Refracted Input

Clare O’Farrell’s blog on books, TV, films, Michel Foucault, universities etc. etc.

Looking Awry

Clare O'Farrell

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December 19, 2008

Slavoj Zizek. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991.

My rating: ***

Zizek paraphrases and inverts de Quincey’s famous propositions concerning murder:

If a person renounces Stephen King, soon Hitchcock himself will appear to him dubious, and from here it is just a step to a disdain for psychoanalysis and to a snobbish refusal of Lacan. How many people have entered the way of perdition with some fleeting cynical remark on Stephen King, which at the time was of no great importance to them, and ended by treating Lacan as a phallocentric obscurantist! (p. viii)

I found this statement hilarious but instructive in relation to academic snobberies in relation to popular culture. To tell the truth I do renounce Stephen King, I do find Hitchcock dubious and Lacan is most certainly a phallocentric obscurantist. My trash and high culture interests lie elsewhere. I think this would work much better for me if I set up Foucault as the end point.

Let’s try it:

If a person renounces The Prisoner, soon George Orwell himself will appear to him dubious, and from here it is just a step to a disdain for genealogy and to a snobbish refusal of Foucault. How many people have entered the way of perdition with some fleeting cynical remark on The Prisoner, which at the time was of no great importance to them, and ended by treating Foucault as a nihilistic postmodernist!

Supernatural (TV series)

Clare O'Farrell

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December 18, 2008

My rating: ***

Season 4 episode 7: ‘It’s the great pumpkin, Sam Winchester’

Well, while I am on a roll, I thought I might as well continue with this discussion of God, angels and demons and the supernatural and so on and so forth. Perhaps a more lengthy piece on the emergence of a neo-gnostic themes in contemporary popular culture, might be something I can do at some later stage.

I have always had a bit of a take it or leave it attitude towards Supernatural. I watch it because it is fantasy/ science fiction and is reasonably inoffensive. Many people (especially women) watch it for the two main characters – the Winchester brothers – but I find them of fairly limited interest and I am not unduly concerned when I miss an episode or two.

The series takes the mystique out of the supernatural to some extent, and the two brothers have a fairly practical approach to the problems caused by the intervention of usually evil supernatural creatures into the mundane. This particular episode is set at Halloween. The most interesting aspect of the episode is the appearance of not just one – but two angels. The introduction of angels at the beginning of the current season (season 4) has actually got me almost interested in the series. Clearly the Christopher Walken The Prophecy movies have sparked off a whole trend for seriously dangerous and somewhat ambiguous angels in film and TV. No Touched by an Angel saccharine here! Misha Collins who plays the angel Castiel who rescued one of the brothers, Dean, from Hell is superb and hits just the right note of dangerous and jaded cool. Nice Columbo style trench coat as well. (I wonder whether this is an oblique reference to Peter Falk’s appearance in Wim Wender’s angel movie Wings of Desire?) I will be fascinated to see how the series writers try to solve the tricky question of God that introducing angels raises.

Unfortunately there are already signs of compromise in relation to Castiel’s character when we see him secretly expressing some ‘doubts’ to Dean about the mission he has been sent on. It is the difference, not the similarity of angels to humans which makes them interesting and it would be good to see the writers of Supernatural maintain that distance. This is something The Prophecy movies manage well.

I thought this lolcat picture of a hoard of demon cats would be entirely appropriate for this post. ‘Basement Cat’ is the lolcat name for the Devil.

Basement Cat summons his legions...

Apparitions (2008) Episode 2

Clare O'Farrell

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December 17, 2008

My rating: ***
Spoiler alert

My post on episode one

Episode 2 of Apparitions is perhaps a little less convincing than the first one but what is interesting about it is how it manages to foreground contemporary cultural clichés about good and evil. There are some fairly absurd plot twists concerning the Chief Exorcist of Rome who is the main character, Father Jacob’s mentor. It transpires that the former after being interned as a Jew in a concentration camp during World War II is so horrified by the experience that he converts to Christianity and then converts to Satanism (!) How the Church bureaucracy which has employed him in a fairly important position has completely failed to notice this is a bit of a mystery.

Gnostic ideas of a Manichean struggle between two equivalent and equally dubious powers – God and Satan are wheeled out in the series with humans somehow stuck in the middle of the struggle for power. In recent years, a whole subgenre using this kind of Gnostic mythology and other medieval heretical and Cabbalistic teachings and demonologies has emerged. Examples include The Prophecy trilogy (with Christopher Walken), the Australian film Gabriel and also Constantine with Tilda Swinton and Keanu Reaves. We also see elements of these ideas in the TV series Supernatural and Dr. Who writer and producer Russell T. Davies’ film The Second Coming. I might also mention a slightly earlier contribution to the genre – the short-lived 1998 TV series Brimstone.

