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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 3h

Quantum Entanglement of the Hopelessly Inquisitive Men in The Master.

“You seem so familiar to me.”

“Yeah.”

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 4h

a pen pal, a promise broken of a thousand psychic wounds, a veteran caught as an eidelon, pinging between the drinking waters of the Rivers Mnemosyne and Lethe.

3/end

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 4h

in Bethel, an iteration of Homer’s Odyssey, but not the journey home of Ithaca’s king, instead the way of One of the Lost after the War, a crew member escaped from the land of the lotus-eaters, an able-bodied seaman possessed by Circe and poisoned by Scylla and Charybdis, a son, a neighbor,

2/

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 4h

If you are familiar with PTA's The Master, and let me be more cogent here, if you are an ardent admirer of it, you are aware of the role of sleep in the film. The celluloid realm of memory and forgetting.

9/21/12 ... And I'm watching, in the darkness of a small, 50-or-so-seat theater

1/3

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 6h

The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics in The Master: Entropy, Disorder, and Work

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 6h

Heidegger’s concept of disclosure and unconcealment in The Master—

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 7h

The dreamy, sun-spilt, small screen-sized fade from fleeing field workers to stowaway upon a Cause in The Master (2012) —

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 12h

I saw this clip this morning during a remembrance and 2 things struck me: one, how well Gordon Willis lit the scene and, two, how it captured what was essentially the eyes, face, and expressions of a silent film star-making presence transported to a contemporary moment in time.

Diane Keaton performing as Annie in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977).

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Let’s Get Lost

(I don’t have Chet Baker’s voice)

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Diane Keaton in Woody Allen’s mockumentary, The Harvey Wallinger Story (1971).

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Another example:
Frenesi's father, a blacklisted Hollywood film technician during the McCarthy-era, is named Hubbell, a nod to the character played by Robert Redford in The Way We Were.

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Here is a greater description of the "amulet" and how it came to be passed along —

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Gotta *dig

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

His quote of saying the work “doesn’t read the room” comes across as sighs from someone who has the tremendous privilege of experiencing what’s happening from some other room most of us wouldn’t be allowed in.

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Right? I mean, weren’t the values of family, community, solidarity, & cooperation in the face of unchecked aggression & power once fully appreciated by individuals, regardless of political affiliation? Or are they now just “musty relics” for those with hard-ons for displays of Authoritarianism?

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

I definitely agree that Anderson makes strong use of the inherent weaknesses and failures of the French 75, especially as they are contrasted with the anarchic, adhocracy of Sensei’s network, a juxtaposition Ellis conveniently ignored or else remained utterly ignorant of.

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

Gotta did the stinging criticism and multiple use of “musty” from an author/critic who no one under 40 knows, and for those over 40 was last professionally and culturally relevant over 20 years ago. I’ll go out on a limb and say OBAA will have greater shelf life than, say, The Canyons.

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

The “trust device” from Pynchon’s Vineland—

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

I really like his I Vitelloni (1953) and La Strada (1954), which retain elements of neorealism. Both, I believe, heavily impacted Scorsese, the former influencing Mean Streets, the latter, Raging Bull.

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 1d

While watching Rome, Open City and Paisan a few years back, I was rather surprised to learn that Fellini was a screenwriter for both.

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 2d

One of the pleasures of reading Pynchon is getting his movie references.

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The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 2d

Fluid, spontaneous, and decentralized

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 2d

Having young children at this moment in America has never made me feel as vulnerable as I do now.

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 3d

The two films, and more specifically my intense and immediate identification with their protagonists, that perceptibly altered pathways in my life.

Charlie Cappa in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973).

Freddie Quell in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (2012).

The Civilian @tajiisawol.bsky.social · 3d

“Any day now
I will hear you say
’Goodbye, my love’
And you'll be on your way
Then my wild beautiful bird
You will have flown, oh
Any day now
I'll be all alone, oh …”