User:Emily/proposal 0.02

The desire from MacGuffin & The effect from online comments

The link between MacGuffin effects and the commentary effects

• The Sublime Object of Ideology -- Slavoj Žižek
• Hitchcock interview Martin Scorsese about MacGuffin

Hitchcock's 1962 interview with Francois Truffaut

The main thing I’ve learned over the years is that the MacGuffin is nothing. I’m convinced of this, but I find it very difficult to prove it to others. My best MacGuffin, and by that I mean the emptiest, the most nonexistent, and the most absurd, is the one we used in North by Northwest. The picture is about espionage, and the only question that’s raised in the story is to find out what the spies are after. Well, during the scene at the Chicago airport, the Central Intelligence man explains the whole situation to Cary Grant, and Grant, referring to the James Mason character, asks, “What does he do?” The counterintelligence man replies, “Let’s just say that he’s an importer and exporter.” “But what does he sell?” “Oh, just government secrets!” is the answer. Here, you see, the MacGuffin has been boiled down to its purest expression: nothing at all!

Hitchcock's June 8, 1972 apprearence on the Dick Cavett Show -> http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/alfred_hitchcock_with_dick_cavett.html

MacGuffin is that it contains the word "guff", which means a load of nonsense.

"but watch out for the MacGuffin. It will lead you nowhere"-- Donald Spoto.