Language of Love

Reading the scene between Maire and Yolland made me think of the story line in the movie Love, Actually, that follows Jamie (a British writer) and Aurelia (a Portugese house keeper). They don't speak a common language but develop a love over the course of the movie. They use pantomime and gestures to communicate but through something that goes beyond words, they are drawn to each other and fall in love.

When Jamie returns to England for the holidays, he learns Portuguese while Aurelia learns English (not knowing what the other was doing). He ends up proposing to her in broken Portuguese---



This may be a sappy, romantic, unrealistic story, but I love it- it's my favorite plot in the movie. And although communication is important to any relationship, I feel that just being in the same room with someone, just being quiet together is a time for bonding- you become comfortable with that person.

I'd like to believe that if Maire and Yolland could have lived happily ever after, they would have learned each other's languages and been able to communicate beyond place names.

The Setting

Having traveled to Ireland for 2 glorious weeks last May, I took thousands of pictures (literally). Here are just a few of the landscape to give you a better idea of the setting of the play.

A view from the plane as we descended onto the Emerald Isle.

The cliffs on Inis Mor

From the top of Blarney Castle

Along the coast of Inis Mor, the main island of the Aran Islands- its population is 900.

Along the coast in Galway

The spoken word

Tonight, I read the first act of Brian Friel's Translations. So did my fiance. We read it aloud by splitting up the roles, although at times we were talking to ourselves (like when Daniel was reading for Manus and Jimmy). It really made a difference in my understanding of the play. I had started reading it by myself but the scenes came to life when we were reading it out loud, putting in the inflections and stumbling over the Gaelic and Latin. Our translation was definitely an interesting one.

As the story progressed and Owen explained how the English would be renaming some areas and towns to make it "easier," I was reminded of a scene from P.S. I love you. Here's the clip- it's a terrible version of it, since someone was recording it in a movie theatre, but it's all I've got. About a minute and a half in, Holly (Hillary Swank) struggles with the name of an Irish town- a prime example of how things can get lost in translation!

Believing and Knowing

"All it takes is faith and trust..." (and a little bit of pixie dust)- Disney's Peter Pan

Faith and trust, belief and knowing. The similarities are many and the differences subtle. It was very interesting to discuss belief and knowing in class on Tuesday. It's a big concept to wrap your mind around and I'm still working on it. These are my thoughts:

I know I am a female homo sapien. But that is because I have faith in the people who decided that it was the proper name for the species and gender I belong to.

I also know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. But it is not because I have faith in the "fact based" historians or the Discovery Channel specials, I have faith in Him, in God, in the comfort that comes with the whole set of beliefs that the Catholic Church has passed on.

"Believing" tends to connote that there is something "assumed," that someone or something has persuaded you to have faith in a certain "truth." Beliefs often shift, grow, disappear, and continuously change.

I don't think knowing and believing are completely separate things. Knowledge can help clarify beliefs just as belief can be the driving factor to find knowledge in a certain area of your life.

The Taiga Tribe--- It's not real!

I had intended this post to provide some historical background on the tribe to which the main character in Power belongs, but I have discovered that it is a fictional tribe- not even a wikipedia entry on it!
That being said, I will now discuss one of the general native American beliefs that have been included in the first section of the novel: the importance of animals.
To Indians, animals weren't just cute and cuddly pets, they served a purpose. The buffalo was a sacred animal on the plains and when the Spanish introduced the horse to the tribes, it revolutionized their way of life.
In Power, Omishto speaks about Aunt Ama and how she believes that the cat was born when she was and is with her for protection. Our narrator wishes she could have been born at the time when animals were 'assigned' to a person. She believes that even if there was an animal with her, it hadn't done her much good. This is a testimony of how she feels split between the world she lives in and the world she came from- the Taiga tribe, where animals weren't just twinkling eyes in the darkness, but sacred protectors of humans.

What's in a name?

The main character in the novel Lucy was given the name "Lucy Josephine Potter." For each part, she had some kind of explanation- Josephine was for a rich uncle who ended up penniless, Potter most likely had its roots in an English family who once owned her ancestors as slaves and Lucy had a very special origin. As Lucy retells the story, she claims that her mother said, "I named you after Satan himself. Lucy, short for Lucifer. What a botheration from the moment you were conceived." (page 152)

I find that explanation interesting, heartbreaking and a bit ironic. The name "Lucy" is of Latin origin and means "light," something which is the exact opposite of the images evoked at the mention of Satan. Saint Lucy is the patroness of sight. I think the character Lucy was properly named- through her coming of age throughout the novel, she sheds light upon many things: her desire for independence, the truth about Mariah, Lewis, Peggy and Paul. She is able to see things clearly as they are, without trying to disguise the truth.

Interested in what your name means? Go to www.name-meanings.com to find out!

Brutal Honesty

In reading the first part of Lucy, I was intrigued by her naivete and her bluntness, in both thoughts and actions. Though the old adage says "The truth shall set you free," in some cases, it doesn't need to be quite as harsh as Lucy reacts to her new 'family' in the city. One scene that struck me was the daffodil scene when Mariah takes Lucy to her favorite spot in the spring. Though Lucy is taken aback by the sight before her, when she hears the flowers are daffodils, she is disgusted and offended that Mariah would even think to bring her there. Her frustration stems from her feelings over the poem she had to memorize about the flowers when she was younger. I'm not sure how I would react to that kind of situation, but with my generally optimistic attitude, I would venture a guess that I would not have acted like Lucy. What do you think? Was she justified in her anger? Or was she overreacting? Do you feel it might have reminded her of her past and upset her because she was feeling homesick?