Grad Student Shells out $9.00 for Movie with Lacan Reference (Winter 2003)
Grad Student Shells out $9.00 for Movie with Lacan Reference (Winter 2003)
A graduate student in UCI's Comparative Literature Ph.D. program paid an alleged $9 to see the recent film The Life of David Gale Monday evening. When questioned as to why he was so willing to pay such a high price to see the movie, Jay Schmase responded that in the preview he had noticed a close up of the star, Kevin Spacey, in front of a chalkboard covered in cultural theory jargon. "I
quickly noticed the phrase 'petit-objet-a' written on the chalkboard. That closed the deal for me, because I'm a big fan of Lacan and Zizek."
After having seen the film, Davis affirmed that he had not been disappointed. "I was worried that there might only be like one or two shots of the blackboard, and maybe a quick snippet of the lecture during a musical montage. It turned out that there were like 5-6 shots of the blackboard, and a 10 second discussion of Althusser. I was extremely pleased with everything overall. It made the whole movie make sense for me."