Robin….point by point:


1) “Jeffrey, you're confusing two separate things (if not three) -- (i) the term applied to certain film techniques ("jump cut"), (ii) the techniques themselves, which pre-date the first use of the term, and (iii) the metaphorical extension of the term from its origins in cinematography to literature. The term is first used (see the OED) in 1953: 1953 K. REISZ Technique Film Editing 280 *Jump cut, cut which breaks continuity of time by jumping forward from one part of an action to another obviously separated from the first by an interval of time.”

The operative phrase here is “part of an action”. The interval of time is a second (as actions can’t last more than a few seconds) so as to produce a jilted or stuttered effect. There is no mention of a time interval spanning the periods you infer in a recent post. What your references have more in common with are “match-cuts”, famously used in Kubrick’s ‘2001”, where a shot of a bone flying through the air after being thrown by a caveman cuts to a shot thousands of years later of a space satellite following a similar trajectory to that of the bone.

A jump-cut is quite different, and can be seen in Eisenstein’s ‘The Battleship Potemkin’ where three shots of a stature consisting of three lions in different positions are jump-cutted so as to produce the effect that there is only one line making the movement. Other jump cuts can be seen in the French nouvelle vague films of the sixties— Truffaut, Godard etc. It also appears in some Cassavetes films in the seventies. All use the jump-cut to cause a second/s long disjunction. None use it to span days, weeks, months or years.



2) “This is also a little more consonant than your own definition (somewhat loaded in order to allow a link to Cubism?) with what ended up as being pointed to in Shakespeare in this thread.”

In light of the above explanation of a jump-cut, it does have a similarity to cubism, as both are able to show objects from different perspectives. Cubism, albeit simultaneously.


3) “The metaphorical extension is first recorded in 1966, so if you're objecting to this, perhaps you'd be advised to invest in a time machine: 1966 Punch 6 July 26/2 The restless, *jump-cutting style is sometimes disconcerting one takes a second or two to realise that an expected bridging passage has been waived.”

I’m not objecting to its metaphorical usage if that usage is to accurately compare like with like. My objection is using an incorrect definition of the term metaphorically.

It may be possible that poetry before the invention of film uses what film now uses and calls jump-cuts, but I have yet to see examples. Can you show me one from a poem that uses jump-cutting the same way Eisenstein, Truffaut or Godard use it—spanning seconds?


3) “Personally, I'm inclined to agree with you to the extent that I'd see the metaphorical extension of the term "jump cut" as more appropriate to Shakespeare's technique in the Sonnets than in his plays. It certainly took longer for the innovations present in the Sonnets to be absorbed into the literary tradition than it did for the plays.”

Again, show me a jump-cut spanning a second/s in the Sonnets.





Original Message:


Jeffrey, you're confusing two separate things (if not three) -- (i) the term
applied to certain film techniques ("jump cut"), (ii) the techniques
themselves, which pre-date the first use of the term, and (iii) the
metaphorical extension of the term from its origins in cinematography to
literature.

The term is first used (see the OED) in 1953:

//
1953 K. REISZ Technique Film Editing 280 *Jump cut, cut which breaks
continuity of time by jumping forward from one part of an action to another
obviously separated from the first by an interval of time.
\\

This is also a little more consonant than your own definition (somewhat
loaded in order to allow a link to Cubism?) with what ended up as being
pointed to in Shakespeare in this thread.

The metaphorical extension is first recorded in 1966, so if you're objecting
to this, perhaps you'd be advised to invest in a time machine:

//
 1966 Punch 6 July 26/2 The restless, *jump-cutting style is sometimes
disconcertingone takes a second or two to realise that an expected bridging
passage has been waived.
\\

Personally, I'm inclined to agree with you to the extent that I'd see the
metaphorical extension of the term "jump cut" as more appropriate to
Shakespeare's technique in the Sonnets than in his plays. It certainly took
longer for the innovations present in the Sonnets to be absorbed into the
literary tradition than it did for the plays.

Robin