Richard Clay - Stream of consciousness

Richard Clay Stream of consciousness

Richard Clay Stream of consciousness

Because you can never see a clear image of him, you can discover his interests through the choice of pictures and articles.

CONTENTS

Arthur Rimbaud's letter to Georges Izambard 6 / 11

The Hidden Character 12 / 21

Interview with Richard Clay

by Richard Clay 26 / 27

THE PROTAGONIST AS A Role player 30 / 31

A symbolic road 35

Before the law, a parable

by Franz Kafka 36 / 40

In conversation with 41 / 43

Cinematic mirror 44 / 46

An Abs en c e Of A P r es en c e, R alp h Co llie r , HD v ide o-a n im at ion , 10 :00m in , 201 6

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Richard Clay - Stream of consciousness

RICHARD CLAY Richard Clay is the name of a character that can be used for identification. Clay can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. This character identifies, not necessarily uniquely, a specific individual human.

It’s also the name of a magazine which introduces the interests of this character. Because you can never see a clear image of him, you can discover his interests through the choice of pictures and articles.

The magazine defines a zone somewhere between straight reportage and a fictional narrative. There will often be switched between different narrators during this magazine that approaches the non-lineair and interactive way of reading. There is no beginning, middle or end, the reader has the option to discover the boundaries of using a magazine that always is linked through his content. At the same time this magazine contributes as a exhibition on itself. The content of forthcoming issues in this magazine can be different, but it will always evolve from Clay’s viewpoint as a character. The different contents will sometimes be written from the angle of a narrator who’s outside the events, and sometimes from the angle of the leading character, Richard Clay.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS In literary criticism, stream of consciousness, also known as interior monologue, is a narrative mode or device that depicts the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind. Stream of consciousness is a narrative device that attempts to give the written equivalent of the character’s thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue or in connection to his or her actions. Stream-ofconsciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in thought and lack of some or all punctuation. Stream of consciousness and interior monologue are distinguished from dramatic monologue and soliloquy, where the speaker is addressing an audience or a third person, which are chiefly used in poetry or drama. In stream of consciousness the speaker’s thought processes are more often depicted as overheard in the mind (or addressed to oneself); it is primarily a fictional device.

Stream of consciousness is an attempt to describe a story that continuously can change and transformed to different viewpoints.

Archeologic Shadow (test), Ralph Collier, 2016

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ARTHUR RIMBAUD’S LETTER TO GEORGES IZAMBARD

In May, 1871, Arthur Rimbaud wrote the two letters that have come to be known as the “Lettres du Voyant” (“Seer Letters”)—the only explicit statements of his poetic credo.

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Je

e t es t u n i gn Nar gu au tre oren e a . T t to ux ut i nc an t pi à f ons s p a i t! cien ou r ts, l qu i e boi s er g qu o ten i se t su tr ou r ce ve v qu il i olon, s

Arthur Rimbaud's letter to Georges Izambard

In May, 1871, Rimbaud wrote the two letters that have come to be known as the “Lettres du Voyant” (“Seer Letters”)—the only explicit statements of his poetic credo. The first, addressed to Izambard, begins by insulting the teacher’s “dry-as-dust subjective poetry” and includes a singsong ditty that crudely depicts anal intercourse. “Right now, I’m encrapulating myself as much as possible,” the sixteen-year-old wrote. “Why? I want to be a poet, and I’m working to turn myself into a seer. . . . It has to do with making your way toward the unknown by a derangement of all the senses. . . . I is someone else” (“Je est un autre”). The second letter, sent to Izambard’s friend Paul Demeny, repeats and elaborates on the soon-to-be-famous pronouncement. “The first task of any man who would be a poet is to know himself completely; he seeks his soul, inspects it, tests it, learns it,” Rimbaud wrote.

“The Poet makes himself into a seer by a long, involved, and logical derangement of all the senses. Every kind of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself; he exhausts every possible poison so that only essence remains.” Much has been made of the fact that Rimbaud added the qualifiers “long, involved, and logical” to this second call for the

“derangement of all the senses, ”nudging at the doors of perception rather than battering them down. But the sense is much the same: Rimbaud intends to turn his psyche inside out, to undergo whatever spiritual, emotional, and physical tests he can devise. “Je” becomes “un autre” by deconstructing what it means to be “Je.” We often think that we will fashion ourselves into the person we want to be. We see ourselves as having potential, or perhaps as being flabby, physically or mentally, and needing to be put in shape. So our ego or our I has a concept of who we want to be, and we then act upon ourselves to make ourselves according to our self-conceptions. Rimbaud wants to be a poet. But he does not associate with the ego that conceives himself as a poet. Rather, he relates himself to the unformed matter of his selfhood. For this reason, he more strongly feels himself to be other.

So we too, when thinking we will undergo a pre-conceived change– we too can see ourselves as being other to ourselves in this form/ matter way.

In the first letter, Rimbaud tells an old acquaintance that he is trying to become a poet. He feels himself to be like the matter which will receive the form of poet. The formal side is like the concept of who he will become, and his material side is like the disordered state he is in now (a state of derangement of all his senses).

Hence he claims “I is an other” / “Je est un autre”.

