Questions>>> A New Short Story: Look Out, the Saints are Coming Through

1.     What is your reaction to the text you just read?
a.     I was pretty confused because it didn’t seem like the story was written in chronological order. Perhaps it was, but the way that the narrator kept jumping back and forth between topics confused me a lot. I also hard a hard time getting attached to the two characters because they were never given names: it felt like I was staring at two featureless masks the entire time I was reading. I don’t know how to feel about the male character. He seems to be a jerk who gets into fights and is addicted to drugs but doesn’t like his girlfriend getting high. He had his okay moments though. I think the girl was too nice to him. She short of just stood back and let him do his own thing while he got himself in trouble. Maybe she loved him too much.
2.     What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the work with which you were able to connect.
a.     I felt a connection when the narrator talked about the triangle of time, money, and passion. The man believes that passion is the least important of the three. He reminds me of my dad, who is very practical and believes that it is better to have a job that makes money than have one that makes less but is enjoyable. He even believes that having a likeable job is almost impossible. I’m like the female character who is so passionate that she ignores the triangle and writes “soul.” I think the most important thing when doing or committing to anything is that your heart is into it.
3.     What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you use? What changes would you make?

a.     I would adapt it into a live-action short film. To emulate the jumping-back-and-forth of the short story, the majority of the film would be a montage that starts in their happy cute days of dating and cutting quickly between scenes of his mind getting worse and worse until finally he ends up in court. Perhaps at the beginning of the film, we show where the two end up by the end, and the rest of the film is a flashback that progresses until the present day. The woman doesn’t describe his violent encounters vividly because she was never there when they happened, but the short film would show things from an omnipresent view, so his fight would be shown.

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