...How successfully does the black-and-white film version of The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961), render the ambiguity of James' original text? Ambiguity, the art of deliberately creating something that can have more than one meaning, lends itself to the written word without difficulty. A written story can involve ambiguity in the characters, plot, narrative - every factor in the story can have to it a sense of uncertainty. However, uncertainty concerning ambiguity is subtly different from uncertainty involving vagueness; the former is a deliberate ploy by the writer to leave interpretation open to the reader's own imagination, whereas the latter comes about due to a lack of detail delivered on the part of the writer, probably due to lack of talent or attention. With The Turn of the Screw, Henry James crafted an immensely complex and highly ambiguous book - there is nothing vague here; when Jack Clayton decided to make it into a film, he faced an upward struggle. Adapting a book for a film is always beset with difficulties - the written word has the ability to be far more subtle than the projected frame - but capturing the ambiguity of The Turn of the Screw would be immensely difficult. Words do not have to be precise in their meaning but a picture on a cinema screen is just a picture - there is little subtlety or uncertainty. A director has to employ imaginative techniques to make a viewer doubt what he is so evidently seeing. This was especially...
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...ENC 1102 02 December 2010 Ambiguity: Is The Turn of The Screw based on a true story or is it a tale of insanity? The ambiguous writing style used by Henry James in The Turn of The Screw leaves the story open to the interpretation of the individual reader. I will show how this ambiguous writing style does not lead the reader to any specific interpretation, but it is actually used by James to deliberately confuse the reader and foster an atmosphere of uncertainty. This purposeful lack of facts by James throughout the story makes the reader draw his own conclusions about what actually takes place. Many critics have analyzed The Turn of The Screw and most of them have come to the same conclusion; that the story is littered with ambiguity, but this is where the consensus ends. Nearly everything that takes place in the story can be interpreted in more than one way (Beidler 189). This novella penned by James has generated more than three hundred books, articles, and doctoral dissertations over the last forty years (Teahan 349). One critic, Edmund Wilson, wrote in his evaluation “There is a very good reason, however, in the fact that nowhere does James unequivocally give the thing away: everything from beginning to end can be taken equally well in either of two senses” (172). Just a few of the many unanswered questions that get asked are: Why did Miles really get sent home from school, is he as angelic as he is originally portrayed or is he a bad boy? Why does the uncle...
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...“The Turn of the Screw,” by Henry James is a novella that is open to countless of interpretations due to its ambiguity. There is contradiction after contradiction about whether the governess is sane enough to be able to see the ghosts of Ms. Jessel and Peter Quint. In fact, since the novella was published, many critics have argued that the projections of the ghosts are subjective to the governess’s imagination, while others argue the opposite. The story revolves around a young woman, who has recently finished her education. She accepts her first job: being the governess of little Flora and Miles. The two children are under the care of their uncle after the death of their parents. For this reason, the governess moves to the mansion in Bly, where...
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...According to Mrs. Grose, Quint and Miss Jessel had a romantic relationship. Since Miles spent the majority of his time with Quint, he may have been exposed to sexual behavior from an early age and most likely could have drastically and irreversibly interrupted Miles’s innocence. When the Governess questions Miles about his school, as they were both walking to church, Miles says, “I want my own sort!” (50). James, as much of the story, has left this particular phrase open to interpretation. Mrs. Grose said that Quint used to be a negative influence on Miles. They would usually spend grand amount of time together, which signifies that Quint could have allowed Miles to be exposed to any sort of sexual behavior. Consequently, Miles exposed to the other the children that sexual behavior that he explored and discovered with Quint....
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...the balanced system of society leading to the hatred of the citizens towards the government officials. James’s imagery envelops the essence of the destruction which exists as the two apparitions, hinting at the destructions as a result of greed in the 19th century for dominance. Furthermore the narrator’s tone amplifies the dramaticness of the novella, which expresses the governess’s hysteric mind and desire to protect and shield Flora and Miles from the corruption of the ghosts that don’t exist. James employs multiple types of figurative languages throughout the whole novella, enhancing the suspense and ambiguity within the lines of the text. First the governess’s the solemn one who actually sees the ghosts, which contributes to the fact that the ghosts’ only exist in her imagination therefore classifying the narrator as unreliable. For example in chapter 20, when Mrs. Grose and the...
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...Through ambiguity, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James accomplishes multiple attributes of a traditional gothic story. This ambiguity, however, spurs some debate regarding the plot of the story, whether it is a ghost story or psychological horror. The protagonist, the governess, is convinced she is interacting with the supernatural, but no one is able to confirm this, indicating that the ghosts do not exist. As her hysteria grows, she sees more ghosts and the children’s behavior becomes stranger and more distanced. One can conclude from these aspects of the story that it is not the ghosts that are harming the children, but it is the governess in fits of madness. On the eve of her employment at Bly, the governess is unable to get a proper...
