Empty Moments: Cinema, Modernity, and Drift

Book Description

In Empty Moments, Leo Charney describes the defining quality of modernity as âdriftââthe experience of being unable to locate a stable sense of the present. Through an exploration of artistic, philosophical, and scientific interrogations of the experience of time, Charney presents cinema as the emblem of modern culture’s preoccupation with the reproduction of the present.
Empty Moments creates a catalytic dialogue among those who, at the time of the invention of film, attempted to define the experience of the fleeting present. Interspersing philosophical discussions with stylistically innovative prose, Charney mingles Proust’s conception of time/memory with Cubism’s attempt to interpret time through perspective and Surrealism’s exploration of subliminal representations of the present. Other topics include Husserl’s insistence that the present can only be fantasy or fabrication and the focus on impossibility, imperfection, and loss in Kelvin’s laws of thermodynamics. Ultimately, Charney’s work hints at parallels among such examples, the advent and popularity of cinema, and early film theory.
A book with a structural modernity of its own, Empty Moments will appeal to those interested in cinema and its history, as well as to other historians, philosophers, literary, and cultural scholars of modernity.

The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge Studies in Film)

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terribly annoying
darius cooper: an up and coming author!

The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge Studies in Film)
Darius Cooper
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker

ASIN: 0521629802

Book Description

The most comprehensive treatment of Satyajit Ray's work, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray makes accessible the oeuvre of one of the most prolific and creative filmmakers of the twentieth century. Providing analyses of selected films, including those that comprise The Apu Trilogy, Chess Players, and Jalsaghar, among others, Darius Cooper outlines Western influences on Ray's work, such as the plight of women functioning within a patriarchal society, Ray's political vision of the "doubly colonized," and his attack and critique of the Bengali/Indian middle class of today.

Customer Reviews:

terribly annoying.......2004-12-17

Darius Cooper's approach seems interesting and brave at the outset, but is really just a manufactured generic and shallow "Indian aesthetic," which boils down to a few Sanskrit words taken from some translated anthologies and superimposed over Ray's work. Whlie it might be acceptable to assume that certain Indian aesthetic ideas were pervasive throughout its history, there is absolutely no attempt to show that Ray ever would have looked into or cared for 1000-year old aesthetic theories of Sanskrit writers. The selective and specific theories and terms that Cooper applies with his interpretations, are forced to fit atop the text.

Cooper's attack on western readings of Ray's films that 'seem to suffer from a very serious lack of critical understanding of the social historical and cultural traditions of India..." raises a legitimate concern and his critique of the flat out wrong way in which the Krishna myth is superimposed on the story of Apu by a number of critics is right on point. The problem is, he simply takes a slightly more esoteric text and does the same thing. India is big. Where is the continuity between a tenth century Kashmiri writing about drama and the 20th century Bengali filmmaker?

This is a poor piece of scholarship, often a mere incorporation fof italicized Sanskrit words which add no elucidation to the interpretation, coupled with a whiny critique of prior Ray criticism. For Cooper, all "abhinaya" ends up meaning is gesture. Then why not just say gesture.

At his absolute worst, Cooper takes from the published screenplay as transalted by Shampa Banerjee and interprets dialogue from this screenplay that was NOT IN THE FILM!! At other times, he is more culturally ignorant than your worst 19th century white man's burden-type "scholar," as when he makes the sweeping generalizatoin that "In a Hindu family, the wife is never expected to speak to her husband except from a position of subservience. That is her social standing. She must have her sari over her had, and her face has to be partially covered in her husband's presence." What?? Says who? In the post-Gandhi post independence age, this is simply the way all "hindus" behave? It gets to the point where even his dedications, to "my Apus" and "my Ray woman" are annoying. This is the worst book on film criticism I have ever read. Somehow he played the whole "niche" market and wearing his nationalist agenda on his sleeve ("As an Indian myself") weakens the book further without giving him any of the authority he somehow seems to expect in matters of Sanskrit aesthetic theory.

darius cooper: an up and coming author!.......2001-02-19

this book was the in-depth analysis of this great Director's work. Cooper is one of the first authors to really deconstruct the films of Satyajit Ray into a consolidated, comprehensive, and meaningful text. I hope to see more of this up and coming author sooner!

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HORRIBLE

Cinema and Cultural Modernity
Gill Branston
Manufacturer: Open University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0335200761

Book Description

* What is the relationship of popular cinema to the concept of 'modernity'?
* What now are the key areas of debate which focus the study of cinema and its audiences?
* How can we understand the relationship of cinema to both the pleasures of consumerism and the inequalities addressed by critical politics?

