Semiotic Themes: Apples

Painting: Rafal Olbinski's Apple Trees

Fallen Apple

She was the fallen apple.

Ripe with ardor,

She dropped from provisional support

and rolled into fertile mire

of fecundity, ignominy.

She’ll not rot in isolation. 

© Jeanne I. Lakatos

From my first book: 

A musical composition contains a specific theme. This theme can then repeat every time a musician performs the piece. However, the theme will elicit variations based on instrumentation, acoustics, and musicians actively attempting to recreate the original sound. A new aurally thematic expression results from this interpretation. 

Likewise, a work of art will receive the eyes of multiple viewers. Each person adapts his/her life experience to the interpretation of the rendered artistic theme, thus altering the original thematic construct of the artist. Hence, a theme is in a constant state of evolution, no matter which art form has been presented (Lakatos 20).

How do these representations of themes demonstrate Iconic Realism? In both Olbinski's painting and my poem above, the representation is apples, both artistic expressions reveal the idea of an apple, a healthy fresh fruit, juxtaposed with a more negative depiction of this fruit: fallen. Yet, both expressions illustrate that it's not the apple's doing that leads to the fallen nature and inevitable end; it's the decisions made by the individuals surrounding those apples that bring the audience to an understanding that through righteousness, one can move forward in a more positive direction. 

Music Therapy and Iconic Realism

The Lark Ascending

photo from Google Images

Whales from the Tennessee Maritime Museum

Google Images

Click the titles below to hear examples of this kind of therapeutic music:

1. The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams: 

The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams

2. Healing Songs of Whales and Dolphins (This is a long video, 1 hour, 17 minutes): 

Songs of Whales and Dolphins

As the mind correlates all sensation with memory, restful auditory stimulation, so closely connected with the synapses of the cerebral cortex, can transport an individual to the aspect of memory that lowers respiration, allowing for calm, deep breathing, and individual focus on the natural processes within a calm state of mind. How does this relate to the semiotic theory of iconic realism? This form of music therapy, aiding in the rejuvenation of an individual’s respiration and peace of mind, can also open one's mind to move in a more positive direction in one's own life experience. 

Another example exists in the vocal expressions of whales singing under the depths of the ocean have been used by environmentalists to bring attention to the plight of aquatic species of animals. This use of whales, when placed in accompaniment within a contemporary musical environment outside the parameters of the ocean depths, is an example of iconic realism. In such a case, the aural experience of the sea echoing on shore provides the audience with a dichotomy that brings awareness to the dilemma of the whales and their neighbors in the deep sea. 

Jane Eyre and Iconic Realism

(Click HERE  to view the final scene from this 2006 BBC production of Jane Eyre.)

Charlotte Brontë's novel, Jane Eyre, illustrates the theory of iconic realism in that her title character, Jane, depicts a young woman who, although abused as a child, manages to maintain her inner strength and dignity as she responsibly carries out her iconic role as an honest, humble governess while placed in the midst of wealth and deceit. Through this character, Brontë brings awareness to her audience of the complex emotions and intelligence within the feminine mindset. Stalwart Jane, the epitome of inner strength, becomes the lens through which her former master, blinded in a fire, ultimately perceives and strives to understand his world. 

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, Aéolus. (EE-OH LUS). 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. 

Feeling and Realism in Artistic Expression (Click here to view an example of art and reality.)

Bill Shannon's 'Crutch[es]'

photo from Duck Duck Go Images from kqed.org

 

Artistic choice enables the audience to experience an historical and emotional bond with the artist. For example, if pleasure and pain are derived through the senses, then the realism with which an artist chooses to place an iconic representation will provide the audience and the artist certain sensory stimuli to which the audience responds through the experience of consciously receiving the artistic renderings (Lakatos 39). One connects with artistic expression by responding to the extension of the artist. Thus, the artist and the audience become collaborators in their interpretation of the presented work of art.

In the example of Bill Shannon's "Crutch", he explains the varying responsive communication between artist and audience. He demonstrates iconic realism in the following manner. He uses a crutch, an icon for limitation, and turns it into a vehicle of mastery, leverage, competence, and capability. Brilliant!

United States Constitution: First Amendment Rights Expressed

photo from historyonthenet.com

Amendment I of the United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

With humble gratitude to our insightful forefathers, we citizens of the United States of America have the right to express ourselves in a public domain. A few years ago, I was viewing an entertaining site on Youtube, and I was struck by the intensity of the father of this family, discussing his religious belief in a calm, normal speaking voice in the middle of a department store. He was simply posting his daily entry to his site. It was inspiring to see and an excellent example of iconic realism.

Below is the demonstration:

1. An iconic figure (the head of a nuclear family, a father), expressed his Christian beliefs to his viewers.

2. The iconic figure in the midst of a realistic setting, not usually associated with this icon. (He expressed himself in the middle of a department store, as he shopped, not the usual place for such a discussion.)

3. This placement represents a needed cultural transformation. (He was exercising his 1st Amendment right to express himself freely, as guaranteed by our Constitution.)

With so many individuals being silenced by some decision makers within major networks, I have to wonder if the CEOs of these corporate bullies have ever read the U.S. Constitution.