Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This introductory chapter presents a sketch of the book as a whole. It identifies several features of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It sets out a philosophical ...
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This introductory chapter presents a sketch of the book as a whole. It identifies several features of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It sets out a philosophical conception of the intelligibility of thought labeled as ‘con-formism’, and which, the book argues, Wittgenstein seeks to undermine.Less
This introductory chapter presents a sketch of the book as a whole. It identifies several features of the Tractatus that Wittgenstein himself described as crucial. It sets out a philosophical conception of the intelligibility of thought labeled as ‘con-formism’, and which, the book argues, Wittgenstein seeks to undermine.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter presents some of the crucial proposals that the Tractatus offers concerning the nature of objects, facts, propositions, names, and what he calls ‘the internal relation of depicting that ...
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This chapter presents some of the crucial proposals that the Tractatus offers concerning the nature of objects, facts, propositions, names, and what he calls ‘the internal relation of depicting that holds between language and world’. It explores how Wittgenstein defends these proposals on the grounds that they free us from any commitment to there being impossibly ‘substantial’ logical truths. It sketches a possible interpretation of those proposals as articulating, nonetheless, a species of what is called ‘con-formism’ (cf. Ch.1), a species which is distinctive in being, strictly speaking, inexpressible. It goes on to argue that this interpretation is mistaken. An argument against con-formism is presented and how Wittgenstein’s sign/symbol distinction helps to articulate the confusion that con-formism embodies is explained.Less
This chapter presents some of the crucial proposals that the Tractatus offers concerning the nature of objects, facts, propositions, names, and what he calls ‘the internal relation of depicting that holds between language and world’. It explores how Wittgenstein defends these proposals on the grounds that they free us from any commitment to there being impossibly ‘substantial’ logical truths. It sketches a possible interpretation of those proposals as articulating, nonetheless, a species of what is called ‘con-formism’ (cf. Ch.1), a species which is distinctive in being, strictly speaking, inexpressible. It goes on to argue that this interpretation is mistaken. An argument against con-formism is presented and how Wittgenstein’s sign/symbol distinction helps to articulate the confusion that con-formism embodies is explained.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Guided by the picture analogy, this chapter explores further how we succumb to the illusion that a con-formity between language and world underpins meaningful language use. It is argued that this ...
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Guided by the picture analogy, this chapter explores further how we succumb to the illusion that a con-formity between language and world underpins meaningful language use. It is argued that this illusion emerges as a result of our both having adopted particular ‘methods of comparison’ and failing to recognize that very adoption; certain equivocations over what we mean by ‘objects’ and ‘names’ — in other words, yet more sign/symbol conflations — serve to disguise this confusion, and hence, to conjure up this illusion. The role of Wittgenstein’s remarks about the ‘internal relatedness’ of propositions and names, and objects and names, in articulating and drawing our attention to the above confusions is further explored.Less
Guided by the picture analogy, this chapter explores further how we succumb to the illusion that a con-formity between language and world underpins meaningful language use. It is argued that this illusion emerges as a result of our both having adopted particular ‘methods of comparison’ and failing to recognize that very adoption; certain equivocations over what we mean by ‘objects’ and ‘names’ — in other words, yet more sign/symbol conflations — serve to disguise this confusion, and hence, to conjure up this illusion. The role of Wittgenstein’s remarks about the ‘internal relatedness’ of propositions and names, and objects and names, in articulating and drawing our attention to the above confusions is further explored.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter returns to Wittgenstein’s proposals about ‘objects’ in order to reveal how they can also be seen as reflecting our failure to ascribe sense to the notion of the thinker ‘coming to’ or ...
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This chapter returns to Wittgenstein’s proposals about ‘objects’ in order to reveal how they can also be seen as reflecting our failure to ascribe sense to the notion of the thinker ‘coming to’ or indeed already being ‘in contact with’ its world. We cannot make sense of deep worries about the capacity of ‘what we think about’ to be thought about: there are no questions to be raised in connection with the referents of the terms of the ultimate analyses of our propositions, about ‘their existence’, ‘their composition’, or ‘how they can combine to form facts’. But that points not to how the world must be constituted in order for thought to be possible, but to a confusion at the root of the idea of ‘thought being possible’.Less
This chapter returns to Wittgenstein’s proposals about ‘objects’ in order to reveal how they can also be seen as reflecting our failure to ascribe sense to the notion of the thinker ‘coming to’ or indeed already being ‘in contact with’ its world. We cannot make sense of deep worries about the capacity of ‘what we think about’ to be thought about: there are no questions to be raised in connection with the referents of the terms of the ultimate analyses of our propositions, about ‘their existence’, ‘their composition’, or ‘how they can combine to form facts’. But that points not to how the world must be constituted in order for thought to be possible, but to a confusion at the root of the idea of ‘thought being possible’.
