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It's been a busy week with other projects, but I've finally found time to be able to sit down and continue this here blog.

Since the last lecture on intertextuality, we spoke about structuralism and binary opposition.
Structuralism, essentially, shows how we make sense of the world.
I'm glad we covered this because I've always been interested in how we're all different and how we all see the world. I've always been able to have an opinion and question other peoples opinions in a discussion without getting defensive or angry, and I find it fascinating how primally angry people get to defend their opinions.

We'll always be more fascinated with what we don't know as opposed to what we do. That's why horror films where the 'monster' is hardly ever shown for the whole film is so effective. The idea, anticipation and our imagination of the 'monster' and the unknown will always be more terrifying than the monster itself. While it may sound like I'm going off on a tangent, this is what I thought of when we were discussing the anomalous zone/the zone of indeterminancy.
We then discussed the anomalous zone in more detail, and how films that 'play with' the mixture between binary oppositions (i.e. good/bad, life/death, etc) are generally more effective. Having a superhero film where the superhero may have done/may have to do something bad is much better than a superhero being 100% good.
This made me think of other ways binary opposition could be used in film for effectiveness, and the first film that sprang into my head was The Others. Now, I know there is a recurring Nicole Kidman theme here, BUT I promise I'll try not to bring her up again unless I need to.
The Others is a film where the character of Nicole Kidman lives in a big scary house with her children. The house is haunted by ghosts who make their everyday lives a misery.

Now, before I continue I'd like to apologise to anyone marking this blog who hasn't seen The Others, because I'm about to drop a bomb and post a spoiler. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't necessary to make my point!
At the end of the film, you find that actually, the mother and her children have been going through the whole film thinking they are haunted by ghosts, praying for something to be done about it, when actually they are the ones who are dead, and are haunting the people who are alive.
Rather than them being 'in the middle' of alive and dead, they are 'alive' for the entire film, and flip straight over to the other end of the spectrum in just a few seconds. But, it's more effective than someone just being shot (alive -> dead) because the idea that they are ghosts doesn't quite put them right at the end of the spectrum. Part of them is still alive.