VL-IV: Chap 9- Close-ups

[Michael Bailey]

Mark Kohut wrote:
> MK wrote:
> From my first reading of this book, I have felt that 24fps was some kind of metaphor for DOING NOTHING, just watching, so to speak.  "pretending to be film editors, we were really anarchist bombers".....Hunh?           I dunno....????
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> OK, for controversial plain text discussion, some plain language re the above:
>
> fps, in Vineland is part of the problem not part of the solution, as it used to be said....
>

...you won't be shocked if I gently demur?  If not for [the courage of
the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost} no no no
If not for [you, winter would have no spring, I couldn't hear the
robins sing] er, ah...

If not for alternative media, would there even have been a 60s?

Chomsky made the point somewhere that there used to be all kinds of
union newspapers, which enlivened what I am pleased to call the
discourse of the land (well, it does ring trippingly on the tongue),
and the degeneration of the mainstream media into the house organ of
Murdoch Inc has made alternative media ever more precious.

It's particularly telling that Vond's passion for suppression centers
on Frenesi, because her photogenicity was powerful in service of
24fps's message.  True, their organizational meeting replicates the
weaknesses of the Movement: Vineland is a walk through (or a
broken-field run) the  shortcomings of political movements in general,
the pathologies of power, the difficult and seemingly mutually
exclusive alternatives available for living genuinely.  But didn't the
Movement betray Frenesi even before she betrayed it?  Shouldn't there
have been a workable consensus and realistic analysis (preferably in
the reverse order of how they appear in  this sentence) before action?
 The little film co-op that coalesced around Frenesi was built of
individuals and without her, each of them moved away following the
curves of his or her own private universe - bombing, astrology,
ass-kicking, so forth.
It's quite poignant.

I still haven't proved that 24fps was a Good Thing, and maybe it
wasn't so great after all.  But great media like the Berkeley Barb,
the Georgia Strait, the Oracle, the Fifth Estate, and yes, Pacifica
Radio certainly have served to manufacture a consensus far closer to
goodness than others one might name, for those whose lives they touch.
-- 

--
"Frenesi's eyes, even on the aging ECO stock, took over the frame, a
defiance of blue unfadable."