Denis McManus
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199288021
- eISBN:
- 9780191713446
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288021.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter argues that Wittgenstein’s proposal that ethics is ‘inexpressible’ represents a rung on a ‘ladder’ that is to be ‘climbed’ and then ‘thrown away’. Evidence presented in the previous ...
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This chapter argues that Wittgenstein’s proposal that ethics is ‘inexpressible’ represents a rung on a ‘ladder’ that is to be ‘climbed’ and then ‘thrown away’. Evidence presented in the previous chapter is reviewed and other aspects of that evidence explored. It is argued that the forms of ‘inexpressible knowledge’ to which Wittgenstein leads us in his reflections on ethics — and logic — only loom if one is already under the influence of confused notions of what ‘knowledge’, ‘reasons’, and ‘expression’ represent in these spheres; confusions to a recognition of which Wittgenstein’s talk of ‘the inexpressible’ is meant to lead us. As elsewhere in the Tractatus, such talk leads us to recognize that confusions underpin philosophical projects to which we are committed, confusions that, once again, arise out of certain sign/symbol equivocations. How this realisation modulates the previous chapter’s proposals concerning ‘conscience’ and ‘decency’ is explored.Less
This chapter argues that Wittgenstein’s proposal that ethics is ‘inexpressible’ represents a rung on a ‘ladder’ that is to be ‘climbed’ and then ‘thrown away’. Evidence presented in the previous chapter is reviewed and other aspects of that evidence explored. It is argued that the forms of ‘inexpressible knowledge’ to which Wittgenstein leads us in his reflections on ethics — and logic — only loom if one is already under the influence of confused notions of what ‘knowledge’, ‘reasons’, and ‘expression’ represent in these spheres; confusions to a recognition of which Wittgenstein’s talk of ‘the inexpressible’ is meant to lead us. As elsewhere in the Tractatus, such talk leads us to recognize that confusions underpin philosophical projects to which we are committed, confusions that, once again, arise out of certain sign/symbol equivocations. How this realisation modulates the previous chapter’s proposals concerning ‘conscience’ and ‘decency’ is explored.
Floyd Grave and Margaret Grave
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195173574
- eISBN:
- 9780199872152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195173574.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Conceived as a consortium of solo voices, a Haydn quartet is perpetually vulnerable to having the norm of first-violin leadership challenged, compromised, complicated, or temporarily overturned. The ...
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Conceived as a consortium of solo voices, a Haydn quartet is perpetually vulnerable to having the norm of first-violin leadership challenged, compromised, complicated, or temporarily overturned. The almost ubiquitously destabilized environment that prevails involves continuously changing relationships among the instruments, a concomitant variety of texture, sonority, and register, and numerous devices for blending and separating different strands of line and accompaniment. Separation is most intense in soloistic passages for the first violin, which occasionally climbs to its highest range. In addition to such vividly opposed states as strident unison and blended, hymn-like homophony, there are allusions to strict polyphony, including examples of canon and fugue, and many instances of loosely woven, conversational texture in which thematic threads pass from one part to another. Special effects include bagpipe-imitating drone basses, pizzicato, and the use of mutes (con sordino).Less
Conceived as a consortium of solo voices, a Haydn quartet is perpetually vulnerable to having the norm of first-violin leadership challenged, compromised, complicated, or temporarily overturned. The almost ubiquitously destabilized environment that prevails involves continuously changing relationships among the instruments, a concomitant variety of texture, sonority, and register, and numerous devices for blending and separating different strands of line and accompaniment. Separation is most intense in soloistic passages for the first violin, which occasionally climbs to its highest range. In addition to such vividly opposed states as strident unison and blended, hymn-like homophony, there are allusions to strict polyphony, including examples of canon and fugue, and many instances of loosely woven, conversational texture in which thematic threads pass from one part to another. Special effects include bagpipe-imitating drone basses, pizzicato, and the use of mutes (con sordino).
David Manning
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182392
- eISBN:
- 9780199851485
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182392.003.0092
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The Fantasia begins with a figure in the pianoforte left hand, which after a few bars becomes the accompaniment to the principal theme, played by the violin. The pianoforte later takes up this theme, ...