Father Jacob is incited to ‘convert’ to faith in Satan, which postures as a kind of dark obverse to faith in God. The God who emerges in both Apparitions and the films I have listed above is a fickle and remote dictator who seems to who have created the world purely for his own amusement and doesn’t hesitate to involve his servants in violence to promote his own cause.

What I found most interesting about episode 2 of Apparitions, however, was the notion put forward by the demon that rather than just being powerful predators, demons are in fact victims of a tyrannical God who has thrown them into hell to be tortured in much the same way as Nazis tortured the Jews in concentration camps. The notion of demons as victims is certainly an indication of current thinking on a number of fronts, in particular in terms of responsibility for action.

It is unclear whether the demon in the first two episodes is the Devil himself or just one of his minions, but he runs this line as a way of tempting Father Jacob and undermining his ‘faith’. How can one trust a God who tortures his own creatures in this way? Much is made of how clever and subtle the Devil is and how clever and dangerous his arguments are but what we get instead in this episode are the hoary old notions that if God is good why is there evil in the world? A God who allows evil and sends people and demons to hell is simply not viable and so on and so forth.

Some elementary logic here is helpful. If we believe people are free to choose their own fates and that God respects that freedom, then they have to be free to choose to reject God and to go to hell in a handbasket of their own accord. (I might also mention in passing the odd notion of heaven and hell as geographical spaces in these world views. Formal theological definitions of hell involve simply the absence of God.) There are plenty of science fiction and literary depictions of the unfreedoms involved in compulsory utopias where all are ‘happy’, which can be used to counter these kind of arguments.

People live in a social environment and no element in that system is insulated from the rest of the system. ‘Innocent victims’ (and others less innocent) are perhaps not being ‘punished’ by a heartless God, but are dealing with the short and long term consequences of the actions of others within a very complex and interconnected social and physical environment. Addressing problems at this level might be more helpful, rather than blaming some straw man figure of a remote and temperamental God, or alternately blaming the existence of a socio-cultural belief in God for all our ills (Richard Dawkins). Economic crisis and rampant corporate greed anyone?

There are some weak arguments from Father Jacob along the lines that the demons made their choice and have to live with it, but it all boils down ultimately to pure assertion that God is good and the Devil is evil so there!

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Clare O'Farrell

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December 16, 2008

My rating: ****
Imdb link

Recently I had an interesting discussion with a couple of friends about the complete disappearance of the twentieth century futurist vision, a vision which perhaps reached its culmination in the 1980s. 2001 is a reminder of that vision. The camera lingers languorously over the beautifully designed sets and models. The story and its pseudo mystical elements are just a device to hang this artistic futurist vision on. The soundtrack of course is famous and is the perfect accompaniment to the visuals as is the minimalist acting by both machine and humans.

The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context

Clare O'Farrell

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December 15, 2008

Sheenagh Pugh, The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context. Bridgend: Seren, 2005.
My rating: ****

The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context by Sheenagh Pugh

This book offers an excellent and sympathetic overview of fan fiction as a literary form. The author uses material from both media and literary fandoms as illustrations, including The Bill, Discworld, Blakes 7, Hornblower and Jane Austen. The book is eminently readable and a great resource for anyone wishing to learn about the practices of fan fiction communities.

The author is a poet, novelist, critic and translator and teaches creative writing at the University of Glamorgan in Wales.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Clare O'Farrell

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December 14, 2008

My rating: **
Imdb link
Mild spoilers

This film is a real disappointment after the excellent Casino Royale. It is forgotten five minutes after walking out of the cinema. Daniel Craig, however, remains first rate and cuts a stylish figure in every scene. He handles himself with exemplary cool and poise and whatever he wears looks fabulous on him. Unfortunately this is not enough to save the film. The last two Bourne films have a lot to answer for. The action sequences at the beginning are filmed with unwatchable hand held camera. Not only is it impossible to see what is going on but headaches quickly develop at the viewer’s end. Why spend all the money on action scenes if you can’t see them properly? James Bond films have always been about huge sweeping vistas and shots. Hand held camera just doesn’t work in the Bond universe.