Text: Ruth Franklin

À Georges Izambard Charleville, 13 mai 1871 Cher Monsieur, Vous revoilà professeur. On se doi t à la Société, m'avez-vous di t ; vous fai tes par tie des corps enseignants : vous roulez dans la bonne ornière. — Moi aussi, je suis le principe : je me fais cyniquement entre tenir ; je déterre d’anciens i mbéciles de collège : tou t ce que je puis inventer de bête, de sale, de mauvais, en acti on e t en parole, je le leur livre : on me paie en bocks e t en filles. Sta t ma ter dolorosa, dum pende t filius. — je me dois à la Société, c’es t jus te, — e t j’ai raison. — Vous aussi, vous avez raison, pour aujourd’hui. Au fond, vous ne voyez en votre principe que poésie subjecti ve : votre obs ti na ti on à regagner le râtelier u niversi ta ire, — pardon ! — le prouve ! Mais vous finirez toujours comme u n sa ti sfai t qui n’a rien fai t, n’ayant rien voulu faire. Sans compter que votre poésie subjecti ve sera toujours horriblement fadasse. Un jour, j’espère, — bien d’au tres espèrent la même chose, — je verrai dans votre principe la poésie objecti ve, je la verrai plus sincèrement que vous ne le feriez ! — je serai u n travailleur : c’es t l’idée qui me re tient, quand les colères folles me poussent vers la ba ta ille de Paris — où tant de travailleurs meurent pour tant encore tandis que je vous écris ! Travailler maintenant, jamais, jamais ; je suis en grève.

Maintenant, je m’encrapule le plus possible. Pourquoi ? je veux être poète, e t je travaille à me rendre voyant : vous ne comprendrez pas du tou t, e t je ne saurais presque vous expliquer. Il s’agi t d’arriver à l’inconnu par le dérèglement de tous les sens. Les souffrances sont énormes, mais il fau t être for t, être né poète, e t je me suis reconnu poète. Ce n’es t pas du tou t ma fau te. C’es t faux de dire: je pense: on devrai t dire: On me pense. — Pardon du jeu de mots. — Je es t u n au tre. Tant pis pour le bois qui se tr ouve violon, e t Nargue aux inconscients, qui ergotent sur ce qu’ils ignorent tou t à fai t !

Vous n’êtes pas Enseignant pour moi. je vous donne ceci : es t-ce de la sa ti re, comme vous diriez?

Es t-ce de la poésie ? C’es t de la fanta isie, toujours. — Mais, je vous en supplie, ne soulignez ni du crayon, ni — tr op — de la pensée:

Le coeur supplicié Mon tr is te coeur bave à la poupe...

Mon coeur es t plein de caporal!

Ils y lancent des je ts de soupe, Mon tr is te coeur bave à la poupe Sous les quolibe ts de la tr oupe Qui lance u n rire général, Mon tr is te coeur bave à la poupe, Mon coeur es t plein de caporal!

Ithyphalliques e t pioupiesques, Leurs insultes l’ont dépravé ; À la vesprée, ils font des fresques Ithyphalliques e t pioupiesques, Ô flots abracadabrantesques, Prenez mon coeur, qu’il soi t sauvé!

Ithyphalliques e t pioupiesques Leurs insultes l’ont dépravé!

Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques, Comment agir, ô coeur volé?

Ce seront des refrains bachiques Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques J’aurai des sursau ts s to machiques: Si mon coeur tr is te es t ravalé!

Quand ils auront tari leurs chiques Comment agir, ô coeur volé?

Ca ne veu t pas rien dire.

Répondez-Moi : chez M. Deverrière, pour A. R. Bonjour de coeur, Ar t. Ri mbaud.

THE HIDDEN CHARACTER

Albert Hitchcock, The Birds, 1963 - Arabesque no. 1 (1888) - Claude Debussy

In Hitchcock’s film The Birds, a layered dialectical movement

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The Hidden Character

Albert Hitchcock, The Birds (1963) - Claude Debussy, Arabesque no. 1 (1888) FULL SHOT - THE LIVING ROOM The meal is over. The lovebirds in their hanging cage have been covered for the night. In the b.g. Mitch and Lydia are carrying the stacked dishes to the kitchen. In the f.g.

Cathy and Melanie are by a small upright piano. Melanie is playing a Debussy Arabesque no. 1: She picks up a cigarette from the ashtray now and again to take a puff.

CATHY I still don’t understand how you knew I wanted lovebirds.

MELANIE Your brother told me.

LYDIA (as she goes into kitchen) Then you knew Mitch in San Francisco, is that right?

MELANIE No, not exactly.

CATHY Mitch knows lots of people in San Francisco. Of course, they’re mostly hoods.

LYDIA (from the kitchen) Cathy!

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The Hidden Character

Albert Hitchcock, The Birds (1963) - Richard Wagner, Tristan Und Isolde, Liebestod (1865), violin restatement by Eveline Den Dooven and Laszlo Thiry MED. SHOT - MELANIE Melanie sitting, tucking her legs up under her.

She is disturbed by her conversation with Mitch and, in fact, by the way this entire trip has worked out. Annie brings her the glass of brandy, and she takes it gratefully.

