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Making an original symbol that is stripped down to its bare minimum yet still be instantly recognized is just not easy. In fact, I think it's very difficult. It is amazing how creative people are because there are so many great ones out there.
In our reading assignment, I especially enjoyed the "Understanding Comics." It was very interesting, certainly engaging, and philosophical and deep. It made me think many times and I had to re-read a few times to understand a bit. I can't believe there is so much science behind comics. Who knew...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Reading 1: Questions/Comments
What does the apple in this picture signify?
In the reading, it said the Bible never mentioned the forbidden fruit to be an apple—the fruit could be anything. How did "apple" become the image of the forbidden fruit? And when? Was it after Cranach painted apples in his Garden of Eden? Or was it already symbolized before his painting?
What does this symbol mean?
The first thing that came to my mind was the Nazi swastika symbol. It is not because I took a Holocaust literature class last semester and the history still swimming in my head. It is because the symbol is associated with the Nazis and their horrible crimes in the 20th century. They used the swastika extensively during the war, and now their symbol is still seen whenever there is a movie about the Nazis. It seems impossible for anyone now to see this symbol as anything but death, murder, and hell.
I knew that the Nazis adapted the swastika from another religion, and after doing more research, the religion is Hinduism and Buddhism. I've seen the symbol on bronze Buddhas statues, however, it was slightly different—no rotation. I was still too young to know about the Holocaust, so it didn't come to my mind.
The symbol bore a positive meaning for more than 3,000 years before the Nazis' years: life, sun, power, luck, harmony... Even during World War I, Germans soldiers wore the symbol to bring good luck—including Jewish Germans fighting for Germany.
Today, the swastika is still commonly seen. Hinduism and Buddhism (and other religions) still use the symbol as peace, health, and luck. Some products produced from China or India had to be pulled from stores in other countries because the products had the symbol on them. They were innocently meant for peace and luck; maybe for China and India, but certainly not in Western countries. Those product/package designers should have thought of that before selling them internationally... The importance of history! I guess I should have paid more attention in those boring history classes.
I found this on the Internet and I find it very interesting and funny, I think anyway.
sources for images:
http://www.klisia.net/blog/swastika.png
http://www.proswastika.org/page.php?2
http://mjr.iki.fi/pics/swastika.png
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-9-4/23097.html
In the reading, it said the Bible never mentioned the forbidden fruit to be an apple—the fruit could be anything. How did "apple" become the image of the forbidden fruit? And when? Was it after Cranach painted apples in his Garden of Eden? Or was it already symbolized before his painting?
What does this symbol mean?
The first thing that came to my mind was the Nazi swastika symbol. It is not because I took a Holocaust literature class last semester and the history still swimming in my head. It is because the symbol is associated with the Nazis and their horrible crimes in the 20th century. They used the swastika extensively during the war, and now their symbol is still seen whenever there is a movie about the Nazis. It seems impossible for anyone now to see this symbol as anything but death, murder, and hell.
I knew that the Nazis adapted the swastika from another religion, and after doing more research, the religion is Hinduism and Buddhism. I've seen the symbol on bronze Buddhas statues, however, it was slightly different—no rotation. I was still too young to know about the Holocaust, so it didn't come to my mind.
The symbol bore a positive meaning for more than 3,000 years before the Nazis' years: life, sun, power, luck, harmony... Even during World War I, Germans soldiers wore the symbol to bring good luck—including Jewish Germans fighting for Germany.
Today, the swastika is still commonly seen. Hinduism and Buddhism (and other religions) still use the symbol as peace, health, and luck. Some products produced from China or India had to be pulled from stores in other countries because the products had the symbol on them. They were innocently meant for peace and luck; maybe for China and India, but certainly not in Western countries. Those product/package designers should have thought of that before selling them internationally... The importance of history! I guess I should have paid more attention in those boring history classes.
I found this on the Internet and I find it very interesting and funny, I think anyway.
sources for images:
http://www.klisia.net/blog/swastika.png
http://www.proswastika.org/page.php?2
http://mjr.iki.fi/pics/swastika.png
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-9-4/23097.html
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