title: Liminality

text: An anthropological rite, especially a rite of passage, involves some change to the participants, especially their social status.; and in 'the first phase (of separation) comprises symbolic behaviour signifying the detachment of the individual...from an earlier fixed point in the social structure. Their status thus becomes liminal. In such a liminal situation, "the initiands live outside their normal environment and are brought to question their self and the existing social order through a series of rituals that often involve acts of pain: the initiands come to feel nameless, spatio-temporally dislocated and socially unstructured". In this sense, liminal periods are "destructive" as well as "constructive", meaning that "the formative experiences during liminality will prepare the initiand (and his/her cohort) to occupy a new social role or status, made public during the reintegration rituals".


title: Liminality

text: Turner, who is considered to have "re-discovered the importance of liminality", first came across van Gennep's work in 1963. In 1967 he published his book "The Forest of Symbols", which included an essay entitled "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage". Within the works of Turner, liminality began to wander away from its narrow application to ritual passages in small-scale societies. In the various works he completed while conducting his fieldwork amongst the Ndembu in Zambia, he made numerous connections between tribal and non-tribal societies, "sensing that what he argued for the Ndembu had relevance far beyond the specific ethnographic context". He became aware that liminality "...served not only to identify the importance of in-between periods, but also to understand the human reactions to liminal experiences: the way liminality shaped personality, the sudden foregrounding of agency, and the sometimes dramatic tying together of thought and experience".


title: Liminality

text: 'The attributes of liminality or of liminal "personae" ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous'. One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation, but also the possibility of new perspectives. Turner posits that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs.—one where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are undone. In such situations, "the very structure of society [is] temporarily suspended"


title: Liminality

text: 'According to Turner, all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it...either the individual returns to the surrounding social structure...or else liminal communities develop their own internal social structure, a condition Turner calls "normative communitas"'.


title: Liminality

text: Turner also worked on the idea of communitas, the feeling of camaraderie associated among a group experiencing the same liminal experience or rite. Turner defined three distinct and not always sequential forms of communitas, which he describes as "that 'antistructural' state at stake in the liminal phase of ritual forms." The first, spontaneous communitas, is described as "a direct, immediate, and total confrontation of human identities" in which those involved share a feeling of synchronicity and a total immersion into one fluid event. The second form, ideological communitas, which aims at interrupting spontaneous communitas through some type of intervention which would result in the formation of a utopian society in which all actions would be carried out at the level of spontaneous communitas. The third, normative communitas, deals with a group of society attempting to grow relationships and support spontaneous communitas on a relatively permanent basis, subjecting it to laws of society and "denaturing the grace" of the accepted form of camaraderie.


title: Liminality

text: The work of Victor Turner has vital significance in turning attention to this concept introduced by Arnold van Gennep. However, Turner's approach to liminality has two major shortcomings: First, Turner was keen to limit the meaning of the concept to the concrete settings of small-scale tribal societies, preferring the neologism "liminoid" coined by him to analyse certain features of the modern world. However, Agnes Horvath (2013) argues that the term can and should be applied to concrete historical events as offering a vital means for historical and sociological understanding. Second, Turner attributed a rather univocally positive connotation to liminal situations, as ways of renewal when liminal situations can be periods of uncertainty, anguish, even existential fear: a facing of the abyss in void.


title: Liminality

text: Liminality has both spatial and temporal dimensions, and can be applied to a variety of subjects: individuals, larger groups (cohorts or villages), whole societies, and possibly even entire civilizations. The following chart summarizes the different dimensions and subjects of liminal experiences, and also provides the main characteristics and key examples of each category.


title: Liminality

text: Another significant variable is "scale," or the "degree" to which an individual or group experiences liminality. In other words, "there are degrees of liminality, and…the degree depends on the extent to which the liminal experience can be weighed against persisting structures." When the spatial and temporal are both affected, the intensity of the liminal experience increases and so-called "pure liminality" is approached.


title: Liminality

text: The concept of a liminal situation can also be applied to entire societies that are going through a crisis or a "collapse of order". Philosopher Karl Jaspers made a significant contribution to this idea through his concept of the "axial age", which was "an in-between period between two structured world-views and between two rounds of empire building; it was an age of creativity where "man asked radical questions", and where the "unquestioned grasp on life is loosened". It was essentially a time of uncertainty which, most importantly, involved entire civilizations. Seeing as liminal periods are both destructive and constructive, the ideas and practices that emerge from these liminal historical periods are of extreme importance, as they will "tend to take on the quality of structure". Events such as political or social revolutions (along with other periods of crisis) can thus be considered liminal, as they result in the complete collapse of order and can lead to significant social change.


title: Liminality

text: Liminality in large-scale societies differs significantly from liminality found in ritual passages in small-scale societies. One primary characteristic of liminality (as defined van Gennep and Turner) is that there is a way in as well as a way out. In ritual passages, "members of the society are themselves aware of the liminal state: they know that they will leave it sooner or later, and have 'ceremony masters' to guide them through the rituals". However, in those liminal periods that affect society as a whole, the future (what comes after the liminal period) is completely unknown, and there is no "ceremony master" who has gone through the process before and that can lead people out of it. In such cases, liminal situations can become dangerous. They allow for the emergence of "self-proclaimed ceremony masters", that assume leadership positions and attempt to "[perpetuate] liminality and by emptying the liminal moment of real creativity, [turn] it into a scene of mimetic rivalry".


title: Liminality

text: Jungians have often seen the individuation process of self-realization as taking place within a liminal space. "Individuation begins with a withdrawal from normal modes of socialisation, epitomized by the breakdown of the persona...liminality". Thus "what Turner's concept of social liminality does for status in society, Jung [...] does for the movement of the person through the life process of individuation". Individuation can be seen as a "movement through liminal space and time, from disorientation to integration [...] What takes place in the dark phase of liminality is a process of breaking down [...] in the interest of "making whole" one's meaning, purpose and sense of relatedness once more" As an archetypal figure, "the trickster is a symbol of the liminal state itself, and of its permanent accessibility as a source of recreative power".


title: Liminality

text: Jungian-based analytical psychology is also deeply rooted in the ideas of liminality. The idea of a 'container' or 'vessel' as a key player in the ritual process of psychotherapy has been noted by many and Carl Jung's objective was to provide a space he called "a temenos, a magic circle, a vessel, in which the transformation inherent in the patient's condition would be allowed to take place."


title: Liminality

text: But other depth psychologies speak of a similar process. Carl Rogers describes "the 'out-of-this-world' quality that many therapists have remarked upon, a sort of trance-like feeling in the relationship that client and therapist emerge from at the end of the hour, as if from a deep well or tunnel. The French talk of how the psychoanalytic setting 'opens/forges the "intermediate space," "excluded middle," or "between" that figures so importantly in Irigaray's writing". Marion Milner claimed that "a temporal spatial frame also marks off the special kind of reality of a psycho-analytic session...the different kind of reality that is within it".


title: Liminality

text: Jungians however have perhaps been most explicit about the "need to accord space, time and place for liminal feeling"—as well about the associated dangers, "two mistakes: we provide no ritual space at all in our lives [...] or we stay in it too long". Indeed, Jung's psychology has itself been described as "a form of 'permanent liminality' in which there is no need to return to social structure".


title: Liminality

text: In the context of rites, liminality is being artificially produced, as opposed to those situations (such as natural disasters) in which it can occur spontaneously. In the simple example of a college graduation ceremony, the liminal phase can actually be extended to include the period of time between when the last assignment was finished (and graduation was assured) all the way through reception of the diploma. That no man's land represents the limbo associated with liminality. The stress of accomplishing tasks for college has been lifted, yet the individual has not moved on to a new stage in life (psychologically or physically). The result is a unique perspective on what has come before, and what may come next.


title: Liminality

text: It can include the period between when a couple get engaged and their marriage or between death and burial, for which cultures may have set ritual observances. Even sexually liberal cultures may strongly disapprove of an engaged spouse having sex with another person during this time. When a marriage proposal is initiated there is a liminal stage between the question and the answer during which the social arrangements of both parties involved are subject to transformation and inversion; a sort of "life stage limbo" so to speak in that the affirmation or denial can result in multiple and diverse outcomes.


title: Liminality

text: Getz provides commentary on the liminal/liminoid zone when discussing the planned event experience. He refers to a liminal zone at an event as the creation of "time out of time: a special place". He notes that this liminal zone is both spatial and temporal and integral when planning a successful event (e.g. ceremony, concert, conference etc.).


title: Liminality

text: The temporal dimension of liminality can relate to moments (sudden events), periods (weeks, months, or possibly years), and epochs (decades, generations, maybe even centuries).


title: Liminality

text: Twilight serves as a liminal time, between day and night—where one is "in the twilight zone, in a liminal nether region of the night". The title of the television fiction series "The Twilight Zone" makes reference to this, describing it as "the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition" in one variant of the original series' opening. The name is from an actual zone observable from space in the place where daylight or shadow advances or retreats about the Earth. Noon and, more often, midnight can be considered liminal, the first transitioning between morning and afternoon, the latter between days.


title: Liminality

text: Within the years, liminal times include equinoxes when day and night have equal length, and solstices, when the increase of day or night shifts over to its decrease. This "qualitative bounding of quantitatively unbounded phenomena" marks the cyclical changes of seasons throughout the year. Where the quarter days are held to mark the change in seasons, they also are liminal times. New Year's Day, whatever its connection or lack of one to the astrological sky, is a liminal time. Customs such as fortune-telling take advantage of this liminal state. In a number of cultures, actions and events on the first day of the year can determine the year, leading to such beliefs as first-foot. Many cultures regard it as a time especially prone to hauntings by ghosts—liminal beings, neither alive nor dead.