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The Fantasia begins with a figure in the pianoforte left hand, which after a few bars becomes the accompaniment to the principal theme, played by the violin. The pianoforte later takes up this theme, while the violin plays with the accompaniment figure and works up to a cadenza-like passage. A new subject appears for the pianoforte alone, which is repeated, more or less exactly, by the violin. The principal subject is then developed, with the relative positions of the two instruments reversed. This development continues on similar, but not identical lines to the opening. It leads to a still-longer cadenza, then, with a reference to the second subject, the movement finishes very softly. The Scherzo is founded almost entirely on one figure that is first played on the pianoforte. Tema con variazione is given out by the pianoforte alone in three octaves without harmony, and is repeated, phrase by phrase, on the violin.Less
The Fantasia begins with a figure in the pianoforte left hand, which after a few bars becomes the accompaniment to the principal theme, played by the violin. The pianoforte later takes up this theme, while the violin plays with the accompaniment figure and works up to a cadenza-like passage. A new subject appears for the pianoforte alone, which is repeated, more or less exactly, by the violin. The principal subject is then developed, with the relative positions of the two instruments reversed. This development continues on similar, but not identical lines to the opening. It leads to a still-longer cadenza, then, with a reference to the second subject, the movement finishes very softly. The Scherzo is founded almost entirely on one figure that is first played on the pianoforte. Tema con variazione is given out by the pianoforte alone in three octaves without harmony, and is repeated, phrase by phrase, on the violin.
Erin K. Hogan
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474436113
- eISBN:
- 9781474453622
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474436113.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Two cines con niño is the first genre study of Spanish-language child-starred cinemas. It illuminates continuities in the political use of the child protagonist in over fifty years of cinema ...
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The Two cines con niño is the first genre study of Spanish-language child-starred cinemas. It illuminates continuities in the political use of the child protagonist in over fifty years of cinema from Spain and how the child-starred genres use the concept of childhood to define the nation’s past, present, and future. From Francoist popular to oppositional auteur films, and including Latin American cinema, this monograph examines dialogism in aesthetics, narratives, and genre functions. It demonstrates the impact of these narratives within Spanish film history and Francoist biopolitics, as well as providing a broader transatlantic perspective on the genre in select productions from Chile and Argentina. In-depth inquiry within its pages examines films by Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio del Amo, Montxo Armendáriz, Benjamín Ávila, Juan Antonio Bayona, José Luis Cuerda, Guillermo del Toro, Víctor Erice, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Arantxa Lazkano, Luis Lucía, Paula Markovtich, Javier Ruiz Caldera, Carlos Saura, Imanol Uribe, Ladislao Vajda, Agustí Villaronga, and Andrés Wood.Less
The Two cines con niño is the first genre study of Spanish-language child-starred cinemas. It illuminates continuities in the political use of the child protagonist in over fifty years of cinema from Spain and how the child-starred genres use the concept of childhood to define the nation’s past, present, and future. From Francoist popular to oppositional auteur films, and including Latin American cinema, this monograph examines dialogism in aesthetics, narratives, and genre functions. It demonstrates the impact of these narratives within Spanish film history and Francoist biopolitics, as well as providing a broader transatlantic perspective on the genre in select productions from Chile and Argentina. In-depth inquiry within its pages examines films by Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio del Amo, Montxo Armendáriz, Benjamín Ávila, Juan Antonio Bayona, José Luis Cuerda, Guillermo del Toro, Víctor Erice, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Arantxa Lazkano, Luis Lucía, Paula Markovtich, Javier Ruiz Caldera, Carlos Saura, Imanol Uribe, Ladislao Vajda, Agustí Villaronga, and Andrés Wood.
Lincoln Geraghty
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462340
- eISBN:
- 9781626746787
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462340.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Following Russell T. Davies’ successful 2005 reboot of the once dead franchise, Doctor Who is now the BBC’s chief television export to the world and a global brand. The Doctor has become a ...
