Résumés
Abstract
This essay explores Tom Stoppard’s 2013 radio play Darkside, which incorporates elements of Pink Floyd’s 1973 album TheDark Side of the Moon, and dramatizes a series of thought experiments. I show how the combination of these three forms necessitates a rethinking of how sounds operate in radio drama, chart the play’s habits of diversion and evasion, and discuss how these tendencies are brought to bear on the central theme of climate change. At the heart of this essay is a proposal that the idea of the “sound of thought” embodied in Darkside may prompt a new approach to the theory of radio, one that begins not with what sounds mean, but with how sounds “think”.
Keywords:
- Tom Stoppard,
- Thought Experiments,
- Concept Albums,
- Radio Drama,
- Climate Change
Résumé
Cet article porte sur la pièce radiophonique Darkside écrite par Tom Stoppard en 2013, laquelle intègre des éléments de l’album TheDark Side of the Moon (1973) du groupe rock Pink Floyd et met en scène une série d’expériences de pensée. Mon but est de montrer comment la réunion de ces différents éléments nous force à réfléchir sur le travail et l’usage du son dans le théâtre radiophonique, et en particulier à la façon dont il articule ici le thème central des changements climatiques. Poussant cette réflexion plus avant, on trouvera ici en creux une hypothèse plus générale selon laquelle l’idée même du “son de la pensée”, telle qu’elle se manifeste dans Darkside, conduirait à développer une nouvelle approche du médium radiophonique, et dont le point de départ ne serait pas de s’interroger sur ce que signifient les sons, mais sur comment ils “pensent”.
Mots-clés :
- Tom Stoppard,
- expérience de pensée,
- albums-concept,
- théâtre radiophonique,
- changements climatiques
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- ALTMAN, R. (1986) “Television / Sound”. In Studies in Entertainment : Critical Approaches to Mass Culture. T. Modleski (Ed.). Bloomington : Indiana University Press : 46-47.
- ATTALI, J. (1985) Noise : The Political Economy of Music. B. Massumi (Trans.). Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
- BROWN, J. & FEHIGE, Y. (2014) “Thought Experiments”. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta (Ed.). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2014/entries/thought-experiment/ (accessed August 10, 2015).
- BRUERS, S. & BRAECKMAN, J. (2014) “A Review and Systematization of the Trolley Problem”. In Philosophia (42) : 251-269, June.
- CHAKRABARTY, D. (2014) “Climate and Capital : On Conjoined Histories”. In Critical Inquiry (41) : 1-23.
- CRISELL, A. (1994) Understanding Radio (2nd ed). New York : Routledge.
- CROOK, T. (1999) Radio Drama : Theory and Practice. New York : Routledge.
- DRAKAKIS, J. (1981). British Radio Drama. New York : Cambridge University Press.
- FOOT, P. (1978) The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of the Double Effect in Virtues and Vices. Oxford : Basil Blackwell.
- GURALNICK, E. (1996) Sight Unseen : Beckett, Pinter, Stoppard and Other Contemporary Dramatists on Radio. Athens, OH : Ohio University Press.
- HAND, R. & TRAYNOR, M (2011) The Radio Drama Handbook : Audio Drama in Context and Practice. New York : Continuum.
- HARRIS, J. (2006) The Dark Side of the Moon : The Making of the Pink Floyd Masterpiece. Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press.
- HOLM-HUDSON, K. (2005) “Worked Out Within the Grooves : The Sound and Structure of TheDark Side of the Moon”. In Speak to Me : The Legacy of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. R. Reising (Ed.). Burlington VT : Ashgate : 69-86.
- HUDSON, R., ITZEN, C. & S. TRUSSLER, S. (1994) “Ambushes for the Audience : Towards a High Comedy of Ideas”. In Tom Stoppard in Conversation. P. Delaney (ed.). Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press : 51-72.
- HUME, D. (1978) A Treatise of Human Nature. New York : Oxford University Press.
- INNIS, C. (2006) “Allegories from the Past”. In Modern Drama (49) 2 : 223-237.
- KAPLAN, M.A. (1949) Radio and Poetry. New York : Columbia University Press.
- KEIGHTLEY, K. (2003) “Concept Album”. In Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music. J. Shepherd, D. Horn, D. Laing, P. Oliver & P. Wicke (Eds.). New York : Bloomsbury Academic.
- KELLY, K. (1989) “Tom Stoppard Radioactive : A Sounding of the Radio Plays”. In Modern Drama (32) 3 : 440-452.
- KITTLER, F. (2015 [1982]) “God of Ears”. P. Feigelfeld & A. Moore (Trans.). In Kittler Now : Current Perspectives in Kittler Studies. S. Sale & L. Salisbury (Eds.). London : Polity : 3-21.
- KUHN, T. (1977) “A Function for Thought Experiments”. In The Essential Tension. Chicago : University of Chicago Press : 240–265.
- MACH, E. (1897) “Über Gedankenexperimente”. In Zeitschrift für den physikalischen und chemischen Unterricht (10) : 1–5.
- MITCHELL, W.J.T. (2005) What Do Pictures Want? Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
- MONTGOMERY, D. (2002) “The Rock Concept Album : Context and Analysis”. PhD Dissertation. University of Toronto. Department of Music.
- NADEL, I. (2002). Double Act : A Life of Tom Stoppard. London : Methuen.
- REISING, R. (2005) “Introduction : Life on the Dark Side of the Moon”. In Speak to Me : The Legacy of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. R. Reising (Ed.). Burlington VT : Ashgate : 1-14.
- REYNOLDS, G. (2013) “Darkside : Tom Stoppard’s Play was as Pretentious as Pink Floyd’s Music”. In The Telegraph, August 28. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10269343/Darkside-Tom-Stoppards-play-was-as-pretentious-as-Pink-Floyds-music-review.html (accessed August 10, 2015).
- SCHAFFNER, N. (1991) Saucerful of Secrets : The Pink Floyd Odyssey. New York : Delta.
- SMITH, J. (2015) Eco-Sonic Media. Berkeley : California University Press.
- SORENSEN, R. (1992) Thought Experiments. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
- STEPHENSON, R.L. (1888) “A Chapter on Dreams”. In Scribner’s. January : 122-129.
- STOPPARD, T. & PINK FLOYD (2013) Darkside. London : BBC.
- STOPPARD, T. (2012). Radio Plays (CDs). London : British Library.
- STOPPARD, T. (1994) Plays for Radio : 1964-1991. New York : Faber & Faber.
- THOMSON, J. (1985) “The Trolley Problem”. In Yale Law Journal (94) : 1395-1415.
- TYNAN, K. (1977) “Withdrawing with Style From the Chaos”. In The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/12/19/withdrawing-with-style-from-the-chaos (accessed August 10, 2015).
- VERMA, N. (2012) Theater of the Mind : Imagination, Aesthetics and American Radio Drama. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.