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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Dear
Mathieu,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I’m
not certain about this, but Nakai may be referring to the “fear of empty
spaces” (horror vacui, a term borrowed from Aristotle) that the Italian Mario
Praz introduced to art and literary criticism in the late 1920s, most famously
in his 1930 book The Romantic Agony. Praz was talking mainly about interior
clutter and excessive ornament, but the central (and highly influential) idea
was that this was a response by artists and their culture to a fear of infinity.
Praz’s writings were translated widely in the early 1930s and he was
certainly considered a “famous critic” at that time, so they may be
relevant here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Richard
Suchenski<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> owner-KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:owner-KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Mathieu
Capel<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, June 08, 2010 9:16 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> KineJapan@lists.acs.ohio-state.edu<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: Nakai and Egypt<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Thank you Mark for the hint - indeed Nakai studied Kant's
philosophy 'and especially his "Critique of Judgment". <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>Unfortunately, the "fear of space" Nakai refers to
seems to have few in common with the idea of "sublime" (even if we
may find, as you suggest, a familiarity between "fear" and
"bewilderment") : the famous "critic" Nakai is indebted to
would have stated that builiding the pyramids of Egypt was a way for the people
to put limits to the infinite space of the desert, that they eventually
perceived as a threat, or something irrational, for themselves were a nation of
slaves who couldn't handle the categories of "freedom" or
"infinity". That's why Nakai argues that pyramids expressed the
Egyptians' "fear of space"... Thanks anyway.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Mathieu<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal>2010/6/8 Mark Roberts <<a
href="mailto:mroberts37@mail-central.com">mroberts37@mail-central.com</a>><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Mathieu,<br>
<br>
Off the cuff, I would say: have a look at what Kant says about the pyramids in
A. §§ 26 of the "Critique of Judgment", and see if that resonates
with what Nakai says in "Bigaku nyûmon". It's a discussion of the
sense of bewilderment associated with the mathematical sublime, and Savary's
account of the pyramids is cited as an example.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
M. Roberts<o:p></o:p></p>
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<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>
<br>
On Jun 8, 2010, at 7:08 PM, Mathieu Capel wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Dear Kinejapaners,<br>
<br>
Those of you who have approached Nakai Masakazu's theory may know that he often
seemed reluctant to fully quote his sources. The realm of his interests is
actually known, more or less, and can be linked, for instance, and besides
other japanese fellows who were his contemporaries, to german thinkers from the
end of 19th century to the beginnig of the 20th.<br>
Nonetheless, when reading Nakai's "Introduction to Aesthetics"
(Bigaku nyûmon), it may be far from easy to locate his sources. In the chapter
"Eiga ni kûkan", Nakai talks about the pyramid of Egypt, and the
"fear of space" they symbolize : this idea actually was borrowed from
" one critic" (p. 298 in the Iwanami Bunko edition), but who that
critic is, that's something I wouldn't know.<br>
Being something as a detail of small significance, where he took that idea may
seem of minor importance, but I have the feeling that knowing the name of that
very "critic" may help to rebuild a little further Nakai's network of
influences, thus, to evaluate what was the novelty of his thinking in the field
of "iconology", and then, in the theory of cinema.<br>
I tried to find the answer in Takahashi Naoyuki's "Nakai Masakazu to sono
jidai", but wasn't lucky enough. I have been searching until now around
Burckhardt and his followers too, such as Wölfflin, for Nakai's theory seems
close to the idea of "Zeitgeist" ; around Panofsky's iconology also,
after Warburg, and Cassirer. Anyway, I couldn't find yet the proper
quotation...<br>
Would someone know the answer ? Many thanks.<br>