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GER 494/598; ENG 494/549; HUM 494
Spring 2003, Daniel Gilfillan


Linkography

A listing of not-so-random links to information that you may find useful for class. Websites devoted to some of our primary authors, dictionaries of philosophy for those 2 a.m. readings of Deleuze, interesting oddities attempting to make sense of the world. Send me any URLs that you think will fit into this linkography, and I will add them.

Evaluating and Citing Online Resources

There are many guidelines for citing online resources within the scholarly work that you will produce for this class. I will require you to follow the MLA style for all bibliographic citations (print, electronic, and online sources).

  • The Transcriptions Project at UC-Santa Barbara has put together an excellent source guide for citing online resources, with examples and activities for finding the information you need for a proper citation.
  • They also have a criteria and checklist for evaluating online resources. I will ask you throughout the course to evaluate certain websites, particularly those produced as teaching resources and for scholarly research purposes. Check here for a printable version of their checklist.

Calvino MOO Discussion

Follow this link for a transcript of our MOO-based discussion of Calvino's if on a winter's night a traveller.

Writing Reviews

Writing a critical review is an art, but it is not an artform that is unattainable. Check out these Guidelines for Writing Reviews for some ideas on what to think about as you are reading, and as you begin writing.

Filmography

Videodrome (1983), dir. David Cronenberg

Lowlife cable TV operator Max Renn discovers a "snuff TV" broadcast called Videodrome. But Videodrome is more than a TV show; it's an experiment that uses regular TV transmissions to permanently alter the viewer's perceptions by giving them brain damage. Max is caught in the middle of the forces that created and the forces that want to control Videodrome, his body itself turning into the ultimate weapon to fight them.

Brazil (1985), dir. Terry Gilliam

Sam Lowry is a harried technocrat in a futuristic society that is needlessly convoluted and inefficient. He dreams of a life where he can fly away from technology and overpowering bureaucracy, and spend eternity with the woman of his dreams. While trying to rectify the wrongful arrest of one Harry Buttle, Lowry meets the woman he is always chasing in his dreams, Jill Layton. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy has fingered him responsible for a rash of terrorist bombings, and both Sam and Jill's lives are put in danger

Tetsuo (1988), dir. Shinya Tsukamoto

A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.

Strange Days (1995), dir. Kathyrn Bigelow

Set in the year 1999 during the last days of the old millenium, the movie tells the story of Lenny Nero, an ex-cop who now deals with data-discs containing recorded memories and emotions. One day he receives a disc which contains the memories of a murderer killing a prostitute. Lenny investigates and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of blackmail, murder and rape. Will he survive and solve the case?

Twelve Monkeys (1995), dir. Terry Gilliam

An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict (James Cole) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemy (who he's told was spread by a mysterious "Army of the Twelve Monkeys") and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it. Unfortunately Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990, six years earlier than expected, and is arrested and locked up in a mental institution, where he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert

Johnny Mnemonic (1995), dir. Robert Longo. Screenplay by William Gibson.

In 2021, the whole world is connected by the gigantic Internet, and almost a half of the population is suffering from the Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS).Johnny with an inplanted memory chip in his brain was ordered to transport the over loaded information from Beijing to Newark. While Pharmakom Industries supported by yakuza tries to capture him to get the informaiton back, the Low-tech group led by J-Bone tries to break the missing code to download the cure of NAS which Johnny carries

The Matrix (1999), dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski

Computer hacker Thomas Anderson has lived a relatively ordinary life--in what he thinks is the year 1999--until he is contacted by the enigmatic Morpheus who leads him into the real world. In reality, it is 200 years later, and the world has been laid waste and taken over by advanced artificial intelligence machines. The computers have created a false version of 20th-century life--the "Matrix"--to keep the human slaves satisfied, while the AI machines draw power from the humans. Anderson, pursued constantly by "Agents" (computers who take on human form and infiltrate the Matrix), is hailed as "The One" who will lead the humans to overthrow the machines and reclaim the Earth.

eXistenZ (1999), dir. David Cronenberg

Allegra Geller, the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective.

     

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