The Philosophy of Film Noir

(Recent) book read - The Philosophy of Film Noir, edited by Mark T Conrad


Despite its decline as a continuing genre, Film Noir has had a lasting and significant effect on film. This book, from the University of Kentucky Press, is the best of the Philosophy & Popular Culture series that I have come across, and I can only comment at present on a few of the very deep threads found in this volume. Beyond the interesting use of expressionist cinematography, film noir is fascinating for what it can tell us about the culture from which it came.

The 20th century saw a tremendous change in human society. First, the the advancement of science led to Nietzsche's predicted "death of God" when our scientific values clashed with our superstitions, leading to disorientation. Without a solid foundation for values, tradition lost its meaning. Furthermore, lessons from Kierkegaardian subjectivism and Einsteinian relativism destroyed the possibility of a neutral or objective viewpoint. Secondly, World War II and the following Cold War brought humanity to new levels of destructive behavior and totalitarianism. The victory of WWII was not a complete victory and it was quickly realized that we were less safe than we were before the war. The resulting possibility of instant global war brought on severe anxiety. The European reaction was the development of Existentialism, as well as other connected philosophies such as absurdism. Here in America though the tradition has been to continue on with a sense of optimism (at least superficially). Hence the dread and anxiety of the postwar age was relegated to places like film noir. Thirdly, the economic surge following the war led to a new consumer culture, and this mass production resulted in alienation of people from their communities. The new urban landscape became a Dark City, cold, lifeless and unconcerned with the individual, a land of isolation and anonymity.

R. Barton Palmer discusses this postwar anxiety as the "dark mirror theory", asserting that film noir is a reflection of the bleak national mood. This mood was also manifested in the increase of psychotherapy, pop psychology, and pseudo-science such as UFO sightings. There was also an increased attendance in church, which had been declining in the earlier part of the century, and a Spiritual Revival involving new religious superstars like Billy Graham, as well as a syncretic national religion. Left with no security and an uncertain future, postwar America experienced a desperate hope of escape.

Escape is central to film noir. Stranded in the impersonal city, one is left with a conflict between appearance and reality. Things are not what they seem. People are not who they seem and intentions are often disguised and dark. Culture is transitory, change is constant. Without an ethical system as a reference, decisions become the responsibility of the individual and choice becomes significant. The maze has evolved from classical, being escapable by faith, through mannerist, escapable by reason, to the rhizome, as defined by Umberto Eco [1]. The rhizome has no beginning or end, it has no entrance or exit, no perimeter and no center but always a middle. There is no escape from it. This is the postmodern maze. All that remains is to find meaning in a potentially fatalistic universe. This is the struggle dramatically presented in film noir, although possibly less optimistic than the attitude found in Existentialism.

Perhaps the best postmodern work of recent times is Lost. Here, escape does seem truly impossible. The odds are continually being stacked against the survivors. Even if they escape the island, it is a futile endeavor and they will need to escape back. Beyond their current situation larger forces are at work and, more immediate, they can't escape from themselves, or the past (or the future for that matter). No one is who they seem, alliances are continually changing, and as events progress even individual characters switch from one point of view to another. Alan Woolfolk discusses the nature of time in film noir, asserting that it "merges narrative space, time, and events in such a way as to give priority to time past - someone (or something) is always coming 'out of the past.'" He continues on to say "film noir threatens to subvert the very concept of time, to obliterate the distinction between past, present, future, by placing individuals at the mercy of unknown forces that not only negate simple notions of making a clean break with the past but also deny the very notion of a coherent narrative character development." This description seems quite a propos of Lost to me.

I would argue that Film Noir was the beginning of postmodern film and is therefore tied linearly to our current postmodern culture. It also inseparable from Existentialism, as it comes from the same origins, explores the same themes and reaches the same conclusions.

[1] Discussed by Jerold J. Abrams in the chapter "From Sherlock Holmes to the Hard Boiled Detective in Film Noir"

Everthing is Miscellaneous

(Recent) Book read - Everything is Miscellaneous : The Power of the New Digital Disorder




David Weinberger's work is an excellent look at the current state of informational organization and the history of the philosophy of information. This book is a great read, and really shows the underlying significance that is forming from the information we are producing.

Weinbeger chronicles the development of organization. The first order is the real world, things can physically be organized, but there has to be a system, as things can only be in one place. The next step was the second order - the paper order, where lists were maintained detailing the locations of thins, such as a card catalog. But this systems has its limitations, things can be cross-referenced to have multiple locations on a list, but the physical limitations of paper make it hard to change and hard to search. The periodic table, for example could be reformulated in many different ways, but this was not possible until technology had a way of instantly reorganizing the data. The third order - the digital order is an advanced evolution of this system. Information is made into bits and then thrown into a miscellaneous pile. It can then later be sorted in any way the user wants, making searching easy and the results much more useful.