Cinema and Cultural Modernity carves a lucid path through the central debates of film and cinema studies and explores these in their social and political contexts. The book includes histories of the ways in which we view Hollywood's global dominance, up to the development of late modernity and the declaration of 'postmodernity'. In an accessible fashion, it discusses changing theorizations of the economics, audiences, and fascinations of cinema, addressing concepts such as agency, negotiation and identification, and global 'popularity' within contemporary cultures of celebrity, consumption and the visual. Gill Branston outlines the need for cinema study that is both sensitive to the formal 'textiness' of films, but also less anxious about arguing for its position within broad agendas of representation. At the same time, the author links such areas to both the pleasures of consumption, which cinema so often evokes and embodies, and to the need for a new, critical politics to address the persistent inequalities of modernity, inequalities which still fuel lively interest in questions of representation. The result is an incisive text for undergraduate courses and an essential reference for researchers.

Customer Reviews:

HORRIBLE.......2001-12-10

This text was EXTREMELY difficult to read and should not be considered by anyone who got below a 1550 on the SAT's. I could not wait to sell this incoherent garbage back to my college bookstore after the class was over. Good Riddance!

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Cinema and Modernity
John Orr
Manufacturer: Polity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This book discusses the complex relation between modernity and cinema, drawing particularly upon the European and American cinema during the second half of the 20th century.

Post-war Cinema and Modernity: A Film Reader

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Post-war Cinema and Modernity: A Film Reader
John Orr , and Olga Taxidou
Manufacturer: NYU Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0814762034
Release Date: 2001-03-01

Book Description

Post-war Cinema and Modernity explores the relationship between film and modernity in the second half of the twentieth century. It begins with essays analyzing new post-war forms of film narrative and responses to the filmic innovations of the 1960s and the question of modernism. Pasolini's landmark polemic on the cinema of poetry is a vital springboard for the later critiques of time and the image, subjectivities and their narrative transformation, and the topical question of film and postmodernity. A discussion of changes in film technology and cinematic perception extend to the questions of film documentary. Finally, there is a focus on cinematographers and their filmic collaboration.

The second section, International Cinema, places filmmaking and filmmakers in a social and a national context. It brings together landmark essays which contextualize feature films historically, yet also highlight their aesthetic power and their wider cultural importance. Filmmakers discussed include Ozu, Welles, Bresson, Hitchcock, Godard, Egoyan, Fassbinder and Zhang Yimou.

Book Description

Visions of Modernity explores the relationship between technology, society, and identity that underpins contemporary "media culture." By tracing particular historical shifts as they have intersected with different camera technologiesùphotography, cinema, televisionùScott McQuire engages with broad social and political transformations. Focusing on the camera, McQuire offers a useful point of entry for understanding the processes of modernization and the dramatic changesùperceptual, experiential, epistemologicalùthat characterize modernity. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, media and cultural studies, art history, geography, and anthropology.

Book Description

BEING HUMAN

Throughout the Star Trek: New Frontier saga, Mark McHenry, the navigator on the U.S.S. Excalibur, has demonstrated abilities beyond those of the somewhat odd human being he appears to be. When the inhabitants of an innocent solar system are confronted by a menace linked to the source of McHenry?s powers, his true heritage is revealed at last.

Meanwhile, Zak Kebron is going through a startling change that will leave him both more and less than he was.

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Customer Reviews:

An Absolute Blast.......2005-09-12

My hat goes off to Peter David. Being Human turned out to be, in my opinion, one of the best Star Trek: New Frontier novels he's written up to this point. One thing I've always loved about the various post-original-series novels is the way in which they incorporate events and episodes from the Original Series. Being Human does that in spades; in fact, it incorporates one of the more interesting of the early epsisodes. Another great thing about this novel was the humor. More often than not I found myself reading with a smirk on my face, and there were many times I was laughing out loud. Peter David also does a great job of expanding the relationships between crew members while at the same time creating realtionships with a whole new set of crew members from Shelby's Starship Trident. Excellent work and a fun read.

Once again out of order........2005-02-25

Peter David is not a novelist; he's a writer of comic books. He's a very GOOD writer of comic books, but at least in this series, his comic book writing background really shows through; there is never a tidy story, with a beginning and ending in the same book. There is always a continuation from issue to issue, but he doesn't just write 300 or so pages and then stop; like a good comic book writer, he always manages to end at a point of high drama to make the cliffhanger ending more compelling. Some people like this sort of thing; myself, I find it annoying.

