So Happy Together - Adaptation

Adaptation~Movie

          "Writing is a journey into the unknown." This is perhaps one of the truest statements I have heard about writing and is something I can constantly relate to. When I'm writing anything; an essay, a story, even something as simple as a blog post, I find myself staring at the screen, waiting for inspiration to hit, and the words to flow the page. Sometimes I won't even have an idea about what to write, and as corny as it sounds, the words really seem to speak to me and lead me on a journey full of twist, turns and endless emotions until I reach the final destination.

          Adaptation is a movie about Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage), a screenwriter who struggles with creating a movie based on the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep). He wants to do something original with it, avoid all the cliches and capture the essence of the book; however, he finds himself caught in a major case of writer's block. Charlie eventually, after learning some important life lessons on the way and seeking help from his foolish brother Donald, completes the script.

       

          I'm not really sure what I thought of the movie. I liked the concept of how in trying to avoid the cliches, Charlie doesn't realize that his own life is full of these "overdone moments." I find it interesting that no matter how hard you try, cliches are still able to wind up in your life; whether that be the "bright blue eyes" or the "goosebumps up your arms" or even the "falling in love with the guy you're writing about" type, cliched moments will happen to everyone. I know I've lived a few (mostly the "make a fool of yourself during a presentation" kind). Maybe that's what makes it so overdone; the fact that each person has a similar experience. Everyone has felt butterflies in their stomach, stayed up late talking to friends and (my personal favourite) complained about how school sucks. These are all common cliches.   In fact, I feel like people trying to avoid cliches is a cliche in itself. When writing, I feel as though the author should be able to relate with the character somehow, and through these cliches, these moments that almost everyone has gone through, this connection is established. 

          I think the biggest lesson I've learned from watching Adaptation is that to really write about something in depth, you have to understand it. We see this with Susan when she's writing about John. She really takes the time to know him (maybe a little too well) before finishing her book. Another example is Charlie himself. He isn't able to finish his script until he fully understands the situation about Susan and her life. When you understand everything about your subject it makes for a good story because there is no room for loopholes and it makes your storyline stronger. 

          

         Another thing I was able to relate to in this movie was the writing process of Charlie Kaufman. I could spend hours and hours trying to think of a topic or a story that fits, and nothing will ever come to me. Once I've finally found something to write about and I've written it, after rereading it I want to change everything because it never turns out the way I want it to. I'm actually quite surprised that I don't have the same hairstyle as Charlie; the process makes me want to pull all my hair out. I think this is something every writer goes through at one point (I just go through it…a lot more) because instead of forcing something, sometimes we need something to inspire us; to lift the pen and scribble itself on the blank piece of paper  that yearns for the ink to transport it into another dimension where anything is possible. 

          So though I'm not sure whether I liked the movie or not, I really did learn a lot from it. There's specifically one quote that stuck with me; "You are what you love, not what loves you." This really is significant in the life of a teenager, where at any given moment we can fall into an endless pit of insecurities, never to resurface. It tells them that the opinion of others should never change who you are. You are your own person; whether you like it or not. 

          

         

"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone." 
                             -Orson Welles (Director of War of the Worlds)

Awake and Alive

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
                          - Robert Frost

~Spoken Word~

Instructions for A Bad Day

By: Shane Koyczan

 

          For my spoken word analysis I chose Instructions for A Bad Day by the famous poet Shane Koyczan, the writer of To This Day. Like To This Day, I really enjoyed this poem.
          I think one of the things I like most about Shane Koyczan is his voice, which obviously is extremely important in spoken words (Duh! it's spoken!). His voice though soothing, really brings the point across. It's a voice that resonates inside of you, makes you think about everything that he is saying. It's really beautiful.

          Another thing I really like about this spoken word is the small sentence followed by a long sentence. For example, "Be confident. Know that now is only a moment, and if today is as bad as it gets, understand that by tomorrow, today will have ended." This structure is frequently used and I believe it is effective because the short sentence hits you hard, while the long sentence flows and captivates you. Another structure that I really enjoyed in this poem is the constant repetition of the word "be." For example, be calm, be diligent, be gracious. It almost inspires the listener as all the traits are those that we wish to obtain. I also enjoyed how Shane Koyczan used the same sentence to open his poem as he did to end it.