MELANIE Thank you.

ANNIE (sitting opposite her) It gets a little chilly here at night sometimes. Especially if you’re over near the bay.

Melanie nods and sips at the brandy. There is a long pause.

ANNIE Did you meet Lydia?

Melanie nods.

ANNIE Or would you rather I changed the subject?

MELANIE (with a tired smile) I think so.

ANNIE (nodding) How do you like our little hamlet?

MELANIE I despise it.

ANNIE (sitting opposite her) It gets a little chilly here at night sometimes. Especially if you’re over near the bay.

ANNIE

(laughing) Well, I don’t suppose it offers much to the casual visitor.

Unless you’re thrilled by a

collection of shacks on a hillside. It takes a while to get used to.

Albert Hitchcock, The Birds, 1963 - Tristan Und Isolde, Liebestod (1865) - Richard Wagner

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The Hidden Character

The Birds, 1963 by Alfred Hitchcock.

Screenplay by Evan Hunter.

Based on the novel Birds

by Daphne Du Maurier Script, Final Draft 2nd revision March 2, 1962

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The Hidden Character

Far from being a simple Cold War parable or work of environmental activism, The Birds (1963) presents the viewer with Alfred Hitchcock’s portrayal of the encroaching Sexual Revolution and the resulting shifts in gender roles. It is evident from Hitchcock’s other films, like Vertigo or North

by Northwest, that he was enamored by the ideals of the cult of domesticity and separate spheres of inhabitation for men and women that were glamorized by 1950’s sitcoms like “Leave it to Beaver” or “Ozzie and Harriet.” However, by the beginning of the 1960’s, the Ward and June Cleaver gender roles, that Hitchcock so revered, were beginning to come apart at the seams as a result of the Sexual Revolution. All at once a giant controversy began to envelope the sexual practices of Americans. Beginning with the legalization of “the pill” by the FDA in 1960, and continuing with the sensationalism of high-profile Supreme Court cases like Poe v. Ullmann and Griswald v. Connecticut, people across the country, tired of the sexual repression of the 1950’s, began to openly discuss the use of contraceptives and eventually issues like abortion. With this newfound sexual liberation, however, many women began to grow dissatisfied with their societal roles. Although the actual abandonment of the cult of domesticity by many women began with the United State’s entry into World War II, women, throughout the sixties, began to openly contest the obstacles they faced in the workplace and the stereotypes that were imposed upon them by men trying to keep them from breaking into traditionally “male spheres”. In The Birds, Hitchcock presents the viewer with such a woman: Melanie Daniels.

Hitchcock’s misogynist tendencies are made increasingly clear throughout the course of the film in the way in which Melanie is ostracized and punished for her deviance from the ideals of the older generation. Ultimately, two options are presented to Melanie amidst the chaos of the bird attacks: become the ideal submissive woman, like Lydia, or remain strong and independent, like Annie, and face the continued wrath of the birds.

By placing Melanie in traditionally masculine spheres, contrasting the wardrobes and physical appearances of each of the film’s three female leads, and ascribing different characters with diegetic “masculine” and “feminine” music, Hitchcock crafts a work in which the birds can be seen as a metaphor for traditional, conservative morality forcing a deviant back into her proper position and in which diegetic sound represents the imminent threat of burgeoning feminism.

In The Birds, Hitchcock sets up two opposing foils of Melanie Daniels. These two foils present Melanie with different gender role options.

Annie represents a woman liberated by the Sexual Revolution, while Lydia represents the conservative social norms of an older generation.

ANNIE, MODERN WOMAN Many parallels can be drawn between Melanie, as she exists at the beginning of the film, and Annie. Annie presents the first of two behavior options available to Melanie. With her independence and masculine coding, Annie represents what Melanie will become if she continues exhibiting her current gender roles.

ANNIE’S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE Annie, like Melanie in the opening scene, has a masculine wardrobe. The first time the viewer sees her, she is wearing masculine slacks and a red cardigan sweater, which reminds one of something an old man would wear. Like Melanie in the driving scene, the film codes Annie as reckless.

Hitchcock achieves this by presenting her to the audience in a tell-tale red sweater and through her hairstyle. In previous films, and especially in North

by Northwest (1959), Hitchcock associates red with women who are sexually charged, imperfect and do not fit the mold of femininity he would have them accept. A good example of this is Eve from North

by Northwest. ve is coded throughout the film as sexually deviant, and untrustworthy.

This is particularly true in the scene at the auction house, in which Eve's infidelity to Roger becomes apparent to the viewer. In the scene, Hitchcock has Eve in a red dress, which becomes inextricably connected with her behavior. Annie’s hair distinguishes her from the other two women as well. All three women sport similar pinned up coiffures that pull the hair off of the forehead.

However, Annie’s hair is significantly less tamed than that of Melanie or Lydia. There are loose hairs flying everywhere and the style is much more

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unkempt. The vast majority of Hitchcock women that he seems to approve of have tight coiffures that keep the hair out of the face (i.e. Madeleine in Vertigo) and so Annie’s frizzy hairstyle further signifies that she deviates from the feminine ideal.

