from Ignazio (pronounced In-yahtz- io) Silone

"Liberty isn't something you are given as a present," said Spina. You can be a free man under a dictatorship. It is sufficient if you struggle against it. He who thinks with his own head is a free man. He who struggles for what he believes to be right is a free man. Even if you live in the freest country in the world and are lazy, callous, apathetic, irresolute, you are not free but a slave, though there be no coercion or no oppression. Liberty is something you have to take for yourself. It's no use begging it from others." -Bread and Wine (1937)

(Keep in mind that Mr. Silone was a double-agent for Il Duce's Fascist government.)

Still!!!!!!!

charles lamb

Gorgons and Hydras and Chimaeras -- dire stories of
Celaeno and the Harpies -- may reproduce themselves in
the brain of superstition -- but they were there
before. They are transcripts, types -- the archetypes
are in us, and eternal. How else should the recital of
that which we know in a waking sense to be false come
to affect us at all?

Is it that we naturally conceive terror from such
objects, considered in their capacity of being able to
inflict upon us bodily injury? O, least of all!
These terrors are of older standing. They date beyond
body -- or without the body, they would have been the
same... That the kind of fear here treated is purely
spiritual--that it is strong in proportion as it is
objectless on earth, that it predominates in the
period of our sinless infancy--are difficulties the
solution of which may afford some probable insight
into our ante-mundane condition, and a peep at least
into the shadowland of pre-existence.

G O J I R A

THE THEME OF THE FILM, FROM THE BEGINNING, WAS THE TERROR OF THE BOMB. MANKIND HAD CREATED THE BOMB, AND NOW NATURE WAS GOING TO TAKE REVENGE ON MANKIND. - Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka

technology: monster or savior?

http://planetark.org/wen/57254

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS

Hi All: This is from a crabbed genius I know...

Under that beast-man makeup designed by Wally Westmore we may find uncredited Buster Crabbe, Duke York, Randolph Scott and Alan Ladd. Also Joe Bonomo, the famous strongman who later produced Turkish Taffy from a factory in Coney Island (today the welfare office next to the DMV) and came to work there every day until he died at his desk at the age of 104. Whereupon the brand ceased to exist.

Also please note that Montgomery's "medical indiscretion" is implicitly understood to mean abortion and that Wells was horrified by the undercurrent of bestiality inserted into the story by Kenton.

I think young Laughton's giggling, nutty Moreau is superb, one of the greatest Mad Scientists ever!

http://www.westgate-works.com/Charlie/charlie_gemora.htm

Well, that was most of the voice-over-comments content I use when I screen it. I cannot identify those bit players appearing as beast-men in my print, maybe you can spot them in a good full-density original. Just two more bits you can use. That gorilla person who appears in the cave tunnel as we enter the island is Charlie Gemora, the Philippino gorilla-suit actor known for playing the most expressive and comedic ape in film, he's the one blocking Laurel and Hardy on the rope bridge over the chasm in Swiss Miss (which I also have, it's a real turkey with the most horrible musical interludes imaginable).

http://members.shaw.ca/gorillagallery2/gorillamenclassic/cg_word_from_gmen.htm

Kathleen Burke, the Panther Woman, was the non-actress winner of the "girl with animal magnetism" beauty contest held in advance of production as a publicity stunt for the movie. Sure is cute; makes me purr...

THE GLEANERS AND I

Hey All,

Agnes Varda's playfulness (behind and in front of the lens) in no way betrays lax filmmaking.

I call your attention to her line: "I am an animal that I do not know."

There's an intense compression here that may need some unpacking.

A paper topic?

-D

Okay Everyone,

I'm trying to borrow a 16mm print of Chomon's EL SPECTRO ROJO for next week.

(To be followed by GOJIRA...)

Make sure to get there at 9 -- my hope is to convince you that there are even greater films to come (greater than MALAKAPALAKADOO, SKIP 2).