title: Liminality

text: Liminal existence can be located in a separated "sacred space", which occupies a "sacred time". Examples in the Bible include the dream of Jacob (Genesis 28:12–19) where he encounters God between heaven and earth and the instance when Isaiah meets the Lord in the temple of holiness (Isaiah 6:1–6). In such a liminal space, the individual experiences the revelation of "sacred knowledge" where God imparts his knowledge on the person.


title: Liminality

text: Worship can be understood in this context as the church community (or "communitas" or "koinonia") enter into liminal space corporately. Religious symbols and music may aid in this process described as a pilgrimage by way of prayer, song, or liturgical acts. The congregation is transformed in the liminal space and as they exit, are sent out back into the world to serve.


title: Liminality

text: Various minority groups can be considered liminal. In reality illegal immigrants (present but not "official"), and stateless people, for example, are regarded as liminal because they are "betwixt and between home and host, part of society, but sometimes never fully integrated". Bisexual, intersex, and transgender people in some contemporary societies, people of mixed ethnicity, and those accused but not yet judged guilty or not guilty can also be considered to be liminal. Teenagers, being neither children nor adults, are liminal people: indeed, "for young people, liminality of this kind has become a permanent phenomenon...Postmodern liminality".


title: Liminality

text: The "trickster as the mythic projection of the magician—standing in the "limen" between the sacred realm and the profane" and related archetypes embody many such contradictions as do many popular culture celebrities. The category could also hypothetically and in fiction include cyborgs, hybrids between two species, shapeshifters. One could also consider seals, crabs, shorebirds, frogs, bats, dolphins/whales and other "border animals" to be liminal: "the wild duck and swan are cases in point...intermediate creatures that combine underwater activity and the bird flight with an intermediate, terrestrial life". Shamans and spiritual guides also serve as liminal beings, acting as "mediators between this and the other world; his presence is betwixt and between the human and supernatural." Many believe that shamans and spiritual advisers were born into their fate, possessing a greater understanding of and connection to the natural world, and thus they often live in the margins of society, existing in a liminal state between worlds and outside of common society.


title: Liminality

text: The spatial dimension of liminality can include specific places, larger zones or areas, or entire countries and larger regions. Liminal places can range from borders and frontiers to no man's lands and disputed territories, to crossroads to perhaps airports, hotels, and bathrooms. Sociologist Eva Illouz argues that all "romantic travel enacts the three stages that characterize liminality: separation, marginalization, and reaggregation".


title: Liminality

text: In mythology and religion or esoteric lore liminality can include such realms as Purgatory or Da'at, which, as well as signifying liminality, some theologians deny actually existing, making them, in some cases, doubly liminal. "Between-ness" defines these spaces. For a hotel worker (an insider) or a person passing by with disinterest (a total outsider), the hotel would have a very different connotation. To a traveller staying there, the hotel would function as a liminal zone, just as "doors and windows and hallways and gates frame...the definitively liminal condition".


title: Liminality

text: More conventionally, springs, caves, shores, rivers, volcanic calderas—"a huge crater of an extinct volcano...[as] another symbol of transcendence"—fords, passes, crossroads, bridges, and marshes are all liminal: "'edges', borders or faultlines between the legitimate and the illegitimate". Oedipus met his father at the crossroads and killed him; the bluesman Robert Johnson met the devil at the crossroads, where he is said to have sold his soul.


title: Liminality

text: In architecture, liminal spaces are defined as "the physical spaces between one destination and the next." Common examples of such spaces include hallways, airports, and streets.


title: Liminality

text: In contemporary culture viewing the nightclub experience (dancing in a nightclub) through the liminoid framework highlights the "presence or absence of opportunities for social subversion, escape from social structures, and exercising choice". This allows "insights into what may be effectively improved in hedonic spaces. Enhancing the consumer experience of these liminoid aspects may heighten experiential feelings of escapism and play, thus encouraging the consumer to more freely consume".


title: Liminality

text: There are a number of stories in folklore of those who could only be killed in a liminal space: In Welsh mythology, Lleu could not be killed during the day or night, nor indoors or outdoors, nor riding or walking, nor clothed or naked (and is attacked at dusk, while wrapped in a net with one foot on a cauldron and one on a goat). Likewise, in Hindu text Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu appears in a half-man half-lion form named Narasimha to destroy the demon Hiranyakashipu who has obtained the power never to be killed in day nor night, in the ground nor in the air, with weapon nor by bare hands, in a building nor outside it, by man nor beast. Narasimha kills Hiranyakashipu at dusk, across his lap, with his sharp claws, on the threshold of the palace, and as Narasimha is a god himself, the demon is killed by neither man nor beast. In the Mahabharata, Indra promises not to slay Namuci and Vritra with anything wet or dry, nor in the day or in the night, but instead kills them at dusk with foam.


title: Liminality

text: The classic tale of Cupid and Psyche serves as an example of the liminal in myth, exhibited through Psyche's character and the events she experiences. She is always regarded as too beautiful to be human yet not quite a goddess, establishing her liminal existence. Her marriage to Death in Apuleius' version occupies two classic Van Gennep liminal rites: marriage and death. Psyche resides in the liminal space of no longer being a maiden yet not quite a wife, as well as living between worlds. Beyond this, her transition to immortality to live with Cupid serves as a liminal rite of passage in which she shifts from mortal to immortal, human to goddess; when Psyche drinks the ambrosia and seals her fate, the rite is completed and the tale ends with a joyous wedding and the birth of Cupid and Psyche's daughter. The characters themselves exist in liminal spaces while experiencing classic rites of passage that necessitate the crossing of thresholds into new realms of existence.


title: Liminality

text: In ethnographic research, "the researcher is...in a liminal state, separated from his own culture yet not incorporated into the host culture"—when he or she is both participating in the culture "and" observing the culture. The researcher must consider the self in relation to others and his or her positioning in the culture being studied.


title: Liminality

text: In many cases, greater participation in the group being studied can lead to increased access of cultural information and greater in-group understanding of experiences within the culture. However increased participation also blurs the role of the researcher in data collection and analysis. Often a researcher that engages in fieldwork as a "participant" or "participant-observer" occupies a liminal state where he/she is a part of the culture, but also separated from the culture as a researcher. This liminal state of being betwixt and between is emotional and uncomfortable as the researcher uses self-reflexivity to interpret field observations and interviews.


title: Liminality

text: Some scholars argue that ethnographers are present in their research, occupying a liminal state, regardless of their participant status. Justification for this position is that the researcher as a "human instrument" engages with his/her observations in the process of recording and analyzing the data. A researcher, often unconsciously, selects what to observe, how to record observations and how to interpret observations based on personal reference points and experiences. For example, even in selecting what observations are interesting to record, the researcher must interpret and value the data available. To explore the liminal state of the researcher in relation to the culture, self-reflexivity and awareness are important tools to reveal researcher bias and interpretation.


title: Liminality

text: For many students, the process of starting university can be seen as a liminal space. Whilst many students move away from home for the first time, they often do not break their links with home, seeing the place of origin as home rather than the town where they are studying. Student orientation often includes activities that act as a rite of passage, making the start of university as a significant period. This can be reinforced by the split of town and gown, where local communities and the student body maintain different traditions and codes of behaviour. This means that many university students are no longer seen as school children, but have not yet achieved the status of independent adults. This creates an environment where risk-taking is balanced with safe spaces that allow students to try out new identities and new ways of being within a structure that provides meaning.


title: Liminality

text: "Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey" by Chuck Palahniuk makes use of liminality in explaining time travel. "Possession" by A. S. Byatt describes how postmodern "Literary theory. Feminism...write about liminality. Thresholds. Bastions. Fortresses". Each book title in "The Twilight Saga" speaks of a liminal period ("Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse", and "Breaking Dawn"). In "The Phantom Tollbooth" (1961), Milo enters "The Lands Beyond", a liminal place (which explains its topsy-turvy nature), through a magical tollbooth. When he finishes his quest, he returns, but changed, seeing the world differently. The giver of the tollbooth is never seen and name never known, and hence, also remains liminal. Liminality is a major theme in "Offshore" by Penelope Fitzgerald, in which the characters live between sea and land on docked boats, becoming liminal people. Saul Bellow's "varied uses of liminality...include his "Dangling Man", suspended between civilian life and the armed forces" at "the onset of the dangling days".


title: Liminality

text: Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" follows the protagonist through different stages of life as she crosses the threshold from student to teacher to woman. Her existence throughout the novel takes a liminal character. She can first be seen when she hides herself behind a large red curtain to read, closing herself off physically and existing in a paracosmic realm. At Gateshead, Jane is noted to be set apart and on the outside of the family, putting her in a liminal space in which she neither belongs nor is completely cast away. Jane's existence emerges as paradoxical as she transcends commonly accepted beliefs about what it means to be a woman, orphan, child, victim, criminal, and pilgrim, and she creates her own narrative as she is torn from her past and denied a certain future. Faced with a series of crises, Jane's circumstances question social constructs and allow Jane to progress or to retract; this creates a narrative dynamic of structure and liminality (as coined by Turner).


