All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
I found one review regarding Gallie's, Philosophy and the Historical Understanding, and another great link on Judith Butler's Performative Acts and gender within our society.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
At My Windowsill
At My Windowsill
You alluded to touch; I fell hands first
Scorched by venomous lashes of flickering tongues
Pistons pump and thrust as minds intermingle like brackish waters
Fluids spewed upon body’s shore
Contorted together; interlaced strings
Feelings abandoned on the road piled high with debris
Again, familiar fragrances engrained on my skin
Deep in the labyrinth of my mind are tiny freckles of you
When the night was still young
Groggily shaken awake; trembling
Frozen to time’s winged chariot near
The concrete wet beyond winter’s thaw
Crispness removes emptiness of breast’s breath
Echoed shapes against a flickering light
Slender, slightly tanned turn of an arm
Golden streaks neatly arranged in place
Quick obsessions pass prolific profiles of you face
Do you know the pout of your lips?
The gentle swing of your hips
Scrutinizing freckles on nose’s tip
With deep breaths I sip
You alluded to touch; I fell hands first
Scorched by venomous lashes of flickering tongues
Pistons pump and thrust as minds intermingle like brackish waters
Fluids spewed upon body’s shore
Contorted together; interlaced strings
Feelings abandoned on the road piled high with debris
Again, familiar fragrances engrained on my skin
Deep in the labyrinth of my mind are tiny freckles of you
When the night was still young
Groggily shaken awake; trembling
Frozen to time’s winged chariot near
The concrete wet beyond winter’s thaw
Crispness removes emptiness of breast’s breath
Echoed shapes against a flickering light
Slender, slightly tanned turn of an arm
Golden streaks neatly arranged in place
Quick obsessions pass prolific profiles of you face
Do you know the pout of your lips?
The gentle swing of your hips
Scrutinizing freckles on nose’s tip
With deep breaths I sip
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Pattern Recognition
Wikipedia defines pattern recognition as, "the act of taking in raw data and taking an action based on the category of the data." Our discussion of pattern recognition throughout this semester, and Katie's mention of film noir, made me contemplate Jack Nicholson's character in Chinatown. Most detectives, including Nicholson and Bogart, use pattern recognition to solve the mystery. I use these two examples because Chinatown has been defined as "neo-noir" (one of the first movies after the period defined as film noir) and Maltese Falcon was the first American film to fit into the film noir genre. Both detectives use patterns they recognize in other people to decipher the mystery. So what is it about film noir and neo noir movies that hook people? Why do students and universities devote so much time to this particular median? (of course there are others, but I'll try to focus of noir movies) I believe there are a variety of reasons. One, as Gibson writes on page one hundred and nine, "It's impossible to describe, but if you live with it for a while, it starts to get to you. It's just such a powerful effect, induced by so little actual screen time." I believe this is the exact reason why femme fatales hold so much power in film noir movies. They are mysterious, different, vengeful, and most of the time extremely sexual. Their actual screen time becomes so powerful because there's not much of it. Noir movies have also become cult classics because as you start to live with these movies they become "art". All the subtleties each has in common, what each is able to do cinematically, and the differences from one movie to the next is extraordinary. All the mise-scene elements such as lighting, the use of shadows, dress, a confused plot line, and setting all add to the mystique.
As Katie mentioned, most of the early film noir movies are adaptations of books. Dashiell Hammett has been described as a writer of hard boiled detective novels. Having spent time in the Continental Operations Unit, Hammett held first hand knowledge of the stories he relayed. John Huston , the director of the Maltese Falcon, had to transform the raw material Hammett had written into action. The more I look at written text and movies the more I realize pattern recognition is all around us. It's something we, as humans, do everyday.
As Katie mentioned, most of the early film noir movies are adaptations of books. Dashiell Hammett has been described as a writer of hard boiled detective novels. Having spent time in the Continental Operations Unit, Hammett held first hand knowledge of the stories he relayed. John Huston , the director of the Maltese Falcon, had to transform the raw material Hammett had written into action. The more I look at written text and movies the more I realize pattern recognition is all around us. It's something we, as humans, do everyday.
Chinatown - Jack Nicholson
Katie mentioned film noir in our discussion last night, and I just couldn't help myself. Chinatown was back in the spotlight last month as Outside magazine ran a one page article discussing water conservation.
