‘Adaptation’

Maimuna Camara

Eng101/103

Dr. McCormick

Spring I

In class we watched two different movies one was called ‘Adaptation’ and the other movie is called ‘Moon.’ ‘Adaptation’ caught my attention; this movie was directed by Spike Jonze and was written by Charlie Kaufman. This movie is based on a book called ‘The
Orchid Thief’ written by Susan Orleans. The name Orchid is the word from Latin. In the movie the characters play real life people, Meryl Streep acts as Susan Orleans, Nicolas Cage acts as Charlie Kaufman, and Chris Cooper acts as John Laroche. This movies shows how Charlie Kaufman has struggled turning the book into a movie.

In the movie each character is going through their phase of reality and imagination.  Charlie Kaufman is very insecure and depress about his self. Charlie does not like the way he looks calls himself fat and thinks something is wrong with him. Charlie is a writer and believes that writing is a journey to the unknown. He hates the fact that his twin brother Donald has moved in with him and is doing better than he is. Throughout the movie Charlie goes in and out of reality and imagination in his dreams. He was not the type to do so well when it came to females, he always was scared to even touch them. However in his dreams he seems to do pretty good and masturbates a lot. Even though it is happen in his dreams he feels it in real life, that’s when he comes back to reality and wakes up from these dreams. Donald on the other hand is very confident and has a great since of hummer. He does not have a problem when it comes to females, he even has a girlfriend.  

John Laroche is a planet collector that travels from different states to find several of different planets. Laroche believes that each planet is unique in its own way and the way they are shape. He said that the planet shapes form from different insect and how much they breed off the planet leaving their mark. This is why planets are shaped differently and can look like some insect such as bees. Laroche goes back and forth from the past to the present life. He tries to make sense of reality after he was in a car accident that killed his mother and father. His wife went into a coma and later left him. John blames himself for their death and wonders why it was not him instead. He looses his house and everything along with it. Laroche is left alone with no one and nothing. Then he discovers this planet called gosh Orchid and goes on a mission trying to find it. When he finally does find this planet he makes drugs from it. Laroche starts to develop feelings for Susan after she interviews him for her book.

Susan the book writer is unhappy and acts as if she is happy with her relationship with her husband. She becomes depress with their marriage and pretends every time she is around him or when he appears around her work place. Susan is stock with the life she has with her husband but things starts to change once she starts spending time with Laroche and interviewing him for her book. She becomes attach to him and his life style then slowly starts to fall in love with him. When she is around him she is a different person than when she is around her husband. She imaging how her life would be if she was with Laroche. Then she stops imaging and makes her thoughts into reality. She is now a part of Laroche life and starts having sexually affairs with him. She even starts to take drugs with Laroche and developed this whole new life with him. Throughout the movie Susan pretends that she is a good women and perfect worker, this is her reality of like. However when she is with Laroche she is in her imagination of life, where there is no rules and she can do as she please.

At the end of the movie Charlie and Donald discovers Susan second life with Laroche. Susan does not want nobody to find about her and Laroche and her sniffing drugs, not even her husband. So she decides that she has to kill Charlie, so her secret is safe. Instead of Charlie dying Laroche dies from being eating be alligator. And his twin brother Donald dies as well in a car crash. Susan is arrested and Charlie overcame his fears with women and finished the ended of his screen play.

"IF I TOLD HIM" A Completed Portrait of Picasso

The poem “lf I Told Him” A complete portrait of Picasso by Gertrude Stein was a very interesting poem to read. The poem was a bite confusing at first because the words were rapidly repeated in a wired order format. However I thought this were a nice poem and a good way to describe Picasso, especially from someone close to him as Gertrude Stein. I really liked how Stein incorporated music in her background as she reads her poem; this reminded me of a poetry slam. After reading the poem and finding out that she wrote the poem in this way was because Picasso was a person that spoke in incomplete sentences and not making sense. The poem was well said and put together very good, I enjoyed trying to read it and make sense of what Gertrude Stein was trying to say.

