TOW #7 - Graven Images (Written)

This essay was written by Saul Bellow, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976. He has won three National Book Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for his writing. The essay was written 1997, which is a fairly modern perspective. The essay was about photography and the modern media, and how that has influenced the behavior of people and the way the media can shape the public idea of someone. This is becoming especially relevant since our culture and society is becoming more public, with the Internet and smartphones and a lot of other modern technology. Throughout the essay, he frequently mentions "amour propre", which means "self love" and was created by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is a "self love" derived from the approval of others, and is something that people today often seek. He opens the essay by talking about President Truman, and how the photographers held a large amount of power, as they could create or destroy his public image, something that is still true for many public figures. He also does a good job of establishing ethos throughout the essay, by using his own past experiences as examples, like the TIME article with the terrible picture of him. But beyond talking about how photography has changed our ideas of self-consciousness and the idea of exposure that was mentioned many times, he talks about why people are so involved in maintaining a good image and may even create a public persona, the way he says he has, the way there are some things he doesn't reveal to the media. He says, "it is the (not always conscious) premise of the photographer that his is the art of penetrating your private defenses" as well as the belief that "your 'privacy' is to them a cover for the lies and manipulations of your amour propre". He is telling the reader that the job of the media and photographers is to reveal your inner life and the "layers of the story".