The manner in which Annie stores her cigarettes also codes her as more masculine. Whereas Melanie stores her cigarettes in a beautiful leather case with what appears to be her initials on it, Annie simply keeps a crumpled up carton in her pocket.

This codes her as more rugged and hence more masculine as well.

masculine. When Melanie returns from dinner at the Brenner’s, the viewer is presented with a clear picture of the inside of Annie’s house. While it appears to be a typical and very traditional house in

ANNIE’S BEHAVIOR Annie’s mannerisms clearly mark her trespasses into masculine spheres. These masculine characteristics become particularly apparent when Melanie returns from dinner at the Brenner’s.

Not only does the presence of substitute diegetic

music code the scene as masculine, but some of Melanie’s mannerisms can be considered masculine as well. The most blaring example of this occurs in a shot referenced in the image above.

In the scene, Annie offers Melanie a glass of brandy, a task exclusively ascribed to men in every other Hitchcock film. For example, in Vertigo, Scotty offers Madeleine a glass of brandy after he pulls her from the bay. This activity even dates all the way back to Hitchcock's first film, The Lodger, in which the lodger offers Daisy a glass of brandy when they meet in the cafe during his escape from the police.

Annie’s actions are a clear trespass into a traditionally male role. She also takes on the role of protector in the scene when she asks Melanie if she can get her a blanket or a sweater.

Her own clothing also codes her as masculine. She wears a robe and sits smoking a cigarette, greatly resembling a man who has retired to his parlor after dinner for a smoke and a brandy. The furnishings in Annie’s house also work to code the space as

Bodega Bay on the outside (much like Annie might appear a normal, traditional woman in the context of her job as a schoolteacher), Annie’s house contains numerous works of modern art and trendy furnishings on the inside. Although none of the art on the inside of the house is actually famous, it all resembles the works of high-modern masters like Picasso and Kandinsky. By having such works in her house, Annie gives off the aura that she is independently wealthy and has the capability to buy famous works of art and support herself.

The presence of the art and the numerous books on her shelves in addition to the recording of Tristan und Isolde signify that Annie has been highly educated like many men would be.

STRUCK DOWN BY BIRDS The circumstances under which Mitch and Annie’s relationship fell apart provide interesting insight into the gender politics of the film. Mitch brings Annie up to meet his mother, Lydia, who in turn does not approve of the woman Mitch has presented her with. Given Lydia’s reaction to Melanie’s intrusions into male spheres and the similarities shared between Melanie and Annie in that respect, it can be deduced that Lydia rejects Annie because she does not conform to the ideals of the older generation. If Melanie continues to act like Annie she too will ultimately be rejected by Lydia and loose Mitch. Ultimately, the birds punish Annie with death for her transgressions against male dominated society, and the path she

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represents for Melanie comes to a shocking end.

LYDIA, THE GOOD WIFE Lydia presents a path that diverts from the one Melanie is currently traveling. Lydia embodies the ideals of the older generation of both men and women who have distanced themselves from the changes of the Sexual Revolution.

LYDIA’S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

LYDIA’S BEHAVIOR Lydia is the most submissive of the three women presented in the film. The exchange between Lydia and Mitch in the kitchen highlights her submissive nature. She questions Mitch about Melanie but as soon as Mitch says thing like, “Mother, where did you go to law school,” or, “Darling, I think I can handle Melanie Daniels by myself,” Lydia immediately backs off in her questioning.

Lydia knows that she should not trespass against males and apologizes for doing so. She also frowns upon the behavior that Melanie has previously exhibited, especially her escapades in Rome. Lydia is also coded as the perfect wife. Even though her husband has been dead for about five years, Lydia was so well trained by him when he was alive that she still fixes him breakfast in the morning sometimes. Lydia is also obsessively maternal and constantly worries about Cathy’s safety and Mitch’s choice in women.

Lydia's wardrobe is radically different from either of the other two women. She wears items that conceal her figure rather than accentuate it like the other women. In most scenes she can be seen in traditional skirts, blouses and sweaters that are very ordinary. Unlike both of the other women her clothes lack color. Most of her outfits are composed of varying shades of gray and other neutral colors.

Hitchcock's choice of color for her wardrobe signifies her sexual senescence.

Whereas Melanie and Annie are both still sexually active, Lydia most likely stopped being sexually active when her husband died, or at least that is what society would expect of her and what she would try to portray. Lydia also has the tightest hairstyle of the three women. Her hair signifies that she plays the most traditionally feminine roles and maintains the most propriety.

A PATH THAT LEADS TO HAPPINESS Melanie ultimately chooses to follow Lydia’s path and become a more submissive woman. In addition to the benefit of still being alive, Melanie also gains a mother from her harrowing experiences. In one of the last shots in the film, referenced in the image above, Lydia finally comes to accept Melanie.

The image resembles Michelangelo’s Pieta in the way that Melanie is draped on top of Lydia and is entirely supported by Lydia’s body. This suggests that in addition to becoming a passive body at the will of others Melanie has also become somewhat childlike. Reverted to the back seat, while Cathy takes the front, Melanie has become a subordinate being even in her own car. Melanie has finally become acceptable to Lydia and, in the process, Hitchcock as well.

