possible reading...

kelley at pulpculture.org kelley at pulpculture.org
Mon May 20 12:57:25 PDT 2002


if folks are interested, or know others interested in discussions like the below, some folks on the list i run are organizing a book reading. you can join the list by going to this page: <http://lists.pulpculture.org/mailman/listinfo/squeeze>

feel free to pass this on to other lists haunted by film theory/lit theory/cultural studies folks and interested hangers on (like me, which is why i like the list! i learn a lot. :)

--kelley

To: squeeze at lists.pulpculture.org From: gary norris <mai68 at mail.earthlink.net>

To all listmembers, especially the silent majority:

I was wondering if any lurking elements or old hands would like to participate in a list reading. The discussion could begin the first week of June (give everyone time to get the book or books.) I'll schedule the readings and moderate (in the sense of organize or spark not censorship or instruct) the discussions.

The readings and discussions would progress section by section rather than book by book. This way we all keep up, those who fall behind can always catch up, and we keep some traffic going on the list...

I offer an initial list of possible choices below...any comments or additions are welcome...of course, this all depends upon participation. However, only a couple need be interested. I am sure this list can handle simultaneous threads. So, if interested help me choose and we'll set up a reading schedule and get going. Who knows, maybe the peanut gallery will be coaxed into participation?

My list:

1. Stanley Cavell's _The World Viewed_ (film aesthetics; could include reading's from Rothman's _Reading Cavell's _The World Viewed_: A philosophical Perspective on Film_)

2. Julia Kristeva's _The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt_ (a tough yet concise [for a change] Kristeva discusses the possibility for rebellion within our "entertainment" culture." Very timely...)

3. George Landow, editor, _Hyper/Text/Theory_ (I used a chapter from this anthology of essays for an essay, I have always wanted to read others.)

4. Juliet Flower Maccannell's _The Hysteric's Guide to the Future Female Subject_ (attempt at locating an ethics of the feminine by problematizing the concept of "becoming woman" as defined by Freud and Sade...)

5. Kaja Silverman's _The Acoustic Mirror_ (feminist film theory deals with the gaze)

6. William Faulkner's _Absalom, Absalom!_ (for the way it deals with narrative, oral tradition, history, time, sexuality...)

7. George Eliot's _Felix Holt, the Radical_ (a book that really isn't about a man...provides room for criticism of the representation of women's work in the Victorian era...is it, in fact, "hidden"?...class issues, gender issues...Maybe we could toss in an Elizabeth Gaskell novel as well...)

8. Carol Clover's _Men Women And Chainsaws_ (film theory concerning the slasher genre.)

9. A combo of oral histories in an effort to discuss and define a punk aesthetics (I am designing a class):

Legs McNeil's _Please Kill Me_ (west coast) Marc Spitz's _We Got the Neutron Bomb_ (east coast) and one or two others by suggestion...these are quick reads and fun...I have been reading Michael Azzerad's _Our Band Could be Your Way of Life_ but it is poorly written and full of proofreading mistakes...I definitely would not have my students read it...so, I have dropped it from my list, but there must be others...maybe something by Greil Marcus, I dunno.

Anyway, my list is composed of books I have been wanting to read or re-read for some time. As you see, I am interested in Modernist aesthetics, history, nineteenth century gender theory, film aesthetics, postmodern theory.

I have until September before I begin work again in earnest at school...

any takers??? any other good ideas???

We have a wonderful resource with this list to let it rot...lots of different minds out here that I know of...we're all of us busy; however, things should be slowing down with summer ahead...I just turned in my grades. I am only teaching one class, so

blah blah blah

tchau, gary norris

-- "I would tell you the whole story, but I might puke if I did." Holden Caulfield



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