Response to Ideology Takes a Day Off: Althusser and Mass Culture

Chip Rhodes defends Althusser\u27s scientific belief that the subject is a bearer of structures and opposes the humanist claim that the subject functions independently of its contexts. However, recent work in cultural studies examines how identity is constructed and allows us to reconcile the scientific and the humanist view. Ideological interpellation may define our subject positions but we are still able to refuse them. For instance, Rhodes\u27 account of Ferris Bueller\u27s Day Off assumes that the subject is a fully interpellated, adolescent, Anglo, middle or upper class, heterosexual male. However, the film also offers various oppositional subject positions, including adolescent female or Hispanic, working class youth

Late 1920s film theory and criticism as a test-case for Benjamin’s generalizations on the experiential effects of editing

This article investigates Walter Benjamin’s influential generalization that the effects of cinema are akin to the hyper-stimulating experience of modernity. More specifically, I focus on his oft-cited 1935/36 claim that all editing elicits shock-like disruption. First, I propose a more detailed articulation of the experience of modernity understood as hyper-stimulation and call for distinguishing between at least two of its subsets: the experience of speed and dynamism, on the one hand, and the experience of shock/disruption, on the other. Then I turn to classical film theory of the late 1920s to demonstrate the existence of contemporary views on editing alternative to Benjamin’s. For instance, whereas classical Soviet and Weimar theorists relate the experience of speed and dynamism to both Soviet and classical Hollywood style editing, they reserve the experience of shock/disruption for Soviet montage. In order to resolve the conceptual disagreement between these theorists, on the one hand, and Benjamin, on the other, I turn to late 1920s Weimar film criticism. I demonstrate that, contrary to Benjamin’s generalizations about the disruptive and shock-like nature of all editing, and in line with other theorists’ accounts, different editing practices were regularly distinguished by comparison to at least two distinct hyper-stimulation subsets: speed and dynamism, and shock-like disruption. In other words, contemporaries regularly distinguished between Soviet montage and classical Hollywood editing patterns on the basis of experiential effects alone. On the basis of contemporary reviews of city symphonies, I conclude with a proposal for distinguishing a third subset – confusion. This is an original manuscript / preprint of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Early Popular Visual Culture on 02 Aug 2016 available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2016.1199322

Circadian Rhythm and Sleep Disruption: Causes, Metabolic Consequences and Countermeasures.

Circadian (∼ 24 hour) timing systems pervade all kingdoms of life, and temporally optimize behaviour and physiology in humans. Relatively recent changes to our environments, such as the introduction of artificial lighting, can disorganize the circadian system, from the level of the molecular clocks that regulate the timing of cellular activities to the level of synchronization between our daily cycles of behaviour and the solar day. Sleep/wake cycles are intertwined with the circadian system, and global trends indicate that these too are increasingly subject to disruption. A large proportion of the world's population is at increased risk of environmentally-driven circadian rhythm and sleep disruption, and a minority of individuals are also genetically predisposed to circadian misalignment and sleep disorders. The consequences of disruption to the circadian system and sleep are profound and include myriad metabolic ramifications, some of which may be compounded by adverse effects on dietary choices. If not addressed, the deleterious effects of such disruption will continue to cause widespread health problems; therefore, implementation of the numerous behavioural and pharmaceutical interventions that can help restore circadian system alignment and enhance sleep will be important

The Pleasures and Profits of a Postmodern Film Historiography

No longer can history writers believe themselves to be on the scene of the Real, writing Truth. Instead of regretting this, the article celebrates the freedom of the new situation. More issues than before are allowed historical treatment, and history can be written in numerous ways. But because histories create and have effect, the performers of history-writing are obliged to perform it ethically, and the article includes proposals on how this can be done

“Based on the True Story of”: Political Filmmaking and Analogical Thinking

“Based on the True Story of” considers how reception studies contributes to determining what constitutes effective political filmmaking and the lessons these films offer to encourage political allegiances. Prior work has indicated that filmmakers need to provide narrative frames to insure their preferred views are accessible to audiences, that excessive emotional appeals can backfire, that conspiracy narratives are more accepted if the narratives argue for complicated webs of power structure, and that markers of authorial subjectivity provide space for spectators to negotiate the material. Here analogical thinking – finding resemblances of one or more features between events in the text and the historical past – is studied for docudramas. Using the reception of Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), the essay argues two further hypotheses that also involve analogical thinking : (1) reviewers expect audiences to seek lessons and explicitly engage with a film's assumed message about contemporary politics, and (2) reviewers often reposition the lessons into other generic narrative formula which have heroes and villains.“Based on the True Story of” analyse la façon dont les études de réception contribuent à déterminer en quoi consistent le cinéma politique et les leçons qu’il donne dans le but d’assurer l’adhésion des spectateurs. Des travaux antérieurs ont montré que les cinéastes s’assurent volontiers, au moyen de cadres narratifs, de la lisiblité de leur point de vue auprès du public, tout en évitant de trop jouer la carte de l’émotion, par crainte de provoquer l’inverse de l’effet recherché. On sait également que les marques d’énonciation subjective sont appréciées en tant qu’elles donnent un peu de jeu aux pièces de ce puzzle démonstratif qu’est le film politique. L’article, après ce rappel, se concentre sur les traces écrites de la réception du docufiction Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), qui se divisent en deux types : (1) les critiques attendent du public qu’il retienne la leçon du film et la transpose, par le biais de la pensée analogique, à la vie politique actuelle; (2) les critiques déplacent les leçons à tirer du côté narratologique, comme s’il s’agissait d’abord de l’affrontement entre les bons et les méchants