Baumann

A few notes on format … I (think) I liked that Baumann italicized key ideas (especially since I skimmed the book). It seems a little corny, but why not use this kind of visual technique in order to get your main points, arguments across? I don’t know how I feel about all the delineations though.

I also think the book feels a bit repetitive after a while … Baumann spends a lot of time reiterating his points, which is certainly helpful, but doesn’t seem to match the audience (mostly intellectuals, professors, students – I would think).

I liked the notion of “opportunity spaces”; it seems like a potentially useful concept for a range of LCS projects. It nicely combines social and economic considerations into a neat package of sorts. It captures all the conditions that create opportunities without trying to relate each condition to the others. The only condition – I would argue – for having an “opportunity space” is intent, because for me “opportunity” implies an underlying agency, not a happenstance. In Baumann’s case, filmmakers saw a chance to capitalized, because television had replaced film as the vulgar/popular medium.

Although I found Baumann’s arguments, generally, quite convincing, I (like a few other people in the class – it seems from the blog) would have liked to have seen some more closed commentary, inter-textual reading, regarding the films themselves. I think Cold War gave us a nice example of how the two approaches – looking at a cultural phenomenon in terms of social/economic context AND in terms of some close readings/viewings, etc – can be nicely blended, complementary. I just think literature (or film, in this case) and its context are totally entangled and privileging one over the other seems a bit incomplete or something.

Also as someone who knows not so much about film, I want more specifics. The lack of examples also makes me question the entire concept of the book … I am still not quite convinced that Hollywood and highbrow should ever be grouped together. I would like to hear more about distinctions between Hollywood films and avant-garde films.