A Thousand Acres as Movie is Melodramatic and Bogus
Perhaps Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "A Thousand Acres" was a bit over-rated. For one thing, the book's "dark secret" seemed utterly implausible. I just didn't believe that the book's protagonist and narrator, a 37-year-old Iowa farm wife named Ginny, could have completely repressed the fact that her father had sex with her when she was 15 years old, night after night, for a year. For True Believers in "Repressed Memory Syndrome," this might sound like gospel: I found it melodramatic and bogus. Furthermore, the sensitive-unto-death narrative voice was dissonant and grating: Ginny came across as too intelligent and self-aware to be as clueless and numb as she was supposed to be.
Despite these major flaws, however, Smiley's au courant revisiting of "King Lear" had its virtues: keen insights into family dynamics, a stately, beautifully controlled pace and a weirdly chipper, let's-do-the-dishes-everybody quality that only heightened the ominous sound of fatal machinery grinding away beneath the banal surface of Happy, Happy American life. Unfortunately, these literary achievements -- created by tone and nuance as well as the sheer hypnotic effect of time spent turning the pages -- are not easily captured by film. The movie fails to convey any of the book's strengths -- and it magnifies its shortcomings into bathetic clichés.
"A Thousand Acres" may simply be one of those books that can't be made into anything but a plot-driven movie-of-the-week. Although the first half hour is really dreadful, with its hokey plot-establishing voice-over and choppy, melodramatic action, it's not easy to imagine how director Jocelyn Moorhouse an...
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... or the face-off between her way of living in the world and Rose's.
Smiley's novel is filled with an unnecessary amount of family horror -- she could have achieved the same artistic effects without sprinkling on the Gothic MSG. But the interiority of the novel form allows us to look away from the lurid plot, to follow the subtler movement of Ginny's mind. Moorhouse halfheartedly tries to tell the story from Ginny's point of view, but she keeps going back to the external, epic vision. Instead of feeling like an epic, however, "A Thousand Acres" feels like a soap opera -- an impression not lessened by the soupy this-is-a-sad-scene music and the treacly voice-over that keeps telling us what just happened -- "going to court had divided us from each other." If Shakespeare spun a few times when Smiley's novel came out, he must be rotating like an eggbeater now.
Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the “golden era” of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in King Lear. Arudanthi Roy, however, uses her contemporary Indian novel to illustrate, using a proleptic and coalesce structure, the lives of the protagonists living in a post – colonial society. In each of these three texts there are characters who fit the stereotypes that society has instilled in them, but then there are those characters who noticeably differ from the norm; According to 19th century novelist Alfred de Musset “how glorious it is – and how painful – to be an exception.” Hence this statement can be seen as applicable to these characters, because in all three texts these characters do end up losing a lot.
Both Hagar and King Lear strive to change their flaws and dysfunctional situations in life, aiming for success and growth as an individual. Similarly, Hagar and King Lear both have perceived worst moments of their life. Hagar’s worst perceived moment throughout her quest of life is when she stumbles across an ad in the newspaper that Marvin and Doris; her son and his wife, wer...
Shakespeare, William. "King Lear." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, Ed. Walter Cohen, Ed. Jean E. Howard and Ed. Katharine Eisaman Maus. 2. New York, London: Oxford University Press, 2008. 591-759. Print.2011.
Why is it that some movies fail to create a ``faithful adaptation of books? The same question can be asked for the book and the movie of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written and directed by Stephen Chbosky. The book was a New York times bestseller and USA today calls it, “a coming-of-age tale.” The movie was nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Best Adapted Screenplay. As the book was adapted for the movie, and despite being directed be the same person that wrote the book, there were changes that were made to the story of the movie. Three differences between the book and the movies that negatively affected the story was the lack of Helen’s backstory, the removal if Charlie’s smoking addiction, and the near removal of “Bill” because it reduces the character development of key characters.
The play “King Lear” is, first of all, a play about kingship. Lear is a trusting king, every inch a king, who in his old age brings destruction to himself, certain persons in his own circle, and to his country. “King Lear” is a play which tears off the outer coverings of human character. Pious and innocent-seeming people who are villainous, are revealed in their true nature, and the similar is disclosed for what it is, as it works destruction. This is done in a world in which most men are constantly seeking their own advancement, a court where flatterers are always lurking, and in which a king should be constantly wary and careful to follow the advice of such honest men as Kent.
