connections egoism is what is self-evident and constant, while narcissism is the variable element. The opposite to egoism, altruism, does not, as a concept, coincide with libidinal object-cathexis, but is distinguished from it by the absence of longings for sexual satisfaction. When someone is completely in love, however, altruism converges with libidinal object-cathexis. As a rule the sexual object attracts a portion of the ego's narcissism to itself, and this becomes noticeable as what is known as the ‘sexual overvaluation’ of the object. If in addition there is an altruistic transposition of egoism on to the sexual object, the object becomes supremely powerful; it has, as it were, absorbed the ego." (Freud, Introductory Lectures (1919), pp. 417–18).Narcissism is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes. The term originated from Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water. Narcissism is a concept in psychoanalytic theory, which was popularly introduced in Sigmund Freud's essay On Narcissism (1914). The American Psychiatric Association has had the classification narcissistic personality disorder in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since 1968, drawing on the historical concept of megalomania.Narcissism is also considered a social or cultural problem. It is a factor in trait theory used in various self-report inventories of personality[ such as the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. It is one of the three dark triadic personality traits (the others being psychopathy and Machiavellianism). Except in the sense of primary narcissism or healthy self-love, narcissism is usually considered a problem in a person's or group's relationships with self and others. Narcissism is not the same as egocentrism.Narcissistic personality disorder affects an estimated 1% of the general population. Although most individuals have some narcissistic traits, high levels of narcissism can manifest themselves in a pathological form as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), whereby the patient overestimates his or her abilities and has an excessive need for admiration and affirmation. A revision of NPD took place in the DSM-5. In this revision, NPD saw dramatic changes to its definition. The general move towards a dimensional (personality trait-based) view of the Personality Disorders has been maintained. Some narcissists may have a limited or minimal capability to experience emotions.Healthy narcissism might exist in all individuals. Freud said that this is an original state from which the individual develops the love object.[qualify evidence] He argued that healthy narcissism is an essential part of normal development.According to Freud, the love of the parents for their child and their attitude toward their child could be seen as a revival and reproduction of their own narcissism. The child has an omnipotence of thought; the parents stimulate that feeling because in their child they see the things that they have never reached themselves. Compared to neutral observers, parents tend to overvalue the qualities of their child. When parents act in an extreme opposite style and the child is rejected or inconsistently reinforced depending on the mood of the parent, the self-needs of the child are not met.[citation needed] Freud contrasts the natural development of active-egoistic and passive-altruistic tendencies in the individual with narcissism, in the former, and what Trevor Pederson[ refers to as echoism, in the latter.Healthy narcissism has to do with a strong feeling of "own love" protecting the human being against illness. Eventually, however, the individual must love the other, "the object love to not become ill." The individual becomes ill as a result of the frustration created when he is unable to love the object. In pathological narcissism such as the narcissistic personality disorder, the person’s libido has been withdrawn from objects in the world and produces megalomania. The clinical theorists Kernberg, Kohut and Millon all see pathological narcissism as a possible outcome in response to unempathic and inconsistent early childhood interactions. They suggested that narcissists try to compensate in adult relationships.The pathological condition of narcissism is, as Freud suggested, a magnified, extreme manifestation of healthy narcissism.In developmental terms, two rather different trajectories can be distinguished with respect to egotism – the one individual, the other cultural.
With respect to the developing individual, a movement takes place from egocentricity to sociality during the process of growing up.[8] It is normal for an infant to have an inflated – almost a majestic – sense of egotism. The over-evaluation of one's own ego regularly appears in childish forms of love – in large part because the baby is to himself everything, omnipotent to the best of their own knowledge.[Optimal development allows a gradual reconciliation to a more realistic view of one's own place in the world – a lessening of the egotistical swollen head.[12] Less adequate adjustment may later lead to what has been called defensive egotism, serving to overcompensate for the fragility of the underlying concept of self..Robin Skynner however considered that in the main growing up leads to a state where "your ego is still there, but it's taking its proper limited place among all the other egos".However, alongside such a positive trajectory of diminishing individual egotism, a rather different arc of development can be noted in cultural terms, linked to what has been seen as the increasing infantilism of (post)modern society..Whereas in the nineteenth century egotism was still widely regarded as a traditional vice – for Nathaniel Hawthorne egotism was a sort of diseased self-contemplation – Romanticism had already set in motion a countervailing current, what Richard Eldridge described as a kind of "cultural egotism, substituting the individual imagination for vanishing social tradition". The romantic idea of the self-creating individual – of a self-authorizing, artistic egotism[18] – then took on broader social dimensions in the following century. Keats might still attack Wordsworth for the regressive nature of his retreat into the egotistical sublime;[19] but by the close of the twentieth century egotism had been naturalized much more widely by the Me generation into the Culture of Narcissism.In the 21st century, romantic egotism has been seen as feeding into techno-capitalism in two complementary ways: on the one hand, through the self-centred consumer, focused on their own self-fashioning through brand 'identity'; on