I've seen "Wit", albeit a long time ago when I still subscribed to HBO with Emma Thompson in the lead. It may be amongst her best performances. And I think I've read the play. It is haunting and gut-wrenching. I've forgotten most of it - such as the analysis of Donne and the Runaway Bunny.
What I remember is the endless series of medical procedures, how she was treated like little more than an inanimate object to be prodded and examined than a person. And she handled that process. How impersonal the medical were. To the point in which they almost don't register, they might as well be robots. That's what I remember from it - and I think her slow deteriotation.
The play gets across the horror of being sick and going to the hospital so well, that you cringe during it and want to turn away. The Donne poem was "Death Be Not Proud" - I think. There's another play - a more sentimental one that uses it. Wit is better because it does not sentimentalize its subject and too often people do. It's what made that episode of BTVS, "The Body" so memorable - it lacked the sentiment that you so often find in stories of this nature. One of my favorite scenes in that episode is a simple one - Dawn is in art class being told to draw the space around the form of a woman - or the negative space, so the woman at the center become the gap - her absence from the space startling because of it. That's when Dawn is told by Buffy. But we don't hear the telling - instead we watch it with Dawn's classmates through the window, and merely see her reaction. It's how the writer/filmmaker chose to depict the scene that resonates. If he'd chosen what most people do - which is for us to hear Buffy tell Dawn in her home or a counselors office - it wouldn't resonate in quite the same way. Also he chooses to focus on the drawing Dawn has done - of the negative space around the object as opposed to the crying Dawn as his last shot in that section of the episode. So what we see is the outline of a woman -a blank hole in stark contrast to everything surrounding her ironically bringing their need of her into sharper focus, yet at the same time who she is in less distinct focus- a perfect metaphor for death.
The Sparrow is an odd book different from her other ones. And much better than it's sequel. Be curious to see what you think of it. Not everyone likes it. It's a bit gut-wrenching in places. Certainly memorable. Can your friend lend you their copy? Or maybe you can order through inter-library loan?
Atonement - ah. I had a lot of problems with that book. But I can't really go into them without spoiling you. What I can say is I'm in a minority regarding my problems with it. I didn't like any of the characters, and really did not like Briony's family. At the same time - it is a book that stays with you. And it well-written. Deftly so. Check it out from the library, don't buy it.
Thanks again for your response, Jane. I enjoyed reading it.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-01-26 02:49 pm (UTC)I've seen "Wit", albeit a long time ago when I still subscribed to HBO with Emma Thompson in the lead. It may be amongst her best performances. And I think I've read the play.
It is haunting and gut-wrenching. I've forgotten most of it - such as the analysis of Donne and the Runaway Bunny.
What I remember is the endless series of medical procedures, how she was treated like little more than an inanimate object to be prodded and examined than a person. And she handled that process. How impersonal the medical were. To the point in which they almost don't register, they might as well be robots. That's what I remember from it - and I
think her slow deteriotation.
The play gets across the horror of being sick and going to the hospital so well, that you cringe during it and want to turn away. The Donne poem was "Death Be Not Proud" - I think.
There's another play - a more sentimental one that uses it. Wit is better because it does not sentimentalize its subject and too often people do. It's what made that episode of BTVS, "The Body" so memorable - it lacked the sentiment that you so often find in stories of this nature. One of my favorite scenes in that episode is a simple one - Dawn is in art class being told to draw the space around the form of a woman - or the negative space, so the woman at the center become the gap - her absence from the space startling because of it. That's when Dawn is told by Buffy. But we don't hear the telling - instead we watch it with Dawn's classmates through the window, and merely see her reaction. It's how the writer/filmmaker chose to depict the scene that resonates. If he'd chosen what most people do - which is for us to hear Buffy tell Dawn in her home or a counselors office - it wouldn't resonate in quite the same way.
Also he chooses to focus on the drawing Dawn has done - of the negative space around the object as opposed to the crying Dawn as his last shot in that section of the episode. So what we see is the outline of a woman -a blank hole in stark contrast to everything surrounding her ironically bringing their need of her into sharper focus, yet at the same time who she is in less distinct focus- a perfect metaphor for death.
The Sparrow is an odd book different from her other ones. And much better than it's sequel.
Be curious to see what you think of it. Not everyone likes it. It's a bit gut-wrenching in places. Certainly memorable. Can your friend lend you their copy? Or maybe you can order through inter-library loan?
Atonement - ah. I had a lot of problems with that book. But I can't really go into them without spoiling you. What I can say is I'm in a minority regarding my problems with it.
I didn't like any of the characters, and really did not like Briony's family. At the same time - it is a book that stays with you.
And it well-written. Deftly so. Check it out from the library, don't buy it.
Thanks again for your response, Jane. I enjoyed reading it.