CL201, Mar27, 2008
Prof. Klingensmith continues the pattern of comparing the book with the film, as was done with Billy Bathgate and Ragtime. With "Daniel" the author himself wrote the screenplay, which is unusual, and gives a special authenticity to the movie's representation of the novel. Prof. Klingensmith pointed out that the book is underpinned by the main character's writing of it, but that aspect is written out of the screenplay by E.L.D., the point being that the novel is a subjective revelation of the narrator, which is accomplished directly on film and we see Daniel changing as the story unfolds.
Skipping over the controversies among the critics over the book vs. film discussions, Prof. Klingensmith led us instead to some practical suggestions about what to look for as we watch the movie. Using short clips we were told to notice the choice of color and "framing" as the movie switches between the two time periods of the story. Home life in the early past is shown in golden brown tones, framed by doors, windows and hallways to create a portraiture of Daniel's childhood memories. There is an overall impression of warm, loving family relationships, full of enthusiastic people with enlightened views and progressive visions and aspirations. As the past progresses to its tragic conclusion the tones change to grays and sepia that reflect the despair and horror of the unfolding tragedy.
The present, in contrast, begins in tones of cold blue and gray, carrying over the despair at the end of the "golden" age as the main characters struggle with coming to terms with the past. At the very end of the movie the colors are clarified to natural tones in sunny scenes and soaring camera work that seek to convey a positive closure amidst an ambiguous conclusion.
After the class I volunteered to return the film to the library and went and watched the movie first. I was grateful for the instruction because it helped to get through the emotionally draining movie, just as the book was emotionally draining to read. Daniel's survival in the end is about telling the story. To be able to go on he must tell the tale.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Prof. Meeropol Sets The Stage Again.
CL201Mar06, 2008
Prof. Meeropol sets the stage again, this time for The Book of Daniel, with a lecture on the political underpinnings of the book. Describing the Old Left and the New Left, he prepared us for the book's inter-generational frame of reference. As he did with Ragtime, Prof. Meeropol gave us a social history, this time with an emphasis on the political aspect of Left politics, so we know how to understand the novel in its historical context.
In the way this colloquium is sequenced we are picking up where Billy Bathgate leaves off. During the Great Depression the Old Left was in its heyday, and the Socialist and Communist parties were at their greatest popularity, reflecting the economic conditions of the time. The economic impact of WWII is arguably what ends the Great Depression and contributes to the demise of the Old Left.
Ironically, the economic impact of WWII marks a revolution in the economic theories of capitalism itself. The Classical Theory with its Laissez-faire policies is challenged by the interventonist Neo-Classical theory of John Maynard Keynes. The Keynesian revolution is vindicated, and at the same time hijacked, by the massive example of Government participation in the economy in the form of WWII. Gigantic military budgets thenceforth become the linchpin of the U.S. economy.
After the defeat of Germany's Nazism and Japan's Imperialism, it is the threat of communism that becomes the justification for continuing military industrialism, with the Korean War and Nuclear Arms race internationally, and the Old Left becoming a straw man domestically, succumbing to the vigorous persecutions of McCarthyism, with ever increasing appropriations for HUAAC. A special aspect of the Old Left in the U.S.A. is the role of immigrants, who bring with them the traditional Marxist knowledge and, significantly, occupy a non-corporate niche in the U.S. economy, as small independent producers and intellectual professionals. As time goes by, beginning with conscription into the war effort and political persecution, this base is slowly absorbed into the corporate sector, though a significant vestige remains in existence to this day. The other bastion of traditional Marxism is the Labor Unions, who fall prey to union busting strategies and tactics that was part and parcel of McCarthyism, not to mention the Unions' own history of corruption, underworld connections (briefly glimpsed in Billy Bathgate) and self interest over the years, becoming "closed shops" that practice racial, gender and religious discrimination.
The New Left, then, is distinctly non-traditional in that the centrality of Labor issues is displaced. There seem to be even more fundamental questions of the dignity of human existence in the struggles for gender and civil rights, against conscription and the nuclear arms race. College students are the leading force in the New Left, making the displacement of labor functional as well as structural, that is, not only are they not workers, but they are children of privileged classes. This very displacement, in turn, signals the limitations of the New Left. The little victories of ending conscription, granting voting rights etc., pale in the big defeat of failing to address fundamental labor issues that remain dormant, seething below the surface.