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Following Russell T. Davies’ successful 2005 reboot of the once dead franchise, Doctor Who is now the BBC’s chief television export to the world and a global brand. The Doctor has become a quintessential British superhero: his knowledge knows no bounds; he has the power to travel through time and space; his companions bring their own spirit, personality and abilities to his time travelling missions; and, most of all, he is driven to protect the innocent and save those in need. One sign of the Doctor’s international success comes at the annual San Diego Comic Con where BBC America has made a concerted effort to attract and build a loyal American audience - with the latest series of Doctor Who achieving a Comic Con first for the BBC by having its panel held in the famous Hall H (a 7,000 seat auditorium usually reserved for big Hollywood premieres, attracting star names and very long queues). This chapter investigates the importance of the San Diego Comic Con in the global circulation of popular media texts, but then builds on this by discussing the increasing significance and popularity of international superhero and science fiction franchises in the American media industry.Less
Following Russell T. Davies’ successful 2005 reboot of the once dead franchise, Doctor Who is now the BBC’s chief television export to the world and a global brand. The Doctor has become a quintessential British superhero: his knowledge knows no bounds; he has the power to travel through time and space; his companions bring their own spirit, personality and abilities to his time travelling missions; and, most of all, he is driven to protect the innocent and save those in need. One sign of the Doctor’s international success comes at the annual San Diego Comic Con where BBC America has made a concerted effort to attract and build a loyal American audience - with the latest series of Doctor Who achieving a Comic Con first for the BBC by having its panel held in the famous Hall H (a 7,000 seat auditorium usually reserved for big Hollywood premieres, attracting star names and very long queues). This chapter investigates the importance of the San Diego Comic Con in the global circulation of popular media texts, but then builds on this by discussing the increasing significance and popularity of international superhero and science fiction franchises in the American media industry.
Yannis Tzioumakis
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633685
- eISBN:
- 9780748671236
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633685.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This main focal point of this chapter is The Spanish Prisoner’s generic status. It introduces the labels ‘con artist film’ and ‘con game film’ and argues that Mamet’s film is an example of the second ...
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This main focal point of this chapter is The Spanish Prisoner’s generic status. It introduces the labels ‘con artist film’ and ‘con game film’ and argues that Mamet’s film is an example of the second category. Although con game films share a number of traits and conventions with crime films and thrillers (almost universally film critics have labelled The Spanish Prisoner a crime film and/or a thriller) they also present fundamental differences. Arguably, the most important difference is that while the disruption of the equilibrium in the narrative of crime films is marked by physical violence, in con artist films it is marked by failure in a character’s cognitive abilities to recognise the truth behind appearances. This failure is also “anticipated” on a spectatorial level as the dense plots of such films and their complicated narration prevent all but the most alert of spectators from grasping the finer details of elaborate confidence tricks that constitute the narratives of such films. After introducing the key characteristics of the con artist and the con game film, the chapter provides a close analysis of The Spanish Prisoner as a representative example of the latter generic label.Less
This main focal point of this chapter is The Spanish Prisoner’s generic status. It introduces the labels ‘con artist film’ and ‘con game film’ and argues that Mamet’s film is an example of the second category. Although con game films share a number of traits and conventions with crime films and thrillers (almost universally film critics have labelled The Spanish Prisoner a crime film and/or a thriller) they also present fundamental differences. Arguably, the most important difference is that while the disruption of the equilibrium in the narrative of crime films is marked by physical violence, in con artist films it is marked by failure in a character’s cognitive abilities to recognise the truth behind appearances. This failure is also “anticipated” on a spectatorial level as the dense plots of such films and their complicated narration prevent all but the most alert of spectators from grasping the finer details of elaborate confidence tricks that constitute the narratives of such films. After introducing the key characteristics of the con artist and the con game film, the chapter provides a close analysis of The Spanish Prisoner as a representative example of the latter generic label.
Jonathan R. Eller
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780252043413
- eISBN:
- 9780252052293
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043413.003.0024
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
In 1985 Bradbury was invited to testify before the National Commission on Space. Chapter 23 opens with Bradbury’s testimony highlights, which trace his notion that the life force expressed in the ...
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In 1985 Bradbury was invited to testify before the National Commission on Space. Chapter 23 opens with Bradbury’s testimony highlights, which trace his notion that the life force expressed in the writings of George Bernard Shaw, Henri Bergson, and Nikos Kazantzakis was inextricably involved in the human desire to explore the cosmos. The chapter also shows how Bradbury further modified his cosmic vision in the wake of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in his Guest of Honor lecture at the 1986 Science Fiction World Con. The launch of the Ray Bradbury Theater television series, his brief correspondence with Malcolm Cowley, and the great loss of literature cause by the massive Los Angeles Library fire round out the chapter.Less
In 1985 Bradbury was invited to testify before the National Commission on Space. Chapter 23 opens with Bradbury’s testimony highlights, which trace his notion that the life force expressed in the writings of George Bernard Shaw, Henri Bergson, and Nikos Kazantzakis was inextricably involved in the human desire to explore the cosmos. The chapter also shows how Bradbury further modified his cosmic vision in the wake of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in his Guest of Honor lecture at the 1986 Science Fiction World Con. The launch of the Ray Bradbury Theater television series, his brief correspondence with Malcolm Cowley, and the great loss of literature cause by the massive Los Angeles Library fire round out the chapter.
