The Rachel Papers/The Lust Diaries

My RE-write Movie Ideas?!!
In my interpretation of the new The Rachel Papers I would change the name of the story to The Lust Diaries. My character would be female but her journey would be a bit different. She would be a beautiful Caribbean Island girl but she is very insecure, therefor causing her to yearn for love and attention, but the men that she meets are old and not realistic for finding happiness. Her name would be Chauncey and she would have 4 siblings all girls each different in their own way but, still no father figure in the picture, causing her to have “daddy issues”. Chauncey and her friend Shne would leave the Island together, and experience life in the US.
Chauncey would keep a journal about her escapades, and eventually meet the man of her dreams, Joseph, or so she thought and he would bring along bad things, drugs, bad luck, and eventually break her heart. Chauncey feels that love is the only thing keeping her alive, and in the moment of weakness when she wasn’t looking for attention and trying to better herself, she meets a man named Ramsey who would turn her life around. When Chauncey is older and reminiscing about her life she will decide to write a story about her experiences.
Forever Young-Alphaville
When the novel opens we are introduced to Charlie Highway a young man who is going to be traveling to Oxford soon. He describes himself as a bit nerdy but then the attention turns to his age. “Twenty may not be the start of maturity but in all conscience, it’s the end of youth (Amis 3).” Many people feel this way when you think about modern society.
Charlie however felt that “there were several teenage things still to be done; get a job, have a first love, and well just marshal in my childhood” (Amis 6). I liked how Amis incorporated a saying that we are all familiar with, “You are only as old as you feel” isn’t necessarily a quote that you could prove true or false. I felt that this song was appropriate in a sense to describe Charlie’s journey from teenager to man. Chauncey in the opening of the film would experience some of the some feelings as Charlie with the exception of feeling sad about leaving home but happy about her new journey in life.

Papa Was A Rolling Stone-The Temptations
Charlie Highway is one of six children that his parents have together, 4 boys including Charlie and 2 girls. “The thing is that I am a member of that sad, ever-dwindling minority…the child of an unbroken home. I have carried this albatross since the age of eleven” (Amis 7). In today’s society it would be easy for many students and adults to be able to relate to this type of “minority”. It is very normal to be raised in a single parent household.
Charlie gives us a bit of background on his family, “My father has in all sired six children. I used to suspect that he had had so many just to show the catholicity of his tastes, to bolster his image as tolerant patriarch to inform the world that his loins were rich in sons (Amis 8). For some time now his ferrety favors have been the preserve of his mistress, as I was assured at the age of fifteen by my elder brother” (9) Papa was a rolling stone is a song that suggests that the man described “Papa” was very promiscuous. Although Charlie’s father did not have any other children it seemed fitting to relate this song to him since he does in fact have a mistress. This song would fit in perfect with my movie because Chauncey doesn’t have her father in the picture at all therefor her papa would be a rolling stone in terms of he moves around a lot.
Petula Clark – Downtown & On The Road Again Willie Nelson
I chose the song Downtown because I felt it was perfect for how Charlie may have been feeling when he was at home, miserable but he would feel better once he left and went “downtown” which really would be Oxford. “Elation was gathering on me like a drug-I smiled at my fellow passengers, gazed interestedly out of the window, and was polite and deferential to the transport operative, producing the correct money and enunciating my destination clearly” (Aims 12)
Charlie explains that “London is where people go in order to come back from it sadder and wiser. But I had already been there-returned form it only three weeks before in fact.” (Aims 12) I chose the song On the Road again because this was not Charlie’s first trip to Oxford as he explained to the readers. He seems very elated about leaving home. Chauncey would be able to relate to this because she would be happy about leaving the Island but sad at the fact that she is leaving her family behind.
Linkin Park-Lying From You
Lying From You is a song about a kid who feels that he has to lie to get away. In the moment up until Charlie meets Gloria he begins to think about the lie he may have told her. “I wondered if there were any important lies I had told her which it would be worth reacquainting myself with, but could think of none.” (Aims 16)
Modern students would relate really well with this song and the story because at some point in time we all lie to impress someone or make ourselves look more appealing to the opposite sex. Charlie tried really hard to think about any other lies he had told Gloria, “which reminded me (him); there was another lie; I was friendly with Mick Jagger.” (Aims 17) This song would also work well with my interpretation because Chauncey being from the Islands would not have much money and she has to lie in order to succeed overseas. On the island she has family and friends so money is a non-factor.
Bad Romance — Lady Gaga
I chose Bad Romance because it is the perfect song to describe the relationship Charlie has with Gloria. It is just sex. He spends the time after wondering, “What did I feel for her? Ambiguous lust, genial conscension, and gratitude. It didn’t seem enough” (Aims 25) They don’t have anything serious going on and this could also relate to my interpretation because the relationships Chauncey has are all Bad Romances until Ramsey.
Joseph is the man that Chauncey believed would make her happy forever but ended up breaking her heart. “I want your love and all your lovers revenge you and me could write a Bad Romance” (Lady Gaga).
That Girl- Justin Timberlake
Charlie I mesmerized by Rachel and gets lost in her presence. He scurries up enough courage to call her while he is out on the town. “You probably don’t remember me (why should you?) but in fact we met at the party in August? August 9th? I was wondering…” (Aims 29) I chose this song because I feel that it exasperates how infatuated a person could be with someone else, for example one moment in the song Timberlake explains how this girl of his dreams has been running through his mind all day. “She lit a cigarette. That would give me five precious minutes in which to think” (Aims 30). Charlie continues on to intensely describe Rachel and every detail about her body, while still informing us that she was “a bit out of (his) my league really.” (Aims 30)

