Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Episode 62: It's Like 'The Shining', But With Nuns: On 'Black Narcissus'
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Episode 62: It's Like 'The Shining', But With Nuns: On 'Black Narcissus'
The 1947 British film Black Narcissus is many things: an allegory of the end of empire, a chilling ghost story with nary a spook in sight, a psychological romance, and a meditation on the nature of the divine. Its weirdness is as undeniable as it is difficult to locate. On the surface, the story is straightforward: five nuns are tasked with opening a convent in the former seraglio of a dead potentate in the Himalayas. But on a deeper level, there is a lot more going on, as Phil and JF discover in this conversation touching on the presence of the past, the monstrosity of God, the mystery of the singular, and the eroticism of prayer, among other strangenesses.
REFERENCES
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburged (dirs.), Black Narcissus
Rumer Godden, author of the original novel
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition
Tim Ingold, British anthropologist -- lecture: "One World Anthropology"
Jonathan Demme (dir.), The Silence of the Lambs
Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist
Bruno Latour, On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods
Don Barhelme, American short story writer
Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher
Weird Studies episode 16: On Dogen Zenji's Genjokoan
The King and the Beggar Maid
Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers
“Painting with Light,” featurette on the Criterion Collection DVD of Black Narcissus
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By SpectreVision Radio
4.8
571571 ratings
The 1947 British film Black Narcissus is many things: an allegory of the end of empire, a chilling ghost story with nary a spook in sight, a psychological romance, and a meditation on the nature of the divine. Its weirdness is as undeniable as it is difficult to locate. On the surface, the story is straightforward: five nuns are tasked with opening a convent in the former seraglio of a dead potentate in the Himalayas. But on a deeper level, there is a lot more going on, as Phil and JF discover in this conversation touching on the presence of the past, the monstrosity of God, the mystery of the singular, and the eroticism of prayer, among other strangenesses.
REFERENCES
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburged (dirs.), Black Narcissus
Rumer Godden, author of the original novel
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining
Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition
Tim Ingold, British anthropologist -- lecture: "One World Anthropology"
Jonathan Demme (dir.), The Silence of the Lambs
Pierre Bourdieu, French sociologist
Bruno Latour, On the Modern Cult of the Factish Gods
Don Barhelme, American short story writer
Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher
Weird Studies episode 16: On Dogen Zenji's Genjokoan
The King and the Beggar Maid
Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers
“Painting with Light,” featurette on the Criterion Collection DVD of Black Narcissus
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like Weird Studies
View all
Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)
507 Listeners
Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio
429 Listeners
Rune Soup
759 Listeners
Team Human
359 Listeners
Desert Oracle Radio
797 Listeners
Why Theory
564 Listeners
This Jungian Life Podcast
1,554 Listeners
Hermitix
342 Listeners
TrueAnon
3,228 Listeners
Acid Horizon
177 Listeners
Joshua Citarella
219 Listeners
What's Left of Philosophy
264 Listeners
Nymphet Alumni
297 Listeners
The Nietzsche Podcast
183 Listeners
Ordinary Unhappiness
221 Listeners