We are interested in the shadow because of its fleeting nature. It is a fragile, formless thing, open to all deviations and curves and to all possibilities. For this reason, it seems connected to the essence of art, for art is everything and nothing at the same time, a game of illusion in which we chase a truth greater than the reality presented before the senses.
– Shadow Dialogues by Michel Nordsani
Following World War II, when the nature of Japan’s business system changed and substantial change occurred in many aspects of life, a kind of irreparable loss befallen. Although the things that were lost due to the development of civilization were replaced by better things that were more efficient in work, movement, and transportation, however, the simple remanent or details that carried spiritual, cultural, and even aesthetic richness cannot be replaced. In the article In Praise of Shadows by the Japanese novelist Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, the writer questions the cultural production of each country, or the East and the West. If each of them produces something that represents its own culture and history, will the product – from which all humanity will benefit – carry such a richness in form and method in order to ultimately find that there is cultural diversity in industries and other things, and that each of these types carries within it a cultural specificity. Or is it the one vision that will overcome and displace everything that comes from others? The speaker is not suitable for Japanese people, according to Tanizaki, as it is not suitable for the Japanese method of speech delivery, which gives a distinctive presence to poses and starts. Once this speaker controls the voice as a presence, the speech delivery loses its aesthetics and takes a single form for several other people. Another example is pen and paper, if the inventor of the pen were Japanese or Chinese, he would certainly not make the pen nib metal but ordinary, and would not consider using blue liquid ink, but rather a type of liquid similar to ancient Chinese ink, where he would be creative in running the ink from the container to the feather. In order to optimally use this form of pens, it is necessary to provide a type of Japanese paper in copious quantities, as regular, or Western paper, is not suitable for these types of pens. If development had occurred in this approach, the pen and paper would not have taken the lead, and the use of Latin letters would not have become more prominent, to be the chief among other letters. According to Tanizaki, if we had developed in that manner, we would not have, literally, imitated Western thought and literature, and who knows, perhaps we would have a new and innovative genre. These insignificant things do not take up much space and may seem trivial, but this quite simple thing may carry with it infinite results.
However, such loss seems minor when compared to things that were lost and were intimately connected to the individual. For instance, the intensity of lighting has made the Japanese house lose its aesthetics. Japanese kitchen is designed in a way that some of its areas appear to be in the shade where light does not reach it, giving it an attractive aesthetic appearance. The kitchen, as Tanizaki describes it, is not a place for eating, but for contemplation, as the harmony between light and shadow provides a large space to practice and enjoy contemplation in a simple atmosphere. Another instance is the Japanese theater Noh theatre. The theatrical performance does not take place in a theater if it is not designed whereas some parts of it remain immersed in shadows. Additionally, In an attempt to draw an aesthetic picture at home, the Japanese do not need furniture to fill the empty spaces in the house, they only need to know the kind of harmony that can occur when the sunbeam penetrates the house, and when the reflection leaves a shadow, where a kind of construction occurs inside the houses due to this reflection.
The beauty of shadow is nothing but the sublimity of real-life objects. The Japanese ancients, who were forced to live willingly or under duress in dark rooms, discovered beauty in the shadows and came to use it in order to obtain aesthetic effects. The beauty of the Japanese room results from changing and controlling the degree of shade intensity. Tanizaki says:
“When we gaze into the darkness that gathers behind the crossbeam, around the flower vase, beneath the shelves, though we know perfectly well it is mere shadow, we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner of the atmosphere there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquility holds sway. The “mysterious Orient” of which Westerners speak probably refers to the uncanny silence of these dark places. And even we as children would feel an inexpressible chill as we peered into the depths of an alcove to which the sunlight had never penetrated. Where lies the key to this mystery? Ultimately it is the magic of shadows. Were the shadows to be banished from its corners, the alcove would in that instant revert to mere void. This was the genius of our ancestors, that by cutting off the light from this empty space they imparted to the world of shadows that formed there a quality of mystery and depth superior to that of any wall painting or ornament.”