the other through the equally egotistical voices of 'authentic' protest, as they rage against the machine, only to produce new commodity forms that serve to fuel the system for further consumption.With regard to the condition of healthy narcissism, it is suggested that this is correlated with good psychological health. Self-esteem works as a mediator between narcissism and psychological health. Therefore, because of their elevated self-esteem, deriving from self-perceptions of competence and likability, high narcissists are relatively free of worry and gloom.Other researchers suggested that healthy narcissism cannot be seen as ‘good’ or ‘bad’; however, it depends on the contexts and outcomes being measured. In certain social contexts such as initiating social relationships, and with certain outcome variables, such as feeling good about oneself, healthy narcissism can be helpful. In other contexts, such as maintaining long-term relationships and with other outcome variables, such as accurate self-knowledge, healthy narcissism can be unhelpful.People with narcissistic personality disorder are characterized by their persistent grandiosity, excessive need for admiration, and a disdain and lack of empathy for others. These individuals often display arrogance, a sense of superiority, and power-seeking behaviors.Narcissistic personality disorder is different from having a strong sense of self-confidence; people with NPD typically value themselves over others to the extent that they disregard the feelings and wishes of others and expect to be treated as superior regardless of their actual status or achievements.In addition, people with NPD may exhibit fragile egos, an inability to tolerate criticism, and a tendency to belittle others in an attempt to validate their own superiority.People with NPD tend to exaggerate their skills and accomplishments as well as their level of intimacy with people they consider to be high-status. Their sense of superiority may cause them to monopolize conversations and to become impatient or disdainful when others talk about themselves. In the course of a conversation, they may purposefully or unknowingly disparage or devalue the other person by overemphasizing their own success. When they are aware that their statements have hurt someone else, they tend to react with contempt and to view it as a sign of weakness.[7] When their own ego is wounded by a real or perceived criticism, their anger can be disproportionate to the situation,but typically, their actions and responses are deliberate and calculated.Despite occasional flare-ups of insecurity, their self-image is primarily stable (i.e., overinflated).To the extent that people are pathologically narcissistic, they can be controlling, blaming, self-absorbed, intolerant of others' views, unaware of others' needs, the effects of their behavior on others, and insist that others see them as they wish to be seen.Narcissistic individuals use various strategies to protect the self at the expense of others. They tend to devalue, derogate, insult, blame others and they often respond to threatening feedback with anger and hostility.Since the fragile ego of individuals with NPD is hypersensitive to perceived criticism or defeat, they are prone to feelings of shame, humiliation and worthlessness over minor or even imagined incidents. They usually mask these feelings from others with feigned humility, isolating socially or they may react with outbursts of rage, defiance, or by seeking revenge. The merging of the "inflated self-concept" and the "actual self" is seen in the inherent grandiosity of narcissistic personality disorder. Also inherent in this process are the defense mechanisms of denial, idealization and devaluation..According to the DSM-5, "Many highly successful individuals display personality traits that might be considered narcissistic. Only when these traits are inflexible, maladaptive, and persisting and cause significant functional impairment or subjective distress do they constitute narcissistic personality disorder."Although overconfidence tends to make individuals with NPD ambitious, it does not necessarily lead to success and high achievement professionally. These individuals may be unwilling to compete or may refuse to take any risks in order to avoid appearing like a failure. In addition, their inability to tolerate setbacks, disagreements or criticism, along with lack of empathy, make it difficult for such individuals to work cooperatively with others or to maintain long-term professional relationships with superiors and colleagues.There is evidence that narcissistic personality disorder is heritable, and individuals are much more likely to develop NPD if they have a family history of the disorder.[Studies on the occurrence of personality disorders in twins determined that there is a moderate to high heritability for narcissistic personality disorder. However the specific genes and gene interactions that contribute to its cause, and how they may influence the developmental and physiological processes underlying this condition, have yet to be determined.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism
Crème de la société, une pommade pour les malades de selfies, ça pique les yeux, ou bien c'est jeter la poudre aux yeux, pour si peu, un sois même qui s'auto-aime sans gène pour ceux qui n'ont rien d'autre que leurs yeux qui piquent de honte et de larmesC'est beau comme on s'aime devant,
c'est beaucoup qu'on sème derrière
Chanson de gestes pour l'amour physique de son apparence, c'est un tube de l'été🌞, il est serré, yeux ....contre Dieu. Le profane se passe de la pommade, jaillissante comme le génie de la lampe 💡d'Aladdin. C'est la crème 🙈de la société, elle est fabriquée 🙊avec de la poudre aux yeux 🙉pour rouler les mécaniques d'une pieuvre, elle nous enlace si bien avec ses petites ventouses, tout ce vent pour séduire sur la plage des apparences trompeuses! 🗿C'est le signe des Têtes inexistantes🎢 et du corps en évolution constante ⛱
COR stands for Commonwealth Oil Refineries,in the good old days when we were much more self reliant in oil production.This was taken at Luskintyre Airfield in the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW ,Australia, Film used was Kodak 400,developed in a Tetenal C41 kit.The camera was a Canon EOS 620 with a 24-105 mm lens up front.This was my first colour developed film in quite some time,as I have been saving the shot films up in the fridge until I had enough to develop,it is always a nice surprise when they get scanned,as one never quite remembers what was shot on that particular roll,delayed gratification rules!