Day Dream Lupe Fiasco
I felt that this song is a good interpretation of the novel, The Lust Diaries because Chauncey would have moments that she daydreams about how life in the US could, but she continues to wake up on the Island. Chauncey wishes and hopes for a better future and eventually releasing her diary and the stories about her past sets her up for success. This song is the ultimate day dream, waking up and imagining this world that is perfectly perfect and what you know your life is supposed to be like.
In relation to The Rachel Papers, I feel that Charlie in the beginning was just dreaming about what he and Rachel could have, and eventually his dream becomes a reality for a moment. Charlie can’t wait for the moment that he is able to see, spend time and sleep with Rachel. Although his “dreams” were accomplishing teenage things before he became an adult, Chauncey’s ultimate dream other than happiness is Love.
Girls Girls Girls- Jay Z
I chose this song because in reading the novel it seems as if Charlie is all about sex. Sex seems to be an important part of his life, or maybe it was just the idea of sex, since he never had sex with Coco. “Coco was the sixteen year old daughter of a Lebanese economics professor. I kept our correspondence because it made me feel active and in demand, and because I like showing off in letters” (59) Charlie is what I would call an attention whore. He wants to be noticed although he doesn’t think he looks the best he still feels that he deserves the consideration.
Girls Girls Girls is a song about a man who is in love with women. I felt that it was fitting for the novel, especially after reading the section about how Charlie felt he had enough never to call Rachel immediately after sleeping with Gloria. This song could also be on the soundtrack for The Lust Diaries because even though the title is about Girls, it’s about someone who is in love with the opposite sex. Chauncey isn’t in love with Guys but the idea of ultimate happiness with the one guy that she is supposed to be with.

Amis, Martin. The Rachel Papers. 1973. Vintage International. 13-19. EBook.

Iris Murdoch

 

Iris Murdoch introduced us to The Bell a story she had written with a multi-character analysis and over view on their personal lives as well as an actual Bell. Murdoch was born in “Dublin to Anglo-Irish parents on July 15, 1919, Murdoch moved to London with her parents at an early age but returned to Ireland frequently to visit relatives” (1 Bove). “Iris Murdoch writes in the English realist tradition, so it is not surprising that her novels are filled with the upper middleclass intellectuals and artists who form her world. She has stated her admiration for the great nineteenth century realists, and her writing has been compared to that of Fyodor Dostoevsky and George Eliot” (3 Bove). Murdoch seems to believe in the Plato and Freud philosophy’s and applies these methods to her writings.

