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3On the NoseSubstance 52 (1): 231-236. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:On the NoseDavid F. Bell (bio)I recently underwent a COVID test. As the technician inserted the rather ominous cotton-tipped probe into my nostril, she told me that it was going to feel as if she were tickling my brain. Indeed… This experience, shared by many during the past three years, and likely multiple times, prompted me to think about my nose. Not since cocaine reentered American mainstream culture in the 1970s and '80s—and fou…Read more
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6Pairing breaths: Rabah Ameur-Zaïmech's Terminal Sud (2019)Substance 52 (1): 244-251. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Pairing breaths:Rabah Ameur-Zaïmech's Terminal Sud (2019)Marion Froger (bio)Translated by David F. BellAsphyxiaNever had I felt such a sense of suffocation watching a film by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche.1 The poisoned atmosphere of Terminal Sud (2019) recalls the atmosphere of the Algerian War (1955-1962) and that of the decade of darkness (1991-2002) in that country. The filmmaker chose not to make a historical film, however, but rather a …Read more
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10Haiti Can't BreatheSubstance 52 (1): 165-168. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Haiti Can't BreatheNéhémy Pierre-Dahomey (bio)Translated by David F. BellI'm not particularly familiar with recent politics in Haiti. Nor, as it were, with the contemporary history of the country. In some sense, the difference between recent politics and contemporary history is rather delicate. History would be the most profound social, political, and economic points of contention behind the daily lives of a population under siege. N…Read more
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15Comme Elle Respire: Memory of Breath, Breath of MemorySubstance 52 (1): 92-96. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Comme Elle Respire:Memory of Breath, Breath of MemoryFrédérique Berthet (bio)Translated by David F. Bell (bio)La poésie est un système de respiration, c'est fait pour mieux respirer.[Poetry is a respiration system, it's made for breathing better.]—Erri De Luca- Stop!- What?- I can hear you breathing!...- Stop!- Breathing?- Yes!—Paul Thomas AndersonLittle paper-fish cutouts have been placed on the ground, on the carpet.We're in the re…Read more
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6Are Sounds Sound? For an Enthusiastic Study of Sound StudiesSubstance 49 (2): 3-29. 2020.How is it possible for sounds to be sound? The evanescence of sounds seems to provide us with no more than a fragile foundation, even if echo and resonance offer fleeting extensions of sonic moments. Historians of the senses have told us that despite the importance of audition and orality in antiquity and the Middle Ages, modernity has privileged vision, and this predilection has accompanied and buttressed modern attempts in science and philosophy to provide a firm foundation for knowledge. The …Read more
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14If the Network ResonatesSubstance 47 (3): 135-146. 2018.Dear Jacques Derrider,Today is my birthday. I received a considerable number of messages, almost all written and sent by computer programs. Because most of my contacts have died, or else they are too busy to write me.I'm not bothered by the fact that these letters were written by programs. I am troubled, however, when they remind me of all of those who have died. And especially when I am no longer able to distinguish between the programs that speak for the living and those that speak for the dea…Read more
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7Machinations of the SensesSubstance 49 (2): 30-43. 2020.“I don’t believe what people say to me, I believe the way they say it,” Christian Bobin said. “This is where the sonic is located, in the manner of speaking, in the way in which bodies move and silences occur.”It would be hard to argue that sound is something the public or professionals, whose work is to create sound, actually think about carefully and consciously, as strange as this might seem. Sound in film is rarely addressed from a theoretical perspective. Few books are dedicated to it beyon…Read more
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80Writing, Movement/Space, Democracy: On Jacques Ranciere's Literary HistorySubstance 33 (1): 126-140. 2004.
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13Spatial Memory: Variations on Classical ThemesSubstance 45 (2): 27-38. 2016.In March 2012, Joshua Foer presented a TED Talk to a mesmerized audience. As he began, Foer asked the audience members to close their eyes, and he proceeded to describe a scenario in which a series of striking images appeared as he talked his spectators through various architectural spaces in a house they were to imagine as their own. First, a group of nude bicyclists materialized at the front door, crashing before the very eyes of the bemused beholders, sending bicycle pieces flying in all dire…Read more
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28IntroductionSubstance 48 (1): 3-4. 2019.Periodically, we take stock of SubStance and provide a brief statement regarding initiatives and priorities in the journal's interests. Three years ago, we announced that "Exploring hybrid writing with theoretical impact is at the center of our current preoccupations."1 Since that time, the journal has made significant changes. This issue marks our fourth issue of publishing with Johns Hopkins University Press in a transition that recognizes our new publisher as a leader among university presses…Read more
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42Introduction: The Editors of SubStanceSubstance 45 (1): 3-5. 2016.This issue of SubStance is the first since 2010 not dedicated to a specific theme or author; it features ten eclectic essays submitted from different disciplines and countries by well-established as well as emerging scholars. We wish to take this opportunity to emphasize the importance of these varia, which illustrate the range of our speculative and critical interests, and to signal directions we anticipate the journal moving in the near future. Beyond its interest in French literature and theo…Read more
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11Learning Bayesian networks from data: An information-theory based approachArtificial Intelligence 137 (1-2): 43-90. 2002.
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219Goethe‘s Siebenschläferand the heroes of the West-östlicher DivanBulletin of the John Rylands Library 84 (3): 67-84. 2002.
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