Dreaming of a big, spilled swamp symbolizes small satisfactions. You are always trying to please yourself, in spite of obligations and other obstacles. You have rituals that are making you happy, so you always find time for them. You usually do sports, go out, take massages, or go to the cinema. Shrek since an elf is a fictional character, he may also represent the problems that you have created on your own. Symbolism:An elf represents festivity, problems, annoying people, intellectual minds, foes and health. If you dream of a laughing elf, it indicates the laughter of your enemy.
Despite Shrek's frightening and repulsive outer appearance and incorrect identification as a monster (devil figure), he turns out to be:
The Hero: Shrek fulfills the ultimate task of breaking Fiona's curse with the true love's kiss. He also follows the hero's journey with significant character development on his Quest.
Onion: Shrek speaks about how ogres are like onions, which also reflects on the universal theme of the movie. Onions have layers, and his analogy represents that despite his repugnant appearance, like that of an onion, he is actually kind-hearted and capable of love after you peel at the layers.
Wall: Shrek talks about putting up a wall around his swamp to keep people away, but I believe it's also a figurative symbol for his need for isolation and fear of not being accepted or loved. Shrek tries to shut people out before they can do the same to him.
Shrek's Swamp
By George Gantz
Name & Symbols where Shrek's symbols linked with Nephthis
live in the swamps of the Nile's delta... like King Moses with is born in the same Delta or Swamps!!!!
Afterlife, regeneration and Green Color slopes and the regeneration of trees on decaying boles in swamps.
'Nephthys' is the Latin version of her Egyptian name `Nebthwt' (also given as Nebet-het and Nebt-het) which translates as "Lady of the Temple Enclosure" or "Mistress of the House" and she is routinely pictured with the heiroglyph for 'house' on her crown. The 'house' is neither an earthly home nor temple but linked to the heavens as she was related to air and ether.
The 'enclosure' may refer to the courtyard outside a temple as she was represented by the pylons outside of temples. Shrek's pylons are his ears.
in her role as a protective goddess; just as the pylons and wall protected the inner temple, Nephthys protected the souls of the people. She was associated with death and decay from an early period and was regularly invoked during funeral services. Professional mourners at Egyptian funerals were known as "Hawks of Nephthys" and she is one of the four goddesses (along with Isis, Selket, and Neith) whose images were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun as guardians of his canopic vessels. Historian Margaret Bunson notes:Nephthys was associated with the mortuary cult in every era and was part of the ancient worship of Min [a god of fertility and reproduction]. The desert regions were dedicated to her and she was thought to be skilled in magic (188).
In folklore, a will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-wisp or ignis fatuus is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night, especially over bogs, swamps or ... Folk belief attributes the phenomenon to fairies or elemental spirits, explicitly in the term " hobby and now in 2020 for the kids that's Shrek... mysterious lights as omens of death or the ghosts of once living human beings. In modern science, it is generally accepted that will-o'-the-wisp phenomena (ignis fatuus) are caused by the oxidation of phosphine (PH3), diphosphane (P2H4), and methane (CH4). These compounds, produced by organic decay, can cause photon emissions. Since phosphine and diphosphane mixtures spontaneously ignite on contact with the oxygen in air, only small quantities of it would be needed to ignite the much more abundant methane to create ephemeral fires. Furthermore, phosphine produces phosphorus pentoxide as a by-product, which forms phosphoric acid upon contact with water vapor, which can explain "viscous moisture" sometimes described as accompanying ignis fatuus.The idea of the will-o'-the-wisp phenomena being caused by natural gases can be found as early as 1596, as mentioned in the book Of Ghostes and Spirites, Walking by Night, And of Straunge Noyses, Crackes, and Sundrie forewarnings, which commonly happen before the death of men: Great Slaughters, and alterations of Kingdomes, by Ludwig Lavater, in the chapter titled "That many naturall things are taken to be ghoasts":
Many times candles & small fires appeare in the night, and seeme to runne up and downe... Sometime these fires goe alone in the night season, and put such as see them, as they travel by night, in great feare. But these things, and many such lyke have their naturall causes... Natural Philosophers write, that thicke exhilations aryse out of the earth, and are kindled. Mynes full of sulphur and brimstone, if the aire enter unto it, as it lyeth in the holes and veines of the earth, will kindle on fier, and strive to get out. "Shrek lets fart in a fairy tale". Farting across the animal kingdom is wonderfully diverse, a new Tale with Shrek ... and our mammalian relatives, farts are mainly the result of digestion or regeneration.
Swamp monsters in folklore, legends, and mythology
The Will-o'-the-wisp appears in swamps, and in some areas there are legends of it being an evil spirit.
The Bunyip are a creature from Aboriginal mythology that lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds, and waterholes.
The Grootslang are huge elephant-like creature with a serpent's tail which according to legend live in caves, swamps, freshwater in South Africa.
The Lernaean Hydra in Greek and Roman mythology, was the creature Heracles killed in the swamp near Lake Lerna.
The Honey Island Swamp monster in Louisiana.
Mokele-mbembe, a legendary water-dwelling creature of Congo River basin folklore that resembles a Brontosaurus.
The skunk ape is a horrible smelling large ape creature said to live in swamps.
The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp.
In Beowulf, Grendel lived in a marsh near King Hrothgar's mead hall, as did Grendel's mother.
Our world seems to be mired in anxiety and fear; and civic discourse has degenerated to accusations, outright lies, and rhetoric. While we hear calls to “drain the swamp,” any common understanding of what that means, and a willing consensus required to achieve it, seems to elude us. Perhaps we are looking at the situation from too narrow a perspective. It is not just our politicians who are lost in the marsh; it is our spiritual life, too.
The English language is full of references to the soggy, wet places of the world. Have you ever gotten tangled up “in the weeds”? Or perhaps someone you know is “stuck in the mud” (or perhaps is a “stick-in-the-mud”)? Recently, we have heard calls to “drain the swamp” of Washington DC lobbyists and political insiders. These sayings all have a common origin: the idea that marshy places should be avoided, lest we become entrenched in the unpleasantness they represent. While modern environmental science is struggling to change this negative narrative about “wetlands,” there are natural contextual explanations for it. The negative imagery is quite powerful, and it holds true on a variety of levels: from natural to psychological, societal, and spiritual. Let’s unpack these different layers of meaning.
The Nature of Wetlands
Marshes, mires, and swamps—collectively referred to as “wetlands”—are essential natural features found all around the globe. They often develop wherever the land intersects major bodies of water, at the interface, as water from terrestrial sources makes its way toward the sea. Technically, marshes are characterized by grassy or shrub-like vegetation, while swamps feature trees. Mires, or bogs, are acidic and contain accumulated humus deposits known as peat.
Marshes are often difficult to access and to maneuver in (especially for us humans). The water usually moves slowly and may be brackish, or salty. Typically, oxygen levels are low, a condition to which indigenous species adapt. Reeds, for example, grow hollow stems for sucking oxygen to their root structures. Marshes do, however, provide useful water storage and filtration functions: they fill up with water in rainy periods and drain water downstream in dry periods; and they serve as a filter and a sink basin for sediments and pollutants.
Marshes can be highly productive biologically. But they can be quite unpleasant and inhospitable as well, as some of that productivity includes a variety of parasites, leeches, spiders, snakes, and even alligators. Since marsh waters move slowly, oxygen may be depleted by respiration and decomposition, particularly when pollution levels are high. Hypoxia, or oxygen deficiency, may result, causing the death of fish and invertebrates. When decomposition turns anaerobic, fetid odors are produced. This all helps explain the negative reputation held by marshes, mires, and swamps. And as a result, they have become fertile sources for our imaginative depiction of the horrors of stagnation.
Marshes and their renewing properties are also vulnerable to degradation if the natural water cycles are disrupted, and their historically negative reputation has made them a great target for human intervention. We have been very aggressive in intentional filling and draining, damming for flood control, water withdrawals, agricultural and urban development, and pollution. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, perhaps half of all the marshes in the United States were drained or destroyed prior to 1970. And that destruction has continued. A Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) study reported that in the five years between 2004 and 2009, almost one percent of coastal wetlands disappeared as a result of development pressures and silviculture (human-planned forests) expansion.
Psychological Stagnation
Stagnation is defined simply as “a state of not flowing,” yet our imagination associates the word with the unpleasant “marshy” qualities of death and decay. In the natural world, the low-oxygen conditions of stagnation are unfavorable to growth and change, and they give rise to illness and death. In the psychological sense, stagnation refers to the similar condition of being emotionally or rationally stuck or stunted. Without the ability to renew ourselves by absorbing new thoughts, ideas, experiences, and emotions, our vitality and resilience stagnate.
The story of Narcissus offers a good example. Narcissus was a beautiful Greek youth who fell in love with his own reflection. He became so enamored of his image that he forgot about food and rest, and he eventually died. This story is the origin of the modern personality diagnosis of narcissism, an excessive pre-occupation with self-gratification and self-image. Some current psychological research suggests that our omnipresent digital environment and our excessive attention to social media, in particular, promote narcissistic tendencies.
Depression is another psychological condition that represents the quality of stagnation, as it involves getting “stuck” in negative thought patterns and losing the motivation and energy to reach out to others or try something new. While the causes of depression may be varied and difficult to assess, it is clear that extreme emotional distress and feelings of isolation and alienation are shared by many: depression is on the rise worldwide, as is suicide, an ultimate and tragic statement of hopelessness. As we will see below, one key to preventing psychological stagnation may be found in better understanding our spiritual condition.
Societal Entrenchment
In economics and politics, marsh-like stagnation is often referred to as entrenchment. The word entrench simply means “to put in a trench,” which is suggestive of being stuck or tightly confined. A corporate management team may become entrenched, for example, if its members stick too closely together and refuse to bring in outside people or outside ideas. Entrenchment can be deadly for a business enterprise when upstart competitors with new and better ideas come along. An individual, a group, or an entire enterprise can get “mired in the weeds” arguing about minutiae while in the midst of a crisis. Stuck in this way, they are unable to break through an impasse or develop a realistic plan forward. As the saying goes, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” In the broader economic sense, monopolies, cartels, price-fixing, and insider trading represent different forms of entrenchment; they are all disastrous for productivity, creativity, and healthy markets.
In the political arena, entrenchment refers to the condition in which incumbents or small, tightly controlled elite groups are able to dominate and control the political process. By cutting out other participants, eliminating dissent, and rejecting new ideas, these groups set the agenda and determine the outcomes—all in their own favor. As a result, what is lost is any sense of renewal or accountability to the citizens whom the government is presumed to serve. It is on this basis that our nation’s capital is described as a swamp, dominated by professional politicians, who have been in office a long time, and their enablers, the lobbyists who wield immense war chests of campaign funds and who trade in secrets and inside information. The entrenchment narrative has become more prevalent in recent years, as indicated by the large volume of books and articles that talk about governments behaving as oligarchies, kleptocracies, or autocracies.
The common thread in our negative image of wetlands, psychological stagnation, and societal entrenchment is this: when what is pure and fresh—whether it be water, our emotions, or our relationships with others—does not flow into each of these systems, the system ceases to thrive and grow and goes into decomposition and decay.
But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. (Ezekiel 47:11)
Friendly Beast: The donkey aids Shrek throughout the journey and is his constant companion through all the trials. As an animal, he shows that nature supports Shrek.
Fire/Red/Black: The dragon has dark red skin representing violent passion and fire, setting up the character to be perceived as cruel and monstrous. Dark colors such as black are used in her tower to develop this theme as well.
The writers started with a fun and cartoony premise, and then layered in one technique after another which makes the film resonate with adults.
Our Spiritual Condition
Emanuel Swedenborg devoted much of his writing to the idea of spiritual correspondences. In a spiritual sense, flowing water is living truth. When the flow of water stops, this truth becomes stagnant and spiritual life dies. Being stuck in the marsh spiritually means becoming confirmed in falsities.
Those who cannot be reformed because they are in the falsities of evil are signified by “the miry places and marshes that are not healed, but are given to salt.” (Apocalypse Explained §513:7)
“To be given to salt” signif[ies] not to receive spiritual life, but to remain in a life merely natural, which, separate from spiritual life, is defiled by falsities and evils, which are “miry places” and “marshes.” (Apocalypse Explained §342:7)
One common feature of a healthy spiritual life is the belief in and commitment to a truth that is higher than just the laws that govern the natural world. Out of one’s personal commitment to a transcendent realm (the infinite) or agent (God), many blessings can flow. These include a sense of purpose, feelings of joy and gratitude, and the willingness to improve the world and the lives of those around us with love. Without such an affirmative commitment, our understanding of life is by definition constrained to the finite realm of physical space and time. If we do not believe in and are not open to spiritual ideas and experiences, then we destroy our potential to receive any inflow of such ideas and experiences.
Meaning and purpose, as they relate to Creation as a whole or to our lives in particular, become limited and relative only to the physical parts of experience. Some thinkers take this to an extreme, framing meaning and purpose as mere illusions. Love becomes just a biological function. Improving the world is defined in purely materialistic terms. This is the condition referred to in Ezekiel, above, where one’s spirit has been given to salt.