As King, Lear represents in himself the conditions of the country which identifies itself with him just as he identifies himself with it. He is a man of great vital power, a commander of men, not only by virtue of his position, but by his very nature. He is generous, open and unsuspicious, though too choleric, vain, obstinate, passionate and domineering to be simply called "good". Beneath his vital personality of power lies an emotional ...
Several suggest that the play does not fully work in performance but that it is the overwhelming winner intellectually and poetically. They argue this because, unlike other plays with a main plot and one or more subplots, Lear has two major plots, and for that reason, neither can fully engage the audience, whose attention and involvement is fragmented. That may be so but, on the other hand, it is probably Shakespeare’s most integrated play, with the characters, the action, the ideas and the imagery all working in harmony as a single unit. Conflict is at the heart of the drama. In this play the various battles are unified and multi-layered. On the surface King Lear is a domestic, family story – the story of two connected families while the central conflict is generational. The clash between Lear and his daughters in the one story and between Gloucester and his sons in the other. So what we have here, beyond the personal, is the more universal generational conflict – the older versus the younger generation. But it goes deeper. King Lear is a Renaissance play, written at a time when the mediaeval world and the new spirit of humanism were in artistic, religious, political, cultural and artistic conflict. The old world had become old fashioned and the new spirit was sweeping through
With so many basic plot similarities, Smiley manages to convey a new take on an old-fashioned story. At the end of King Lear, Lear traditionally is believed to be a changed man. Smiley doesn't buy into this common belief; therefore Larry Cook remains a static character throughout the novel. He never changes his attitude towards his possessions, his daughters and his land. Another difference that contributes to Smiley's new interpretation is the point of view from which the story is told. King Lear is told from a strictly male point of view. A Thousand Acres is told through the viewpoint of Ginny, Smiley's parallel to Goneril. Through Ginny's self-revelation, the reader is made aware of many circumstances that would cause a daughter to hate her father. Smiley believes that Lear's daughters must have had some reason for hating him. This is why, in her novel, she includes a childhood of incest.
Week 1’s goal is to build up endurance, focusing on proper techniques and developing good habits. Ultimately, you will advance from 25 minute session to 50 minutes in seven days. There will be an emphasis on lower level intensity as you enhance your aerobic activity increasing endurance and lung capacity while burning off stored fat.
King Lear is a perfect demonstration of the great consequences one man's actions can cause. While there are certainly religious Christian elements to the story, the story is not one of morality or hope. King Lear is a lesson, making an example of what can come of a single, foolish, egotistical action. King Lear's action is the surrendering of his throne to his daughters.
push myself to become stronger, to become faster, and to improve my health in as many aspects
Presently, I exercise but I am not consistent. I attended water aerobics for about 3 months last year. Unfortunately, I found the class in July
According to many clinicians, everyone should get at least thirty minutes to 45 minutes of exercise for five days a week. This amount of exercise would help prevent most diseases, and prevention is the primary and best way to achieve health. Exercise is important to me, I always joined sports teams and tried to be active in my earlier years; however, recently I tore ligaments in my ankles and have less cartilage in my knees. Overall, I am better than most of the population at completing the recommended amount of physical activity. Every day I swim, cycle, run, or walk to stay in better shape. This along with a better diet leads to a healthy body and keeps one in shape and free of disease or sicknesses. Also, exercise helps relieve a lot of stress, in a healthy way, from personal events in my
At least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity such as cycling or fast walking every week, and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).
...not truly be seen with the eye, but with the heart. The physical world that the eye can detect can accordingly hide its evils with physical attributes, and thus clear vision cannot result from the eye alone. Lear's downfall was a result of his failure to comprehend that appearances do not always represent reality. Gloucester avoided a similar demise by learning the relationship between appearance and reality. If Lear had learned to look with more than just his eyes before the end, he might have avoided this tragedy. These two tragic stories unfolding at the same time gave the play a great eminence.