This essay is no. 9 in the series of meditations, “Lessons in Darkness”. Some, such as this one, stem from a close reading of the Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger (1880-1903) through the interpretive lens of contemporary philosopher and moral terrorist, Bianco Luno. All bear the mark of Luno’s joyful cynicism.
An earlier version of this paper was presented at a conference at the Universidad de Tierra del Fuego in the summer of 2004 where it benefited from the insightful reaction and critical commentary of Iaia Gombrowicz, Professor of Comparative Anxiety and the History of Despair.
I thank, of course, Lars von Trier for making the movie. (It would be uncharacteristic of him to agree with my interpretation.)
Olivia Dresher from Impassio Press has been a helpful spur through her endless stream of questions and editorial expertise. And she scared up a few interesting and somewhat related takes on the film including those of:
—Jürgen
The background image of Nicole Kidman as Grace—viewed through a canvas darkly—is a framegrab press photo from the official Dogville site.
Site design was contributed by Victor Muñoz at design.aporia.net. He reminds the viewer that this site is best appreciated in full screen mode. You can toggle your browser back and forth between normal and full screen mode simply by pressing F11 at the top of your keyboard. The left and right arrow keys will help with horizontal scrolling. The hell with you if you don’t like horizontal scrolling. And you really should use a Mozilla-based browser (Firefox, Mozilla, or Netscape 6+) for the full effect. The site limps in IE.
Among the many design resources consulted, the following were especially useful:
“The Christ Figurine of Dogville” — Jürgen Pessoa
Copyright © 2004 Jürgen Pessoa and Victor Muñoz. The original work on this site falls under a Creative Commons License.