Book contents
- Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination
- Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- I Prolegomena
- II Progymnasmata: Ways of Seeing
- III Complex Cinematism
- Chapter 4 Motion Images in Ecphrases
- Chapter 5 Shadows and Caves: The Cinema as Platonic Idea and Reality
- Chapter 6 Static Flight: Zeno’s Arrow and Cinematographic Motion
- Chapter 7 Lucretius: Dream Images and Beyond the Infinite
- Chapter 8 The Cinematic Nature of the Opening Scene in Heliodorus’ An Ethiopian Story
- Chapter 9 The Face of Tragedy: Mask and Close-Up
- IV The Cinema Imagines Difficult Texts
- V Epilegomena
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - Static Flight: Zeno’s Arrow and Cinematographic Motion
from III - Complex Cinematism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2024
- Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination
- Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- I Prolegomena
- II Progymnasmata: Ways of Seeing
- III Complex Cinematism
- Chapter 4 Motion Images in Ecphrases
- Chapter 5 Shadows and Caves: The Cinema as Platonic Idea and Reality
- Chapter 6 Static Flight: Zeno’s Arrow and Cinematographic Motion
- Chapter 7 Lucretius: Dream Images and Beyond the Infinite
- Chapter 8 The Cinematic Nature of the Opening Scene in Heliodorus’ An Ethiopian Story
- Chapter 9 The Face of Tragedy: Mask and Close-Up
- IV The Cinema Imagines Difficult Texts
- V Epilegomena
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The paradoxes of the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea seem to be perverse arguments about the nonexistence of bodily motion in time and through space. One of the best-known is that of an arrow that remains stationary during its flight. Aristotle refuted Zeno; most modern experts have done the same. Occasionally a modern – cinematic – view of the arrow’s flight has been advanced; this is the chapter’s topic. To Zeno, the arrow only appears to be moving but is at any one moment occupying one specific place. The images on our screens appear to move only because the unmoving images exposed on a filmstrip are projected so rapidly that they are perceived as moving. Extreme high-speed photography and computer-generated “bullet time,” as in the Matrix films and elsewhere, provide a new understanding of Zeno’s brain teaser. The chapter ends on a lighter note with the appearance of a modern Professor Zeno in a comedy film.
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- Classical Antiquity and the Cinematic Imagination , pp. 215 - 232Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024