"The Yellow Chair" Screenplay - 09/26/2008

Having to adapt Jonathan Lethem’s “You Don’t Love Me Yet” into a screenplay was quite challenging. This is because it was the first experience I had had writing screenplays. Another interesting aspect of it was the portion of the text my group and I decided to work with.

We chose the “Yellow Chair” scene. This is when the chair was first introduced. The complainer had just called in and was recounting his affair to Lucinda. The entire conversation took place over the phone and this made it difficult to adapt because with screenplays, you have to keep it exciting and intriguing. However, the dialogue helped out a bit since the content of it was of sensual nature and most people find that interesting.

All in all, I believe that even though it is very unlikely that our screenplay would be turned into a feature film, it turned out great. For a first timer, I think we did good.

Jonathan Lethem's "You Don't Love me Yet" - 09/18/08

Jonathan Lethem’s “You don’t love me yet” is one interesting book. When you see the title you might think this it is a romance novel. However, that is a little misleading. Even though, Lethem describes the dynamics between the “Complainer” and Lucinda’s relationship, the main focus of the story is the band.

It is very fascinating that this band has been together for an extremely long time still does not have a name. The intriguing thing about it is that they seem to have given up on finding one. Though it is not often talked about, one can tell it is at the back of their mind.

Another interesting concept is that of intertextuality. Throughout the story, Lethem continues to make references to other texts to explain the meaning of his text. However, he gets into the issue of plagiarism vs. intertextuality when Lucinda uses the Complainer’s words to form lyrics for songs that the band made.

 

Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy - Pt 2 09/12/08

The New York Trilogy – City of Glass becomes more and more fascinating as one draws near the end of it. This is because the plot continues to twist and turn which is unlike any classic fictional book. It becomes difficult to try to make heads or tail about the story.

Due to the fact that readers are trained to find structure in writing, it becomes very challenging to follow the story. This is because, Auster leaves the reader clueless. He does not explain what happens to some of the characters in the end. For instance, it is very hard to explain what happened to Quinn because it said “Little by little, Quinn was coming to an end. At a certain point, he realized the more he wrote, the sooner time would come when he could no longer write any thing”. (Auster 128).

Another interesting aspect of the story is how chance plays into everything. One definitely wonders whether Quinn followed the right Stillman Sr. at the train station. What if he followed the other Stillman, then what? It is something that Auster never address and readers try to rationalize that whole incident.

In the end we realize that everything is left to chance and we should not try to rationalize everything because we never know what might happen in the next moment. Everything is indeed left to chance.

Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy" 09/05/08

Auster’s Story “City of Glass” is a very interesting one. It is unlike any story I have ever read because it contains quite a number of twists and turns that are totally unexpected. Auster dabbles with what reality and fiction throughout the story.

As one reads the story, he/she is introduced to multiple characters, some of whom are one person playing different roles. This clearly represents Metafiction. A very interesting aspect of the story is that Paul Auster, who is the author of the book, writes about a Paul Auster in the book who is a detective. What makes it fascinating is the fact that the main character of the story, in addition to the many roles he plays, also pretends to be Auster, the detective.

Another amazing aspect of the story is how as one reads, he/she is left wanting more. This is because, the story makes you wonder how in life things happen unexpectedly and also the fact that events are hard to predict. A positive facet of the story is how Paul Auster, the author of the book, manages to intrigue the reader and keeps him/her reading till the end.