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GENDER CODING IN MUSIC, DEBUSSY VS. WAGNER The contrast between the masculine ideals of the new generation and the feminine ideals of the old generation also develops in the sparse diegetic music that Hitchcock uses in the film.

first composers to use the male voice in showcase form rather than as an effect to support the female voice. Interestingly, Wagner, himself, believed that opera could be divided into masculine and feminine parts. The feminine part was the music itself, while the masculine part was the text. Since Annie only has the album on display and does not play the actual music, the viewer can only read what symbolizes the text of the opera. This isolates the "masculine," which becomes the only part of the opera associated with Annie. Not only does Annie appear to enjoy a very "masculine" composer but she only associates herself with the masculine aspect of his work.

WAGNER, MASCULINITY AND ANNIE In the scene in Annie’s house in which the two women discuss their problems with men, no diegetic music is present per se, but it could be argued that a piece of the mis-en-scene, which figures prominently into many of the shots, serves a function comparable to that of diegetic music.

Throughout the scene, a record of Wagner’s "music drama" Tristan und Isolde can be seen behind the heads of Melanie and Annie. The record’s presence, although subtle, casts a whole new light on the gender coding of the scene. Most oviously, the storyline of the opera emphasizes the tragic outcome of Annie’s sexual encounters with Mitch and foreshadows the hopelessness of her situation and, ultimately, her death. Tristan und Isolde centers around two lovers who can never be together and both ending dying by the work’s close.

The piece most commonly attributed to Tristan und Isolde is the Liebestod.

The association with this piece, however, provides only cursory meaning to this prop. Upon closer inspection another relevant and meaningful conclusion can be drawn. If one commutes the scene to include O Diese Sonne from Tristan, the whole scene takes on a much more masculine vibe.

In a study conducted among undergraduates at Stanford in 1951, Wagner was ranked as the most "masculine" composer from a list of twenty.

The masculinity of Wagner's "music dramas" can be attributed to the growing presence of brass instruments and extensive use of the male voice in many of his works. Wagner experimented heavily with the use of brass instruments, especially with the trombone and the tube. He also was one of the

DEBUSSY, ARABESQUE AND LYDIA Prior to the scene in Annie's house, Hitchcock introduces the music of another great master, Claude Debussy. When Melanie visits the Brenner’s, she sits down and plays the piano after dinner. Her rendition of the fist Arabesque from Debussy’s Deux arabesques can be heard throughout the scene. The gender coding in this scene differs greatly from that of the scene at Annie’s house. In the same study, in which Wagner was named the most masculine composer, Debussy was named the least masculine and the third most effeminate. Besides the typical association of Debussy as a composer of feminine music, the genre of composition used in the Deux arabesques is of particular importance. Arabesques are a compositional genre not meant to convey great emotional effect, like the text of a Wagnerian opera would, but rather they are meant to serve a purely decorative function. Hitchcock’s inclusion of the arabesque serves as a commentary on his view of the role of women. To Hitchcock, women should be decorative and beautiful but ultimately hollow in intellectual value. The piece by Debussy isolates only what Wagner would call the feminine part of the music. The association of the arabesque with the kitchen tells a great deal as well.

The stability of the arabesque promotes a sense of

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calm. By creating this sense of lull in the kitchen, Hitchcock implies that the gender roles exhibited

by Lydia are suitable. Had Hitchcock disapproved of Lydia’s being in the kitchen washing dishes he would have chosen diegetic music that created a greater sense of conflict and instability.

Text: Franklin Davidson Bibliography: Brown, Maurice J.E., and Kenneth L. Hamilton. “Arabesque.” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. 25 April 2006 http://www. grovemusic.com.

Clavan, Sylvia. “Changing Female Sexual Behavior and Future Family Structure.” The Pacific Sociological Review. 15.3 (1972): 295-308.

Dick, Bernard F. “Hitchcock’s Terrible Mothers.” Film and Literature Quarterly. 28.4 (2000): 238-249).

Evensen, Kristien. “Multidimensional Aspects of Text and Music in Wagner.” Richard Wagner. 2003. 25 April 2006 http://www.trell.org/ wagner/multi.html.

Farnsworth, Paul R., J.C. Trembley, and C.E. Dutton. “Masculinity and Femininity of Musical Phenomena.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 9.3 (1951): 257-262.

McMahon, James. “Q Branch.” Her Majesty’s Secret Servant. 1997. 25 April 2006 http://www.hmss.com/qbranch/qb0102.htm.

Morris, Christopher P. “Reading the Birds and The Birds.” Literature and Film Quarterly. 28.4 (2000): 250-258.

Paglia, Camille. The Birds. London: British Film Institute Publishing, 1998.

Smith, Tom W. “A Report: The Sexual Revolution?” The Public Opinion Quarterly. 54.3 (1990): 415-435.

“Richard Wagner.” Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. 25 April 2006. http://www.grovemusic.com The Birds. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. ‘Tippi’ Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette. Universal Pictures. 1963.

Weis, Elisabeth. “Beyond Subjectivity: The Birds.” The Silent Scream. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982.