John A. Lent
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496828118
- eISBN:
- 9781496828064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496828118.003.0021
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter includes a 2016 essay by comics studies pioneer John A. Lent about the Cartoon Art Gallery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai is home to the Middle East Film and Comic Con (the ...
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This chapter includes a 2016 essay by comics studies pioneer John A. Lent about the Cartoon Art Gallery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai is home to the Middle East Film and Comic Con (the largest regional convention), Comicave (the largest comics related store in the region), and Majid, the most popular comics character (published since 1979). A group of dedicated young people with faith in comics as an essential form of art and communication have nurtured a small cartoon art museum and an active comics community amongst the glittering skyscrapers. Lent visited the museum, talking with the founder, Melvin Matthew, about their exhibition style and sense of community. This chapter discusses popular comics titles and cartoonists in the UAE. Images: 3 gallery photos.Less
This chapter includes a 2016 essay by comics studies pioneer John A. Lent about the Cartoon Art Gallery in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai is home to the Middle East Film and Comic Con (the largest regional convention), Comicave (the largest comics related store in the region), and Majid, the most popular comics character (published since 1979). A group of dedicated young people with faith in comics as an essential form of art and communication have nurtured a small cartoon art museum and an active comics community amongst the glittering skyscrapers. Lent visited the museum, talking with the founder, Melvin Matthew, about their exhibition style and sense of community. This chapter discusses popular comics titles and cartoonists in the UAE. Images: 3 gallery photos.
Rob Salkowitz
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781496834645
- eISBN:
- 9781496834690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496834645.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Conventions occupy a unique space within fan culture and the creative enterprises of comics, gaming, and genre-based work. Yet, what began as niche gatherings have become sprawling spectacles, ...
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Conventions occupy a unique space within fan culture and the creative enterprises of comics, gaming, and genre-based work. Yet, what began as niche gatherings have become sprawling spectacles, mirroring the mainstreaming of fandom from subculture to mass culture. Many changes to the structure and character of fan conventions, and thus fan culture, derive from the massive popularity of the San Diego Comic-Con, the largest and most prominent pop culture convention in North America. In this chapter, Rob Salkowitz analyzes how San Diego Comic-Con has retained its position at the top of convention industry and fandom, balancing the powerful forces of commercialization against its original mission to champion comics and fandom. It draws on interviews, economic research, convention demographics, and social media analysis to show how various subsegments—or “tribes”—use the Con as a platform for their own interests while simultaneously helping maintain the show’s integrity.Less
Conventions occupy a unique space within fan culture and the creative enterprises of comics, gaming, and genre-based work. Yet, what began as niche gatherings have become sprawling spectacles, mirroring the mainstreaming of fandom from subculture to mass culture. Many changes to the structure and character of fan conventions, and thus fan culture, derive from the massive popularity of the San Diego Comic-Con, the largest and most prominent pop culture convention in North America. In this chapter, Rob Salkowitz analyzes how San Diego Comic-Con has retained its position at the top of convention industry and fandom, balancing the powerful forces of commercialization against its original mission to champion comics and fandom. It draws on interviews, economic research, convention demographics, and social media analysis to show how various subsegments—or “tribes”—use the Con as a platform for their own interests while simultaneously helping maintain the show’s integrity.
Sarah Gilbreath Ford
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496829696
- eISBN:
- 9781496829740
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496829696.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter focuses on confidence games played in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno (1855), Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), and Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose (1986). These con games expose ...
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This chapter focuses on confidence games played in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno (1855), Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), and Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose (1986). These con games expose the weakness in the legal construction of people as property. In each novel, white characters conflate enslaved people with animals, but this conflation allows black characters to hide their agency. Blinded by racism, white characters become the dupes of con games in which black characters outwardly perform the identity of property while covertly taking on the agency of people. Despite legal resolutions that seem to restore order in Melville’s and Twain’s texts, lingering haunting reveals that the racial categories destroy everyone. Williams offers a twentieth-century answer to this destruction by imagining people formerly enslaved escaping to the West, thereby crafting the only con game that works.Less
This chapter focuses on confidence games played in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno (1855), Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), and Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose (1986). These con games expose the weakness in the legal construction of people as property. In each novel, white characters conflate enslaved people with animals, but this conflation allows black characters to hide their agency. Blinded by racism, white characters become the dupes of con games in which black characters outwardly perform the identity of property while covertly taking on the agency of people. Despite legal resolutions that seem to restore order in Melville’s and Twain’s texts, lingering haunting reveals that the racial categories destroy everyone. Williams offers a twentieth-century answer to this destruction by imagining people formerly enslaved escaping to the West, thereby crafting the only con game that works.
