writing mainly to say "thanks" . . . given the [unexpected] heat that this
inquiry has generated it's encouraging to know that one's views are of some
little interest to someone . . . but while i'm at it . . .
given your sense of how a film course might work do you suppose the same [or
similar] goals might be served by teaching a course entirely from video but
insisting that the students go "to the movies" at least once every two weeks to
see whatever they choose and then write about the experience? . . . i do make
them do that . . . but my own sense is that even when they see something on the
big screen they respond to it mainly as narrative and not as sepctacle [that
is, a fundamentally visual experience] so that i end up wondering whether
there's really any point in getting them into the theaters at all
