tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post2811687404541242452..comments2024-03-12T12:38:23.542-04:00Comments on The Kind of Face You Hate: The Kind of Face You Slash - Day 6: Secret Moviesbill r.http://www.blogger.com/profile/17748572205731857892noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2856547151523423474.post-34923904021473534292013-10-07T06:32:13.766-04:002013-10-07T06:32:13.766-04:00Flicker’s progression through the mysteries of Max...<i>Flicker’s progression through the mysteries of Max Castle, the world that spawned him and the world that now seeks the successor who will fulfill his ominous potential, will seem at times perhaps a bit too dense and schematic, Roszak too in love with extrapolating the complex history that serves as a backdrop for his particular brand of anxious dread.</i><br /><br />That, alas, is a lot closer to my experience of the book, as I remember it. Perhaps, I think now, I'm just not enough of a cinephile to find his thorough, almost documentary-style approach to an alternative cinema history as compelling as it should have been. It's a very "talky" book, to the extent that at times it read to me more like a writerly exercise in emulating specific voices through a series of connected dialogues, than as any kind of conventional novel.<br /><br />That aside, I'm still unconvinced of the points he was trying to make, with all the sinister subliminal techniques so much of the book is dedicated to detailing. Trying to influence the subconscious in this way, if that indeed was the point of all these secret manipulations and layerings of film, is a bit like trying to put a leash on a whirlwind. Like subliminal advertising, it sounds impressively evil and Orwellian in theory, but in reality it's just a waste of time. Especially considering that the the stuff that is right there in front of our eyes is generally infinitely worse and more mind-numbing than anything that can be delivered in these sorts of hidden messages.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05364322006357208797noreply@blogger.com