From: konrad (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Mar 26 2004 - 12:56:03 PST
The core of this book was originally developed for two courses
Dorsky taught at Stanford and UC Berkeley. The latter was a
History of Avant Garde film class, i believe. As a series of
lectures it bore the title "Film as a Metaphor for Being." The
Princeton occasion allowed him to develop some further ideas
relating to 'devotion' in the context of "Religion and Cinema."
So i think the a-g hovers in the background as much as Gene
senses Buddhism does. But the covert message one could pick up on
is that "more often" the a-g gets set up as holier than thou
(purer, more materialist, oppositional, aware, principled, etc),
so as Marilyn points out Dorsky replies that a-g has one kind of
vulnerability and narrative another. I see this as Dorsky
positioning himself outside an allegiance to either wing of
cinema.
It seems important, if obvious, to also say that this practice
Dorsky outlines as an approach to attain/regain balance between
the too solipsistic and the too objectifying, this devotion, is
not blind. I would just add that what leads to films that "may
serve as a corrective mirror" draws as much from critical as from
contemplative traditions.
konrad
^Z
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