RICHARD CLAY

an approria ted character

The original action, which would later be know as a re-enactment, doesn’t carry the same message as the visual representation. The only traces that I have left of myself, are books. Books which made connections with my past, my present and my future. NOW I am nothing more than a figment of imagination, which has become independant from both time and space. Every subject searches itself for the catharsis of being. From now on I am available in each and everyone’s faNtasY, in every silence, in every void. In every undiscovered thought, I am waiting to be caught.

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INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD CLAY BY RICHARD CLAY

The original action, which would later be know as a re-enactment, doesn’t carry the same message as the visual representation. At a certain moment in time, somebody got aware of my actions, which I have been executing for more than ten years. I gave myself the freedom to let go of my neurotic subconsciousness. The only traces that I have left of myself, are books. Books which made connections with my past, my present and my future. One day I got aware of the fact that they had not only claimed my books, but also my own image, while never making contact with my physical apparition. Since then I am nothing more than a figment of imagination, which has become independant from both time and space. In each and every moment I render myself available to fit in every story, to become a part of someone’s fantasy. As an appropriated image you lose your original identity and you are forced to wait on a psychological character, which is dealt to you. I was given the name Richard Clay and I am the main character of this magazine.

A magazine that unfolds itself as an exposition, as a character inside a character. Every subject in this work

forms my psychological structure and describes my identity. The letter from Arthur Rimbaud to his master, music as a hidden actor in a movie, the parable of Kafka, the mirror that Jacques Lacan shows us; every image is a shimmer of who I could be. They are all subjects which are connected to eachother.

Every subject searches itself for the catharsis of being. A purification that is lurking within myself, Richard Clay, an appropriated character.

It is an everlasting quest to find yourself. Is it even possible to create your own personality? Aren’t you dependant from other influences and events that form that personality?

While you are reading this magazine, you are able to become a part of my created identity as an appropriated character. When the magazine comes to an end, I don’t know what my future will look like. Will I remain Richard Clay, or do I lose this identity? Because I am no longer a physical entity, I lose the possibility to return to my old habits and environment. From now on I am available in each and everyone’s fantasy, in every silence, in every void.

In every undiscovered thought, I am waiting to be caught.

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Richard Clay

Transforming A Monologue Into A Polyphony (re-enactment), Ralph Collier & Sam Hendrickx, HD video, 10:00 min, 2016

Wallpaper

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Richard Clay - Role player

Richard Clay character as a role-player refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role,

He loves historical re-enactment that has been practiced by adults for millennia.

Within the 20th century historical re-enactment has often been pursued as a hobby.

either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

THE PROTAGONIST AS A ROLE PLAYER

As a child he often participated in a form of role-playing. He adopted certain roles such and acted out those roles in character.

Sometimes he believed in it so hard that he did not want to be himself anymore.

Roleplaying has grown through out the years, many people now seek it as a means to escape reality and to fill that escape with a 'virtual' reality of their own creation.

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ADDING A ROAD FOR NEW ACTIVITIES A symbolic road added to the original floor plan of 1953.

This new road becomes a source of mysterious activities.

Ar. Jozef Schellekens, 1953 - road adapted by Ralph Collier, 2016

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KAFKA’S PARABLE BEFORE THE LAW The parable “Before the Law” and its context, the chapter “In the Cathedral,” have long been recognized as the center piece of Kafka’s unfinished novel The Trial. At first glance, the story is both simple and mysterious. The plot is so self-evident that it apparently defies further explanation. It involves a man trying in vain to gain the desired entrance; he spends the rest of his life waiting for permission which is never granted. But although the action is logical, its setting is not at all identical with our reality. Nor do we recognize the characters.

The man from the country has been narrowed to the personification of a persistent desire, the doorkeeper is limited to the function of an obstacle, the identity of the Law remains hidden. However, once we accept the kind of reality defined by these limitations, the narrative poses no problem. Yet it is obviously intended to be a parable. This is suggested by its very position in the context of the Trial. Some technical devices characteristic of a parable are easily recognized (e.g., the absence of proper names, the

concentration of the plot, the pointe at the end).

Although the details of the plot are self-explanatory the story as a whole certainly calls for interpretation.

If it is a parable it must “mean” something.

What, then, does it mean? A popular approach to Kafka is to treat his works as allegories, that is, to search for the second and concurrent meaning beneath the surface story, a meaning limited in scope, applicable to only one problem, one class, one historical age, etc. Trying to reveal the identity of the doorkeeper, of the man from the country and the Law we would proceed to search for something that fits the pattern of the plot, say, man in pursuit of happiness--he never achieves it, man in search of God--he never comprehends him, the artist waiting for inspiration or public recognition which never comes.

A given number of imaginative readers would be able to arrive at as many different so-called keys to the story. How do we know which key is the correct one?

Obviously the one which sounds most probable.

It need hardly be stated that this is no interpretation at all but a more or less undisciplined guessing game, however interesting. It would not be based on the

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Before The Law

It is the condition par excellence, a universal state. From this point of view all men are alike, indistinguishable, that is: faceless.

