Tomorrow

The short story entitled "Tomorrow" by William Faulkner has probably been my least favorite of the three short stories that we've read thus far from Adaptations. While reading this piece I felt lost at some points, and I think it was mainly because it seemed like Faulkner kept rambling on with no purpose. The way in which he wrote it too was a bit annoying, to be honest. Uncle Gavin's nephew was the narrator and he began with the story of his Uncle's first trial in which he lost (had a mistrial then an acquittal) due to one man named Jackson Fentry, who wouldn't vote to set a man named Bookwright free for killing another man named Buck Thorpe, and therefore lead to a hung jury trial. From there Uncle Gavin set's out to find out why Mr. Fentry is being so stubborn with his decision. In Faulkner's version the reader learns Fentry's story through his neighbors, the Pruitts, and the son of the the man he used to work at Frenchman's Bend saw milling for named, Isham Quick. So, as a reader you make some inferences as to what may have happened.
In the film the viewer learns Fentry's story through his actual accounts, not from other character's points of view. The writers of the script take their own artistic interpretation as to what may have happened in Fentry's life as far as meeting Sarah, and what kinds of conversations they most likely had.
Overall like I mentioned before this really wasn't one of my favorite short stories. For me it just didn't have very much substance to keep me interested.

Memento - The Film

I truly enjoyed the film "Memento," which I learned was written and directed by Christopher Nolan who is the brother of Jonathon Nolan, the author of the short story in which the film was based. For me, one of the main reasons why I found it so interesting was the way Nolan filmed it, in a backwards type narrative. Like in his brothers short story Christopher had two different story lines, one which was told in black and white and was in chronological order and the other in color and was told in reverse order. In the short story Jonathan had italicized text that represented letters written in the past, and normal text for what was happening in the present. Although Jonathan and Christopher's stories differ a lot, they are both centralized around the main character's disability to create to memories, and the fact that he needs to get revenge for the death of his wife.
The film was kind of like a mystery to me; you're never quite sure what characters to trust. The big mystery for me the whole movie was weather or not "Teddy" was a good guy. Seeing Leonard kill Teddy in the beginning of the movie makes you as a viewer place him in the "bad guy" category, however as the film unfolds you find out he's only trying help. He reveals to "Lenny" at the end of the movie that he (Lenny) already killed John G. (the man who he thinks raped and killed his wife) a year ago, but Lenny convinces himself otherwise because he needs to have a purpose in his life. Lenny makes up a story about a man named Sammy Jankis in order to explain to himself that conditioning someone for memories doesn't work. In reality Lenny also made up this story so he could "remember to forget" he was the person responsible for his wife's death.

Heroic Fatalism

After reading the article on heroic fatalism I definitely thought differently of Hemingway's character Ole Andreson in the short story "The Killers." Initially I never thougth of someone who was so briefly in the story to ultimately have the role of being a hero but the article helped with further incite into Ole Andreson. I liked the fact that Hemingway's inspiration for Ole Andreson was included in this piece of writing. It helped me imagine the type of trouble Andreson "got in wrong" and lead to a new understanding of why Andreson was so accepting of his own death. This particular piece was helpful too because as a reader you learn more about the character Nick Adams, and how his short story "The Killers" signaled a change in his life from adolescence to adulthood. Another interesting fact I learned was "The Killers," like many of Hemingway's stories was much more reliant on character development rather than a very detailed setting description. Personally I like having a specific setting, because I can try to imagine myself in that location, but that wasn't Hemingway's style.
Later the article had much more focus on the three films that have been based on "The Killers." Only being able to view the beginning of two of the films in class made me wonder where each plot line was going to end up because they were done so differently; the essay assisted in other explanations for all three films. The article, in addition, offered several explanations for lingering questions that I, as a reader, had after reading Hemingway's short story. For instance, even though you never actually see Max and Al kill Ole Andreson in Hemingway's version, it assumed; but in order to make a film Andreson's death had to be the starting point of a deeper story line. The third version, was the one I found least appealing. It was so different from Hemingway's story I didn't know why the film even bothered to have the title as "Ernest Hemingway's The Killers." However I learned from the article the importance of attaching the authors name to the title especially an author like Hemingway.

Memento Mori by Jonathan Nolan

I took Latin in high school for two years, and in reading the title "Memento Mori" I immediately remembered the word "mori" had something to do with death; so that's what I imagined the short story, by Jonathan Nolan, would be based on. Then when I finished, I looked up the literal translation and it is a Latin phrase that means "be mindful of death" or could be translated as "remember that you are mortal." This is a short story about a man named Earl with a disease he calls "backwards amnesia," which means his brain cannot make new memories. Earl calls himself "the ten minute man" because that's usually how long he can hold onto a memory. Nolan never says what happened to cause Earl's head injury and his wife's death explicitly in the story but as a reader you assume they were probably attacked. Through out the story Earl has to leave himself notes, lists, even get tattoos in order to help him remember his main purpose in life is to find and kill the man who is responsible for his wife's death, because according the half of Earl that remembers situations his "life is over" he's "a dead man." Earl comes back to the theme of death over and over, and how time no longer affects him. He says at the end time for him means nothing, and the moment is the only thing that matters because that's all he has, which is why I think that the title "Memento Mori" is very fitting.
I truly enjoyed the way in which Nolan wrote this short story. It was very descriptive, especially when Earl is writing the letters; it kind of made me feel like the letters were written to me. Nolan forced me to think critically about the way we view time, I honestly didn't really think about which of the three ways I viewed time prior to reading this short story. I guess I am the type of person who lives in the safety of the moment after the moment in which I felt something powerful. I'm someone who lives in the here and now, and that has had it's advantages and disadvantages for me in the past.

The Killers

When I began reading The Killers I was initially somewhat confused, because there were a lot characters introduced right off the bat. It also seemed confusing due to the fact that it's mostly dialogue and one of the main characters didn't have a name for part of the story (the reader later finds out his name is Max). The story beings with two criminals Al, and Max who enter a restaurant and start to cause problems for one of the men working named George. Max ends up telling George they are there to kill a fighter named Ole Andreson, who supposedly eats at "Henry's Lunch-Room" every night. Ole Andreson never shows up, and another man, Nick Adams, decides he is going to warn Andreson about what happened. When Adams arrives at Andreson's home and tells him the situation Andreson's reaction is strange; he didn't seem to care at all, and it was like he already knew. I didn't particularly enjoy The Killers; it was kind-of boring. I wanted to know why Ole Andreson was wanted dead, and why he didn't seem concerned. Something else I found puzzling was at the end of the story when Nick Adams was leaving Ole Andreson's house and talking with the woman who he thought was Mrs. Hirsch, but she was actually Mrs. Bell. I didn't understand why Hemingway would have bothered with telling the reader Mrs. Bell's name in the first place, because in the end it seemed to have no significance. For me personally watching both the films was a more effective way for this short story to be told.