JD Salinger documentary

A new JD Salinger "all-is revealed" documentary is being released. You can read about it here:

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/01/jd-salinger-documentary/61553/

Big Change vs. Small Change

As Lina and I were working on our project, I came up with a different interpretation of "change" in Caroline, or Change. Noah leaves small change, like quarters, in his pockets to see if Caroline will take them. It's as if he wants her to take the small change. When he leaves the "big" twenty dollar bill in his pocket, though, he gets into a huge fight with Caroline and wants the money back. I interpreted all of this as meaning that Noah wants her to take the small change and make a small change in their relationship, like Caroline admitting that she cares for Noah. Noah wants her to love him like a son. He doesn't want a big change in their relationship, like Caroline leaving for good, which could be why he is so apprehensive when Caroline finds the gelt in his pants pocket, and he doesn't want her to take it. Just a thought. Ideas?

why Caroline or Change?

hey guys, as i was looking around the web getting some info on who Kushner was (considering i missed the assembly which was a total bummer) i came across an article on which Tony explains why he wrote this play and the reason behind it all.

• Childhood experiences
• Civil rights movement
• Equality]
• etc.

Heres the link so hopefully you have some time to skim through it and learn any facts or background about him that you didn't already know or answer any questions about why he wrote the lyrics to this and what he was aiming for.

http://www.courttheatre.org/season/article/tony_kushner_talks_about_caroline_or_change/

~Salvo

Caroline in Photos

I recently went to a theatre class where the teacher lectured on the importance of purposful placement and selection of props. She explained ot ius that everything from the color of the couch to the label on the wine bottle that sits on the piano is important. Throughout the lecture, the professor spoke about the importance of only using props that are going to contribute to the performance by conveying either a symbol, understanding of the text or characters, or some deeper meaning within the play. She was a very big advocate of minimalism saying that with props, one must "use it or lose it". This made me think about the staging for Caroline or Change. I looked up some stage shots from the original production and noticed a few interesting things about the set. For example, in one scene, the room is fairly baren so the few objects that set the scene really stand out. The fan for example, might not be noticed regualarly as it is brown and fairly small, but being as it is on eof the few adornments on the stage, it is quite noticable to the audience. This made me think about why the director would have included the fan; was it to express the dismal heat that permeats the basement? The heat of the "purgatory" that the drier describes? Or is it meant to draw attention to the sweat that caroline sheds during labor? (as she stands in front of it attempting to cool down several times during the scene). I have attached a few more photos below; do any of the props strike you?
-Becca

Musical Score

According to "Caroline, Or Change's" Wikipedia page, the score by Jeanine Tesori includes "spirituals, blues, Motown, classical music, Jewish klezmer, and folk music."

I find this an interesting mix of music genres. Spirituals and blues are (correct me if I'm wrong) typically included in Louisiana's rich culture. Motown is a record company apparently...I don't really understand its presence with these genres. Classical music brings to mind the bassoon and clarinet that are so indicative of Noah's parents. Jewish klezmer is a type of musical tradition found in Eastern Europe and is mostly played at celebrations. Folk music is associated with American culture for the most part. I think it's interesting that such an eclectic bunch of music was put together to create a rather eclectic musical, with several contrasting moods and tempos.

'Caroline, or Change' Production

 Kushner on Caroline, or Change

 I tried to imbed a video but failed at doing so. Here is the link instead.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2215083734

Just wanted to share this video I found browsing the interwebs about some of Kushner's opinions and the production of the play.

-Jacob

Another Kushner movie

While looking at Kushner's imdb page, I noticed some similarities between Lincoln and Munich, another Kushner-written movie. First of all, the posters are oddly similar:

It's the sort of dark image with the protagonist looking off into the distance, although that may be more of a Spielberg-thing than a Kushner-thing. They are also historically-based movies about heavy subjects (Munich is about the 1972 Olympics Munich massacre). I was wondering if anyone else noticed common themes in Kushner's writings.

Caroline: An Autobiography

I remember how Tony Kushner said that Caroline, Or Change was the most autobiographical out of all various plays.  Here are some of the connections I've found between Tony Kushner (and his life) and Caroline, Or Change.

• Kushner and Noah are from Jewish families
• Kushner's father was a clarinetist and his mother a bassoonist
• Caroline takes place in the 1960s, which is the same time Kushner was a kid, like Noah
• Kushner was born in Manhattan, but moved to Louisiana

If you can think of any other connections, please comment.