          My favourite line in this poem is the following; "Realize every dark cloud is a smoke screen meant to blind us from the truth, and the truth is whether we see them or not--the sun and the moon are still there and always there is light."

          I really enjoyed the message behind this poem; the thought that no matter how hard life seems, there is always hope. The thought that no matter how bad a day is, there will always be another tomorrow, and though today may have bought you sorrow, the next day will always be better, so let go of those bad days, and look forward to a better time. It's something everyone can relate to; every child, teenager, adult. We all have to face bad days. And when we do, we need to keep our heads held high and face them with a smile on our face because the future will always look better. This message is so important, especially in our society today, where stress and anger plagues the mind of young adults. It's important to let them know it will get better.

        This poem really was beautiful and inspiring. Next time I have bad day, this will be what I listen to in order to keep smiling.

   

It's a Real Life Author!!

       Teresa Toten. Despite being a published author who has won the Governor General's award, this name was unfamiliar to me; I had never heard of her in my life. When we were told that we would get a chance to meet this author, I couldn't find it in me to be that excited. I mean, if I've never heard of her, she couldn't be all that great could she? You always hear about great authors. I didn't know what to expect. But I was surely not expecting to be excited and determined after her presentation. Teresa Toten was phenomenal. 

          Her message was something that I believe I will hold with me forever. Failure is good. I think this is an important message because there comes a moment in life when everyone will fail at something. This doesn't mean that we should give up and sob about how tragic our life is. Failing is a lesson. A lesson that teaches you when life is hard and you don't think you can make it, try again and again and again, because one day you will make it. And at that moment, the sweetness of success is going to taste a whole lot better than it ever could. 

          

          I thought Teresa's life was very inspiring as she went through a lot. She lost her father at a very young age, had to deal with a half-brother bent on killing her and grew up moving from one place to another in a matter of months. Nothing was permanent for her. This emphasizes her success so much more because it is very hard to grow up in such a difficult environment and come out without a single complaint. Another thing I really like about her presentation was that she was very blunt about her flaws. This made me think that even though I was in the presence of a big-shot author, she was like me; she also had her imperfections. 

 

          Another thing I was able to relate to was the fact that she said "all of my books are failures." This is something I have to constantly deal with. If I'm writing an essay, a story, or even this Blog post, it NEVER turns out the way I want it to. In my head I come up with these elaborate plans and beautiful concepts, but as soon as I put it on a page it turns out completely different then what I had thought. That's when it becomes a failure. Even if I get a level 4, I think to myself, what would the plan in my head have gotten? 

          Teresa Toten captivated me from the very first sentence. The way her hand would move almost on its own accord to emphasize her point. The way she walked around the room, her piercing eyes holding you in your spot. The presentation was amazing. She seemed to really enjoy what she was doing even though she never wanted to be an author anyway. This experience was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I'm glad I had the chance to be a part of. I'm definitely going to read The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B. 

Poetry~Reflection

          Poetry has never been one of my fortes. So when I found out we were supposed to write a collection of poems, I knew I was done for.
          I sat for hours just trying to think of what  to write about and then another few hours actually coming up with the words. It was a painfully long process. I started thinking of things that are important in life and that's how I came up with my first poem; Freedom.
          Now the title is pretty self-explanatory, this poem was about freedom. The title probably could've been better thought out, but unfortunately it was all I could think of. I made this poem about sound and instantly regretted it as I wracked my brain for rhyming words. I followed the structure to the best of my abilities by using the a,b,a,b rhyming scheme and used a lot of metaphors and similies throughout the poem. Another poetry device I used was personification. I made Freedom into a character, saying things like: "Freedom was my friend, a companion to love." I believe that this poem does evoke a feeling of pain and sadness, which is what I was aiming for. To have something like freedom being taken away from you, it's not easy, and I feel like this poem shows how necessary freedom is by showing how unattainable it is for the character in the poem. I used very formal diction in order to get a sense of detachment and a "given up" feeling...which is kind of depressing. I guess my grammar and punctuation is consistent...I mean I don't really know. And the poem was appropriate length. I think the strength of this poem was the rhyming and rythm. Words like replaced, embraced and gone, dawn, really helped put the poem together. A weakness in my poem was most definitely that it wouldn't really make sense to the reader. They would understand it was about freedom but they wouldn't really get what happened to strip this character from it. While writing this, all I saw in my head was a guy in a prison cell, so I really couldn't answer what had happened to him; I didn't think that far.
        All in all, I guess it was an okay poem.