Enough time has passed that the term "New Left" seems anachronistic now, two generations later, but the name persists as its spirit is recounted by graybeards like E.L.D., Prof Meeropol, and, if I may be allowed the privilege of elevating my scruffy chin to that noble company, yours truly. We can note that the dynamics of the Left have been driven by economic and political contingencies, and such contingencies have taken new forms and faces today. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the triumph of Capitalism and its ever intensifying globalization, the rise of terrorism, the impending recession and the coming presidential elections, we can only be sure that another Left turn is around the corner.
Prof. Meeropol sets the stage again, this time for The Book of Daniel, with a lecture on the political underpinnings of the book. Describing the Old Left and the New Left, he prepared us for the book's inter-generational frame of reference. As he did with Ragtime, Prof. Meeropol gave us a social history, this time with an emphasis on the political aspect of Left politics, so we know how to understand the novel in its historical context.
In the way this colloquium is sequenced we are picking up where Billy Bathgate leaves off. During the Great Depression the Old Left was in its heyday, and the Socialist and Communist parties were at their greatest popularity, reflecting the economic conditions of the time. The economic impact of WWII is arguably what ends the Great Depression and contributes to the demise of the Old Left.
Ironically, the economic impact of WWII marks a revolution in the economic theories of capitalism itself. The Classical Theory with its Laissez-faire policies is challenged by the interventonist Neo-Classical theory of John Maynard Keynes. The Keynesian revolution is vindicated, and at the same time hijacked, by the massive example of Government participation in the economy in the form of WWII. Gigantic military budgets thenceforth become the linchpin of the U.S. economy.
After the defeat of Germany's Nazism and Japan's Imperialism, it is the threat of communism that becomes the justification for continuing military industrialism, with the Korean War and Nuclear Arms race internationally, and the Old Left becoming a straw man domestically, succumbing to the vigorous persecutions of McCarthyism, with ever increasing appropriations for HUAAC. A special aspect of the Old Left in the U.S.A. is the role of immigrants, who bring with them the traditional Marxist knowledge and, significantly, occupy a non-corporate niche in the U.S. economy, as small independent producers and intellectual professionals. As time goes by, beginning with conscription into the war effort and political persecution, this base is slowly absorbed into the corporate sector, though a significant vestige remains in existence to this day. The other bastion of traditional Marxism is the Labor Unions, who fall prey to union busting strategies and tactics that was part and parcel of McCarthyism, not to mention the Unions' own history of corruption, underworld connections (briefly glimpsed in Billy Bathgate) and self interest over the years, becoming "closed shops" that practice racial, gender and religious discrimination.
The New Left, then, is distinctly non-traditional in that the centrality of Labor issues is displaced. There seem to be even more fundamental questions of the dignity of human existence in the struggles for gender and civil rights, against conscription and the nuclear arms race. College students are the leading force in the New Left, making the displacement of labor functional as well as structural, that is, not only are they not workers, but they are children of privileged classes. This very displacement, in turn, signals the limitations of the New Left. The little victories of ending conscription, granting voting rights etc., pale in the big defeat of failing to address fundamental labor issues that remain dormant, seething below the surface.
Enough time has passed that the term "New Left" seems anachronistic now, two generations later, but the name persists as its spirit is recounted by graybeards like E.L.D., Prof Meeropol, and, if I may be allowed the privilege of elevating my scruffy chin to that noble company, yours truly. We can note that the dynamics of the Left have been driven by economic and political contingencies, and such contingencies have taken new forms and faces today. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the triumph of Capitalism and its ever intensifying globalization, the rise of terrorism, the impending recession and the coming presidential elections, we can only be sure that another Left turn is around the corner.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Prof. Baick on Billy Bathgate
CL201Feb28, 2008
Prof. Baick, Billy Bathgate: Film vs. Book.
Prof. Baick was hamming it up five minutes before start of class, working the audience as he tested the microphone. With ceaseless energy he got the class involved in reading out loud, calling on individual students and reading along with them. His heroic efforts were fueled with humor and dedicated to the cause of student participation.
Comparing movie and novel, we were urged to look beyond the few pluses on the side of film and realize the many depths of text. Watching movies is a passive consumption, which is fine, but reading is an active production which goes further. The film is a packaged delivery of the book while reading it is a re-creation of it.
Reading brings us closer to the real historical context, reminding us of the purpose of E.L.D.'s historical fiction. In his turn, E.L.D. is to historical reality as the film is to the book. The author repackages history for us in the form of the fictional novel and delivers us to the doorsteps of historical reality. Captivated by the story, we are freed to take a detached view of a painful reality that would be no entertainment by itself, and may even be unbearable to learn about in depth.
