My World Back Home

Inside it is cold. I may need a sweater. The house smells like pasta because mom is making lasagna. It is loud with Jaxson’s drumming coming from upstairs and mom’s podcast of talk radio blaring from the kitchen. I need silence. I walk through the glass back door with the dogs following close behind. The air is wet and hot. But not hot enough to go back inside. It’s the hot that makes you want to sit and wait for the Texas breeze that may never come. The turquois lawn chair is warm on my soft, freshly shaved legs. It is a relaxing place where all you hear is the faint sound of cars passing on the other side of the house, and squirrels playing tag through the pear and oak trees. The first squirrel runs to the fence and stops to wait for its friend. Lucy spots the squirrel and darts to the fence to try to catch it. Both of the playful squirrels run along the top of the fence in retreat. They jump on to the pear tree just in time to miss being caught by the enthusiastic pup. She then sees a huge white bird in the back, past the fence about half an acre, near the wooded area.

The pool is glistening in the afternoon sun. At last a warm, humid breeze comes through and causes a mass of tiny white flowers to fall into the pool from the pear tree. This pear tree in particular is only half a tree. In 2008 when hurricane Ike hit, a bolt of lightning hit the tree and took half of it. The tree has grown immensely since then, but is still cut perfectly in half. Every time I see that tree I think of the devastation on the island, which is 25 minutes away. It has been seven years and there are still buildings torn to pieces and overgrown boats that were washed up near the highway. Tookie’s, one of the best burger joints, even has a painted line on the wall up to my head where the water line was from the storm. I’m glad there hasn’t been a bad hurricane since then. It would be terrible if there were one, but this community is good at working together to get people back on their feet after losing everything.

This place, my home in Texas, is 1,039 miles away now. I miss it.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Before I explain my thoughts about the novel, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, I would like to say that all of this is my opinion and thoughts about the novel.

I read the first chapter of this novel and then detailed summaries of the rest of the novel. I did not finish reading the book for multiple reasons. The first reason being I did not like the writing style of Junot Diaz at all. The second reason is that I do not enjoy the content of the book. The whole story is about a guy fantasizing about women. He makes women in to sex symbols, and it was very offensive. I did not feel comfortable with finishing this novel because of the content. There was a lot of profanity, and I felt like this book was just about the guy fantasizing about women. I can’t even tell you what the story was about because that’s all it seemed to be.

Now, I understand that the world is uncomfortable, and that bad things happen every day. I am not putting on blinders, so to speak, to the real world and real events. Yes, these things are terrible and should make you uncomfortable, but the news is real and people should know about real events that are going on. I also understand that everyone should push themselves to be uncomfortable in order to learn. However, I feel that there is a point in which that person can say no, that is just too far. I have a problem with “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” because this story only seems to be about a man’s pleasure, but it isn’t even a true story. If it was a true story and there was something to learn from reading the novel, then I would finish it. But because I felt that the point of the story was not relevant to my life in any way, and I don’t feel I would learn anything from it, and all it did was make me uncomfortable, I chose not to finish it. I don’t think I need to go out of my way to read about terrible situations, from a story that isn’t even true.

Who has the most grit?

True Grit is a great example of American iconography and mythology for many reasons. But before I get to that, I’d like to talk about a couple reasons why this novel and movie were so new and different for their times. Unlike many other movies, especially westerns, True Grit has a little girl as the main character, and the “gun slinging” men work for her, which was unheard of at the time. This novel is also very matter-of-fact. It gets to the point and questions ideas in society. Which brings me to the question, who holds the power?

Not only in western movies, but also American society in general, it wasn’t too common for women to be looked at as equal. They were supposed to be a wife and a mom, and they didn’t hold much power outside of that. True Grit questions and challenges the ideas of women in America. In most of the novel and film the main character, Mattie Ross, seems to hold most of the power. She is the one who is paying Rooster Cogburn for his assistance in capturing the man who killed her father, and as the story goes on he starts to have more respect for her as he gets to know her and starts to look at her as a woman and not a child. Although she seems to hold most of the power, I believe throughout the story it power in in a constant flux. The power kind of jumps around between Mattie, Rooster, and La Boeuf.

