Myth and film and MIT.

[MIT Film Philosopher/performer Irving Singer defines myth as "an expression of the human spirit which is capable of being done in literary works, in film works, in other works of art.
I don't use the word myth in the connotation it often has, which means that its false.
mythology has always been a philosophical effort.
Without technique there is no meaning and without technique film is simply an exercise.
Myth is story, not scientific. Math is not myth, physics is not myth, although it has myth in order to describe it.
What are the stories that mean so much to people and how to they delve in humanity in a way no other thing can?"]

SO!
I have been listening to the uTunes Irving Singer MIT lectures in Film and Philosophy. I am kinda of suprised with how elementary the lectures are. Perhaps you need to do that for 18-23 yr olds who go to a very scientific school. He asks who had heard of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho and no one raised their hand. WHAT!? Then, he asked about Amelie and one person has seen it.
No one knew who was Benigni - Life is Beautiful (which is more understandable to me, not many people have heard of this)
But Psycho?! COME ON PEOPLE!

One very cool part was that he is going to have them watch "Washington Square" and "The Heiress", which is a Henry James novel that turned film that turned Broadway play, in which I played Catherine (the female principal) about 5 years ago! (He is an opera buff too! He referenced Britten and A Turn of the Screw - neat!) That was fun to hear that Irving Singer thought this was worth lecturing on - I think it is, but hey, I am me.
He also will be lecturing on Pygmalion - the musical version is My Fair Lady.

Anyway, I haven't been having very stimulating intellectual moments lately, and so I have been feeling kind of dumb lately.
Thanks to MIT, I now feel smart again - since I knew all the stuff Singer was talking about in his lectures. I think I will email him, just for kicks to see if he'll respond to me - ya never know.
It feels nice to know I could handle the academic material at MIT. At least in Film. *wink*