Nonetheless, the shadow is not only an aesthetic form, as it may be a gateway to life or death. In Part II of Dante’s The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio – Canto III, Dante continues his long journey with his guide Virgil, an age of cantos in early morning. The sun was just rising, and the shadow was cast in front of the person walking west. Dante discovers something odd on the ground as he walks; when the reflection and the effect caused by light occurred, Dante found only one shadow on the ground, his shadow, and found no trace of his guide, Virgil, shadow. He was afraid that Virgil had lost his way in this place, but they were together and did not separate. Dante’s guide explained that the lack of shadow is due to the fact that he is a dead person, and souls have no shadows. As soon as the soul leaves the body, something similar to its disappearance or departure occurs with the soul.
The sun that in our rear was flaming red,
Was broken in front of me into the figure
Which has in me the stoppage of its ray;
Unto one side I turned me, with the fear
Of being left alone, when I beheld
Only in front of me the ground obscured.
“Why dost thou still mistrust?” my Comforter
Began to say to me turned wholly round;
“Dost thou not think me with thee, and that I guide thee?
‘Tis evening there already where is burred
The body within which I cast a shadow;
‘Tis from Brundusium ta’en, and Naples has it.
Now if in front of me no shadow fall,
Marvel not at it more than at the heavens,
Because one ray impedeth not another
In Dr. Fatima Al-Wahibi book, al-Ẓill: Asāṭyrh wāmtdādāth al-Maʻrifīyah wa-Al-Ibdāʻīyah (The Shadow: Its Myths and Its Cognitive and Creative Extensions). The author mentioned an opening phrase by Ibn Manzur in Lisan Al-Arab: It is said if a man dies and become untrue: his shadow has vanished. It is also said that the shadow vanishes when it becomes clear, and if it became clear its owner dies [يقال للرجل إذا مات وبَطَل: ضحا ظلّه. يقال ضحا الظلّ إذا صار شمساً. وإذا صار ظل الإنسان شمساً فقد بَطَل صاحبه ومات]. This connection between death and the shadow in Ibn Manzur’s words opened the door widely for valuable research concerning the shadow and the dualities it carries, and the multiple images it represents in various fields of life and human thought, in mythological, religious, Sufi, philosophical, poetic, artistic, cultural, and psychology texts. I read this book at intervals because of the attractiveness of the idea, then I read it a few days ago and it was remarkably interesting, I feel like it will make an impact or a new perspective on reading. Aside from the influence, this research is like a journey around the world, chasing the shadow as a concept, form, and perception, trying to find a series of features that describe the shadow and define its identity. This book has reached every field of human writing, trying to penetrate the barrier behind which the shadow may hide. There are several texts in which the word shadow was not literally mentioned, however, the perceptions and concepts in these texts have connections to the shadow: a complete picture of manifestation and reflection, and for principle, branch, and origin. The shadow as a purely physical form was not dominant in this research, if it were addressed this way, the research would, perhaps, become a topic in the natural sciences. Also, the shadow was not addressed as a form of metaphor or allegory that may be used in a number of texts. The shadow has no presence except its physical form and the poetic effect it creates according to the poet’s imagination. There is a presence of shadow in the humanitarian blog and in its physical form, it carries perceptions, concepts, and forms. The author says:
The shadow has connections to various matters, has many dimensions and extensions, and can be connected to concepts and words that seem close, alternative, or synonymous with it, in a number of manifestations of the shadow in texts and words. On the one hand, the shadow is connected to the source of light or to a material embodied thing that reflects on it to create the shadow. However, it has an ambiguous relationship, as it is indeterminate and immaterial in the full sense, except in terms of its formation before the sight, hence its close connection to the concept of manifestation and reflection, the concept of appearance and reality, and the idea of principle, origin, and branch. Words such as: ghost and qareen exchange positions of significant importance in a number of texts, and dig deep into the heart of mythological, religious, philosophical, and literary texts. Other terms like echo, cloud, water, mirror, and woman also parallel with it, and this is what enriches the concept of shadow on the one hand and complicates and deepens it on the other hand.
Due to the value of the book and the wealth of knowledge it contains, I did not need to search in this field. But he wrote down everything he remembered about shadow. There is a quote about Victor Hugo and the Shadow in The Shadow, he says that he who wants to see the outside must look into the depths of himself. The deep, dark mirror exists within man, there the luminous darkness exists. It is more than an image, it is a shadow, and within the shadow there is a specter. When we bend over that well, we see in it through the distance of the abyss and in a narrow circle the whole world is wide.
