Video: Between plot and memory
by Josh Kimball
Look: This started a long time ago, with me trying to explain the plot of “The Brothers Karamazov,” a book that might be considered my favorite. Despite having read it, having talked about it extensively, and having thought back on it often, my ability to fully recall and distill the plot yielded a strange, even misshapen landscape – it’s all killer half-brothers, pale Ivans, stinky monks and wisps of tow – that bore little resemblance to the practical, rational Cliff’s Notes write-up for the book.
Anyway, I’m playing with a sort of video/brain experiment about the spaces between literary works (or any art, really) and people’s memories and distillation of those works. Tentatively called between plot and memory. I’m not sure how far I’ll continue with it, but I’ll write a fuller explanation of the ideas behind it at some point.
This one is me talking (I mean, fair is fair); the other vids up aren’t me (whew). I have a few more to put up at some point.
“Maybe that’s just a fat kid, actually.” Anyway, a few more on the tumblr.
I’ve watched all of these and been giving this some thought. There is entertainment value in what you’re providing. In some cases, I guess the book by the 5-second point, which makes it more interactive as I try to recall the plot myself. If I haven’t read or poorly recall the book, it’s not quite as amusing. The subtitle-like notes help quite a bit–perhaps you could expand on these? It might also be more meaningful if you could write up the fuller explanation behind what you’d like to prove with the experiment.