        My second poem was an image poem. I absolutely hated the title. I called it Reality. As soon as I typed it in I hated it. But of course I couldn't think of something better until after I had handed it in. With this image poem I attempted to portray the struggles of suffering that some people have to go through. I really liked how this poem turned out, though it wasn't exactly as I hoped it would be. I used the constant repetition of the word "Imagine" in order to paint a picture in the reader's mind and I think it was quite effective. I really thought of cacophony here in order to make the readers realize the harshness and severity of the situation and I feel like that might have been a weakness because I tend to get carried away with stuff like that. I thought that the ending was the best part, though originally I had intended to get rid of it. Here it is: "The time has come, to come together, and make this reality something we could never imagine." I felt like this line evoked a strong sense of inspiration and a "do something" attitude which is what I was going for. The rest of the poem, like the first one, is quite depressing (which makes me realize that a lot of my poems are quite depressing…weird). Out of the entire collection, I think that this one was the best.

         The first haiku, Into the Light, was okay, I suppose. Like the others, I hated the title (I'm sensing a pattern here…), but I felt that the concept was intriguing. The idea of someone heading off into this supposed "light." Don't get me wrong, I believe in heaven, I'm just a little skeptical about this bright, white light. So I wrote about someone going into this light. I followed the 5, 7, 5 structure; though I was hoping Mr. Heneke wouldn't notice a dropped syllable here or there. I liked the use of my words here, for example, "A small step forward," which kind of signifies the fear of the person as well as my skepticism about the light. A weakness of the poem was, in my opinion, the use of the title in the poem. It just kind of felt like I was repeating myself and it sounded kind of off. At least it wasn't as depressing as the other ones…even though the guy died.

         I had had enough of my depressing poems so I practically forced myself to write a happy one. It was about love and I called it: Smile, Love. I guess the title for this one was okay, could have been better but at the same time it could've been worse. A weakness of this poem was that it was a giant cliché. I mean you see it in books and movies. The guy or the girl smiles and their partner practically falls to their knees begging for attention. It may be a cliché, but it's still sweet. So I guess a strength was that it was different, out of my comfort zone and not depressing. I followed the structure and it was an appropriate length. It wasn't my favourite, but I was glad that I tried something different.

         Bolt of Light was my final haiku. This one was more like a typical haiku because it was connected to nature, a storm in particular. Following the structure was easy; however, the poem did not turn out at all as I had wanted it to. It didn't make sense at all which was also the biggest weakness. This one was definitely not the best.

         I liked my last poem; Queen of Hearts (I actually liked the title too! Surprised?). I thought it would be interesting to think like the Queen from Alice in Wonderland. I believe that I was able to portray her well, cruel, easily annoyed and restless. In my poem I show the Queen commanding her guard to behead a creature but I didn't explain why or what he did in order to deserve that. That would be my weakness. This was a character poem and I believe I was able to portray, with the right words, the personality of the Queen. For example, my favourite part of the poem is as follows: "I smirked at the creature before me, inferior in every way, before turning to the guards, with my own expectant gaze. "You know the drill," I said, "OFF WITH HIS HEAD."" I believe I portrayed her well especially by using her "catchphrase."
     

Poetry Presentation~Song

This is the song I chose to do for my poetry presentation:

Poetry~Patchwork Poem

Together Forever
You were a saint, you were a queen.

Not that I did compare, but I do compare, now that you’re gone. 

