No abstract

The reactions of 1,8-diiodonaphthalene with the enolate ions from pinacolone and acetone, and with p-toluenethiolate, mesitylenethiolate, and diethylphosphite ions in DMSO or liquid ammonia have been studied. In these S RN 1 (or related radical) processes, disubstitution, without isolation of the monosubstituted monoiodo compound takes place with the enolate ions to give ultimately (after a subsequent aldol condensation) substituted dihydrophenalenes. With ptoluenethiolate ion a novel thiaxanthene system results. With mesitylenthiolate ion and diethylphosphite ions, monosubstitution with monoreduction occurs. Deuterium labeling experiments show that the major source of hydrogen (deuterium) necessary for the reduction process arises from DMSO by a radical abstraction reaction.

This article is a critical investigation and application of the aesthetic theory of Cornelius Castoriadis, one of the most important 20th-century theorists of radical democracy. We outline Castoriadis's thoughts on autonomy, the social-historical nature of Being, and creation-key elements that inform his model of democratic culture. We then develop a Castoriadian critique of culture produced by capitalist institutions. By also drawing on the political economic thought of Thorstein Veblen, Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, our critique focuses on one sector of contemporary culture: Hollywood film. We show how Hollywood, as a business enterprise, uses techniques of sabotage and capitalization to control and occult the social-historical nature of creation. Lastly, by way of conclusion, we gesture toward a mode of artistic production that is able to affirm the democratic values that organize Castoriadis's thought.

This paper seeks to explain why Hollywood's dominant firms are narrowing the scope of creativity in the contemporary period . The largest distributors have sought to prevent the art of filmmaking and its related social relations from becoming financial risks in the pursuit of profit. Major filmed entertainment, my term for the six largest distributors, must discount expected future earnings to present prices with the forward-looking logic of capitalisation; and uncertainty about where creativity in cinema is going can produce financial uncertainty about the future earning potential of new film projects. Conversely, a degree of confidence in the expected future earnings of Hollywood cinema can increase when the art of filmmaking and broader social world of mass culture are ordered by capitalist power [Nitzan, J. and Bichler, S., 2009. Capital as power: a study of order and creorder. New York: Routledge]. For the period of 1980-2015, major filmed entertainment lowered its risk relative to the period before, 1960-79. This historical process of risk reduction is the effect of major filmed entertainment making the wide-release strategy (a.k.a., saturation booking) more predictable through an aggressive implementation of the blockbuster style and the high concept standard.

No abstract