Soldiers and Other Cosmic Objects

This begins the fourth chapter of “The Book of Film” and entertains directly the considerations of chapter two (“THE WEIR-FaLCON SAGA,” “The Machine of Eden,” and “The Animals of Eden and After”). Person begins to be defined by what it is not. It might be said that chapter one (“Scenes from Under Childhood”) set forth birth and being, chapter two – consciousness, chapter three (“Sincerity”) – self-consciousness; thus “Soldier and Other Cosmic Objects” begins that strictly philosophical task of distinguishing (from, in this case, the rituals and trials of public school). I like to think of it as a work that Ludwig Wittgenstein might have found more enjoyable. (SB)