title: Liminality

text: Karen Brooks states that Australian grunge lit books, such as Clare Mendes' "Drift Street", Edward Berridge's "The Lives of the Saints", and Andrew McGahan's "Praise" "...explor[e] the psychosocial and psychosexual limitations of young sub/urban characters in relation to the imaginary and socially constructed boundaries defining...self and other" and "opening up" new "liminal [boundary] spaces" where the concept of an abject human body can be explored. Brooks states that Berridge's short stories provide "...a variety of violent, disaffected and often abject young people", characters who "...blur and often overturn" the boundaries between suburban and urban space. Brooks states that the marginalized characters in "The Lives of the Saints", "Drift Street" and "Praise" are able to stay in "shit creek" (an undesirable setting or situation) and "diver[t]... flows" of these "creeks", thus claiming their rough settings' "liminality" (being in a border situation or transitional setting) and their own "abjection" (having "abject bodies" with health problems, disease, etc.) as "sites of symbolic empowerment and agency".


title: Liminality

text: Brooks states that the story "Caravan Park" in Berridge's short story collection is an example of a story with a "liminal" setting, as it is set in a mobile home park; since mobile homes can be relocated, she states that setting a story in a mobile home "...has the potential to disrupt a range of geo-physical and psycho-social boundaries". Brooks states that in Berridge's story "Bored Teenagers", the adolescents using a community drop-in centre decide to destroy its equipment and defile the space by urinating in it, thus "altering the dynamics of the place and the way" their bodies are perceived, with their destructive activities being deemed by Brooks to indicate the community centre's "loss of authority" over the teens.


title: Liminality

text: "In-Between: Liminal Stories" is a collection of ten short stories and poems that exclusively focus on liminal expressions of various themes like memory disorder, pandemic uncertainty, authoritarianism, virtual reality, border disputes, old-age anxiety, environmental issues, and gender trouble. The stories, such as "In-Between", "Cogito, Ergo Sum", "The Trap", "Monkey Bath", "DreamCatcher", "Escape to Nowhere", "A Letter to My-Self", "No Man's Land", "Whither Am I?", and "Fe/Male", apart from their thematic relevance, directly and indirectly link the possibilities and potential of liminality in literature for developing characters, plots, and settings. The experiences and expressions of the in-between states of living ‘betwixt and between’ in a transitional world that intricately changes the constants and perpetuities of human life are eminent in the stories that are associated with the theoretical concepts such as permanent and temporary liminality, liminal space, liminal entity, liminoid, communitas, and anti-structure. The significance of liminality in the short stories is emphasised by conceptualising the existence of the characters as "living not here, not there – but somewhere in a space between here and there".


title: Liminality

text: "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", a play by Tom Stoppard, takes place both in a kind of no-man's-land and the actual setting of "Hamlet". "Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is in several ways an essay in sustained liminality ... only via a condition of complete liminality can Hamlet finally see the way forward". In the play "Waiting for Godot" for the entire length of the play, two men walk around restlessly on an empty stage. They alternate between hope and hopelessness. At times one forgets what they are even waiting for, and the other reminds him: "We are waiting for Godot". The identity of 'Godot' is never revealed, and perhaps the men do not know Godot's identity. The men are trying to keep up their spirits as they wander the empty stage, waiting.


title: Liminality

text: "The Twilight Zone" (1959–2003) is a US television anthology series that explores unusual situations between reality and the paranormal. "The Terminal" (2004), is a US film in which the main character (Viktor Navorski) is trapped in a liminal space; since he can neither legally return to his home country Krakozhia nor enter the United States, he must remain in the airport terminal indefinitely until he finds a way out at the end of the film. In the film "Waking Life", about dreams, Aklilu Gebrewold talks about liminality. "Primer" (2004), is a US science fiction film by Shane Carruth where the main characters set up their time travelling machine in a storage facility to ensure it will not be accidentally disturbed. The hallways of the storage facility are eerily unchanging and impersonal, in a sense depicted as outside of time, and could be considered a liminal space. When the main characters are inside the time travel box, they are clearly in temporal liminality. Yet another example comes from Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" in which the Forest Spirit can only be killed while switching between its two forms.


title: Liminality

text: In the late 2010s, a trend of images depicting so-called "liminal spaces" has surged in online art and photography communities, with the intent to convey "a sense of nostalgia, lostness, and uncertainty". The subjects of these photos may not necessarily fit within the usual definition of spatial liminality (such as that of hallways, waiting areas or rest stops) but are instead defined by a forlorn atmosphere and sentiments of abandonment, decay and quietness. Additionally, it has been suggested that the liminal space phenomenon could represent a broader feeling of disorientation in modern society, explaining the usage of places that are common in childhood memories (such as playgrounds or schools) as reflective about the passage of time and the collective experience of growing older.


title: Liminality

text: The phenomenon gained media attention in 2019, when a short creepypasta originally posted to 4chan's /x/ board in 2019 went viral. The creepypasta showed an image of a hallway with yellow carpets and wallpaper, with a caption purporting that by "noclipping out of bounds in real life", one may enter the Backrooms, an empty wasteland of corridors with nothing but "the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in". Since then, a popular subreddit titled "liminal space", cataloguing photographs that give a "sense that something is not quite right", has accrued over 500,000 followers. A Twitter account called @SpaceLiminalBot posts many liminal space photos and it has accrued over 1.2 million followers. Liminal spaces can also be found in painting and drawing, for example in paintings by Jeffery Smart.


title: Liminality

text: Research indicates that liminal spaces may appear eerie or strange because they fall into an uncanny valley of architecture and physical places.


title: Liminality

text: The 2019 surrealist puzzle game "Superliminal", developed by Pillow Castle Games, explicitly incorporates liminality into its puzzles and level design.


title: Liminality

text: "Liminal Space" is an album by American breakcore artist Xanopticon. Coil mention liminality throughout their works, most explicitly with the title of their song "Batwings (A Limnal Hymn)" "(sic)" from their album "Musick to Play in the Dark Vol. 2". In ".hack//Liminality" Harald Hoerwick, the creator of the MMORPG "The World", attempted to bring the real world into the online world, creating a hazy barrier between the two worlds; a concept called "Liminality".


title: Liminality

text: In the lyrics of French rock band Little Nemo's song "A Day Out of Time", the idea of liminality is indirectly explored by describing a transitional moment before the returning of "the common worries". This liminal moment is referred as timeless and, therefore, absent of aims and/or regrets.


title: Liminality

text: In 1974, Victor Turner coined the term "liminoid" (from the Greek word eidos, meaning "form or shape") to refer to experiences that have characteristics of liminal experiences but are optional and do not involve a resolution of a personal crisis. Unlike liminal events, liminoid experiences are conditional and do not result in a change of status, but merely serve as transitional moments in time. The liminal is part of society, an aspect of social or religious rites, while the liminoid is a break from society, part of "play" or "playing". With the rise in industrialization and the emergence of leisure as an acceptable form of play separate from work, liminoid experiences have become much more common than liminal rites. In these modern societies, rites are diminished and "forged the concept of 'liminoid' rituals for analogous but secular phenomena" such as attending rock concerts and other liminoid experiences.


title: Liminality

text: The fading of liminal stages in exchange for liminoid experiences is marked by the shift in culture from tribal and agrarian to modern and industrial. In these societies, work and play are entirely separate whereas in more archaic societies, they are nearly indistinguishable. In the past play was interwoven with the nature of work as symbolic gestures and rites in order to promote fertility, abundance, and the passage of certain liminal phases; thus, work and play are inseparable and often dependent on social rites. Examples of this include Cherokee and Mayan riddles, trickster tales, sacred ball games, and joking relationships which serve holy purposes of work in liminal situations while retaining the element of playfulness.


title: Liminality

text: Ritual and myth were, in the past, exclusively connected to collective work that served holy and often symbolic purposes; liminal rites were held in the form of coming-of-age ceremonies, celebrations of seasons, and more. Industrialization cut the cord between work and the sacred, putting "work" and "play" in separate boxes that rarely, if ever, intersected. In a famous essay regarding the shift from liminal to liminoid in industrial society, Turner offers a twofold explanation of this sect. First, society began to move away from activities concerning collective ritual obligations, placing more emphasis on the individual than the community; this led to more choice in activities, with many such as work and leisure becoming optional. Second, the work done to earn a living became entirely separate from his or her other activities so that it is "no longer natural, but arbitrary." In simpler terms, the industrial revolution brought about free time that had not existed in past societies and created space for liminoid experiences to exist.


title: Liminality

text: Sporting events such as the Olympics, NFL football games, and hockey matches are forms of liminoid experiences. They are optional activities of leisure that place both the spectator and the competitor in in-between places outside of society's norms. Sporting events also create a sense of community among fans and reinforces the collective spirit of those who take part. Homecoming football games, gymnastics meets, modern baseball games, and swim meets all qualify as liminoid and follow a seasonal schedule; therefore, the flow of sports becomes cyclical and predictable, reinforcing the liminal qualities.