“Her moral philosophy and characterization reflect Murdoch’s position as a Platonist. She believes that truth and vision are illusive and that individuals are relegated to an illusory life and have only intimations of truth. Her characters display an awareness of truth which is commensurate with their spiritual development. Only those who are able to lose themselves and attend diligently to the concerns of others are capable of moral advancement. She accepts the Freudian explanation of the psyche as egoistic and believes the natural inclination of the psyche is for consolation and protection.” (Bove 5)

 

I chose this photo because it reminds me of how I saw Dora’s character in the beginning of the novel. Her character did change some in a sense of her trying to become her own woman but ultimately Dora was young and the scenarios of swapping the bell signifies her transition to really become herself. “Dora Greenfield left her husband because she was afraid of him” (1) in this very instance this is our first introduction to Dora one of the main characters in Murdoch’s novel The Bell. Initially when I first began reading I was expecting to be introduced to a character who was in an abusive relationship, but that was not the case at all. Dora Greenfield married young, admired some aspects of her husband but ultimately, “discovered that it was not so easy as she had imagined to grow into being Paul’s wife” (3). Dora married a man 13 years older that her one whom she had only admired, “the nobility of character she saw in him, and because he was so more grown up than her” (2). She married Paul for being someone more mature, someone she hoped she herself would eventually become.
“She had a round well-formed face and a large mouth that liked to smile. Her eyes were dark slaty blue and rather long and large. Her hair was golden brown and grew in a long flat strip down the side of her head like ferns growing down a rock. This was attractive” (9). Although Dora was described as being very attractive it seems as if she still felt, “to be enclosed to one another” (11) for Paul to have power over Dora was her sense and new thought of what a marriage was.

 

“Have faith in God and remember that He will in His own way and in His own time compete what we so poorly attempt” (218) this coming from the Abbess as she speaks to Michael. Many of the characters we are introduced to have some type of battle with religion. “Michael felt himself to be one of them who can live neither in the world nor out of it” (71). “They are the kind of sick people whose desire for God makes them unsatisfactory citizens of an ordinary life…”(71). Michael recognized spiritual authority. . “Dora’s ignorance of religion, as of most things, was formidable. She had never in fact been able to distinguish religion from superstition and had given up her own practice of it…” (7). Toby experiences a moment in the story when he is trying to pray but every little sound creates a disturbance and doesn’t allow him to concentrate. Michael’s repression of his homosexuality blocks his spirituality, and Murdoch attributes this satisfaction to Dora after sleeping with Toby. I chose this photo because it represents in my opinion what each character was battling with whether it be live or religion because there is always a right and wrong or good and bad way to do something. I always believed that if you could imagine that there is evil in the world that there is also good and vise versa. “God can always show us, if we will, a higher and better way; and we can only learn to love by loving. Remember that all our failures are ultimately failures in love. Imperfect love must not be condemned and rejected but made perfect” (219).

 

Cassandra Israel

Bove, Cheryl Browning. Understanding Iris Murdoch. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 31 July 2013

 

Murdoch, Iris. The Bell. Penguin Group (USA) Inc 1958

When you first catch a glimpse at the title of the novel Lucky Jim written by Kingsley Amis one would assume that the story is about a man named Jim that is lucky. We begin to see how this assumption may not be so true, first Jim is basically stuck hanging out with Margaret a woman that Jim was not attracted to, second he had a job that he wanted to advance in but he was not showing initiative. One example of Jim’s bad luck is when he falls asleep smoking and burns holes in the Welch’s sheets. “Had he done all this himself? Surely this would mean the loss of his job, especially if he failed to go to Mrs. Welch and confess what he’s done, and he knew already that he wouldn’t be able to do that.” (Amis 61) Jim’s only solution was to hide the burn marks from the cigarettes was to make it seem as if moths had eaten through the sheets.
I chose this photo because in my opinion it shows a man who has no worries, or cares in the world but if you look at the details you will see that not everything is as it seems. The multicolored background leads one to believe that his life is not consistent, his world is in shambles. The flower that he is holding isn’t dead but it vibrant and beaming with life. One moment when Jim begins to feel that his life is turning around when Christine agrees to go out with him. “Dixon felt like a special agent, a picaroon, a Chicago war-lord, a hidalgo, an oil baron, a mohock. When she turned and faced him at the edge of the floor, he found it hard to believe that she was really going to let him touch her.” (Amis 115)

I chose this photo because modern day society could relate to the character Homer Simpson in comparison to that of Jim Dixon. As a young child and even now that I am older I notice that regardless of how Homer feels, or who he is in front of his facial expression and attitude portrays how he feels at the current moment. One episode Homer was so angry with his son Bart that he turned the color green as if he were The Hulk as shown in the bottom right corner. Homer has many moments of immaturity which almost directly relates to the story Lucky Jim.
Jim Dixon experiences many different emotions throughout the story and shows many different faces. At the start of the novel Jim and Margaret have a date later in the evening and he finds himself “becoming creased and flabby like an old bag with strain of making it smile and show interest and speak its few permitted words” (Amis 8). After a night of drinking Jim expresses his hangover and face as “heavy, as if little bags of sand had been painlessly sewn into various parts of it, dragging the features away from the bones, if he still had bones in his face.” Many people have a hard time hiding how they are feeling and Jim’s character is no different from any of us.

