Citizen Kane: American Heroes and Witnesses

Citizen Kane is in no danger of being dislodged from its place as one of the most respected films of all time, but it is in danger of losing its vitality as a film with meaning as well as impressive visual appeal. When we call Kane to mind, we no doubt remember stunning scenes and cinematic images: the close-up of Kane\u27s lips filling the screen, whispering Rosebud ; the breakfast-table montage sequence that in a few short minutes tells virtually all we need to know of the history of Kane\u27s first marriage; the deep-focus shots of Susan and Kane dwarfed by the dark Great Hall of Xanadu; the crane shot that surveys the unending clutter of Kane\u27s possessions at the end of the film, from which Rosebud emerges; and on and on. Perhaps because such moments are so arresting, we tend to underestimate or overlook the ways by which Welles embeds ideas, arguments, critical statements, and questions in his cinematic techniques. For Welles, an image is a mode of analysis as well as representation

Studies on a growth inhibitor in guayule

1. Evidence is presented to show that when guayule plants (6 months to 2 years of age) are grown in gravel culture, an influence is exerted which is inhibitory to the growth of guayule seedlings. 2. The development of two types of semi-quantitative assay for the detection of the inhibiting principle is described. 3. A method is described for the collection of large quantities of nutrient solution containing the inhibiting principle, and for the subsequent concentration of this material to small volume. It is pointed out that the production of the inhibiting principle decreases sharply during the winter months. 4. Evidence is presented to show that the inhibiting principle is an organic substance. The critical evidence consists of the disappearance of activity on ashing and of the extractability of the inhibitor by organic solvents. 5. It is estimated that a guayule plant (6 months to 2 years of age), growing in gravel culture gives up to the nutrient medium, on the average, a minimum of 200 gammas per day of organic matter. 6. Various chemical properties of the inhibitor are given. It is shown to be relatively stable to heat, stable to drying, non-volatile, non-adsorbable by charcoal, and probably non-precipitable by lead. 7. An experiment is described in which a crude crystalline material was obtained which was very active. 8. Evidence is presented to show that the effect of the inhibitor is not due to an influence on the pH of the nutrient solution. 9. The occurance of growth stimulatory organic substances in the guayule leachate is described. These stimulatory fractions were active at concentrations as low as 2 mg. per liter. 10. A number of pure synthetic organic acids were tested for inhibitory activity, of these only one, cis-9,10 dihydroxy stearic acid was found to be active. This compound caused marked inhibition in concentrations as low as 3.5 mg. per liter. 11. The chemical fractionation of a soil on which guayule plants had grown is described and it is shown to contain inhibitory organic substances having some chemical properties similar to those of the substances in the guayule leachates.</p

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Pleasures and Dangers of Looking

Sidney Gottlieb is Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University. This is a slightly revised version of a talk delivered on March 1, 2006, at Sacred Heart University as the inaugural Honors Program Lecture

Transfigured Rites in Seventeenth Century Poetry (Book Review)

Book review by Sidney Gottlieb. Chambers, A. B. Transfigured Rites in Seventeenth Century Poetry. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992. ISBN 978082620808

Costly Monuments: Representations of the Self in George Herbert\u27s Poetry (Book Review)

Book review by Sidney Gottlieb. Harman, Barbara Leah. Costly Monuments: Representations of the Self in George Herbert\u27s Poetry. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press, 1982. ISBN 978067417465

Materials

Part 1 of the book Approaches to Teaching the Metaphysical Poets, edited by Sidney Gottlieb. The chapter is not an attempt to settle the implicit argument between those who (in the words of one colleague) most certainly do not believe in using an anthology of seventeenth-century poetry and those who, for one reason or another, choose to use an anthology. Nor is what follows a comprehensive list of all available editions and anthologies or a fully developed critical review of them. It is, rather, a brief description of those texts mentioned by respondents, including enough information to help instructors decide which texts suit their particular needs

Orson Welles: Interviews (Book review)

Book review by Sid Gottlieb. Estrin, Mark W. Orson Welles: Interviews. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. ISBN 978157806208

The Collected Works of Abraham Cowley, vol. 2: Poems (1656) - Part 1: The Mistress (Book Review)

Book review by Sidney Gottlieb. Cowley, Abraham et al. The Collected Works of Abraham Cowley, vol. 2: Poems (1656) - Part 1: The Mistress. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1993. ISBN 978087413408

Herbert\u27s Prayerful Art (Book Review)

Book review by Sidney Gottlieb. Sherwood, Terry G. Herbert\u27s Prayerful Art. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989. ISBN 978080202712

A Royalist Rewriting of George Herbert: \u27His Majesties Complaint to his Subjects\u27 (1647)

George Herbert\u27s verse was manipulated to create sympathy for King Charles during one of his many periods of crisis