Robertson:\"How about Umbabene? I bet you\'ve never been to Umbabenel\" Locke:\"

Question

Robertson:"How about Umbabene? I bet you've never been to Umbabenel" Locke:"no" Robertson: "Terrible place--airports, taxi, hotel-+they're all the same in the end" Locke: I don't agree. It's us who remain the same. We translate every situation, every experience into the same old codes. We just condition ourselves Robertson: We're creatures of habit. Is that what you mean?" Locke: "Something like that. I mean no matter how hard you try, it stays so difficult to get away from your own habits. Even the way we talk to these people, the way we treat them. It's mistaken. I mean how do you get their confidence. Do you know? Robertson: "Well-It's like this Mr. Locke. You work with words, images-fragile things. I come with merchandise. Concrete things. They understand me straight away" Locke: "Yes-maybe- The above conversation between Robertson (Charles Mulvehill), a businessman, and Locke (Jack Nicholson), a journalist and documentary film maker, takes place in Michaelangelo Antonioni's movie the Passenger hotel on the edge of the Sahara. How do you evaluate Robertson's characterization that words and images are mere fragile things and only merchandise are concrete things within the context of globalizing world today in which, according to anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, imagination has become a social practice? Displaying 1 to 2 of 2

Explanation / Answer

Words and images are imaginative and fragile because once they are spoken or seen they can not be taken back. And the implication of those words remains for a long time. Being a journalist you have to play with your words quite carefully as they have their impact across the world. Whereas, a merchandise whose business is mostly with goods seems to be more concrete with respect to the constructs of words.

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