The narrator notes that a "secret code" is written on the body that contains the story of one's life.  Explain how one's body "writes" one's identity.

So I’ve had, including this one, eight and a half semesters of college already. I’ve tried to achieve “perfect attendance” to at least one class. It hasn’t happened. Why? “Oh, I’ve been to every class, I can miss this one,” “I’m allowed to miss a class, might as well use it up,” “The prof cancelled class, so I’ll just ‘repay’ with a miss of my own,” or my most recent excuse “Sorry Mr. Bautista (that sounds so pretentious) your flight out of Dayton, OH has some mechanical issues and you will miss your connection to LAX, here is 12 dollars for food, and a voucher for a night at the airport hotel.” Now why on earth am I starting this post with something so unrelated? Simple. I missed last Monday and I wish I had not missed it because I looked forward to the discussion and how people felt about it. When I was there on Wednesday, jetlagged hardcore, I was surprised to find out that not very many, if any, found it enjoyable. Personally, it is an instant favorite. I like it because the writing is so paradoxical. It is so refined and well thought out, but the emotion is so raw. It’s like the author/narrator “stream of consciousnessed” how they felt, and then added metaphors and comparisons afterward, “tightening up” the language so it was much more powerful and meaningful.

Anyway, to respond to this week’s prompt. I haven’t fully hashed it out in my head what it really means that a “secret code” is written on the body. I will go with it and agree, for now at least, with the assumption. Initially, I think about how scars, wrinkles, bags under a person’s eyes, calluses etc. all have a story, or are a physical tattletale to events that have made the individuals body the way it is. For example, scars could be from some childhood accident, a scrape on the concrete when playing tag or heavily calloused hands could imply that the person worked with some sort of manual labor, carpentry, farming, sculpting etc. However, I do not think it is that simple. Since Winterson repeats how Louise has “reading fingers” as if her fingertips could read the Braille that is the protagonist’s body, the “secret code” written on the body, at least to me, is metaphorical/symbolic.

Since there are a lot of allusions to the sense of touch in the novel, I think that one’s body not necessarily “writes” one’s identity, but one’s identity and their life’s story is “unlocked” by the touch of the person’s lover. The romantic touch is such a sensual and powerful gesture that opens up (makes vulnerable) the individual to the other person. By doing so, they are allowing their lover to hurt them, not in a physical way, but emotionally (which arguably is much more painful.) When I think of the sensual touch, not necessarily on a literal sense, I am reminded of certain personal moments in different relationships where the first kiss, hand hold, cuddle etc. had such a profound and memorable impact in my memory almost as if it revealed a side of me that had been locked up, and could only be released by that person at that time. Back to the prompt stem, when I think about the revelation of one’s life written in a secret code, it isn’t necessarily in retrospective manner i.e. a nostalgic, memory sort of thing, but something that was dormant and is “released” that can now be utilized, fostered, nurtured.

However, I realize that these “things” aren’t innate and you aren’t some sort of sleeper agent waiting for the appropriate person to decipher these secret codes. Rather, they are subconsciously learned from watching and participating in all types of relationships.

Explain which medium (book or movie) more effectively explores the dominant themes of the search for the meaning of life, duty vs. individuality, reflections on mortality, constructive social roles, and life as art in The Hours, and how this was achieved.

This is a tough decision. I don’t think either unanimously trumps the other with regards to their respective effectiveness in exploring the themes. The novel is more effective at investigating duty versus individuality and the search for the meaning of life but loses to the movie with respect to reflections on mortality and social roles. Life as art is split between both.

The reason that the novel wins those two themes is because it allows the reader to “experience” the thoughts of the characters. The “versus” in duty versus individuality can be fully appreciated by witnessing the inner turmoil of each character as they battle with the pros and cons of their decisions and actions. The search for the meaning of life, at least to me, is a very personal quest and can only be, as much as possible, revealed through the examination of the thought process and psyche of an individual. The use of stream of consciousness as a technique was an effective and marvelous idea to explore these two themes.

On the other hand, reflections on mortality and the theme of constructive social roles go to the movie. To me, watching the expressions, hesitations, hopelessness, joys, anguish, was more effective than reading about these emotions. Little expressions of the face, certain body language, fluctuations and tone of voice, when delivered correctly, are more powerful than the written word. One could argue that poetry can elicit and deliver the “rawness” of these emotions, but I think what we can actually see is much “truer” than what we can deduce from words. Words and language are lost on an individual that does not speak that tongue, but facial expression and emotions are universal.

Finally, both are tied at “life as art” because it really is difficult, I think impossible, to place an objective judgment on which form of art is better, film or novel. Sure the novel won the Pulitzer Prize, but the movie did win an Oscar as well. Now this may not answer the question as to which medium better explores the theme, but I think trying to compare the methods would be like comparing apples and oranges.

It is usually true to say that the film version is always inferior to the novel and that the novelization of a film usually does not do the movie justice. However, I think that the film does more than a sufficient job at capturing and illustrating Cunningham’s overall message. I am glad that I had read the novel first because the movie does omit some key scenes from the novel. However, I do not think that any harm can be done reading the novel and then watching the movie afterwards as it provides a more holistic approach and dissection into the main, overlying themes.

Clarissa Vaughan. What a character. When I think about Clarissa Vaughan, I think about strength, hope, innocence, and sadness. These “virtues” manifest themselves in her thoughts and actions and I see them stemming mainly from the inside due to her past experiences. She is strong because she is an independent woman who can keep it all together, but is comfortable/confident enough to deal with her problems. Her innocence is tied to hope because she genuinely gives the impression of a child, wide eyed, and full of wonder with the world and that it seems that no matter what happens, she genuinely is optimistic about things. The sadness does not necessarily come from her, but through observing how she leads her life, and the nostalgia she experiences.

When I was reading through The Hours, I could not help but think that I was reading, more or less, an unresolved love story. A love story that had a “good enough” ending instead of a happily ever after, and we have caught her on the upswing of feelings of nostalgia of “what could have been.”

To me, the nostalgia with which she is struggling, with regards to this love story, is her desire to re-experience/recreate her relationship with Richard, her first love, an unconditional love with no constraints, the typical “puppy love” “high school romance.” Her relationship with Sally on the other hand, is the adult relationship, the domesticated, healthy and rational relationship. At times, what is lacking in that relationship is the spark, or the butterflies in the stomach feeling. On the flip side, the dangers of her love affair with Richard are immaturity, superficiality, and more often than not, those intense feelings are fleeting.

On a broader scope, I think that everybody “suffers” from feelings of nostalgia and wonders what if? These little longings are usually triggered by an association to something material that allows these memories to resurface. I think that we go through a lot of those what ifs on any given day but because there is so much going on, and our short term memory is flooded with so much stimuli in such short amounts of time, that we quickly “forget” what we were reminiscing. Only the significant life altering choices that we have made where we spent hours agonizing over the right decision (e.g. buying a house versus renting, new car versus used, college, this person as a significant other versus the other), maintain a longer half life in our conscious. Obviously there are exceptions to ever rule, but I do not think it would be too outrageous to say that the importance/significance of a decision can be measured by the amount of time spent deciding.

On the other hand, I do not think the product of the times in which she lives had as much of a significant effect when compared to the lives of Virginia Woolf and Laura Brown. We must remember that the “modern,” and therefore much more progressive, world that she inhabits in the novel is definitely not as strict as the 1950 San Francisco, or around 1900 England. This is why she could live openly as a lesbian with her partner for 10 years and not be considered a deviant. I believe that the roles that the outside stimuli play are just to trigger past memories through the use of associations.