A commitment to the idea that there is no spiritual life—that the natural world is all there is—is destructive to spiritual life. When we are confirmed in this falsity, any goodness that we might see, feel, or experience is sucked out of life. We are stuck in the marsh and cannot be spiritually reformed, cleansed, and healed.
There is nothing more delightful than a marshy, and also a urinous [stink] to those who have confirmed themselves in falsities, and have extinguished in themselves the affection for truth. (Apocalypse Explained §659:5)
Conclusion
By following the chain of correspondences, we can identify solutions to the various forms of stagnation. As we know from the natural world, fresh water must continue to flow in and through the marsh in order to keep it healthy and biologically productive. In addition, external pollutants must be limited to what the marsh can absorb.
Similarly, our emotional and psychological lives need to include appropriate amounts of openness, recreation, and renewal in order for us to remain healthy. We need to balance our internal preoccupations with outward companionship, aesthetic experiences, and learning opportunities; and we need to avoid the “pollutants” of excessive stimulation, addiction, obsession, and distraction.
In society, we need to foster and support institutions that are resilient, responsive, and open to new people and new ideas. This requires that we go against our natural tendencies toward complacency and complicity and that we resist the temptations of using institutions for personal gain, as all of these behaviors pollute civic life.
To grow spiritually, we need to be open to transcendent possibilities, searching for knowledge and experiences that enrich our appreciation of spiritual truth. If we close ourselves off to spiritual ideas and to the possibility of having spiritual experiences, then our spiritual life will be deprived of sustenance and will decay.
If our spiritual life is “stuck,” then where is the foundation for a healthy psychological and emotional experience? When we focus on our own inadequacies or our personal gratifications, we undermine our opportunities to learn, to share love, and to be a full participant in our community. A healthy spiritual life is the wellspring for a healthy psychological and emotional life. It also sustains the virtues essential for a vibrant and thriving civic life: the commitment to truth and the dedication to the well-being of those we are responsible for serving.
Without a healthy civic life, we will never be able to agree on the rules and the practices that will assure that clean water flows into all our different marshes, refreshing, renewing, and rejuvenating the life that exists within them.
It all ends where it begins: with the water of truth that is the source of life.
George Gantz is a writer and philosopher at Spiral Inquiry and directs the Swedenborg Center Concord (SCC), a non-denominational educational project supported by the New Church of Concord, Massachusetts, that seeks to integrate the knowledge of science with the wisdom of religion.
Read more posts from the Spirituality in Practice series >
Here are some of those techniques:
Edgy Comedy
What's considered funny in our culture tends to change from time to time. It might be Mork and Mindy one year, Northern Exposure further down the line, and South Park a few years later. Of course, this is an over-simplification, for there are quite a number of popular comedy styles alive at any moment.
Still, there do tend to be trends, and adults are likely to be responsive to them. One trend alive today is a somewhat gross, edgy kind of comedy.
In Shrek the grossness doesn't have a sexual component, such as in American Pie, but there is a scene where Fiona sings a morning duet with a little bird in a nest. When Fiona hits an extremely high note, the bird swells up and explodes. The camera zooms in on the two little eggs left behind, then zooms out on them, now frying away, as Fiona cooks them for Shrek and Donkey.
In another scene, Fiona makes some cotton candy for Shrek by wrapping a spider's web around a stick, and then catching flies with the mess. She and Shrek both enjoy the delicacy. In yet another scene, Fiona and Shrek feast on cooked rats together.
This is very original, hip, and edgy comedy. It appeals to (at least some) adults.
Parody Humor: Spoofing Cultural References
When you spoof cultural references, especially when you do it well, you can create a kind of humor to which adults will respond.
In Shrek, Walt Disney Pictures and Disneyland bear the brunt of some clever spoofing. It was done with enough intelligence and wit that adults would appreciate it, such as:
Seeing, near the start of the film, various Disney-like animated characters depressed (and thus the opposite of their usual normal cheery selves) as they're being hauled away.
Lord Farquaad's castle, which possesses the ominous overtones of a nightmarish Disneyland, or
The weird singing toy figures which greet Shrek and Donkey at the castle wall, which spoof the singing toy figures in Disneyland's Small, Small World ride.
Non-Cliché Characters
A cliché character is one whom we've seen before, especially a character we've seen frequently. Shrek is certainly not a cliché. His personality is marked by some of the following attributes, or as I call them, Traits.
He likes himself (evident in the bathing scene under the opening credits).
He's clever. (He scares off the townspeople by convincing them he's much meaner than he is.)
He's brave (never shirking from a fight).
