Quentin Tarantino and Philosophy

Book excerpt: The films of Quentin Tarantino are ripe for philosophical speculation, raising compelling questions about justice and ethics, violence and aggression, the nature of causality, and the flow of time. In this witty collection of articles, no subject is too taboo for the writers to tackle. From an aesthetic meditation on the use of spraying blood in Kill Bill to the conundrum of translation and reference in Vincent and Jules' discussion about French Big Macs in Pulp Fiction, Tarantino and Philosophy shies away from nothing. Is The Bride a heroic figure, even though she’s motivated solely by revenge? How is Tarantino able to create a coherent story when he jumps between past, future, and present? The philosophers in this book take on those questions and more in essays as provocative as the films themselves.