Every book that comes into being does so within the context of a web of interconnections between individuals, and this is no less so in the present case. The idea for this book first occurred to me in  while reading a passage from William Irwin Thompson’s book Imaginary Landscape: Making Worlds of Myth and Science, in which he briefly discusses David Cronenberg’s great film Videodrome. So, in a way, the existence of this book depends directly upon my chance encounter with the works of Bill Thompson, to whom I am greatly indebted not only for its inspiration but also for his kindness in writing the Foreword. And I would never have stumbled across the works of Thompson if they had not been rec- ommended to me by my friend John Lobell, who was one of the early supporters of this project, and who has been instrumental in helping to see it through to completion with his various criticisms and suggestions. The website companion to this book, CinemaDiscourse.com, would not exist without Lobell’s initiative and enthusiasm for the essays contained herein.