Segei Eisenstein

I thought this article was fascinating, especially (like the post before me) the discussion of the Japanese approach to art and hieroglyphs. His comparison of western and Japanese art is interesting in that he discusses how Western art focuses on portraying an entire object such as a cherry tree branch. In contrast, the Japanese teach art by focusing on parts of the whole, such as the pupil cuts.

Another thing I noticed is that Sergei Eisenstein LOVES metaphors. I felt as if a large portion of his article was reiterating metaphors he had already established. The majority of it could have been summed up on page 132 in which he essentially defines montage (a practice if I'm not mistaken he created). It begins by stating that "Absolute realism is by no means the correct form of perception," it is just one of many ways of conceiving action. Another way is through montage, which is similar to brick laying. Several bricks alone mean nothing, but when put together they make a wall. Metaphorically, this means that random shots alone mean nothing, but when edited properly they can create a sense of time and place, and establish a scenes plot.