Happiness

Pokey sleeping on an armchair.

Pandora's Box

I recently finished watching the new Criterion edition of Pandora's Box. This is a fantastic movie. It's amazing to think that it had been largely unavailable to audiences for decades, even though it is one of the seminal films of the Weimar era (up there with Metropolis). DVD continues to revolutionize the ability of the ordinary (if avid) viewer to become further acquainted with the history of film, and Criterion continues to lead the way. The quality of the picture is surprisingly good, and I've just started to listen to the commentary, which so far is also surprisingly good. The commentary is by Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane. Elsaesser is at the University of Amersterdam and the author of Wiemar Cinema and After (among other books). (His site is at http://home.hum.uva.nl/oz/elsaesser/.) Doane is at Brown University and the author of Femmes Fatales: Feminism, Film Theory, Psychoanalysis (among other books). The DVD has been getting excellent reviews all over the place, and Dave Kehr of the New York Times hit upon the best possible description: "a definitive edition of a seemingly inexhaustible film."

The story is rather simple in its basics: Lulu is an object of universal desire; she also seems to need a father figure of sorts and yet seeks satisfaction of this need in the wrong places. Further, the jealousies and dependencies and enabling of those who want her shape an ultimately tragic course for her. Lulu's tragic end is especially well-done. While I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't yet seen the film, I can perhaps safely say this: in the end, Lulu, an iconic image of the desirable, comes face-to-face with one whose primary desire is to destroy such images.

(Photo copyright: Criterion Collection 2006)

Mississippi River Headwaters

Rhonda's parents visited us last weekend, and on Saturday we drove up north to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, located in Itasca State Park. It was about a three hour drive and well worth it - it's a beautiful spot and the new visitors centers (one at the south entrance to the park and one by the headwaters themselves) are quite nice and informative. There were not many people there, most likely since it was cold (a high of about 49F) and overcast, and so I was able to get a picture of the headwaters with just one person (Rhonda's mother) in it (barely). The headwaters start at the rocks (which were put there in the 1930s so that visitors could be sure of where the river started). If a drop of rain (or something else) were to fall into the river here, it would take 90 days to make it to the Gulf of Mexico.

Editing the Dissertation

I am attempting to finish a dissertation on the early Wittgenstein. I am currently proofreading my first full draft. I am surprised both by how much I'm enjoying this stage of the process and by how slow it is going. The most difficult part of each day is what to do with myself when I cannot edit anymore. I find it dangerous to leave the house or to get caught up in a task that's too demanding. On Monday my break was watching Michael Haneke's excellent and harrowing The Time of the Wolf (Le Temps du Loup) (2003). Yesterday I downloaded Internet Explorer (which takes a surprisingly long time to download) in order to watch Netflix movies over the internet. The first movie I chose (Heading South (2005)) downloaded almost instantly and the quality was quite good, although I only had time and energy to watch the first twenty minutes. We receive (per month) an hour of internet viewing for each dollar of our monthly subscription fee. We've been members of Netflix for awhile now (since 2002) and I have been impressed with the company as it has grown and expanded its services since then. And they have helped to keep me sane while writing the dissertation.