...true -- and the LoM passage might be read as sequential
jump-cuts alright. But a _really_ cameratic zoom-in is
difficult to do in literary fiction (and i am still trying
to figure out HOW Belasco did it at the beginning of _The
Girl of the Golden West_). It is possible and has been done
in stream-of-consciousness passages of modern novels, but
in the 19th c. conventional syntax structures would still
have blocked that route.

best,
w

On Thu, 25 Aug 2016 09:58:25 -0500
 Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Are we talking about a zoom-in (a single camera moving
> in) or a sequence of 
> jump cuts, each one closer to the scene of action? They
> are not the same.
> 
> Kevin
> @
> Mac Donnell Rare Books
> 9307 Glenlake Drive
> Austin TX 78730
> 512-345-4139
> Member: ABAA, ILAB
> *************************
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> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Hal Bush
> Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2016 7:56 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Life on the Mississippi passage
> 
> Yes!  Joe & Wolfgang; even more specifically; a zoom-in,
> establishing shot.
> 
> Psycho!  good one!  also thought of:  The Birdcage
> (terrific opening zoom
> right into the club); Saturday Night Fever (not exactly
> zoom in); The Dark
> Knight; (are there others?)
> 
> Alternatively: there is the amazing scene in Gandhi
> zooming out from the
> funeral.
> 
> -hb
> 
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2016 at 4:08 AM, Wolfgang Hochbruck <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > ...actually, I feel like i should chime in here because
> Joe said "Zoom
> > in" first, and then "establishing shot", and he is
> right on both counts,
> > only that narratologically "establishing  shot" is the
> general category,
> > including also bird's eye, pan(orama) shot etc.  The
> really wild thing
> > is that what Twain uses here - and what Belasco adapted
> for the theatre
> > -- is really a cameratic technique before any camera
> could do something
> > like it. Like with a number of other developments, the
> technology here
> > followed the writer's imagination.
> >
> > best  wishes,
> > w
> >
> > Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
> > Department of English /
> > Centre for Security and Society
> > Albert Ludwigs University
> > 15 Rempart St.
> > D- 79098 Freiburg
> >
> > Am 25.08.2016 08:18, schrieb Joe Alvarez:
> > > Establishing shot, that's probably the closest one
> yet. The description
> > from=
> > >   Life on the Mississippi reminds me of the
> opening--establishing
> > shot--of Al=
> > > fred Hitchcock's Psycho.
> > >
> > > Joe Alvarez
> > > 900 Havel Court
> > > Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
> > > Telephone: 704.364.2844
> > > FAX: 704.364.9348
> > >
> > > Sent from my iPad
> > >
> > >> On Aug 25, 2016, at 1:47 AM, Peter Salwen
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >> =20
> > >> What you called the"birds-eye view" might also be
> called an 
> > >> establishing
> > >> shot
> > >> Not by Twain, though.
> > >> =20
> > >> On Aug 25, 2016 1:27 AM, "Joe Alvarez"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > >> =20
> > >> How about "zoom in"? That is what is happening in
> your description.
> > >> =20
> > >> Joe Alvarez
> > >> 900 Havel Court
> > >> Charlotte, NC 28211-4253
> > >> Telephone: 704.364.2844
> > >> FAX: 704.364.9348
> > >> =20
> > >> Sent from my iPad
> > >> =20
> > >>> On Aug 24, 2016, at 8:33 PM, Wesley Britton
> <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> I have a question about one passage in Life on the
> Mississippi. I
> > suspect=
> > >> i=3D
> > >> t
> > >>> will be very familiar to many of you.
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> It's the passage where we first get a birds-eye
> view of a place along
> > the=
> > >>> river before Twain narrows his focus to one town,
> then one street, 
> > >>> then
> > >> on=3D
> > >> e
> > >>> house, then a sleeping man on a porch.
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Back in grad school, a professor used a term to
> define this technique
> > of
> > >>> moving from the general to the specific, but I
> can't figure out now
> > what
> > >>> term he meant.
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Any ideas?
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Dr. Wesley Britton
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> Author, Beta-Earth Chronicles
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> www.drwesleybritton.com
> > >>> =3D20
> > >>> =3D20
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Prof. Harold K. Bush
> Professor of English
> 3800 Lindell
> Saint Louis University
> St. Louis, MO  63108
> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml> 

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
Dept. of English / Centre for Security and Society
Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg
Rempart St. 15
D-79098 Freiburg
Germany