>>In _Reservoir Dogs_, when one of the gangsters pours gas/petrol
>>over the policeman tied to a chair, I had a very visceral reaction:
>>I was surprised, startled, and afraid - I 'forgot' that I was watching
>>a film.
. . . sorry . . . don't want to seem picky but that's
patently untrue . . . if you had really forgotten that
you were watching a film you would quite certainly
have stood up and intervened or called for help or
done SOMETHING . . . that you remained seated and
watching evidences that you never really lost awareness
of the hypothetical or fictional quality of the whole
experience . . .
what's more intriguing is the possibility [i would
go further and say likelihood] that the power of the
emotional response was elicited precisely BY -- or
at least as a result of -- the liminal awareness that
the events portrayed were mere simulacra of "the real" . . .
this is a phenomenon i rarely have seen addressed
mike
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