If you wrote a book what would be the title?
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Eva_Yojimbo — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:00 PM)
I've long had the idea for a non-fiction book-length study of how disillusionment has been depicted in art across various mediums and eras. I'd probably call it "The Desolation of Reality" after a phrase from Yeats' Meru:
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/wby.meru.html
Some works/artists discussed would be:
-Chaucer's Troilus & Cressida
-Shakespeare's Hamlet & King Lear
-Milton's Paradise Lost
-Cervantes's Don Quixote
-Jane Austen's Emma and Pride & Prejudice
-Wagner's operas (especially the late works)
-Wallace Stevens's Poetry
-James Merrill's Poetry
-Hitchcock's films
-Ozu's I Was Born But
-Mizoguchi's Ugetsu
-Neon Genesis Evangelion
warriorspirit
: if the penis is used as a pencil holder we'll incur a cost. -
Eva_Yojimbo — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:11 PM)
Haven't read Moliere*, but if Ozu's I Was Born But isn't too humorous, I don't think Moliere would be.
*Most of my reading has focused on English authors, primarily because I know how much is lost in translation since great literature is, at least partly, the art of its native language.
warriorspirit
: if the penis is used as a pencil holder we'll incur a cost. -
Eva_Yojimbo — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:31 PM)
Perhaps you're just not much of a cinephile? Most cinephiles I know are very into directors because of auteur theory (basically the idea that certain directors had enough creative control to be considered "the authors" of their films). I genuinely think Alfred Hitchcock is one of the few genuine creative geniuses the 20th century had.
warriorspirit
: if the penis is used as a pencil holder we'll incur a cost. -
Arlon10 — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:40 PM)
Several of my favorite movies involve Hitchcock; The Birds, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest, Psycho. I'm not sure why I don't remember him as a director. Perhaps I think of him more as a writer.
No, I am not much of cinephile, perhaps obviously
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Matthew 15:14 -
Eva_Yojimbo — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:58 PM)
Hitchcock did co-write most all of his films, even though he generously never took a credit. But he's most remembered as a director because of how influential his method of pre-visualizing everything was, and how much of a technical perfectionist he was on set.
ONLY thinking in terms of directors can be misleading (most big-budget films from Hollywood emphasize a mechanical, economic, and collaborative effort where most directors are little more than glorified cattle herders), but especially for smaller budgets and foreign films, discovering certain directors is like discovering favorite writers with unique artistic and creative sensibilities. As a shortlist I'd mention: Ingmar Bergman, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico Fellini, Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky, Luis Bunuel, Carl Dreyer, Michaelangelo Antonioni and Yasujiro Ozu.
warriorspirit
: if the penis is used as a pencil holder we'll incur a cost. -
chrismovieman — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:22 PM)
Wow, I thought this thread was going to mostly be filled with cheap jokes.
Eva_Yojimbo, I must say that your idea for a book is quite intriguing. I'd certainly read it if given the chance. Best of luck putting it together and getting it published. (Alternatively, you might considering self-publishing it as an Ebook if you don't have many connections in the publishing world) -
Eva_Yojimbo — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:52 PM)
Thanks, chris. For me the challenge would be finding the time to write it, as well as figuring out a logical structure for the thing, and not making it too repetitive. If I did write it I'd probably self-publish, if only because I don't know anyone in the publishing world and don't have any official "credentials" if I did (beyond being an ardent aesthete who's devoted most of his spare time to experiencing and learning about the various arts). But it's a theme I think is essential to understanding many of those masterpieces. EG, Hamlet, at its simplest level, is about what happens when a 30-year old has to face the harsh aspects of reality (death, infidelity, politics, relativity of values, eg) for the first time. Vertigo basically splits in half, with the first having the audience be as delusional as Scottie, and the second having the audience knowing the truth about his delusion. I especially find fascinating the workslike Hamlet, Vertigo, and Evangelionthat essentially thrust that sense of disillusionment onto the audience.
warriorspirit
: if the penis is used as a pencil holder we'll incur a cost. -
AbsolutelyThoughtfulGoz — 9 years ago(December 31, 2016 01:09 PM)
What a great idea for a book!
I hope you add in some analyses of some of the great artwork ie paintings, as well.
The visual arts have a great way of mirroring the philosophies and historical events of the day and the culture. -
The_Herald_Erjen — 9 years ago(December 27, 2016 05:20 PM)
Actually, I am writing a book. Haven't settled on a title yet. Every time I think I have it someone else apparently traveled forward in time to swipe my title. It's all good. Hell on earth will probably break out before I can ever get it written and published anyway.
"I hear no voice. The dead cannot speak."