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“The End Is Built into the Beginning”: Charlie Kaufman and the Orderly Disorder of Neuroscience

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Symbolism 2019
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Symbolism 2019

Abstract

Filmmaker Charlie Kaufman’s evident concern with “mind” is amply demonstrated in two consecutive screenplay titles: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). But what of the mind’s supposed material seat, the brain? While Being John Malkovich (1999) leaves the mind/body relationship ambiguous, later works Synecdoche, New York (2008) and Anomalisa (2015) are more neurologically-inflected, subtly referring to rare brain conditions to comment on broader existential issues of the human condition in general. This essay asks why Kaufman repeatedly mines this cognitive/neuro scientific vein in particular; it approaches the question via “convolutions,” a metaphorical nexus of literature and neuroscience ultimately revelatory of one’s own human, writerly, brain-bound self. The essay further assesses how such convolutionary ideas invite empathic readings of Kaufman’s work, and thus how his oeuvre as much colours as it is coloured by considerations of neurological order and disorder.

Abstract

Filmmaker Charlie Kaufman’s evident concern with “mind” is amply demonstrated in two consecutive screenplay titles: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). But what of the mind’s supposed material seat, the brain? While Being John Malkovich (1999) leaves the mind/body relationship ambiguous, later works Synecdoche, New York (2008) and Anomalisa (2015) are more neurologically-inflected, subtly referring to rare brain conditions to comment on broader existential issues of the human condition in general. This essay asks why Kaufman repeatedly mines this cognitive/neuro scientific vein in particular; it approaches the question via “convolutions,” a metaphorical nexus of literature and neuroscience ultimately revelatory of one’s own human, writerly, brain-bound self. The essay further assesses how such convolutionary ideas invite empathic readings of Kaufman’s work, and thus how his oeuvre as much colours as it is coloured by considerations of neurological order and disorder.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword from the Editors V
  3. Acknowledgements VII
  4. Contents IX
  5. Special Focus: “Beyond Mind”
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: “Ahistoricity, Assemblages and Interpretative Reversals”
  8. The Fullness of Nothing, the Sense of the Nonsensical, and the Value of Being Unproductive 23
  9. Automatic Writing: From Networked Art to Cyberwarfare 49
  10. Cracking the Beckettian Profounds of Mind in Endgame with Game Theory 73
  11. Part II: “Destinerrance, Labyrinths and Folds”
  12. “The End Is Built into the Beginning”: Charlie Kaufman and the Orderly Disorder of Neuroscience 95
  13. The Fold: Musical Monads and Baroque Assemblages 117
  14. The Liquid Architecture of Bodily Folding 137
  15. Part III: “Immanent Transcendence”
  16. Herat 1487: Early Virtual Reality 151
  17. “Aesthetic Borderlands” in Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books 173
  18. The White Space Conflict Theory: Understanding Photography as Energy 197
  19. General Section
  20. Panopticon and Pilgrimage: The Narrator- Reader Relationship in Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews 223
  21. Language, Symbol, and “Non-Symbolic Fact” in D. G. Rossetti’s “The Woodspurge” 243
  22. Art Nouveau and Interarts in A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book 265
  23. Book Reviews
  24. Barbara Franchi, Elvan Mutlu, eds. Crossing Borders in Victorian Travel: Spaces, Nations and Empires 295
  25. Marion Gymnich, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz et. al. The Orphan in Fiction andComics since the 19th Century 301
  26. Review Essay: Recent Studies in Renaissance Aesthetics 307
  27. Review Essay: World-Building in Literatureand Beyond 315
  28. List of Contributors 325
  29. Index 329
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110634952-005

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword from the Editors V
  3. Acknowledgements VII
  4. Contents IX
  5. Special Focus: “Beyond Mind”
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: “Ahistoricity, Assemblages and Interpretative Reversals”
  8. The Fullness of Nothing, the Sense of the Nonsensical, and the Value of Being Unproductive 23
  9. Automatic Writing: From Networked Art to Cyberwarfare 49
  10. Cracking the Beckettian Profounds of Mind in Endgame with Game Theory 73
  11. Part II: “Destinerrance, Labyrinths and Folds”
  12. “The End Is Built into the Beginning”: Charlie Kaufman and the Orderly Disorder of Neuroscience 95
  13. The Fold: Musical Monads and Baroque Assemblages 117
  14. The Liquid Architecture of Bodily Folding 137
  15. Part III: “Immanent Transcendence”
  16. Herat 1487: Early Virtual Reality 151
  17. “Aesthetic Borderlands” in Peter Greenaway’s Prospero’s Books 173
  18. The White Space Conflict Theory: Understanding Photography as Energy 197
  19. General Section
  20. Panopticon and Pilgrimage: The Narrator- Reader Relationship in Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews 223
  21. Language, Symbol, and “Non-Symbolic Fact” in D. G. Rossetti’s “The Woodspurge” 243
  22. Art Nouveau and Interarts in A. S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book 265
  23. Book Reviews
  24. Barbara Franchi, Elvan Mutlu, eds. Crossing Borders in Victorian Travel: Spaces, Nations and Empires 295
  25. Marion Gymnich, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz et. al. The Orphan in Fiction andComics since the 19th Century 301
  26. Review Essay: Recent Studies in Renaissance Aesthetics 307
  27. Review Essay: World-Building in Literatureand Beyond 315
  28. List of Contributors 325
  29. Index 329
Heruntergeladen am 11.5.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110634952-005/html?lang=de
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