A P By John Updike - 1122 Words

Throughout the short story AP written by John Updike, we see how men and women are seen in that time. By taking the Marxist approach, Updike was successful in placing sexual, gender and authoritative powers throughout AP to portray how males objectified women in society of the early 1960’s. By using the emphasis of the girl’s bare skin we see the influence of sexual power. Having the story told from a man’s point of view, we see the stereotypical way they view girls and how this may affect them. From the presence of Lengel we see the power of authority switch from the girls to the older man in the conflict of the story. Throughout Updike’s work, the characters explore their own sexual desire which leads to the exploitation of women’s bodies in society. Sammy, the protagonist, focuses on the girl’s bare skin revealing his true intentions. He states â€Å"the two smoothest scoops of vanilla he had ever known.† (Updike 196), referring to the girls breasts. In the beginning of the story Sammy acknowledges that they are wearing bathing suits but he soon moves on to what they aren’t wearing, indicating that his main interest is their bodies. By giving extreme detail into their bare skin it reveals that his main interest is not that they aren’t wearing clothes, but the places themselves that are not covered by clothes. Sammy draws a parallel between the commodities and the girl’s bodies by referring to the girl’s bodies as items found in the supermarket. He describesShow MoreRelatedA P By John Updike982 Words   |  4 PagesThe story that this research paper is being written over is â€Å"AP† by John Updike. This story is filled with good grammar and has a well written plot and good transition. A person reading the story â€Å"AP† could see it as an interesting story filled with good symbolism. The main character, Sammy, uses a great deal of symbolism when describing the thre e girls in bathing suits who walked into the store he works in. the three girls in bathing suits that walked into the store where the center of the wholeRead MoreA P By John Updike1190 Words   |  5 PagesA P is a story of Sammy who is a 19 year old boy working as a clerk at a grocery store in a small town in New England. Published back in 1961 narrative defining A P is the popular mythology of 1960s basically where youthful rebellion powers took over the soulless system. (Sustana) Therefore Updike has written a story that includes key elements of myth along with the background of postwar prosperity and the attendant consumer culture. Where there is a strong hint of the Cold War as hero characterRead MoreA P By John Updike1704 Words   |  7 PagesIn the story AP by John Updike a young cashier by the name of Sammy learns about the power of desire and the mystery of others minds when working at an AP supermarket in a small town north of Boston in the 1960’s, where there was a lot of social norms and many people didn’t step out of them. The young nineteen-year-old Sammy wasn’t expecting his Thursday shift at AP to go the way it did when income three young girls but, these are not your socially normal teenagers who come walking in the doorRead MoreA P By John Updike1160 Words   |  5 Pagesthe girls’ exit and regret fills him. What he thinks is noble and just becomes a changed, regretful soul. In â€Å"AP† by John Updike, the symbolism portrays the theme of the desire for change. The girls’ immodesty is a symbol of rebellion, revealing the theme of the desire for change. As Sammy acknowledges in the short story, the story takes place â€Å"north of Boston† (Updike 360). The estimated time period is the 1960s. At this time, most of the younger generation longed for change, whichRead MoreA P, By John Updike1019 Words   |  5 Pagespsychoanalytical lens can be used to analyze AP, a short story by John Updike, lone, a piece of art by John William Godward, and â€Å"To My Best Friend - Short Film†. Through this lens, readers can draw the theme that all humans have basic instincts and urges that lie in the unconscious mind. Throughout Updike’s AP, it stands clear that we are always being influenced by fundamental human desires. AP is told from the perspective of Sammy, a teenage cashier at AP. In the beginning of the story, three teenageRead MoreA P By John Updike843 Words   |  4 Pageshelp establish the uniqueness of his or her use of speech through the story’s title, structure, punctuation, setting and the communication between characters. In the story A P by John Updike, the author sets the story in a very ordinary place where everyday people go shopping for their groceries, in a market known as A P. Updike’s style within the story shows many aspects of ordinary life. For example, in the first sentence of the story, the narrator Sammy uses incorrectly the word walks, â€Å"InRead MoreA P By John Updike1441 Words   |  6 PagesJohn Updike is considered one of the greatest writers in modern American history. He is known for the idea that seemingly ordinary aspects of American life are actually quite fascinating. He wanted readers to see the beauty and magic of life, so he tried to describe everyday things using the most clear but beautiful language possible. Many of Updike’s pieces are drawn from his own life such as his marriage and his boyhood, as shown in three of his short stories: â€Å"AP†, â€Å"Ace in the Hole†, and â€Å"PigeonRead MoreA P By John Updike765 Words   |   4 PagesJohn Updike wrote, â€Å"A P† in 1961. In this era of the 1950s and early 1960s, conservative dress mirrored conservative social values. Conformity was the measure of popularity as well as a measure of moral