Due to IGCSE exams being canceled, we are continuing to attend lessons, which focus on teaching skills and preparing us for IB English. Lately, in IGCSE English Language and Literature, there has been a focus on texts from specific cultures, and of visual texts (advertising, mostly).

But I see this to have been an exploration of how the art (both visual and textual) is inexplicably tied to the culture, and specifically, the state of the culture, its creator(s) originates from. Here are some examples:

The above is the movie poster for Casino Royale, a film in the renowned James Bond franchise. We discussed this poster as a class. One of the things we pointed out was its presentation of an ideal male (or an “alpha male”). James Bond is highly held as a cultural symbol of English masculinity, and the poster uses this to appeal to ticket buyers. It displays violence, expensive vehicles, a lack of emotion, a young woman affectionately looking at Bond, and the “007” logo of the franchise is printed just where Bond’s only biologically masculine trait would be. The poster reflects an attitude that a cool, masculine man shows little emotion, not even happiness. He is loved by women, drives cars and boats that show off wealth, and is impartial to violence. Having watched another James Bond film (Spectre) I also understand how women in the story are mainly temporary lust-objects for Bond, mainly there for Bond to save them, kiss them, and for them to mysteriously vanish before the next film. Essentially, this poster and the film franchise it sells portray who a typical Western man wants to be. For better or worse.

In this poster, the cultural context is seen more in the cultural symbols used. African-American identity is represented by the comb often used to maintain an Afro, and the raised fist, which mirrors the symbol for Black Power, a movement that strives for greater empowerment of African-Americans. The white hat or hood is an especially powerful symbol in the USA, as it is part of the costume of the Klu Klux Klan. The KKK is a huge group of white supremacists who mainly target African-Americans. The fact that a person who is inferred as African-American is wearing the hood and an American police badge tells us the premise of this entire film – an African-American police officer infiltrates the KKK. But this is only because these symbols are widely known within the US. These symbols and this story can only exist because of the long history of oppression of African-Americans in the USA. If, for example, the USA had remained uncolonized by Europeans and had developed as states governed by native groups, who among them could have come up with this storyline? Perhaps they could be inspired by racism elsewhere. But to come up with these specific symbols, to have culturally impactful (or real) symbols that allow the reader of the poster to be shocked – would that have been possible?

Our imaginations are very limited after all. That’s why people say that fact is stranger than fiction. Whether we feel it or not, we are all limited and shaped by the history of humanity, and the history of this Earth.

This makes me think about the fictional world I am creating, Shutaq. I am attempting to make so it is foreign to the cultures that most influence me (The nebulous 2010s South Western English, 2000s Wa Japanese, and the various political ideologies that inhabit me), thus helping me break free of assumptions and think more critically about my morality. This has so far included the society being structural matriarchal, extremely collectivist, condoning human sacrifice, and not going through an industrial revolution. However, this attempt to make it different is a product of what my environment is, and how it has actually allowed me to attempt to question it. And yet even this attempt can’t get that far. What premises within my morality do I still maintain in slowly developing Shutaq? The population of Shutaq is mainly able-bodied (by our standards), produce food through agriculture, values young children, and has some form of money. Are any of these truly required for a society? And even here, I am limited. Why do I define society by its population and how much material wealth people have? And why have I kept the population human?

My attempts do not go even as far as my conscious questions and imagine the subconscious questions. Frameworks in society that I may not have been aware of. One example is how just a few years ago, I took monogamous marriage as a given. After all, how else would people reproduce? But now I know that that is foolish. In some cultures, many men have intercourse with a woman, and the child is considered a mix of all of them. Many cultures have a man marrying many women, or the other way around.

The question, basically, is: Could I or anyone else truly create unique art, not of our time?

Bold of myself to assume all cultures create art.