DIVA
"distinguished woman singer, prima donna," 1883, from It. diva "goddess, fine lady," from L. diva "goddess," fem. of divus "divine (one);" see divine.
This is what the film diva looks like. She is twenty-four years old, featured on the cover of an illustrated magazine, standing in front of the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido. The date is September. If one were to look through a magnifying glass one could make out the grain, the millions of little dots that constitute the diva, the waves, and the hotel. The picture, however, refers not to the dot matrix but to the living diva on the Lido. Time: the present. The caption calls her demonic: our demonic diva... Everyone recognizes her with delight, since everyone has already seen the original on screen. It is such a good likeness that she cannot be confused with anyone else.
-Siegfried Kracauer "The Mass Ornament"
This is what the film diva looks like. She is twenty-four years old, featured on the cover of an illustrated magazine, standing in front of the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido. The date is September. If one were to look through a magnifying glass one could make out the grain, the millions of little dots that constitute the diva, the waves, and the hotel. The picture, however, refers not to the dot matrix but to the living diva on the Lido. Time: the present. The caption calls her demonic: our demonic diva... Everyone recognizes her with delight, since everyone has already seen the original on screen. It is such a good likeness that she cannot be confused with anyone else.
-Siegfried Kracauer "The Mass Ornament"
