poem set 1+2

My father and the fig tree:

A happy little poem about a child and their father. They (or at least the dad) are worshippers of Allah. The father really likes figs, so much he’d find a way to use figtrees in the bedtime stories he tells his child. They live in many houses through their lives and yet they never plant figtrees, even though they take care of other plants. Okra is also a tropical plant (I looked it up). The mother is mentioned as she comments how her husband starts but doesn’t finish ideas. The last time the father moves, he sings to his child a new song and shows them a planted figtree, with the fig of his dreams, clearly very happy.

Blood:

This family is arabic, and the father talks about “true arabs”, who can catch flies with their hands and believed in the healing properties of watermelon.

Years ago, a girl knocks and “wants to see the Arab” (the narrator’s father?), the narrator turns her away, saying they don’t have any arabs.

Father says his Arabic name is Shihab/shooting star, a name borrowed from the sky.

The narrator asks about the “borrowed” part, “when we die, we give it back?”. Their father says that’s what a true arab would say.

Present day, narrator is angry/surprised about a….possibly orphaned Palestinian child?

References the figs, says the child is a “homeless fig”, a tragedy with terrible roots too big.

They talk about flags, made of stone/seed or blue table mats (not sure about the meaning, very confused)

They call their father and they avoid talking about the news

Narrator drives out to the countryside, farmland (with sheep/cows) and ask themselves/nothing/a higher power? Things that i interpret to mean “who has the right to think themselves civilized? Where can a heart in pain heal? What would a true arab do now?

The words under the words

The narrator’s grandmother is very familiar with grapes, and used them to try and heal them from their fevers

They talk about how their grandmother is occupied with slowly patting round dough and baking break, waiting by the oven watching cars wondering if there are tourists or her lost family come to visit, how she knows when mail comes and the way she treasures and rereads rare letters over and over again

She says that nothing can surprise her anymore, whether it be a shotgun or a crippled baby. The narrator adds that she knows the silent messages people create, and she sends them out to the sky that plant themselves before the people will later die.

Their grandmother says that Allah is everywhere, in life/death/stories of foolishness and intelligence/her first thought/his name itself.

Two countries:

A poem about skin that represents something that knows when it is lonely, how long it has been since it had touched, how to move and react, but is unnoticed. Yet it is hopeful, and always tries to heal.

Love means you breathe in two countries (?? i have nothing)

Skin remembers being alone and is happy to have companionship

Arabic coffee:

“Us” liked their coffee as black and thick as it could get, and loved listening to their father tell them stories over coffee and having luck in their grounds

Their father would make the coffee by letting it boil up twice and calming down, no sugar, no broken dreams, no differences between people, coffee was the center of of talk and the center of the world in the room, a note of faith and “more”

My grandmother in the stars

“We” will not meet again on earth, a thought that causes the narrator’s throat to dry up and think how the sky is the only thing tying the entire universe altogether

The narrator wants to know “your” opinion of the neighbor’s horse, the village’s one cow. They clearly respect “you”, with rugged (old/weary?) feet and moth-eaten scarves (“you” is a woman)

“We” never live in once place, “our” hearts do all the talking we need, memory is the only thing that makes us rich.

staging MLMLoTPG

Personally, I would stage MLML or TPG as a sort of juxtaposed play. While the novel has somewhat of a “modern fairy tale” theme, I feel as if it has an additional feel of just a clashing of settings. For example, the god-given princess who was prettier than all other women and more special than all other peasants, dreaming of her true love...which she’d find in a wrecked car, dying. Or, the magical nature of her wishing upon a butterfly and experiencing her wished-for true love, only to find her hopes shattered and destroyed as he chooses another woman and she’s left to die outside the metaphorical palace. These contradictory elements of the book make me want to stage a play with a similar feel, where it would be magical and dream-like, full of whimsy and general Disney-esque “magic”, but the other half would be instead more down-to-earth, less enchanting and certainly duller.

