Post 3

In class, I brought up the late David Bowie starting off as a mime who studied under a famous pantomime in relation to Barn Burning and the girl who studied under a famous pantomime. Given Murakami's relationship to music, it makes me wonder if there is some connection or reference here, but I wasn't able to find any connection between the two. Still, I wanted to follow up and try to complete a connection at least between pantomime and Barn Burning and explore why I feel there is some connection, however vague it may be.

For me, pantomime gets back to the idea of the signifier and signified the word and the concrete object it arbitrarily evokes. From what I understand, pantomime depicts a signified object or action--say for instance, climbing a tree--the act of signifying is so strong that the illusion of the signified being physically present is evoked. We see this to some extent with the Cathedral. The blind man is able to help the husband feel something higher from the cathedral, despite not being religious by drawing, signifying the cathedral.

Though, the darker implications of the boyfriend are also present for interpretation, I feel that, in many ways, the protagonist of Barn Burning has been made to signify the act of burning the barn. After all, he did all the meticulous planning of selecting which barns could be burned, even thought about doing it himself. In trying to figure out which barn would be burned, he practically pantomimes the act of how you would go about burning a barn, if you were to.

This then reinforces darker implications of the story. If the protagonist is pantomiming burning a barn, is he somehow complicit in the boyfriend's darker desires and actions or is the boyfriend in some way his alter ego? In many ways this actually does get back to my original comment about David Bowie and his Mask performance and relationships of performance, identity confusion, and alter egos. In the short skit, the actor purchases a mask which he puts on as a performance. The performance is highly popular, and he keeps performing it, until he is unable to take the mask off and strangles himself in attempting to. In the epilogue, there was no mention of a mask in newspapers, leading the viewer to wonder if there ever was a mask or if by taking on a certain identity--by pantomiming, if you will--there is truly a difference between that action and the real thing.

I couldn't find it on Youtube; it may have been taken down after his death, but I attached a link to the skit if anyone is interested.

David Bowie's The Mask