Frederick Nolan
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195102895
- eISBN:
- 9780199853212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102895.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
In 1915, Lorenz Hart transferred from Columbia Grammar to the Columbia University School of Journalism. There he joined an extension class in dramatic technique conducted by Professor Hatcher Hughes, ...
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In 1915, Lorenz Hart transferred from Columbia Grammar to the Columbia University School of Journalism. There he joined an extension class in dramatic technique conducted by Professor Hatcher Hughes, himself an aspiring playwright who would collaborate with Elmer Rice on the 1921 production Wake Up, Jonathan and win a Pulitzer Prize in 1924 with his play Hell-Bent fer Heaven. Hart apparently never had any serious intention of becoming a journalist, but his interest in literature, poetry, and the theatre soon led him, along with many of his classmates, to submit smart little verses and prose items to the famous “Conning Tower” column written by Franklin P. Adams. Through Philip Leavitt, Richard Rodgers meets Hart. They were a study in opposites. Of Hart's feelings there can equally be no doubt. As Philip Leavitt put it with such unwitting percipience, it was love at first sight.Less
In 1915, Lorenz Hart transferred from Columbia Grammar to the Columbia University School of Journalism. There he joined an extension class in dramatic technique conducted by Professor Hatcher Hughes, himself an aspiring playwright who would collaborate with Elmer Rice on the 1921 production Wake Up, Jonathan and win a Pulitzer Prize in 1924 with his play Hell-Bent fer Heaven. Hart apparently never had any serious intention of becoming a journalist, but his interest in literature, poetry, and the theatre soon led him, along with many of his classmates, to submit smart little verses and prose items to the famous “Conning Tower” column written by Franklin P. Adams. Through Philip Leavitt, Richard Rodgers meets Hart. They were a study in opposites. Of Hart's feelings there can equally be no doubt. As Philip Leavitt put it with such unwitting percipience, it was love at first sight.
Tamar Frankel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199926619
- eISBN:
- 9780190258511
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199926619.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
Charles Ponzi perpetrated his infamous scheme almost a hundred years ago. But his method of using new investments to pay existing investors and finance a highflying lifestyle is alive and well: just ...
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Charles Ponzi perpetrated his infamous scheme almost a hundred years ago. But his method of using new investments to pay existing investors and finance a highflying lifestyle is alive and well: just as much money is lost in the United States today from Ponzi schemes as from shoplifting. Somehow, con artists are able to dazzle wealthy, educated individuals and sophisticated institutions and convince them to hand over huge sums of money. How? This book explores these con artists' fascinating power of persuasion and deception, uncovering the subtle signals that mimic truth and honesty. After years of close study of hundreds of cases, the book explains the striking patterns that emerge and the common characteristics of the con artists and their victims. It offers descriptions of the various designs of Ponzi schemers' attractive offers and flags the ways in which they mask their deception through specialized methods of advertising and selling. It then constructs lucid profiles of the con artists and their victims, exposing the core nature of the people at the heart of the schemes and showing how over time the lines between predator and prey are blurred. There are indeed many lessons to learn from these stories, and Frankel brings them to light through the insightful results of her research. The book shows how peoples' attitudes are ambivalent and uncertain toward con artists, perhaps because their behavior is so seemingly honest, because they act like the social leaders with whom they are likely to mingle, or perhaps because their actions are thought to shake up a complacent society. The book concludes by offering a solution on how to prevent charming, dangerous con artists from perpetuating the enduring, disastrous legacy of Charles Ponzi.Less
Charles Ponzi perpetrated his infamous scheme almost a hundred years ago. But his method of using new investments to pay existing investors and finance a highflying lifestyle is alive and well: just as much money is lost in the United States today from Ponzi schemes as from shoplifting. Somehow, con artists are able to dazzle wealthy, educated individuals and sophisticated institutions and convince them to hand over huge sums of money. How? This book explores these con artists' fascinating power of persuasion and deception, uncovering the subtle signals that mimic truth and honesty. After years of close study of hundreds of cases, the book explains the striking patterns that emerge and the common characteristics of the con artists and their victims. It offers descriptions of the various designs of Ponzi schemers' attractive offers and flags the ways in which they mask their deception through specialized methods of advertising and selling. It then constructs lucid profiles of the con artists and their victims, exposing the core nature of the people at the heart of the schemes and showing how over time the lines between predator and prey are blurred. There are indeed many lessons to learn from these stories, and Frankel brings them to light through the insightful results of her research. The book shows how peoples' attitudes are ambivalent and uncertain toward con artists, perhaps because their behavior is so seemingly honest, because they act like the social leaders with whom they are likely to mingle, or perhaps because their actions are thought to shake up a complacent society. The book concludes by offering a solution on how to prevent charming, dangerous con artists from perpetuating the enduring, disastrous legacy of Charles Ponzi.
