FREE ESSAY ON BERGER AND TOMPKINS

BERGER AND TOMPKINS

John Berger's writing Ways of Seeing is a look into the world of art. Throughout his
composition, he gives his opinions on various topics about art. Jane Tompkins essay
Indians: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History is a look into the world of
history. Within her essay, Tompkins discusses her views on the quest of finding truth in
history. She uses terms such as relativism ,the understanding that man or woman can never
find the absolute truth in facts, and epistemological quandary , a predicament where in
her case she could not find the correct knowledge and facts to interpret and learn the
factual information she desired to possess. These terms help to develop her way of
finding the historical truth when there are many different accounts of history. 
Reproductions occur in many different aspects of life. Two of these such aspects are art
and history, the areas of expertise of Berger and Tompkins respectively. Berger believes
that non-exact reproductions of art are of great 
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value while Tompkins believes that there is little value if there is a non-exact
reproduction or recount of history. 
John Berger ,an art critic as well as an author, is a proponent of reproducing art in
different forms other that the original. When Berger talks about this positive view of
reproduction ,he says that, 
In the age of reproduction the meaning of the paintings is no longer attached to them;
their meaning becomes transmittable that is to say it because information of a sort ,and,
like all information, is either put to use or ignored; information carries no special
authority within itself.(65)
This quote explains Berger's feelings on the reproduction of art in our time. He
illustrates to the reader that reproductions give the art viewer a more specific angle on
a art piece. By doing this the art pursuer can understand the piece on a greater level
making the original piece more comprehensible. Because of this, Berger makes the
assertion that reproduction enhances the understanding of the original piece thus making
reproduction justified and a worthy thing to accomplish.
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This belief that reproduction further explains a piece of art carries into Berger's
thinking on modern film and the modern camera. Not only can art or paintings be
reproduces with another painting but it can be reproduced with the camera. A film-maker
can use art to illustrate a theme or point that he or she is trying to make. When a
painting is reproduced by a film camera it inevitably becomes for the material
film-maker's argument(66). Because of this a film which reproduces images of a paintings
leads the spectator through the painting, to the film-maker's own conclusions(66). Film
is another venue for people to broaden their understanding of paintings. Thus, Berger is
for this form of reproduction. This is another point that Berger uses to further display
the benefit of art reproduction.
An alternate view of reproductions is held by Jane Tompkins. She analyzes history with
the application of relativism, the understanding that man or woman can never find the
absolute truth in facts, to the dilemmas of history. In the end, she describes her
conclusions regarding historical interpretation. First she begins to realize her dilemmas
with establishing non-biased historical fact when preparing to teach a course in colonial
American literature. Tompkins wanted to learn what she could about the Puritan's 
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relationship with the Americans Indians, but she soon found extremely conflicting
reports. She explains,
Some of the conflicting accounts were not simply contradictory, they were completely
incommensurable, in that their assumptions about what counted as a valid approach to the
subject, and what the subject itself was, diverged in fundamental ways(619).
In other words, when a person researches a fact they will always find conflicting reports
which is shown here by Tompkins. Tompkins felt a loss because she was frustrated with
this array of mutually irreconcilable points of view(619) and decided to turn to what she
viewed as primary sources(620) for further clarification. Yet here Tompkins finds further
evidence of bias, and further frustration. She describes her situation as a complete
epistemological quandary(620). This is a quandary where in her case she could not find
the correct knowledge and facts to interpret and learn the factual information she
desired to possess.
This proves to the reader that Tompkins believes that reproductions of history have
limited value and must be interpreted. The history that happened is the absolute truth 
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but the resulting interpretation that occur are diluted and are not the complete truth.
Because of this, the historical account that historians write have be read with
relativism in mind. If the reader does not do this the person can be thinking that the
history that they are reading is the absolute historical truth. Believing in false facts
can lead to telling and teaching other people these false facts thus creating a domino
effect of lies. 
Unlike art, history is not something to be interpreted, it is straight facts. Art is
created by an artist to convey a message or a theme to his or her audience. I believe
that history should not be explored ,rather, that in an ideal world, history is known and
there is no need to hunt for it. On the other hand, art is to be interpreted by people.
However, reproduction can lead to many of the original artists ideas and themes to be
left out. A person could be mislead by what the reproductioner has put before them.
Berger says, Uniqueness of the original now lies in the original of a reproduction...no
longer what its image shows that strikes one as unique; its first meaning is no longer
found in what it says, but in what it is(61). I believe that if the main meaning is now
found in the reproduction the original inspiration of the artist can be lost forever.
This is much like the domino effect of lie that can occur if 
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history is told incorrectly because the concepts of the reproductioner will now be
thought of as what the message is supposed to be. Much like the inaccurate accounts of
history can be thought of as fact even though it is not.
As you can see Tompkins and Berger have distinct ideas on whether or not there are merits
to reproductions life. Berger believes that there is a lot of merit because if there is a
reproduction of the original piece than the original piece can be understood better thus
making the artist's message that he or she wanted to convey through their paintings more
viable. Tompkins believes that history is always changed for the worse when reproduced.
It is changed for the worse because the truth is often not properly written in historical
text. Thus the truth is obscured and Tompkins believes that this is a negatives and
because of that she doesn't think that historical reproduction is deserving of merit.