But where the comic-book background REALLY comes into play is his inclination to keep the continuing storyline going when he writes a New Frontier story that's out of the general numbered sequence. Therefore, as a public service, I'll let you in on a (not very) closely kept secret, but one which I was baffled by until I saw the list of New Frontier books in the back of this book: do not read book seven of this series after reading book six; after book six, read "The Captain's Table #5"; then read "Double Helix #5: Double or Nothing", which is actually a Next Generation book (#55). THEN read #s 7-11 of this series; THEN read "Gateways" #s 6 & 7; THEN read this book and then "Gods Above".

Peter David writes quite well; he has fine characters, fine plots, and a nice grasp of the language. But none of the books in this series stands by itself. Don't start the series unless you're interested in continuing to read the series, and tracking it down even when the story line crosses over into other series. Reading any one book in this series will leave the reader unsatisfied.

My favourite book of the series, so far..........2002-05-29

Intriguing and compelling. Of course, these adjectives could be used to describe almost any of Peter David's books, but this one happens to be one of my favourites. Although the main focus of the novel is McHenry, and the revelation that he is not quite human - which explains his almost supernatural abilities and Q's deference towards him - we also dip into the lives of the other characters. David's skill is his ability to intertwine science fiction with drama, and his characters are among the most complex out there. The story switches between the Excalbiur and the Trident, Calhoun and Shelby's ships respectively, and the various officers on each. High points of the novel (well, higher) included the M'Ress/Arex/Gleau interaction and the mysterious "changes" occuring in Zak Kebron. It had its funny, tongue-in-cheek moments, too, again typical of David. And, again typical of the most infuriating and brilliant writer in the field of Star Trek novels, it ends with multiple cliffhangers.

Apollo lives!.......2002-05-21

This is the perfect tie-in to an original Star Trek show. The results are incredible! I liked the way Peter David understands his characters, and I'm growing more fond of all the other characters. Especially Mark McHenry. His true identity is revealed, and the reactions from the crew are less than appreciative. Write the sequel soon! PLEASE! I'm dyin' here!

Being McHenry?.......2002-04-05

In the twelfth installment of the New Frontier series, Mark McHenry's origins are revealed. From the other books, it's quite obvious that McHenry is a strange bird. He exhibits abilities that stretch human capabilities by normal standards. Here you will find out just how much "potential" McHenry has.

David does an outstanding job developing a storyline that revolves around McHenry, but as usually, branches off into so many intriguing directions. Being Human is not only play on words, but also a most appropriate title that hits the crux of the storyline. Though McHenry may be different, he just wants to fit in.

This book is a nice bridge between adventures of the "old" Excalibur and the "new" Excalibur. David ties off some loose ends like: How exactly did Calhoun manage to get off the Excalibur in time? Then he opens countless new threads that will give us readers many more enjoyable books to come.

Some of those:
- What is the mysterious change that is coming over Kebron?
- How will Robin and Si Cwan handle their "relationship"?
- Can the Thallonian Empire once again be rebuilt?
- Who/what is the strange thing that Moke sees running around?

This is another fine addition to Peter David's New Frontier series. He once again deftly ties his series into one of the old television shows. This time it happens to be from Star Trek the Original Series. I was left wanting more, and eagerly await the next installment. I'm sure any New Frontier fan will feel the same way.

Book Description

Michèle and Duncan Barrett are mother and son - she a distinguished social theorist now working in literary and cultural studies, he a writer still in his teens. Together they take Star Trek - the TV series, films, and related projects - and explore it for what it tells us (and asks) about being human. From the progressive politics that underpinned the original program to the declining faith in rationalism that haunts Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the Star Trek story has grappled with powerful philosophical and social issues.
And throughout its thirty-year history, Star Trek has explored its themes through the metaphors of Western maritime exploration. Yet unlike the voyagers of earlier centuries, its crews have sailed not by sea but by galaxy. But in search of what? As Michèle and Duncan Barrett persuasively demonstrate here, the continuing voyage of Star Trek is a quest not for new lands but for new answers: what does it mean to be human?
Witten for both the true Trekker and the complete novice, Star Trek: The Human Frontier is that rare work of cultural studies, informed by the knowledge of literature, social thought, and popular culture.

