Im Not There

#2: Identity

Focus Questions (what you should be able to answer by the end) - What does linearity mean in relation to identity? - What is a palimpsest? - Why is the subject always already someone else?

Linearity
- Draw an arrow across a page

- Put 5 events above the line that you think would be

included in your biopic.

- Put 5 different events below the line that you think

would be included in a biopic that focused on a different aspect of your life.

Non-linearity
Write five events that have happened in your life, two

things that you desire and two things youre obliged to do randomly across a section of your page.
Circle each and make sure the circles dont touch each

other.
This is much closer to Nietzsches idea of the identity,

and is much more representative of post-modern attitudes towards identity.

Nietzsche
1. Why are knowledge and truth always changing?

2. Why might Nietzsche say that the soul/ego is a

grammatical fiction?
3. Why might Nietzsche see a fixed/objective view, like

science or religion, to be life-denying?

4. Make a bullet point list of moments in the film that

might connect to these ideas.

Nietzsche & Deleuze

For your flip-books The doer is merely a fiction added to the deed - the deed is

everything. - Nietzsche
It is certain that neither men nor women are clearly defined

personalities but rather vibrations, flows, schizzes and knots. - Gilles Deleuze
On the back: in what ways are these two quotes suggesting the

same thing?

Palimpsest
Need a pencil and an eraser:

- Using a pencil, draw a sketch

of Bob Dylan
- Press quite firmly with your

pencil, your want the sketch to be dark - Now erase and repeat

Palimpsest
Need a pencil and an eraser:

- Using a pencil, draw a sketch

of Bob Dylan
- Press quite firmly with your

pencil, your want the sketch to be dark - Now erase and repeat

Palimpsest
Definition:

1. A manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing. 2. traces of its reused form. Something earlier or altered but still bearing visible

In what ways do you think this film presents Dylan as a palimpsest?

Always Already...
The idea of the palimpsest is useful to us because it

becomes a visual representation of how the film sees identity. The shadows or erasures of other Dylans are always there within the Dylan that is being presented on screen.This is presented to us as a consequence of both casting, editing, voice-over, and a range of other decisions, but the overall impact is that we become aware that Dylan is always already someone else. Consider one of the closing montages of the film...

Return to focus questions

- What does linearity mean in relation to identity? - What is a palimpsest? - Why is the subject always already someone else?