Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Water By The Spoonful
Within the play, two major worlds are created: the online world and interactive world. The online world consists of anonymous screen names associated with former/ struggling crack heads. The interactive world consists of two cousins dealing with the death of their aunt. Not until we realize that the leader of the crack heads anonymous chat room is the sister of the cousins' aunt, do the two worlds collide. This revelation occurs halfway down page forty three. They begin to mix when the ghost that haunts Elliot repeats the phrase, "Momken men-fadluck ted-dini gawaz safari" (which to us is just gibberish), in between the 'online-ers'' dialogue. The two worlds are able to mix here because they share a common theme: being unable to escape something that haunts them. As the online-ers' dialogue seems to naturally speed up and become more playful, the ghost's repeated line becomes increasingly ominous and menacing. The two scenes begin not to morph together, but to mirror one another. In this scene, "Haikumom"/Odessa realizes that her sister is deceased after reading her obituary in the newspaper. Simultaneously, Elliot is boxing a punching bag and trying to ignore his hurt leg. Both characters experience defeat. When Odessa realizes that her sister has passed away, she is overwhelmed and drops the newspaper. At the same time, Elliot can not ignore the pain any longer and collapses. Both present the visual of something falling. This intersection of worlds occurs at this moment because it is extremely common ground.
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Your example is really good Laine. I didn’t even think about that part of the play. I agree with you about the two worlds mirroring each other and also coming together as one. I think it’s cool that the lines sort of overlap too, so as an audience member we’re forced to focus on both parts of the scene. I guess it’d be different while watching it, but I totally forgot there is an online world in this piece. Like, I know it’s there, but in my head I saw a lot of these as face to face conversations. I think this scene is a good example of both consonance and dissonance too.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I even noticed that both incidents occurred simultaneously. This is a good example to point out because I think the worlds only intertwine throughout the play when there is "common ground". It makes it easier to understand why it was done that way, and emphasizes the effect of whatever the cause was. I also like how you mentioned that the paper was dropped, and Elliot collapsed at the same time. It makes the scene more powerful.
ReplyDeleteI very much agree with your concept of the characters being able to escape something as a major theme for this play. Although I am slightly confused by what you mean in your definitions of the online and interactive worlds, I think the connections you make between scenes mirroring each other and characters paralleling each other actions could help you create a strong analysis of this text for a paper.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a good example! Your connection of the two events to a single theme really expresses how the worlds collide. The mirrored defeat represents how similar humans really are. While both characters experienced completely different troubles, they both let go of their strength. It's like that moment when you're trying so hard to hold yourself together, and something hits you so hard and fast that you can't hold on anymore. This scene brings two different characters to that same point, unifying the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this response. I didn't use this example, but I think its a very important spot in the script when the two world begin to collide. I also think your reference to Odessa dropping the newspaper and Elliot dropping to his knees as a result of defeat is a good physicalization of the common ground between them. It kind of sets them back to the same page so they can face the rest of the story together.
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