Scrungle Gungle’s Reviews > Ways of Seeing > Status Update
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 57 of 209
“… a way of seeing the world, which was ultimately determined by new attitudes property and exchange, found its visual expression in the oil painting, and could not have found it in any other visual art form. Oil painting did to appearances what capital did to social relations. It reduced everything to the equality of objects. Everything became exchangeable because everything became a commodity.”
Hmm. Maybe.
— 5 hours, 46 min ago
Hmm. Maybe.
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Scrungle’s Previous Updates
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 98 of 209
“The formal portrait, as distinct from the self-portrait or the informal portrait of the painter’s friend never resolved this problem. But as the tradition continued, the painting of the sitter’s face became more and more generalized. His features became the mask which went with the costume. Today the final stage of this development can be seen in the puppet tv appearance of the average politician.” Uh, no.
— 5 hours, 29 min ago
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 57 of 209
“But the essential way of seeing women, the essential use to which their images are put, has not changed. Women are depicted in a quite different way from men - not because the feminine is different from the masculine - but because the ’ideal" spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.”
— 5 hours, 55 min ago
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 55 of 209
“Here and in the European tradition generally, the convention of not painting the hair on a woman’s body helps towards the same end. Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion. The woman’s sexual passion needs to be minimized so that the spectator may feel that he has the monopoly of such passion. Women are there to feed an appetite, not to have any of their own.”
— 8 hours, 30 min ago
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 54 of 209
“In the average European oil painting of the nude the principal protagonist is never painted. He is the spectator in front of the picture and be is presumed to be a man. Everything is addressed to him. Everything must appear to be the result of his being there, it is for him that the figures have assumed their nudity. But he, by definition, is a stranger - with his clothes still on.”
— 8 hours, 33 min ago
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 41 of 209
Ah now I come to task with Berger. In his second essay, he repeats the story of the Fall. He gestures to the punishment of Eve, likening it to woman’s subservience to man.
What of Adam’s punishment? Is their punishment not done together? Eve is not blamed solely, as he claims in bold text, to claim otherwise is to be ignorant of the most basic understanding of the biblical story.
— 8 hours, 49 min ago
What of Adam’s punishment? Is their punishment not done together? Eve is not blamed solely, as he claims in bold text, to claim otherwise is to be ignorant of the most basic understanding of the biblical story.
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 40 of 209
We have shifted to a new essay - I presume one on femininity in art because there was no title in my copy - so I withhold judgment until it is completed.
“One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear … the surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”
— Dec 30, 2025 06:06PM
“One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear … the surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 30 of 209
Finally done the part where Benjamin gets ripped off wholesale - with credit though! I appreciate the discussion but I felt it was lacking in innovation.
— Dec 30, 2025 05:45PM
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 23 of 209
“Adults and children have boards in their bedroom or living-rooms on which they pin pieces of paper … On each board all the images belong to the same language and all are more or less equal within it, because they have been chosen in a highly personal way to match and express the experience of the room’s inhabitant. Logically, these boards should replace museums.”
— Dec 30, 2025 05:32PM
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 16 of 209
“The uniqueness of every painting was once part of the uniqueness of the place where it resided.”
“Because of the camera, the painting now travels to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting. In its travels, its meaning is diversified.”
Still aping Benjamin, would like for the author to attempt original analysis.
— Dec 30, 2025 02:07PM
“Because of the camera, the painting now travels to the spectator rather than the spectator to the painting. In its travels, its meaning is diversified.”
Still aping Benjamin, would like for the author to attempt original analysis.
Scrungle Gungle
is on page 4 of 209
“The past is not for living in; it is a well of conclusions from which we draw in order to act. Cultural mystification of the past entails a double loss.”
Yeah I would say I agree!
— Dec 30, 2025 01:32PM
Yeah I would say I agree!