Kusher interview

Here's a interview of Tony Kusher on Lincoln with Billy Moyers, it's long but has an interesting trailer where every scene is someone shouting and it looks very action-y. Which is interesting because it is really a very slow movie. Though I liked it, anyway here is the link.
http://billmoyers.com/segment/tony-kushner-on-abraham-lincoln-and-modern-politics/
Also I found out Lincoln was filmed in three months, but Tony spent 6 years on the movie and wrote over 500 pages about 4 months.

Mickey Mousing Rose

Here is an example of Mickey Mousing. The music goes perfectly with the movements of the cartoons.
This reminds me of the way that Rose's voice always goes perfectly with the music. Why would Kushner and Tesori do this?

I think they did this because Rose is a dramatic woman. For example, after moving to the South recently, she tells her father that she's his "brand-new southern daughter" (25). The music matches her changing emotions when she talks about Noah's pocket change and Stuart's dead wife. Rose is also from the NYC, so the way her voice jumps may be to point out the differences between someone from an urban city and someone from a suburban town.

Kushner on The Colbert Report

Tony Kushner was on the Colbert Report in November promoting Lincoln. I was curious to see how Colbert and Kushner would interact together since they both tackle controversial issues and are both quite funny.

-shira

Watch the first and second parts of the interview here: (about 5 minutes long in total)


http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/421267/november-14-2012/tony-kushner-pt--1

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/421268/november-14-2012/tony-kushner-pt--2

The Bell Jar through the years

Fifty years ago yesterday, The Bell Jar was first published in England (under Plath's pseudonym Vicoria Lucas). Here's a great article that has gathered together the different covers of the novel in the last 50 years. It's worth a look. What's your favorite cover?

Journal from Jail

I was doing some research on Ken Kesey and found a 2004 article about his Journal from Jail, which was published shortly after his death. It was written in the summer of 1967 when he was in jail for a drug bust (no surprise there). The article is interesting and talks about how and why Kesey incorporated artwork into his writing, as we saw in his One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest drawings. Similar types of artwork are a part of the journal.

Here's the link to the article.

Trailer

That's the trailer for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." What really got me by the end was the music; it was the same eerie sounding drumbeat with some strange musical instrument overtone. I looked it up and found out it was a musical saw, which is appropriately frightening-sounding.

Kesey's reason for Cuckoo's Nest

After snooping around and looking at different articles pertaining to Ken Kesey and the time he spent at the veteran's hospital being a human guinea pig, I found out some cool things about why he wrote Cuckoo's Nest. Kesey had realized that most veterans at the hospital who were supposedly insane were no different than him and that these people were not insane.  While under the influence of what seemed to be this harmless drug, Ken Kesey decided that society had recently taken a turn for the worse.  He came to a conclusion that these people who were forced to reside within the hospital just had a different outlook and perspective on life.  They were only people who did not fit to the mold of "normal" within society at the time.  Therefore, Kesey took it upon himself to write a novel that would show and portray that horrors of society and how we ostracize and discriminate against those who aren't "normal." This is how the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came to be.  He used his literary talents to show America and all of the world what they had been doing to these people who were not insane, but were unique and I thought that his cause did end up making a change, regardless of how small or large a role it may have played in the movement.

Jack Nicholson

I am totally stealing this idea from Luisa, but I thought that since we had Nurse Ratched winning an award, we should have McMurphy winning an award, too. In contrast to Louise Fletcher being the polar opposite of Nurse Ratched, I think that it's interesting that Jack Nicholson seems so similar to McMurphy. When I saw the sunglasses that Jack Nicholson wore to the Oscars, I thought that they were the exact sunglasses that I would picture McMurphy wearing. He also has the same sort of, I don't know how to describe it, but laziness? in the way he speaks. He speaks so slowly, and has a dry sort of humor just like McMurphy. Anyway, here's the video...

The End

This is the ending of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (the movie). I thought it was really interesting that throughout the Chief's escape scene, there is a sort of Native American style drum beat in the background. I think that this might symbolize Chief getting back to the members of his tribe (because he says he wants to visit some of them). It might also symbolize the Chief finally accepting who he is. This includes his Native American background and his mental condition. Any thoughts?
 

