title: "There is evil there that does not sleep": The construction of evil in American popular cinema from 1989 to 2002

authors: Bather, Neil Edward

subjects: Hollywood cinema

abstract: In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir refers to the lands of Mordor as the place where evil never sleeps. Cinematic evil itself never sleeps, always arising in new forms, to the extent that there exist as many types of evil as there are films. This thesis examines this constantly shifting construction of evil in American popular cinema between 1989 and 2002 - roughly, the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attack on the World Trade Center - and how this cinema engaged with representations of enemies and of evil per se. The thesis uses content and thematic analysis on a sample of the 201 most successful films at the U.S. box office during the period. In these films, cinematic evil is constructed according to a visual aesthetic that attempts to engage with societal values, but fails to do so due to the emphasis on its visual construction and its commodification. As Baudrillard argues, evil has become a hollow concept devoid of meaning, and this is especially so for cinematic evil. It is recognised, and is recognisable, by the visual excessiveness of its violence (or potentiality for violence), and by certain codes that are created in reference to intertextual patterns and in relationship to discourses of paranoia and malaise. But cinema in this period failed to engage with the concept of evil itself in any meaningful way. Cinematic evil mirrors the descent into the chaos and disorder of a postmodern society. All cinematic evil can do is to connect with this sense of unease in which the 'reality of evil' cannot be represented. Instead, it draws on earlier icons and narratives of evil in a conflation of narrative and spectacle that produces a cinema of nostalgia. Moreover, stripped of narrative causality, these films express a belief, unproved and unprovable, that evil things and evil people may arise in any form, in any place and at any time: a cinema of paranoia. Together, these factors produce a cinema of malaise, perpetually confronting an evil it is unable to define or locate.

text: "There is evil there that does not sleep": The construction of evil in American popular cinema from 1989 to 2002 In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir refers to the lands of Mordor as the place where evil never sleeps. Cinematic evil itself never sleeps, always arising in new forms, to the extent that there exist as many types of evil as there are films. This thesis examines this constantly shifting construction of evil in American popular cinema between 1989 and 2002 - roughly, the period between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the attack on the World Trade Center - and how this cinema engaged with representations of enemies and of evil per se. The thesis uses content and thematic analysis on a sample of the 201 most successful films at the U.S. box office during the period. In these films, cinematic evil is constructed according to a visual aesthetic that attempts to engage with societal values, but fails to do so due to the emphasis on its visual construction and its commodification. As Baudrillard argues, evil has become a hollow concept devoid of meaning, and this is especially so for cinematic evil. It is recognised, and is recognisable, by the visual excessiveness of its violence (or potentiality for violence), and by certain codes that are created in reference to intertextual patterns and in relationship to discourses of paranoia and malaise. But cinema in this period failed to engage with the concept of evil itself in any meaningful way. Cinematic evil mirrors the descent into the chaos and disorder of a postmodern society. All cinematic evil can do is to connect with this sense of unease in which the 'reality of evil' cannot be represented. Instead, it draws on earlier icons and narratives of evil in a conflation of narrative and spectacle that produces a cinema of nostalgia. Moreover, stripped of narrative causality, these films express a belief, unproved and unprovable, that evil things and evil people may arise in any form, in any place and at any time: a cinema of paranoia. Together, these factors produce a cinema of malaise, perpetually confronting an evil it is unable to define or locate.

year: 2007

title: Squeezed states and quantum nondemolition measurements

authors: Milburn, Gerard James

abstract: The first four chapters of this thesis are concerned with the detailed mathematical and physical properties of special minimum uncertainty states of the electromagnetic field: the “squeezed states”. These are states with reduced quantum fluctuations in certain observables (the quadrature phase amplitudes).

In chapter two it is shown that the one mode and two mode squeezed states are obtained by acting on the vacuum state with elements of the sympletic group in one and two dimensions respectively. 

In chapter three properties of squeezed states in a quantum optical context are investigated. The complex P representation of Drummond and Gardiner is shown to be especially useful for discussing the non-classical statistics of these states, and the complex P-representation for a squeezed state is obtained. An analysis of the effect of irreversible dynamics on squeezed states is also given. 

In chapter four a detailed analysis of three devices proposed to produce squeezed states; degenerate parametric oscillation, two photon absorption and dispersive optical bistability, is presented. It is shown in an exact, fully quantum treatment that the reduction of fluctuations obtainable in all these devices is limited, when operated in a steady state regime. The greatest reduction of fluctuations (a factor of two) occurs in the parametric oscillator operated at threshold. The addition of a second driving field in this device enables the direction of squeezing to be changed.

