Literature and Activisim

     I still cant get over GIRL by Jamaica Kincaid. I almost feel ashamed having not read most of her other work at this point. There is such fire in her wording. Everything in the piece works so fluidly; the passive aggressive and overly aggressive tone of the mother, the brief spots with the girl herself is allowed a defense. You feel for said-girl, yet she is the one character out of the duo between elder and youth that is given the least amount of attention. It is absolutely fascinating. Not only has Kincaid weaved in commentary but she has done so by way of a fiery experience. This piece, like Shakespeare, is meant to be read aloud. It is a script, an exchange of dialogue between two opposing forces. What is a seemingly endless diatribe of thick-headed elderly advice is a vehicle in which we as the audience are put down and attacked. Female repression in the guise of a performance. 

     At times it reminded me greatly of the work of William S Burroughs. Now I know Burroughs is pretty far on the opposite end of the spectrum where as Kincaid is concerned. But understanding the trauma that young women are put through by forcing us to experience it first hand, reminded me of the first story in Naked Lunch. The opening story is comprised heavily of deep homophobic slurs as though it were the normal slang of the narrator. But given knowledge of Burrough’s identification as queer, it would not be that much of a stretch to assume this is his way of planting our faces deep in the ground of homophobia, amongst a infinite myriad of other messages and ramblings throughout the controversial novel.

     Writing has such tremendous power to convey an idea. Film can do well but is more often than not more preoccupied with hammering away its message an idea. Theater can be the same way, with the risk of loosing the original intention or idea of the script in the directing or acting. The written word therefore becomes the only true vessel in which the idea can be presented in it’s strongest form and interpreted organically. It is Literature like this that brings us experiences like GIRL. 

Response to Documentaries

This is definitely Experimental yet Expository. The film is very distanced from the events it is depicting, by showing only through photographs, mixed media, and automated voices. The avant-garde presentation lends some drama that would otherwise be missing in a traditional expository documentary approach. 

The automation of the voices is quite haunting. It adds an uncomfortable layer of apathy and protects the identity of the narrator as though there is something for them to hide. This makes the documentary feel as though it is something we almost shouldn't be watching. Beneath the surface of the film is an unshakable looming presence of paranoia.

The experimental aspects were the same as mentioned before. Through only photographs, automated speech, and shaky found footage, there are about zero talking head interviews and the sparse inclusion of a true human voice. 

It’s hard to say wether or not the piece is true. I wouldn’t be surprised either way. It makes sense for a small town that birthed a piece of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be protected by the Government as well as come to embrace their presence given the time of paranoia that swept the country afterwards. That being said, even if it is fake, the overall presentation and the story it tells makes for a very compelling conspiracy thriller. If this is fictional I would be intrigued at what a feature length approach to the story would entail.