rightness. During this time, people were more afraid of being labeled outsiders than they were afraid of the outsiders themselves (â€Å"A P†). Gender issues and the emergence of feminist consciousness are represented when Lengel states the rules that proclaim the girls are decently dressed-codingRead MoreAP by John Updike512 Words   |  2 Pages â€Å"AP† by John Updike is a story about a boy who learns that all actions have consequences. In â€Å"AP† three girls walk in to the store AP in nothing but their bathing suits. Sammy one of the stores cashiers describes what the girls are wearing and what they do throughout the story. The girls walk up and down the aisles catching the attention of many of the other customers. The girls then get in line at Sammy’s checkout, the manager Lengel walks up and tells the girls they will have to leave thisRead MoreA P By John Updike1033 Words   |  5 Pageshow we face these decisions will have an impact in our lives, and sometimes the ones that seem to be small are the most important ones. John Updike understood how making decision affects people’s life, and he develops it in his short story â€Å"A P,† which is the story of an unhappy boy who quits his job for a pretty girl. In order to develop this theme, John Updike takes Sammy, the main charac ter of the story, through three different stages. In the beginning stage, Sammy is just a boy who is not happy

History Of Popular Culture Free Essays

In Early Modern Europe festivals were the setting for heroes and their stories, to be celebrated by the populace. They posed a change from their everyday life. In those days people lived in remembrance of one festival and in expectance of the next. We will write a custom essay sample on History Of Popular Culture or any similar topic only for you Order Now Different kinds of festivals were celebrated in different ways. There were festivals that marked an individual occasion and weren’t part of the festival calendar, like family festivals such as weddings and christenings. Some took place at the same time every year and ere for everyone, like community festivals like the different saints’ days. Pilgrimages took place all year round. Annuals festivals like Christmas and Midsummer always took place on the same day every year. In those days the average village in Western Europe celebrated at least 17 festivals annually, not counting family occasions and saints’ days. Some festivals, such as Carnival, lasted several days or sometimes even several weeks. In the Netherlands Carnival started every year at the 11th of November (St. Martin) and culminated in a big festival of ‘Dranck, pleijsier ende vrouwen’ (Drink, fun and women) at the end of the Carnival eriod, preceding the period of Lent. Festivals were meant to take the minds of the people off their everyday life, off the hard times and their work. Everyday life in Early Modern Europe was filled with rituals, both religious and secular. Songs and stories played an important role in their lives, although they sometimes adjusted the details of the legends and stories to fit the way they thought a certain festival should take place. Popular culture was mixed with ecclesiastical culture in many ways. The story of St. John the Baptist is a good example of this. The ancient ritual f bathing and lighting fires during Midsummer’s Eve was a remnant of a ritual from the pre-Christian period. Fire and water, symbols of purification, could be seen as the tools of St. John the Baptist, and therefore a combination of the two elements of popular and ecclesiastical culture was obvious. It looks as if the Medieval Church took over the festival and made it theirs. The same thing happened to the Midwinter Festival, which became linked with the birth of Christ, on 25 December. There are many more examples to be found, such as the connection between St. Martin and geese caused by the fact that the St. Martins Day (11 November) coincided with the period during which the people used to kill their geese in the period preceding the Christian period. Carnival plays a special role in popular culture in Early Modern Europe. It is a great example of a festival of images and texts. It was a popular festival, taking on different forms in different regions of Europe. Aside from regional variations, these differences were also caused by factors such as the climate, the political situation and the economical situation in an area. On a whole Carnival started in late December or early January and reached ts peak upon approaching Lent. The actual feast, taking place at the end of the festive period, could take days and would usually involve large quantities of food and drinks. The festival took place in the open air in the centre of a town or city. Within a region, the way Carnival was celebrated varied from town to town. The festival was a play, with the streets as a stage and the people as actors and spectators. They often depicted everyday life scenes and made fun of them. Informal events took place throughout the Carnival period. There was massive eating and drinking, as a way of ’stocking up’ for Lent. People sang and danced in the streets, using the special songs of Carnival, and people wore masks and fancy-dress. There was verbal aggression, insults were exchanged and satirical verses were sung. More formally structures events were concentrated in the last days of the Carnival period. These events took places in the central squares and were often organised by clubs or fraternities. The main theme during Carnival was usually ‘The World Upside Down’. Situations got turned around. It was an enactment of the