Claude Simon's "The Grass" (L'herbe)

Challenge #20 in the Nature from Around the World series. Hosted by vqueen.

Challenge has finished

Very simple: just submit your picture that best expresses your personal interpretation of Claude Simon's novel "The Grass" (L'herbe)

Show full rules

Announced:

Thursday, 24th November, 2011 (GMT)

Submissions:

Thursday, 1st December, 2011 – Wednesday, 7th December, 2011 (GMT)

Voting:

Thursday, 8th December, 2011 – Wednesday, 14th December, 2011 (GMT)

Processing rules:

No major photo-shopping
Minor editing such as exposure, contrast and such for small fixes is acceptable
No HDR

Capture date rules:

No restrictions.

Additional rules:

Photo entries must be the original work of the challenger (poster)
Only pictures not entered in previous dpr challenges please
Please abide by dpr rules re nudity etc

Maximum number of entries per user:

Maximum number of entries in challenge:

submission
phase has

ended

44 entries

voting
phase has

ended

411 votes

Voting results: 44 entries Slideshow of 4 3 Page: 4 Rows:

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Entry has been withdrawn

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(joint)

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43^rd

Entry has been withdrawn

44^th

"The Grass" in it's natural countryside setting

45^th

Entry has been withdrawn

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(joint)

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3 / 4

Challenge comments

Total comments: 12

Just some quote from the internet "The emphasis on visual perception started to dominate Simon's work from L'Herbe (1958), set in the year 1940 when German invaded France. The book, which took its title from Pasternak's poem ("No one makes history, no one sees it happen, no one sees the grass grow") was an attack on the traditional writing of history. Nothing actually happens in the story. The tale about an old woman, Marie, who is dying, is filled with descriptions of houses and gardens. For Simon history is everyday occurrences, and Marie represents the unwritten side of the past".Unqoute
This maybe explain some of the pictures

Comment edited 57 seconds after posting

1 upvote

all but one of these so far don't portray what the book meant to me and so far are all .5's for missing it. There is one with a bottle that almost nails it and will score high as this person got the real meaning of the novel and how the combination of nature and mans desire to alter his reality affects people in profound ways.

0 upvotes

But isn't that the problem with themes like this? The challenge says "...best expresses your personal interpretation..." I have no idea what someone's personal interpretation of a novel is unless we have a long discussion about it; but I'm pretty sure it will be different from mine. Should I score a photo low or high based on whether a person's interpretation is the same as mine? Some of the "grass" photos do seem to be just shots of grass, but others seem to express a sense of countryside, rural landscape, season, etc. that seem quite valid interpretations...

Joe

3 upvotes

But it's not even a theme of the book. It's just your interpretation of the title. I'm pleased that you have at least gone to some effort to defend the entries, but Mike is right. Most of the entrants here would not have even THOUGHT about why they submitted a picture of "grass" other than thats the title of the book. That is our whole point.

0 upvotes

You are probably right; but for me, assuming that I know what a person was thinking when they entered a photo makes me uncomfortable. If I voted in this challenge, I would base the scores purely on the quality of the photograph, grass or no grass...

2 upvotes

Which totally defeats the purpose of the theme. The host in this case should have just made the theme "grass". The rest is just window dressing for the sake of it. And once more proves my point.

0 upvotes

the end to all discussions: as the host, I will be ending this series as there will never be a way to make this right: if explanation over how the picture relates to the novel is mandatory, many will react with "photopgraphy is an art and does not need explanation" argument as it was the case in the first challenge of the series; if no explanation will be mandatory, we will end up with entries and voting process based on the literal meaning of the name of the novel.... so the best is to skip to a less controversial topic.... I thank you all for all your comments. Best regards

0 upvotes

If I choose to enter a Deep and Meaningful photo in the theme of the storyline rather than the title, then the voters would mark my entry down down down, since they too won't have read the book, and only vote on the title! There's the dilemma.

0 upvotes

I was in the same quandary, especially as the host has left it so open with "personal interpretation" Being a purist though, and in the spirit of the challenge I entered a picture based on the the theme of the storyline. I know I will probably get ranked low, but then I haven't won a challenge yet.
BTW how did a buffalo/bison make it into this, even the most extreme interpretation would not set this story in the US. :)

0 upvotes

This novel tells of a post-World War II family in France, a dilemma the main character is facing and 10 agonizing days she spends to take a decision and the souvenirs and thoughts that dominate her mind during those 10 days. The name of the book, according to my personal interpretation, comes from the very strong lyrical description of nature, of countryside, of flora, of insects and birds etc which covers the background of the whole plot....

2 upvotes

Especially as the novel really has nothing to do with grass. I am amazed at how little effort people put into these challenges. Even a brief synopsis of the novel would tell you what it is about. Shame really

1 upvote

interesting challenge

1 upvote

Total comments: 12

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