The Kiss by the Hotel de Ville

Robert Doisneau once said, "The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street."

I discovered Doisneau's works in my French II class, during my sophomore year of High School. He is one of the most famous photographs in the world, and I find his photographs to be absolutely moving.

The photo to the left is entitled "The Kiss by the Hotel de Ville"; and it was taken in 1950. It's exquisite, isn't it?

Great art means something different to everyone

Today, in English class, we continued our discussions on Barthes The Death of the Author. Something my teacher told us really struck a cord with me. He said, "Don't look at literature as an artifact, but as an organic structure... don't reduce it to something that was. Art sustains itself... it lives for multiple generations."

Poetic guy, isn't he?

In his essay, Barthes says that "every text is eternally written here and now". Although most classics were not written during this time period, readers should always be searching for comparisons and similarities. If one is creative, many parallels can be found between today and many classics.

One should never be concerned with what the novelist or artist wanted you to take from his/her piece. Art is interpreted... our theories about artworks depend upon who we are. Half the fun of enjoying a good novel or a spectacular painting is theorizing what the piece is really about. Take what you will... great works mean something different to everyone.