LettristLoon
21st May 2004, 12:51 AM
Yo.
So, there's this film that came out in 2001, called _Waking Life,_ and it was directed/masterminded by Richard Linklater.
The basic idea is this: Wiley Wigging (beautiful young actor, was in _Dazed & Confused) may be dreaming or he may be dead, but he keeps running into people who explain all sorts of advanced philosophies to him in a rapid-fire manor, or else he becomes a passive observer to scenarios playing out certain aspects of the philosophies under discussion. The information discussed in every scene seems to contain a criticism of, not only the information presented in the rest of the film, but the very way in which it is presented. It's a self-critiquing movie. God, I love it.
Since seeing _Waking Life_ last year, I've stumbled upon some surprising things in my reading--in particular, in the writings of Richard Huelsenback (a leader of the early Dadaist movement at the Cafe Voltaire), Isidore Isou (creator of Lettrism), Guy Debord (founder of the Situationist International), Greil Marcus (great music critic/philosopher), and Johnny Rotten (who needs no introduction). It seems as though Linklater put choice bits from these guys's books/essays/songs into the mouths of the characters in the film, which makes me wonder:
If you've seen the movie, do you know where some of the OTHER bits come from? Some of it seems to be free-form poetry, ala Russell Simmons' _Def Jam,_ and some of it is by-the-numbers modern physics. But what about the rest? The nutty fellow at the beginning, next to the fish-tank, talking about the "telescoping nature of evolution?" That's hot s**t! Where's it from?
Any help would be enormously appreciated.
- Brandon Thorp
So, there's this film that came out in 2001, called _Waking Life,_ and it was directed/masterminded by Richard Linklater.
The basic idea is this: Wiley Wigging (beautiful young actor, was in _Dazed & Confused) may be dreaming or he may be dead, but he keeps running into people who explain all sorts of advanced philosophies to him in a rapid-fire manor, or else he becomes a passive observer to scenarios playing out certain aspects of the philosophies under discussion. The information discussed in every scene seems to contain a criticism of, not only the information presented in the rest of the film, but the very way in which it is presented. It's a self-critiquing movie. God, I love it.
Since seeing _Waking Life_ last year, I've stumbled upon some surprising things in my reading--in particular, in the writings of Richard Huelsenback (a leader of the early Dadaist movement at the Cafe Voltaire), Isidore Isou (creator of Lettrism), Guy Debord (founder of the Situationist International), Greil Marcus (great music critic/philosopher), and Johnny Rotten (who needs no introduction). It seems as though Linklater put choice bits from these guys's books/essays/songs into the mouths of the characters in the film, which makes me wonder:
If you've seen the movie, do you know where some of the OTHER bits come from? Some of it seems to be free-form poetry, ala Russell Simmons' _Def Jam,_ and some of it is by-the-numbers modern physics. But what about the rest? The nutty fellow at the beginning, next to the fish-tank, talking about the "telescoping nature of evolution?" That's hot s**t! Where's it from?
Any help would be enormously appreciated.
- Brandon Thorp