The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies

Description

2009 ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award, Silver Medal, Popular Culture

A massive underground sensation, The Big Lebowski has been hailed as the first cult film of the internet age. In this book, 21 fans and scholars address the film's influences—westerns, noir, grail legends, the 1960s, and Fluxus—and its historical connections to the first Iraq war, boomers, slackerdom, surrealism, college culture, and of course bowling. The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies contains neither arid analyses nor lectures for the late-night crowd, but new ways of thinking and writing about film culture.

Introduction / Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe
Part 1. Ins (Intrinsic Models and Influences)
1. The Really Big Sleep: Jeffrey Lebowski as the Second Coming of Rip Van Winkle / Fred Ashe
2. A Once and Future Dude: The Big Lebowski as Medieval Grail-Quest / Andrew Rabin
3. Dudespeak: Or, How to Bowl like a Pornstar / Justus Nieland
4. Metonymic Hats and Metaphoric Tumbleweeds: Noir Literary Aesthetics in Miller's Crossing and The Big Lebowski / Christopher Raczkowski
5. The Dude and the New Left / Stacy Thompson
6. The Big Lebowski and Paul de Man: Historicizing Irony and Ironizing Historicism / Joshua Kates
7. Lebowski and the Ends of Postmodern American Comedy / Matthew Biberman
8. Found Document: The Stranger's Commentary and a Note on His Method / Thomas B. Byers
9. No Literal Connection: Mass Commodification, U.S. Militarism, and the Oil Industry in The Big Lebowski / David Martin-Jones
10. "I'll Keep Rolling Along": Some Notes on Singing Cowboys and Bowling Alleys in The Big Lebowski / Edward P. Comentale
Part 2. Outs (Eccentric Activities and Behaviors)
11. What Condition the Postmodern Condition Is In: Collecting Culture in The Big Lebowski / Allan Smithee
12. Holding Out Hope for the Creedence: Music and the Search for the Real Thing in The Big Lebowski / Diane Pecknold
13. "Fuck It, Let's Go Bowling": The Cultural Connotations of Bowling in The Big Lebowski / Bradley D. Clissold
14. LebowskIcons: The Rug, The Irong Lung, The Tiki Bar, and Busby Berkeley / Dennis Hall and Susan Grove Hall
15. On the White Russian / Craig N. Owens
16. Professor Dude: An Inquiry into the Appeal of His Dudeness for Contemporary College Students / Richard Gaughran
17. Abiding (as) Animal: Marmot, Pomeranian, Whale, Dude / David Pagano
18. Logjammin' and Gutterballs: Masculinities in The Big Lebowski / Dennis Allen
19. Size Matters / Judith Roof
20. Brunswick = Fluxus / Aaron Jaffe
21. Enduring and Abiding / Jonathan Elmer
Endnote: The Goofy and the Profound: A Non-Academic's Perspective on the Lebowski Achievement / William Preston Robertson
Works Cited
Index
List of Contributors

Sujets

• Histoire du cinéma
• Histoire du cinéma
• Histoire du cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Media
• Film
• ART
• Cultural Studies
• General
• Cinema
• Documentary film
• History of film
• General officer
• History of art
• Película fotográfica
• Popular Culture

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 17 novembre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253017826
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Year s Work in Lebowski Studies
The Big
The Year s Work in
Lebowski
Studies
Edited by
Edward P. Comentale Aaron Jaffe
8503 900 213
JEFFREY LEBOWSKI
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
www.iupress.indiana.edu
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2009 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United
States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data
The year s work in Lebowski studies /
edited by Edward P. Comentale and
Aaron Jaffe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-35380-1 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-22136-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Big Lebowski (Motion picture) I. Comentale, Edward P. II. Jaffe, Aaron.
PN1997.B444Y43 2009
791.43 72-dc22
2009019544
1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10 09
To our own Little Achievers: Elias, Zara, Margaret, and Fern

Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it-namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign.
MARK TWAIN , The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Contents
*
Acknowledgments
*
Introduction EDWARD P. COMENTALE AARON JAFFE
*
PART ONE: INS (INTRINSIC MODELS AND INFLUENCES)
1
The Really Big Sleep: Jeffrey Lebowski as the Second Coming of Rip Van Winkle FRED ASHE
2
A Once and Future Dude: The Big Lebowski as Medieval Grail-Quest ANDREW RABIN
3
Dudespeak: Or, How to Bowl like a Pornstar JUSTUS NIELAND
4
Metonymic Hats and Metaphoric Tumbleweeds: Noir Literary Aesthetics in Miller s Crossing and The Big Lebowski CHRISTOPHER RACZKOWSKI
5
The Dude and the New Left STACY THOMPSON
6
The Big Lebowski and Paul de Man: Historicizing Irony and Ironizing Historicism JOSHUA KATES
7
Lebowski and the Ends of Postmodern American Comedy MATTHEW BIBERMAN
8
Found Document: The Stranger s Commentary and a Note on His Method THOMAS B. BYERS
9
No Literal Connection: Mass Commodification, U.S. Militarism; and the Oil Industry in The BigLebowski DAVID MARTIN-JONES
10
I ll Keep Rolling Along : Some Notes on Singing Cowboys and Bowling Alleys in The Big Lebowski EDWARD P. COMENTALE
*
PART TWO: OUTS (ECCENTRIC ACTIVITIES AND BEHAVIORS)
11
What Condition the Postmodern Condition Is In: Collecting Culture in The Big Lebowski ALLAN SMITHEE
12
Holding Out Hope for the Creedence: Music and the Search for the Real Thing in The Big Lebowski DIANE PECKNOLD
13
Fuck It, Let s Go Bowling : The Cultural Connotations of Bowling in The Big Lebowski BRADLEY D. CLISSOLD
14
LebowskIcons: The Rug, The Iron Lung, The Tiki Bar, and Busby Berkeley DENNIS HALL SUSAN GROVE HALL
15
On the White Russian CRAIG N. OWENS
16
Professor Dude: An Inquiry into the Appeal of His Dudeness for Contemporary College Students RICHARD GAUGHRAN
17
Abiding (as) Animal: Marmot, Pomeranian, Whale, Dude DAVID PAGANO
18
Logjammin and Gutterballs: Masculinities in The Big Lebowski DENNIS ALLEN
19
Size Matters JUDITH ROOF
20
Brunswick = Fluxus AARON JAFFE
21
Enduring and Abiding JONATHAN ELMER
*
Endnote: The Goofy and the Profound: A Non-Academic s Perspective on the Lebowski Achievement WILLIAM PRESTON ROBERTSON
*
Works Cited
*
List of Contributors
*
Index
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge their sincere gratitude and respect for the many friends and colleagues who helped put this collection together. First, we would like to thank those involved in bringing to light the symposium where most of this work was originally presented: Emily Ritter, who knew the dudes; Lebowski Fest organizers Will Russell, Scott Shuffitt, Bill Green, and Ben Peskoe; Julie Kredens and Robin Fisher from Louisville s WFPL; all the kind folks at the Executive Strike and Spare, the Limestone, and the Executive West; for material help, University of Louisville colleagues and staff such as Robin Carroll, Brian Heckel, Jim Hensley, Hung Nguyen, Jennifer Stephens, Tom Byers and the Commonwealth Center, John Hale and Liberal Studies; Bronwyn Williams, Susan Griffin, and Susan Ryan, and the rest of Aaron s Louisville colleagues and students; and Ed s Indiana colleagues and students, especially the kids forced to take L371; and, of course, our special friends and guests William Preston Robertson, Alan Dale, Joe Morgenstern, as well as Steve Davis, Emily Dill, Karen Janke, Todd Comer (and his wandering child), Thomas Gianotti, Marc Ouellete, Stephan Wender, Alisha Wheatley, Karen Hadley, Jane Halliday, Michele Wilbert, Matt Dowell, Stephen Neaderhiser, Jacob Goessling, Bill Kerhwald, Kevin Metcalf, Scott Zurkuhlen, John Vance, Adam Robinson, Lynda Mercer, David Thimme, Chris Hoerter, Matt Wiles, and Elijah Pritchett. Also, we d like to thank the larger community of dudes who we ve met along the way; your support and continued friendship is greatly appreciated: Cristina Iuli, Daniela Daniele, Rob Richardson, Sean Anderson, Lisa Donald, Chalupa, Liz and Paul at Lebowski Podcast, J. M. Tyree and Ben Walters, Oliver Benjamin (aka The Dudely Llama), Peter Lopilato at The Ryder , Jacob Mazer and Victor Lenthe of the Video Saloon. Special thanks to Brian Benedetti, Jeremy Phillips, Josh Cooley, and cover artist Bill Green-for their cool visuals. Many, many thanks to our authors-treasured friends and wits, they got it and they made it better. Also, we had excellent support from Indiana University Press, and we d like to thank our editor Jane Behnken as well as Katherine Baber, Robert Sloan, Miki Bird, Jane M. Curran, Brian Herrmann, Jamison Cockerham, Chandra Mevis, and, of course, our anonymous readers. Finally, we must thank our families, especially Tatjana and Kimberly, for their patience and support and helpin to perpetuate the whole durned human comedy.
The Year s Work in Lebowski Studies

Introduction
Edward P. Comentale Aaron Jaffe
Far out. Far fucking out.
So what s a Lebowski, you might ask?
This is not the definitive question of the film.
That would probably be Which Lebowski? Or, perhaps, Where s the money, Lebowski?
We re academics, though. Over-achievers, if you will.
Let s begin with the title of the movie, which, we admit, is a bit of a puzzle. As far as titles go, it is both glaringly idiosyncratic and utterly slack. Through the course of the film, the big in The Big Lebowski slips back and forth between quality and quantity, spirit and matter. Yes, there s a Lebowski in the film who is big in cash and big in girth, but his decrepit image-bald, bloated, crippled, hot in the face-hardly meets the expectations of the star-burst title sequence. After betraying the family name and his daughter s love (not to mention the little Lebowski Urban Achievers, and proud we are of all of them ), this Lebowski turns out to be nothing but a big crybaby, pounding his fists on the floor of a mansion he never owned. The other Lebowski-dead-beat, down-and-out Jeff Lebowski, the Dude -reveals bigness of a different order. It s not his brains, exactly, but his heart, an expansive tenderness of being, or, at least, a big, sloppy helping of just being there. Yeah, Walter, I ll be there . And, with a little Lebowski on the way, bigness surely shifts Dude-ward. The un-hero finally-cuckoo-like-throws the other egg out of the nest, regains his own eponym and thus a story. Unless, perhaps, we ve been fixated on the wrong Lebowskis the whole time, and it s Maude all along who really is Le Grand Lebowski. . . .

What is The Big Lebowski , then? Or, if you re into the whole brevity thing, what s a Lebowski? What kind of thing is a Lebowski? How does it exist in the world? How does it present itself to human consciousness?
Undoubtedly, this titular crisis suggests something about the film itself. The name evokes the awesome as well as the asinine, the tender and the tricky. In all its silly, giddy grandeur, it seems to have kicked itself loose from the earth, beyond any appeal to either