Missing also are the luxurious settings that made Casino Royale so watchable and there is very little room for character work. A moment such as the death of Bond’s friend is not contextualised sufficiently for it to work properly even if both actors do some fine work here. (As an aside, I would not be surprised if this particular scene wasn’t already providing prime fodder for slash fan fiction writers.) We are told by various characters in the film that Bond is angry and bitter after losing Vespa, but we don’t see enough of Bond, except in action mode, to be really moved by or understand his predicament.

The plot is likewise unconvincing and lacking in interest – particularly after the intriguing conspiratorial set up of Casino Royale. After M is attacked it appears that Bond is on the rampage about this as well. The whole film is unremittingly downbeat with no moments of dry humour to change the pace. Downbeat is fine, but hollow and lack lustre are not. It is difficult to see where Bond can go from here. The writers may need to rethink their strategies for the next film. I understand that a fourth Bourne movie is being made and the same comment applies to that franchise as well. It seems a pity that the only way that the film makers are able to bring emotional heart to these films is through romance. Romance is of course fine when it is properly done, but perhaps Hollywood writers need lessons in how to write other emotions as well in ways that will engage the viewer. Both Bourne and Bond seem hermetically sealed in their grief and anger in ways which alienate rather than engage the viewer. There is very little real sense of Bond as a tragic figure, something which was put in place nicely at the end of Casino Royale but not convincingly realised in this follow up.

MirrorMask (2005)

Clare O'Farrell

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December 13, 2008

My rating: ****
Imdb link

This film is the result of a collaboration between writer Neil Gaiman, artist Dave McKean and the Jim Henson Company. It is about a British teenager whose parents run a circus. Her mother falls ill in Brighton and she enters into a parallel dream-like world which is made up of strange, unique and beautiful artwork, strange creatures and people wearing Venetian style masks and fabulous costumes. The sound track is also very evocative with Euro circus music and a Scandinavian singer over the final titles. The film has a very friendly and positive tone in spite of its strangeness, with conflicts being sorted out in a positive way. It is unique and beautiful to look at – an artwork on film.

The Amber Spyglass

Clare O'Farrell

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December 12, 2008

My rating: *
Spoiler Alert

The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman


My review

This book is well written and the story really hooks you in, but I really disliked the philosophy Pullman is pushing. This philosophy seems to be a kind of Nietzschean materialist version of gnosticism (phew!). His is a universe which allows only of one interpretation, a place where the event is nothing but the intervention of chaos and the void and must be negated so the status quo can be restored in the full glory of its disciplinary order. It is a universe where the human curiosity for knowledge leads to ruin and annihilation (although the author overtly claims the opposite) and where the fluidity of identity must be replaced by the supremacy of the rational and by fixed identity.

Just to break down those abstractions a bit. The ‘event’ is the opening up of windows to other worlds by scientists – Lord Asriel and the scientists in the Cittagazze. This leads to the beginning of the breakdown of the universe and the potential annihilation of consciousness. It is scientific curiosity about what is out there and other worlds that leads to this situation.

Views on identity centre around daemons (souls). Children have daemons which can change shape until they reach puberty. After that, they become fixed which Pullman indicates several times is a good thing and a sign of maturity and wisdom. This identity also appears to maintain the social order. Once a servant always a servant. As Lyra explains in The Amber Spyglass the daemons of servants are usually dogs, indicating that these are people who need to be led and ordered around. One is not a servant due to unjust social circumstances or questionable social hierarchies but because that is what one’s nature is and one must remain as ordained. Entire armies of Tartars have wolf daemons. If one is not happy with one’s daemon – too bad – you are stuck with it. So much for social justice or working on the self as a project.

Lyra, when she hits puberty, loses her intuitive ability to read the alethiometer and must then be formed by the disciplinary institution of the (boarding) school in order to develop rational techniques to read it. It is the Modernist idea that fantasy and intuition are the province of childhood and are properly replaced by adult ‘rationality’. C. Wright Mills provides a classic example of this kind of thinking in his 1959 work The Sociological Imagination.

Dust appears to be conscious matter which works in sync with humans – it is both attracted to humans and generated by humans. It relies on humans to aggregate into a conscious form. Angels are beings who can’t quite pull it off in terms of really existing because they have no real material body. They are half existences (even if they are powerful) and envy the body of humans.

A propos this angelic nature, Will is content to ask entities such as angels whether they are stronger or weaker than humans. When the first angel he meets, Balthamos, replies he is weaker than humans, Will bluntly tells him that he has to do what he orders him to do in that case. This theme of exploiting his position as the strongest emerges again and again. If Will thinks he can exercise power over somebody or something he doesn’t hesitate to do so. The Nietzschean hero indeed.

