VL-IV: Chap 9- Close-ups

[Michael Bailey]

 well, to probe a little...
"Frenesi and the Pisks had taken over what was left of the Death to
the Pig Nihilist Film Kollective....[who] put some of the language of
their old manifesto into 24fps's new one - "A camera is a gun...."
Krishna, the sound person, put in with a stipulation that all
life...is holy.  "Wait a minute," cried one of the original
Death-to-the-Piggers, "that kind of talk invalidates our whole
conceptual base, this is about shooting folks here, is it not?"

which sort of replicates our friend the Marquis's transformation -
Millard Hobbs originally specializing in Brecht who could certainly be
considered a DttP'er, running across some acid and going on a wild
ride coming back to earth in a sexy cabin in the redwoods.

so, although 24fps didn't move too far away from a political program,
there were from the start non-doctrinaire elements among both their
personnel and tenets...
and the rump of DttP'ers was only present "at first anyway"

there's a nice swatch of scenes that aren't about Frenesi anyway...and
she wasn't always in front of the camera by any means -
"...Prairie understood that the person behind the camera most of the
time really was her mother...Frenesi's whole body there, as much as
her mind choosing the frame..."


On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 1:17 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Ah, Good...real differences of opinion for a good discussion....feeling my way here.
>
> Yes, many documentarians DO ask the right questions but not fps in Vineland, I suggest.
>
> evidence bit #1 Read the paragraph when Frenesi says "Mm, in the short run," Frenesi guessed, "but to see injustice, etc..... ending with:  [She was] "aware at each moment of the lens gathering in her own image."
>
> My case: TRP, so aware of the mediation of reality, so saturating this bok with the simulacra of reality,
> here says, I argue that Frenesi's vision is, almost literally, narcissistic...she sees HERSELF in the lens...
> Why would OBA write that sentence.
>
> A-And: p. 197 'A camera is a gun. An image taken is a death performed.".....Maybe some guns ARE good
> in TRPs written world, but WITH these metaphors?......
>
> I'll go way out on the limb you can all vote me off of.....[do post on the Differences of opinion, all, please?]
> fps work is like TV pics at base..........entertainment for Thanatoids......
>
> Mr. Often Wrong
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> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 11:58:26 AM
> Subject: Re: VL-IV: Chap 9- Close-ups
>
> If the media were responsible for getting us out of Vietnam, they were equally responsible
> for getting us into Iraq, by basically rolling over and playing dead.  The media are composed
> of individuals, who can be brave or cowardly. That Frenesi and other newspeople can be
> and often are)corrupted doesn't mean the media by their nature are part of the problem.
>
> I don't agree with Mark that 24fps is part of the problem.  I think TRP believes what Frenesi's saying, that, with enough
> probing coverage, filmmakers can make a difference.  Remember "If they can get you to ask the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about
> giving the right answers." (paraphrasing - I don't have the book handy). But many news people/documentarians, etc. do ask the right questions.
>
> Laura
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-- 
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"Frenesi's eyes, even on the aging ECO stock, took over the frame, a
defiance of blue unfadable."