One of the latest improvements is the use of tags and labels. These provide metadata that can be searched and cataloged. This metadata becomes data of its own, and conversely data becomes metadata. For example searching on the name of a Shakepeare play (metadata) results in the text of the play, but if you want to learn the name of the play, then you could search by using text from it. Through the use of tags, things are organized as they're searched for. Information is only useful because of what it leaves out, as Weinberger says " the explicit diminishes the implicit". So maps such as Google Earth, become much more useful because they can be customized to include whats important, and exclude non-relevant locations. Music playlists have become the 21st century "mix tape", but the playlist itself is only metadata - it only points to the music that is the data itself. But, as the mix tape had meaning, there is also meaning in whats include in the playlist.

The implicit is the context, or meaning, of the data. The development of technology has been the externalization of human abilities, books and computers have externalized memory, and now information has externalized meaning. Weinberger notes that making something explicit is often difficult as we have to oversimplify to make things fit. "My lists of interests at Friendster is not really a list of my interests. It's a complex social artifact that results from my goals, self-image, and anticipations of how other people will interpret my list." An interesting problem that most of us have encountered on-line. His solution is finding the balance between implicit and explicit. As our data is becoming more meaningful, we can hope that this balance will become easier. As he shows, we have entered an era where small improvements to our on-line experience are having a dramatic impact on the usefulness of digital information.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience

Last Book Read : The Varieties of Scientific Experience - Carl Sagan



Back in 1999, I was absolute stunned when I heard about the Great American Think-off. The essay competition for that year was: Which is more dangerous, Science or Religion? Of course, I was enraged that the winner declared science more dangerous, but I was even more appalled that any organization that considers itself intellectual would possibly be able to reach that conclusion. The reason given - that science is blindly accepted by people without question- is the very antithesis of science, and obviously the writer didn't understand the concepts of verifiability and coherence. I think a prerequisite should have been a reading of Carl Sagan.

Sagan's 1985 lectures on natural theology examine just how much evidence there is for the existence of God. He asks why a divine creator did not leave a message in holy texts - an equation of some sort, that when eventually understood would provide evidence of that creator. Our investigation so far has come up empty, and if we simply haven't advanced enough to read the sign, then in the absence of all other evidence, we shouldn't concern ourselves with such matters until we do find it. As for verifiable evidence, there appears to be none, even though people do seem to have religious experiences. Just because there has been millions of UFO experiences, there has not been one trace of compelling evidence, and we would be reckless to assume their existence at this point.

Sagan's use of the Drake equation puts the possible number of civilizations in the galaxy between 1 (us) and one million. Now, there is an immense distance between 0 and 1, and a similar enormity between 1 and many (2 or more). Given the lack of evidence for a second civilization, like the search for God, it seems premature to me to think that there are other civilizations. If we were to discover one, then the likelihood of finding numbers 3, 4, etc would go up dramatically. If we look at the high end of the Drake equation, then the next nearest civilization would be a few hundred light-years away. And, if they happen to be in the vicinity of Polaris, then they will soon be treated to the music of the Beatles, and we can expect a response, possibly an aesthetic critique, in about 860 years. Although, I am on the side of those who think that we should not be broadcasting our existence to the rest of the galaxy. We are ill equipped to handle negotiating with other civilizations and until we have a better understanding of our place in the universe, hiding may be the safest course of action. The prevailing notion is that other civilizations will be far more advanced than us, and therefore will have a more mature moral nature, but I think this is also premature to consider. In fact, I think its possible we haven't encountered transmissions from others because we may be the oldest one. Even though life developed rather quickly once Earth formed, 500 million years, it may be the case that the chemical compositions hadn't reached a critical mass until there was 10 Billion years of stellar evolution to produce the complexity necessary for life.

In terms of the anthropic principle, it seems as though we are in a special time. We have finally reached an adolescence, on our journey to cosmic self-realization, as we begin to understand the universe and our place in it. It may be that this window of time is more important than Sagan realized. A recent article in Scientific America proposes that as time progresses, the universe will expand so much that everything outside of our local Galactic group will be to far away for light emission to reach us. An event horizon will form around us and all information from outside will be inaccessible. The Universal history that we can now look at will be forever lost, and the knowledge of its very existence will be gone.