In The Wounded knee Massacre occurred on December 29. In 1973, 200 Oglala Lakota Indians took control of the town Wounded Knee in a protest effort to impeach the elected tribal president Richard Wilson. This event gained media and sympathy from the American people. While Wilson stayed in office, many Indians were inspired by the sight of their people standing in defiance of the government which had failed them. While this event happened after One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, this event reminds me of how Mcmurphy stood up to the Nurse and how even though she is still in power, just like Wilson stayed in power; the event of Mcmurphy changed the ward forever.

AIR RAID

Here's the sound of an Air Raid Siren, which the Chief talks about in the book when he has the Electric Shock Therapy. And since I couldn't find the noise of the machine they use to shock people here's the sound of a defibrillator. Tell me if you guys think they sound similar.

The Church of McMurphy

As you've all discussed in class and on the blog, McMurphy gets compared to Christ frequently in the novel. For fun, let's follow this out. Suppose the men leave the ward in the end and form a church called "McMurphanity." What would the tenets of the faith be? To go Old Testament with this, what would the ten commandments of this church be?

Ideas?

Billy Bibbit=Judas???

When Billy Bibbit blamed McMurphy and his "apostles" for his actions for the night, it seemed to me that Kesey had expanded his religious allusion to include a Judas. By blaming McMurphy, Billy betrayed his "Jesus" to "Rome". Judas also committed suicide after betraying Jesus, like Billy did. If Billy is supposed to be some version of Judas, I found it interesting that Kesey  depicted him as such a sympathetic character when that is not typically the way that Judas is thought of.

Greek allusion?

The Christian religious allusions in Cuckoo's Nest made me wonder if there was any other types of religious allusions in the novel. It seemed to me that the black boys and Nurse Ratched could be like the three Furies and Hades/Pluto in Greek/Roman mythology (Latin class woohoo!). Hades/Pluto is the God of the Underworld in Greek/Roman mythology and the Furies are kind of like his workers. So, if the similarities were intentional, it may further the nurse and boys depiction as basically the epitome of evil. I also just googled Furies to make sure I was making some kind of sense and a picture came up that depicted the Furies looking a lot like angels. The black boys in the book were typically described as "angels of death", which is literally what the Furies are. I also thought it was interesting that in mythology, the Furies were female and Pluto was male so it was a kind of gender reversal in Cuckoo's Nest.

Nursery Rhyme

When the Chief goes through ETC towards the end of the book he is conscious and describes his old life and his mom. I found it quite interesting and also disturbing that parts of his passage were turned into a nursery rhyme for kids:

"Tingle, ting-le, tang-le toes, she's a good fisherman, catches hens, puts 'em inna pens...wire blier, limber lock, three geese in a flock, one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest...O-U-T- spells out...goose swoops down and plucks you out." 

It is interesting that the end talks about plucking you out of the cuckoo's nest. It is like the child should not be in the nest and needs to be taken away. The ward can be seen as the nest here (an unsettling and scary place). The goose is the savior in the song and helps free the kid who is stuck in the nest.

The Chief is a disturbed man and his memories of his mom come up while he is being electrocuted in a mental ward. This subject does not sound very child friendly or nursery rhyme-esque to me. If I knew the context of this song I would not be singing this to my kids to get them to go to bed. 

-Shira

Louise Fletcher

Louise Fletcher played Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This is her acceptance speech for Best Actress at the Oscars. I like it because it shows a completely different person from the one she played.

I wonder about the other characters too. Is Jack Nicholson a strong guy like McMurphy or are they as opposite as these two women?  I doubt two people could be such polar opposites, but what do you think?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Influence in the Cartoon World

This is humorous twist on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest done by the Warren Brothers and incorporated into a full episode of Animaniacs.  I know its pretty long, but if you get the chance to watch it, it is pretty funny and kind of reminded me of when i was really young...

Feel free to comment on any similar themes and events that are mirrored between the cartoon spoof and the novel and any places in which the cartoon takes liberty and strays from the central meaning of the novel.

Catholic Forums discussion on Cuckoo's Nest

I was browsing the internet for modern-day Cuckoo's Nest references and came across this thread on catholicforums.com where a high schooler about our age discussed his opinion on the "filth" of Cuckoo's Nest from a religious standpoint. To be honest, I'm Catholic and still found his feelings a bit ridiculous, extreme, and hilarious. One of the people who responded did point out that almost every classic story has some Christ-like figures or God symbolism, such as Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia. I've thought of that idea before and find it interesting. I'll post the link to the conversation if you need a laugh or are interested in opinions of religious symbolism.

