Every time I walk in the theatre, it’s like a spiritual ritual. I turn off my phone and pull the “light” to the lowest. I figure out a comfy gesture so that I can fully embrace the darkness, until the seat under me becomes void. I wake up from the darkness and waiting for the sudden advent of the stinging light, warning me that the dream is ended, time to come back to the real life. And then my favourite part begins. I turn off the “do not disturb” mode and start to check the messages from people, curious about where I was been in the past few hours. “Where are you? I’m looking for you.” “Theatre. I was watching movie.” Up to this point, my journey finally comes to the end and I “come unglued from the mirror”.
I love the third paragraph in which Roland Barthes explained the “darkness” in a way of stream of consciousness. “…the movie house is a site of availability, the inoculation of bodies, which best defines modern eroticism — not that of advertising or striptease, but that of the big city.” By comparing the experience in theatre with a modern definition of eroticism, I feel the description is both figurative and abstract, but can be fully understood through senses and emotion. That is the primitive touching that Roland Barthes brings me with this piece of work.
– Jasmine Zhang Ziqi 3035983756
Beautifully-crafted piece of writing that includes both your personal experience and your interpretations on Barthes’ ideas. I enjoy how you describe your journey in a movie theatre and your words intertwine with the ‘hypnotic process’ that Barthes suggested. Good work!