Although this would definitely be hard to visually represent on stage, I think this could be clearly accentuated via visual motifs, especially color-based ones or some that accompany certain characters. For example, I have an idea where during Desiree and Mama Euralie’s visit to the gods, there would be fog machines that blow light amounts of smoke onstage to help give their presence a dreamlike feel, and heavy fog to accompany Papa Ge’s rare appearances. Aside from the heavy smoke of Papa Ge, the other gods would have lighter smoke so it wouldn’t block the audience’s view of them, but be enough to be noticed by the audience. I would also like to touch back on my color idea for the butterflies and wishing, which I based my practice essay on Monday on. Essentially, it was different shades of blue to accompany the motif of a wish, faint and flickering blue to represent the first wish that the second Ti Moune would fail to make, a base blue to represent the wishes successfully made, and a dark, angry, blue to represent Desiree’s refusal to release the butterflies from the metaphorical cage.

One of the more subtle ideas that I have is based around costuming. Simply put, I would like to have the peasants wear dull clothing, mainly earthen tones. Desiree, however, would wear tones shades lighter, enough to be noticeable but not enough so that she can still blend in as “one of the peasantry”. Then, when she receives the dress and comb and shoes from the woman near the Beauxhomme hotel, I would like the colors of that outfit to be dull but still colored or faded, which would contrast with the bright (almost obnoxiously) colored clothing of the rich folk. Even when she receives the makeover before Daniel’s planned ball, her clothing would still be somewhat darker or saturated, to mark her as different.

Finally, I have a small (although not very fleshed out) idea for Andrea, where she would be accompanied by changes in lighting. While I’m not very sure how it works, I envision that Desiree’s costume-based prominence would contrast with Andrea’s lighting based prominence. Rather than being noted via changes in color saturation among crowds, Andrea would be noted as the lights on the stage would be a few shades dimmer, but she would have a spotlight on her (not much brighter than the rest of the stage, but again, enough to be noticed) to mark her out, a woman who stands out from the crowd.

Duality

Duality between Monsieur Bienconnu and Desiree is very prominent in Chapter Six.

Notably, “Her fate! What nonsense. An orphan out of the storm, what did she have but dreams to sustain her? A future when...Such talk! The ravings of an old man.”

This passage is representative of either one of two things. It reads a little delusionally on the surface, but after thought, I think it is reasonable that this could be chatter among peasants, their silent and unspoken opinions regarding Desiree’s passion and drive to leave and find Daniel, where many believe him to be in the right, and her to be a hopeless dreamer. However, the last sentence suggests another possibility, it could be internal thoughts of Desiree and Mon. Bienconnu. With the latter, the passage reads almost like an unspoken dialogue, an argument between a lovestruck child and the old elder, world-weary and only trying to dissuade her from inevitable pain.

For example:
“Her fate? What nonsense.”
“An orphan out of the storm, what did she have but dreams to sustain her?”
“A future when...such talk!”
“The ravings of an old man.”

This formatting reads both as either internal and separate thoughts of the pair, but also as the suggested possible idle chatter of other nearby villagers. As some have listened in and commented on conversations (namely one between Mama Euralie and Desiree  the same chapter), I think it’s also a realistic possibility showing contrast between both Desiree and the rest of her community, and Desiree and the elder.

Costuming desiree

To costume desiree, I think it would be fitting if she wore traditional and simplistic "lower-class" clothing, with dark, "earthy" tones of brown. This would be similar and in line to the dress of all of the others in her village, to show that she is, regardless of her own dreams of rising above, a peasant by status. However, notably she would have a few features separate from the other villagers. In my mind, I envision her to wear something such as a simple flower or clip in her hair, or tie it up in a braid, to imply and show  her eventual and temporary rise to high-status as well as her own fixiation that she is above the rest of the peasants, and meant to be so. Optionally, she could have a simple necklace, a cheap one so it wouldn't be some object of desire for others, but pretty enough to show that she isn't just a peasant girl in a small farming village.