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=136490

Cuckoo's Nest Effect on World

I was reading an article about the history of electro-shock therapy and there was a reference to Cuckoo's nest and how Kesey's depiction of the horrors of shock therapy helped to discredit the procedure and eventually lead to its outlaw. I have attached the article. I find it very interesting to look at how Cuckoo's Nest effected not only the literary, but the medical world. What other effects do you think the book and/or film had on the world at the time?
http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm

Art for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Our illustrated copy of One Flew is awesome! I don't know about you guys, but I missed picture books! It's not exactly the same as first grade art, but having a break now and then with a picture that describes a scene is great.

For a post, I wanted to pick out one famous piece of art that went well with One Flew. The thing is...

there's a lot of art out there, so I couldn't decide. And so, in no particular order, paintings I think mesh well with One Flew: 

The Scream

1. This was the piece I thought of first. A lot of the men at the ward deal with the anxiety that is shown in this painting. By Edvard Munch.

The Persistence of Memory

2. When I imagine shock therapy, this is what I think about. Melting time and confusing outlines of faces. Chief recalls many moments of his childhood during shock therapy. Shock therapy sounds like a really persistent memory to me. By Salvador Dali. 

The Blind Man's Meal

3. This painting reminds me of Harding who, before McMurphy, blindly supported Ratched. Also, he's  blue when his wife is around. By Picasso. 

If you think of a painting that connects to One Flew write a comment or make a post!

Crown of Thorns

I was looking for religious allusions in the chapters we read over the weekend. One jumped out to me in particular. As the technicians are readying McMurphy to undergo shock therapy, he says: "Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?" (244).

In Christianity, a crown woven of thorns was placed on Jesus's head before his crucifixion. Using this imagery further cements McMurphy as a sort of controversial Christ figure. Jesus's crucifixion is seen by Christians as the ultimate symbol of his sacrifice for man. In a similar way, entering the feared "Disturbed" ward seems to be McMurphy's last sacrifice for the ward.

Did you guys catch any other religious allusions or want to elaborate on this one?

Moonrise Kingdom- Cuckoo

For anyone who hates the most miniscule of SPOILERS please read this after finishing the book.


Has anyone seen "Moonrise Kingdom"?  It's one of my favorite movies of 2012.  There's a song from the movie called "Cuckoo!".  So, there I was reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, when I remembered the song.  After listening to it on Youtube, I thought just how perfectly appropriate the song is for the novel.

Here are the lyrics (from Metrolyrics.com):

Cuckoo, cuckoo...
What do you do?  
In April, I open my bill. 
In May, I sing night and day.  
In June, I change my tune.  
In July, far, far i fly... 
In August, away! 
 I must... cuckoo, cuckoo... 

The song summarizes the novel very well.  
McMurphy comes
He sings
He changes the ward
The Chief escapes

Nurse Ratched's Effect on the Combine

In response to Shira's questions:

Is Nurse Ratched's inhuman way of treating her patients causing the ward to be inhumane? Or, does the ward have to be inhumane (in order to help the patients) and that is what makes Nurse Ratched's actions inhuman?

My answer and reasons:

 1. I believe Nurse Ratched's ways of treating her patients is causing the ward to be inhumane.  Her actions are toxic to the patients.  When dealing with the mentally unstable, Nurse Ratched treats them like children, which is precisely what not to do.  One example of this is when the nurse took away the patients' cigarettes, something far too similar to taking a toy away from a kid. 

2. Although not apparent in the book, the actress who plays Nurse Ratched in the movie gives a number of people cold glares.  People, whether stable or insane, are never at ease when being stared down by someone.  The atmosphere she sets for the ward is cold and makes the patients unsure of what to expect.  How could anyone get better in such an environment?

3. The best way to heal someone mentally ill is to treat him/her as if he/she is like any normal human being.  This does not include keeping a person cooped in a psychiatric ward.  However, it does include going out fishing like any Joe Schmoe and seeing and dating girls.

The Chief

This is just something small that I was thinking about while reading. I think that McMurphy coming to the ward was possibly the best thing that could have happened for the Chief because due to his arrival, the Chief believes that he is big and strong again. Also, if McMurphy hadn't been put in the ward, the Chief would not have started talking to the other patients, and I think that this is an important thing to help the Chief begin to recover.

The Simpson's in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

WARNING: Possible spoilers

This is just a funny side by side comparison that I found of a scene from the Simpson's to some from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.