Comments on: It’s a Strange World: The Alphabet (1968) http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/ Appreciation and Criticism of Cinema Through Heartland Eyes Tue, 22 May 2012 05:40:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Monday Morning Diary (April 12) « Wonders in the Dark http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/comment-page-1/#comment-30327 Monday Morning Diary (April 12) « Wonders in the Dark Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:34:33 +0000 http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/#comment-30327 [...] Andrew Wyatt has really been writing one masterpiece after another at his Gateway Cinephiles home, and the latest is on an essential David Lynch short “The Alphabet” (1968).  It’s an essential piece: http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/ [...] [...] Andrew Wyatt has really been writing one masterpiece after another at his Gateway Cinephiles home, and the latest is on an essential David Lynch short “The Alphabet” (1968).  It’s an essential piece: http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/ [...]

]]> By: Andrew http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/comment-page-1/#comment-30019 Andrew Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:44:21 +0000 http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/#comment-30019 Sam: The "Short Films of David Lynch" DVD contains this and other early shorts by the director, but you can also watch "The Alphabet" on YouTube right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmMwKBMse_w Thanks for your compliments. It's kind of a cool coincidence that you started posting James' series on Lynch around the same time that I began this retrospective, which I've been planning for a while. Sam:

The “Short Films of David Lynch” DVD contains this and other early shorts by the director, but you can also watch “The Alphabet” on YouTube right now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmMwKBMse_w

Thanks for your compliments. It’s kind of a cool coincidence that you started posting James’ series on Lynch around the same time that I began this retrospective, which I’ve been planning for a while.

]]> By: Sam Juliano http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/comment-page-1/#comment-29985 Sam Juliano Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:55:02 +0000 http://gatewaycinephiles.com/2010/04/06/its-a-strange-world-the-alphabet-1968/#comment-29985 "With a richly symbolic, viscerally disturbing four-minute pseudo-narrative, Lynch presents an adult’s vision of a child’s striking, abstract fears. Education, in the form of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, becomes a psychic violation." "Within The Alphabet’s sinister, poetic confines, education takes on the air of a breach or infection. The child’s mind, which exists in a pre-language state of openness, is restrained and subjected, Ludovico-style, to a repeating sequence of runic symbols, which authorities insist must form the basis for her future thoughts. The individual who was once receptive of non-verbal inspiration becomes rigidly bound to a discrete set of formulae. The process of internalizing the alphabetic figures thus becomes a kind of mental foot-binding, a deformation of the child’s natural state in order to fulfill the cultural requirements of adults" Sadly Andrew, I come here to this spectacular review without having seen this film. But your brilliant peeling of the gauze really brings this under the closest scrutiny imaginable, and I dare say you really whet one's appetite. You've really been on a Lynch binge as of late contributing master class comments under other reviews, and writing incomparable essays like this one. I was particularly interested in you dissection of the use of sound here, as well as the various elements that make the film out and out horror. “With a richly symbolic, viscerally disturbing four-minute pseudo-narrative, Lynch presents an adult’s vision of a child’s striking, abstract fears. Education, in the form of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, becomes a psychic violation.”

“Within The Alphabet’s sinister, poetic confines, education takes on the air of a breach or infection. The child’s mind, which exists in a pre-language state of openness, is restrained and subjected, Ludovico-style, to a repeating sequence of runic symbols, which authorities insist must form the basis for her future thoughts. The individual who was once receptive of non-verbal inspiration becomes rigidly bound to a discrete set of formulae. The process of internalizing the alphabetic figures thus becomes a kind of mental foot-binding, a deformation of the child’s natural state in order to fulfill the cultural requirements of adults”

Sadly Andrew, I come here to this spectacular review without having seen this film. But your brilliant peeling of the gauze really brings this under the closest scrutiny imaginable, and I dare say you really whet one’s appetite. You’ve really been on a Lynch binge as of late contributing master class comments under other reviews, and writing incomparable essays like this one. I was particularly interested in you dissection of the use of sound here, as well as the various elements that make the film out and out horror.

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