# A minor rant about Munch's "The Scream" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 25, 2004, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418 "2004-08-25T10:36:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/21 "2004-08-25T15:17:41Z")
Actually, scratch that; since the railing is depicted, it seems to be a fair assumption that the depicted figure is the narrator. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/22 "2004-08-25T15:25:31Z")
> [@UrbanChic](#): > > You got somethin’ against nipples? 😃 Nothing against nipples…unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/23 "2004-08-25T15:43:19Z")
That’s actually really interesting. Whenever I saw this painting, I would assume that the title did, indeed, mean that the figure was screaming. But it never made much sense to me – because I couldn’t HEAR the figure screaming. It’s mouth was open, it looked distressed, but I just didn’t get the impression that it was screaming. I would actually sit there and try to “hear” the scream coming out of the figure’s mouth, but the mouth seems to be taking things IN, not sending stuff OUT. It’s almost a hole in the center of the painting, funneling all the colors and the wavy lines into it. This additional information makes the painting make more sense. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/24 "2004-08-25T15:47:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Actually, scratch that; since the railing is depicted, it seems to be a fair assumption that the depicted figure is the narrator. Yes, and the two friends he mentions are also visible walking out of frame to the left. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/25 "2004-08-25T15:51:03Z")
Maybe it’s just me but I always thought the figure was hearing a scream, hence the hands covering the ears. ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/26 "2004-08-25T15:57:51Z")
I thought everybody knew it was a painting of Macaulay Culkin in “Home Alone”. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/27 "2004-08-25T16:07:48Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > 😃 Nothing against nipples…unfortunately. The day is still young, my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/28 "2004-08-25T16:17:55Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > It DOES depict a figure screaming. Either that, or he’s saying, “Uh-oh. I forgot my ears.” I rate this: :D:D 😃 Three big grins! ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/29 "2004-08-25T16:19:46Z")
> [@Casey1505](#): > > 😃 Nothing against nipples…unfortunately. Well, put on a freakin’ shirt or a stick-on star or something! Who do you think you are? Janet Jackson? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/30 "2004-08-25T16:19:48Z")
> [@don't ask](#): > > I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out across the fjord Clearly, he’s pining. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/31 "2004-08-25T16:22:35Z")
I thought the whole point of art is that there’s never a “right” or “wrong”, it is what it is to the person who is viewing it. If it represents to me the reaction of a farmer to the news that his pigs have all just flown away, so be it. One of my chief complaints has always been that so many people seem to sneer at the masses who don’t appreciate fine art, yet those same people sneer at the masses who appreciate fine art, but “incorrectly.” ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/32 "2004-08-25T16:26:52Z")
Perhaps I am incorrect but isn’t The Scream only one painting out of a collection of paintings\* that tell the story of his happiness, then subsequent depression after breaking up with a girlfriend? I heard this on a Munch documentary once. (I know there are also different versions of the The Scream, but I am talking about actual different paintings) ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/33 "2004-08-25T16:38:07Z")
> [@](#): > > . . . a great, infinite scream pass through nature. I just hate it when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/34 "2004-08-25T16:42:54Z")
I’m guessing he perceived nature’s affirmation of man’s eventual mortality resonating through time to eventually be heard by all. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/35 "2004-08-25T16:43:45Z")
Maybe if I’d stuck around for the graduate level, they would have explained _why_ Munch made this painting, instead of how (but I doubt it: I once read a quote by Picasso that when artists get together they never discuss the meaning of art; they talk about the cheapest place to by paint). To earn a simple BFA at a state university, you had to understand that Much was both a skilled and innovative printmaker and that, oh, by the way, he really had the hots for this one girl but her dad put his foot down big-time on the relationship (and there they are in the upper left of the painting. How mortifying!). Scandinavians; a moody bunch Strindberg, Ibsen, Edvard Munch Sunless winters evoking funk Strindberg, Ibsen, Edvard Munch ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/36 "2004-08-25T16:44:24Z")
> [@laina\_f](#): > > ## … a great, infinite scream pass through nature. > > I just hate it when that happens. Yeah, but does an infinite string of screams equal 1? ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/37 "2004-08-25T17:16:50Z")
Mmm, but what an artist says about work doesn’t usually count for that much, particularly one who was as [Mr. Tudball] _lewwwwny tewwwwns_ [/Mr. Tudball] as Munch. At best it’s a first word - but certainly not the last word. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/38 "2004-08-25T17:26:36Z")
Funny, and I thought that this thread was going to be about the fact that two thugs got just walked in, kicked the unarmed guard, pulled the painting off the wall (no alarm), no one follwed them, and that it took the cops 15 minutes to show up after one of the most significant paintings of the turn of the century was stolen. I realize that Oslow society may not be exactly like American society… Anyway. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/39 "2004-08-25T17:54:47Z")
> [@Blackclaw](#): > > It is with deep regret that we, the uneducated masses, have continually mistaken an open mouthed figure in a painting titled “The Scream” to be, in fact screaming. On behalf of us, the unsophisticated hordes, we offer our most shallow of apologies. Oh, man - I can’t believe I thought that dude was screamin’. Wow, what was I thinking? Sheesh, I was like 180 degrees off on that one. Boy do I have egg on my face now. The guys at work are gonna have a field day with this one, let me tell you. :o ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418/40 "2004-08-25T18:16:53Z")
Nothing much to add, but I did think [Chip Bok’s cartoon from the Akron Becon](http://cagle.slate.msn.com/politicalcartoons/PCcartoons/bok.asp) was quite amusing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-minor-rant-about-munchs-the-scream/261418.md?page=3)