The Lasting Picture Show

James Combs

tet 2018 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

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This work is the continuation of a sustained inquiry into moving pictures, conducting with an awareness of their prominence and prevalence in the contemporary world. A major indicator of the ubiquity of motion pictures is noticed by world travelers, who see the traces of their universality with the satellites on nomadic yurts in Asia and TV sets in remote and poor African villages. It is only now becoming realised that this mode of communication may well be the most pervasive, and perhaps even the most important, mass medium ever invented.

With that background in mind, this book focuses on “cinematic knowing” as an expression of ludenic experience, important as a major source of “play-learning” in a world which is increasingly “wired” to the various forms of moving pictures. It investigates how this way of seeing has expanded our visual acuity and experience, including not only hindsight and foresight, but also insight and indeed even “blindsight”. It discusses the acquired abilities inherent in our “cinematic understandability”, the extent and depth of knowing that is learned from our life-long experience of exposure to motion pictures, including forms other than “the movies”, such as TV programming, commercials, and documentaries. It proceeds on the assumption that the most influential of this universe of visual expression is the one with the most important background and cultural impact, the motion picture show. This ludenic center of popular fare involved the creation of a heterocosm, a body of popular knowledge that accumulates and promulgates values and interests in visually identifiable formats, becoming in the process a kind of cultural enthymeme enjoyed for its expressive ability to reach people, and proved to be resilient and flexible in adapting to and addressing new circumstances.

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James Combs is a Professor Emeritus at Valparaiso University, USA. He has been active in such academic associations as the Popular Culture Association and the International Communication Association. He has authored and co-authored twenty-three books, including Movie Time (2007), Wit’s End (2010), Comic Grace (2013), Magical Suspension (2015), and Cinematic Schooling (2018).