It is said that the most beutiful thing to wear is the smile, the natural one able to light up the eyes and affect people. The second volume of All of You starts with the fourth lesson of Nah Jue for Qi Shi which is “smiling to others” because as the image consultant himself says:
“The smile is the most natural way the people use to express their emotions. When you are happy, you will smile naturally. When you are sad, you won’t be able to do that and you don’t have to force yourself”
The way the face express the emotions, the way the facial muscles tense and twitch was the first way to study what the emotions were and how they worked. Every emotion pass on the face and they are communicated to others who in this way can resonate with them.
ANTONIO DAMASIO AND THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS
What Nan Jue says in All of You 2 is what also Antonio Damasio claimed. He was a portuguese neuroscientist who among the firsts studied the emotions, what they were, how they worked and their role. In particular, he claimed that:
“Emotions and feelings […] are the way to communicate our state of mind to people”
Emotions and feelings have, according to the neuroscientist, not only a mental dimension but also a bodily dimension. They cause phisycal changes, free gesture, above on the face, that have a communicative impact. People around us in fact are able to, reading those phisycal changes, those gestures and expressions, assume our emotional state, adapt to it and respond to it.
Adaptation, communication and motivation are the three main function of the emotion identified by Damasio. They indeed allow people to adapt to the various situations and environments throught the so-called mechanism of “fly or fight”. It is this mechianism that has allowed the man during the years to survive and evolve, affecting his decision process.
The emotions also motivate. They push the person to act, to make some decision rather than other, causing often a conflict with the reason. It is the so-called conflict between the heart and the mind.
The term “emotion” indeed derives from the latin “emovere” which means “moving, carrying out, shaking”. So an emotion is something that move us, carry us out from our usual state and shake us.
In the end, the last function of the emotion which is also Nan Jue’s fourth lesson for Qi Shi is the communication.
QI SHI AND THE “ART OF SPEECH”
The emotions, as said preaviously, are what allows us to communicate with others, to foreseen their behaviour and they have an important role in the interpersonal relationships and in the adaptation to the social environment.
For this reason, it’s important for Qi Shi to learn how to express them. Doing it means allowing the others around him to understand him, to empathize with him and in this way going over his apparently menacing aspect to see that he is a really good and kind boy.
Learning how to express his emotions is also necessary for the young photographer to understand those of the others around him, to adapt to them and be able to respond to them.
Communicating is important both with those bodily and facial gestures that are expression of the emotions and with the words. So, here is the fifth lesson of Nan Jue which is “being able to use the art of speech”
Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter e i Doni della Morte said:
“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”
RETORICA AND DIALETTICA: ARTS TO PERSUADE PEOLE WITH WORDS
Words are a powerful tool able to affect people both in positive and negative way. Philosophers like Plato and Aristo claimed that what they called “retorica” or “dialettica”, which was based on the use of words throught the dialogue, was the only way to educate the people, persuade them and spread the truth. Veritas (truth), Logos and Esse (being) are indeed the words among which it is often possible to find the term communication that is made both of gestures and words. It is the so-called verbal and no verbal communication, from the latin “verbo” which means “word”. Moreover, the term communication derives in fact from the latin “communis” which means “sharing, put in common”.
Therefore, Nan Jue’s fifth lesson for Qi Shi is, after learning the no verbal communication,learning the verbal communication to be able to socialize and to enter fully in the social environment.
JOHN LOCKE: THE SOCIAL NEED AND THE MISUNDERSTANDING
For the Philosopher John Locke communication, as language, is one of the main aspects of the human life throught which the man satisfies that need of sociality that characterizes him.
Aristo, mentioned before, claimed that the man is a social animal, that is he realizes himself only in the relations with the others. “Who lives outside the community” said the greek philosopher “is evil or superior to man”.
However, for the English Philosopher, communication is also necessary to express those thoughts and ideas that otherwise would remain inside the mind.
If Qi Shi, during the meeting, hadn’t shared his idea about the project he and the team should work on, that idea for the photoshoot would have remained inside his head.
Locke’s vision about communication is something functional to enter the society, to carry out the inner man’s dimension and point out an important problem.
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
If the communication is a language, then there is no garantee that between who sends and who receives the words have the same meaning.
“The medium is the message” is one of the mani ideas of the canadian communication researcher Marshall McLuhan. It underlines how important is to examine not only the content but also the medium, that is the communication tool used, and the way how people perceive the reality because they can affect the meaning.
Words indeed are subjected to interpretation, the way they are pronounced and the tool used to spread them can affect their meaning. For this reason, misunderstandings can happen that often lead to uncomfortable situation like the one where Qi Shi found hinself in.
The photographer wanted to share his idea as an observation or a suggestion. Unfortunately, it is was perceived like a critique by his sensitive colleague who ran away crying.
Pirandello said:
“Abbiamo tutti dentro un mondo di cose: ciascuno un suo mondo di cose! E come possiamo intenderci, signore, se nelle parole ch’io dico metto il senso e il valore delle cose come sono dentro di me; mentre chi le ascolta, inevitabilmente le assume col senso e col valore che hanno per sé, del mondo com’egli l’ha dentro? Crediamo di intenderci; non ci intendiamo mai!”
The translation is that everyone has a world inside them and understand and perceive the things according to that word which is different from someone else’s world.
So, it is not certain how the words can be understood and perceived as well as it is not certain what are the emotions that a person is feeling. For this reason, we have to be careful and we have to learn how to communicate, verbally and no verbally, as correctly as possible.
A SECOND VOLUME PROFOUND AND DELICATE
So, even this second volume of All of You offers, like the first one (HERE is its review) different points to reflect about and deals with profound and complicated topics like emotions, comunication and social need. Nan Jue and Qi Shi’s story continues as well as their cohabitation among ups and downs. The photographer starts working for the studio he wanted and he has to faces some challenges both from the social and emotional point of view. The lessons of the self-proclaimed image consultant seems to be really useful for him. Due to them he manages to finally bond with his collegues and enter that social context he has always stood apart from.
On the other hand, Nan Jue has to face his past, that is not so far, from which he is running away and the lie he said. The self-proclaimed image consultant is always more in conflict and he has always less time. The supposed domestic violent he was victim of in the first volume, here in this secon volume it is confirmed.
Liang Azha talks about that and all the other themes with the same softness he draws and in the same way he pictures the evolution of the two protagonists’ relationship which grows slowly but constantly.
The final judgement about this second volume of the story of All of You is surely positive.
So, let’s go on with the third volume. After all, who doesn’t want to see Qi Shi and Nan Jue dressed like handsome vampires per an Horror Party?
DO YOU ALSO WANT TO READ ALL OF YOU?
I read the Italian Paperback Edition published by Jundo and I used for this article the Italian name. However, if you are interested in reading it, you can also find it in english digital version on Tapas with the title Engraved on my Heart.
Moreover, Liang Azha is the author of other amazing stories like Checkmate! Capture my Heart (also on Tapas), Starting with a Lie and Soul Sealer.