-D

"If the arrangement of society is bad (as ours is), and a small number of people have power over the majority and oppress it, every victory over Nature will inevitably serve only to increase that power and that oppression. This is what is actually happening." It is nearly half a century since Tolstoy wrote these words, and what was happening then has gone on happening ever since. Science and technology have made notable advances in the intervening years -- and so has the centralization f political and economic power, so have oligarchy and despotism. It need hardly be added science is not the only causative factor involved in this process. No social evil can possibly have only one cause. Hence the difficulty, in any given case, of finding a complete cure. All that is being maintained here is that progressive science is one of the causative factors involved in the progressive decline of liberty and the progressive centralization of power, which have occurred during the twentieth century. -Aldous Huxley, Science, Liberty, and Peace (1946) Hey Everyone: Please feel free to draw on this source material. We are moving into the "science as monster" phase of our theme... -D

assignment

Hi All: Finish MALDOROR, please, and use the H.P. Lovecraft reading to analyze the book 1 page. Here is an excerpt, and of course the whole article is available on the gaslight website (also see blog)... THE OLDEST and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tale as a literary form. – H.P. Lovecraft Best, -D

redon

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2005/redon/redon.html

Check out this interactive MOMA site, which includes Redon etchings related to GERMINATIONS.

There's a blurb on monsters there too.

ASSIGNMENT

Hi All:

Hope you all received the PIRATE reading -- if anyone missed out, please email me and I'll send it along.

-D

R.I.P. HOWARD ZINN

Zinn's death on the day of President Obama's first State of the Union address was underscored by his contribution to a recently released special from The Nation magazine called "Obama at One."

"I've been searching hard for a highlight," he wrote. "The only thing that comes close is some of Obama's rhetoric; I don't see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies."

Zinn said he was not "terribly disappointed because I didn't expect that much," noting that he has been "a traditional Democratic president" on foreign policy -- "hardly any different from a Republican" -- and has been cautious in domestic policy.

"On health care, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now," Zinn said.

Zinn also cautioned "that Obama is going to be a mediocre president -- which means, in our time, a dangerous president -- unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction."

assignment

http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/gaslight/

hey guys -- the lovecraft reading is available here.

just search under lovecraft or "supernatural horror in literature."

OUR ROOM

Hi Everyone,

Just to clarify: we have retained our base of operations, The Gene Stavis Theater! So please assemble as usual at 9 am.

At 11:50 am we move one flight up to rm 605 for the remaining hour of class.

I'll explain tomorrow,

Daniel

monsters

Did you know that Jean Epstein made a vampire movie? It's called KING OF NEW YORK by Abel Ferrara... Actors enter their own p.o.v. shots, confusing subject and object. Walken stares and smiles directly into the lens. Close-ups exploding continuity and spinning mini-narratives... Watched it 20 times at least, four times back to back with a fever.

Reading for Italian Lit & Film and Lit students

Hi All:
Film and Literature students, this assignment is not required for you; but it does relate to our discussions so feel free to check the link. Italian Literature students -- here is an article on the double-life of Ignazio Silone, author of Bread and Wine... Please read for next week.

http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=2250

Zamyatin, author of WE

"True literature can only exist when it is created, not by diligent and reliable officials, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and skeptics."

maldoror

a reminder: please purchase the lykiard translation published by exact change.

also, here is a link for the lovecraft reading:

file:///Users/danielriccuito/Desktop/SUPERNATURAL%20HORROR%20IN%20LITERATURE%20(1927,%201933%20-%201935)%20by%20H.P.%20Lovecraft.webarchive

spring 2010 syllabus

CTD–3135–B

FILM AND LITERATURE

WED 9:00 AM TO 1:50 PM

INSTRUCTOR: DANIEL RICCUITO

THE OLDEST and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. These facts few psychologists will dispute, and their admitted truth must establish for all time the genuineness and dignity of the weirdly horrible tale as a literary form.