The most difficult thing about costuming desiree would be to represent her connection to Agwe, which would only be necessary if Agwe were even to be portrayed. She would have something simplistic, again, perhaps a clip in her hair, that Agwe would also wear (or have some object similar to it) to show their connection.

In terms of costuming her post-transformation, when Daniel calls for fashionistas to assist her, I think she would wear something that would seem sort of like a mishmash of objects that don't really harmonize, but still manage to combine together to create a good mesh. I'm not really sure how this would work out, but that's just the base idea.

10-16 notes

ch 10:
desiree makes it to the city by night
"A WHOLE NEW WOOOOOOORLD"
She is comforted by beggar women in the alleys of the city
she follows the masses and makes her way to the hotel
she wonders how she will make it past the gates and inside
she gets told off rudely by the vendors and the guards
she sits at the sea and wonders why she got laughed at for wanting to see daniel
she meets a woman who sympathizes with her which apparently so far seems to be the solution to all of her problems, meeting women who like her cause she's patient/pretty/whatever and this time she gets shoes and a dress and a pretty comb but not food

ch11:
she bathes in the sea and wakes up on the beach in morning feeling prettiful
the shoes are painful oh boy just like the little mermaid having to walk and feeling herself get stabbed with every step
she runs into the beauxhommes speaking french and daniels like oh girl you look familiar and she says in creole yeah cause i saved your life and his dad is like "Ew peasants lets go dont ever speak to me or my son again"
they drive away and she swears to stay until they accept her or something and then she wishes on a butterfly and artisians are like "??" and she just laughs and they laugh too because her laugh is super duper pretty and cool and wow she's the best and i really do not like this mary-sue-ing of our main character
she stays on the hotel grounds eating the fruit from the orchards and hiding it in the guests's trash and bathes and washes in the hotel pools and how has she not gotten caught and thrown out yet?
she is patient and waits
some stranger finds her sleeping cave and its daniel so she sings that song and he's like "hey i know you" and somehow they understand each other???
and then he faints and she holds onto him again and stuff

ch12:
daniel's godmother finds them and she's like girl you should leave
daniel wakes up and argues with her because he got a good night's sleep and says that she should stay
but then daddy beaux shows up and is like "whats going on" and then gets upset with daniel for consorting with peasants and matilda for going back to her disgusting peasant ways of believing in gods
she begs him to give desiree a chance and daddy beaux walks out cause he just cant deal and also she implies daniel is very close to death
they do their little smile thing and shes like "yeah the gods brought me and daniel back together so his dad's wishes dont matter at all"
she works as a servant but also gets to sleep in the same bed as daniel because i dont know
somehow he recovers and she gets weaker and theyre like bound together through pain splitting magic???
theyre in love and desiree is keeping her butterflies captive even though her wishes have been fufilled
matilda lets her know hey daniel is well now but like there's no reason for you to stay
gabriel had left for france so daniels like hey she cant leave make her pretty so even my dad cant tell her to go away
the ladies are like "oooh andrea andrea" and stuff and theyre jealous of her cause she's black and pretty and daniel loves her
lucifus the guard reminds desiree of papa ge and she is scared

ch13:
he plans a ball for when his dad comes back
ok so desiree is now the little mermaid AND cinderella
everyone says she's pretty
matilda gets distressed because desiree is being courted, daniel's dad still isnt back, stuff
also she ditched her magic red comb and still keeps her butterflies captive which is kinda weird cause its like youre dropping one tradition but keeping half of it?
matilda tells her she needs to run away before she is hurt because reasons and desiree gets scared and runs away
she reaches for a butterfly but then runs into IRL papa ge who just looks at her and she gets scared and then the butterfly leaves and she just kinda stands there?