Another aspect is important. Since Kafka’s heroes are no characters of flesh and blood in the traditional sense, they do not command our sympathy. We are not moved by their fate, do not pity them but, instead, are awed by the cruelty of fate in general, by the insurmountable complications of existence and the frustration of all efforts. Pity and fear are supplanted by a paralyzing sense of inevitable doom.

Everyone can be this kind of tragic hero, through no fault or character defect of his own, through no combination of circumstances, but simply because he exists.

Text: Herbert Deinert narrative but merely on its pattern, on the radius of our knowledge and the whim of our imagination. In any case, we would be looking behind the story rather than into it.

The alternative is a careful analysis of an apparently simple plot. This state of complication and utter frustration is at the core of all of Kafka’s works. The apparent simplicity of plot is quite misleading. Kafka’s devotion to detail (as shown, for example, in the ensuing dispute over the parable) has a confusing rather than clarifying effect. He displays an even greater mastery of his analytical method in short stories like A Hunger Artist, Josephine, The Burrow, to name only a few. We are forced to reach the paradoxical conclusion that thoroughness does not enlighten but that it obscures. Again and again in Kafka’s works we encounter the careful weighing of all possibilities, the painstaking attention to every possible viewpoint, which make for a clear conception of each detail, but the picture as a whole is hopelessly blurred; thus even the reader is left frustrated. Kafka’s genius is most admirably evident in his depiction of ever new situations, in the detailed analyses of problems, not in the characterization of persons confronted by them. However, the lack of effective characterization need not be a shortcoming at all. Kafka might even abandon it on purpose to direct the reader’s attention almost exclusively to the situation confronting his characters. His heroes are engaged in a struggle against a faceless fate, they themselves are mere puppets.

Since it is a condition that potentially applies to everyone and at all times there can be no distinct personalities who encounter what might be called their own fate.

The Germanic Review, May, 1964

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Before The Law

BEFORE THE LAW

Franz Kafka, Prague, 1914-15 Before the law sits a gatekeeper.

To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment.

The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” At the moment the gate to

the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gate into the inside.

When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the most lowly gatekeeper.

But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.”

he man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the law should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at his large pointed nose and his long, thin, black Tartar’s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down at the side in front of the gate. There he sits for days and years. He makes many attempts

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to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests.

The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and many other things, but they are indifferent questions, the kind great men put, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has equipped himself with many things for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper.

Before The Law

The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, “I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.�

During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He forgets the other gatekeepers, and this one seems to him the only obstacle for entry into the law. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud, later, as he grows old, he still mumbles to himself.

He becomes childish and, since

in the long years studying the gatekeeper he has come to know the fleas in his fur collar, he even asks the fleas to help him persuade the gatekeeper.

Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether things are really darker around him or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. But he recognizes now in the darkness an illumination which breaks inextinguishably out of the gateway to the law. Now he no longer has much time to live.

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Before his death he gathers in his head all his experiences of the entire time up into one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body.

The gatekeeper has to bend way down to him, for the great difference has changed things to the disadvantage of the man.

“What do you still want to know, then?” asks the gatekeeper. “You are insatiable.” “Everyone strives after the law,” says the man, “so

Before The Law

how is that in these many years no one except me has requested entry?” The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, “Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you.

I’m going now to close it.

Limitations of human perception and ordinary physical explanations can account for ghost sightings; for example, air pressure changes in a home causing doors to slam, or lights from a passing car reflected through a window at night. Pareidolia, an innate tendency to recognize patterns in random perceptions, is what some skeptics believe, causes people to believe that they have 'seen ghosts'.

Through the flickering lights that are based on morse codes, Clay tries to communicate a certain message towards us.

As a appropriated character Richard Clay has the possibilty to fit in every story and to become part of someone's fantasy.

In Conversation With Someone, Ralph Collier, LED light, computer, DMX controller, 2016

In conversation with

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CINEMATIC MIRROR Lacan's first official contribution to psychoanalysis was the mirror stage, which he described as "formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience." The mirror stage describes the formation of the Ego via the process of objectification, the Ego being the result of a conflict between one's perceived visual appearance and one's emotional experience.

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Cinématic mirror

The primary focus of this wave of psychoanalytic film theory was the process of spectator identification understood through French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s idea of the mirror stage. Even more than Freud himself, Lacan, despite the difficulty of his work and its lack of availability in English translation, was the central reference point for the emergence of psychoanalytic film theory.

In truth, psychoanalytic film theory has from its incipience been almost exclusively Lacanian film theory. According to Lacan, the mirror stage occurs in infants between six and eighteen months of age, when they misrecognize themselves while looking in the mirror. The infant’s look in the mirror is a misrecognition because the infant sees its fragmentary body as a whole and identifies itself with this illusory unity. In the process, the infant assumes a mastery over the body that it does not have, and this self-deception forms the basis for the development of the infant’s ego.

By detailing the formation of the ego through an imaginary process, Lacan thereby undermines the substantial status that the ego has in some versions of psychoanalysis (especially American ego psychology, often the target of Lacan’s most vituperative attacks).

The attractiveness of this idea for film theory is readily apparent if we can accept the analogy between Lacan’s infant and the cinematic spectator.