Being an inhabitant of the locale and with his history backround, Prof Baick sees many layers of meaning in the city settings, the neighborhoods, streets and monuments, towns and countryside portrayed in the novel. Reading about fictional characters and their doings reflects on real people and their experiences. We enrich our understanding by our knowledge of prevailing conditions of the time and place, and the events that led up to it. In the historical sequence with The March, Ragtime, now Billy Bathgate and leading up to The Book of Daniel, we get to ride the crest of a giant wave of a century of history.
Prof. Baick reminded us that the Great Depression is the context of Billy Bathgate, when crime was an open secret and a path out of poverty, at least for some such as Billy, and remains so to this day! We learn through Billy something about reality that I, for one, am glad to be spared the experience of. Gangland, with its crime, prostitution, violence and abuse is a separate underworld that distracts us momentarily from the same qualities that prevail in mainstream reality, which I can now regard at arm's length, and understand my fascination with Mobster films in general and Billy Bathgate in particular.
The activities of crime organizations occupies a vacuum that is expanded by the retreat of corporate capitalism as a result of the Great Depression. Dutch Schultz can afford to spread money around in an impoverished county in upstate New York to buy a not-guilty verdict on his trial. Saratoga appears as an oasis of wealth in the desert of rural New York, but we do not see the real breadth of the economic structure behind it, just the horses. Pervasive and real as they may be, gangs are still marginal in the overall economic context.
In the movie, The Godfather, Michael Corleone, trying to persuade Kaye Adams to marry him, assures her that his father is just like any businessman or senator, and the business will be completely legit in five years. Kaye responds heatedly that Michael is being naive, that senators don't arrange to have people killed and Michael quietly retorts, "Now who's being naive?".
Prof. Baick, Billy Bathgate: Film vs. Book.
Prof. Baick was hamming it up five minutes before start of class, working the audience as he tested the microphone. With ceaseless energy he got the class involved in reading out loud, calling on individual students and reading along with them. His heroic efforts were fueled with humor and dedicated to the cause of student participation.
Comparing movie and novel, we were urged to look beyond the few pluses on the side of film and realize the many depths of text. Watching movies is a passive consumption, which is fine, but reading is an active production which goes further. The film is a packaged delivery of the book while reading it is a re-creation of it.
Reading brings us closer to the real historical context, reminding us of the purpose of E.L.D.'s historical fiction. In his turn, E.L.D. is to historical reality as the film is to the book. The author repackages history for us in the form of the fictional novel and delivers us to the doorsteps of historical reality. Captivated by the story, we are freed to take a detached view of a painful reality that would be no entertainment by itself, and may even be unbearable to learn about in depth.
Being an inhabitant of the locale and with his history backround, Prof Baick sees many layers of meaning in the city settings, the neighborhoods, streets and monuments, towns and countryside portrayed in the novel. Reading about fictional characters and their doings reflects on real people and their experiences. We enrich our understanding by our knowledge of prevailing conditions of the time and place, and the events that led up to it. In the historical sequence with The March, Ragtime, now Billy Bathgate and leading up to The Book of Daniel, we get to ride the crest of a giant wave of a century of history.
Prof. Baick reminded us that the Great Depression is the context of Billy Bathgate, when crime was an open secret and a path out of poverty, at least for some such as Billy, and remains so to this day! We learn through Billy something about reality that I, for one, am glad to be spared the experience of. Gangland, with its crime, prostitution, violence and abuse is a separate underworld that distracts us momentarily from the same qualities that prevail in mainstream reality, which I can now regard at arm's length, and understand my fascination with Mobster films in general and Billy Bathgate in particular.
The activities of crime organizations occupies a vacuum that is expanded by the retreat of corporate capitalism as a result of the Great Depression. Dutch Schultz can afford to spread money around in an impoverished county in upstate New York to buy a not-guilty verdict on his trial. Saratoga appears as an oasis of wealth in the desert of rural New York, but we do not see the real breadth of the economic structure behind it, just the horses. Pervasive and real as they may be, gangs are still marginal in the overall economic context.
In the movie, The Godfather, Michael Corleone, trying to persuade Kaye Adams to marry him, assures her that his father is just like any businessman or senator, and the business will be completely legit in five years. Kaye responds heatedly that Michael is being naive, that senators don't arrange to have people killed and Michael quietly retorts, "Now who's being naive?".
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