I have finally got down to do some reading over the past couple of days: serious reading. It’s surprising how little time I’ve had for it recently. There was a time, in about 2000, when I used to read entire afternoons away, whizzing through Kenneth S. Lynn’s 400 page biography of Hemingway in about a week. These days I don’t seem to have the time or inclination to do that, always being distracted by friends, university and so forth. I still love reading, but it’s simple joy has of late been supplanted by other pursuits. Now I’m home, though, my bibliophilic side has returned.

I’m reading Bordwell’s ‘Narration in the fiction film’. I must admit I didn’t read it too thoroughly the first time, and I’m hoping it might help with my MA. As I was reading earlier, I was stuck by how concerned many film theorists are with the relationship between film and language. I am convinced, personally, that we must look elsewhere: I am still a structuralist, but I, like Metz, feel like film is alinguistic. It is quite different from and separate to all natural and synthetic languages; hence we must look elsewhere for a structuralist model of film. Where this model might lie I still do not know, but I’m very enthusiastic to find out. I’ve only just started the book; after lunch I’ll read more, and maybe once again read an afternoon away.