Over-Sensitivity

by Jalal Toufic

Author of (Vampires): An Uneasy Essay on the Undead in Film and Distracted, Lebanese-born writer, film theorist, and video artist Jalal Toufic writes works that embrace the whole activity of his mind, from his daily encounters with life to brilliant concepts that often cut across film, visual art, dance, literature, and theater. Writing about the withdrawal of tradition past a surpassing disaster, the voice-over-witness in relation to traumatic events, the eruption of unworldly entities in radical closures, Toufic takes the reader of his new book through an intellectual landscape that is akin to running across hot coals.

303 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Danica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am proud to say that this is a book I am officially giving up on. Maybe I will come back to it when I have more time to ponder. I will say this about it though, it made me watch Vertigo for the first time, finally. To enjoy this, I think you need to have seen many many many more films than I have and also be willing to parse out criticism as it is firmly embedded in a subjective reverie, a huge block of feeling and longing, I think the author has taken everything he learned from movies and his failed relationships and has run them through a compacter, creating this sometimes touching but rather impossible piece of writing.

***

I am slogging my way through this book, because I feel like I should. I was drawn to it after hearing the artist Andrea Geyer reference Jalal Toufic several times through the course of a lecture. But I keep trying to ground myself within the text and the points of reference change so rapidly, that instead I feel I am just skimming over it. Could someone who is familiar with Mr. Toufic's work give me some context? Am I entirely missing the point?