Lavater

Lavater

by Ellie Kimball -
Number of replies: 0

1) In Silence of the Lambs, there is a scene in which the main character (Clarice) is being watched through a night vision camera by one of the main antagonists. Visibility stands out to me here, as in this scene Clarice is in complete darkness, and we switch back and forth between her perspective of not being able to see anything, and the antagonists perspective of watching her through the night vision camera. To me, this is an interesting play on the visibility/invisibility aspect of surveillance.

2) Despite my disagreeing with Lavater many times throughout his arguments, there were some quotes that struck me. In particular, when talking about the advantages of physiognomy, he stated "what knowledge can more influence his happiness than the knowledge of himself?" This struck me because I think people generally yearn not only to understand and have explanations for their traits and actions (in a modern context, we see this within the extreme popularity of personality quizzes) but also to know how others perceive them. I liked that this quote touched on this being a reason why people might believe in Physiognomy.

3) Plate V on page 58 depicts many drawings similar to those on previous plates, but the last few are entirely silhouettes. I liked the contrast of this, as it makes it interesting to compare how Lavater talks about the more detailed images vs the silhouettes where there are less specific things to focus on, and you must examine the positive space of the heads being depicted.