At its most basic, writing about film entails note-taking during the viewing occasion, an act of mediation which facilitates the distanciation necessary to renewing spectatorial attention vis-à-vis the cinematic experience. More substantively, writing itself is an act of mediation, in this case one between the imaginary rehearsal of a film once it has been viewed, and the symbolic apprehension of ensuing screen memories in the course of one’s attempt to make sense of them. That said, writing is not merely an act of mediation; writing is an overdetermined praxis, and for this reason courses on film criticism entail ideological engagement.
Over the years, whether it be during formal instruction or in casual conversation with my students, I have caught myself borrowing - and heavily at that - truisms and wisdom accumulated from the Star Wars and Star Trek universes.
Allowing that there are non-linguistic modes of thought, for example, visual ones, very few will deny that using words to build essays, stories and suchlike are ways of thinking.