Sagan notes a reference from Dostoevsky - "So long as man remains free, he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as someone to worship." The will to believe, the want to believe is very strong in people. The burden of existence is then removed from one's shoulders and left to the creator. The question of what to do is then answered by the directives of the divine. Besides this psychological motivation, there is also a political one. Religion provides a sense of contentment, and this is a useful tool for the ruling elite. People are pacified by the concepts of an afterlife and divine justice. The status quo can be maintained easier, of course the danger is that real injustices are not fought. Another quote is presented by Pierre Simon from The System of the World - "far from us be the dangerous maxim that it is sometimes useful to mislead, to deceive, and to enslave mankind to ensure their happiness." He asks why isn't there a commandment to educate oneself. It would seem that intellectual education and scientific awareness of reality are not something valued by religion.

The crucial point in the Drake equation is the longevity of Technical civilizations. Extinction is the rule, not the exception. The difference for humanity is that we have means of our own destruction, which only increases the chances of our extinction. In reference to nuclear weapons, Sagan asks "where are the religions?" There seems to be no larger moral question than our continued survival. Any other endeavor - goodwill to our fellow humans, the elimination of suffering, moral and intellectual development as a species, are completely futile unless we contain our internal destructive tendencies. Not only has religion done very little to prevent catastrophe, but has in some ways increased its likelihood. The conservative, fundamentalist government that has been in power for the last 30 years is ready to use WMDs in the name of their religion, to bring about God's plan prophesied in Revelation. Sagan points out that the non-religious state of the Soviet Union is less inconsistent with their policies of WMDs.

So, what kind of God could exist? Professor Sagan notes that not all of God's qualities can be true. God is either not omnipotent, not omniscient or not benevolent. An immortal creator that would create beings and subject them to suffering and death would be apparently cruel. If he allows civilizations to be regularly destroyed in galactic explosions, then he is at least incompetent. Furthermore, he remarks that the God portrayed by religions is really too small for the universe we know. He is more the God of a planet. He notes that Christians were called "atheists" by the Romans because they did not worship a real god. Something for current to Christians to remember. A more accurate God would be of a pantheist nature, as seen in the ideas of Spinoza and Einstein, something related to the universe and the physical laws governing it.

I think the best response a theologian could enact would be the Kierkegaardian existential leap of faith, and not try to justify their beliefs rationally. Sagan does acknowledge that religion could exist purely in this realm, but then they should not challenge the findings of science and make claims that our ultimately false. I'm not sure I entirely agree with him on the problem of evil - I think it's still conceivable that this is the best of all possible worlds, but only if we realize how important our own future is, as he argues.

I have been asked many times why an atheist would earn a degree in Religious Studies. A question that, to me, seems like an easy one. First, it would be impossible to study the entire sphere of humanity - philosophy, art, politics and history itself without an understanding of God and religion. Secondly, it would be just as hard to understand those disciplines external to humanity without the same ideas. The works of Einstein, Sagan, and Hawking constantly refer to the concept of God- it is inseparable. I'll end with a quote about professor Sagan from the foreword, "he took the idea of God so seriously that it had to pass the most rigorous standards of scrutiny . . . His argument was not with God but with those who believed our understanding of the sacred had been completed."

Random Notes

Last book read - Wikinomics. It wasn't exactly the book I thought it would be. It was a little dry and repetitive, probably more compelling to the business mind, than the technologist. It is interesting to think about open source as bringing us into a new era. I was listening to Leo recently discuss Microsoft, and he pointed out that Microsoft created their own industry and set the paradigm that we should pay for software, but those days might be coming to end, hence their need to buy Yahoo and get into the online game. As I've stated before Google has really set a new standard with their free applications. Additionally I think the days of the "classic" PC will come to an end. It seems that most people don't care about what OS they use anymore. Most of the tasks previously requiring a PC will move to other devices. Smart phones will take up IM, Chat, email and some browsing. Game consoles have already taken over the gaming side of computers. I use my DVR to do more video editing than the PC. This may leave the home computer as an entertainment component, with its main importance being a home server to store multimedia files. I'm already considering building my next PC as an HTPC. Strangely, ten years ago it seemed like such an advancement for PCs to move into the "Tower" form factor to free up valuable space, but the trend seems to be moving back to those wide boxes.

In other news. . .

Russia is once again displaying its military might and is trying to re-enter global politics. They recently reaffirmed the possibility of first use of nuclear weapons.

They have also recently begun playing games with their bombers, after sixteen years of non-use. Besides flying into American and British airspace, they seem to like the USS Nimitz, first buzzing them in February, and then again this week. It will be interesting to see what Global Chess moves result from this activity.