title: Liminality

text: One scholar, Alexandra Murphy, has argued that airplane travel is inherently liminoid—suspended in the sky, neither here nor there and crossing thresholds of time and space, it is difficult to make sense of the experience of flying. Murphy posits that flights shift our existence into a limbo space in which movement becomes an accepted set of cultural performances aimed at convincing us that air travel is a reflection of reality rather than a separation from it.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Robin Hood is a 2010 action film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins, and Max von Sydow.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Development began on the project in January 2007 with Universal Pictures' purchase of a spec script by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris which would see the film focus on a more prominent and sympathetic Sheriff of Nottingham. Casting Crowe in the title role, Ridley Scott was hired to direct later that same year. Rewrites delayed the film throughout 2008, with Brian Helgeland hired to rewrite the screenplay, which saw a refocus of the story to be about Robin Hood once again, abandoning the Nottingham angle entirely. Filming commenced in March 2009 throughout England and Wales.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: "Robin Hood" held its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival the same day as its United Kingdom and Ireland releases. It was then released on 14 May 2010 in North America. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $321.7 million worldwide.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: In 1199, Robin Longstride serves as a common archer in the army of King Richard the Lionheart. A veteran of Richard's crusade, he now takes part in the siege of Chalus Castle. Disillusioned and war-weary, he gives a frank but unflattering appraisal of the King's conduct when the King asks for it, and Robin and his comrades—archers Allan A'Dayle and Will Scarlett and soldier Little John—are locked in the stocks.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: After the King is killed during an attack on the castle, Robin and his comrades manage to free themselves and desert. They come across an ambush of the English royal guard by Godfrey, an English knight who has conspired with King Philip of France to assassinate King Richard. After chasing Godfrey away, Robin takes advantage of the situation impersonating the dead English knights to return to England. Before they depart to sail across the Channel, he promises a dying knight, Sir Robert Loxley, to return his sword to his father in Nottingham.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Awaking to find their ship arrived in the Thames estuary, Robin must continue to assume the identity of Loxley to inform the royal family of King Richard's death. He witnesses the coronation of King John, who orders the collection of harsh new taxes. William Marshal, the Lord Chancellor since the days of John's father, opposes the new taxes and is relieved of his position by John. The new king dispatches Godfrey to the North to collect the taxes—unaware that Godfrey will instead use French troops to stir up unrest and prepare for King Philip to invade England. In secret, spies working for Marshal follow Godfrey's men and learn of the planned invasion of England.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Robin and his companions head to Nottingham, where Loxley's elderly and blind father, Sir Walter, asks him to continue impersonating his son to prevent the Crown from seizing the Loxley family lands. Loxley's widow, Lady Marian, is initially cold toward Robin, but warms to him when he and his men recover grain for the townsfolk to plant.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Godfrey's actions incite the northern barons, who march to meet King John. Speaking now for Sir Walter, Robin proposes that King John agree to a charter of rights to ensure the rights of every Englishman and to unite his country. Realising Godfrey's deception, and knowing he must meet the French invasion with an army, the King agrees. Meanwhile, French marauders plunder Nottingham. Robin and the northern barons arrive to stop Godfrey's men, but not before Godfrey has slain the blind Sir Walter.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: As the main French expeditionary force begins its invasion of England on a beach below the cliffs of Dover, Robin leads the now united English army against them. In the midst of the battle, Robin duels with Godfrey, who attempts to kill Marian and flees until Robin finally kills him with an arrow from afar. King Philip realises that his plan to divide England has failed and calls off his invasion. When King John sees the French surrendering to Robin instead of to himself, he senses a threat to his power.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: In London, King John reneges on his promise to sign the charter and declares Robin an outlaw to be hunted throughout the kingdom. The Sheriff of Nottingham announces the decree, and Robin and his men flee to Sherwood Forest with the orphans of Nottingham. Marian narrates their new life in the greenwood, noting that they live in equality as they right the many wrongs in the kingdom of King John. "And so the legend begins."


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: In January 2007, Universal Studios and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment acquired a spec script written by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris, creators of the TV series "Sleeper Cell". Their script portrayed a more sympathetic Sheriff of Nottingham and less virtuous Robin Hood, who becomes involved in a love triangle with Lady Marian. The writers received a seven-figure deal for the purchase. The following April, Ridley Scott was hired to direct the film, with Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer also considered for the position. Scott had attempted to get rights for himself and 20th Century Fox, but had previously collaborated with Grazer on "American Gangster" and signed on as director rather than a producer. Scott claimed two previous film adaptations of Robin Hood: "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938) and "" (1991) had failed to hit the target, saying "the best, frankly, was Mel Brooks's "" (1993), because Cary Elwes was quite a comic".


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Scott's dissatisfaction with the script led him to delay filming, and during 2008 it was rewritten into a story about Robin Hood becoming an outlaw; at one point Crowe was even being considered for a dual role as both Robin and the Sheriff. Scott dropped the latter notion and "Nottingham" was retitled to reflect the more traditional angle. In June, screenwriter Brian Helgeland was hired to rewrite the script by Reiff and Voris. Producer Marc Shmuger explained Scott had a different interpretation of the story from "the script, [which] had the sheriff of Nottingham as a ""-style forensics investigator". Scott elaborated the script, portraying the Sheriff of Nottingham as being Richard the Lionheart's right-hand man, who returns to England to serve Prince John after Richard's assassination. Though Scott felt John "was actually pretty smart, he got a bad rap because he introduced taxation so he's the bad guy in this", and the Sheriff would have been torn between the "two wrongs" of a corrupt king and an outlaw inciting anarchy. Locations were sought in North East England including Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle and Kielder Forest. A portion of filming was intended to take place in Northumberland. As a result of the WGA strike, production was put on hold.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Filming was scheduled to begin in August in Sherwood Forest if the 2008 Screen Actors Guild strike did not take place, for release on 26 November 2009. By July, filming was delayed, and playwright Paul Webb was hired to rewrite the script. The film was moved to 2010. The Sheriff of Nottingham's character was then merged with Robin. Scott describes the identity of Robin, "In the context of the story he starts off as one thing, becomes the guise of another and then has to retire to the forest to resume his name Robin, so he was momentarily the Sheriff of Nottingham." Helgeland returned to rewrite, adding an opening where Robin witnesses the Sheriff dying in battle, and takes over his identity. Scott chose to begin filming in February 2009 in forests around London, having discovered many trees which had not been pollarded. By February 2009, Scott revealed "Nottingham" had become his version of "Robin Hood", as he had become dissatisfied with the idea of Robin starting as the Sheriff.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Russell Crowe was cast into the role of Robin Hood in January 2007, with a fee of $20 million against 20% of the gross. The next addition to the cast was Mark Strong. When interviewed about his role, Strong stated his character of Sir Godfrey was originally called Conrad and was based on Guy of Gisbourne. He described the original character as having blond hair and being disfigured from being struck by a crossbow bolt.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: In February 2009, Cate Blanchett was cast to play Maid Marion, replacing Sienna Miller who was previously cast, but exited in late 2008 as due to rewrites in the script, she was now considered too young for the role. Rachel Weisz and Kate Winslet were considered for the role prior to Blanchett signing on. Prior to the start of filming in March, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes and Alan Doyle were cast to portray Little John, Will Scarlet and Allan A'Dayle, respectively, with Vanessa Redgrave as Eleanor of Aquitane, Oscar Isaac as Prince John and Léa Seydoux as Isabella of Angoulême. Redgrave withdrew from the film following the death of her daughter Natasha Richardson, replaced with Eileen Atkins. The castings of William Hurt and Matthew Macfadyen were announced in April, with Macfadyen portraying the Sheriff. Danny Huston joined in July as King Richard, a role Rhys Ifans was initially in line for.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Filming began on 30 March 2009. In June and July, the crew filmed at Freshwater West beach, in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The arrival of the dead king's cog (boat), accompanied by Robin and his men, at the Tower of London was filmed at Virginia Water, where a partial mock-up of the Tower was built. Extensive scenes from the film were filmed on the Ashridge Estate, Little Gaddesden, on the Hertfordshire/Buckinghamshire border. Filming of the siege of Castle Chalus took place at the Bourne Wood at Farnham, Surrey during July and August. Filming also took place at Dovedale near Ashbourne, Derbyshire. On July 31, thieves broke into the props building at night and stole cameras that were being used for the film.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: The battering ram used during the filming at the Bourne Wood in Surrey, which was nicknamed 'Rosie' by the film crew and is worth £60,000, was donated by Russell Crowe to a Scottish charity, the Clanranald Trust to be used for battle re-enactments at a fort named Duncarron, built in a forest near the Carron Valley Reservoir in North Lanarkshire.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: One of the horses used in the film was named George, and was ridden by Crowe. This was the same horse that Crowe rode during the filming of "Gladiator".