– H.P. Lovecraft

THE MONSTERS are very old. Perhaps as old as man himself. Their pictures are found in prehistoric drawings on the walls of caves. They have come to us in the myths of Asia and Asia Minor; in the folktales of Europe; in the stories and legends of the New World. The idea of monsters exists in every culture; their prevalence is universal, their persistence nothing short of phenomenal.

– Judith Taylor Gold

SO HERE I am in the end, a middle-aged man quietly living the life of a Godzilla geek, finding that I place perhaps way too much significance in a collection of silly monster pictures. But what else am I supposed to use to understand the world? Religion? Politics? Economics? It makes just as much—even more—sense to me to use a guy in a rubber suit stomping on a balsa wood city. – Jim Knipfel

This spring in Film and Literature, we track monster origins, from genre horror movies to the weird and ancient lore that inspired them. Robots, revenant spirits, giant insects – we cover the gamut. To arm us with scholarship, there’s David Kalat’s brilliant book, A Critical History and Filmography of Toho’s Godzilla Series. Oh yes, the big G… Symbol of atomic radiation and decimated cities… not to mention America… a living compound myth that kills yet never dies… Other excerpted readings include: Supernatural Horror in Literature by H.P. Lovecraft; Monsters and Madonnas by Judith Taylor Gold; Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women by Ricky Jay; The Grand Guignol by Mel Gordon; Madness in the Making by David Lindsay; Gojira: A Purposeful Grimace by Jim Knipfel.

Films screened in class:

Tetsuo, the Iron Man by Shinya Tsukamoto; Gojira by Ishiro Honda; Punishment Park by Peter Watkins; It’s Alive by Larry Cohen; Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Rouben Mamoulian; The Island of Lost Souls by Erie C. Kenton; The Vampire by Jean Painleve; Death Race 2000 by Paul Bartel; Black Sunday by Mario Bava; Black Sabbath by Mario Bava; Lisa and the Devil by Mario Bava; The Horror of Dracula by Terence Fisher; No Such Thing by Hal Hartley…and miscellaneous short films by Georges Melies, Leslie Thornton, Ken Jacobs, Germaine Dulac, Stan Brakhage, Stuart Blackton, Winsor McCay

Required Reading (novels and expanded experiments in fiction):

The Buzzing by Jim Knipfel; Maldoror by the Comte de Lautreamont; Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson; The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells

Writing Requirements/Exams:

One five-page paper due at semester’s end, and the final exam

Attendance Policy:

After 3 absences you will be automatically dropped from the course!

Lateness to class will be considered a half-absence!

Learning Disabled (LD) Students

To take an untimed test with or without a computer, eligible LD students must make arrangements with the instructor a full two weeks in advance. Otherwise requests cannot be honored.

Plagiarism Statement

In order to protect the academic integrity of the Humanities and Sciences curriculum, our departmental policy on plagiarism has been revised to insure that repeat-offenders are identified and subjected to the appropriate disciplinary action. Beginning September 2007, all confirmed cases of plagiarism will be forwarded to and kept on file by the Provost’s Office. First-time offenders will continue to be faced with either a failing grade for the plagiarized paper or a failure for the course; repeat offenders will additionally be subjected to disciplinary action which may result in suspension or expulsion from the college.

A final grade of X+ (withdrawal without failure) will not be considered an appropriate option in cases of confirmed plagiarism.

The new plagiarism policy will be published in the SVA Student Handbook as well as included on all Humanities and Sciences course syllabi.

In order to avoid plagiarism, you need only refer to the following rules of the road:

When you quote, paraphrase or summarize ideas -- whether from a periodical, book, interview or from non-print or electronic sources -- you must cite the source. Use in-text citation (in parentheses) after the quotation, summary or paraphrase, giving the last name of the author and the page(s), or one word from the title of the work and the page(s). On the final page of your own paper, include a bibliography that lists all sources you have used. Include the author's name, the title of the work, and the publication information (publisher's name; place and date of publication.). For more information consult your instructor or an MLA guide.