So there was a Lunar New Year performance in school today, and something that one of the emcees (Dilys) said made me recall a memory from a long time ago.
I can’t remember what her exact line was, but it had to do with rabbits – it being the Year of the Rabbit according to the Chinese Lunar calendar.
In any case, the thing that came to mind was… Watership Down!
Yes, ladies and gents: since this is a Rabbit year and this is one of my most favourite books of all time, you must read Watership Down.
I’m not too sure why it left such an impact on me, but from what I remember of my callous and misspent youth, I read the text when I was much younger and more impressionable.
This, along with the fact that I practically devoured almost all of Stephen King’s books before I entered Primary Six, is why I turned out the way I am today.
I kid. (But I’m serious about the reading Stephen King bit.)
Jokes aside, Watership Down is a really great book that is not for the faint-hearted, as you can see from the screenshot from the film which is right at the top of this post.
But besides violence and gore, there’s also romance, religion, ethics, etc. – in other words, there’s something for everyone (except the Goths).
So make sure you read the book, even if it’s the only book you read this year. Then, and only then, will you be able to say that you have led a fulfilling life.
(Just to clarify that I’m neither a military nut nor a fanboy of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). I just have a keen interest in SAF-related issues for reasons I will not mention in public.)
I think the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) has produced a good advertisement that makes use of the principles of literary technique to effectively communicate its message to the viewer.
The voiceover text, if you want to read it while the video is being played:
I am the wind.
On land, no blade of grass moves without me.
At sea, every rising wave is touched by me.
Wherever you are, I am high enough to see you
and strong enough to reach out to you
5
and place strength in your hand.
You may not always see me
but you will always feel me
for I am here
for a higher purpose.
10
I won’t discuss the visual semiotics because that isn’t the point of my post.
However, I’ll carry out a bit of literary analysis on the first ‘two’ lines of the text to demonstrate some sense of its literary merit as well as articulate some of the ideas that the advertisement aims to convey to the viewer.
As the “I” in the text represents the entity that is the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF), the “wind” is used as a symbol of the RSAF’s ‘invisibility’ (i.e. how it can operate without being detected by the enemy), its speed, its power, and its versatility at being able to be both strong yet gentle in different times of need.
On one level, the line “no blade of grass moves without me” is an image which evokes ideas of the RSAF’s power – the RSAF has the ability to influence “move[ment]”, especially in inanimate objects that would otherwise not move on their own.
However, if we also imagine the “blade of grass” to be a metaphor for the infantry soldier, which is a symbol of the Army, then the line is also meant to convey an idea of the superiority of the RSAF in the SAF’s war-fighting capabilities: it is at the forefront of military operations in terms of intelligence gathering efforts and attack manoeuvers, to say the least. {This is reinforced in the “sea” imagery used in line 3, which I will not discuss now for want of time/space.) At the same time, the combined image of objects “on land” and “at sea” moving with the assistance of the “wind” also conveys ideas of the interconnectedness of the three arms in war-fighting operations.
Okay, I know this is somewhat wankerish and some people might think I am stretching the limits of plausibility with my analysis, but do me a favour: assume that I am right for the time being.
Now that we’re all on the same page i.e. my analysis is right, what’s the significance of this advertisement in the larger scheme of things?
A well-wrought out advertisement like this can achieve many aims. Besides its primary aim of enticing people to sign on with the RSAF, the advertisement:
Instils a sense of national pride in the SAF, from the point of view of the citizenry, thereby increasing national confidence etc., and
Acts as one form of deterrence (among other deterrence strategies that the SAF uses) to ward off would-be aggressors, from an external point of view.
So one doesn’t need to know literary devices or techniques in order to consciously or unconsciously receive the implied messages that are sent to the recipient i.e. the person watching the advertisement.
But one would need to have some sense of literary technique in order to be able to create an advertisement as good as this one to achieve said aims I mentioned earlier.
And that, my friends, is another reason why there’s a point in learning literature as a point of departure toward doing other things in life.
P.S. I know I said I wouldn’t discuss the visual semiotics of the ad. But seriously – jogging girl is pretty cute.
tldr: Study literature if you enjoy reading fiction texts. The benefits – growing intellectually, emotionally and having career options for the future.
Just to clarify, I’m using literature and language here generically unless I state otherwise, because I think what I have to say is applicable to any language e.g. French and consequently, the literature of that language i.e. French.
For the higher-order thinking skills of analysis and evaluation in a familiar setting.
Here, I’m assuming that you like reading and you want to practice thinking critically as a means of personal development. If you don’t, this doesn’t apply to you.
Now, you can derive these skills from studies in almost any discipline. The advantage of deriving these skills while doing literature is that you get to derive these skills in a domain you are comfortable with and enjoy i.e. fictional texts, drama and/or verse.
Having said that, I must say that literature consists of a whole range of genres and periods. Not everyone is comfortable in learning higher-order skills in texts from ‘strange’ genres or older periods.
For example, I only really started understanding what literature was about when I started doing contemporary texts in my last two years of university.
For the humanity!
All aspects of literature deal with the study of human beings – the ways human beings think, the ways we interact with other people, and our motivations for doing these things.
I think this is very important in anyone’s education – it provides perspective and (hopefully) reduces chances for conflict between human beings.
If your question is: But how does it benefit me?, then this is my answer: life is not about you.
Life is learning about other people which in turn helps you – you learn to reflect on your actions, you learn how to communicate to reduce miscommunication, etc.
And that helps you be a better person so that you can be a better person to other people.
Once more, most humanities/social science courses offer this perspective, so choose literature as the vehicle to help your growth only if you like reading fiction texts.
For the future, because that’s what we’re all working toward.
Besides degrees or careers in education or the arts, the sensitivity to language and language use provides good training for degrees or careers in:
law,
the media,
public relations,
advertising and
marketing,
to name a few industries that are not commonly associated with learning literature.
Why?
Success in these degrees/careers depend very heavily on communication skills, and one very important aspect of these skills – put simply – is knowing what word to use at a certain point in time and why you have to use that particular word at that point in time instead of another word.
Again, you don’t have to do literature to gain these skills if you have a good command of the language, so it really boils down to personal preference.