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: The soundtrack to "Robin Hood", with music written and performed by Marc Streitenfeld, was released on 11 May 2010.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: "Robin Hood" held its world premiere at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival the same day as its United Kingdom and Ireland releases. It was then released on 14 May 2010 in North America. The film premiered in Japan on 10 December 2010.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: "Robin Hood" was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 20 September 2010 in the UK, and the following day in the US. While the UK home media releases only consisted of the extended 'Director's Cut' version (15 additional minutes), the US DVD and Blu-ray Discs consisted of both the 'Director's Cut' version and the shorter theatrical version.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: On its opening week, the film took £5,750,332 in the UK, ahead of "Iron Man 2" and $36,063,385 in the US and Canada, and grossed a total of £15,381,416 in the UK, $104,516,000 in North America and $321,669,741 worldwide.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: The box-office figures were seen as somewhat of a disappointment, even though films set in medieval times tend to fare poorly and "Robin Hood" actually ranks among the highest grossing fantasy films of all time.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 43% based on 251 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ridley Scott's revisionist take on this oft-told tale offers some fine acting and a few gripping action sequences, but it's missing the thrill of adventure that made Robin Hood a legend in the first place." Metacritic, assigned the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film two stars out of four, writing that "little by little, title by title, innocence and joy is being drained out of the movies." Joe Neumaier of the "New York Daily News" felt that "the problem with Russell Crowe's new take on the legend is that it has one muddy boot in history and the other in fantasy. The middling result is far from a bull's-eye." David Roark of "Relevant" accused Scott of replacing depth with detail and manipulative themes, like vengeance and unjust war, and stated that Scott had sucked the life out of a cherished fable, writing that "Scott has turned a myth, a concept essentially, into a history which emerges as dry, insensible clutter." Anthony Lane, writing for "The New Yorker", found the film "dour and dun", and was critical of Crowe's performance, stating "His Robin, however, seems pathologically glum; even when leading a cavalry charge on a white steed, he cuts a lonesome figure, marooned in his own feuds and ruminations". Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" was critical of the film not holding any traits of the Robin Hood myth, and said of Scott's direction and Crowe's performance "Scott and Crowe made a great movie out of "Gladiator", tapping deep into the showbiz masculine bravura of ancient-world Hollywood spectaculars. In Robin Hood, Scott tries to go deep again, but in a misguided way—he thinks he's making a pop-medieval "Saving Private Robin". The battles are grainy and "existential," but what they aren't is thrilling. They're surging crowd scenes with streams of arrows and flecks of blood, and Crowe, slashing his way through them, is a glorified extra. He's so grimly possessed with purpose that he's a bore, and so is the movie."


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Among the film's more positive reviews, Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote that "Scott has great command of his action sequences" and praised his "sophisticated approach to the material." Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" called the film "smart, muscular entertainment" and wrote that Crowe "possesses a presence and authority to make you forget all about ." Lou Lumenick of the "New York Post" called "Robin Hood" "head and shoulders above the sort of lightheaded epics Hollywood typically offers during the summer season." Though he noted that the film downplayed several characters, Kirk Honeycutt of "The Hollywood Reporter" was complimentary of the film, praising John Mathieson's cinematography and Marc Streitenfeld's musical score.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Russell Crowe received criticism from the British media for his variable accent during the film. "Empire" said his accent was occasionally Scottish, while "Total Film" thought there were also times when it sounded Irish. Mark Lawson, while interviewing Crowe on BBC Radio 4, suggested there were hints of Irish in his accent, which angered Crowe who described this as "bollocks" and stormed out.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: A number of reviewers have criticised historical inaccuracies in the film. In "The New York Times", A. O. Scott complained that the film made "a hash of the historical record". In "The Guardian", Alex von Tunzelmann complained that the film was filled with historical impossibilities and anachronisms. She notes that Richard the Lionheart was indeed fighting in France in 1199, but that he had actually come back from the Holy Land seven years earlier, so it is inaccurate to depict him fighting in France on his way back from the Holy Land in 1199, as is the case in the film.


title: Robin Hood (2010 film)

text: Scott indicated he had been considering further films, in an interview with "The Times" on 4 April 2010, stating, "Honestly, I thought why not have the potential for a sequel?" and "Let's say we might presume there's a sequel." At the world premiere in Cannes, Crowe declared he was willing "if I had the opportunity to address what happens next with Ridley and Cate, then great, let's do it."


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Ainsley Earhardt (born September 20, 1976) is an American conservative television news journalist and author. She is a co-host of "Fox & Friends."


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Earhardt as a young child moved with her family to the Foxcroft area of Charlotte, North Carolina. Earhardt's family moved to the Columbia, South Carolina, area when she was still in elementary school, and she graduated from Spring Valley High School in 1995.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: After high school, Earhardt attended Florida State University before transferring to the University of South Carolina, where she graduated with a B.A. in journalism.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Earhardt was hired as a reporter for WLTX, the local CBS station in Columbia, South Carolina, before she graduated from University of South Carolina. From 2000 to 2004 she worked as the morning and noon anchor. She traveled to New York City after the September 11 attacks to cover South Carolina middle school students' raising nearly half a million dollars for firefighters to buy a new fire truck to replace one lost at the World Trade Center site.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: In 2005, Earhardt moved to San Antonio, Texas, and anchored weekday morning and noon newscasts at KENS"-TV". While living in Texas, she completed the Austin, Texas half-marathon, went skydiving with the U.S. Army's Golden Knights and, at the Air Force Academy, flew in an F-16 with the United States Air Force Thunderbirds.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Earhardt has written three children's books ("Take Heart, My Child","Through Your Eyes", and "I'm So Glad You Were Born") and a memoir, "The Light Within Me".


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Earhardt moved to New York City and began working at Fox News Channel in 2007. Earhardt has stated that she "did not know the first thing about politics" before she was hired by Roger Ailes to work at the network. She appeared on "Hannity" with her own segment called "Ainsley Across America", and has co-hosted "Fox and Friends Weekend", "All-American New Year's Eve", "America's News Headquarters". She has appeared as a panelist on "The Live Desk" and Greg Gutfeld's "Red Eye".


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Earhardt became a co-host of "Fox & Friends" in 2016. President Donald Trump tweeted about the show more than 100 times in the first eight months of his presidency. Earhardt has interviewed both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. During a 2018 interview, she praised Trump for threatening former FBI Director James Comey with alleged audio recordings, stating it "was a smart way to make sure he stayed honest" in congressional hearings. Shortly prior to the interview, Trump had withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement; Earhardt asked him, Why did President [Barack] Obama . . . why did his administration think this agreement was okay for America?" In a later interview with Pence, she described the Paris Climate Agreement as "unfair" to the United States.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Earhardt defended Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey, saying "he gets to decide who works for him. Someone who works for him who is not supportive of him, he gets rid of them." Amid the Trump administration's negotiations with Kim Jong-Un, "Fox & Friends" ran North Korean images of Kim Jong-Un touring industry in his country; Earhardt described the images as "very romantic". In 2017, she falsely claimed that "5.7 million . . . illegal immigrants might have voted" in the 2008 election.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: In August 2018, Earhardt stated incorrectly on "Fox & Friends" that the U.S. defeat of "communist Japan" was an event that had made "America great". When the U.S. defeated Japan in World War II, Japan was actually an imperial fascist regime and an Axis nation. Her co-host, Steve Doocy, tried to mask her blunder, but it soon went viral.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: In May 2019, after "The New York Times" documented Trump's "deep financial distress" between 1985 and 1994 that included losing more money than almost any other American taxpayer, Earhardt praised Trump. She said, "It's pretty impressive, all the things that he's done in his life. It's beyond what most of us could ever achieve." Earhardt criticized "the liberal media", saying that Republicans will not run for office anymore "because they know the liberal media is going to take them down." In October 2018, after "The New York Times" documented how Trump obtained nearly half a billion dollars from his father, Fred Trump Sr., through "dubious tax schemes" and possible tax fraud, Earhardt accused the "Times" of "bashing" Trump's father.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: According to "Business Insider", "few subjects animate [Earhardt] more than stories about alleged attacks on Christianity." When a Missouri sheriff's department was criticized for putting "In God We Trust" decals on their squad cars, Earhardt defended the sheriff's department, asking "What about the majority? I'm so tired of protecting the rights of the minority. What about the rest of the country?"


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: After Trump ordered the assassination of a top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general, Qasem Soleimani, citing intelligence he said necessitated it, Earhardt defended the administration against requests that the administration show the intelligence. She said, "I find it interesting that people are critical of the president's decisions, of our intelligence community's decisions, or general's decisions... Everything can't be made public." She paraphrased Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, "you just have to trust us." Previously, Earhardt had shown considerable distrust of the intelligence community during Trump's presidency; she had also advanced "deep state" conspiracy theories.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Earhardt encouraged readers to travel by plane, saying "it's actually the safest time to fly." Her comments contradicted guidance from the Center for Disease Control. She criticized Democrats and "the media", saying that they were making the pandemic "political".


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: In December 2021, Earhardt, a devout Christian, raised eyebrows when, following the arson of the Fox Christmas tree outside its New York headquarters, she stated on air: "It's a tree that unites us, that brings us together. It is about the Christmas spirit, it is about the holiday season, it is about Jesus, it is about Hanukkah." Her incorrect characterization of the Christmas tree as a symbol of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah drew ridicule on social media and corrections in the news media.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: Earhardt's first marriage to Kevin McKinney in April 2005 ended in divorce in 2009. In October 2012, Earhardt married former Clemson University quarterback Will Proctor. They have one child. Proctor filed for divorce in October 2018 after Earhardt announced their separation amid allegations that he had been unfaithful. They divorced in 2019.


