Mark Browning,
David Cronenberg: Author or Film-maker?
Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books, 2007.
ISBN: 978-1-84150-173-4
US$25.00 (pb)
207pp
(Review copy supplied by Intellect Books)

After more than half a century of auteur film theory, the title of this book is quite puzzling. Should it be: David Cronenberg: Author and Film-maker? Particularly, in this case, this question seems rhetorical. Cronenberg’s films bear one of the most recognizable, yet iconoclastic marks of his generation. Therefore, why such a query?

In this monograph, Mark Browning proposes that by comparing literary texts to Cronenbrg’s films, this “can highlight features of his work that have remained relatively neglected by critics and take this a stage further to reveal fresh areas that have, hitherto, not been commented upon at all” (p. 8). Browning proceeds to look at three different sources of literary influence: direct adaptations of book to film by Cronenberg, texts that influenced and were cited directly in his films, and literary sources where analogies can be drawn between them and the films. Browning catalogues these three types of literary influences as “overt translation, covert translation and analogy” (p. 9).

For his thesis, he chooses six films from 1982 to 2003: Videodrome (Canada 1982), Dead Ringers(Canada/USA 1988), Naked Lunch (Canada/UK/Japan 1991), Crash (Canada/UK 1996), eXistenZ (Canada/UK 1999) and Spider (Canada/UK 2002). While he discusses at length the merit of these films for such a study and lists the main literary sources influencing such texts, he is rather silent on other films that can be directly linked to literary works.

So, we know that he will discuss the literary connections between Videodrome and Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho (USA/Canada 1991), Marshall McLuhan’s writings, Clive Barker’s Books of Blood (1984-1986), Sacher-Masoch’s Venus in Furs (1970) via Deleuzian musings, the work of Baudrillard and Guy Debord. Dead Ringers is studied through Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel Twins (1977) – both film and novel were inspired by a news item in The New York Times – and other texts featuring ‘a double’ such as Dostoevsky’s short story ‘The Double’ (1846), Bruce Chatwin’s On the Black Hill (1983), Angela Carter’s Wise Children (1992), Rose Tremain’s Restoration (1989) and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1987). Naked Lunch is not only explored through William Burroughs’ novel, but also through other autobiographical material such as Queer (1986),Junky (1977), Exterminator! (1979) and Ted Morgan’s biography Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs (1988). Crash (1996) is, of course explored in the context of the adaptation of Ballard’s novel, but also through a range of texts from the same author such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1969), and some de Sade’s and Vladimir Nabokov’s writings. eXistenZ (1999) is analysed in relation to Nabokov’s work, particularly, Bend Sinister (1960) and Invitation to a Beheading (1960), and Sartre’s existentialism. Finally, Spider (2002)is compared with Ian McEwan’s A Child in Time (1987), and Dostoevsky’s conception of the derelict hero.

However, Browning doesn’t elaborate on why he didn’t select two other Cronenberg’s literary adaptations from the same period: Steven King’s The Dead Zone (1983) and David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly (1993). This particular selection of films, while not overtly explained, can be elucidated by Browning’s focus on films which seem to reflect what he argues are Cronenberg’s overall literary inspirations: the writings of Burroughs, Nabokov, Ballard and Dostoevsky.

To analyse the literary influences in Cronenberg’s films, Browning uses a methodology which he describes at length in his introduction. After a strong rejection of psychoanalytic theory (particularly the Freudian framework) as an effective and relevant analytical tool, Browning describes his theoretical approach as being informed by Gérard Genette’s studies on narratology, Derrida’s logic of the parergon and Zizek’s conceptualisation and use of Lacanian theory.

To better understand Cronenberg as a filmmaker by investigating his literary influences is a relevant endeavour. After all, Cronenberg wished to become a novelist before he committed himself to films. But Browning’s investigation leaves, at least for this reader, more questions than answers. There is a certain amount of confusion in his analysis. The main source of this confusion is in the structure of some chapters, particularly those dedicated to Videodrome and Dead Ringers. The reader can be overwhelmed by the sheer number of literary references and this can lead to the loss of the analytical thread. This is most evident in the Dead Ringers chapter where there are so many jumps from one set of twins to others – Beverly and Elliot Mantle, the twins in the film; Michael and David, the brothers in Twins; and Stuart and Cyril Marcus, the ‘real’ identical twin gynaecologists who were the initial inspiration for these characters – that one has to read and reread a few time to keep one’s bearings.

Another problem is in some of the literary analogies that Browning establishes between film and texts published after the film’s release. For example, in his discussion of Videodrome (1982), he stresses analogies between the film and Clive Barker’s Books of Blood (1984, 1985) and Brett Easton Ellis’ American Psycho(1991). He also does this in his discussion of Dead Ringers (1988) where the film is linked to Angela Carter’s Wise Children (1992) and Rose Tremain’s Restoration (1989), both books again published after the film’s release. Even if he states that in his analysis he “will have no attempt to prove a causal link” (p. 9), he actually does the contrary. In his chapter on Dead Ringers, Browning argues that Cronenberg’s portrayal of the Mantle twins is influenced by “J.G. Ballard’s definition of schizophrenia as representing ‘the insane’s idea of the normal’” (p. 82). This quote is taken from a collection of Ballard’s essays published in 1996 (A User’s Guide to the Millennium (London: Harper Collins Publishers)). Browning then states that this “seems to be Cronenebrg’s starting point” (p. 82). How could this be the starting point for the film’s conception when it was done before 1988? When was this essay published? If this essay is post-1988, how can it be Cronenberg’s starting point? If the essay is pre-1988, how can Browning infer that Cronenberg read this particular essay and was inspired by it? Where are the sources to support such statement? This general confusion is further enhanced by the publisher’s choice of not having a general index and bibliography: all the reference materials are in note form at the end of each chapter. This makes the monograph a less effective research tool.

In a more positive vein, Browning’s discussions of Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenZ and Spider, offer some new ways of understanding these texts: such as how the ‘spiral’ narrative form of Crash is similar to Nabokov’s novels, and how Spider’s protagonist possess echoes of Dostoevsky’s derelict heroes and can portray Sartrean existentialism. Furthermore, this book provides analysis of less popular Cronenberg films likeeXistenZ and Spider which were relatively soft box-office earners for the director and seem to have been neglected by scholars.

Browning states, as quoted above, that the goal of this book “is to consider how comparison between literary texts and Cronenberg’s films can highlight features of his work that have remained relatively neglected by critics and take this a stage further to reveal fresh areas that have, hitherto, not been commented upon at all” (p. 8). After reaching the end of this book, even with the qualifications about the early chapters, I gained a better understanding of the way Cronenberg’s literary influences have been at work in his oeuvre. The book manages to open up the study of Cronenberg’s films by applying an original analytical framework that is quite different from the more prevalent psychoanalytical one used, perhaps too often, in relation to this director’s work. A fresh revelation, indeed.

Nathalie Brillon,
La Trobe University, Australia.

Created on: Thursday, 17 July 2008