I picked scene 6 when the Ghost says “Momken
men-fadluck ted-dini gawaz safari?” The
Ghost had appeared earlier when Elliot was taking an order in the Subway and
now during the conversation online when Organgutan, Haikumon, Fountainhead and Chuttes&Laddars
are having a conversation. At this time,
Haikumon is telling Fountainhead that he is “welcome to the dinner party” and
then they start talking about slogans.
The stage directions say that Elliot appears at a gym punching a bag and
the Ghost is watching him. The Ghost says his line, but it appears as though
the Ghost is also participating in the conversation that is happing online. Elliot ignores the ghost and the others that
are online ignore him also.
There is one particular moment when Elliot is
punching the bag, his leg is hurting and he says, “No pain. No pain.” Harikumom says, “In lieu of flowers
contributions may be made to …” after which he drops the newspaper and the Ghost
blows Elliot over and then says his line.
Maybe his line has a similar meaning as the “sayings” that the online
characters are mentioning. This makes an
interesting intersection of the two stories.
A good Unifying Principle could be “blowing away the
pain.” “Blowing away the pain” means
that to get rid of the pain or overcome it by whatever means are effective. The Ghost could be trying to communicate some
sort of slogan of his own making so that they can overcome their addictions (or
pain) though slogans and not by using crack and thus “blowing away their pain.” In Elliot’s case, he is trying to get rid of
his pain in his leg by punching the bag harder and talking himself into “feeling
like a million bucks.” The Ghost has “blown”
Elliot down and thus helping him to overcome his pain. The Ghost seems to ties
the two different stories together.
this is an interesting scene to pick for the fusion of the worlds for this play. I like your unifying principle of "blowing away the pain." I think that is really effective and gives good imagery to go off of especially when thinking of the ghost. I agree that the ghost is a bigger character than people give it credit for, i feel like most people talk about the Odessa or Yaz effecting him the most but we must not forgot the ghost's effects.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you think the Ghost is innacting some sort of connection between Elliot and the forum members. Despite being there, the ghost does not have a very active role except to constantly say the line over and over again. This could be a characteristic of ghosts, and that they are stuck on something that keeps them bonded to this life. The ghost does have an important role since his presence effects Elliot.
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