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).