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Image
In the Fitzpatrick article the power of the image is discussed at great length. Where is the initial image more powerful than in Gibson's Pattern Recognition? The mystery seems driven by the kiss which is circulated on the net. (I haven't finished the book.) Each character is obsessed with the image for different reasons. Bigend's motivation seems purely financial. He must know because he doesn't.
The "white noise" is offered as a metaphor in both sets of work. Gibson describes Cayce's feelings through a city that is very much filled with images and distractions. "She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London..." (1) Fitzpatrick continuously uses DeLillo's movie, White Noise, to distinguish between, "the visual and the tactile, between the ephemerality of the image and the solidity of the physical..." (99) The physical Fitzpatrick discusses transcends into the world Gibson has created in London. The physical is altered by Cayce's dreamlike state due to jet-lag and the opposite state in which London runs. (Right is left, a simple coffee brew, cereal.) Gibson states on page twenty seven, "not so much a mirror-world car as an English car, as no equivalent exists, on Cayce's side of the Atlantic, to mirror." The mirror alternates the image, which in turn alters her reality and the way in which she interacts with the world.
The last detail I wanted to touch upon was Parkaboy. I liked most of his rants and found his character interesting. The statement I found most relevant to Fitzpatrick and my own rant concerning the image is located on page twenty two. "Parkaboy says you should go to new footage as though you've seen no previous footage at all, thereby momentarily escaping the film or films that you've been assembling, consciously or unconsciously, since first exposure." The "image burns" Fitzpatrick discusses are nearly impossible to erase. Therefore, can we ever see an image for the first time? It's like the most photographed barn in America Fitzpatrick discusses. Our experiences become nothing more than a picture of a picture. I'm off to finish this book!
The "white noise" is offered as a metaphor in both sets of work. Gibson describes Cayce's feelings through a city that is very much filled with images and distractions. "She knows, now, absolutely, hearing the white noise that is London..." (1) Fitzpatrick continuously uses DeLillo's movie, White Noise, to distinguish between, "the visual and the tactile, between the ephemerality of the image and the solidity of the physical..." (99) The physical Fitzpatrick discusses transcends into the world Gibson has created in London. The physical is altered by Cayce's dreamlike state due to jet-lag and the opposite state in which London runs. (Right is left, a simple coffee brew, cereal.) Gibson states on page twenty seven, "not so much a mirror-world car as an English car, as no equivalent exists, on Cayce's side of the Atlantic, to mirror." The mirror alternates the image, which in turn alters her reality and the way in which she interacts with the world.
The last detail I wanted to touch upon was Parkaboy. I liked most of his rants and found his character interesting. The statement I found most relevant to Fitzpatrick and my own rant concerning the image is located on page twenty two. "Parkaboy says you should go to new footage as though you've seen no previous footage at all, thereby momentarily escaping the film or films that you've been assembling, consciously or unconsciously, since first exposure." The "image burns" Fitzpatrick discusses are nearly impossible to erase. Therefore, can we ever see an image for the first time? It's like the most photographed barn in America Fitzpatrick discusses. Our experiences become nothing more than a picture of a picture. I'm off to finish this book!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The American Novel in the Age of Television
It's no coincidence Kathleen Fitzpatrick opens this chapter with the following John Berger quote: "Seeing comes before words." This is an argument I have been trying to articulate all semester: Experience of the world helps us to learn different components such as reading, deciphering images, and writing. I believe Fitzpatrick is taking the experience component one step further in this chapter. She states on page ninety eight regarding the relationship with television, "Here, the television's 'meshed effect' produces a new kind of intertwining of human and television set, one that functions 'as if' human perception were required to complete the broadcast." Fitzpatrick uses an example from DeLillo's Americana. She continues to use Americana to explain "image-burns." I found this idea similar to the random commercial you find yourself reciting. You've heard and seen the images so many times they have become part of your subconscious. Fitzpatrick repeatedly references DeLillo's White Noise to conceptualize television's role in destroying "the distinction between flesh and image," as Thomas Ferraro argues on page one hundred. I instantly thought of Mike Teevee in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He is so obsessed with the "image burns" he has seen on the screen he wants to become part of that world. I tried to find the original clip with Gene Wilder without much success. In that clip you actually see Mike Teevee dissolve and become nothing but particles floating above the television. This clip with Depp is interesting, because like the original, the evils of television are listed as a warning to children everywhere.
