Morocco doesn’t exist.
This week’s reading really messed me up. I don’t have solid enough proof morocco exists. Why do I think a bunch of lines placed in a certain way is a face? That doesn’t look anything like a face!
The concept of closure I think is not something a non media student (or practitioner) would ever consider although it is definitely something we all do. How boring would films be if literally every single piece of information was shown and there was nothing left for us to put together ourselves. In different genres of film there’s certainly varying amounts of audience closure (I’m not sure if that’s how that should be phrased). For instance, in a psychological thriller perhaps more would be left for the audience to realise themselves as it’s assumed that they are willing to do so by watching such a complex film. Conversely, in a romantic comedy where the audience does not expect to have to think to hard about the film, there will be less for them to put together themselves.
The comic dabbled in some philosophical thinking, stating “I have no guarantee anything exists outside of what my five senses report to me”*, it was this kind of idea that made me drop out of philosophy in high school after two weeks. I don’t love questioning what I know, it freaks me out too much. However in this context I could handle it and it only freaked me out a little bit. Outside of my own senses, and therefore experience, my only knowledge of the world comes from a complete trust in what I hear from others (including the media) and this wasn’t something I thought I’d have to consider during this course.
*Scott McCloud, 1993, ‘Blood in the Gutter’, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art