[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Meditation vs. conga lines

Agreed on the misuse of adaptation.  Are very poor word choice.  The 
similarities are so obvious that I guess I couldn't think of a good word to 
describe the extremely strong relationship between the two.  I suppose 
"strong influence" is about the best we can do, for now.

Although I must admit the film clip I saw was surreally brilliant the mere 
thought of some cheeseball dance form parading to OTR sends fear and 
loathing up and down my spine.  Having said that, I wasn't there and so 
maybe what amounts to a sort of love train of most probably beautiful people 
would be highly appropriate (and entertaining no doubt).


>From: Don Smith <dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu>
>To: randomricky at hotmail_com (ryan richards)
>CC: dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu, Over-the-Rhine at actwin_com
>Subject: Re: Meditation vs. conga lines
>Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 09:46:47 -0400 (EDT)
>
> > You MUST see "Dark City" if you haven't already-
>
>Saw it in its (one-week) theatrical run.  First DVD I ever bought, back in
>early 1999, I think.  Along with Tron.  :-)
>
> > an equally important modern adaptation.
>
>You see Dark City as an adaptation of Metropolis????  I mean, sure, there 
>are
>design influences, and you could find some thematic similarities (both have 
>to
>do with an oppressed group's struggle for freedom, in some sense), but I 
>think
>calling Dark City an "adaptation" of Metropolis doesn't make any sense.  
>You'd
>have to say Schreber was Rotwang, and that would make John more of the 
>robot
>figure, but the robot was created to work against freedom, not for it... 
>no, it
>just doesn't track.  Jennifer Connoly can't be Maria; she's way too 
>passive.
>The control relationship is inverted: it's the elite *under* the city who
>control those above in secret, rather than a ruling class out in the open 
>with
>an oppressed worker class in the underground.  In my mind, in order to be 
>an
>adaptation, they would have had to start with Metropolis in front of them 
>and
>set out to tell the same story in a different setting.  Dark City is a
>completely different story from Metropolis.  Metropolis works toward
>reconciliation, Dark City works towards destruction.  Dark City is caught 
>up in
>a gnostic vision of reality and the nature of identity; these are questions
>that never come near Metropolis.  Although I certainly agree that 
>Metropolis
>was a strong influence on Dark City, artistically, I don't think it's fair 
>to
>say Dark City is an adaptation.  Not in the way I understand the word, at 
>least.
>
>Fun to think about, though.
>
>And what's your problem with the conga line?
>--
>Don Smith                          Robotic Optical Transient Search 
>Experiment
>donaldas at umich_edu                                
>http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/
>
>"a social relationship between two individuals who have a reciprocally 
>amorous
>and increasingly exclusive interest in one another, and shared expectation 
>of
>the growth of that mutual interest, that has endured for such a length of 
>time
>and stimulated such frequent interactions that the relationship cannot be
>deemed to have been casual." - US Court's definition of "dating".


_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: 
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/