'60 Minutes' Story on Homeless Families and Iconic Realism

Map showing percentage of homeless families across the U.S.A. from:  http://cflhomeless.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/florida-map.jpg

The weekly television program, "60 Minutes," once aired a story examining the background of a few homeless families near Disney World in Orlando, Florida. This media production was an excellent example of iconic realism. Situated in central Florida, Disney World's theme has been "The happiest place on the planet." However, just a few miles down the road from the fantasy land dwelt the harsh reality of the declining U.S. economy. Families had to make the painful decision to move into hotels that would normally be housing temporary visitors of the vacation capital. Now, these hotels have become 'home' for the many families.

The iconic theme park juxtaposed to this American tragedy brings awareness of the cultural need for United States citizens to creatively invent ways to help such neighbors return to their jobs or begin new ones in an effort to experience their inalienable rights, outlined in the Declaration of Independence: "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Iconic realism in Salvador Dali's Art

Salvador Dali's  Melting Clocks 

(from DuckDuckGo Images)

As you gaze upon the art by Salvador Dali, you will note that he uses iconic realism in most of his surrealistic renderings. He will place a recognizable figure in a position in which this figure is not expected to exist. In his own words, he describes these objects as "...nothing more than the soft, extravagant, solitary, paranoiac-critical Camembert cheese of space and time... Hard or soft, what difference does it make! As long as they tell time accurately..." Through his placement of the figure in this unrealistic setting, he creates a realism that brings awareness of an aspect of culture that needs to be reformed, perhaps, our perception of time and how we use it.  

Carl Jung's the "Collective Unconscious" and Sydney Owenson's Characters

From my doctoral dissertation (2nd book), pp. 80-82:

The mind interprets the experiences of life based on past physical and emotional responses to specific stimuli. When one is subjected to adverse stimuli, opportunities cease to function as positive motivations for continued success. On the other hand, when there are decisions that have been made to the improvement of one’s life, those become focal points for active, varied and positive participation in daily experiences. Therefore, in making decisions, one determines aspects of life in which to participate based on a collection of past experiences. The more positive experiences collected by an individual, the more likely she will make decisions of calculated risk to increase the potential of a success pattern. Carl Jung further explains this process: 

Instincts are impersonal, universally distributed, hereditary factors of a dynamic or motivating character, which very often fail so completely reach consciousness…Moreover, the instincts are not vague and indefinite by nature but are specifically formed motive forces which, long before there is any consciousness, and in spite of any degree of consciousness later, on, pursue their inherent goals. [1]

In the case of Owenson’s characters, they rely on the support of other characters to feel confident to pursue their hearts’ desires. The rhetoric of her narratives and poetry is dependent on the image created by Owenson’s linguistic model; hence, the created image needs memory constraints to provide her readers with familiar figures inherent to the meaning of the text. Even though the psychological elements are experienced within the mind, desire is expressed through various forms of communication, which include body language, speech and the written word. In addition to character development, Owenson uses rhetorical manipulation to explore her desire for the English government to engage peacefully with Ireland.

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[1] C.G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, translated by R.F.C. Hull (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 43.

Iconic Realism through Cognitive Dissonance in James Joyce's Ulysses

A view of Dublin from the top floor of the Guinness Factory

An excerpt from a paper I presented at an American Conference for Irish Studies:

Throughout his novel, Ulysses, James Joyce illustrates iconic realism through cognitive dissonance by means of language that contains semantic components directly correlating with his characters and their settings. In turn, the readers interpret those linguistic features according to knowledge of the language and manner in which the semantic elements align with their personal experience. 

As Joyce pens this novel, the world around him deals with the repercussions of World War I, and the general reaction is one of stalwart patriotism to culture. Joyce acknowledges this through his resonating dissonance between characters devoted to traditional elements within the Irish community and those attached to more dissonant coexistences, eventually leading to Bloom realizing the isolation in his own life. 

An example is through examination of linguistic and structural patterns employed by Joyce, through a distinctive, realistic element, the human act of breathing. Considering that Ulysses was once banned by libraries in the United States, and as recently as just a few years ago, clear breathing in public places has been banned due to mask mandates during the covid pandemic, a conscientious reader just might find release from the stifling, cognitive dissonance while reading through Joyce’s realistic representation of the aromatic Dublin travels of Leopold Bloom. One needs only to read the gaseous lines from this novel to imagine the dissonance of Joyce’s mind and Bloom’s physicality. 

However, Leopold Bloom also experiences personal and religious revelations through each inhaling and expelling of air. One such vivid example is in the chapter, entitled, Aeolus. Here, Joyce uses the heaving air of a pompous society’s fickle response to Bloom’s Jewish culture. In this chapter, we are introduced to various comparisons between Jesus Christ, Stephen Daedalus, and Bloom: their dissonant placements in their individual societies and how each has dealt with these discrepancies. Joyce describes the editor as having a ‘scarlet beaked face,’ a ‘comb of feathery hair’ and a harsh voice, similar to that of a cock crowing, once again referring to the Biblical reference of Peter rejecting Christ on the morning of his crucifixion (Blamires 49). Such reflections illustrate the iconic realism that Joyce incorporates in this novel, as he uses these iconic images within Bloom’s mind, occasionally audibly articulated by Bloom, but mostly present only in his mind, to bring the audience in alignment with the dissonance present in Bloom’s, and Joyce’s, Dublin. 

National 9/11 Memorial, New York City and Iconic Realism

Photo from http://michaeljamescasey.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/natl_memorial.jpg

Twenty-five years have passed, and the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City now receives the prayers and reflections of thousands of friends and relatives of those whose lives were taken on September 11, 2001, some of whom still remained buried at this sacred site. The extensive monument bears the names of each victim, around two waterfalls flowing where the two towers of the World Trade Center once defined the skyline of New York City.

This memorial illustrates iconic realism in that the designers have strategically placed the genesis of a woodland paradise, surrounding the Towers’ footprints, now flowing with tranquil waters in the midst of one of this planet's most vibrant cities. The massive garden, with its delicate waterfalls constructed on the site where immense devastation, despair and death occurred, now transpires with a perspective of renewal, hope and life, a memorial that transcends the horror and brings awareness of cultural perseverance combined with the healing strength of elevated consciousness. 

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I wrote this poem the afternoon of September 11, 2001 in Danbury, CT, 65 miles north of the horror, yet close enough to know that the same clouds passing above me just passed over the horror. The wispy clouds almost looked like angels floating above and away from the madness below. Silence… except for the industry of nature.

September 11, 2001

Bellowing clouds of madness

devour cavernous streets

filled with masses 

seeking freedom

from a spumous potion of death.

Silent plumes in an azure sky,

Blessed by the prayers

of three thousand Angels,

newly formed and gliding overhead,

mollify this tableau of horror.

As evening approaches, 

silent stars fill the night firmament. 

No airplanes fly in this night sky.

Delicate crickets chirp; katydids begin to sing.

Strong airy wings of a soaring bird reveal 

a Love that can never die...

Freedom prevails.

© Jeanne I. Lakatos, Sept. 11,  2001