So, I've decided to spice up the blog posting this week. I feel we've discussed many aspects of translating original works into different media, yet we haven't explored this idea by doing it ourselves. I feel to fully understand what it entails we should practice what we preach!
I thought it would be neat if we translated any of the works we've covered in class, just so we would all be on the same page, into our own interpretations. Particularly, I had poetry in mind but the purpose of this exercise is freedom of expression so go with whatever you feel. After your translation if you could just give a quick overview of your inspiration for the piece that would be great!
For example, I'll begin with a haiku:
S.O.L
Strange to family
Outcast from society
Left to be WICKED
I loved Maguire's central message within the novel Wicked, putting forth the question of what is evil and how is it "born". Overall, he answered this very question posed by Elphaba with the novel's plot showing that life events mold a person into what society has labeled them. This was my inspiration for the haiku.
Everyone in this class is super creative can't wait to read what you all write!!
Aubrey
14 comments:
I could see 300 as a modern day gang war. How about the Persians are all of the gang members of the United States banned together, maybe even with the Mexican Cartel, in order to take over and just make this world a better place...for them. It would take place in the time of the Apocalypse, when the false god showed up and decided that the gangs deserved to have ultimate power against the rest of the world. And of course instead of using all of those animals and the cyclops they would have the Decepticons from Transformers helping them out. On the Spartans side we would have a new flawless regime of Armed Forces from the U.S and eventually the British would help out, cause they usually ban together anyways, and of course, the Autobots would be the military advisors but wouldn't really help out at all. The rest of the world would go into hiding underground hoping that this is their safe haven against the gang members and robots.
I really wanted to do a limerick, but everything we have read for class is devastating So here's an alternative quatrain on The Crucible:
The Witches of Salem
The girls of Salem were all frightened,
So accusations of witchery they began to make.
Wives, mothers, and sisters soon were summoned,
And without a confession hung at the stake.
It was a real tragedy what happened to the citizens of Salem. Many lost a wife, sister, friend, or mother because of these girls. It's very sad. Mr. Miller did a great job, in both the movie and the play, at portraying what these people went through and how they must have felt.
Writing poetry is not a particular talent of mine, but I'm going to try. Witches seems to be a reoccuring theme so far this semester, so I decided to do my attmept at a poem about all the "witches" we've talked about.
Which is a witch?
Which is a witch?
And how do we know?
The one with green skin,
Or one who won't snitch.
Regardless it makes a gloomy tableau
By water, by rope, by McCarthy's pen
Witches will die, societies glitch.
Look back upon teh folly and woe,
And always beware the habitual sin
Of lies and fear which truly bewitch.
Poetry and I don't get along, but I'll try.
They took up arms,
Their wands, shields, and swords,
Held fast to their beliefs
Defied judge, Wizard, and Persian Lord
Their stories are passed
Spoken, written, shown
Each retelling embellished
Made the artists' own.
I went after the theme of standing by a belief. Elphaba defies the Wizard, John Proctor (and others) stand up against the court in Salem, and the 300 protected their land from the invading Persians. I think this theme is easy to adapt from one medium to the next, as it fuels both plot and character.
Oh! Here's a poem about the 300's too!
Against the plea’s
We walk into the fight,
With our swords held steady
And our heads head high.
We Fight.
Our numbers are wrong,
But with every step we grow strong.
We Fight.
The enemy is not someone to fear
Instead someone to clear.
We Fight.
When others run, seeking life away from this,
We realize our lives amount to this.
And it might be a definite battle,
But our spirits will not rattle.
We Fight.
I am in love with the underlying thought behind the Spartans. How their will to be the best trained machines created this way of life that was continued for many generations. The thought of it being an all for all community and just the determination of these people to be the best they could be was inspiring. To think that a small group of men would challenge such a big army is inspiring. I like to think of it as going against your own evils.
It is such a pity that the novel wicked is not yet translated into a film. The novel itself is very intricate and detail oriented, with an interesting hint of evil and negativity that could be portrayed elegantly through film..
For example the love scenes and portrayal of characters, and perhaps what the characters looked like in Maguire's eyes.
A film would show the true reality behind Elphaba in a way that we can understand more personally.
