>
>Given the prevalence of moralising refusers of films, I would have
>thought that film academics have a responsibility to be a tad more
>cautious, if not analytic, in their ways of talking about films.
>
Martin Barker


No, my issue was not with Violence, but with some folks desire to link
pleasure, enjoyment and liking as similar, if not equivalent,
terms when talking about Violence.

I enjoy Tarrantino's films;  if anything, though, his films express
(unwittingly) how these terms are confused in the audience as well as
the director.  Don't flame me with an accusation that I want to be a
censor.  Just because we are film academics does not mean we are here
to protect film from accusations.  Some directors are irresponsible
(Bruckheimer works for most of these), uneducated, illiterate; some
misrepresent actual events in history, are confused by the complex
issues that they deal with in their films (Fincher)...

My problem with the discussion about admitting to liking violence
is that that statement merely touches the surface of the overall
argument.  And for all the discussion about the beauty-good
misalliance(s)...no one is talking about the sublime, which is often
mistaken for an affect that is due to a response to something
beautiful.


If we wish to be a "tad more cautious," maybe we should begin by
refusing knee-jerk reactions to critical challeneges to pop-culture
as appearances of elitism and conservativism. (Neither fit my goals
nor thoughts.)

Tarrantino has no staying power...that was my point.  My critique was
more of consumer culture creating mystique than with Tarrantino's use
of violence.

And whether we like it or not.  Violence as a tool is not a tool
always well used.  I am thinking of language here (Wittgenstein) as
well as an instrument forged (and therefore constantly worked upon in
order to become more acute.)

We use language.  It is a tool.  We can use it properly or not. (Nature)
We develop tools to help shape our world and to build in it. (Culture)

Violence has this double aspect.


gary norris



--
Every visible power is threatened, especially when it
rests on a usurpation that alienates both its victims
and its accomplices.  Thus the detective's tactics are
those of the minister and the Chief of State.  Power will
be shady or will not be at all. . .
     --H de Balzac, Introduction to Une tenebreuse affaire