For well over a century cinema has exerted enormous influence, yet many questions regarding its fascination remain unanswered. Films work so well because the viewers tend to unconsciously identify with the actors/actresses. The desire to become another, substituting identity by identification, can be traced to the illusion that the filmic heroes/heroines are immortal - identifying with them raises the possibility of gaining deathlessness. Viewers can, without real life risks, experiment with the existential drafts presented; the power of imagination is mobilized. Based on a multidisciplinary...

We forget all kinds of things, trivial and important ones; and not just things but also topics and techniques, and we forget in different ways. Inconvenient as it is to forget your to-do list, forgetting grave political factors can lead to repeating the same mistakes. Foolish as it is to let proven solutions fall by the wayside, repression, both on a personal as on a political level, will lead to catastrophe. This book enumerates many things already forgotten (or in the process of being forgotten) and maps the tortuous paths of relinquishing useful ways of doing things. By analyzing...