Category Archives: Film

She’s Not a Robot

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I’ve recently been rewatching the classic TV series The Twilight Zone from the 1960s, and I felt like commenting on one episode that speaks to the storytelling tendency of the human mind, a subject addressed by Finnegans Wake: “The Lonely” (Season 1, Episode 7). This is also a timely episode because it comments on artificial intelligence and human “companionship” with robots.

Read on for my thoughts, with an awareness that there will be spoilers for this episode. You may want to hunt it down and watch it first before reading.

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It’s Plurbin’ Time: Pluribus and Finnegans Wake

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Vince Gilligan’s latest show, Pluribus, is a departure from his previous hits, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Eschewing the crime drama and action associated with those earlier shows, Pluribus takes a premise that sounds like an episode of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror and uses it as the backdrop for gorgeous cinematography and scenes of impressive performances from Rhea Seehorn, who often has the challenge of acting alone in a scene or with one or two other actors who are playing essentially brainwashed people with little personality.

It is also Gilligan’s first show to mention Finnegans Wake by name!

Read on for my thoughts about Pluribus, its relationship to the Wakean theme of the “Fortunate Fall,” and some musings on whether the show can be read as a criticism of Communism, Capitalism, Buddhism, Christianity, or something else.

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Near to Faint Away

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She is fading out like Journee’s clothes so you can’t see her now.

I had the opportunity recently to attend the East Coast premiere of the black-and-white version of David Chase’s 2012 film Not Fade Away. This coming-of-age story is many things: a period piece (in fact, a piece of Chase’s own biography), a celebration of music, and an exploration of the desire to “make it” and be a success. Since I write this blog, the movie made me think of Finnegans Wake and Joyce’s work generally in several ways (especially in the film’s conversion of experience into art).

This post looks at a few resemblances I noted between Joyce’s works and Not Fade Away. My purpose is not to assert a direct influence. I’m unclear on how much familiarity Chase has with Joyce. Instead, I want to consider how two different artists, working in different mediums, treat some similar themes, especially the cycle of generations.

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