world turned upside down. Men dressed up as women, women dressed up as men, the rich traded places with the poor, etc. There was physical reversal: people standing on their heads, horses going backwards and fishes flying. There was reversal of relationships between man and beast: the horse shoeing the master or the fish eating the fisherman. The other reversal was that of relationships between men: servants giving orders to their masters or men feeding children while their wives worked the fields. Many events centred on the figure of ‘Carnival’, often depicted as a fat man, cheerful and surrounded by food. The figure of ‘Lent’, for contrast, often took the form of a thin, old woman, dressed in black and hung with fish. These depictions varied in form and name in the different regions in Europe. A recurring element was the performance of a play, usually a farce. Mock battles were also a favourite pass-time during the Carnival period. Carnival usually ended with the defeat of ‘Carnival’ by ‘Lent’. This could happen in the form of the mock trial and execution of ‘Carnival’, (Bologna, Italy, 16th century), the beheading of a pig (Venice, Italy), or the burial of a sardine (Madrid, Spain). So what was the meaning of Carnival in Early Modern Europe? Was it merely an excuse for the populace to go crazy or did Carnival have a deeper eaning hidden behind the facade of food, violence and sex? Carnival was a holiday, a game. It was a time of ecstasy and liberation. The form was determined by three major themes: food, sex and violence. It was the time of indulgence, of abundance. It was also a time of intense sexual activity – tables of the seasonal movement of conceptions in 18th century France show a peak around February. Carnival was also a festival of aggression, destruction and desecration. It was the ideal time to insult or pester people who had wronged someone, often in the form of a mock battle of a football match. A time for paying off old grudges. Serious violence was not avoided and in most areas the rates of serious crimes and killings went up during Carnival. It was also a time of opposition, in more than one way. It opposed the ecclesiastical ritual of Lent. Lent was a period of fasting and abstinence of all things enjoyed by the people, not just food and drink but also sex and recreation. The elements that were taken out of life during Lent were emphasised during Carnival. All that was portrayed by the figures of ‘Carnival’ and ‘Lent’ (fat versus thin). Carnival was polysemous, meaning different things to different people in ifferent areas. In different regions, different heroes were celebrated. Sometimes elements were taken over from other regions. Carnival did not have the same importance all over Europe. In the north of Europe (Britain, Scandinavia) it was less important than in the rest of Europe. This was probably partly due to the climate which discouraged an elaborate street festival at that time of the year. In these regions, people preferred to elaborate the festivities during the Midsummer festival (St. John’s Eve). Two reasons for this are the pagan survivals that were stronger in these regions, partly because they were solated from the rest of Europe due to geographical obstacles, causing a lesser ecclesiastical influence, and the climatic situation as mentioned above. Carnival was a festival in extremis, but elements of Carnival can be found in every festival that was celebrated in Early Modern Europe. During the harvest season, all over Europe festivals and rituals were held. The harvest was celebrated, again, with elaborate drinking and eating, although in a more moderate way than the Carnival celebrations. All these festival had one thing in common: they offered the people an escape from their everyday life and a way to express themselves. It offered the people a way to vent their resentments and some form of entertainment. Festivals were an escape from their struggle to earn a living. They were something to look forward to and were a celebration of the community and a display of its ability to put on a good show. It is said that the mocking of outsiders (the neighbouring village or Jews) and animals might be seen as a dramatic expression of community solidarity. Some rituals might be seen as a form of social control, in a sense that it was a means for a community to express their discontent with certain embers of the community (charivari). The ritual of public punishment can be seen in this light, as it was used to deter people from committing crimes. Professor Max Gluckman used the African popular culture to explain the social function of the ritual of reversal of roles as it happened during rituals as Carnival. Similar rituals still occur in certain regions in Africa. Gluckman explains this ritual as an emphasis of certain rules and taboos through lifting them for a certain period of time. The apparent protests against the social order were intended to preserve and even to trengthen the established order. As a counter example Gluckman states that: â€Å"? in regions where the social order is seriously questioned, ‘rites of protest’ do not occur. † Riots and rebellions frequently took place during major festivals. Rebels and rioters employed rituals and symbols to legitimise their actions. Inhibitions against expressing hostility towards the authorities or individuals were weakened by the excitement of the festival and the consumption of large quantities of alcohol. If those factors were combined with discontent over a bad harvest, tax increases or other calamities, this ituation could get out of control. It could prove a good