title: Ainsley Earhardt

text: According to "Vanity Fair", in August 2019, Earhardt began a relationship with fellow Fox News personality Sean Hannity after the two arrived together as guests for a wedding at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey. "Vanity Fair" asserts that during the COVID-19 pandemic, she had been hosting her "Fox & Friends" program from a remote studio in the basement of Hannity's Long Island mansion. Earhardt denies any relationship.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, "Ovis aries". A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Generally, "hogget" and "sheep meat" are not used by consumers outside Norway, New Zealand, South Africa, Scotland and Australia. Hogget has become more common in England, particularly in the North (Lancashire and Yorkshire) often in association with rare breed and organic farming.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: In South Asian and Caribbean cuisine, "mutton" often means goat meat. At various times and places, "mutton" or "goat mutton" has occasionally been used to mean goat meat.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Lamb is the most expensive of the three types and in recent decades sheep meat is increasingly only retailed as "lamb", sometimes stretching the accepted distinctions given above. The stronger-tasting mutton is now hard to find in many areas, despite the efforts of the Mutton Renaissance Campaign in the UK. In Australia, the term prime lamb is often used to refer to lambs raised for meat. Other languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic, make similar or even more detailed distinctions among sheep meats by age and sometimes by sex and diet—for example, "lechazo" in Spanish refers to meat from milk-fed (unweaned) lambs.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: The definitions for lamb, hogget and mutton vary considerably between countries. Younger lambs are smaller and more tender. Mutton is meat from a sheep over two years old, and has less tender flesh. In general, the darker the colour, the older the animal.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: In the early 1900s, mutton was widely consumed in the United States, but mutton consumption has declined since World War II. , most sheep meat in the United States comes from animals in between 12 and 14 months old, and is called "lamb"; the term "hogget" is not used. Federal statutes and regulations dealing with food labeling in the United States permit all sheep products to be marketed as "lamb." USDA grades for lamb are only partly a function of the animal's age. Animals up to 20 months old may meet the quality of the "USDA prime" grade depending on other factors, while "USDA choice" lamb can be of any age.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: The term "mutton" is applied to goat meat in most countries on the Indian subcontinent, and the goat population has been rising. For example, mutton curry is always made from goat meat. It is estimated that over a third of the goat population is slaughtered every year and sold as mutton. The domestic sheep population in India and the Indian subcontinent has been in decline for over 40 years and has survived at marginal levels in mountainous regions, based on wild-sheep breeds, and mainly for wool production.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: The meat of a lamb is taken from the animal between one month and one year old, with a carcass weight of between . This meat generally is more tender than that from older sheep and appears more often on tables in some Western countries. Hogget and mutton have a stronger flavour than lamb because they contain a higher concentration of species-characteristic fatty acids and are preferred by some. Mutton and hogget also tend to be tougher than lamb (because of connective tissue maturation) and are therefore better suited to casserole-style cooking, as in Lancashire hotpot, for example.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Lamb is often sorted into three kinds of meat: forequarter, loin, and hindquarter. The forequarter includes the neck, shoulder, front legs, and the ribs up to the shoulder blade. The hindquarter includes the rear legs and hip. The loin includes the ribs between the two.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Lamb chops are cut from the rib, loin, and shoulder areas. The rib chops include a rib bone; the loin chops include only a chine bone. Shoulder chops are usually considered inferior to loin chops; both kinds of chops are usually grilled. Breast of lamb (baby chops) can be cooked in an oven.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Leg of lamb is a whole leg; saddle of lamb is the two loins with the hip. Leg and saddle are usually roasted, though the leg is sometimes boiled.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Forequarter meat of sheep, as of other mammals, includes more connective tissue than some other cuts, and, if not from a young lamb, is best cooked slowly using either a moist method, such as braising or stewing, or by slow roasting or American barbecuing. It is, in some countries, sold already chopped or diced.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Mutton barbeque is a tradition in Western Kentucky. The area was strong in the wool trade, which gave them plenty of older sheep that needed to be put to use.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: According to the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook for 2016, the top consumers of sheep meat in 2015 were as follows: EU countries are not individually surveyed in this list. Among EU nations, Greece is the per capita leader in consumption at 12.3 kg, while the UK's annual per capita lamb consumption is 4.7 kg. Outside of the OECD, the largest per capita consumer overall is Mongolia, with 45.1 kg.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: The table below gives a sample of producing nations, but many other significant producers in the 50–120 KT range are not given.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Meat from sheep features prominently in the cuisines of several Mediterranean cultures including Greece, Croatia, Turkey, North Africa, Jordan, and the Middle East, as well as in the cuisines of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Greece, for example, it is an integral component of many meals and of religious feasts such as Easter, like "avgolemono" and "magiritsa". It is also popular in the Basque culture, both in the Basque country of Europe and in the shepherding areas of the Western United States. In the United States, the Navajo have incorporated mutton and lamb into their traditional cuisine since the introduction of sheep by Spanish explorers and settlers in the 17th century, replacing wild turkey and venison and creating a pastoral culture. In Northern Europe, mutton and lamb feature in many traditional dishes, including those of Iceland, Norway and of the United Kingdom, particularly in the western and northern uplands, Scotland and Wales. Mutton used to be an important part of Hungarian cuisine due to strong pastoral traditions but began to be increasingly looked down on with the spread of urbanisation.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Mutton is also popular in Australia. Lamb and mutton are very popular in Central Asia and in certain parts of China, where other red meats may be eschewed for religious or economic reasons. Barbecued mutton is also a specialty in some areas of the United States (chiefly Owensboro, Kentucky) and Canada. However, meat from sheep is generally consumed far less in the US than in many European, Central American and Asian cuisines; for example, average per-capita consumption of lamb in the United States is only per year.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: In Australia, the leg of lamb roast is considered to be the national dish. Commonly served on a Sunday or any other special occasion, it can be done in a kettle BBQ or a conventional oven. Typical preparation involves covering the leg of lamb with butter, pushing rosemary sprigs into incisions cut in the leg, and sprinkling rosemary leaves on top. The lamb is then roasted for two hours at and typically served with carrots and potato (also roasted), green vegetables and gravy.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: In Indonesia, lamb is popularly served as lamb satay and lamb curry. Both dishes are cooked with various spices from the islands, and served with either rice or lontong. A version of lamb and bamboo shoot curry is the specialty of Minang cuisine, although similar dishes can be found in Thai cuisine.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: In Mexico, lamb is the meat of choice for "barbacoa", in which the lamb is roasted or steamed wrapped in maguey leaves underground.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: In Japan, although lamb is not traditionally consumed in most of the country, on the northern island of Hokkaido and in the northeastern Tohoku regions, a hot-pot dish called jingisukan (i.e. "Genghis Khan") is popular. In that dish, thin-sliced lamb is cooked over a convex skillet alongside various vegetables and mushrooms in front of the diners, then dipped in soy-sauce-based dipping sauces and eaten. It was so named because lamb is popular in Mongolia (see "Sheep meat consumption" above).


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Lamb's liver, known as lamb's fry in New Zealand and Australia, is eaten in many countries. It is the most common form of offal eaten in the UK, traditionally used in the family favourite (and pub grub staple) of liver with onions, potentially also with bacon and mashed potatoes. It is a major ingredient, along with the lungs and heart (the pluck), in the traditional Scottish dish of haggis.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Lamb kidneys are found in many cuisines across Europe and the Middle East, often split into two halves and grilled (on kebabs in the Middle East), or sautéed in a sauce. They are generally the most highly regarded of all kidneys.


title: Lamb and mutton

text: Production of lamb emits more greenhouse gas per gram of protein than other common foods, except for beef.


title: North by Northwest

text: North by Northwest is a 1959 American spy thriller film, produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason. The screenplay was by Ernest Lehman, who wanted to write "the Hitchcock picture to end all Hitchcock pictures".


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the United States by agents of a mysterious organization trying to prevent him from blocking their plan to smuggle microfilm, which contains government secrets, out of the country. This is one of several Hitchcock films that feature a music score by Bernard Herrmann and an opening title sequence by graphic designer Saul Bass, and was the first to feature extended use of kinetic typography in its opening credits.


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" is listed among the canonical Hitchcock films of the 1950s and is often listed among the greatest films of all time. It was selected in 1995 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". After its first screening, reviewers for "The New Yorker" and "The New York Times" immediately hailed it as a masterpiece of comedic, sophisticated self-parody.


title: North by Northwest

text: In 1958, in a New York City hotel bar, a waiter pages "George Kaplan" after a pair of thugs presumably request him to do so. As advertising executive Roger Thornhill summons the same waiter, he is mistaken for Kaplan, kidnapped by the thugs, and brought to the estate of Lester Townsend. He is interrogated by spy Phillip Vandamm, a Cold War enemy of the United States, who poses as Townsend to Thornhill. Vandamm arranges Thornhill's death in a staged drunk-driving accident. Thornhill survives, but fails to convince his mother and the police of what happened, even after revisiting Townsend's estate. During the visit, Thornhill learns Townsend is a United Nations diplomat.


title: North by Northwest

text: Thornhill and his mother go to Kaplan's empty hotel room. After Thornhill answers Kaplan's phone, the thugs, who had called the number from the lobby, begin their pursuit. Thornhill heads to the U.N. General Assembly Building to meet Townsend, who is a different man from Vandamm. One of the pursuing thugs throws a knife, killing Townsend, who collapses in Thornhill's arms. Thornhill is photographed as he grabs the knife, giving the appearance that he is the murderer; he then flees, attempting to find the real Kaplan. An unnamed government intelligence agency realizes that Thornhill has been mistaken for Kaplan, but decides against rescuing him for fear of compromising their operation: Kaplan is a non-existent agent they created to confuse and distract Vandamm.


title: North by Northwest

text: Thornhill boards the "20th Century Limited" train to Chicago, where he meets Eve Kendall, who hides him from the police. The two establish a relationship—on Kendall's part because she is secretly working with Vandamm–and she tells Thornhill that she has arranged a meeting with Kaplan at an isolated rural bus stop. Thornhill waits there but is attacked by a crop duster plane. After trying to hide in a cornfield, he steps in front of a speeding tank truck; it brakes, and the airplane crashes into it, allowing him to escape.


