Rebuilding fragmentary histories

Today's recommendation is Ken Smith's book Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970.
I discovered Archive.org in late 2001, when I first started college. Looking at Prelinger's online archive, I felt I had discovered something nobody else had ever, ever heard of. I was wrong about that, but the un-selfconsciously obsolescent world of early Cold War "mental hygiene" films was fascinating to me. The damaged films, the cracked audio, the forgotten and insignificant images, the ideology of conformity. The lost and skipped frames.

A few months later, from Googling around, I realized there was a BOOK about these films. That book is Ken Smith's Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970.

Now, flash-forward the better part of a decade. I'm working on a PhD and my dissertation subject will likely be those films. Even now, I cite Ken Smith on most of the work I do. Why?

First, this is virtually the only book written about so-called mental hygiene films. Many other works tangentially mention this subgenre or type of film, which constituted tens of thousands of works. But this is the only one that focuses on it in depth. Second, for a non-academic, Smith has done some absolutely exhaustive, breathtaking research. The book contains capsule summaries of several hundred of the most popular mental hygiene films as well as contemporaneous quotes from sources like Educational Screen and producers of these films. Third, Smith situates the summaries in an excellent historical overview. Fourth, he's just a good writer. I prefer this book to any number of dry academic texts. Smith conveys information in an accessible, entertaining way.

Also, there are pictures.

Like it or not, an entire generation of American students was forced to watch these films. They are a significant part of our culture and history - which is why I study them. As much as I love pretentious art films, they have little connection to the lives of The People (Whatever that is).


This book is great for people who are interested in 20th century American history, ephemera, educational history and history of educational media, new media discousres, and film history or aesthetics. I'd also recommend this book for anyone trying to research independently (which I guess would be most adjunct faculty), because it's a great example of significant research that came into being without, necessarily, institutional validation.

Although this book is not exhaustive and there's still lots to be researched (Mr. Smith: Thanks. That means I can continue with whatever it is I do), it's a wonderful place to start if you are interested in any of the above topics, which is why it's today's recommendation. Ken Smith has also written Junk English , Raw Deal: Horrible and Ironic Stories of Forgotten Americans, Junk English 2 and Ken's Guide to the Bible


all likely to be future Recommendations.

magical thinking

Today's recommendation is not alienating your copyeditor enough such that they ruin your product launch, assuming you have one (a copyeditor) to begin with.

This week, the Red Cross is holding a book/media sale in my town. Because i have SO MUCH time to read things that are not assigned, I made a point to go out there. Support the Red Cross, right? I was mostly looking for ephemeral media.

I was not disappointed. While Thom was seriously looking at serious books, I frolicked over to the PLEASE TAKE THESE DVDs OFF OUR HANDS THEY ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT section and found myself face to face with this.



Look very carefully, dear readers. It says what you think it says.

Yep. that's right! "Kid's Walk" is egregious enough, but that tag line up there? With that charming, homemade attempt at copy editing? Someone actually thought this was a good idea. It is, in and of itself. Teach kids (or: "kid's")...how to walk! And inspire them! With a message telling them...



naturally, I had to purchase it. I have barely been able to keep my hands off it. I can't wait to watch it today and see what it tells me. CAN I DO IT?



Update soon!




Other home fitness products by this woman. Everyone has to make a living. especially me!

GET BACK IN LINE!

I haven't been feeling very well this week. I have a terrible cough (which I suspect is due to allergies) and creeping feelings of terror, related both to the upcoming months of no income and the final papers I procrastinate on.

I thought about recommending "better shuffle algorithms for CD players," because my 3rd-hand 300 disc changer seems to favor the crappiest stuff in there, and it annoys me.

But I'm not even sure if they actually work on an algorithm.

I was going to recommend a short Russian film I really liked, but I can't find it on the Internet anymore, so that's out for today.

Therefore, instead, today I am going to recommend...

Holiday from Rules.

I am recommending a film called Holiday from Rules, from 1959, not an actual holiday from rules. Sorry, anarchists!



