Comments on: Hollow Man

By: JMK

JMK — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:55:52 +0000

A little off topic but, in my opnion, the real literary progenitor of Synechdoche is Steven Millhauser. Largely his novel Martin Dressler, but also just about every third short story h ever published deals with simalcra. The first time I saw the movie, I stuck around for the credits because I really thought Millhauser would get a mention somewhere in there.

By: Prolixian

Prolixian — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:43:21 +0000

It’s from the book and the OP comments:

“Since the first page of Infinite Jest (or, rather, since page 223, when we learned that the first page falls chronologically after the rest), the big question in my mind has been: what terrible thing happens to Hal, that leaves him sounding like “Like a stick of butter being hit with a mallet”?”

By: OneBigParty

OneBigParty — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:52:12 +0000

George Grella, re; Magnolia, that’s terribly harsh, the worst criticism I’ve ever heard of P.T. Andersen. You feel the same way about “Boogie Nights”? I don’t agree with you at all–except for adoring Altman. (But Matthew is I’m sure much more capable than defending Anderson than I am.)

Prolixian: What does “to hear butter and mallet” mean?

By: Prolixian

Prolixian — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:04:59 +0000

I have been growing increasingly intrigued by the themes of muteness (some real, some imagined), of being trapped (caged) in one’s own body, and of being unable to communicate or make others understand, and how this plays off the 12-step emphasis on “hearing” others. To hear the Hal of page 693 in the 12-step sense is to hear butter and mallet. I have the same feeling you do: “what wonderful thing happens to Hal” to give him an inner life by the Year of Glad?

misterAyed laid out similar thoughts in more detail in the forums, in an Aug. 2 entry in the What happened to Hal? thread of the General Discussion forum (**General Discussion not spoiler-free)

By: Steve R

Steve R — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:58:05 +0000

I followed Ebert’s blog post and read most of the 1000+ comments after seeing it linked on this blog recently, and noted with pleasure the number of recommendations for IJ. I don’t know if he’ll ever post anything resembling a review of it, but I’d love to read one.

Very interesting observation on Hal and whatever change(s) occur between Y.D.A.U. and Year of Glad…I had never considered it from that perspective before.

By: George Grella

George Grella — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:24:25 +0000

I think the barrier to recognizing these kinds of structures is experiential, i.e. reading books and seeing movies in America trains us to see a linear narrative, and so other narratives unsettle us. Of course, Altman's narratives are linear as well, he just hides this in a pleasantly shambling surface. A lot of this has to do with how he conveys dialogue; rather than characters taking turns speaking in ways specifically written to further, or explain, the story, he has people chat in a more natural way, so we learn about them as characters rather than plot devices. He always works towards an event that gives a context to what we have seen, but he does it towards the end with an earthquake or assassination, reversing convention. He didn't invent this, of course, it's just that we are not as familiar with it. For Fellini making "Nights of Cabiria," it was more natural, and that movie is, I think, the ne plus ultra of how to make that style work. On the other hand, I think "Magnolia" is appallingly bad. PT Anderson's approach to characters made up to look natural, but we get so much lecturing about how a person is and thinks, and so much fussy camera activity that asserts emotional content rather than proving it, that everything ends up as false, insincere, a bill of goods. Altman at his best is completely sincere and charming, while Anderson is consistently phony.

By: Adam (the Irish one)

Adam (the Irish one) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:35:11 +0000

While we’re on Philip Seymour Hoffman: for me, the nearest thing to DFW on screen so far has been Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York. The same exaggeratedly quirky sensibility allied with a sincere ambition to deal with the largest questions possible through modes of artistic allegory. They both move me in what I think are similar ways(though with works of genius, comparisons are necessarily difficult).

By: Luther

Luther — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:09:44 +0000

John Wayne is 17 (years old), Avril Incandenza is 56 (years old). “Goes into” implies division and “going forth and multiplying” at the same time. Pemulis is sharing the time he walked in on the two.

By: OneBigParty

OneBigParty — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:25:49 +0000

wow thanks to your fjord example now I get fractals

Magnolia’s right up there in my top ten. Very cool to be reminded of a film that makes me “feel more alive”. Gets forgotten sometimes in the crush of daily events what would be your antidote to it all. Gonna rent it pronto.

By: Repat

Repat — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:00:17 +0000

It’s funny because earlier I’d read the section where the wraith dismisses Altman (with Schwulst?) as “a poseur”–I really puzzled over it for a moment. How is he a poseur? I wanted to know. But of course, the wraith fails to elaborate.