[lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions

From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:18:37 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
-----Original Message-----
From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Oct 17, 2004 5:11 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions

Erin, I don't think that's the rabbit that Andy meant, but it reminds me 
that when I asked my intro phil class last February to nominate the 
fourth in-class movie for the year, they selected Donnie Darko, a movie 
I had not previously seen.   After the second viewing (this is a large, 
two-section class) I began to understand it.  Still lots of loose ends, 
though.  Not sure I'll bother again.  


A.A. I thought Donnie Darko was terrible.  As in really bad.  Among other 
things, it made no sense.  He's a paranoid schizophrenic, on meds, whose real 
problem is he can see into the future.  Grandma Death knows how to travel into 
a wormhole, faster than the speed of light no less.  And they never found the 
plane because it was the one his mother and sister were in before it went into 
the wormhole, but since he went back into the past, they didn't go and he 
really was killed by it.  I could almost buy it if they at least conformed to 
the laws of general relativity.  And what's with the serial number on his arm?  
The date the world was going to end?  The world didn't end, except his world 
when he willed it.  Rad, man.  On top of that I see no philosophy in it at all, 
especially since he was medicated.  It's like ending a story by saying it was 
all a dream.  

Regarding The Matrix, when I saw it I thought it was a bunch of high tech hype. 
 I can sort of see how brain in a vat can be superimposed over it.  Off the top 
of my head I can't think of any movies that are out and out philosophical 
statements.  Possibly, and I'd have to see it again, might be The Man Who 
Wasn't There by the Coen brothers.  If I come across any movies that look like 
they might be trying to work something out, I'll let you know.


Andy Amago

 


But I would be interested in which movies people here would recommend 
for intro phil.
 
I also have them write a paper on the philosophical themes in a work of 
fiction.  In other years, we've done Steppenwolf, Candide, The Picture 
of Dorian Gray, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  This year, I'm leaning 
towards Kafka's Metamorphosis.   Any suggestions for short appropriate 
(and appropriately short) fiction would also be appreciated.  
Ursula Stange
in North Bay, ON


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[lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions

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