Comments on: Day 88: Rant–An Oral Biography of Buster Casey http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/ JETSAM–[noun]: goods cast overboard deliberately, as to lighten a vessel or improve its stability Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:58:38 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: “Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey” de Chuck Palahniuk « Verano Azul http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/#comment-3260 “Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey” de Chuck Palahniuk « Verano Azul Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:45:43 +0000 http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/#comment-3260 [...] de Internet: Solo de Libros, Bajo el signo de libra, Cerebral Jetsam, Dolor de [...] [...] de Internet: Solo de Libros, Bajo el signo de libra, Cerebral Jetsam, Dolor de [...]

]]> By: cerebraljetsam http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/#comment-535 cerebraljetsam Wed, 09 May 2007 16:46:07 +0000 http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/#comment-535 Let's see. I do not think one would not necessarily be able to link literature and film in such a one-dimensional way--the way cultural representation works is just a little more complex and this argument would inevitably end up somewhat reductive. Instead it would be necessary to link the mindfuck genre to a very specific historical juncture of which it is a mediation and ask what the ideological and representative work is that it does in that juncture (and: what makes us think that it qualifies it as a genre--is there really such uniformity that has any critical/descriptive basis?). This also means that the mindfuck genre is by no means new, but it has gained a special significance within what we (also reductively) refer to as postmodernity. In fact, the mindfuck genre is well known to be the most common popular narrative that represents issues raised by postmodern thought such as the de-centering of the subject. However, the mindfuck genre too often gets lost in its own coquetterie, troubling linear narratives of subjectivity without offering any deeper insight (so you would also have to say something about what the project of such narratives actually accomplishes other than troubling the conception of reality, which has been debated since Plato--so: what does the genre add to the discussion?). All that is to say: the mindfuck genre as a postmodern artifact has been talked about a lot and you should begin by familiarizing yourself with the large amount of critical approaches to it. Also, if you want to make a historical argument about this genre, you would have to be very precise about the ways in which the genre functions in each historical context, as it operated within a completely different context in, say Poe, or Hawthorne, to name the most popular examples, than in postmodernity. If you want to examine the present situation I would recommend radically limiting the scope of your project, since you would otherwise have to address hundreds of already existing examinations of this problem. Maybe one way to fuse film and literature without running the risk of reducing the complexity of representation and the differences between both genres, would be to look at filmic adaptations of literary works. In terms of suggesting further reading, it is quite hard to name a postmodern author who has not toyed with this problem (hence the large body of critical approaches to it that has been produced since the late 60s--it would be hard to engage in this discussion without repeating existing arguments, or without having to do a LOT of prior reading, working throgh the already existing body of work). The most important (i.e. canonized) names here are obviously: Barth, DeLillo, Pynchon, Auster, Barthelme, Vonnegut, and, and, and. Also you would have to account for how this narrative signifies completely differently when it comes to even just the classically discussed areas such as race, gender and class. Consider here for example _Beloved_, or _Song of Solomon_, Cha's _Dictee_, Kingston' _The Woman Warrior_, _Almanac of the Dead_, the novels of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, Kathy Acker,... As I said, I think the first step would be to radically limit the scope of your project and then read through all the critical material that already exists on that subject. Ideally, you would also have to read a LOT of postmodern, poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory, but that is probably not feasible, so curtailing the scope of your project can also save you from having to spend a few additional years in order to do that. :-) Let’s see. I do not think one would not necessarily be able to link literature and film in such a one-dimensional way–the way cultural representation works is just a little more complex and this argument would inevitably end up somewhat reductive. Instead it would be necessary to link the mindfuck genre to a very specific historical juncture of which it is a mediation and ask what the ideological and representative work is that it does in that juncture (and: what makes us think that it qualifies it as a genre–is there really such uniformity that has any critical/descriptive basis?). This also means that the mindfuck genre is by no means new, but it has gained a special significance within what we (also reductively) refer to as postmodernity. In fact, the mindfuck genre is well known to be the most common popular narrative that represents issues raised by postmodern thought such as the de-centering of the subject. However, the mindfuck genre too often gets lost in its own coquetterie, troubling linear narratives of subjectivity without offering any deeper insight (so you would also have to say something about what the project of such narratives actually accomplishes other than troubling the conception of reality, which has been debated since Plato–so: what does the genre add to the discussion?). All that is to say: the mindfuck genre as a postmodern artifact has been talked about a lot and you should begin by familiarizing yourself with the large amount of critical approaches to it. Also, if you want to make a historical argument about this genre, you would have to be very precise about the ways in which the genre functions in each historical context, as it operated within a completely different context in, say Poe, or Hawthorne, to name the most popular examples, than in postmodernity. If you want to examine the present situation I would recommend radically limiting the scope of your project, since you would otherwise have to address hundreds of already existing examinations of this problem. Maybe one way to fuse film and literature without running the risk of reducing the complexity of representation and the differences between both genres, would be to look at filmic adaptations of literary works.
In terms of suggesting further reading, it is quite hard to name a postmodern author who has not toyed with this problem (hence the large body of critical approaches to it that has been produced since the late 60s–it would be hard to engage in this discussion without repeating existing arguments, or without having to do a LOT of prior reading, working throgh the already existing body of work). The most important (i.e. canonized) names here are obviously: Barth, DeLillo, Pynchon, Auster, Barthelme, Vonnegut, and, and, and. Also you would have to account for how this narrative signifies completely differently when it comes to even just the classically discussed areas such as race, gender and class. Consider here for example _Beloved_, or _Song of Solomon_, Cha’s _Dictee_, Kingston’ _The Woman Warrior_, _Almanac of the Dead_, the novels of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, Kathy Acker,…
As I said, I think the first step would be to radically limit the scope of your project and then read through all the critical material that already exists on that subject. Ideally, you would also have to read a LOT of postmodern, poststructuralist and psychoanalytic theory, but that is probably not feasible, so curtailing the scope of your project can also save you from having to spend a few additional years in order to do that. :-)

]]> By: Claudia http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/#comment-534 Claudia Wed, 09 May 2007 15:53:12 +0000 http://cerebraljetsam.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/day-88-rant-an-oral-biography-of-buster-casey/#comment-534 I haven't read Rant but mentioning Palahniuk leads me to ask for help. At the moment I'm working on the topic of my thesis. In the past I have written several term papers about the loss of identity and reality. My idea is to point out how the film genre 'mindfuck' (like Fight Club) was influenced by literature which includes loss of identity and reality. There are several motives like the Doppelgänger in romanticism, but maybe you know some novels I haven't read yet which deal with this topic, especially if they are so extreme like Palahniuk's Fight Club. By the way, you really should write something about Strange Days again and if you haven't seen it yet, I still recommend eXistenZ. I haven’t read Rant but mentioning Palahniuk leads me to ask for help. At the moment I’m working on the topic of my thesis. In the past I have written several term papers about the loss of identity and reality. My idea is to point out how the film genre ‘mindfuck’ (like Fight Club) was influenced by literature which includes loss of identity and reality. There are several motives like the Doppelgänger in romanticism, but maybe you know some novels I haven’t read yet which deal with this topic, especially if they are so extreme like Palahniuk’s Fight Club.

By the way, you really should write something about Strange Days again and if you haven’t seen it yet, I still recommend eXistenZ.

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