ch14:
Andrea comes back from france, dad beaux says that he and daniel should go to her homecoming
so turns out andrea and daniel and betrothed to each other and he's like wow andrea's so cool and she's like well i love you so i think andrea is cool too and matilda is like "this is not how this is supposed to work"
and then theres a ball for andrea and andrea is blonde and white and pretty and desiree has this growing panic inside of her
and andrea is like "daniel can we keep this pretty black girl" (wat?) and then she gets put out of daniel's room into her own down the hall

ch15:
desiree doesnt eat and matilda is like this is normal i mean like you were basically his concubine and he kinda doesnt need you when his wife is around
her comb is lose and matilda tries to offer to make her pretty so she can marry the ambassadors that want her and shes like no i want daniel but matildas like no theyre getting married dude
she dreams/sees the gods who all speak through papa ge and theyre like "lol" also daniel tells her no andrea and i both love you which is why you need to stay its like they treat her like some pet but not really
papa ge says "heres a knife, THE INFIDELS MUST PAY FOR THEIR BETRAYAL"
"i saved this life and i can take it too" ok calm down girl
and then he turns and smiles in his sleep and she drops it and is like I CANT DO THIS and runs away very conflicted
she gets kicked out by the guards and the vendors listen to her cause theyre cool and theyre like "well uh thats life suck it up"

ch16:
there is an impending storm before the wedding
desiree hasnt eaten/slept in 2 weeks which is actually impossible because the world record is around 11 days with no sleep
apparently there are rich AND poor people at the wedding and desiree's just kinda there watching through the gates and she waves at matilda who's like "oh my god why are you still here"
the pair go to their honeymoon while the crowd watches
many butterflies show up and the crowd's like "this is scary we should probably go" and gabriel beauxhomme comes back to a corpse on the road and he's like "lucifus take out the trash" and then the storm starts and the first drops are on her face like tears the end

ch6-9 notes

Ch 6:

• Things grow back
• She asks where and who the beauxhommes are
• She’s told the ancestor of the beauxhommes had a black peasant concubine called Ti Moune
• She goes to argue with her foster parents about leaving to be with Daniel, they decide to consult the gods

Ch 7

• Mama euralie takes desiree with her to go consult with the gods
• God oueda?
• The gods erzulie/agwe argue over her vows of love?
• Wait people were possessed by the gods?
• She gets breathed on by death and screams and runs away

Ch8

• She walks onwards towards the city to Daniel and gets laughed at
• She is given a lot of food for free on her journey
• Her patience apparently is why she’s getting fed for free

Ch 9

• She meets another orphan and teaches her about wishing cages
• She tells her what she’s learned on her one week journey and also tells the girl to look for mama euralie and tonton julian

Oral reflection

Overall, I think my oral presentation was somewhat solid. I felt that I spoke clearly and at a good pace. However, I think I definitely struggled to find things to say or stumbled over a few words, leading to a lot of pauses and ums in the recording. While my presentation was well ordered and stuck to the list we talked about in class the day prior, I think I was a little disorganized while speaking, and felt I hadn’t prepared enough notes for the actual oral. Near the end of the presentation, I began to run out of things to say and tried to come up with some points to make to fill up the time, which led to the cohesiveness of the overall project to fall apart a little at the end.

Another fallacy of mine was that I definitely did not expand on the synopsis of my adaptive scene enough. While my notes did include a small summary of the scene, I instead spoke much too briefly on the performance, and only realized I had when I started talking about specific actions or purposes of some scenes after the fact. I am unsure why I skipped over this, but I hope the actual recording of the scene will be enough to make up for it.

A big failure on my part was my inadequacy to properly prepare beforehand. I had a draft on Tuesday morning that seriously lacked in all departments, length, direction, detail, and so on. Having a real draft by that time would’ve allowed me to be more confident today and better organized or practiced once it was time for the real presentation. However, listening to the practice orals yesterday in class definitely helped me think of things to say today, and I’d probably be much worse off without it.