Re: JCO: Female of the Species -- WATCH OUT some plots discussed.

Hi, Crista and Tanya. My apologies for the delay to your responses. I don't
check my email for days at a time lately. The ambiguous ending at the end of
Hunger made me roll my eyes at first, but then Chekhov often left his readers
hanging in a similar way at the end of a short story. In one of his early
stories, he even addresses the reader and asks "what do you think happened?"
JCO uses the open ending pretty regularly, the most memorably, I think, in WHere
Are You Going...etc.
Is Connie really going to get into that car with Arnold????? I think the
advantage of this narrative method is that it forces the reader to imagine a
scene instead of having everything spelled out. The end of the story "Faithless"
had a powerful effect on me because I was invited to put the clues together
and feel for myself the scope of the disaster that had befallen all the
characters in the story. As Nabokov wrote in one of his lectures, a truly involving
story lives in the the reader's mind because the reader has contributed some
of his/her own blood to it.
Happy holidays,
Cyrano

Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group

To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: unsubscribe jco

Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page

Re: JCO: film of the short story Small Avalanches.

Hi, Lara. Thanks for your very informative and interesting account of
filming Small Avalanches. I was especially impressed by how you economized to stay
on budget. Viewers (like me) often forget what a powerful factor that is in
moviemaking :>}
Glad to hear your choice of the stalker was successful. You're right --
the Man would have to be somewhat attractive -- or why else would Nancy be
flattered by his attention. That's why the actor Treat Williams worked so well
in the film Smooth Talk -- playing a surprisingly photogenic Arnold Friend.
(Personally I think his and Laura Dern's ballet around the screen door was
inspired by a similar -- albeit comic -- scene in the notorious 1950s film Baby
Doll, which I'm sure JCO saw when it first came out -- it had been banned by
among other institutions, the Roman Catholic Church as a vile, filthy movie.)
The business with Nancy's flip-flops sounds great. I really hope to see
your movie. (I still haven't managed to see "In a Region of Ice.") Please
keep us all posted on when and where your SA will appear. Want to say more, but
must rush off to work.
Thanks again for your generous comments on the moviemaking process.
Best,
Cyrano

Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group

To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: unsubscribe jco

Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Home Page