Re: GG:Lambs

[stephan@whoville.ucsd.edu]

Mary Jo writes:
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The Goldbergs show up in:
        The Silence of the Lambs
        Goedel, Escher, and Bach
        The Goldbug Variations (I haven't read-- anybody know more about
                this?)
        The Collecter (by John Fowles-- which influenced Silence)
        ????? What else?????
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 There's also the case of "The Terminal Man". The entire soundtrack is 
various segments of the 25th Goldberg variation (1955 recording) plus
some electronic enhancement to give it an eerie, cavernous sound. The
protagonist in the film is Lecter-like in that he is (a) a serial
murderer, (b) highly intelligent (an artificial intelligence scientist),
(c) quite calm and rational between his violent acts. 

 Interestingly, the "Terminal Man's" philosophy is diametrically opposed
to GG's on the role of machines -- he believes machines are taking over
and that this is a malevolent development. In one scene, he attacks the
robot he had created. I've always been curious about the use of GG's
recording on this film. I haven't found any mention anywhere about what
GG thought about the film or the use of his recording. This is in contrast
to the Slaughterhouse Five film, where the O. Friedrichs biography discusses
GG's view of the film at length.

--Stephan Hamann
UCSD