title: North by Northwest

text: Thornhill reaches Kaplan's hotel in Chicago and learns that Kaplan had checked out before the time when Kendall claimed she talked to him. Thornhill goes to her room and confronts her, but she leaves. He tracks her to an art auction, where he finds Vandamm purchasing a Mexican Purépecha statue. Vandamm leaves his thugs to deal with Thornhill; in order to escape, Thornhill disrupts the auction until police are called to remove him. He says he is the fugitive murderer, but they release him to the government agency's chief, "The Professor", who reveals that Kaplan was invented to distract Vandamm from the real government agent: Eve Kendall. Thornhill agrees to help maintain her cover.


title: North by Northwest

text: At the Mount Rushmore visitor center, Thornhill—now willingly playing the role of Kaplan—negotiates Vandamm's turnover of Kendall to be arrested. Kendall then shoots Thornhill, seemingly fatally, and flees; it turns out her gun was loaded with blanks. Afterward, the Professor arranges for Thornhill and Kendall to meet. Thornhill learns Kendall must depart on a plane with Vandamm and his henchman Leonard. He tries to dissuade her from going but is knocked unconscious and locked in a hospital room. Thornhill escapes the Professor's custody and goes to Vandamm's house to rescue Kendall.


title: North by Northwest

text: At the house, Thornhill overhears that the sculpture holds microfilm and that Leonard has discovered the blanks remaining in Kendall's gun. Vandamm indicates that he will kill Kendall by throwing her from the plane. Thornhill manages to warn her with a surreptitious note. Vandamm, Leonard, and Kendall head for the plane. As Vandamm boards, Kendall takes the sculpture and runs to the pursuing Thornhill. They flee to the top of Mount Rushmore. As they climb down the mountain they are pursued by Vandamm's thugs, including Leonard, who is fatally shot by a park ranger. Vandamm is taken into custody by the Professor.


title: North by Northwest

text: Meanwhile, Kendall is hanging on to the mountain by her fingertips. Thornhill reaches down to pull her up, at which point the scene cuts to him pulling her—now the new Mrs. Thornhill—into an upper berth on a train, which enters a tunnel.


title: North by Northwest

text: Hitchcock's cameo appearances are a signature occurrence in most of his films. In "North by Northwest", he is seen getting a bus door slammed in his face, just as his credit is appearing on the screen. There has been some speculation as to whether he made one of his rare "second" appearances, this time at around the 45-minute mark in drag as a woman in a turquoise dress on the train, but in fact, the woman was played by Jesslyn Fax, who went on to appear in many episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". She had previously appeared in "Rear Window".


title: North by Northwest

text: Hitchcock often told journalists of an idea that he had about Cary Grant hiding from the villains inside Abraham Lincoln's nose and being given away when he sneezes. He speculated that the film could be called "The Man in Lincoln's Nose" (Lehman's version is that it was "The Man on Lincoln's Nose") or even "The Man Who Sneezed in Lincoln's Nose". Hitchcock sat on the idea, waiting for the right screenwriter to develop it. The original traveling salesman character had been suited to James Stewart, but Lehman changed it to a Madison Avenue advertising executive, a position that he had formerly held.


title: North by Northwest

text: John Russell Taylor's 1978 biography "Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock" suggests that the story originated after a spell of writer's block during the scripting of another film project:


title: North by Northwest

text: Lehman repeated this story in the documentary "" that accompanied the 2001 DVD release of the film. Screenwriter William Goldman insists in "Which Lie Did I Tell?" (2000) that it was Lehman who created "North by Northwest" and that many of Hitchcock's ideas were not used. Hitchcock had the idea of the hero being stranded in the middle of nowhere but suggested that the villains try to kill him with a tornado. "But "they're" trying to kill him. How are "they" going to work up a cyclone?" Lehman responded. "I just can't tell you who said what to whom, but somewhere during that afternoon, the cyclone in the sky became the crop-duster plane."


title: North by Northwest

text: In fact, Hitchcock had been working on the story for nearly nine years prior to meeting Lehman. Otis Guernsey was the American journalist who had the idea which influenced Hitchcock, inspired by a true story during World War II when British Intelligence obtained a dead body, invented a fictitious officer who was carrying secret papers, and arranged for the body and misleading papers to be discovered by the Germans as a disinformation scheme called Operation Mincemeat. Guernsey turned his idea into a story about an American salesman who travels to the Middle East and is mistaken for a fictitious agent, becoming "saddled with a romantic and dangerous identity". Guernsey admitted that his treatment was full of "corn" and "lacking logic", and he urged Hitchcock to do what he liked with the story. Hitchcock bought the 60 pages for $10,000. In an interview in the book "Screenwriters on Screenwriting" (1995), Lehman stated that he had already written much of the screenplay before coming up with critical elements of the climax. An example of the "corn" in the finished screenplay was the scene wherein Roger Thornhill returns to the Townsend estate with the detectives to find everything changed. If Thornhill was indeed a spy, he would have had no reason to return to the estate after his escape the previous night, nor would the criminals be expecting him to return as they obviously did.


title: North by Northwest

text: This was the only Hitchcock film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Since 1986, it has been owned by Turner Entertainment, as part of the pre-1986 MGM film library that it acquired through temporary ownership of MGM.


title: North by Northwest

text: Production costs on "North by Northwest" were seriously escalated when a delay in filming put Cary Grant into the penalty phase of his contract, resulting in an additional $5,000 per day in fees for him before shooting even began.


title: North by Northwest

text: Eva Marie Saint's agent had told her that she had received an invitation to a dinner with Alfred Hitchcock and his family, the first time she and Hitchcock met. Days after the dinner, Saint's mother called her and reminded her that Hitchcock loved casting women wearing beige clothing and white gloves. Following her mother's advice, she met with Hitchcock again, wearing white gloves and beige clothing. She credited this for helping her successfully win the role. MGM wanted Cyd Charisse for the role of Eve Kendall. Hitchcock stood by his choice of Saint.


title: North by Northwest

text: Hitchcock attended the "Middle of the Night" play in order to watch a performance by Edward G. Robinson. After being impressed by the performance of Martin Landau, Hitchcock asked to meet him at MGM. Landau arrived and Hitchcock showed him the entirety of the project, including the storyboards. He reported that Hitchcock turned and told him, "You're now Leonard."


title: North by Northwest

text: At Hitchcock's insistence, the film was made in Paramount's VistaVision widescreen process; only two VistaVision films were made at MGM, the other being "High Society".


title: North by Northwest

text: The aircraft flying in the aerial chase scene is a Naval Aircraft Factory N3N Canary, better known as the "Yellow Peril," a World War II Navy primary trainer sometimes converted for crop-dusting. The aircraft that hits the truck and explodes is a wartime Boeing-Stearman Model 75 trainer, and many of these were also used for agricultural purposes until the 1970s. The plane was piloted by Bob Coe, a crop-duster from Wasco, California. Hitchcock placed replicas of square Indiana highway signs in the scene. In 2000, The Guardian ranked the crop-duster scene at No. 29 on their list of "The top 100 film moments". The British film magazine "Empire" ranked it as the "greatest movie moment" of all time in its August 2009 issue.


title: North by Northwest

text: A panel of fashion experts convened by "GQ" in 2006 said the gray suit worn by Cary Grant throughout almost the entire film was the best suit in film history, and the most influential on men's style, stating that it has since been copied for Tom Cruise's character in "Collateral" and Ben Affleck's character in "Paycheck". This sentiment has been echoed by writer Todd McEwen, who called it "gorgeous" and wrote a short story, "Cary Grant's Suit", that recounts the film's plot from the viewpoint of the suit. There is some disagreement as to who tailored the suit; according to "Vanity Fair" magazine, it was Norton & Sons of London, although according to "The Independent", it was Quintino of Beverly Hills.


title: North by Northwest

text: According to another article, Grant used his Savile Row tailor, Kilgour French and Stanbury for the suit. There is a label reading “Quintino” on one of the suits in the film, but this is because Quintino made duplicate suits for scenes involving more activity or stunts.


title: North by Northwest

text: Eva Marie Saint's wardrobe for the film was originally entirely chosen by MGM. Hitchcock disliked MGM's selections, and the actress and director went to Bergdorf Goodman in New York to select what she would wear.


title: North by Northwest

text: In François Truffaut's book-length interview, "Hitchcock/Truffaut" (1967), Hitchcock said that MGM wanted "North by Northwest" cut by 15 minutes so the film's length would run under two hours. Hitchcock had his agent check his contract, learned that he had absolute control over the final cut, and refused.


title: North by Northwest

text: One of Eva Marie Saint's lines in the dining-car seduction scene was redubbed. She originally said, "I never make love on an empty stomach", but it was changed in post-production to "I never discuss love on an empty stomach", as the censors considered the original version too risqué.


title: North by Northwest

text: The film opened on July 1, 1959, at the United Artists Theatre in Chicago. It had a seven-week run at Radio City Music Hall in August and September 1959. One trailer for "North by Northwest" features Hitchcock presenting himself as the owner of Alfred Hitchcock Travel Agency and telling the viewer he has made a motion picture to advertise these wonderful vacation stops.


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" was released on the Blu-ray Disc format in the United States on November 3, 2009, by Warner Bros. with a 1080p VC-1 encoding. This release is a special 50th-anniversary edition, restored and remastered from original VistaVision elements. A DVD edition was also released.


title: North by Northwest

text: In its opening in Chicago, it grossed $46,000 in its first week and $35,000 the second week. The film grossed $209,000 in its opening week at Radio City Music Hall, setting a record opening week at the theater, as well as its record non-holiday week gross, and went on to gross a record $404,056 in two weeks. Its opening at the Music Hall saw it become the number one film at the US box office, where it remained for its seven weeks at the Music Hall. By the end of August, it had grossed $2,568,000 from 139 engagements.


title: North by Northwest

text: According to MGM records, the film earned theatrical rentals of $5,740,000 in the United States and Canada and $4.1 million elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $837,000.