Ken Smith, in his brilliant 1999 book Mental Hygiene (which you can buy here; i should really formally Recommend this to you someday), says this about it:

"An omniscient narrator with magical powers grants the wishes of four bratty kids by teleporting them to a tropical island where there are no rules. [...] As in Lord of the Flies -- which this film suspiciously resembles -- the little children quickly become dirty, hungry, and physically battered, and their anarchist Eden falls apart. Holiday from Rules conflates happiness and conformity (as do many films from the 1950s), but after the kids have been slapped around a little, they're more than willing to see things the narrator's way.

(pp. 158-159)

Well, sort of. In this short film, things fall apart and centers do not hold. On one hand, it's a critique of anarchist theory. On the other, it is a very effective form of birth control; seeing these whiny kids will make you want to abandon any children you do have* and spit in a corner, vowing to never have any more.

But - seriously. NO RULES? Then why don't they just fly off the island? Unbreak the kid's arm? Isn't saying there are no rules a rule in and of itself? I just don't get it.

But it's okay. Watch the film and have fun and remember, rules exist to keep us safe.

*FACETIOUS STATEMENT. WE EMPHATICALLY DISRECOMMEND AND HEARTILY UNENDORSE CHILD NEGLECT! THAT WAS HUMOR! I MEAN THE PART WHERE I SAID THIS FILM MAKES YOU WANT TO ABANDON CHILDREN, NOT THE PART WHERE I SAID WE UNENDORSE CHILD NEGLECT. ALTHOUGH I COULD SEE HOW YOU WOULD MIX THEM UP.

"and it's all because of...."

In honor of Zombie Jesus Day, I thought I'd recommend something a little less crass and commercial than that. I thought about recommending the word "monetize," because in the past 24 hours, it has rapidly become my new favorite word, and I had lots of exciting dreams last night about playing it in Scrabble.

But, I have to slow down before I can make blogging moves like that. Both in Scrabble and on my blog. As it is, right now, I am barely a piece of flotsam floating through the storied "blogosphere," and it'd be in poor taste to make an opening gambit into a bingo. I think I just mixed games there. Um, where was I? Oh yes.

Anyway, apparently not everyone was on board with my attempt to give a crowd-pleasing recommendation yesterday. Some people get migraines from coffee; some people just don't like it (...). Some people are just contrarians. So let me try again.

Therefore, today I am recommending an old favorite of mine.

Today's recommendation is...
The (Your Name Here) Story (Calvin Communications) is a 1960 film made for a convention of industrial filmmakers. I first saw this film in an excellent course on industrial and sponsored film that I took as part of my Master's degree.

(n.b.: I can't get this to embed properly; to see it in its full glory please click here & sorry for the inconvenience & please come back & click on some ads!




It is a brilliant piece of insider commentary that raises a lot of theoretical questions (I am trying to write a paper on this in another window. Like right now. unfortunately, my paper adds more questions than it answers, and does so both naively and inarticulately).

Most films of the sort that they are parodying - industrial films pre-1960 - do not survive, at least not in forms where lay people can readily see them. I think many were disposable objects, never meant to be viewed outside of their immediate context. Their contribution to history is all the more fascinating because of their stubborn situation as objects totally situated in their present.

But unlike most of those films, The (Your Name Here) Story addresses future and past in its acknowledgment of the greater body of industrial films and attempts to make summing statements in its parody, which attempts to create an all-purpose industrial film. Its parodic rewriting of hegemonic Western history speaks volumes. Its slippage of address and proto-interactivity are both hallmarks of postmodernism and antecedents of hypertexts.

Also, the hats worn in this film have little parallel in modern cinema.


The way this film dances around the central characteristics of these films - the way it plays with the edges of what can and cannot be said - the way it implies a lot, says very little directly, and still manages to make us laugh, even nearly 50 years after the fact - is one of the reasons that The (Your Name Here) Story is my recommendation for today. Ironically, if you have never seen any other industrial films, this one really is an all-purpose film, and as so many others have faded and crumbled - literally! - it has inadvertently achieved its goal.

Watch, enjoy, and let me know if you like this better than Coffee or Clicking on Our Ads. Also let me know if the embedding doesn't work.

yr. humble servant,
Miranda