In reponse to Mike Frank's question about the use of the word "correct:" Well, yes, I think we can say that in certain contexts (although I'm suer we're walking together into some pretty touchy territory here) in certain contexts. In a roomful of Foucauldians I think it is correct to say, for example, that our coke ad, as an image of female sexual agency, can't be seen as liberating by virtue of its content--we have to wonder how that text is deployed in the matrixes of power that always operate in culture. The problem in intellectual communities with this way of thinking is that one of the things that intellectuals have always done to foreclose on disruption is to produce a set of assumptions, assume everyone agrees, attach the word "correct" to them, and proceed from there with very little thought about anyone who might be inclined not to share that original set of assumptions (I hope I'm once again saying the obvious when I say that I use the example of a roomful of Foucauldians ironically). The Boston Globe has three regular weekly columns dedicated to genres of music. They are called "Rock Notes," "Jazz Notes," and "Musican Notes." See what I mean? With this in mind, I think part of Mike's point (and I agree) is that we're never going to articulate every assumption we make and get rid of it. Wanting to do that is symptomitic of a will to purity which is more or less fascistic. Its always annoyed me when people accuse of discourses on, say, literary theory are exclusionary without every saying the same thing about physics. Its assumed that physics needs esoteric language to address the complexity of its contents. Is literature (or film) any less complicted? What I'm saying is that if we want to talk about film in certain important ways we need to find a common ground, based on a set of shared ideas on which we agree and which we thus constitute within the community as "correct." I think it also behooves us, though, to make a language which leaves space for dissention (whether it be in our own texts or from other people). Sean Desilets Tufts University ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]