He's afraid of rejection, resulting in him pushing people away before they can reject him, which results in:
He's a loner (at least in the beginning), but he longs for connection with others, even as he also fights it off.
Can you think of another film or TV character with this exact set of traits? If you have a hard time remembering one, that's exactly why Shrek isn't a cliché.
Fiona also has an interesting array of traits:
She's romantic.
She's earthy. That's what I call women who eat rats.)
She's tough. She beats up Robin Hood with a few moves borrowed from The Matrix.)
She thinks she's ugly. And, like Shrek, she fears rejection.
Once again, we have a non-cliché character. Adults respond to characters who aren't clichés.
Emotional Problems We Can Relate To
Both Shrek and Fiona, for similar reasons (feeling that they're hideous), believe that no one could love them. This fear is so great in both of them, that it drives many of their actions.
Giving a character a powerful fear, a shame, or an emotional problem that adults can relate to will also help draw an adult audience -- as will that character's arc (his or her path of emotional growth) as circumstances in the plot force them to wrestle with this issue.
The Use Of Masks
A Mask is the term I use to describe ways characters can hide their fears and vulnerability.
There are at least eight different kinds of Masks that characters can hide behind. In Fiona's case, of course, her Mask is literally a visual lie: a fake body and face, created by magic.
Shrek's Mask is an attitude—the attitude that he doesn't need or want anyone in his life. (An Attitude is one of the eight types of Masks characters can hide their fears behind.) His behavior, stemming from this attitude, is the one I touched upon earlier: to push people away before they can reject him.
This is a Mask because, by watching this attitude and corresponding behavior, you might initially think that he hates others. But it simply covers up his fear that they would find him loathsome.
Using one of the eight types of Masks to create more complex characters is another technique that gives the film adult appeal.
Parallel Plot-Lines
There are about 100 techniques I'm aware of to give a feeling of emotional depth to a plot. I call these Plot Deepening Techniques.
(By the way, there are also Dialogue Deepening Techniques, Character Deepening Techniques [like the eight types of Masks], and Scene Deepening Techniques.)
The whole area of techniques which inject emotional and psychological depth into one's writing is vast, but we see one such Plot Deepening Technique used here, and that's parallel plot-lines.
There is the parallel of both Shrek and Fiona feeling too hideous to be lovable, but there's a third one too. The dragon, who falls in love with Donkey, uses such behaviors as shish-kabobbing people as a form of stopping them from getting too close.
Her efforts to frighten people off are very similar to the way Shrek handles the same fear.
As a general rule of thumb, Deepening Techniques work best when no more than 25% of the audience consciously notices them. Usually, to maximize their emotional effectiveness, you want them to operate a little bit outside the level of awareness of those watching the film.
All Plot Deepening Techniques contribute to making a film resonate more strongly with adults. The writers of Shrek employ many other techniques besides the one mentioned here, but my limited space here doesn't permit me to list them all.
Set-Ups And Payoffs
Sometimes a writer will introduce an object, and action, an image, or a phrase spoken by a character—the set-up—and then revisit it one or more times later in the script, usually in interesting ways (the payoff or payoffs).
It makes for sophisticated writing, which in turn makes the script appeal to adults.
Shrek utilizes many set-ups and payoffs. Here's one: When we first meet Shrek, he's in his outhouse. We learn his outhouse, like the rest of his swamp, is a place where he can be alone in total self-contentment. It's a symbol of his privacy, but here his desire for privacy is seen in a good light: as a reflection of his self-satisfaction.
Later in the film, when Shrek has experienced his worst nightmare—rejection by Fiona—and when he in turn has pushed Donkey away, he retreats into an outhouse. Now this symbol of solitude represents all his fears of getting close to others, and of literally shutting them out.
So, the outhouse is set up in the beginning, and then revisited later in an interesting payoff.
Don't worry if you didn't catch this when you saw the film, for, like Deepening techniques, set-ups and payoffs, in general, create their greatest emotional impact if they operate a little outside the conscious awareness of most people in the audience.
Summary:
The bottom line is that it's no accident that Shrek appealed as much to adults as it did to kids. The writers took a fun and amusing story which any kid would enjoy, and then artfully wove into the script a number of techniques not found in normal kids' fare.
The writing in this script is extremely tight. For me, tight means that most scenes accomplish several functions simultaneously: moving the story forward, drawing us into the characters, making us laugh or sad or both simultaneously, setting up elements which will be revisited later on, and always entertaining us with highly original lines and scenes.
If you want to reach both kids and adults and thus capture a wide demographic for your film, it wouldn't hurt to master the techniques these writers employed so artfully.
