17 April 2021

You worked in the outback, raking and then spraying to kill the many thicket bushes starting to come back; other natural foliage is welcome to return. You notice that I prefer the ariel typeset rather than the script type this time around. You likewise changed your habit. Subtle but effective, I imagine. - Amorella

2123 hrs. The less casual and laidback style has gone to the wayside. Where have you been this last year? 

You survived without my presence. The passion left and has not returned; it has with anecdotal evidence been 'burned away' (with a memorable wink to Wilder's "Our Town"). 

2212 hrs. I did not consciously remember "burned away," but it sounds authentic. I did some checking. 

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Our Town
Thornton Wilder

THE STORY continued

ACT III

NOTE: According to Wilder's stage directions, the dead "do not turn their heads or their eyes to the right or left, but they sit in a quiet without stiffness. When they speak, their tone is a matter of fact, without sentimentality." Wilder wants the audience to notice that the dead have lost their emotional attachment to the living. Later, you will understand that even this becomes a comment on what it means to be alive. 

The Stage Manager takes up his usual position, and when the house lights go down, he begins to speak. Nine years have gone by this time. And this is a different part of Grover's Corners, "an important part," on a hilltop. He talks about the beauty of the setting and points out the oldest graves belonging to the "strong-minded" settlers. Genealogists, paid by people who want to be certain they have colonial ancestors, visit the graves. "Wherever you come near the human race, there's layers and layers of nonsense," he says. Then he points out the Civil War veterans. "New Hampshire boys... had a notion that the Union ought to be kept together, though they'd never seen more than fifty miles of it themselves... And they went and died about it." 

Wilder is pointing out that humans are both silly and noble. There is no such thing as "either/or" when it comes to an understanding the human race. It contains all possibilities. 

Finally, the Stage Manager points to the actors sitting on chairs. Mrs. Gibbs, who worried so much about her husband, is dead. So are Simon Stimson, Mrs. Soames, and Wally Webb. 

NOTE: At the beginning of the play, the Stage Manager mentioned the deaths of several characters, including Mrs. Gibbs. It wasn't upsetting because you hadn't met them yet. And he didn't talk about every character's death. Now, learning about the death of Mrs. Gibbs and of Wally causes a pang. You've met them. They aren't just names anymore. Why do you think Wilder has done this? You may recall the question, "How's it going to end?" Wilder wants you to realize that most people go through life asking such questions when they know the answer perfectly well. Everyone is going to die. Yet, everyone acts as if death is unexpected. 

Wilder uses the Stage Manager to state some other beliefs. "We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses, and it ain't names... That something has to do with human beings." There is, he says, something within each one of us that lives on beyond our own life force. Is he talking about the soul? The Stage Manager says that all the great thinkers have been saying it throughout history, but people have trouble remembering the idea. "We all know," says the Stage Manager. Is he right? Do we all know? Does Wilder think we all know? 

NOTE: Wilder has been accused of being too much like a teacher, hitting you over the head with his message. Do you think this is a valid criticism? Or is the sugarcoating of humor and emotion thick enough to make the message go down easily? Or is Wilder raising questions rather than insisting on certain answers? 

In one of the most lyrical passages in the play, the Stage Manager describes how the "earth part" of people has burned away after death, and the "eternal part" comes out. The part that attaches people to the earth, memory and personal identity, has to disappear. (This is why the actors in the chairs speak and behave passively. The earth part of them is burning out.) It is not that the dead cease to care about the living; they hardly remember what it was to be alive. Do you suppose that this is the perfection that people talked about earlier in the play?   . . .

Selected from - http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/barrons/ourtownx.asp

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2221 hrs. Are you suggesting this bolded concept should be a set piece for this autobiography?

Yes. You will move from Caesar to Wilder at this point. - Amorella

1026 hrs. Interesting. The tone of thinking here appears at a higher, more intellectual, and consciously stable level. I cannot be doing this without your guidance. The tone carried is that while writing, I am among Wilder's dead in the play.

As you wish, you are the writer. - Amorella '

1039 hrs. Upon your return to the Notes on 14 April, you said, "Who to better play the guardian Angel than me, Amorella?"

My tonal construction will be similar to that of the Stage Manager in Wilder's play. You will be more comfortable seeing me in this light. - Amorella

1050 hrs. I am glad I am sharing this with Fritz. I am not comfortable not sharing. 

At present, let's share with Fritz and on the blog. - Amorella

2257 hrs. Strange, I don't think of the blog as a sharing because no one reads it anyway. 

You are a very private man; there is no need to exploit that. Send this on to Fritz. He is a very private man also. - Amorella

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