Naslov
Null-A Aesthetics: Science-Fiction Separation in Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au langage and A.E. van Vogt's Null-A Three

Autori
Willems, Brian Daniel

Izvornik
Science-fiction studies (0091-7729) 45 (2018), 1; 146-160

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
Jean-Luc Godard ; A.E. van Vogt ; Clifford Simak ; General Semantics ; Graham Harman

Sažetak
Near the end of Adieu au Langage (2014), Jean- Luc Godard inserts a brief shot of A.E. van Vogt’s novel Null-A Three (1984), evidently to foreground a narrative strategy of continuous separation or disconnection characteristic of what I term “Null- A aesthetics.” This fission of mages is discussed in terms of Godard’s film, van Vogt’s novel, and another text used in the film, Clifford Simak’s Time and Again (1951). All allude to Alfred Korzybski’s 1933 self- improvement book Science and Sanity, which describes his concept of General Semantics, although all use Korzybski’s ideas somewhat differently. Analysis of writings by Graham Harman, Brian Stableford, and China Miéville are also used to develop this argument. Godard manipulates both the texts he uses and the 3D images of his film to foreground how ordinary assumptions about the connection between objects and their apparent qualities are challenged. This leads to new connections being revealed, a key feature of what I term Null-A aesthetics, which is a technique for the representation of the unpresentable.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

POVEZANOST RADA