Carney-vàle!

[hearthesilence]

I don't know, I kind of doubt that Rappaport would permanently give away his work thinking they'd never make back any money.

[MichaelB]

I certainly can't imagine a situation whereby someone would just give someone else effectively his entire body of work without furnishing some form of written proof that it really was a gift, even if it's only an email.

Put it like this: if I was the recipient, I'd want to make pretty damn sure that that was indeed the arrangement.

[Oedipax]

I don't understand Carney's actions in this even if it was a "gift" - not unless he wants to go and make the same deals Rappaport has clearly been making, and license the films out to DVD and streaming platforms, and reap the profits, presumably because Rappaport has 'given' Carney the rights. That seems absurd. You would think of all the people on Earth, someone who's spent his life studying and writing about filmmakers living and working on the margins wouldn't want to make life harder for a filmmaker he greatly respects. Particularly when the filmmaker in question likely needs the money more at a basic survival level than, you know, adding another wing onto his mansion or something.

[denti alligator]

I certainly can't imagine a situation whereby someone would just give someone else effectively his entire body of work without furnishing some form of written proof that it really was a gift, even if it's only an email.

Put it like this: if I was the recipient, I'd want to make pretty damn sure that that was indeed the arrangement.

What about getting something in paper that the recipient is only safekeeping the materials and will relinquish them upon request. Maybe it's naivite, but he should have gotten something in writing. I'm not defending Carney. Just sayin'.

[Foam]

Carney has not returned my emails, or Jon Jost's, for that matter. The last I heard from him was on August 28th, before all of this broke.
http://cinemaelectronica.wordpress.com/ ... relations/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hearthesilence]

Damn shame. His book Cassavetes on Cassavetes is great, but the way he's handled (or perhaps started) some of these incidents is mind-boggling. Maybe Jost is right - he's just gone off the deep end after years of stress.

[Foam]

Carney has talked about how when he was researching that book, he came across elements of Cassavetes' life which disturbed him so much he couldn't sleep at night, and as unpopular as Carney is on these boards I'll admit that when this story broke I couldn't sleep either. For as many misgivings as I have about his work (which from what I can tell are different from most of the problems voiced around here), it's nevertheless true that his mailbag, his books on Capra, Leigh, Cassavetes, and various articles (especially the one on cinematic modernism) all really struck a chord with me and provided a great deal of inspiration in shaping my view of art's possibilities, in shaping the seriousness with which I take art, in a way that I know has given me a significant leg up on many of my colleagues. The totality of his work represents a convincing and fully-formed critical worldview (not to be grasped by looking at any particular critical work in isolation) which, though it is not my own, has informed it and challenged it greatly. Because of him I didn't just learn about Cassavetes, but about how to appreciate Bach and Henry James and Paul Taylor. I learned how to really read Shakespeare and how to really look at a painting for the first time. Because of his work I have a deeper appreciation even of much of the work he himself couldn't appreciate, such as that of Lynch, the Coens, et al. He's so great as a critical enthusiast that I've never understood why he had to constantly alienate so many people with his negative criticism, which he isn't even remotely good at. Sometimes I wonder if it's because his borderline unhealthy fixation on Cassavetes, his deification of that artist's uncompromising and extreme violence, has negatively influenced his own critical practice (and possibly even his own life). Up until now I've taken Carney's side in all the battles he has fought (or at least the ones I've known about) but I'm going to have to side with Rappaport on this one (despite the fact that I probably wouldn't even care about Rappaport in the first place had it not been for Carney). And even more depressing to see the schadenfreude this has inspired in various places. Just a really disappointing development all around.

[matrixschmatrix]

Well, given that Rapaport trusted Carney enough to give him the films in the first place, it seems reasonable to assume that something on Carney's part has changed in the last few years. I don't know that what the man is like now needs to reflect negatively on his past accomplishments, nor on any of the personal growth he's fostered in you- I can imagine how upsetting it is, though. This goes beyond being a combative jerk and into really pointlessly destroying someone's livelihood, and appropriating their lifework, which seems totally indefensible.

[onedimension]

Tenure's a hell of a drug...

[Gregory]

I would hardly say tenure was the problem, even partially. Carney seems to be pretty much right about the administrative culture at BU (I didn't read his 9,000+ word "letter" in its entirety). I've heard similar things from several others who were there under Silber, and I'm not sure how much has really changed since then. It's part of a worsening set of problems at countless other institutions.

