Well, any work on my term paper was sidetracked by my debilitated right side (which Magda's homeopathy and Michelle's massage mitigated, thankfully), but let's see what kind of minor brainstorming I can do in case I get screwed over by chance and have to present later today. The concept of the double (identical person/reflection) has its roots in the very nature of language, and manifests itself as uncanny (aka creepy) as a response to more primitive/younger self-love; the myth of Narcissus is a useful tool for reading representations of that in texts.
     The pronoun "I" is found in every language, referring to a specific person at a certain instant of discourse.  When "I" is used, it is implicit that there is a "you" in the discourse as well for that "I" to be speaking to. In the give and take of that discourse, however, the "I" becomes the "you" and the converse, in effect blurring the line between them; they are "complementary and reversible." That is not to say that they are necessarily equal, however; on some level one's ego is in a higher register than the "you," rendering it an "other." (Benveniste)
      Before that ego comes to the fore, there is a time in which the double is a representation of possible immortality. This is youthful narcissistic stage that is superseded when the ego becomes capable of self-observation and self-criticism. The double as a ward against the "annihilation of the self" (thank you Scott for the reminder on that phrase) falls by the wayside, and the double as the "uncanny harbinger of death" comes forward. (Freud) Not only can the double embody all the things we might have been (and the bad things we may have done), it also takes on the weird/uncanny properties of a reflection (as can be seen in the myth of Narcissus). If you walk away, your reflection ceases to exist; but in the same token, are you sure you're not the reflection, and you will not cease to exist if the real you walks away? Furthermore, there is an attraction/revulsion towards one's reflection. Attraction because of the desire for an ideal version of one's self, and revulsion because of the fear that the reflection might replace one's self. The trick with the attraction is that there is usually a point where on some level it is realized that one cannot truly love/possess one's reflection, and that is its own kind of psychological death.
      Now, I think I need a bit more theory (Laplanche and Pontiliste for identification with characters and something similar from Doane's Femmes Fatales hopefully) and to just pick one example to dissect or a theme to delineate. The options off the top of my head are solutions to the narcissistic pattern (that normally leads to tragedy), the oddshot of a distortion of that pattern (Alien: Resurrection being the only weak example I can think of), or just showing how that pattern might be explored in terms of solution and replication of it in one movie (more promising examples there, Spiderman 2 and Cat People, maybe Double Indemnity).
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      Random new foods have been good to me lately. Xuemei tossed some pickling cucumbers with salt and garlic, which was good snacking. Similarly, chicken and rice with cheese and homemade salsa makes a good, easy burrito. Xuemei's mom made steamed buns with pork and pumpkin filling, which seem to have been pretty much universally reviled, which is good; that means I get all of them. And at UMC they had what were basically Cinna-bons, but with spicy oil instead of cinnamon and a bit of cheese instead of glaze. Unfortunately, it was only a quick break so I didn't get to buy the entire basket they had of them.

-a short of martial arts in Elektra; or, why Jennifer Garner rocks and/or rolls

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