(More) sensationalism as point of departure for ontological Inquiry

Fiction Vol. 270, June 1976 Illustration by  Philippe Legendre-Kvater

An astronaut fires his blaster even as his space helmet shatters, so that his head is drawn into the vacuum of space, or one should wonder.  The surreal representation of the head--the "immediate" focus of the viewer's attention--suggests a transit to a different realm.  Is this metempsychosis, or merely death, the final moment in a moment of finality, or something else entirely? In any event, inquiry into the purport of the image very quickly exhausts the expiatory possibilities and renders the image inert. Much in the same way is the astronaut's apparent transmogrification rendered uninteresting, moreover underscoring the limited "time-value-appreciation" that is characteristic of sensationalism.

Is there is anything effective remaining after an interrogation of the image?  Doubtful.  Except, perhaps, for the artist's uses of color, shade, form and brushstroke.  The artist's deployment of the sensational remains mundane and, after inquiry, is revealed to be ultimately inane. And I leave it to the citizens of the Highbrow Commonwealth to attach such meanings to ultimately inane as they see fit.