9月 27, 2013

阿莫多瓦回顧展上: 慾望萬歲

這一波的阿莫多瓦回顧展,因為行程配合不易,必須忍痛剔除較晚近的《顫抖的慾望》(Carne trémula, 1997)。以下綜合這次影展其他三部阿莫多瓦早期作品的觀影經驗,做簡短報告。

修女夜難熬 (Entre tinieblas, 1983)
慾望法則 (La ley del deseo, 1987)
愛慾情狂 (Kika, 1993)

將整個電影創作的事業都投注在探討愛情的導演,整個世界上大約只有侯麥與阿莫多瓦這唯二的作者。不過這兩位路線截然不同;侯麥總是浪漫溫暖,相較之下阿莫多瓦口味重得多,且兼論情和慾,也善於使用冷嘲熱諷。同時,阿莫多瓦也常用過度華麗乃至俗艷、高反差的色彩,搭配靈活的攝影剪輯,塑造強烈的視覺風格。愛情、身體和佔有慾之間錯綜、交纏、弔詭的辯證關係,一直是阿莫多瓦創作的關懷;當然,多變、逸出異性戀霸權的各種性癖及箇中的性政治與交錯複雜的權力關係,也是他敘事的主軸。

9月 16, 2013

「地理學的想像」

「學院裡,觀念的周轉時間也加速了。不久以前,一生出版兩本書以上,就被認為野心太大。現在,領袖群倫的學界人士必須每兩年出版一本書,證明自己還活著。學院裡生產力和產出的界定越來越嚴格,學術成就也越來越緊以這些項目來衡量。 ... 觀念生產的加速,平行於資本主義整體的加速周轉時間的一般性推力。但是書籍和期刊的更大產量,有賴於新知識的生產,而這意味著更激烈地互相競爭,以尋找新觀念,並且對於這些觀念的所有權更感興趣。只有當亞當•史密斯的看不見的手,在其他市場無法發揮的一切效果都在學院裡實現了,這種瘋狂的活動才能夠凝聚成為某些具有共識,而且基礎穩固的『真理』。實際上,觀念、理論、模型、主題辯論,是一種本月流行色彩式的時尚,它們加劇了快速周轉、加速和瞬息萬變的狀況。去年是實證主義和馬克思主義,今年是結構歷程論(structurationism),下一年是實在論,後年則是建構主義、後現代主義或其他甚麼東西。跟緊班尼頓(Benetton)色彩變化的步調,比追隨當前學院世界裡短暫觀念的迴轉,要容易多了。」

-----David Harvey,〈時空之間─關於地理學想像的省思〉,頁71-72



*此篇講稿原發表於1990年,由王志宏翻譯,收錄在《空間的文化形式與社會理論讀本》。這段文字實在一針見血,雖由社會地理學出發,卻是用當今所有知識生產,學術界的朋友想必心有戚戚焉。原文抄錄如下:

"Not so long ago, to publish more than two books in a lifetime was thought to be over-ambitious. Nowadays, it seems, leading academics have to publish a book every two years if they are to prove they are still alive. Definitions of productivity and output in academia have become much more strictly applied and career advancement is more and more measured simply in such terms. ... Speed-up in the production of ideas parallels a general push to accelerate turnover time within capitalism as a whole. But greater output of books and journals must rest on the production of new knowledge, and that implies the much fiercer competitive search for new ideas, a much greater proprietary interest in them. Such frenetic activity can converge upon some consensual and well-established 'truth' only if Adam Smith's hidden hand has all those effects in academia that it plainly does not have in other markets. In practice, the competitive marketing of ideas, theories, models, topic thrusts, generates color-of-the-month fashions which exacerbate rather than ameliorate conditions of rapid turnover, speed-up and ephemerality. Last year it was postitivism and Marxism, this year structuralism, next year realism and the year after that constructivism, postmodernism, or whatever. It is easier to keep pace with the changes in Benetton's colors than to follow the gyrations of ephemeral ideas now being turned over within the academic world."

-----David Harvey. "Between Space and Time: Reflections on the Geographical Imagination", p. 431.

9月 11, 2013

,音同「偉」、「尾」。又是一個罕見字,教育部的重編國語辭典網站裡已經不收這個字了,只能從異體字字典找到資料。早在《爾雅》便已有此字,意思大約是初生的草木花,郭璞注《爾雅》的說明是:「今俗呼草木華初生者為芛。」但芛長年漸衰微,到了康熙字典,竟只剩「古文」二字的說明聊備一格,如此已不必意外今人對白話文中怎麼使用此字將如何陌生。

會認識這個字,則是日前讀到台中有間太陽餅店以麻芛、及黃麻嫩葉為食材,太陽餅以此而口味獨特。麻芛乃台中特產,有心人甚至為此在麻芛盛產的南屯地區催生了一間麻芛文化館。關於麻芛的飲食應用則有一道麻芛湯,看圖片感覺好像喝過但不是很確定,可能要問問轟媽。拜拜孤狗大神還發現麻芛的許多應用方式,包括麻芛粉、麻芛茶等等,鄉親可自行投石問路。

好吧,所以有「麻芛」的用法,至於能不能舉一反三以此類推,譬如說,稱茶的嫩葉為茶芛、櫻花的嫩葉為櫻芛,就不得而知了。但誰都看得出來考察歸考察,真正的重點其實是太陽餅吧。

話說回來,芛該是個好字,就這麼沒了挺可惜的。



*有關那間賣麻芛太陽餅的台中餅店,可參考中國時報的報導,該店距離國美館不算太遠,騎車開車十分鐘應該到得了。

9月 06, 2013

"The most heterogeneous temporal elements thus coexist in the city"

"Whoever sets foot in a city feels caught up as in a web of dreams, where the most remote past is linked to the events of today. One house allies with another, no matter what period they come from, and a street is born. … The climactic points of the city are its squares: here, from every direction, converge not only numerous streets but all the streams of their history."


-----Ferdinand Lion, Geschichte biologisch gesehen