Then we have to break it down and ask ourselves, who has the materialistic power, the gender power, and the lawful or unlawful power? I think all of these are in a constant state of flux, except maybe the gender power. I would say that Mattie holds the gender power because she is getting rid of the stereotypes of women when she shows her dedication to finding the man who killed her father. Out of all of the character I would say that Mattie has the most drive, which makes her hold most of the power.

So, True Grit is a good example of American iconography because the idea of power and heroes or heroines is apparent in everything. We question who has the power. American culture, especially in politics, really thrives on that idea.

Influence

As I read the novellas of Stefan Zweig, I started to connect them to Wes Anderson’s style of writing. Wes Anderson often has a character that ends up meeting, and having a fascination with an interesting, mysterious character. Often times the writing of Wes Anderson, as well as Stefan Zweig, will be almost like a confessional of the secrets between the main characters. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a good example of these types of mysterious characters, but I feel that if I were to compare Zweig’s novella, “Journey Into the Past”, with any of Anderson’s work, I think “Moonrise Kingdom” would be a great comparison. “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Journey Into the Past” both have two main characters that have fallen in love even though they aren’t meant to be together. I think Wes Anderson and Stefan Zweig both write on that fine line between a dream-like fantasy, and reality. With both works I find some level of truth. For example, we have all had a love interest or crush that we will never be with, but we find some happiness in thinking about it. I think they both take the reader or viewer to a place where they can dream about what would happen if they were put in those situations.

Zweig and Anderson both do a good job at transferring the anxiety of the characters to the audience. They both focus a lot on the character development, and the stories within stories. They embellish their stories in a way, and get carried away by almost putting the story on a halt to tell us the background of a character.

I also think that both Zweig and Anderson use these works as an extension of themselves. Stefan Zweig is like his characters because they are innocent people venturing into a dark territory. Zweig takes light-hearted ideas, such as the two characters falling in love in “Journey Into the Past”, and turns the plot around to where they cannot be together. Wes Anderson takes that idea and makes it into a satire. Wes Anderson’s movies are just as quirky as he is. Both styles work wonderfully at keeping the viewer or reader interested. Even though both are taking the stories to the extreme, they are both relatable on some level.  

Set Designing for "Harold and Maude"

If I were the set designer for the film “Harold and Maude”, I would look for a place that was kind of chilly and gloomy because it is a morbid film. I imagine the film will be made up of a lot of symmetrical shots. The opening scene is shot at floor level and only shows the feet of Harold, who is about to hang himself. For this scene, and the others to come that take place in this house, I envision the house being a very large gothic style mansion that is too big for the two people who live there, Harold and his mom. This gothic style house in the middle of a cold small town is directly representational of not only the money this family has, but also the morbid thoughts and actions of Harold.

Harold see’s a psychiatrist often, and the psychiatrist’s office will be a plain office, with maybe just a couch for the patient, a chair for the psychiatrist, and perhaps a plant. The office will be dull and stark white or light gray. Harold also goes to funerals frequently. It is his favorite thing to do other than acting out suicides. There must be a few different cemeteries to show in the film, and they should be big enough to see headstones in the background during the shots showing Harold. There also needs to be a gothic style church for a small funeral. Harold will be alone on one of many pews, and Maude will be on another. They are surrounded by stained glass windows that are just as beautiful as they are intimidating.

Maude’s apartment is a small one where every room is made up of one room. When you walk in, the main entry is cluttered with knick-knacks and memorabilia you would find at an antique shop. A lot of the things are massive, and any ordinary person would not be able to find them easily, such as a mounted swordfish. As you walk, the next “room” consists of a large canopy bed that is so extravagant that it looks as though it is from an opera or play. Some of Maude’s hoarded objects look as though they have been stolen because of their beauty, such as expensive looking paintings and sculptures. The giant sculptures sort of divide the space. The backyard is filled with fresh vegetables in the garden.

This screenplay is not what I expected it to be. I have heard of the movie before, but didn’t know what it was about until now. Although this story is quite strange, I very much enjoyed it. After writing my thoughts on what some of the scenes would look like, I watched the movie. I absolutely loved the movie and felt that Bud Cort was the perfect person to play the roll of Harold. His facial expressions and voice were brilliant. He truly pulled off the nice, but insane character better than anyone else I could imagine. If I had to rate this story, I would probably give it an 8 out of 10. It was weird, but made the reader/ viewer connect with Harold on an emotional level. I highly recommend this story.