What is the meaning of the word Meshes in Maya Deren's film?
Since the world Meshes has more than one meaning, what is the specific meaning Deren's might meant?
If I had to guess, I would say it refers to how the events of the afternoon "mesh" (or, fit) together to make sense.
shareStan Brakhage, in his book 'Film at Wit's End', seems to think that meshes "expresses in a poetic way the trap," and also maybe that it is just a pun on the word "mess," and he states that Deren and Hammid's life will have been like that by the time this film was made.
shareEntrapment, that's the sense I got from it.
shareYep--there it is below. The third definition does indeed make the most sense, since the female character in the film (played by Deren) is trapped by her increasingly nightmarish domestic surroundings:
From thefreedictionary.com:
mesh (msh)
n.
1.
a. Any of the open spaces in a net or network; an interstice.
b. The cords, threads, or wires surrounding these spaces. Often used in the plural.
2. An openwork fabric or structure; a net or network: a screen made of wire mesh.
3. Something that snares or entraps. Often used in the plural: "Arabia had become entangled in the meshes of . . . politics" (W. Montgomery Watt).
Entanglement might be another word to throw in here. Some dreams can be like spider's webs in which you can find yourself entangled.
I once dreamt that I saw my doppelganger and felt it was myself in another lifetime. I was dressed in Arabian garb. It woke me up. At least I didn't see multiple doppelgangers of myself that the dreamer saw of themselves in this movie.
All meanings of the word are equally valid for this film—like life & human existence, it has a multiplicity of meanings, all of them true.
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