[denti alligator]

What was the gist of his BU complaint? I know people there, and in terms of faculty pay and support it looks like things are fine, if not close to ideal. I mean, the guy's got tenure. What's he got to complain about?

[knives]

There's a lot to complain about the present set up with all universities particularly in the abuse of rights by administrators against students and teachers, even those tenured.

[denti alligator]

Example?

[knives]

I'd give personal examples, but I enjoy what little job security I have. To be more general despite teachers having their incomes slashed to ribbons or being fired over nothing and student intuitions being raised to the unbelievable administrators across the country are receiving massive increases in income. This should give a fair idea of the disparity between the two groups.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/2 ... 52720.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gregory]

What Carney feels he has to complain about is all in the "letter" posted here, starting about 1/4 down the page. I hesitate to get into a detailed discussion about it here based just on what I've heard from others. My point was just that he's hardly alone in a lot of what he's saying. Jost clearly felt that Carney came across as a bit fanatical, partly because of the length of this thing, which is fair enough.

[denti alligator]

What Carney feels he has to complain about is all in the "letter" posted here, starting about 1/4 down the page. I hesitate to get into a detailed discussion about it here based just on what I've heard from others. My point was just that he's hardly alone in a lot of what he's saying. Jost clearly felt that Carney came across as a bit fanatical, partly because of the length of this thing, which is fair enough.

OK, but man what he describes is extreme, and if anything of his recent behavior is true, I can't take any of it at face value.

Anyway, if Carney is as good as he thinks he is, why doesn't he just leave. Plenty of other schools would pick him up--again, if he's as good a he thinks he is.

[knives]

What I skimmed is largely reflected in my experience. Remember a broken clock is right two times a day. Most schools in their literary and film programs are getting rid of theory and similar elements to the work just trying to crank out degrees. A friend was recently canned for teaching such books as Portnoy's Complaint with theory which was seen to be too controversial by the administration. The whole situation is very messed up bordering on the anti-intellectual at times.

[denti alligator]

I've was at a relatively conservative school for a while, but you'd never hear of anything like this. A colleague of mine taught Sade. No issues. I guess I've been lucky.

[knives]

That is very lucky. Though what I hear from older friends it only began to get like this recently. Also California, Mass, and wherever you are may have their differences.

[onedimension]

I think the most neutral thing to be said about Carney's letter to Jost is that academics and administrators may sometimes experience a clash of cultures..

It is scary to see impingements on academic freedom, but what do you do if no one wants to take your school's courses? The larger problem is that college is partly a massive system for generating titles, and many students and tuition-paying parents are disappointingly pragmatic about the process. College as summer camp with alcohol, give the people what they want, etc. My faith is more in the enthusiasm of individuals, like y'all (and Carney, all else aside) than in institutions, though someday I hope to have the authority to show a bunch of 18 year olds Antonioni and persuade them to like it.

[knives]

I've found students to be surprisingly receptive to things I never would have expected them to be like Raya Martin. For the most part I wouldn't say they are part of the problem and are at worst a symptom of a very messed up culture.

[onedimension]

It's not that they're not receptive, it's just that the receptivity isn't always especially deep. But it's too tempting to generalize, so I will stop. On to the part of this conversation that has to do with cinema!

[knives]

The first time somebody tries to swim they're not going to break records. An interest being developed and any receptivity is enough for these beginners. That deepness is going to happen down the road.

[onedimension]

Absolutely, I agree- I just get/got sucked into that 'The University Is Broken! !' frame

[Sloper]

When I was an undergraduate I was horrified by the cynicism of some (by no means all) lecturers and the casual contempt they displayed towards students. I saw even more of this when I became a tutor myself. Yes students can be frustrating sometimes, and I lose a good few tufts of hair every time another batch of marking comes along. But I've almost never found them to be cynical, and have very often been amazed by how eagerly they rise to the occasion when you demand (and expect) a lot from them. I don't see this as a 'chicken or egg?' scenario, because students are young people going through a deeply formative experience: it's clearly up to the lecturers to fight off (or at least temper) their cynicism, however difficult this can be at times.

I should emphasise that I'm talking about the occasional tendency of academics to become cynical in response to students, rather than administrators. I'm not really in a position to comment on the issues Carney raises in that letter, though of course I often hear similar complaints from scholars here in the UK.