by John Holbo on January 3, 2011
I’m preparing to teach philosophy and film again and I’m looking for examples of films that hinge on more or less bald stipulations of metaphysically preposterous states of affairs. That is, cases in which something impossible happens, and it isn’t identified as science or magic. It just is. Examples:
The Exterminating Angel (hey, Criterion Collection has it out since last year! good!)
Groundhog Day
Being John Malkovich
In each case, it’s not hard to think of other films that are clearly sf or fairy tales/ghost stories, but that are more or less the same story, in terms of set-up, general mood and themes. [click to continue…]
by John Q on January 2, 2011
Not only is much of Queensland underwater, but the northern half of the state has finally carried out its long-standing threat to secede, forming a new entity called Capricornia
,
according to the ever-reliable Daily Mail. I confidently predict civil war and further secession as Cairns and other cities seek to escape the oppressive rule of Townsville, the self-proclaimed
Hat tips: Crikey/Deltoid
by John Holbo on January 1, 2011
These aren’t exact new thoughts, but versions of them have been expressed hereabouts of late, and G. K. Chesterton puts them amusingly and very quotably. So I quote, again, from What’s Wrong With The World? Which I’ve decided is altogether more amusing than Orthodoxy, with longer stretches of complete sanity which, when that grows stale, is punctuated by protests against women’s suffrage and such. [click to continue…]