‘God’ or ‘the Authority’ is an evil being who only wants to dominate and control Man and is frightened of the power of the latter. What we have here is an old-fashioned modernist anthropomorphic view of the universe. Humans (and the equivalents thereof) are the centre and the raison d’être of all conscious being.

On another topic, the idea of a romantic interlude between two twelve year old children resulting in the salvation of the universe both present and future is both tacky and unconvincing. Why should ‘Dust’ (aka conscious matter particles) find such an event to be the stabilising point?

There is no room for multiple interpretations of elements within Pullman’s cosmology, which makes it a very closed and small universe. At the same time it is hard to pin down what is actually going on satisfactorily and it all seems very confused and self-contradictory at the edges. It would appear that both scientific and spiritual forms of experimental knowledge are dangerous to the well-being of the entire universe and that the best we can do is conform to a rigid disciplinary status quo which will preserve our nature and protect us from the danger of annihilation. There is nothing but a gaping void beyond or outside of this status quo. Even when you are dead you are recycled to guarantee the ongoing existence of this ghastly stasis.

In conclusion, one is left with nowhere to go at the end of Pullman’s trilogy but that would appear to be the author’s aim in any case.

The Subtle Knife

Clare O'Farrell

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December 11, 2008

My rating: ***

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

My review


I found this book a bit disappointing after the first one. It has taken me a while to analyse why. I think it is a combination of a number of things.

First of all I’m not quite convinced by Pullman’s cosmology. Somehow it isn’t big enough – there is not enough to it to really give me a sense of large spaces and ambiguous complexity. The cosmology works much better in the first book where it is highly organised. It is less convincing as it starts to change and break down in The Subtle Knife. Even though we have three worlds in this book – including our own world the cosmos feels much smaller than in the first.

Secondly, it appears that Lyra after having initially been the heroine is now in fact just there to help the hero. This was something I found really disappointing about the film The Matrix for example. In the film Trinity is set up as a remarkable and admirable figure and then all she becomes is a helper for the central male hero. Lyra becomes a far less interesting and likeable character in this second novel with a strong emphasis on her uncivilised character traits.

The central character Will also reminds me of that other Will in Susan Hill’s The Dark is Rising a traumatised and rather distant character, old beyond his years with the weight of the universe and destiny on his shoulders. I continue not to be a fan on ‘chosen one’ kind of thematics.

Northern Lights

Clare O'Farrell

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December 10, 2008

My rating: ****

Northern Lights (His Dark Materials I) Tenth Anniversary 1995-2005 Northern Lights (His Dark Materials I) Tenth Anniversary 1995-2005 by Philip Pullman

My review


I enjoyed this book a great deal. Well-written and well-plotted with interesting characters. It also created a most convincing alternative world.

Of particular interest is the idea that humans have souls which manifest themselves in physical animal form and never leave people’s side. One can also engage in conversations with this ‘soul’. Quite an attractive idea, although my last housesit with a really clingy dog did take a bit of a shine off the notion (!)

Also interesting is the Nietzschean character of Lord Asriel. The philosophical discussions about free will and destiny, the nature of the Fall and original sin are quite readable even if I didn’t necessarily agree with the positions being argued.

I had a few quibbles about the familiar ‘special individual with great destiny who alone can save the world’ trope. I am really not a fan of that idea – but I think it is fairly popular as a way of getting the engine of a plot moving along.

I saw the film adaptation The Golden Compass when it came out and rewatched it again after having read the book. I thought the film was pretty colourless when I originally saw it and watching it again confirmed this perception. It does nothing more than provide a rather dreary plot summary of the book.

I have no idea why so many claims were made that elements which were critical of institutionalised religion in the book were toned down for the film. In my view, the film is far more blatant and one-sided in its demonisation of institutional religion than the book is. Evil popery indeed. The film reduces the ambiguities of the book in this and so many other places to black and white.

The book is never sentimental but sentimental elements are introduced into the film.

Why the film ends somewhere before the end of the book is also somewhat of a mystery, The book presents a well balanced story and to take the end of the story to the next film doesn’t make sense – unless the film makers are just going to skip over the ending as being too difficult.

To tell the truth, the next two books would be an absolute minefield when it comes to mainstream American film. It is difficult to see how they can be transferred to screen without offending just about everybody.

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