Monday, June 18, 2007

How ill this taper burns


How ill this taper burns, originally uploaded by Theorris.

I was just goofing around with the long exposure setting since the assignment for the group "Department of Art and Visual Communications" is to take a long exposure. I made this one with my handy flashlight and it reminded me of the scene in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar where Caesar's ghost confronts his assassin:

Brutus: "How ill this taper burns. Ha! Who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparation.
It comes upon me. Art thou anything?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare?
Speak to me what thou art."

Ghost: "Thy evil spirit, Brutus." (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Act 4, Scene 2, lines 327-334)

As in Macbeth and Hamlet, there is a quesy hallucinatory nature to confrontations with ghost in Shakespeare. Innevitably it never leads to any good end, and is always accompanied by madness.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks. I just noticed the great phrase: "causes my hair to stare." Wow. No wonder Shakespeare is the Man!

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  2. So very cool. I need to discuss your camera with you. I'm thinking of investing in a newer, cooler, more expensiver one.

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  3. Thanks. I'll be happy to pimp Nikon. The Cannon Rebel is good, but Nikon--oh my it is Nikon, after all. If you want to one-up me, you should invest in the Nikon D50. If you have the big bucks--go for the D80.

    Let's have a confab on the cameras. Your poetic eye deserves a good camera to portray it.

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  4. I have a Canon 30D and I love it, although the 5D is way better and more expensive the 30D does me fine.

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