The shadow in Victor Hugo’s literature is not complete without being associated with water, and it extends to the night and darkness. Water is the sea, or ocean. What links shadow and water are battle and struggle. Existential anxiety reaches its maximum in this case. Water in its forms, the sea and the ocean, represent the social authority that excludes man, for it is the eternal darkness, the hard-hearted social night that throws its victims into its depths. It is a misery that has no limits. The soul that is misled and manipulated by the waves of the sea becomes a corpse, who can bring it back to life? The sea is the gateway to the great battle against the tyrannical ancient, and nature with its storms and revolutions. There is no tranquility, reassurance, or perfection in the human soul without the individual facing his great battle against the sea and its waves. Water takes on a distinct rage, this anger that a person is quickly happy to overcome. Here then, begins the harm between man and the sea. In the chapter of waves and shadows in the novel Les Misérables, a man is at sea, struggling to survive. He knocks on all doors, trying to escape, but he does not receive a response from anyone. The task entrusted to him, that is, survival, must be thanks to him and no one else. What violent storm he will have to break through in this great attempt to survive? This struggling individual has no name, although whoever reads the novel will know his name, but the author removed his name and preferred to be the body, the only body, or the only shadow in this sea. When Emile Zola was at the beginning of his literary career, he had, as a writer who preferred photography in his writing as he says, to pass a specific part of Les Misérables in order to get going. It was epic, as the protagonist went down to the bottom, into the dark depths, in an attempt to survive, and what I mean here is Jean Valjean’s descent of the sewers of Paris. Victor Hugo conveyed philosophy from the surface to the bottom of the earth. For Hugo, going down to the farthest place on Earth, must happen because the bottom is the place of the absolutely clear truth, whereas falsehood and lying, it is an inseparable characteristic of every surface, and therefore of every authority. This is what the protagonist of The Man Who Laughs, Gwynplaine, expressed in the House of Lords when he said “I was cast into the abyss. For what end? To search its depths. I am a diver, and I have brought back the pearl, truth.”
Shadow and Cinema
Lighting is one of the pillars of cinema, that, if handled professionally, may produce an incredibly distinct photo. The condition for such a distinction is careful handling of light and shadow. A dramatic story or scenario dialogue, with an average –not professional– approach to lighting may create a great interaction. However, a photo in itself resembles a situation where the text is removed, and the story becomes empty and has no impact. The harmony between lighting and shadow and the shooting angle, gives the photo its most beautiful character. If I were to give an example, it would be the work of director Krzysztof Kieślowski, specifically the Three Color Trilogy. Kieślowski finds his way between two states: the contemplativeness of director Andrei Tarkovsky, and the literature of Ingmar Bergman. He is not as purely contemplative as Tarkovsky, and he does not have a complete grip on the cinematic work like Bergman. He is moving between these two directions. His wandering spirit has given him a vast repertoire in handling three-colored characters. Take, for example, Blue starring Juliette Binoche. Aside from the character of the work as a whole, from the story, the dialogues, and the creative final form of the cinematic work, the pleasure of watching Krzysztof Kieslowski’s movies is based on the photographs. The aesthetics of photos comes from the shooting angles, focus, close-up and identification. The aesthetic that, I believe, led the work to achieve these aesthetics is shadow. The shadow that divides the human face in half, makes the first half illuminated under the influence of the sun and lighting, and the other half carries fragments of shadow. I say fragments because immersing and covering it with shadow makes it lose its distinctive character as a photo. Fragments cover small parts of the half, drawing a wrinkle that creates what looks like an emotion. Kieslowski usage of shadow is diverse, and not just in its natural reflective state. On one side, the focus on the entire face with lighting from a certain angle so that everything behind the face appears to be shadows. On the other side, the shadow that surrounds the face, covering most of it and leaving a small part carrying fragments of light, as in the last scene of Blue, when the shadow turns into what resembles a wave. This dealing with the shadow carries perceptions based on the psychological state of the character, such as stillness, loneliness, and shedding tears.
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