Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

I frequently screen Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) for my film courses. The topic we often discuss is the film's relationship between new media and memory. Although the film came out in 2004, I think it still offers some insights into concerns of privacy and big data. 

A topic that I brought up with my students this past semester is the character of Patrick played Elijah Wood. To be short, the film is a science fiction love story that entails a recently separated couple Joel (Jim Carrey) and his ex-girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) who erase their memories of each other by a company called Lacuna.  

Patrick works for Lacuna. While Patrick assisted Stan (Mark Ruffalo) with Clementine's procedure, he became attracted to her.  As a way to court Clementine, Patrick steals Joel's memory objects from Lacuna's office. 

Patrick stealing Joel's memory objects certainly addresses concerns of database breach. But Patrick's mining of Joel's memories is also similar to how digital algorithms can map and predict our shopping behaviors. In one scene, Patrick gives Clementine a gift which he stole from Joel's bag of memory objects of Clementine. Of course, Clementine is taken aback by the gift. Patrick seems to know exactly what she likes, even though they have only been seeing each other for a very short period of time.

Perhaps the most significant scene is when Patrick and Clementine are on the frozen lake. He recites some of Joel's memories about her.  Like the binary code of digital, Patrick is too perfect. And it is exactly this moment that Clementine loses her desire for Patrick.

Some Excellent Books on Jacques Lacan

Over the winter I read a number of great academic books on Jacques Lacan. If you are interested in reading about the intersection of Lacanian thought and cinema, check out Matthew Flisfeder's book The Symbolic, The Sublime, and Slavoj Zizek's Theory of Film. Flisfeder's book offers an excellent introduction to a number of key Lacanian terms and concepts and how they are employed in a number of Zizek's writings on cinema. 

 

Todd McGowan's Capitalism and Desire is also worth checking out. McGowan examines the intimate relationship between the logic of desire and the logic of capitalism. Also, see my post on desire for introduction on this concept.

Another book worth checking out is Traumatic Encounters in Italian Film by Fabio Vighi.  This book examines the unconscious in relation to film language in Italian cinema. Vighi considers a variety of Italian films from filmmakers such as Pasolini, Bertolucci, and Rossellini. Vighi's reading of Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura is indeed one of the film's many highlights.

The Bells - Now Available

My second novel The Bells is now available on Amazon. For three years (on and off) I've worked on this novel. It is my second book, which focuses on the Hudson Valley, the same setting of my first novel The Postcard. I am planning to write a third book that will also involve characters from The Postcard and The Bells. I never set out to make a trilogy, but I guess I'm heading in that direction.

The last time teenager Mark smoked marijuana, he heard the chime of bells ringing in his head. He promised himself to never smoke again. Tonight, he will break his vow so he can impress his best friend's sister, whom he wants to court. Gabby makes local commercials to fund her documentaries. She's trying to end her affair with Anthony, who's on the verge of a nervous breakdown from running an eco-friendly car wash. But to do it, she must confess the affair to her husband, who's an out of work professor of Chaucer studies.The three are part of a host of characters whose paths mysteriously and ludicrously intersect during Halloween in 2008 in New York's Hudson Valley as they search for meaning and connection.  

Update: August 2019. I am currently writing the third book on the Hudson Valley called The Mansion. I hope to have the book available in 2020.  

The Bells - Coming this spring

I am putting the final touches on my second novel "The Bells" which will be released this summer on Amazon. This is the second book of my Hudson Valley trilogy.

 

The last time teenager Mark smoked marijuana, he heard the chime of bells ringing in his head. He promised himself to never smoke again. Tonight, he will break his vow so he can impress his best friend's sister, whom he wants to court. Gabby makes local commercials to fund her documentaries. She's trying to end her affair with Anthony, who's on the verge of a nervous breakdown from running an eco-friendly car wash. But to do it, she must confess the affair to her husband, who's an out of work professor of Chaucer studies.The three are part of a host of characters whose paths mysteriously and ludicrously intersect during Halloween in 2008 in New York's Hudson Valley as they search for meaning and connection.

Top Films - 2013

Here is my list for the best films of 2013.  There are still some films I have not seen that I will probably add to the list.

The Wolf of Wall Street, Dir. Martin Scorsese

American Hustle, Dir. David O. Russell

Before Midnight, Dir. Richard Linklater

Inside Llewyn Davis, Dir. Joel and Ethan Coen

Ender's Game, Dir. Gavin Hood

Francis Ha, Dir. Noah Baumbach

Gravity, Dir. Alfonso Curan

Captain Phillips, Dir. Paul Greengrass

 Iron Man 3, Dir. Shane Black

Not Fade Away, Dir. David Chase

Prisoners, Dir. Denis Villeneuve

Out of The Furnace, Dir. Scott Cooper

Mud, Dir. Jeff Nichols

Top Books - 2013

As posted last year, my yearly list entails books from different genres and periods of time. This was my first year teaching which tremendously cut down on my reading time, so I had to mix up fiction and non-fiction just to generate a top ten list. Here is my list of great books read for 2013 - no particular order. . . . 

The Year of the Flood (2009) by Margaret Atwood

A Visit from the Goon Squad (2002) by Jennifer Egan 

The Tommyknockers (1987) by Stephen King

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) by Oscar Wilde

The Ice Storm (1994) by Rick Moody

Garden State (1992) by Rick Moody

Alone Together (2011) by Sherry Turkle

The Gunslinger The Dark Tower I (1992) by Stephen King

Book Reading and Signing of The Postcard

While visiting friends and family in the Hudson Valley this summer, I will be doing a book signing and reading from my novel The Postcard at Merritt Bookstore in Millbrook, NY on July 13 at 4pm.

Set in the summer of 1990, The Postcard tells the story of upstate New York teenager James Bailey's last weekend with his metal head friends before leaving for college in California. The story follows James and his friends from hanging out in a dilapidated strip mall parking lot, to the urban pavement of New York City to see a hardcore matinee show at CBGB. Travelling with James and his entourage is Stacey, an ex-metal chick (now hardcore/punk rocker). James and Stacey share some history: a spontaneous one-night affair-a night seven months ago that continues to silently haunt their friendship.

I self-published my novel in the Fall of 2010.  Busy completing my Ph.D, I did not have the time or opportunity to celebrate the book's publication with my friends and family.

The postcard is available as e-book and paperback on Amazon. 

I am currently completing my second novel tentatively called "Dressed to Kill."  I expect to have the book ready for publication early next year.