----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Anyone out there interested in exchanging comments about the three Tarantino films (Resevoir Dogs [RD], True Romance [TR] and Pulp Fiction [PF]). I am particularly intrigued by the representations of violence in each film. Specifically, I have pinpointed two streams of possible "pleasures" of violence gleaned by audience members. Now, I am not in sociology so I don't do questionnaires or surveys. Rather, I am in cultural studies so I tend to read the texts in a less empericalmore from the hip type way. Anyway, I am thinking that two possible streams may come from mythic strands and emanations of the carnival (in the Bakhtinian sense). By mythic strands I mean those elements in the films that may represent, allude to, characterize or reflect certain cultural axioms or patterns of meaning. In reading _Gunfighter Nation_ (Richard Slotkin), the American "myth" of the gunfighter became an interesting matrix to use on the Tarantino films. Certainly in RD contains mythic strands of the gunfighter - perhaps especially in the Tim Roth character. Now, in PF I am thinking that Tarantino is perhaps imploding these mythic strands (the Bruce Willis "gunfighteresque" character's brush with rape is perhaps indicative of this). In addition, aspects of carnival appear esp. in PF. Why is it that I laughed when the nameless woman helping the Willis character out of the car wreck is shot, screams, and is quickly forgotten? Laughter is central to Bakhtin's notion of the Carnivalesque. So too is the idea that "common" people can, for the duration of carnival, put on masks of authority, be subversive to that authority and generally muck it up. Perhaps the audience shares in this subversion to authority by "laughing" at scenes which are clearly at odds with certain moral fabrics and general human compassion. I a ppreciate anyone actually reading this far. If this is not suitable for this list, anyone interested in talking can e-mail me privately (address below) Thanks. -- R. Scott Burnham Whatcha makin' there? York University Looks like sodie-pop - North York, Canada Watch it fizz... E-Mail: [log in to unmask] - Foghorn Leghorn