The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is well known for his defence of solitude; as he said, “A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.” Distinct from…
View Post
If Alfred Hitchcock is the ‘master of suspense’, then I think we can call filmmaker Brian Yuzna the ‘master of disgust’ (or at least, one of the masters in this subtype of horror). Born in 1949, the American director and producer is best known for his work in the science fiction and horror genres, most…
View Post
Parallels are often made between animism (the belief that spirits are everywhere) and panpsychism (the belief that consciousness/mind is everywhere). Indeed, under an animistic belief system, it is possible to think of the term ‘spirit’ as equivalent to ‘mind’, although for the sake of clarity, we can treat the belief in discrete spirits existing in…
View Post
Since I started using Letterboxd (four years ago), an unconscious tendency I developed when watching films is that, throughout the film, I’ll think about what Letterboxd rating I’m going to give it. If the start of the film starts really well and feels unique and perfectly attuned to my sensibilities, then I might think, This…
View Post
In an intriguing essay titled ‘Memory of the Present and False Recognition’ (1908), the French philosopher Henri Bergson proposes that déjà vu is the result of memory and perception becoming intertwined in the present moment. This is based on his supposition that memory and perception – the past and the present – occur simultaneously. The…
View Post