Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tom Phillips' Humument



The picture on page 55 of Tom Phillips' Humument is divided into 8 sections. The first thing that catches the eye is the white part of the sixth section that looks like an "x". The "x" sticks out because white catches the eye well. It appears to be covering something yellow with a little bit of blue and red. The next white "x" that catches the eye is in the box below the first "x", the eighth box. This "x" is covering some darker and also bright colors. There is some red in the background and also some dark blue and black. There also appears to be a lighter shade of red. The contrast of dark and bright colors is obscured by the big white "x". The meaning is hard to interpret, but once these words are put together with the others in the picture it may be easier to decode their meaning.

The next section which contains an "x" is the second. This "x" appears to be covering a landscape. There appears to be fields and grass. It also looks like there may be some bushes near the top and some dirt at the bottom. The words mention a location which may be the setting of the landscapes in this picture. There is a grassy knoll in this landscape as well as fields and bushes and trees. The dark color could be the sky. These first two sections that appear to be landscape could be the view a pilot sees from a plane. It makes sense that these could be the views from an airplane because they are landscapes and look small without much detail. The light outlines in the first section could be outlines of trees or they could possibly signify anything else. However the outlines help create a contrast in colors because on one side of the cluster of words the outlines are pink and on the other side the "ground" is solid pink.

The third part of this picture catches the eye well because the yellow sticks out. The yellow looks like it is a cornfield or a plain with dry yellow grass. The green looks like a row of bushes separating pavement and the field. The white part appears to be obscuring a runway or a connecting point to lanes of a runway. The red circles look like they are maybe stop points and checkpoints. The pavement with white spots appears to be lanes for takeoff or it could be lights. I think this landscape could represent an airport.

The next part that catches the eye is next to the third part, "the airport" landscape. This catches the eye because there is a large amount of red. Then there is blue and some grayish purple color in the background. The background could represent the "smoke" described in the words. The red could represent the "red cock" in the words. There are only two other parts of this picture. The fifth part is the next to last to catch the eye. There is orange, blue and brown color in this section. The blue can represent water. Maybe the blue part is a river and the brown could be the riverbed. The orange could be the ground around the river, the dirt. The last part of this picture contains red and orange. It also contains a duller reddish brown color. The orange appears to be the ground and the reddish brown could be the "wall" described by the words. The red could represent a part of this wall or it may be the "cyphers". The red could even be the "ditch". The words on this picture can help describe and show meaning in the pictures.

The first group of words, starting with "above the roofs", indicates that someone is looking down at Grenville from a window. This makes sense because the first two parts of the picture are landscapes. The trees becoming smaller mean that the aircraft is climbing higher into the air. The next group of words tells the viewer that the first few parts of the picture are landscapes. This traveler is flying over Grenville. He is probably passing over on his flight. In the next group of words the aircraft is dipping lower. This “red cock” is the red in the picture. The dwarf is some object that appears very small to the flyer because he is elevated. The “red cock” could be a weathervane on top of a barn. “The sound of whip sensation rocking”, can indicate that there is wind outside the aircraft causing it to rock. The great pop ditch can be represented by the blue in this part of the picture, possibly a river or lake. The last words in the picture indicate that the traveler is getter closer to land. He sees markings on this wall, maybe graffiti (the cyphers). At the end of this traveler’s journey he is close to this wall and that is when he sees the “flower tramp”. The flower tramp may be some symbol of significance to the traveler.

This picture describes what it is like to look down on everything from the sky. From above one’s perspective is much different than looking at something straight on. Being on land and flying are different and make perspectives different. Since the perspectives are different, the interpretations of things are also different. It changes the way one views our world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

See here or here

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