Nakai and Egypt

[Mathieu Capel]

Thank you Mark for the hint - indeed Nakai studied Kant's philosophy 'and
especially his "Critique of Judgment".
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.

Mathieu

2010/6/8 Mark Roberts <mroberts37 at mail-central.com>

> Mathieu,
>
> 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.
>
> Regards,
>
> M. Roberts
>
>
> On Jun 8, 2010, at 7:08 PM, Mathieu Capel wrote:
>
>  Dear Kinejapaners,
>>
>> 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.
>> 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.
>> 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.
>> 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...
>> Would someone know the answer ? Many thanks.
>>
>> Mathieu Capel
>> Paris
>>
>>
>>
>


-- 
Mathieu Capel
67 rue de la Roquette
75011 Paris
06 50 32 45 00 / 01 43 79 19 19
mathieucapel at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/kinejapan/attachments/20100608/a63cc57c/attachment.html