Join Emily, Rachel, and B as they discuss ‘truth’ and the visible, psychoanalysis, and cinematic theory from Atomic Light (Shadow Optics) by Akira Mizuta Lippit. Taking Derrida’s book Archive Fever as the point of departure, Lippit asks us to consider cultural memory, legibility, and the process of discerning what is visible and what is not. In our discussion, we attempt to unpack the concept of the “shadow archive,” and respond to some questions from listener Matthew regarding what is potentially generative from this book outside the realm of film theory. We talk politics of the in/unvisible, of the avisual, and of our drastically differing feelings for the horror film genre. This episode also includes an advice question about Zizek (with a side of potential copyright infringement), and a One or Several Wolves brainstorm session analyzing (making up*) the meaning of a dream about a floor.
Thanks to Matthew M. for suggesting this text. Requests for texts for us to discuss? Dreams for us to interpret? Advice questions for us to answer? Email us at alwaysalreadypodcast AT gmail DOT com. Subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Twitter. Like our Facebook page. Get the mp3 of the episode here. RSS feed here. This episode’s music by B.
Links!
- Atomic Light at University of Minnesota Press
- Akira Mizuta Lippit’s faculty page at USC
- Review of Atomic Light by Takayuki Tatsumi in Science Fiction Film and Television
- Derrida’s Archive Fever at GoodReads; Review of Archive Fever by Walker Sampson geared toward practicing archivists
- Cure (1997) trailer and IMDb page
- IMDb pages for Maborosi (1995) and X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes (1963)
- Critical-theory.com post on the Zizek poster in question
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