Psychoanalytic film theorists such as Christian Metz and Jean-Louis Baudry took this analogy as their point of departure. For them, the film screen serves as a mirror through which the spectator can identify himself or herself as a coherent and omnipotent ego. The sense of power that spectatorship provides derives from the spectator’s primary identification with the camera itself. Though the spectator is in actual fact a passive (and even impotent) viewer of the action on the screen, identification with the camera provides the spectator with an illusion of unmitigated power over the screen images.

Within the filmic discourse, the camera knows no limit: it goes everywhere, sees everyone, exposes everything. The technological nature of the filmic medium (unlike, say, the novel) prevents a film from capturing absence. The camera inaugurates a regime of visibility from which nothing escapes, and this complete visibility allows spectators to believe themselves to be all-seeing (and thus all-powerful). What secures the illusory omnipotence of the spectator is precisely the spectator’s own avoidance of being seen. Like God, the spectator sees all but remains constitutively unseen in the darkened auditorium. The above scenario functions, however, only insofar as it remains

unconscious and the spectator sustains the sense of being unseen. This is why, according to this version of psychoanalytic film theory, classical Hollywood narratives work to hide the camera’s activity.

Once the camera itself becomes an obvious presence rather than an invisible structuring absence, the spectator loses the position of

Buzz Lightyear discovers in Toy Story (1995) that he's not the space ranger he thought he was, but just a toy.

omnipotence along with the camera and becomes part of the cinematic event. When this happens, the spectator becomes aware that the film is a product and not simply a reality. To forestall this recognition, classical Hollywood editing works to create a reality effect, a sense that the events on the screen are really happening and not just the result of a filmic act of production. In this regard, classical Hollywood cinema functions like commodity fetishism, working to hide the labor that goes into the production of its commodity. When thinking about early psychoanalytic film theory, a reference to commodity fetishism is almost unavoidable, which suggests the strong link that has existed between psychoanalytic film theory and Marxist theory.

One cannot separate the early manifestation of psychoanalytic film theory from its political dimension. In addition to relying on Lacan’s notion of the mirror stage, Baudry and other psychoanalytic film theorists take their bearings from Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. For them, Althusser’s notion of ideological interpellation (developed in his essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” 1970) provides a way of thinking about the political implications of the mirror stage. For Althusser, ideology hails concrete individuals as subjects, causing them to regard themselves—mistakenly—as the creative agents behind their experiences. The illusion of agency is thus the fundamental ideological deception.

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Cinématic mirror

According to psychoanalytic film theorists, the cinematic experience perpetuates this ideological deception through the mirror relationship it sets up for the spectator. Insofar as traditional narrative film blinds the spectator to the way that film addresses or hails the spectator as a subject, every traditional narrative participates in the process of ideological interpellation and control.

Hollywood film invites spectators to accept an illusory idea of their own power, and in doing so, it hides from spectators their actual passivity.

For early psychoanalytic film theory, cinema’s ideological victory consists of convincing spectators to enjoy the very process that subjugates them. It is also in Screen that theorists first began to link psychoanalytic film theory to feminist concerns. One of the most fecund developments in psychoanalytic film theory occurred through this alliance. In 1975 Laura Mulvey wrote “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” perhaps the most anthologized and most quoted essay in the entire history of film theory. The importance of this essay for the subsequent development of film theory cannot be overstated. Basing her essay on the pioneering work of Metz and Baudry, Mulvey links the process of spectator identification to sexual difference. According to Mulvey, a secondary identification with character accompanies the spectator’s primary identification with the camera, and this identification with a filmic character is most often, at least in Hollywood cinema,

Luke Skywalker discovers that his worst enemy is his father.

After this confrontation Luke finds the force to be a Jedi and doesn't wants to yield to the Dark Side like his father did.

an identification with a male character.

The spectator’s sense of power is, for Mulvey, a definitively masculine sense of power. The spectator, then, is gendered male. On the screen, the male character, the site of identification, drives the movement of the film’s narrative and is the character whose movement the camera follows. The female character serves as a spectacle for both the spectator and the latter’s screen proxy, the male character, to look at.

This process, which Mulvey termed the “gaze,” deprives the female subject of her subjectivity, reducing her to a “to-be-looked-at-ness” that provides pleasure for the male spectator. Mulvey’s appropriation of psychoanalysis for feminism is meant to destroy this pleasurable experience through the act of analyzing it. Here again, psychoanalytic theory is inseparable from the specific political program it serves.

Cinema and the mirror - filmreference.com

The star child looking at the earth. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) can also be described as an allegory of human conception, birth, and death. The star child signifies a "great new beginning", and is depicted naked and ungirded, but with its eyes wide open. By destroying HAL, man symbolically rejects his role as creator and steps back from the brink of his own destruction.

An Abs e nce O f A Pr e se nc e, Ra lph Co llie r, HD vid e o-a nima t ion, 10 : 00 min , 20 16

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CinĂŠ m atic m ir r o r

Richard Clay Ralph Collier Stream of consciousness June 2016

An Abs e nce O f A Pr e se nc e, Ra lph Co llie r, HD vid e o-a nima t ion, 10 :0 0m in, 2 01 6