Monday, May 28, 2007

REPLY TO MUBARAK ABOUT ROBBE-GRILLET

MUBARAK ALI has commented in my blog here:
http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/05/royal-s-brown-interviews-alain-robbe.html

This is Celinejulie’s reply:

I didn’t notice in LA BELLE CAPTIVE if there is an object that finds itself used by the different characters. I think I have to watch this DVD again soon. One of the things that I like in this film is the “too many shoes”. It makes me laugh out loud when the third shoe appeared in the film. How could Robbe-Grillet get an idea like that?

I can’t find Royal S. Brown’s articles on the internet. However, if you or anybody else want to read these two articles, you can e-mail me at bearania@yahoo.com to give me your address, so that I can send the articles to you.

I tried to contact my friend who gave me these Royal S. Brown’s articles to ask where these articles came from, but I can’t reach him right now. However, on the Royal S. Brown article on Eden and After, I notice that my friend wrote “1990, Vol. 18, No.4” . So I guess this article might come from a magazine, but I don’t know which magazine. Royal S. Brown was identified as someone from Queens College (C.U.N.Y.) in the article.

In this article, Royal S. Brown also translated something from “L’Eden et apres: Genese d’un film” (transcript of a video-taped conversation between Francois Jost and Robbe-Grillet), which appeared in a booklet called “Alain Robbe-Grillet: Ouevres cinematographiques” (Paris: Ministere des Relations 1982). I think it is interesting, so I quote it here:

“Alain Robbe-Grillet has noted that the basic idea for l’Eden was to use as a narrative generator a form as hostile as possible to the very idea of a narrative. Now, the form that is the most hostile to the continuity, to the causality of the narrative is obviously the series. What characterizes the succession of events in a chronological narrative is the causal linking of events to each other through a kind of hierarchy. On the other hand, as in music, where the Schoenbergian series represents the suppression of the very idea of tonality, so that there is no longer any dominant, no longer any tonic, serialism in a narrative would be a completely equal treatment of a certain number of themes.”

Below is a photo from EDEN AND AFTER (1970, Alain Robbe-Grillet, A+). Thanks to Sonthaya Subyen for the photo.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

However, on the Royal S. Brown article on Eden and After, I notice that my friend wrote “1990, Vol. 18, No.4” . So I guess this article might come from a magazine, but I don’t know which magazine.

Royal S. Brown used to work for Fanfare Magazine. Perhaps you could inquire there.

http://www.fanfaremag.com/

celinejulie said...

Thank you very much for your tips. Now I'm really amazed at Royal S. Brown. His article on Robbe-Grillet imply that he has a very good knowledge of films and literature, but his writing in Fanfare magazine implies that he has a very good knowledge in music, too. He is really versatile.

About his articles on Robbe-Grillet, my friend just told me a few days ago that the articles came from LITERATURE/FILM QUARTERLY magazine. You can find the details on my post here:

http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/05/robbe-grillet-in-literaturefilm.html