opportunity for people excluded from power to try and enforce certain changes. It is hardly surprising that members of the upper classes often suggested that particular festivals ought to be abolished. They felt threatened by the populace who during festivals tried to revolt against the ruling classes and change the economical situation they were in. The reform of popular festivals was instigated by the will of some of the ‘educated’ to change the attitudes and values of the rest of the population († to improve them†). This reformation took on different forms in different regions and it took place at different moments in time. There were also differences in the practices that were being reformed. Catholics and Protestants opposed to different elements of popular festivals and they did so for different reasons. Even within the Protestant movement, the views towards reformation of festivals and popular rituals varied. Missionaries on both sides worked in Europe to install their religious values in the local people. Reformers on both sides objected in particular to certain elements in popular religion. Festivals were part of popular religion or were at least disguised as an element of popular religion. The festival of Martinmas (11 November) was a good example of this. What were the objections of the authorities against these elements of popular culture in general and popular religion in particular? There were two essential religious objections. Firstly, the majority of festivals were seen as remnants of ancient paganism. Secondly, the festivals offered the people an occasion to over-indulge in immoral or offensive behaviour, at many occasions attacking the establishment (both ecclesiastical and civil). The first objection meant that reformers disliked many of the popular customs because they contained traces of ancient customs dating from pre-Christian times. Protestant reformers went very far in their objections, even denouncing a number of Catholic rituals as being pre-Christian survivals, considering the saints as successors of pagan gods and heroes, taking over their curative and protective functions. Magic was also considered a pagan remnant: the Protestants accused the Catholics of practising a pagan ritual by claiming that certain holy places held magical powers and could cure people. The reformers denounced the rituals they didn’t find fitting as being irreverent and blasphemous. Carnival and the charivaris were considered â€Å"the work of the devil†, because it made a mockery of certain godly elements the Church held sacred. The reformers thought people who didn’t honour God in their way to be heathen, doomed to spend their afterlife in eternal damnation. Flamboyance was to be chased out of all religious aspects of culture, and, where possible, out of all other aspects of life, according to the Protestant doctrine. In some areas, gesturing during church services was banned, as was laughter. All these things were seen as irreverent, making a mockery of religion. All these changes were introduced in order to create a sharper separation between the ’sacred’ and the ‘profane’. The ecclesiastical authorities were out to destroy the traditional familiarity with the sacred because â€Å"familiarity breeds irreverence. The objection against popular recreations stemmed from the idea that they were ‘vanities’, displeasing God because they were a waste of time and money and distracted people from going to church. This objection was shared by both the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. The latter mainly bjected because it distracted the populace from their work, which in turn affected the revenues of the leading upper classes, or from other activities that were benefiting the rich, reasons that would vary per region. Catholic and Protestant reformers were not equally hostile to popular culture, nor were they hostile for quite the same reasons. Protestant reformers were more radical, denouncing festivals as relics of popery and looking to abolish feast-days as well as the feast that came with it, because they considered the saints that were celebrated during these festivals as remnants of a pre-Christian era. Many of these Protestant reformers were equally radical in their attacks on holy images, which they considered ‘idols’. During the end of the 16th and the first half of the 17th century Dutch churches were pillaged by Protestants trying to destroy all religious relics and images (de Beeldenstorm). Catholic reformers were more modified in their actions; they tried to reach a certain modification of popular religious culture, even trying to adapt certain elements to the Catholic way of worshipping and incorporating popular elements into their religion. They insisted that some times were holier than others, and they id object to the extend to which the holy days were celebrated with food and drink. Some argued that it was impossible to obey the rites of Lent with proper reverence and devotion if they had indulged in Carnival just before. Catholic reformers also installed rules in order to regulate certain popular festivals and rituals, such as a prohibition on dressing up as a member of the clergy during Carnival or a prohibition on dancing or performing plays in churches or churchyards. Contrary to the Protestant reformers however, the Catholic reformers did not set out to abolish estivals and rituals completely. Civil authorities had their own reasons to object to popular festivals in Early Modern Europe. Apart from taking the people away from work or other obligations, the authorities feared that during the time of a festival, the abundance of alcohol could stir up the feelings of discontent the people had been hiding all throughout the year. Misery and alcohol could create a dangerous mix that would give people the courage they needed to rebel against authorities. This was a good reason for the authorities to try and stop, or at least control, popular festivals. 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Computer Graphics A Semi