Yannis Tzioumakis
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633685
- eISBN:
- 9780748671236
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633685.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner is a fine example of American independent cinema in transition. Made by a playwright-turned-filmmaker with a distinctive approach to questions of narrative and ...
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David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner is a fine example of American independent cinema in transition. Made by a playwright-turned-filmmaker with a distinctive approach to questions of narrative and visual style at a time (the late 1990s) when the boundaries between what was considered independent filmmaking and what mainstream cinema had been, arguably, eroding, The Spanish Prisoner achieved critical and commercial success. It also demonstrated that a place still existed for filmmakers with highly unusual takes on the art of cinema, like David Mamet. Nodding to such crowd-pleasing classics as Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, The Spanish Prisoner is a particularly idiosyncratic film that betrays its origin outside the Hollywood mainstream. Featuring a heavily convoluted narrative that is the product of an unreliable narration; an excessive, often anti-classical, visual style that draws attention to itself; and belonging to the generic category of the ‘con game film’, which actively challenges the spectator to comprehend the unfolding of the narrative, The Spanish Prisoner is a film that bridges genre filmmaking with personal visual style, independent film production with niche distribution and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic techniques. This book discusses The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent cinema while also using it as a vehicle to explore several key ideas in film studies, especially in terms of aesthetics, narrative, style and genre.Less
David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner is a fine example of American independent cinema in transition. Made by a playwright-turned-filmmaker with a distinctive approach to questions of narrative and visual style at a time (the late 1990s) when the boundaries between what was considered independent filmmaking and what mainstream cinema had been, arguably, eroding, The Spanish Prisoner achieved critical and commercial success. It also demonstrated that a place still existed for filmmakers with highly unusual takes on the art of cinema, like David Mamet. Nodding to such crowd-pleasing classics as Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, The Spanish Prisoner is a particularly idiosyncratic film that betrays its origin outside the Hollywood mainstream. Featuring a heavily convoluted narrative that is the product of an unreliable narration; an excessive, often anti-classical, visual style that draws attention to itself; and belonging to the generic category of the ‘con game film’, which actively challenges the spectator to comprehend the unfolding of the narrative, The Spanish Prisoner is a film that bridges genre filmmaking with personal visual style, independent film production with niche distribution and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic techniques. This book discusses The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent cinema while also using it as a vehicle to explore several key ideas in film studies, especially in terms of aesthetics, narrative, style and genre.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804769549
- eISBN:
- 9780804773492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804769549.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Since its inception in the late sixteenth century, modern European theater has been driven by the relation between truth and illusion—the same troubled relation that has hounded modern philosophy. ...
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Since its inception in the late sixteenth century, modern European theater has been driven by the relation between truth and illusion—the same troubled relation that has hounded modern philosophy. The aporia born of that dialectic is philosophy's nemesis, but was and has always been theater's plaything. This chapter examines three examples of the baroque Hispanic theater, focusing on how the aporia of truth and appearances, as well as presence and its mediation, is at constant play in the theater of truth that is the Baroque. It analyzes the relation between truth and appearances by looking at Juan Ruiz de Alarcón's play La verdad sospechosa (The Suspect Truth). In particular, it explores how La verdad sospechosa offers insight into the fundamentally theatrical structure of the Baroque and its play of truth. The chapter also examines two other plays, Agustín Moreto's El desdén con el desdén and the anonymous La estrella de Sevilla (The Star of Seville).Less
Since its inception in the late sixteenth century, modern European theater has been driven by the relation between truth and illusion—the same troubled relation that has hounded modern philosophy. The aporia born of that dialectic is philosophy's nemesis, but was and has always been theater's plaything. This chapter examines three examples of the baroque Hispanic theater, focusing on how the aporia of truth and appearances, as well as presence and its mediation, is at constant play in the theater of truth that is the Baroque. It analyzes the relation between truth and appearances by looking at Juan Ruiz de Alarcón's play La verdad sospechosa (The Suspect Truth). In particular, it explores how La verdad sospechosa offers insight into the fundamentally theatrical structure of the Baroque and its play of truth. The chapter also examines two other plays, Agustín Moreto's El desdén con el desdén and the anonymous La estrella de Sevilla (The Star of Seville).
