Complementary.

My group and I (group 4) presented last week with a parody of SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy. We presented chapter 5 of Kane which is Complementarity. The idea of complements is that two or more things do not act as opposites, but as complements. They complement the other in their differing levels of sameness. Often, the sameness is perceived as being so low that the objects are not just different but actually opposite.

The classic opposite is black and white. However, black could not exist without white. The ideas, notions, and symbolism that accompanies 'black' could not exist without the ideas, notions and symbolism that accompanies 'white.' These are not opposite but complementary. They exist only in context with the other.

Even when objects pursue specific outcomes that are different, sometimes very different, it is still necessary for each to exist. Kane writes, "Thus each of the worlds, pursuing its separate ends, resolves problems by contact with the other" (175). The first example that comes to mind is that of God and Satan. Two different worlds pursuing extremely different ends, needs the other to function. For instance, God seemingly works along side Satan in the persecution of Job. Though the motivations are different and could be confused as "opposite," without Satan in the context of God, the system wouldn't work -- God's plans would not function.

Complements are abundant in the oral tradition, as its characteristic holistic view allows for the understanding of two separate entities working in close relation even though highly different. The typographic tradition is highly analytic and delights in breaking things down into separate entities that can then be set on opposing sides.