steven anderson writes: "Without some explanation of why Mike Frank finds it "sinister" to question the authority of a text, his post contributes nothing to this discussion" and i certainly apologize to steven and to anyone else my post puzzled; i thought, presumptuously no doubt, that its premises were all too evident . . . let me be more clear . . . liz weis wrote: "There is no definitive sound track . . . " -- which suggests that there is not, and in principle there cannot be, any one single absolute definitive version of a film that counts as foundational and to which all commentaries have to turn for validation . . . thus i wrote that the implication of this fact, which i do not for a moment doubt, is that "the whole notion of an authoritative text makes no sense . . . i know i shouldn't but i find this a touch sinister" in saying this i was hardly disagreeing with liz, merely mocking the predilection of some students of film [including me] who, because of the kind of training we had, tend always to look to and for the authoritative texts as the wellsrping of our work . . . it's what we have instead of [or--perhaps--in addition to] god . . . now, as is all too well known, everything that's happened in criticism since may of 1968 has aimed at destroying not only all foundations but the very notion of a foundation as the authoritative source of anything . . . indeed it has worked to eliminate the very idea of the "authoritative" which surely died and was buried along with the author . . . . . . all liz, who knows much more about these things than i do, did was point to one indisputable "fact" that provides more evidence of the impossibility of the quest for certainty . . . what, to me, is sinister about this is that it throws a powerful inquisitorial light on the whole enterprise of criticism . . . the uncertainty and instability that results is appealing to some people . . . unfortunately because of some no doubt terrible flaw of character i myself really don't like it very much at all . . . i do hope that steven will forgive me for the hubris of sharing my own peculiar idiosyncratic weakness with the list, perhaps in the desperate hope that someone out there shares it with me mike frank ---- To sign off SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]