Birgit Lang
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719099434
- eISBN:
- 9781526124098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099434.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
State Prosecutor and legal reformer Erich Wulffen used the case study genre for legal and largely didactic purposes. Chapter 4 illustrates the adoption of the conventions of sexological case writing ...
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State Prosecutor and legal reformer Erich Wulffen used the case study genre for legal and largely didactic purposes. Chapter 4 illustrates the adoption of the conventions of sexological case writing by the legal fraternity in twentieth-century Central Europe, and ways in which Wulffen brought the case study genre from the hidden world of the court to the wider public. In doing this, Wulffen carved a niche for himself as an expert in legal reform and sexology in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany. He embraced different kinds of case modalities over the course of his professional career, targeting professional, middle-class audiences and the wider reading public during his thirty years in the role of prosecutor. The changing success of Wulffen’s publications highlights the intensifying crisis of the expert case study as a modality able to ‘speak the truth’ about modern sexuality and deviance. While Wulffen’s expert case studies about con men and other criminals were highly successful during the Wilhelmine era, the same approach and model for case writing met a more critical audience after 1918. Wulffen embraced the challenge of a new democratic environment by writing implicitly didactical popular crime novels. However, eventually his criminal subjects literally ‘wrote back’ after their sensationalised trials, using case studies in an attempt to narrate their own versions of events. The accounts of these criminals-turned-writers such as convicted paedophile Edith Cadivec. Thus the popularisation of sensationalist case studies, written, for instance, by perpetrators of crime, was an important factor in the case study genre’s loss of respectability.Less
State Prosecutor and legal reformer Erich Wulffen used the case study genre for legal and largely didactic purposes. Chapter 4 illustrates the adoption of the conventions of sexological case writing by the legal fraternity in twentieth-century Central Europe, and ways in which Wulffen brought the case study genre from the hidden world of the court to the wider public. In doing this, Wulffen carved a niche for himself as an expert in legal reform and sexology in Wilhelmine and Weimar Germany. He embraced different kinds of case modalities over the course of his professional career, targeting professional, middle-class audiences and the wider reading public during his thirty years in the role of prosecutor. The changing success of Wulffen’s publications highlights the intensifying crisis of the expert case study as a modality able to ‘speak the truth’ about modern sexuality and deviance. While Wulffen’s expert case studies about con men and other criminals were highly successful during the Wilhelmine era, the same approach and model for case writing met a more critical audience after 1918. Wulffen embraced the challenge of a new democratic environment by writing implicitly didactical popular crime novels. However, eventually his criminal subjects literally ‘wrote back’ after their sensationalised trials, using case studies in an attempt to narrate their own versions of events. The accounts of these criminals-turned-writers such as convicted paedophile Edith Cadivec. Thus the popularisation of sensationalist case studies, written, for instance, by perpetrators of crime, was an important factor in the case study genre’s loss of respectability.
Tamar Frankel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199926619
- eISBN:
- 9780190258511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199926619.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
This chapter offers a number of observations on the Ponzi schemes. Con artists mirror trustworthy people. Deceitful actions can resemble legitimate activities. Promises of unbelievable profits are ...
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This chapter offers a number of observations on the Ponzi schemes. Con artists mirror trustworthy people. Deceitful actions can resemble legitimate activities. Promises of unbelievable profits are often false. Following others may be beneficial, but also dangerous if followed blindly. Some people ignore signs of danger and are overwhelmed by the positive yet misleading signals that con artists send. Self-protection from charming and dangerous con artists must involve self-examination. The more captivating the con artists seem, the more tempting their stories and promises are.Less
This chapter offers a number of observations on the Ponzi schemes. Con artists mirror trustworthy people. Deceitful actions can resemble legitimate activities. Promises of unbelievable profits are often false. Following others may be beneficial, but also dangerous if followed blindly. Some people ignore signs of danger and are overwhelmed by the positive yet misleading signals that con artists send. Self-protection from charming and dangerous con artists must involve self-examination. The more captivating the con artists seem, the more tempting their stories and promises are.