Poetry and I have issues. As in I can't write it. At all. I couldn't even define what a Haiku is until you posted this Aubs... but google and I are very close friends so I supposed I'll be giving this my best shot after finding out how to write poetry! ... I apologize in advance.
deciet is a plague
stripping us of our power
silent and deadly
My inspiration for this poem was just a theme that I noticed withing the pieces we've read so far. In every single one of them, lies and deciet have caused pain, suffering and death. In 300, the hunchback who betrayed the Spartans and told the Persians of the goat path caused the death of 300 good men. In the Crucible, Abigails lies caused the death of countless innocents. In Wicked (the musical specifically), Boq's lies to Nessa ended up not only causing her heartbreak, causing him to loose his heart (literally), and also stripped the Munchkins of their rights.
Wow! This post is awesome! I think it would be really cool to create an instrumental bit of music from 300. I would try to use a lot of percussion to evoke metallic sounds of shields and spears, while maybe using something soft and eerie for the Persians, maybe a string quartet.
Battle scenes would be fun, because music can create a rolling thunderous quality, and maybe at the end of the battle the string instruments could overpower the percussion :)
Can one win the war
while losing the battle?
Is the victor the winner
or the bones that rattle?
The Greatest Sacrifice:
"To some my short life was a failure; instead of a great life to recount only my death will be a story. My body lies here exposed to the wind and the rain. I have no wife to weep at my grave, no children to wonder at my valor. I was alone. Alone, yet I marched to my death with my comrades, my family, at my side. Only three days later I died where I fell. Three days, three hundred dead, and I the least of them. My name erased. Yet, by my death, I kept our nation alive. A nation of warriors, mothers, and boys. We live to fight, we fight to the death, all of us. No, my death was no silent death of defeat and failure. My name may have failed, but we won. And by this victory I will be remembered. Remembered, as the rocks above me call out the name of my country, the only name that matters.
I tried to capture the two things in three hundred that inspired me most in this short excerpt. It isn't a poem, but I hope that it is still worth reading. One was the idea that victory can be defined in more than one way, and the other was the death of the young son of the general. He of all of them had the most life yet to live. It made me sad, yet at the same time, because he had the most left to do, his was the most beautiful sacrifice to me. None were left to cry for him alone, so I did.
Ah...poetry :/ sorry if it's terrible!!
At seven years old
he learned to be bold.
No pain to be felt because he's too strong.
The King learned from birth that he could never be wrong,
for he was ruler of all.
In the end, the King would fall
but the love for wife would be
the greatest glory he had ever see.
The poem I wrote was about 300. One thing about the story that I really enjoyed was that no matter what training the Spartans were given, in the end love was the most powerful thing of all. We see that the Spartans are all physically strong and also very strong mentally. They devote their entire life to warfare, however the love for their family and wives is undeniable because it is what the King thinks of throughout his defeat to Persia.
There are battles we fight,
For glory, for home, for what is right,
And maybe we lose.
Monsters have a special power,
Whether or not they are grotesque and unnatural,
Whether or not they are simply human.
Darkness has a special power.
So we fight in the shade.
We keep our names, as they are or as they are not
And hope we make a change for the better.
Everything we have read so far had individuals fighting for a goal. The Spartans had a literal fight, trying to keep their homes, families and lifestyles safe. They fought for their honor. Elphaba, hardly a paragon of virtue and honor, also fought for her home. She advocated Animal rights. She tried to overthrow the corruption of a broken government. She fought for forgiveness and for herself, but she also fought for her home. John Proctor fought through his guilt. He fought for the truth and he fought for inner strength. He fought until he had earned his forgiveness.
Each fight was a struggle against the larger world, an effort to make things better.
Great idea Aubrey! Very original and fun ^_^
I'll try my hand at a poem version of Wicked:
Never to think of, put it out of mind.
Can't help it, lives intertwined.
Love is for the beautiful, the pretty and fair.
With skin so green, can't even compare.
Dreams and wishes, put them aside.
The heart many times jumps, leaps and misguides.
Fiyero what mark you have left.
When my emotions you've changed and committed my love's theft.
Oh, makes me think... If Elphaba kept a diary, what would she have written?
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