Retired, so happy to hear that you are planning to join us in January!
Welcome!Sheila, I hear what you are saying about the movie adaptation of K.A. Porters book - the Hollywood adaptation is called "strange" by critics. When you consider the history of the book, it doesn't surprise me at all.
-In 1931 Katherine Anne Porter kept a journal during a sea voyage to study in Bremerhaven, Germany, on a Guggenheim Fellowship - The characters in the novel were based on
real people she met during the trip.
- In 1940, she began the novel, but for different reasons, was unable to finish writing it until 1962 when it was published.
- The movie adaptation of the novel which KA Porter had set in the 1930's was adapted to portray 1960's "fools."
So right away, we have a major difference portraying two periods in time. Porter's first reaction to the film adaptation was that "too much was omitted from the book, distorting its message."
Jonathan, is it Porter who implies that people are all on their way to heaven - or is it the moviemakers who are trying to soothe the depressing tone of the film?
"The movie caught the spirit of the times, and the foolish ways of men and women." Jonathan
Have we always been so foolish? - Consider that title - from a 15th century book,
Ship of Fools (1494) by Sebastian Brant, "an allegory depicting a vessel populated by human inhabitants who are deranged, frivolous, or oblivious, passengers aboard a ship without a pilot, and seemingly ignorant of their own direction."
Porter's
Ship of Fools, also an allegory, was set in the autumn of the year 1931, can be seen as an attack on a world that allowed the Second World War to happen."
How far have we come in the 21st century - from the frivolous, oblivious 15th century, the pre-World War II years - the 1960's. We are still all in the same ship, but are we still pulling in opposite directions?
