feeling kinda Moody

There are numerous directions one could take in discussing this film, the least of which seems to be the story. Thus, narrative...The almost invisible shifts (particularly in the filmic tradition) in time often confuses the story in some manner. We cannot always tell when time has changed or when the characters change (as when they are "playing" the roles of their spouses). The camera (and costumes) provide only discrete clues to such shifts. How do these affect the story and the viewer's relationship with such?

Borges and Varda

Oh. My. What? Post away.

of Prufrock and Sam

I suspect that the poem for this week might present some challenge. That's OK. In class, we will spend some time breaking it down; that is, we will work through much of the poem to discover how it makes meaning (which is similar to the ways we perform cinematic analysis: breaking down scenes in terms of cinematography, editing, etc. to find out how meaning is made). Do be sure to read the poem and try to work through some of it on your own. 

I put it together with Brazil because at some level they both concern the breakdown of society and the individual's attempt to balance his reality and his perceived reality. Whence the (unrealized) expectations in these characters (Prufrock and Sam)? What is it about their societies that prompts such (seemingly disconnected) expectations? Additionally, can you discuss the forces at work on thee characters that prompt such? We know that Brazil is visually rich. Does Gilliam use this texture toward anything more than baroque excess?

my best Bavarian accent here

Whereas Waldo may not be dynamic fodder for intellectual investigation, the existential question of the bearded man who follows him in every scene not withstanding, Werner Herzog's general approach to documentary should well be (fodder, that is) here. Post like my best fiend!

documentary narration

So, I heard roundly positive reviews of The True Meaning of Pictures. Now, it's time to make critical (rather than merely evaluative) claims about it. Do so with an awesome comment of your own.

We could start by noting that The True Meaning... is a film of "social representation" in that it gives tangible representation to aspects of the world we already inhabit and share. Such films make the stuff of social reality visible and audible in distinctive ways according to the acts of selection and arrangement carried out by the filmmaker. They also contain truths, if we decide they do. The viewer assesses the claims and assertions, perspectives and arguments in relation to the world we know and decide or believability. 

women, virginia, and mabel

As for A Woman Under the Influence and "A Room of One's Own": notes are now online. However, I want to encourage you to strike out on your own in terms of analysis, particularly connecting the two texts. Obviously they are both focused on "woman." How (as film specifically) deal with Mabel, her house, and her marriage? How does the camera function? What is the relationship between camera and its subject/object? Don't write merely about story here but about elements that are particular to cinema. How might the ideas that Woolf highlights be seen in the film? How does Woolf see history and the future for woman?

Odyssey and Godard

Alright, so what's going on with these things? Man oh man.

Proust and Vertov, Oh my!

Be sure to engage the text well before Tuesday, as it takes a while to get the flow of his singular writing style. Remember that I have already noted that in the passage "nothing happens," so you don't have to anticipate any sort of "story" to get rolling. But, rather than mere ephemeral Franco-babble, the text does have an interesting narrative frame. And, the connection with the film I am going to make in class concerns the specific socio-cultural moment of early part of 20th century (an era loosely called modernism). The notes on the webpage point to the specifics here.  Don't give up when reading In Search... It just might end up being one of the coolest things you've read; but, you've got to give yourself over to it for this to happen.  


 I know that Proust is a challenge. I know that it is difficult to make it through; I know that it is even more of a challenge to “do something” with Proust. His narrative style seems to deflect entry. But, I hope that I am able to tie together the text in such a way that we can see how Proust narrates and how his narration is the “thing itself.” That is, “the thing itself” and the “knowing the thing” are the same, that the form becomes the content, that the narration is the story. I use Proust in this class because he makes us think about narration so differently (particularly in contrast to the mode of narration we’ve grown accustomed to through Hollywood’s transparent style).

cuckoo's nest and madness

I have on the course website some "Madness Discussion Ideas," which I hope can spur some blogs from you (particularly those of you who've not yet written one). Ergo, I won't get long-winded here. Suffice it to say that we will be talking very directly about the narration in these texts (whence and how we get the info we get).

kafka and THX

When you read “In The Penal Colony,” you may find yourself tripped up by the prose and the lack of clarity of description. That is, it may not make any sense to you. Stay with it, however, so that you can at least ask informed questions about it (either over this blog or in class). Perhaps, its intentionally obscure language adds to the disorientation the reader feels toward the text. You may also find yourself wondering what these texts have in common, why I would have put them together for discussion: "Geez, THX is a dystopian, cautionary sci-fi film and Kafka's thing...well...it's..a...hmmmm..." Legit frustration. I assure you, though, that there is no “hidden” connection that I want to see if you can find, and there will be no big revelation in class about such. There are, though, ideas that link the two. I encourage you to look at the discussion questions on the class webpage (near the link for the reading), which should point to some such. And, I strongly encourage you to strike out on your own with ideas and questions (to which you should offer some sort of response, no matter how underdeveloped).

virgin Suicides

Here are some started questions/ideas, some with partial/incomplete address regarding Virgin Suicides. I promise not to speak in anything but standard, contemporary English, though I would like to read the phrase "stone cold fox" used in some non-satiristic manner. 

(1) This is our first time to discuss specifics types of narrators doing the narrating within the narrative (notice that these differences are more than semantic; they are consequential). IN the novel, there is a quite new type of narrator, one who is both present and not present: he is the narrator in the (plural???) first person, yet he doesn't seem to be a character in the story (he is never directly addressed. How might we begin to account for this?

(1a) Connected to above, we could talk as to how the filmic version handles the odd narration of the book. Can you make an argument about the challenges for and responses of the film to the novel's narrating? 

(2) When texts use first-person narration (as the book does in a weird way), we might expect that voice to guide us through the story (to be sure), but we might also expect it to guide our responses to the story (i.e., to tell us how to feel or react to events). I will make the claim that the novel never does this. Defend or refute.

(3) We can also talk about the texts as being "about" nostalgia and memory every bit as much as they are stories of these girls.  Take an intellectual leap and address this idea.