The Exquisiteness Of The How

Many times, when I read a book, watch a painting, a film, or a play, I tend to dwell into the thinking about the what, or the why. I try to explain what is happening, why is happening. But I completely forget about the how. How is it happening? For example, just before I started writing this blog entry I was reading Rayuela by Julio Cortazar. In the novel (or anti novel as it is commonly classified), Morelli talks about words that describe, that entangle the character into the situation and not the other way around. According to Morelli, through the usage of these words, the essence of the situation becomes more important than the situation itself. It doesn’t matter what is happening, where it’s happening, or what is going to happen next. All that matters, for him, is how it’s happening. Then, how is Krapp’s Last Tape happening?

Krapp's Last Tape is set in Krapp's den a room that reflects, to a large degree, Krapp himself. It is bare, save for a small table; this lack of ornament emphasizes Krapp's emotional sterility and loneliness. As he is without any human interaction, his room is without anything that suggests comfort or humanity. In this screen shot, a wide shot, we can observe the contrast of the light and the dark in this empty room, and how the shadow of Krapp conveys these two. A shadow represents dark in the presence of light, therefore, this duality of light and dark embraced in the shadow might signify the loneliness of Krapp, and his isolation in the world. Like a shadow, where there is an isolation of darkness in the presence of light. Also, by being filmed in a central angle always frontal towards Krapp, the figure of him is unanimously central. And the tedious environment where he is displayed, the audience can clearly infer the situation that he embraces.

That’s the how. It’s beautiful. It’s endless. When you try to explain what’s happening in a specific scene or context, at some point, there won’t be more to say. But description can have infinite focuses. In this entry, I only attempted to describe a fraction of all the techniques and details that these work embodies. Right now, for example, I don’t know how to finish my thoughts. I always put to much thinking in my last sentence. I guess I will have to leave like this.