The final two chapters are given over to a discussion of Quantum Non Demolition (QND) measurements. In chapter five a particular QND scheme (back action evading) is analysed. This is based on a parametric amplification interaction. The complex p representation is used to discuss the non-unitary effects of damping and state reduction in a unified way. It is shown that the parametric amplifier, despite being non back action evading, is useful for making QND measurements. 

Finally in chapter six, two quantum counting QND schemes, based on quantum optical four wave mixing interactions, are analysed. The effect of state reduction is included, thus enabling an analysis of a measurement sequence.

text: Squeezed states and quantum nondemolition measurements The first four chapters of this thesis are concerned with the detailed mathematical and physical properties of special minimum uncertainty states of the electromagnetic field: the “squeezed states”. These are states with reduced quantum fluctuations in certain observables (the quadrature phase amplitudes).

In chapter two it is shown that the one mode and two mode squeezed states are obtained by acting on the vacuum state with elements of the sympletic group in one and two dimensions respectively. 

In chapter three properties of squeezed states in a quantum optical context are investigated. The complex P representation of Drummond and Gardiner is shown to be especially useful for discussing the non-classical statistics of these states, and the complex P-representation for a squeezed state is obtained. An analysis of the effect of irreversible dynamics on squeezed states is also given. 

In chapter four a detailed analysis of three devices proposed to produce squeezed states; degenerate parametric oscillation, two photon absorption and dispersive optical bistability, is presented. It is shown in an exact, fully quantum treatment that the reduction of fluctuations obtainable in all these devices is limited, when operated in a steady state regime. The greatest reduction of fluctuations (a factor of two) occurs in the parametric oscillator operated at threshold. The addition of a second driving field in this device enables the direction of squeezing to be changed.

The final two chapters are given over to a discussion of Quantum Non Demolition (QND) measurements. In chapter five a particular QND scheme (back action evading) is analysed. This is based on a parametric amplification interaction. The complex p representation is used to discuss the non-unitary effects of damping and state reduction in a unified way. It is shown that the parametric amplifier, despite being non back action evading, is useful for making QND measurements. 

Finally in chapter six, two quantum counting QND schemes, based on quantum optical four wave mixing interactions, are analysed. The effect of state reduction is included, thus enabling an analysis of a measurement sequence.

year: 1982

title: Is there evidence that traditional mōteatea (Māori laments) were composed from a common stock of oral formulae?

authors: Roa, Raukura

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Oral formulaic composition, which involves the use of communally owned formulae of various kinds, is a common feature of verbal arts produced in many different languages. It is particularly associated with pre-literate cultures and tends to be gradually replaced by more individualistic verbal art forms when societies become literate. There are very few publications in which the analysis of mōteatea (Māori laments) is linked explicitly to oral formulaic theory. Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence in published sources to indicate that traditional mōteatea (defined here as mōteatea that are not fundamentally influenced by European cultural beliefs and practices) exhibit evidence of regularly recurring, conventional themes (such as death, separation, loss and travel) and motifs (such as the setting sun, the presence of rain or mist and sleeplessness). The research reported here set out to test the hypothesis that traditional mōteatea were made up of verbal formulae, that is, of the same or very similar groups of words derived from a common store of poetic resources. Based on the analysis of the mōteatea included in Ngā mōteatea, a collection initially established by Sir Apirana Ngata, I conclude that this hypothesis must be rejected.

text: Is there evidence that traditional mōteatea (Māori laments) were composed from a common stock of oral formulae? Oral formulaic composition, which involves the use of communally owned formulae of various kinds, is a common feature of verbal arts produced in many different languages. It is particularly associated with pre-literate cultures and tends to be gradually replaced by more individualistic verbal art forms when societies become literate. There are very few publications in which the analysis of mōteatea (Māori laments) is linked explicitly to oral formulaic theory. Nevertheless, there is sufficient evidence in published sources to indicate that traditional mōteatea (defined here as mōteatea that are not fundamentally influenced by European cultural beliefs and practices) exhibit evidence of regularly recurring, conventional themes (such as death, separation, loss and travel) and motifs (such as the setting sun, the presence of rain or mist and sleeplessness). The research reported here set out to test the hypothesis that traditional mōteatea were made up of verbal formulae, that is, of the same or very similar groups of words derived from a common store of poetic resources. Based on the analysis of the mōteatea included in Ngā mōteatea, a collection initially established by Sir Apirana Ngata, I conclude that this hypothesis must be rejected.

year: 2007