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" holds a "Certified Fresh" 97% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 9.3/10. The site states the critical consensus as, "Gripping, suspenseful and visually iconic, this late-period Hitchcock classic laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow." On Metacritic, it has a score of 98 out of 100, based on reviews from 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". In 1998, "Time Out" conducted a poll, and "North by Northwest" was voted the 12th-greatest film of all time. "The Village Voice" ranked "North by Northwest" at No. 49 in its "Top 250 Best Films of the Century" list in 1999, based on a poll of critics. "Entertainment Weekly" voted it the 44th-greatest film of all time in 1999. The film ranks at No. 98 in "Empire" magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time. The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay No. 21 on its list of 101 Greatest Screenplays ever written. It is ranked the 40th-greatest American film by the American Film Institute. The film was voted at No. 28 on the list of "100 Greatest Films" by the prominent French magazine "Cahiers du cinéma" in 2008. In the British Film Institute's 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls of the greatest films ever made, "North by Northwest" was ranked 53rd among critics. In 2010, "The Guardian" ranked it as the second-best action and war film of all time. "North by Northwest" was ranked 13th in BBC's 2015 list of the 100 greatest American films. In 2022, "Time Out" magazine named "North by Northwest" the greatest thriller film ever made.


title: North by Northwest

text: "Time" magazine called the film "smoothly troweled and thoroughly entertaining". A. H. Weiler of "The New York Times" made it a "Critic's Pick" and said it was the "year's most scenic, intriguing and merriest chase"; he also complimented the two leads:


title: North by Northwest

text: Film critic Charles Champlin saw the film as an "anthology of typical Hitchcockian situations" and was particularly taken by the scene and suspense in which Grant's character avoids death when attacked by a crop-dusting plane in the cornfields, which he believed was representative of Hitchcock's finest work. "Sight & Sound" critic Penelope Houston called it "the purest piece of entertainment filmmaking".


title: North by Northwest

text: The London edition of "Time Out" magazine, reviewing the film nearly a half-century after its initial release, commented:


title: North by Northwest

text: Author and journalist Nick Clooney praised Lehman's original story and sophisticated dialogue, calling the film "certainly Alfred Hitchcock's most stylish thriller, if not his best".


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" was nominated for three Academy Awards—Best Film Editing (George Tomasini), Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Color (William A. Horning, Robert F. Boyle, Merrill Pye, Henry Grace and Frank R. McKelvy), and Best Original Screenplay (Ernest Lehman)—at the 32nd Academy Awards ceremony. Two of the three awards went instead to "Ben-Hur", and the other went to "Pillow Talk". The film—and Lehman specifically—also won a 1960 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Hitchcock received his second Silver Shell for Best Director award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. (He was also awarded the Silver Shell the year before for "Vertigo".)


title: North by Northwest

text: In 1995, "North by Northwest" was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "10 Top 10"—the best 10 films in 10 "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. "North by Northwest" was acknowledged as the seventh-best film in the mystery genre. It was also listed as No. 40 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, No. 4 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills, and No. 55 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).


title: North by Northwest

text: Hitchcock planned the film as a change of pace after his dark romantic thriller "Vertigo" a year earlier. In his book-length interview "Hitchcock/Truffaut" (1967) with François Truffaut, Hitchcock said that he wanted to do "something fun, light-hearted, and generally free of the symbolism permeating his other movies." Writer Ernest Lehman has also mocked those who look for symbolism in the film. Despite its popular appeal, the film is considered to be a masterpiece for its themes of deception, mistaken identity, and moral relativism in the Cold War era.


title: North by Northwest

text: The title "North by Northwest" is a subject of debate. Many have seen it as having been taken from a line ("I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw") in "Hamlet", a work also concerned with the shifty nature of reality. Hitchcock noted, in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich in 1963: "It's a fantasy. The whole film is epitomized in the title—there is no such thing as north-by-northwest on the compass." ("Northwest by north", however, is one of 32 points of the compass.) Lehman states that he used a working title for the film of "In a Northwesterly Direction" because the film's action was to begin in New York and climax in Alaska. Then the head of the story department at MGM suggested "North by Northwest", but this was still to be a working title. Other titles were considered, including "The Man on Lincoln's Nose", but "North by Northwest" was kept because, according to Lehman, "We never did find a [better] title." The Northwest Airlines reference in the film plays on the title.


title: North by Northwest

text: The film's plot involves a "MacGuffin"—a term popularized by Hitchcock—which is a physical object that everyone in the film is chasing, but which has no deep relationship to the plot. Late in "North by Northwest", it emerges that the spies are attempting to smuggle microfilm containing government secrets out of the country. They have been trying to kill Thornhill, whom they believe to be the agent on their trail, "George Kaplan".


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" has been referred to as "the first James Bond film" because of its splashily colorful settings, secret agents, and an elegant, daring, wisecracking leading man opposite a sinister yet strangely charming villain. The crop-duster scene inspired the helicopter chase in "From Russia with Love".


title: North by Northwest

text: The film's final shot—that of the train speeding into a tunnel during a romantic embrace onboard—is a famous bit of self-conscious Freudian symbolism reflecting Hitchcock's mischievous sense of humor. In the book "Hitchcock/Truffaut" (p. 107–108), Hitchcock called it a "phallic symbol ... probably one of the most impudent shots I ever made".


title: North by Northwest

text: The film was very influential on the James Bond movies and subsequent action-thriller films. The film's title is reported to have been the influence for the name of the popular annual live-music festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, started in 1987, with the name idea coming from Louis Black, editor and co-founder of the local alternative weekly "The Austin Chronicle", as a play on the Hitchcock film title.


title: North by Northwest

text: The third episode of the "Doctor Who" serial "The Deadly Assassin" (1976) includes an homage to "North by Northwest", when the Doctor, who like Hitchcock's hero is falsely accused of a politically motivated murder, is attacked by gunfire from a biplane piloted by one of his enemy's henchmen.


title: North by Northwest

text: The 2010 Spanish dark comedy film "The Last Circus" pays visual homage to the Mount Rushmore scene in its climactic scene atop a controversial Francoist monument.


title: North by Northwest

text: "North by Northwest" was adapted as a stage play by Carolyn Burns. The adaptation premiered at the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2015.


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime Emmys are presented in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming. The award categories are divided into three classes: the regular Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards to honor technical and other similar behind-the-scenes achievements, and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for recognizing significant contributions to the engineering and technological aspects of television. First given out in 1949, the award was originally referred to as simply the "Emmy Award" until the International Emmy Award and the Daytime Emmy Award were created in the early 1970s to expand the Emmy to other sectors of the television industry.


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: The Primetime Emmy Awards generally air every September, on the Sunday before the official start of the fall television season. Since 1995, the Emmys have been broadcast in rotation among the four major networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC), each network taking turns to air the ceremony every four years. The ceremony is typically moved to late August if it is broadcast by NBC (such as in 2006, 2010, and 2014), so that it does not conflict with NBC's commitment to broadcasting Sunday-night NFL games (due to another conflict, this time with the MTV Video Music Awards, the 2014 ceremony was also shifted to a Monday). The 2018 ceremony, broadcast by NBC, was moved back to September and aired on a Monday.


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) was founded by Syd Cassyd in 1946. The first Emmy ceremony took place on January 25, 1949, at the Hollywood Athletic Club. Tickets cost $5 and only six awards were presented.


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: The Emmy statuette was designed by Louis McManus. It depicts a winged muse holding an electron, combining visual metaphors for the arts and sciences. The design for the Emmy statuette was chosen after 47 other designs were rejected. The name "Emmy" comes from the nickname "Immy," used to describe the image-orthicon camera tube that was a significant 1940s technical breakthrough in capturing images for television. Because the statue features a female figure holding an electron, the name "Immy" was feminized to "Emmy."


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: The Emmys originally honored shows produced and aired locally in the Los Angeles area, but soon expanded into a national event in 1952 to honor shows aired nationwide on broadcast television. Originally, there was only one Emmy event held per year to honor shows nationally broadcast in the United States. In 1968, an "Outstanding Achievement in Daytime Programming" category was added once, but due to voting rules of the time, judges could opt to either award one or no Emmy, and in the end they decided that no one should be nominated. This snub outraged soap opera writer Agnes Nixon, causing her to write in "The New York Times", "...after viewing the recent fiasco of the Emmy awards, it may well be considered a mark of distinction to have been ignored by this group." This eventually led to the creation of the separate Daytime Emmy Awards just for daytime programming, run by the sister organization National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: Cable programs first became eligible for the Primetime Emmys in 1988. Original online-only streaming television programs then became eligible in 2013.


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: Between 1949 and 2001, voting members had to watch submissions at the ATAS or local hotels. From 2002–2014, members could watch submissions at home on DVDs. Starting in 2015, members could watch submissions through secure online platforms, with DVDs being eliminated in 2020.


title: Primetime Emmy Awards

text: In December 2021, the ATAS and NATAS announced major realignments to the Emmy Awards, accounting for the growth of streaming services by aligning their categories and the ceremonies' scopes around factors such as the themes and frequency of such programming, rather than dayparts: