According to David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983), we live in the midst of an occult or psychic war – “the battle for the mind of North America.” Underlying the epiphenomenal worlds of economy and sexuality, there are actually two philosophies in conflict, each vying for control of the future. Call the first Videodrome; call the second… Continue Reading Long live the new flesh: reflections on Videodrome (1983)
Tag: film
The pulp critical
The pulp critical is a minor analytic mode in which genre tokens are interpreted as arguments or ontological operations in their own right. Hence, it’s important to refuse the conventional terms of any standardized hermeneutics. The emphasis on “pulp” echoes the use of the term in literary history, where it refers primarily to popular fiction… Continue Reading The pulp critical
Cold new world: Borgman as a politics of exit
“[…] exit becomes possible only if we divest ourselves of the libidinal constraints and demands we inherit from the civilization into which we are thrown.” “Marina searches the grounds, presumably for Camiel. In the summer house, she encounters a pale hound. Overwhelmed by a sense of the uncanny, she whispers, ‘Camiel?’” “It’s certainly true that… Continue Reading Cold new world: Borgman as a politics of exit
Astronoetic pessimism and the posthuman: Prometheus and Alien: Covenant as philosophy
Introduction Refer to part one (“Introducing astronoetic cinema”) for the necessary context in which I discuss these two films. In preface, I will note that the critical and popular reception of both films isn’t particularly positive. In part, this is because both suffer from some issues of casting and pacing. However, both films also speak… Continue Reading Astronoetic pessimism and the posthuman: Prometheus and Alien: Covenant as philosophy
Introducing astronoetic cinema
Astronautics and astronoetics Philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s posthumously published Die Vollzähligkeit der Sterne (1997, The Fullness of the Stars) introduces a novel distinction. On the one hand, there is “astronautics,” referring both to the pursuit of knowledge of the human by extending its purview to the extraterrestrial and to technical applications of that knowledge in the… Continue Reading Introducing astronoetic cinema
RoboCop is Amelia Bedelia
RoboCop (1987) is the Good Soldier Švejk – or, better yet, as a colleague suggested to me, he’s Amelia Bedelia. Both Amelia and Švejk misunderstand the instructions they receive from authorities in such a way that they’ve understood too much – ostensibly without understanding anything at all. In other words, both Amelia and Švejk hear… Continue Reading RoboCop is Amelia Bedelia