Computer Graphics: A Semi-Technical Introduction Essay My semi-technical introduction to computer graphics will, however, provide only a half-answer, one that, in particular, cannot address the necessary comparison between paintings and computer images or between subtractive and additive color mixing. Simplified accordingly, a computer image is a two-dimensional additive mixture of three base colors shown in the frame, or parergon, of the monitor hous ing. Sometimes the computer image as such is less apparent, as in the graphic interface of the newfangled operating systems, sometimes rather more, as in ‘‘images’* in the literal sense of the word. At any rate, the generation of 2000 likely subscribes to the fallacy—backed by billions of dollars—that computers and com puter graphics are one and the same. Only aging hackers harbor the trace of a mem ory that it wasn’t always so. There was a time whon the computer screen’s display consisted of white dots on an amber or green background, as if to remind us that the techno-historical roots of computers lie not in television, but in radar, a medium of war. Radar screens, though, must be able to address the dots, which represent attacking enemy planes, in all dimensions and to shoot them down with the click of a mouse. The computer image derives precisely this addressability from early-warning systems, even if it has replaced the polar coordinates of the radar screen with Cartesian coordi nates. In contrast to the semi-analog medium of television, not only the horizontal lines but also the vertical columns are resolved into basic units. The mass of these so-called pixels† forms a two-dimensional matrix that assigns each individual point of the image a certain mixture of the three base colors: red, green, and blue. The discrete, or digital, nature of both the geometric coordinates and their chromatic values makes possible the magical artifice that separates computer graphics from film and tele vision. Now. for the first time in the history of optical media, it is possible to address a single pixel in the 849th row and 720th column directly without having to run through everything before and after it. The computer image is thus prone to falsification to a degree that already gives television pr oducers and ethics watch dogs the shivers: indoed. it is forgery incarnate. It deceives the eye, which is meant to be unable to differentiate between individual pixels, with the illusion or image of an imago, while in truth the mass of pixels, because of its thorough address ability. proves to be structured more like a text composod entirely of individual letters. For this reason—and for this reason only—it is no problem for a computer monitor to switch between text and graphics modes. The twofold digitality of coor- dinates and color value, however, creates certain problem areas, of which at least throe should be mentioned. First, tho three color canons of traditional television or computer monitors are simply not sufficient for producing all physically possiblo colors. Rather, experi ments (which the industry seems to have considered too costly) have shown that it would require nine color canons to even begin to approach the visible spectrum.1 As it stands, the so-called â€Å"RGB cube.† the three-dimensional matrix of discrete values of red, green, and blue, is a typical digital compromise between engineers and management experts. Second, discreto matrices—the two-dimensional matrix of geometric coordinates no less than the throo-dimonsional matrix of color values—pose tho fundamental problem of sampling r ate. Neither nature, so far as wo believe we understand it. II. The optical media, having changed Western culture—not coincidentally—simul taneously with Gutenbergs printing press, always approached optics as optics. From the camera obscura to the television camera, all these media have simply taken the ancient law of reflection and tho modern law of refraction and poured   them into hardware. Reflection and linear perspective, refraction and aerial per spective are the two mechanisms that have indoctrinated the Western mode of perception, all counterattacks of modern art notwithstanding. What once could be accomplished in the visual arts only manually, or. in the case of Vermeer and his camera obscura,* only semi-automatically, has now been taken over by fully auto matic technical media. One fine day. Henry Fox Ihlbot set aside his camera clara, to which his imperfect drawing hand had lent its quite imperfect support, and adopted a photography that he celebrated as the pencil of nature itself. One day. less fine. E. T. A. Hoffman n’s Nathanael shoved aside his lover Clara, hold a per spective glass or telescope to his eye. and jumped to his certain death. Computer graphics ure to these optical media what the optical media are to the eye. Just as the camera lens, literally as hardware, simulates the eye. which is lit erally wetware. so does software, as computer graphics, simulate hardware. The optica] laws of reflection and refraction remain in effect for output devices such as monitors or LCD screens, but the program whose data directs these devices trans poses such optical laws as it obeys into algebraically pure logic. These laws are generally, it should be noted from the outset, by no means all the optical laws valid for fields of vision and surfaces, shadows and effects of light; what is played out are these selected laws themselves and not, as in the optical media, just the effects they produce. It’s no wonder, then, that art historian Michael Baxandall can go so far as to suggest that co mputor graphics provide the logical spaco of which any given perspective painting forms a moro or less rich subset. .