The Hears building is representative of the way in which imperialism within San Franciso is conducted. The corporation dominates over the media having complete control over what the American public perceives from the environment around them. Newspapers are a reflection of the culture and poltics significant to this country; and if one entity is producing the information that the public has access to; then that entity is establishing a narrow and dominating vision of the social and political constructions of American society.
William Hearst is quoted by Brechin: "Shall we not continue to hold in power, in growth and expansion our first plave among the nation of the earth?", suggesting that Hearst has inherited the motivation of imperialists to continue to grow and capitalize over other entities. His desire to consume and expand comes from the imperialist influences of previous San Franciscans, including Hearst's family influence.
A visual of the Hearst building is provided on page 201; and one can interpret the unnecessary extravagance of the elaborate detail and intricacies involved in the architect of the building. It is impossible to ignore the relation to old classical and ancient building structures of Rome and Italy; which the architects deliberately mimicked. The visual effects of the classical force the observer to be reminded of ancient imperial powers of the classical time period; which modern day imperialists were interested in discovering.
The Hearst building still represents the power and control today, as it has in the past. The publis is aware of the constructed ideologies and biases of the media and has discovered alternative ways of digging for political and social information about the American society that exists today. The corporations that control the media are dominating too many outlets of information ... television, newspapers, magazines. radio, internet and much more are all components of the same corporation. Imperialism and capitalism drive the corporations to become more powerful and continue to expand. It is these ideologies which contribute to the avoidance of reality and the contribution to political and social interest and drama.
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2 comments:
You do a great job of analyzing Brautigan's work and discovering the main themes of his stories.
I agree with you completely about his focus of the depleting aspect of nature in reality. The majority of his work deals with this issue as he intertwines the human with the natural and personifies nature, or at least portrays it as a comoddity and gives it qualities of the human realm.
One of my favorite Brautigan works is his "The Cleveland Wrecking Yard" which I believe you refer to when speaking of the "birds" being bought and sold. His idea of the commodification of nature definitely illustrates Brautigan's views of the depletion of nature as well as addresses issues at hand in today's world, but showing (in his story) that nature and its elements can be bought and sold.
J...yes, the Hearst legacy will be with SF for a very long time, no doubt. Your post reinforces one of Brechin's deep-seated theories about the power of the dynastic families, where power is passed down through lineage. Definitely a major factor for the persistent influence. But are there other factors which keep this power going? And what sort of effects do resistance pieces like "Citizen Kane" have one their power? I wonder to what extent the Hearsts still exert influence, given - as you observe - the advent of new media, internet, blogs, etc...
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