Robert Coover, "The Phantom of the Movie Palace," from A Night at the Movies


1. "I am both curious about and disturbed by the way our minds are warped by filmic syntax," Coover has said. Describe the tone, vocabulary, and style traits used in "The Phantom of the Movie Palace" film fragments, and compare this language to the language used in sections dedicated to the projectionist. What does Coover mean by "filmic syntax," and how can it be distinguished from other types of syntax? How does filmic syntax invade these other syntaxes in "The Phantom of the Movie Palace"?

2. "There's always this unbridgeable distance between the eye and its object," the projectionist thinks. "If I were to bridge it, what then?" Explore what is meant by this distance, what it means for both witness and object, and what attempts are made throughout the story to bridge the gap. What, ultimately, are the effects of these attempts?

3. Where and how does the "terrible enchantment of continuity" come into play? There is a distinction between a distance from witness to object, and a distance from one form of art to another. The "collage" that can broach the latter distance results in a "dense layering." This "crazy embrace of polarities" occurs throughout the story. Explore some of the moments of continuity and its effects on the projectionist and on the reader.