The life from your eyes had faded away,

Like the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

You closed your eyes, and did not open them again.
Caught in an eternal sleep,
Dreaming endlessly.
I'm gonna go where the rest of the dreamers go.
You and I will be forever, with each other.
And we will chase the dark together.

Poetry~Character

Prometheus' Punishment

There I lay, unmoving, uncaring, unfeeling.

The cool, metal restraints holding me down,

from running,

far away.

From hunching over,

and letting the pain consume me. 

The rock was solid behind me,

supporting me,

like a friend,

but mocking my helplessness,

like an enemy. 

My torso glittered with gold ichor. 

The pain was excruciating.

The sun blazed, unrelenting,   

like an open fire,

a teasing reminder of what I had done;

who I had betrayed. 

The thunder laughed and the lightning sparkled,

signifying its return.

I screamed in fright and agony,

wishing it would all end,

as the cry of the eagle echoed through my head.

Inspiration Song: Dear Agony- Breaking Benjamin

"Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry."

                                -Cassandra Clare, author of Clockwork Angel 

Poetry~Sonnet

Abandoned

There is nothing left in this cold, cold world.

She left me standing on the small paved road. 

The moon was watching like a giant pearl.

I was nothing but baggage to unload. 

Her smile was soft and peaceful to me. 

Her words were beautiful and comforting.

Her eyes glittered bright and menacingly,

As she left me in the cold, shuddering. 

She just walked away with nothing to say,

Commanding me to stop when I followed. 

I continued to beg for her to stay,

But she did not stop, leaving me hollowed. 

That she would return, I did not believe.

I screamed loudly, "Mother, why did you leave?" 

"I love short stories because I believe they are the way we live. They are what our friends tell us, in their pain and joy, their passion and rage, their yearning and their cry against injustice."
                               -Andre Dubus

Short Story Unit

          One of the units I was most looking forward to in this course was the short story one. I find short stories extremely captivating because of their intensity and intriguing story lines as they are condensed into a few pages. Before this course, I read a couple of scary short stories which I really enjoyed because it captivated me with the characters, plot, setting, etc. as well as leaving my heart pounding. Even while reading a few disturbing stories, I found myself completely entranced.
          The characters that I really enjoyed from the stories that we looked at in class were the man from the short story Identities and the old man from the short story Imagine a Day at the End of Your Life. I believe that I found them extremely memorable because they weren't given a name. I had never read a story (from what I can recall) in which the main character wasn't named. I found it interesting that by not giving the character a name I was able to visualize the story a lot easier. Another reason as to why I liked these characters was that both were struggling about some aspect of their life. This gave me a sense of reality because everyone in the world struggles with something or the other; it helped make the story more real for me.

          I think the most challenging part of writing a short story was the page restraint. I felt that I wasn't able to say all that I had wanted to and couldn't describe the important parts of my story. One of my biggest problems is shortening things. I tend to get a little (okay, maybe a lot) carried away. But I'm hoping to change that. 

          I don't really have a specific type of short story that I like. I like everything that has an interesting and different plot and characters that you can connect to. I feel like if you're able to connect with the character, it gives you a different perspective on the story and makes you enjoy it a lot more. 

         

          The thing that I liked most about my short story was its plot. I thought it was an interesting situation though it was hard for me to write exactly what I meant. The hardest part to deal with had to have been the page limit. I think I could have lessened the description a little bit in order to concentrate more on the plot itself. That would have improved my story in my opinion. 

Poetry~Renga

Season's End
The leaves fall slowly,
Crimson blood seeps out of me,
As I near the end.

I breathe in and out, it hurts.
One more in and no exhale.

The snow falls silver;
blowing in my open eyes,
I watch myself rest.

Paint You Wings

"Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is a burning well, poetry is just the ash."
                     -Leonard Cohen

Poetry~ Haiku #2

The End
The leaves fall slowly,
Crimson blood seeps out of me,
As I near the end.

Poetry~Haiku #1

Gone
The trees are dying,
And he turns around to leave.
I am all alone.