As an enthusiastic long time lurker on SCREEN-L, I have usually
maintained a discrete silence, but the current discussion has prompted me
to put forth a few thoughts.  As the discussion has flowed on over the net,
I couldn't help but think of Stan Brakhage, particularly his _Art of Vision_,
which certainly demonstrates that the potentialities of silent film can be
developed in new ways as technological change provides technologies
opening up new potentialities for new modes of film.  What this seems to
suggest is that no moment of the history of film is ever closed or
permanently surpassed.
 
     The problem, then, ought not to be an either/or, but a both/and in
which we cultivate the fruitfulness of letting a thousand flowers bloom.
Silent film still has some potentialities to be explored and historical
examples of silents provide major resources for future film-making.
 
                                        Donald Theall