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 , .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .postImageUrl , .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 , .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:hover , .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:visited , .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:active { border:0!important; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:active , .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011 .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u7fa2b083b844d1d0f45e0d7f81755011:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Graphical image EssayTho complete virtualization of optics has its condition of possibility in the com plete addressability of all pixels. The three-dimensional matrix of a perspectival space made into discrete elements can be converted to a two-dimensional matrix of discrete rows and columns unambiguously but not bijectively. Every olemcnt posi tioned in front or behind, right or loft, above or below is accorded a matching virtual point, the two-dimensional representation of which is what appears at any given time. Only the brute fact of available RAM space limits the richness and resolution detail of such worlds, and only the unavoidable, if unilateral, choice of the opt ic mode to govern such worlds limits their aesthetics. In the following I would like to try to present the two most important of those optional optic modes, raytracing and radiosity. That being said, it is important to emphasize from the outset what a revolution it is, compared to analog optical media, that computer graphics make optic modes optional at all. To be sure, photography and film allowed for a choice between wide-angle or telephoto lenses and   a wide selection of color filters. But since photography’s hardware simply did what it had to do under tho given physical conditions, there was never any quostion of what the optimal algorithm for images might be. Conversely, computer graphics, because it is software, consists of algorithms and only of algorithms. The optimal algorithm for automatic image synthesis can be determined just as easily as non-algorithmic image synthesis. It would merely have to calculate all optical, i.e. electromagnetic, equivalencies that qua ntum elec trodynamics recognizes for measurable spaces, for virtual spaces as well; or, to put it more simply, it would have to convert Richard Feynmans threo-volume Lectures on Physics into software. Then a cat’s fur, because it creates anisotropic surfaces, would shimmer like cat’s fur; then streaks in a wine glass, because they change their refraction index at each point, would turn the lights and things behind them into complete color spectra. Theoretically, nothing stands in tho way of such miracles. Universal discrete machines, which is to say. computers, can do anything so long as it is programma ble. But it is not just in Rilke’s Malte Laurids Brigge but also in quantum electro dynamics that realities are slow and indescribably detailed.’’7 The perfect optics could be programmed just barely within a finite time, but, because of infinite mon itor waiting times, would have to put off rendering the porfect imago. Computer graphics are differentiated from the cheap real -time effects of the visual entertain ment media by a capacity to waste time that would rival that of good old painters if its usors woro just more patient. It is only in the name of impatience that all existing computer graphics are based on idealizations—a term that functions here, unlike in philosophy, as a pejorative. A first fundamental idealization consists of treating bodies as surfaces. In con trast to computer medicine, which out of necessity must render these bodies as three-dimensional, computer graphics automatically reduces tho dimensions of its input to the two dimensions of its output. That would exclude not just transparent or partly transparent things like the above-mentioned streaks in a wine glass. It is also more than apparent that things like cat fur or lambs-wool clouds (at least since Benoit Mandelbrot) have neither two nor three whole-numhered dimensions, but rather a so-called Hausdorff dimension of 2.37. Not coincidentally, computer generated films like Jurassic Park do not even attempt to compete with the fur coats in Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors, they content themselves with armored and thus optically unadorned dinosaurs. Even with the perfection of the fundamental reduction of bodies to surfaces, of Hausdorff dimensions to pictorial material, computer graphics will still ultimately need to face tho question of what virtual mechanism shall be used to represent which surfaces. Two algorithms present themselves as options, but these practically contradict each other and. consequently, govern mutually exclusive aesthetics. Realistic computer graphics, i.e. those that, unlike mere wireframe models, are supposed to be able to compete with the traditional arts, are either raytracing or radiosity—but not both at the same time.