The Art of the Moving Picture: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Art of the Moving Picture, credited to Vachel Lindsay, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Art of the Moving Picture by Vachel Lindsay. "This 1922 book by poet and sometime cultural critic Vachel Lindsay might have been the first to treat the then-new medium of moving pictures as an art form, one that was potentially as rich, complex, mysterious as far older ones, and whose physical and aesthetic properties were only starting to be understood. The highlight of the book might be “The Motion Picture of Fairy Splendor,” which examines the relationship between film storytelling, magic, myths, legends and bedtime stories. It’s discombobulating, in a good way, to read Lindsay’s attempts to grapple with what, precisely, cinema is. Being supposedly sophisticated 21st century people, we all feel as though we know what cinema is, and don’t need to have the basics explained to us, but this is really just vanity and ignorance talking. Bottom line: You haven’t really, seriously thought about movies — what they are, and what they can and cannot do, and become — until you’ve read this book." (Salon.com)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Art of the Moving Picture
• Author credits: Vachel Lindsay
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 23
• Listed recording duration: 7:06:49

Catalogue topics

• non-fiction
• film
• cinema
• movies
• film theory

Track guide

1. 00 - DEDICATION AND A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE DENVER ART ASSOCIATION — 8:56
2. 01 - BOOK I - THE GENERAL PHOTOPLAY SITUATION IN AMERICA, JANUARY 1, 1922 — 42:54
3. 02 - BOOK II - THE UNCHALLENGED OUTLINE OF PHOTOPLAY CRITICAL METHOD / CHAPTER I - THE POINT OF VIEW — 7:56
4. 03 - CHAPTER II - THE PHOTOPLAY OF ACTION — 13:27
5. 04 - CHAPTER III - THE INTIMATE PHOTOPLAY — 17:48
6. 05 - CHAPTER IV - THE MOTION PICTURE OF FAIRY SPLENDOR — 11:02
7. 06 - CHAPTER V - THE PICTURE OF CROWD SPLENDOR — 18:52
8. 07 - CHAPTER VI - PATRIOTIC SPLENDOR — 25:59
9. 08 - CHAPTER VII - RELIGIOUS SPLENDOR — 14:07
10. 09 - CHAPTER VIII - SCULPTURE-IN-MOTION — 24:29
11. 10 - CHAPTER IX - PAINTING-IN-MOTION — 20:37
12. 11 - CHAPTER X - FURNITURE, TRAPPINGS, AND INVENTIONS IN MOTION — 24:08
13. 12 - CHAPTER XI - ARCHITECTURE-IN-MOTION — 18:46
14. 13 - CHAPTER XII - THIRTY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PHOTOPLAYS AND THE STAGE — 23:16
15. 14 - CHAPTER XIII - HIEROGLYPHICS — 23:58
16. 15 - BOOK III - MORE PERSONAL SPECULATIONS AND AFTERTHOUGHTS NOT BROUGHT FORWARD SO DOGMATICALLY / CHAPTER XIV - THE ORCHESTRA, CONVERSATION, AND THE CENSORSHIP — 24:07
17. 16 - CHAPTER XV - THE SUBSTITUTE FOR THE SALOON — 11:49
18. 17 - CHAPTER XVI - CALIFORNIA AND AMERICA — 10:22
19. 18 - CHAPTER XVII - PROGRESS AND ENDOWMENT — 24:27
20. 19 - CHAPTER XVIII - ARCHITECTS AS CRUSADERS — 8:57
21. 20 - CHAPTER XIX - ON COMING FORTH BY DAY — 10:46
22. 21 - CHAPTER XX - THE PROPHET-WIZARD — 21:33
23. 22 - CHAPTER XXI - THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD — 18:45

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This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.