A Sincere Letter
Angela Tan
Dear friend,
I will try my best to gesticulate and explain my attitude towards stage and screen rights of my novel X. Although my explanation will not appeal to the sights and gazes of many young folks of this modern age, I’ve trampled over my words until words could fly and came to the conclusion that tolerance is all that is required. Firstly, the stage is the court, Shakespeare said, and therefore we must always come to this metonymy, whether it be a drama, film, or case, with preparation and well-thought deals. It is possible that rights could be sold one day and I hope to be long gone when such distribution is settled. And since this is an inevitable possibility, I hope to prime the stage with nuisance pertaining to the ethical and primal aspects of portraying the individual Y in X. To reenact a dehumanising truth (and this is a universal truth) is like a crawl through the clouds for an armless fighter; a starving leader. The experience is yet to be experienced. The experience is not yet emulsified and purified through the lungs and intestines of the actors, not yet pulsifying through their veins. Actors either act and learn their character through the progression of their performance, or study and know the journey beforehand to effectively administer an inspiring and fulfilling performance. Those who fall into the pit of regarding this role as a journey in finding themselves will not have the liberty of inspiring the audience with their experience through the scenic and mimetic transcendentality of performing arts. This role is like a reward granted tomorrow, while we grow “riper, clearer and stronger, more complete”₁ when relishing the present. There are intrinsic perspectives—physical, and mental, gut (good), and schlecht (bad), and böse (evil)—individual to each character; a fatal balance between agency and fatalism. Therefore to take the role of my character is to cannibalise and indulge with greed; to be the character and if not become. And Y himself is, in all my midsummer tragedies and humble summer’s day experiences, inactable. I’m afraid I can only end this perverse and super-biased opinion filled letter because I’m not exactly an empiricist. So take experience as you will, and take advantage of opportunities like all the hollow shelled eyes depending on it. I take it as that life is your very own court and that you’re always going to be in the audience no matter which side of the theatre you’re sitting in.
Thank you, though, certainly for your letter. The letters I receive from producers are usually shell-shocking.
Sincerely,
[1] Nietzsche, F. (1998). On the genealogy of morality (M. Clark & A. J. Swensen, Trans.). Hackett Publishing.
*This letter is inspired by radical empiricist philosopher Nietzsche and J.D. Salinger’s letter explaining why "Catcher In The Rye" wouldn’t work as a movie in 1957.