Margaret and Christine seem to be the two main women that in some sense caught Jim’s eye. Although she is described as “small, thin, and bespectacled with bright make up, (Amis 13)” Dixon did spend quite a bit of his time with Margaret partly because he felt bad about her suicide attempt, but he also felt “It was a pity she wasn’t a bit better looking” (Amis). Christine on the other had is described as “irresistible attack on his own habits, standards, and ambitions something designed to put him in his place for good” (Amis 36). Based on these few words one could attest to the desire that Dixon felt from first glance about Christine but towards the end of the novel he did have a bit of frustration towards her adolescent mindset marrying Bertrand.
I chose this photo because it could resemble the way that the reader incisions Christine and Margaret. I would suggest seeing Margaret as the woman in the green skirt and Christine being the woman in the gown. “Christine” in the gown portrays our character in the novel mainly because it looks as if this woman in fact does take better consideration to how she is viewed by society or her friends and family; whereas the woman on the right looks as if she kind of just threw something on. In reality both women as one point or another in the novel were receiving Jim’s attention in both a positive and a negative way hence the photo I chose. Both women in the picture are unattractive in a sense but what one lacks the other makes up for.

 

Cassandra Israel

Modernist Art Related to Mrs. Dalloway

Modernist art is known as art that depicts many things, emotions, realism in the world, and any expectation that does not relate to the standards of “old art dating back to before the 19th century. Surrealism is a fad that started around the 1920s. Artists during this time period rebelled and took it upon themselves to redefine art through their eyes. “Though these explorations of the human figure had a long tradition in the history of art, Surrealists went further, breaking taboos and shocking viewers in their depiction of mutilated, dismembered, or distorted bodies. In the 1930s, such visions may have had particular resonance given the still-pervasive sight of World War I veterans—many left limbless or using prosthetics—and the specter of a second World War on the horizon” (moma.org).

This piece in my opinion relates to Clarissa and her relationship with Peter and Richard in a sense. Peter had moments throughout the story when we really got to envision how deeply his feelings ran for Clarissa. In the same instance we could see that Richard loved Clarissa and was content with their relationship. This picture shows how you can be intimate with someone and not really know who they are, or if this is in fact the person you are supposed to be with. I am sure we all know how it feels to be in love and want to have the fairy tale ending that seems to only happen in the movies. A moment that stood out to me was after Peter left Clarissa’s home; “Remember my party, remember my party, said Peter Walsh as he stepped down the street, speaking to himself rhythmically, in time with the flow of sound…” (Woolf 48).

Lucrezia Warren Smith and her husband Septimus Warren Smith came to mind when I saw this image. When we are first introduced to her in the story she is trying to get Septimus to the park because he is not well and the doctor recommended that he “take an interest in things outside himself” (Woolf, 21). Rezia in my opinion being the best wife she can but the stress that Septimus is feeling is affecting her as well. We are told by Woolf that Rezia is, “only twenty-four, without any friends in England, who had left Italy for his sake, a piece of bone” (Woolf 16). Rezia tried to and had succeeded in hoping for their relationship but began wishing Septimus had succeeded in killing himself.

“Artists living in the rapidly modernizing world of late 19th-century Europe wished not only to depict modern (for them, contemporary) everyday life, but also to reveal the emotional and psychological effects of living in a world in rapid flux”(moma.org). This picture presents a person in my opinion that is stressed, and worried, or even confused. It suits both characters in the story since the effects of the war had taken a toll on both of them, Septimus in the form of PTSD and Rezia in the form of anxiety, sadness, and defeat. Rezia wants to be happy with Septimus and the fact that his sickness, strains their relationship makes the reader be able to relate to her more.

“The end of the 19th century in France is known as La Belle Époque (“the beautiful age”), in part because of the high cultural development that occurred at that time. Entertainment for the general public was a fairly new phenomenon. Artists, writers and patrons frequented Parisian cabarets, where singers and dancers enjoyed growing acclaim for their talents” (moma.org). Although this image depicts that of a dancer I chose this photo to relate it to the women that we are introduced to in Woolf’s story.

