ACT 2 THE MUSEUM / THE CONTEMPLATOR
Annee Viken finished her studies at the Studio for immediate Spaces with a paper in which she analyzes the meaning of space in several novels. The tools that are used in fiction allowing the reader to access the writers’ universe are often seamlessly woven into the story, like using a tunnel. The familiar element telling you that you are being transported into a made-up world. With the knowledge of the tunnel we accept the reality given to us by the author. We create our own image of this world and mould it in our minds into a personal visual experience. We are imagining a space based on our existing knowledge.
The following text is based on extracting concepts of space found in fiction. The novel, Catcher in the Rye represent one concept of space. The space is being explored through the medium of a screenplay where it has been made accessible through a conversation between I, as the fictional space, and the protagonist or the narrator of the novel. The aim is not to make conclusions but to open up how we approach real space and suggest how it can be explored and altered through fiction.
This text is part of a screenplay in seven acts.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger represents the concept of the fictional space ‘The Museum’ and the person encountering it, here; Holden Caulfield, ‘The Contemplator’.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. SIDEWALK NEW YORK CITY-DAY
The camera is facing a street, there is a sidewalk in the left side of the frame, and the entrance of The Natural Museum is seen in profile on the right side. Holden Caulfield is seen walking towards the camera in the distance. The sun is dazzling and he is walking in the very left of the frame hiding in the shadow cast by the large maple trees that line the sidewalk. Holden sees the entrance of The Natural History Museum on the other side of the street, he checks for cars on both sides, then crosses the street in a lazy run and walks towards the entrance of the museum. He continues up the stairs, passes between the enormous pillars and pauses for a brief second before he opens the main door and goes inside. The camera remains in position for the entire time.
There are times I feel like I am just presenting time in a cloud of dust. I manifest the paradox of the vibrant, changing outside with my capsuled, constant inside. Still thousands of people walk through me every day, why do you say nobody’d move?
FADE TO:
INT. MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY NEW YORK CITY-DAY
HOLDEN (pensive)
MUSEUM (reflective)
There are times I feel like I am just presenting time in a cloud of dust. I manifest the paradox of the vibrant, changing outside with my capsuled, constant inside. Still thousands of people walk through me every day, why do you say nobody’d move?
HOLDEN (pensive)
MUSEUM (reflective)
Once in a while I would look out the window and everything would seem to go just a little bit slower. The vigorous movement of the birds’ wings would suddenly seam clearer, the wind becoming visible through the shaking of the leaves. Each fragment of the mimics in a face of someone talking suddenly becomes emanate, disclosing the stunning complexity of the human face. Every time I see something new, so tell me, if I pretend to be you, wouldn’t there be something that I would recognize as being different, visiting me?
HOLDEN (introspective)
MUSEUM (reflective)
Sometimes I feel like time itself, by keeping it I make it visible. I keep memories and map the trails. You think you are the only one being different but I fade too, it’s just not so easy to notice. Every year I get a new little scratch, another little mark.
HOLDEN (pensive)
MUSEUM (reflective)
I embrace the dust of encounters and events. I present the frozen image; I show you the dream of lost times, that is what I do. Sometimes it feels like I am given the most beautiful drawing in the world just to realise that it is put on fire, being presented with the meaning of life in the very moment of death. In the end everything ceases to move and existence becomes painful. Maybe it’s too much…
HOLDEN (introspective)
MUSEUM (reflective)
I find it hard, I cannot move you know… I am the relic of space. I offer you knowledge, and the value of remembrance. I am dense, cold, massive walls trying to show you the traversed past and the lingering future of a life I don’t know, there is no present.
HOLDEN (reflective)
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