The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells’s chapter3

               In the book The Island of Dr. Moreau, by H.G. Wells’s chapter three is about The Strange Faces are about Montgomery, Mr. Prendick, and this black man climbing up a ladder. As they were going up the ladder Mr. Prendick notice the black man who he was afraid and startled by this man that looks like a creature to him. The man is black with big white teeth, with eyes that are bloodshot at the edges, and with a little bite of white around the hazel pupils. The man had this curious slow of excitement on his face. Mr. Prendick felt like he was being force to stare at this ugly horrible looking man because he is in front of him going up the ladder. Montgomery speaks to the black man saying “you have no business here, you know,” (9). Montgomery said this to the black man in a very deliberate tone of voice.  He also indicated that the black man should be forward instead of backward. The black men however indicate that he cannot go forward, but Montgomery on the other hand demands that he do as he says.  Half way through the hatchway, Mr. Prendick realizes how he is amazed by the way this black man looks. At first he was startled by the black man looks, now Mr. Prendick is all into the way he looks and how he seen this black man somewhere before. They are on a ship where Mr. Prendick seems to dislike the captain as much as the captain dislikes him. Therefore Mr. Prendick calls the captain the devil and ugly. The more he got on the captains nerve the captain decides to throw him off the ship, because he is the captain and can do what he wants on his ship. 

description of the painting

        

I have chosen a Painting by Francis Picabia called Me See Again in Memory My Dear Udine. The painting was done by 1914 and was begun 1913, the painting is an Oil on canvas; it is 8' 2 1/2" x 6' 6 1/4" (250.2 x 198.8 cm). ). The painting is actually a machine in the dawning technological age. That describes a girl that was born without her mother. Francis came about this painting because he was inspired by his experiences in New York. Francis was relating this painting to Napierskowska, a professional dancer whom PicabiaPicabia started showing gouaches and watercolors that were inspired by Napierskowska, before he reached New York. So throughout the year he found a way to express his imagery in paintings. Udine means a young American girl, which was incorporated in his title, referring to Napierskowska. 

The reason why I have chosen this painting was because the colors caught my attention, also the design, which is marvelous. There is a mixture of different beautiful colors in this painting; likewise he has purple, yellow, orange, grey, blue and etc. This painting looks very mellow and just makes me wonder. I really like how the painting was put together and his technique. It seems like he used a lot of different art tools to create this image. The art work tells me a lot from the title it was giving and also tells me that Francis is probably remembering one of his relatives or someone very close to him through this art work. When I looked at this painting the first thing that came to my mind was an old fashion jazz club. The reason why this came to my mind is because from my view I see people playing an instruments and someone dancing in the background. This is why I came about this old jazz scene in my head. The way I view the painting was almost close to what Francis Picabia painted.

Outline of A Streetcar Named Desire

Thesis: Why does the author Tennessee Williams from A Streetcar Named Desire referee to imagination and reality, throughout the play between Blanche and Stanley.  

Topic sentences 1: Blanche Dubois one of the major characters in the play likes to live in her own little world in order to make herself feel good.

1.   Panic about her beauty

·      She is very insecure with how she looks so she hides behind demined light so no one notice she is ageing.

·       “I brought thus adorable little colored paper lantern at a Chinese shop on Bourbon. Put it over the light bulb!” (38)

·       She also feels if she hides who she is in the dark no one would see who she really is in the light.

2.   Her reputation is destroyed

·      Stanley discovers that Blanche is known for sexually promiscuity acts in Laurel and had an affair with a teenage student. This causes Mitch to dislike her and not want to marry her any more.

3.   Does not like to face the fact of reality.

·      “I don’t want realism. I want magic.”  (84)

4.   Set her mind to live in a imagination world

5.   Tells lies on top of lies so that it sounds believable to people

·      “Yes, yes magic! I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth.” (84)

6.   Her fantasy’s are failure to overcome reality  

 Topic sentences 2: Blanch tends to rely on men for sexually desire for her sense of self-esteem.

1.   She feels loved and appreciated

·      “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

2.    When Blanche feels the urge for a sexually act is when she get nervous around men.

3.   So therefore she takes a lot of bathe to claim her nerve

4.   Blanche believe bathing a lot will wash away her sinful acts

Topic sentence 3: How come Stanley makes it his business to expose Blanche to the world.

1.   He does not believe nothing Blanche says

2.   Always wants evidence proven to him

·      “What do you mean she didn’t show you no papers, no deed of sale or nothing like that?” (22)

·      “in the state of Louisiana we have what is known as the Napoleonic code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband also in vice versa.” (22)

3.   Stanley is a straight forward guy and does not like being lied to or played.

Topic sentence 4: Stanley drinking leads him into committing acts that he believes are only in his imaginations.