Clarissa is at a moment in her life when she is trying to decide whether or not she has made all of the right decisions. Rezia is sad and confused about her husband and how he is feeling. Sally was once a free spirit and now a wife, married with children. Woolf was a supporter of feminism and women’s rights and this picture resembles a free woman. A woman free in spirit, mind, and body, not worried about how she has lived life but how she is living life in the moment.

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando, Florida:
Harcourt, Inc, 1925. Print.
http://www.moma.org

Cassandra Israel

James Joyce Music, Education, Religion and Politics/War

Music is something I feel connects us all in a way that even language cannot. I can recall at the beginning of Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man Stephen’s father was telling him a bed time story and he began to recite words that he had thrown together from the story to create his own song. Music in the 1900s became began to change drastically and new genres began such as The Jazz Age. It was believed that music according to some writers “provides a new dimension to Joyce’s works not immediately available to those readers who lack Joyce’s apparent knowledge of Irish folk music, music hall songs, nursery rhymes, sixteenth century madrigals, liturgical music, and opera. So careful an author as Joyce places little or no extraneous material in his text, and so the very volume of musical references dictates the significant contribution they make to his works. It is hoped that this book will delineate the method and meaning of that contribution.” (Bowen)

Many artists have drawn their own ideas of literary work from those of Joyce and feel that Music had a huge impact on his work. “His love of language was instrumental in his experimental writing that used mythology, literature, and history to create an innovative language using symbols and various narrative forms. Joyce’s creativity has been compared to that of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud.” (authenticireland)

War has also taken its toll on Joyce, causing him to relocate his family multiple. There is a moment in Portrait when Stephen goes home for Christmas and his father Mr. Dedalus talks with a mutual friend who confronts a priest directly, and in turn has criticized the involvement of the Catholic Church in Irish politics. Ultimately Dante disapproves, saying it isn’t right for anyone to criticize the Catholic Church.
“In 1915, because of uncertain conditions occasioned by the First World War, which he was resolute in his determination to ignore as much as he possibly could, Joyce moved his family to Zurich. The following year, 1916, brought the publication of the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” (WPS.Ablongman) War was not a very direct topic discussed in the Novel but there were intense moments explained when politics were discussed. Much has not changed from 1916 until now when it comes to heavy discussions of politics. In fact speaking of politics is something that is frowned upon when it comes to invoking conversations.

Education played an important part in Joyce’s life as well as Stephen. Stephen’s life at University was truly a life changing one. There were moments in Portrait when Stephen missed class and moments when he debated leaving the school. Joyce on the other hand had a great deal of success in education as a student and even became an educator. “The literary works of Irish writer James Joyce are perhaps the most studied, argued and admired of all modern classics. Educated by Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, Belvedere College in Dublin, and University College, he majored in philosophy and literature. He exiled himself from Ireland in 1904 and moved to Trieste where he taught English at the Berlitz School from 1905 to 1915” (authenticireland).

It is known that Joyce grew up in a Catholic church and Stephen’s up bringing resembled some characteristics of that. In Portrait the Stephen has his own battle with religion and how it affects his relationships with the people around him. One passage that stood out to me was when Stephen was thinking about how in every language God’s name was still God. “But was there anything round the universe to show where it stopped before the nothing place began? It could not be a wall; but there could be a thin thin line there all round everything. It was very big to think about everything and everywhere. Only God could do that. He tried to think what a big thought that must be; but he could only think of God. It made him very tired to think that way. It made him feel his head very big.” (Joyce 15)
I can recall my own moments in early childhood having similar conversations with my friends about God. We were always attempting to interpret how God felt when we Sinned, or if since he in fact created the world there could be life outside of Earth or just as Stephen said the Universe. Towards the end of the book Stephen questions his beliefs, “I tried to love God, he said at length. It seems now I failed. It is very difficult. I tried to unite my will with the will of God instant by instant” (Joyce 301).

Cassandra Israel

Joyce, James A Portriat of the Artist as a Young Man. 1916
http://www.authenticireland.com/writings-james-joyce/
Potts, Willard. Joyce and The Two Irelands. University of Texas Press 2001.
http://wps.ablongman.com/long_kennedy_lfpd_9/22/5820/1489989.cw/index.html
Bowen, Zack R. Musical Allusions In The Works Of James Joyce : Early Poetry Through Ulysses. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1974. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 22 June 2013.