forwarded message from andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

I am reposting this as when I replied privately to Michael I did not
know that his original had gone to the list

mglosup at randomc.com writes:

 [re Franz viewing Attila the Hun]

> I love this scene. Franz must have faith of a religious quality in 
> cause and effect.  Franz doesn't have to actually 'connect the 
> fragments', he can assume that the connections do exist and not 
> exert himself by engaging in observation.  Of course he could have 
> seen a synopsis of the film before viewing it.

You are right that Franz does not have to connect the fragments, up to
a point. But imagine if those fragments are just dots with no lines
between them. At what point does making the connections become a
psychological, or better perceptual - better still conceptual
necessity. We get so blase about teh concepts on which we have built
our edifice that we think they must be trivial. Whereas it is merely
that they are utterly familiar because of frequent and routine
application of the methods and techniques which give them life. Fail
to employ these techniques, i.e. apply the concepts, regularly enough
and suddenly it becomes impossible to view aspects of one's world
under the aspect of the concept (in case you know LudWit this is the
key point behind his duck-rabbit aspect - in the case of the ambiguous
duck-rabbit figure we cannot help but eep seeing at once rabbit then
next duck because we cannot stop ourselves applying the two
over-familiar concepts in rotation).

Even if he had seen a synopsis how would he have known that the film
conformed to the synopsis? If the intervals between frames get big
enough then anything can be allowed to happen in the spaces.
Continuity at a conceptual level relies on continuity and regularities
at the day to day level. Franz's attempts to supplant this rule with
notions of cause and effect is a diversion (i.e. secular history) even
though, as you say, rooted in faith.


Andrew Dinn
- -----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.