The plural in my title is not a typographical error, nor in selecting it am I attempting to plagiarize (or satirize) the title of the English translation of Rudolf Arnheim's Film als Kunst.l Rather, I am suggesting that those of us interested in the aesthetics of the film (and, by extension, of television) cease to behave like the blind men who went to "see" the elephant,2 variously concluding (according to the part of the animal with which each came into contact) that the elephant was very like a wall, a serpent, a rope, or a fan. The writer of a study of film aesthetics is often in the position of a boy who attempts to reassemble an alarm clock after he has dismantled it: when he finishes, there are too many parts left over. Some writers ignore this superfluity (or perhaps are unaware of it); others apologize for it: