Murch approach is more of the zen type, teaching that editing is more like a dance, and an art, than a science, and how you can learn from that. The work managed to give me a new appreciation for what we do, and that is a gift from Murch to all of us. To be clear: Murch is no luddite, he made the choice to switch for reasons he weighed very carefully. Divided into two parts, this book is essentially the sharing of a film editor from his career and the history of editing technology from his personal experience.

Lesin þreyttur í rúminu mínu, í pakkfullumstrætó úr Hamraborg og árla morguns á bensínstöðinni við Laugarveg, en kláruð í Stúdíó Sýrlandi við tökur á fyrstu breiðskífu Woolly Kind.Sem kvikmyndanemi og klippari fannst mér hann ná að draga upp marga góða punkta og opnaði augun mín fyrir allskonar nytsamlegum hugmyndum og pælingum til að hafa í huga þegar maður er kominn við klippiborðið. What I like about Murch's thinking, as highlighted both in this and "The Conversations," is that he's as much a philosopher as he is a theoretician and many of the principles and ideas that he discusses are equally applicable in any other art form. It was super fun and rewarding and it woulda been the route to find gigs and jobs - unlike directing because it's intangible skill that future employers can't grasp onto.

And at the end, Murch tells us the best thing an editor can remember is that we see films the way we see dreams, in cut up pieces that connect together in some magical way.In particular, Murch uses his experience editing The English Patient to explore the digital side of editing. In The Blink Of An Eye: A Perspective On Film Editing was required for my going to film school, along with 15 other books (NONE OF WHICH WE READ BUT PAID FOR - INCLUDING THIS ONE OBVIOUSLY). While it's unfair to judge Murch's book by how fast editing evolved in the two decades after it came out, I do not approve of the status this book has.