Customer Reviews:

Enlightening and Readable.......2001-02-27

An academic critique of the four Star Trek series, this book has three main sections. The first explores the use of the nautical metaphor in Star Trek. The second considers the many ways in which Star Trek has explored the question of what it means to be human. The third part discusses Deep Space Nine and Voyager as post-modern.

Though that may sound a bit dry, the book is well worth reading, and the authors provide a number of insights into Star Trek. Unlike some critics, the Barretts do not overuse academic jargon, nor do they blindly condemn Star Trek as racist, sexist, colonialist, or fascist. Their approach is more nuanced, and the fact that they seem actually to know something about the show may at least partly explain that. When they label the latter Trek series as postmodern, they explain what they mean by modern and postmodern, and why The Next Generation epitomizes the former and Deep Space Nine and Voyager the latter. Although Deep Space Nine seems profoundly and obviously different from The Next Generation while Voyager often feels like a retread of The Next Generation in many ways, the Barretts find a number of areas (including a greater openness toward religion) that the post-Next Generation series share.

Of particular interest to Trek book fans: the Barretts mention some of the Star Trek novels. Diane Carey's nautical obsession is mentioned in the book's "The Starry Sea" chapter, and Peter David's New Frontier character, Burgoyne 172, is mentioned in a discussion of sexual identity and orientation. Star Trek novels are generally overlooked in examinations of the Star Trek phenomenon, which makes these references a welcome change of pace.

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Set 13 Star Trek New Frontier 1 House of Cards 2 Into the Void 3 Two-Front War 4 End Game 5 Martyr 6 Fire on High 7 Quiet Place 8 Dark Allies 9 Requiem 10 Renaissance 11 Restoration 12 Being Human 13 God Above

Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: B000GX7SL0

Product Description

Set of first thirteen (13) books in Star Trek's New Frontier Series.

Set 13 Star Trek New Frontier 1 House of Cards 2 Into the Void 3 Two-Front War 4 End Game 5 Martyr 6 Fire on High 7 Quiet Place 8 Dark Allies 9 Requiem 10 Renaissance 11 Restoration 12 Being Human 13 Gods Above

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Set 13 Star Trek New Frontier 1 House of Cards 2 Into the Void 3 Two-Front War 4 End Game 5 Martyr 6 Fire on High 7 Quiet Place 8 Dark Allies 9 Requiem 10 Renaissance 11 Restoration 12 Being Human 13 Gods Above

Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Small Homes & Cottages | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000GXD1KM

Product Description

Set of first thirteen (13) books in Star Trek's New Frontier Series.

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Star trek : the human frontier
Michèle Barrett
Manufacturer: Polity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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A very different fantasy setting

GURPS Fantasy II: Adventures in the Mad Lands
Robin D. Laws
Manufacturer: Steve Jackson Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1556342640

Customer Reviews:

A very different fantasy setting.......2000-08-08

This creates a fantasy setting not based on medieval culture or typical fantasy themes. The mad lands are dominated by arbitrary harsh gods, intensely powerful magical creatures and curses for every failing that turn people into horrific monsters (skinless, headless, etc.). Nothing is settled or secure and death jumps out everywhere, luck can be the most valuable survival trait.

The mad lands are somewhat similar to the nightmare lands in TSR's 1st edition Ravenloft campaign setting.

Not that even though it is labeled Fantasy II it seems to have nothing to do with Gurps Fantasy or the Fantasy setting in Gurps Fantasy I.

Characters are hunter gatherers with no swords and armor and magic is considered a killable offense.

A very different setting from the norm.

Book Description

In the 1990s, a new type of learning algorithm was developed, based on results from statistical learning theory: the Support Vector Machine (SVM). This gave rise to a new class of theoretically elegant learning machines that use a central concept of SVMs—-kernels--for a number of learning tasks. Kernel machines provide a modular framework that can be adapted to different tasks and domains by the choice of the kernel function and the base algorithm. They are replacing neural networks in a variety of fields, including engineering, information retrieval, and bioinformatics.

Learning with Kernels provides an introduction to SVMs and related kernel methods. Although the book begins with the basics, it also includes the latest research. It provides all of the concepts necessary to enable a reader equipped with some basic mathematical knowledge to enter the world of machine learning using theoretically well-founded yet easy-to-use kernel algorithms and to understand and apply the powerful algorithms that have been developed over the last few years.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent overview of the theory of kernel-based methods.......2007-06-21

This book is at the right level if you are already strong in Machine Learning theory. (e.g. Tom Mitchell's "Machine Learning").

Note that it is already getting somewhat dated. It for example includes little information on kernels for discreate structured input, such as trees and graphs.

In depth review of kernel methods in machine learning.......2005-10-24

Great book, but a word of caution, it is not for the novice.
Book assumes a lot of background in functional analysis and
probability. True, it has extensive appendixes but they are
short-handing the relevant materials only. However, having said
that, this is a book worth struggling with even if you have not
yet got the intuitions in the above mentioned disciplines.

It is worthwhile (at least as I can tell) to read the book
skipping the tool chapters (2-6) going back to them when one has
a point where those are needed. I found that to be much easier
as it provides a concrete use of the methods putting them
in context.

best book of kernel methods.......2004-07-10

It is the best book on kernel methods. It covers a wide range of subjects.

The best thing is that after finishing one or two basic chapters, you can read the rest of the book in any order; most chapters are almost independent to each other. At the beginning of a chapter, the authors list the prerequistites, so a reader knows whether he will be able to understand the chapter.

For now the book still reflects the state of art. But it is a fast changing field. I hope the authors will update the book in the future.

interesting introduction to support vector machine learning.......2002-03-21

The authors are young researchers who did their Ph.D. research in this rapidly developing branch of pattern recognition. Because they are young and are at the state of the art in the filed the book has sevral advantages and disadvantages and what I see as a disadvantage someone else might view as an advantage. Anyway here is my view.
Advantage 1: Pattern recognition is a field of many disciplines. It has been studied by statisticians, mathematician, probabilists and engineering and people that call themselves computer scientists specializing in artificial intelligence. The field is old and has a long history but each discipline has developed their own jargon and many times the wheel has been reinvented. The advantage of this book is that these young scientists don't see that awful history. They have learned and mastered their subject in a basically engineering jargon but they include many concepts from statistics and statistical learning theory that are not common to engineering texts. This includes such topics as robust regression, ridge regression and spline estimation. Much of the classical statistical literature is cited. The book contains over 600 references including much of the authors own work.

Disadvantage 1: Because they are young they miss some of the important historical literature and key texts. I found it a little disappointing that the bootstrap which is a statistical tool that has played a major role in discriminant analysis (particularly in the estimation of classification error rates) was completely overlooked. Also although many important texts on pattern recognition, machine learning and discriminant analysis are cited the fine text by McLachlan is overlooked as is the recent relevant text by Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman.

Advantage 2: This book highlights the work of Vapnik and Chervonenkis and provides nice concise descriptions that one can easily refer to when needed. The mathematics is deep and includes reproducing kernel Hilbert space and many important properties from functional analysis and statistical theory.

Disadvantage 2: The authors are more experienced at writing professional papers than at writing text books. Consequently the book does not flow well and the authors freely admit in their preface that it is best not to read the book in sequential order but rather to take the suggestions in the preface that differ based on the readers background and interest.

Having said all this, for someone like me, who is very knowledgeable about statistical pattern recognition this is a great text for getting me up to speed on an exciting new area that I know very little about. I became curious about it when I started reading Vapnik recently.

I am hoping that a careful reading of this book will give me an intuition about why this approach that incorporates kernel methods can be a powerful tool in pattern recognition and classification.

This book should be a useful reference for anyone interested in this research area. It could be used in an engineering or statistics course in pattern recognition at either the undergraduate or graduate levels depending on what material is covered.

In a recent communication with Bernhard Scholkopf I learned that his book was sent for publication before the Hastie et al. book went to press. So that is the only reason it wasn't referenced. I think that point is worth my mentioning in an editing of this review. Also on reflection I do not think the disadvantages are so great as to remove a star. So it is 5 stars for them.

I can only hope that they will reference the work of McLachlan and Hastie et al. in their future books and research on this subject.

Detailed and comprehensive.......2002-01-30

This book should be on the bookshell of anyone interested in kernel methods. The authors managed to make a clear and comprehensive enough textbook such that it is well suited for graduate students. But it also contains all the state of the art results of the domain, and its scope is wider than other similar books. For this reason, this book should be very useful to any researcher in the machine learning field.

Learning with Kernels: Support Vector Machines, Regularization, Optimization, and Beyond (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)

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Learning with Kernels: Support Vector Machines, Regularization, Optimization, and Beyond (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)
Bernhard; Smola, Alexander J. Schlkopf
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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