I think the relationship between the image, television, and the novel differs depending on who you ask. For some see this relationship like this: "In the multiplicity of television's voices, both its manifold interconnections and its teeming information, the novel imagines a further threat: the replacement of the individual with the mass-think of the network." (148) I'm still undecided. On some level I want literature to remain separate from all other medians. In a ever changing world the relationship the book has with society must change as well.
Fitzpatrick continues to discuss the relationship between the written word and images in a historical context. We have discussed the threat Fitzpatrick analyzes in some detail so I will not dwell too much on this part of the chapter. In relation to Dr. Collins' speech on Tuesday night, Fitzpatrick refers to interconnectedness, not only in this chapter, but in previous ones as well. Here she says on one hundred and one, "Where older forms are assumed to be 'human,' new media are seen as mechanical; where older forms are individualist, new media are designed for an interconnected mass." This is where I find her comments about newspaper forms, (specifically the Times) and books relevant to our class. This interconnectedness seems to be the goal of mass media because it has potential financial possibilities left untapped.
I wanted to focus on images in relation to books. First, lets look at a few images, especially a few Fitzpatrick discusses. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/images/words1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/destruction.html&h=442&w=338&sz=121&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=nMNmct__I1kHFM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpictures%2Band%2Bwords%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7RNWE The interconnectedness discussed on this web site is very interesting. What was the first thing you noticed when you opened the page? What thoughts came to mind? Like me, on some level I think Fitzpatrick believes images and words have and will continue to coexist, just in a different form as we move into the future. However, Neil Postman has argued differently throughout his career. Fitzpatrick states on one hundred and four, "For Postman, such technologies of communication as print and television cannot peacefully coexist. Instead, 'new technologies compete with old ones-for time, for attention, for money, for prestige, but mostly for dominance of their world-view'; such competition leads to the present situation, in which U.S. culture faces 'television attacking the printed word." Based on interconnectedness, I believe Collins would disagree. The overlapping which is occurring today offers a place for literature, the image, and other medians such as photography and music. If anything, I believe the over stimulation of images effects our communication. Our brain becomes a vastness of pictures. To describe those pictures becomes more difficult as more pictures are added without words to enhance the experience. In turn, does this over stimulation create a varied reality? I want not so much to define reality, but to offer a change in one's personal creation of reality. The argument on one hundred and seven is at the heart of this discussion. Does one image provoke stronger feelings of violence? This can also be linked to Fitzpatrick's discussion about the camera and photography. Does the camera act as a metaphor for a gun
? I wouldn't go as far to say this, or agree with Delillo's comments on one hundred and thirty three. "We are meant to sense that the poorer the image quality, the more 'real' the event." I do believe the camera lens has the capability to capture pain and death, while offering a disconnectedness for the personal recording or "shooting." In regards to the poorer the image the more real we find the event please refer to the following link. The video is a live, grainy broadcast of Budd Dwyer's death. Notice the quick focus on the camera itself. Warning: This is a bit graphic. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTdjobNdvAg
? I wouldn't go as far to say this, or agree with Delillo's comments on one hundred and thirty three. "We are meant to sense that the poorer the image quality, the more 'real' the event." I do believe the camera lens has the capability to capture pain and death, while offering a disconnectedness for the personal recording or "shooting." In regards to the poorer the image the more real we find the event please refer to the following link. The video is a live, grainy broadcast of Budd Dwyer's death. Notice the quick focus on the camera itself. Warning: This is a bit graphic. http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTdjobNdvAg This violent power the image can possess was the most interesting part of this chapter in my opinion. For example, the violent connotations associated with Hitler are discussed at great length. For me the example of the Cold War worked differently. I see the words McCarthyism and conjure up different thoughts and images in my brain than if I saw a picture of McCarthy. 
I think the relationship between the image, television, and the novel differs depending on who you ask. For some see this relationship like this: "In the multiplicity of television's voices, both its manifold interconnections and its teeming information, the novel imagines a further threat: the replacement of the individual with the mass-think of the network." (148) I'm still undecided. On some level I want literature to remain separate from all other medians. In a ever changing world the relationship the book has with society must change as well.
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