I met an older photographer named Jerry Hanson (you can find him on Facebook) while setting up my camera for this one. He was shooting digital, but he remembered using a Speed Graphic like mine when he was in the military in the 1950's (I think). We talked about cameras while taking pictures. The interesting thing was, that he didn't seem interested in the usual film vs. digital debate that sometimes happens. I'm usually content just to talk about gear, and I don't pass judgement on what other people are using. Some folks, not so much. (Note to my digital photographer friends: this doesn't apply to you). They try to convince me that their switch to digital somehow was a better choice than mine. They don't come right out and say it, but it's carried in their tone, and they way they talk about the speed and ease of use of their cameras. But, Mr. Hanson didn't seem to be carrying any ego into the conversation, and it was plasant and informative.
I haven't made the switch to digital because I don't think it's real photography. I have stayed exclusively with film because I believe that the meduim informs the art. I like the slow process, and the lack of instant gratification, becuse my life is hectic and stressful, and I need soething that forces me to be patient, and to slow down enough to find the Zen moments, and express them in a way that conveys what I see in those moments.
Camera: Speed Graphic 4x5
Lens: Bausch & Lomb Rectiliniar circa 1890 (I haven't researched it's exact age).
Film: Fuji Astia
Note 6/9/18: Uploaded sharper, better version.
Second note: after losing my darkroom in 2015, I bought a digital camera, and have been using both film and digital. The above description was from 2014.
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I've wanted to make this quilt for a really long time! I kind of love that it was so simple because sometimes I just want instant gratification! Plus, I love that it didn't really require too much flea market fancy, but I think it still really gives the look of a FMF quilt! Blogged here.
but, the fact is I get such satisfaction and pleasure and gratification from making new friends that I just couldn't help myself.
That's Leslie from San Francisco (and Vanessa above my left shoulder)
Almighty God's Word "Man Can Only Be Saved Amidst the Management of God" (Excerpt, Stage Version)
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/sovereignty-over-everything/
Almighty God says, "How many creatures are there living and reproducing in the vast expanse of the universe, following the law of life over and over, adhering to one constant rule. Those who die take with them the stories of the living, and those who are living repeat the same tragic history of those who have died. And so mankind can’t help but ask itself: Why do we live? And why do we have to die? Who is in command of this world? And who created this mankind? Was mankind really created by Mother Nature? Is mankind really in control of its own fate? … For thousands of years mankind has asked these questions, over and over again. Unfortunately, the more that mankind has become obsessed with these questions, the more of a thirst he has developed for science. Science offers brief gratification and temporary enjoyment of the flesh, but is far from sufficient to free mankind of the solitariness, loneliness, and barely-concealed terror and helplessness deep within his soul. Mankind merely uses scientific knowledge that the naked eye can see and the brain can comprehend to anesthetize his heart. Yet such scientific knowledge cannot stop mankind from exploring mysteries. Mankind does not know who is the Sovereign of all things in the universe, much less does he know the beginning and future of mankind. Mankind merely lives, perforce, amidst this law. None can escape it and none can change it, for among all things and in the heavens there is but One from everlasting to everlasting who holds sovereignty over everything. He is the One who has never been beheld by man, the One whom mankind has never known, in whose existence mankind has never believed, yet He is the One who breathed the breath into mankind’s ancestors and gave life to mankind. He is the One who supplies and nourishes mankind for its existence, and guides mankind up to the present day. Moreover, He and He alone is whom mankind depends on for its survival. He holds sovereignty over all things and rules all living beings beneath the universe. He commands the four seasons, and it is He who calls forth wind, frost, snow, and rain. He gives mankind sunshine and brings the coming of night. It was He who laid out the heavens and earth, providing man with mountains, lakes and rivers and all the living things within them. His deed is everywhere, His power is everywhere, His wisdom is everywhere, and His authority is everywhere. Each of these laws and rules are the embodiment of His deed, and every one of them reveals His wisdom and authority. Who can exempt themselves from His sovereignty? And who can discharge themselves from His designs? All things exist beneath His gaze, and moreover, all things live beneath His sovereignty. His deed and His power leave mankind with no choice but to acknowledge the fact that He really does exist and holds sovereignty over all things. No other thing apart from Him can command the universe, much less can it ceaselessly provide for this mankind. Regardless of whether you are able to recognize the deed of God, and irrespective of whether you believe in the existence of God, there is no doubt that your fate lies within the ordination of God, and there is no doubt that God will always hold sovereignty over all things. His existence and authority are not predicated upon whether or not they can be recognized and comprehended by man. Only He knows man’s past, present and future, and only He can determine the fate of mankind. Regardless of whether you are able to accept this fact, it will not be long before mankind witnesses all of this with his own eyes, and this is the fact that God will soon bring to bear. Mankind lives and dies under the eyes of God. Mankind lives for the management of God, and when his eyes close for the final time, that is also for the very same management."
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