Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation

Dir: Sofia Coppola

Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola, is a romance. Bob (Bill Murray), a middle-aged American actor meets a younger woman, Charlotte, in Tokyo, Japan. Bob's life is disjointed as he is ‘taking a break from his wife’. He is making ads in Japan and the inability to understand the surrounding complex, seductive and fast paced Japan is mostly puzzling. His wife sends him carpet samples by post to look as decoration for the house back home in the USA - an absurd gesture. He is confused and depressed as he attempts to decipher the meaning of his life in Japan.

Whilst being directed to drink scotch in an ad, a ten sentence translated direction is put into a few words. The scene is comic and ironic. We see Bob sitting on the edge of his bed looking lost and bemused by his predicament.

Charlotte (Scarlet Johansen) is married to a photographer who pays her scant attention. We see her swimming through brightly lit game parlours that are attractive but meaningless. She says ‘I don’t know what I am meant to be’.

The irony is that these two characters who are in a foreign setting and who are both estranged find meaning through each other. If Bob cannot communicate with his wife, if communication is but a matter of faxes and carpets being sent through the mail, then what hope does the wider gap of inter cultural, cross-linguistic communication have?

Yet the two find comfort by at least expressing their dismay to the other….in the end love, or at least the respect that listening affords, wins in this film. 

Emma and Clueless

In Austen's novel Emma and in Amerling's film Clueless, we watch two young women, fixated on being social matchmakers, ironically coming to a realisation that meeting and connecting with a partner does in fact call for genuine and heartfelt honesty.

Emma and Cher both play a game where they hold the pieces. The game becomes unpredictable when they are no longer controlling events but are themselves caught  up in the matchmaking game, their hearts being drawn into what was for them a passionless arena.

In short, both works juxtapose pretentious social posturing against the more sincere concern of genuine love.

True History of the Kelly Gang

What is history? How do we know if a media form is accurately communicating historical truth?
The title of Carey's book True History of the Kelly Gang, clearly claims historical veracity (truth). It is, however, an artificial construction.  A study of this work should focus on how this artificial history is constructed to seem real or 'true'. In turn, this idea suggests that all history then is in fact artificial and therefore subjective.

Memorising your essay for the exam: a bad idea!!

A belief has emerged amongst HSC students that to get a good grade in English all you have to do is write one good essay and then ' tweak it' just to fit the question in the paper.

This is not a good idea.

Essays are unique responses to questions and examiners expect you to respond to the terms of the question. A pre-written essay is a response to one question only.  What if the question is different? This is like believing that if you remember the numbers to some equations in a past exam, then the same number sequences will appear in you next exam. Clearly, this is not the case.

What you can and should memorise is the PLOT  structure  - what happens, when and where - and how the how the CHARACTERS behave in these situations. If you are familiar with the work then you can begin to properly respond to the question with your opinion of the work. You are asked about THEMES usually, which are the concerns or meaning of the work.

An essay is not a mobile phone where you can just change the settings expecting it to fall into a different pattern. Words have to be assembled to create meaning. That is your task in the English exam.

Frankenstein and Blade Runner

Shelley's Frankenstein  (1818)  has as a secondary title, The Modern Prometheus. This comes from classical Greek mythology ( about 500 B.C) and tells us much about the PURPOSE of the novel.

Prometheus was the god who stole fire from the chief God Zeus and give it to the mortals. Zeus punishes him by sending down an eagle every day to eat his liver. 

What this story symbolises as a myth - where myths are psychological truths - is that to gain knowledge is to take power into one owns hands. It is a responsibility.

Both Frankenstein and Blade Runner present us with the responsibility that scientific knowledge and invention has given us. In Frankenstein, the monster seeks a partner not unlike a human but Dr Frankenstein denies him. In Blade Runner, the replicants, near perfect humanoid robots want more life...but cannot have it. 

Hamlet

Shakespeare's Hamlet does take some effort to understand.

We read plays and novels because we observe human behaviour in these works.

In the HSC you are are asked to comment on the behaviour of the CHARACTERS in the texts you have studied.

You enter the world of the text. When a character keeps doing something....then that is a THEME because the writer has decided to highlight that action.

When faced with the problem of bringing the murderer of his father to justice, how does Hamlet act? What are his thoughts? Was he successful? If not, why not?