In
our lecture today we discussed the statement “reading the image” which I
personally love, as not everything is as it seems. Poetry is the best example
of this statement because of so much hidden meanings in not only the way the
poem is worded but even for some poems the way the poem is laid out. An example
which was mentioned in our lecture was John Cooper Clarke’s – (I married) A
monster from outer space. For example,
below is the fourth verse
“ We walked out – tentacle in hand
You could sense that the earthlings would not understand
They’d go.. nudge nudge …when we got off the bus
Saying it’s extra-terrestial – not like us
And it’s bad enough with another race
But fuck me… a monster …from outer space”
At first I was
really confused about what the poem was actually about, I just thought it was
an innocent poem about someone marrying an alien! However, that was at first
glance, the more the poem was discussed it was then clear that the punk poet
was actually suggesting racism. I think it’s easy to figure out that the
“monster” is simply a poor woman of a different race
In addition,
the lecturer then brought out this really old looking jacket and asked “What
year was the jacket from?” Everyone jumped to the conclusion this old ragged
jacket belong in the punk era of the 70’s! However, there was more to the
jacket than what we had all seen at first sight! With the juxtaposed images of
studs, badges and black leather combined together made us break down the image
and twist it into something of its actual meaning. So the jacket for example, I
thought it was just a really cool leather jacket but the meaning behind it was
that everyone links leather jackets , studs, etc to the punk era, because of
the cultural memory everyone has. This kind of clothing gives a bad image all
because of a historical riot, the Hollister riot. This was in Hollister 1947,
at the America Motorcyclist association where they all met up to watch annual
rallies, socialise and drink ,however a very few of the motorcyclists got out
of control and caused an uproar in the town, of which the damage was considered
minor in the end. However reporters sensationalized the incident with reports
of bikers "taking over the town" and "pandemonium" in
Hollister.
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