Choose 2 from these 4 questions, I expect approximately 4 pgs
per question. Be speculative, there is no right answer. Return with name,
email address and phone number on a blank cover page to my mailbox in the
Rhetoric/Film offices on Friday, October 22, 1999.
THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS FOR PAPERS AFTER 5:00pm!
Question 1:
Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd places his head in Marcia's lap and whimpers "Marcia…you made me, you made me." A number of the films we’ve worked with this semester depict beings whose origins prove to be the result of outside forces and who find themselves in compliance with the forces they formally critiqued or resisted.
The protagonists in Blade Runner, Robocop, and even Clockwork Orange are all ‘made’ in some way. In Clockwork Orange for example, we learn that Alex, despite his seeming contradictory pose to mainstream political forces proves to be in complicity with their intentions. Thus, we might say that Alex colludes with the very forces he once critiqued and falls victim to forces he once participated with. In what way is this true for Rachel in Blade Runner and Murphy in Robocop? In your answer consider our reading thus far: "Cyborg Manifesto," "Motifs in Baudelaire," and "The Culture Industry," Society of Spectacle." You should explain your reasoning by first briefly developing your thesis in A Face in the Crowd and then extending it to the other films mentioned above.
Question 2:
The proliferation of the commodity form in late capitalism transforms society by systematically substituting exchange-value and appearance for use-value and material concreteness. Debord basically states that this process has gone beyond a mere substitution however, where there might still remain traces, footprints, of the original concrete use-value, instead this substitution is complete and erases its origins. As he writes in thesis 46: "Exchange value could arise only as an agent of use value, but its victory by means of its own weapons created the conditions for its autonomous domination. Mobilizing all human use and establishing a monopoly over its satisfaction, exchange value has ended up by directing use."
Compare this to Horkheimer and Adorno’s "Culture Industry" article—does Debord develop their thesis further? Explain their thesis and compare it to Debord’s. Is it possible to imagine a more thoroughly liquidated world than Horkheimer and Adorno already have? Relate Debord’s thesis to the general shift in experience that we have seen in Benjamin’s essays "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and "On Some Motifs in Baudelaire." Consider the films A Face in the Crowd and Eraserhead in your answer.
Question 3:
Roy in Blade Runner says at one point "Chew, if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes!" The conflict this quote exemplifies is that of creator and created, where that which is created surpasses its creator.
Blade Runner, Robocop, and even Clockwork Orange all depict
beings which in some way surpass the forces which have created or fashioned
them. Their superiority is limited and highly focused, however, by the
manner in which their creators subjugate them. In Blade Runner
for
example, the Replicants have a limited life span, in Robocop, Murphy
has a program which prevents him from arresting or harming executives from
OCP. Extend this question to Alex in Clockwork Orange. In what
ways is he superior? In what ways is he similarly subjugated? In
your answer you must consider him both before and after he is conditioned,
and you should explain your reasoning by first briefly developing the thesis
in both Blade Runner and Robocop. Finally, beyond this
analysis, speculate on how these films posit our future as subjects who
are increasingly subjected to forces of our own creation, yet beyond our
immediate control. In your answer consider our reading thus far:
"The Culture Industry," "Cyborg Manifesto," "Motifs in Baudelaire.’
Question 4:
Remembering the past seems to be a frequent theme in our readings and films this semester. In Robocop, you will recall, Murphy says: "I can feel them, but I can’t remember them." In Blade Runner the replicants took risks just to find photographs of their past, just, it would appear, to construct a past worth remembering.
Examine what Benjamin has to say about the cult value of the photograph:
"The cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge
for the cult value of the picture." (pg. 226, "Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction"). Compare Murphy’s lament and the extreme
value the replicants place on their ‘precious photographs’ to Henry in
Eraserhead:
how does his relation to the photograph differ from Murphy’s and the replicants
(particularly Leon)? What does this tell us about how these films
comprehend the mode of experience of their characters? As you consider
the relation between memory and the photograph, you should discuss Benjamin's
essays and his distinction between Erfahrung and Erlebnis
as well as considering Kaja Silverman’s essay on Blade Runner.