PUIG'S NARRATIVE STYLE

I have never read anything quite like Kiss of the Spider Woman; from the first sentence, I was immediately captivated. This pleasant reaction was a result of Manuel Puig's writing techniques.

Firstly, the heavy use of dialogue between Valentin and Molina sort of elminates a main narrator; there is a narrative authority to some extent, as discussed in class, with Molina's dialogue and the excerpts of the prisoner reports dispersed throughout. This choice in writing was refreshing to read because all sort of narrative expectations were thrown out the window and I could concentrate on what the two characters at hand were saying. In certain cases, It was like trying to solve a puzzle. For instance, in order to find out the setting, time and place these two characters lived in, I had to pay close attention to their dialogue as opposed to other books where one relies on the 1st or 3rd person narrator to explain such things. It read like a play or screenplay of sorts; I was glad too see such a method of writing could be translated this seamlessly for a novel.

I also was impressed by Puig's use of the films Molina tells Valentin as a vehicle to express their rawest feelings. Whether Molina is making up the films or reiterating a Hollywood film word for word is not important. As Michael Boccia states in his essay, "when Molina and Valentin embellish the films" they are really "revealing their human desires and needs." Molina and Valentin's love develops perhaps because they were able to get to know each other's most true selves through this artistic form of expression. There were no rules to telling these films, and Molina constructed them in order to reveal his most vulnerable feelings, which in turn, eventually allowed Valentin to do the same. Both these prisoners, literally trapped inside a cell, are able to at least be free metaphorically and discover their true selves through the powerful force of art.

Puig offers a very different and unique love story which is only enhanced by his inventive form of presentation.

Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment

Thomás Gutiérrez Alea's film could actually be summarized by a scene in the actual film: it is a tragically poetic shot in which Sergio is washing his hands in the sink and he leaves behind excess bubbles. He tries to wash them away but they continue to live in the sink. This shot encapsulates Sergio's journey throughout the film. He constantly tries to run away from this so called "underdevelopment" left behind by the revolution, but no matter how much he tries to wash it away, he is not able to escape it...the "bubbles" of his underdevelopment stay behind.

I was impressed with Alea's treatment of the source material. It is certainly an advantage that Desnoes himself worked with Alea on the film adaptation of the novel. This collaboration helped take the novel to the next level, I believe. Scenes such as the visit to the Hemingway house and the Kennedy and Castro speeches were even added to that of the original Spanish version, which have proven to be very valuable in the film. It was like the film was Desnoes's final draft.

One thing I am certainly pleased with was Alea's take on the narrative in the novel. In Desnoes's work, the narrator is speaking to us through what seem like journal entries, which are very precise and personal. At times, though, the narrative can seem like the random complaints of an ex bourgeousie Cuban who thinks he is somehow better than most of his peers when he himself is flawed in many ways. Many films tend to take advantage of the voiceover but I think it was a key element here. Whenever Sergio gave his voiceover speeches, something important was being depicted, whether it be scenes of the trial or the documentary pieces; the visualization of these monologues of Sergio's definitely add more meaning to the words and make him a more personable character than in the novel.

Bertolucci: The Spider's Strategem

I was throughly pleased with Bertolucci's film, The Spider's Strategem. I would consider the film one of the better results of a hypertext developed from a hypotext, which in this case is Borges's Theme of the Traitor and the Hero.

Visually, the film was beautiful; Bertolucci seems to have paved the way for the films now in terms of shots and angles. The shot when Athos gets punched for no particular reason, showing just the fist and sound of a punch rather than filming the whole action. It felt a bit familiar, probably because others have been inspired by Bertolucci's genius. Also, towards the end while Athos is in the theater piecing the final clues in the quest for his father's murderer: it felt like a sort of a visual mind trick in how you see Athos on one side and his father's friends off in the distance in the box across the theater and as Athos is verbally piecing the clues together a friend disappears one by one until they all end up in the same box where his father was killed and the confession is revealed. When Draifa is speaking in the present but is placed in a flashback is something I also found incredibly clever. The music, I felt, was very effective in the film, particularly when Athos is taken to the Po River and begins to run out of fear of being harmed by his father's friends.

As Bertolucci states in his interview, he was inspired by the story and maintained most of its "mechanism." Changing some details, among them being the setting and characters, Bertolucci took Borges's story and made it his, applying it to his own experiences at the time; according to him, the film wouldn't have been possible without Bertolucci's experience undergoing psychoanalysis prior to writing the script. As a result, I figure this is a very personal work of art; without this prior knowledge, of both the Borges story or Bertolucci's interview, I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much. They both gave me a deeper insight into the film's message which helped me appreciate it that much more.

What makes an adaptation?

After discussing Cortázar's "Blowup" or, " Las Babas del Diablo", as is the title in Spanish, I was struck by the notion of the speaker having to recount his story as a means to "get rid of that tickle in the stomach that bothers [him]." Describing his need to tell the story in this way, I figure the speaker does this as a form of relief. The details of the events that have transpired are much traumatic to keep to himself.

Then I wondered: how will Antonioni portray the speaker's sensation, his urgency to communicate his experiences to the reader? Will he mention or omit this reaction, which is crucial in the development of the story? This all depends on how Antonioni adapted the short story.

There have been many disagreements over the requirements for an adaptation. Many scholars, as noted in Stam's essay, "Beyond Fidelity," have thought that any digression from the novel to film is considered a "betrayal." Stam, however, tells us to lighten up.

In most cases, adaptations are more "translations" of the work rather than a strict adherence to it. Based on the director and other visionaries in charge of the film, there will be things lost in the translation from literature to cinema, as well as things added.

This brings about the idea of intertextuality, or as Gérard Genette describes it, the "effective co-presence of two texts." According to him, adaptation participates in a "double intertextuality" because it includes both the piece of fiction and the movie. Among the five types of intertextuality Genette mentions, Blowup is considered an "architextuality," simply because Antonioni changed the title of the short story for his film. One can hypothesize that from such a change, that Antonioni probably did not make an exact replica of "Las Babas del Diablo" in the form of a film. Does that then, not make it an adaptation? "Blowup" is also a part of Genette's theory of "hypertextuality," which is where an original work, or "hypertext," inspires other works based on it, or "hypotexts." If traced back far enough, it can be found that all art is, in some way, hypertextual.

Stam concludes that audiences should be open to different interpretations when it comes to adaptations of novel to screen. The "differences among the media" should be appreciated. Even though "Blowup" may not be "Las Babas del Diablo," it is still a work of art that has since inspired other film adaptations, alas, in the true form "hypertextuality."