Lanes Three Approaches in COLD FEVER –Matt Latham

Perspective is crucial to how Hirata views his surroundings while in Iceland. In Landscapes of the Sacred, Lane creates three different ways that we can view the sacred, more to the point how we perceive it.
The first is the ontological. The ontological perspective is used to set apart a sacred place from everything around it. The sacred place is “recognized as manifesting its own inherent, chthonic power and numinosity. It is a place of hierophany, where supernatural forces have invaded the ordinary.” Hirata uses this perspective while at the river. The river to Hirata is sacred for what happened there, his parents died there. It is sacred because of it’s origins. Hirata honors this by performing the Shinto rituals for his dead parents.
The second type of perspective is cultural. This is where we view sacred place as having some attached cultural meaning where the sacred and the profane leak into one another. Hirata views this perspective while observing the nativity scene that his cab driver partakes in early in the movie. The nativity scene took place at what appeared to be a highway rest stop. The nativity scene was one like any other, but there were Icelandic traditions involved. The nativity scene turned the rest stop into sacred place. But to truly appreciate the sanctity of the place you must observe the scene through a cultural perspective.
The last approach is the phenomenological perspective. This perspective utilizes the landscape as integral to the understanding of the sanctity of a place. Lane says that, “given this [the phenomenological approach] one may even have to speak of the place as perceiving itself through us” (43). This approach personifies the landscape in being necessary to understanding and perceiving the sacred. Hirata comes in contact with a fairy in the movie. The fairies are said to live in these rocks all over Iceland. These rocks are so special to the Icelanders that they build roads around them as not to disturb the fairies. The fairies actually appear to Hirata in the movie when his car breaks down. The fairies are a crucial part of the landscape and add to the sanctity of the place.
October 20, 2009