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...The Innocents, a film directed by Jack Clayton, adapted from Henry James’ short novel The Turn of the Screw by John Mortimer, William Archibald and Truman Capote, can be argued to have subject matter of either a supernatural or psychological nature. The same can be said for Henry James’ original, but having digested both texts it is made clear to me that there are some very noticeable differences between the two, that both hinder and enhance our understanding of the stories. In both the film and the novella, the principal story is narrated, somewhat unreliably, by Miss Giddens, the governess appointed to care for the two children by their uncle. In Henry James’ version however, the story is framed in the prologue by an unknown character, Douglas, who introduces the story to a few friends at a house party. In the film, we see Miss Giddens crying with her hands together as if praying, emotionally exclaiming: “All I want to do is save the children, not destroy them. More than anything I love children. More than anything.” It then fades into the interview scene with the uncle, soft focus, to suggest a flashback. Both these openings elicit an anachronistic or nostalgic feel, and with The Innocents, this sensation is strengthened by the black and white cinematography. The cameraman, Freddie Francis, used a special filter which darkened the edges of the frame similar to the ‘vignette’ effect. This had practical uses for characters walking of screen but it also gave the impression that...
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...FAMILY OF SECRETS The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years RUSS BAKER Contents Foreword by James Moore 1. How Did Bush Happen? 2. Poppy’s Secret 3. Viva Zapata 4. Where Was Poppy? 5. Oswald’s Friend 6. The Hit 7. After Camelot 8. Wings for W. 9. The Nixonian Bushes 10. Downing Nixon, Part I: The Setup 11. Downing Nixon, Part II: The Execution 12. In from the Cold 13. Poppy’s Proxy and the Saudis 14. Poppy’s Web 15. The Handoff 16. The Quacking Duck 17. Playing Hardball 18. Meet the Help 19. The Conversion 20. The Skeleton in W.’s Closet 21. Shock and . . . Oil? 22. Deflection for Reelection 23. Domestic Disturbance 24. Conclusion Afterword Author’s Note Acknowledgments Notes Foreword When a governor or any state official seeks elective national office, his (or her) reputation and what the country knows about the candidate’s background is initially determined by the work of local and regional media. Generally, those journalists do a competent job of reporting on the prospect’s record. In the case of Governor George W. Bush, Texas reporters had written numerous stories about his failed businesses in the oil patch, the dubious land grab and questionable funding behind a new stadium for Bush’s baseball team, the Texas Rangers, and his various political contradictions and hypocrisies while serving in Austin. I was one of those Texas journalists. I spent about a decade...
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...nd Ontology aa e ysics of Ide etaph as M rn de o Id An Ess M Marc A. Hight ay i nE ar ly Idea and Ontology Idea and Ontology an essay in early modern metaphysics of ideas marc a. hight t h e p e n n s y l va n i a s t at e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s u n i v e r s i t y p a r k , p e n n s y l va n i a Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hight, Marc A., 1969– Idea and ontology : an essay in early modern metaphysics of ideas / Marc A. Hight. p. cm. Summary: ‘‘Provides an interpretation of the development of the ontology of ideas from Descartes to Hume that reaffirms the vital role metaphysical concerns played in early modern thinking’’—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978–0-271–03383–9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ontology. 2. Idea (Philosophy). 3. Metaphysics. I. Title. BD301.H54 2008 110.9—dc22 2008002466 2008 The Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802–1003 Copyright The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses. It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. This book is printed on Natures Natural, containing 50% post-consumer waste, and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material...
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...Breakout Strategy Meeting the Challenge of Double-Digit Growth Sydney Finkelstein Charles E. Harvey Thomas C. Lawton (McGraw-Hill, New York, 2006) Table of Contents Dedication Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of figures Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Breakout Strategy Getting on the Fast Track Staying out Front Breakout Dynamics Putting Vision to Work Being a Magnet Company Delivering the Promise Executing Breakout Breakout Leadership Appendix: case study companies Index List of Figures Figure 1.1 Figure 2.1 Figure 3.1 Figure 4.1 Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2 Figure 5.3 Figure 5.4 Figure 5.5 Figure 6.1 Figure 6.2 Figure 6.3 Figure 6.4 Figure 7.1 Figure 7.2 Figure 7.3 Figure 8.1 Figure 8.2 Figure 8.3 Figure 9.1 The Breakout Strategy Cycle Companies Getting on the Fast Track Companies Staying Out Front Types of Capital and the Capital Accumulation Process The Vision Wheel State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Organization State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Culture State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Relationships State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Markets The Six Pillars of a Value Proposition Leveraging up the Apple Value Proposition Reconciling Different Value Propositions Leveraging up Samsung Electronics’ Value Proposition Components of a Business Model Aligning the Business Model and Value Proposition Business Model Needs Analysis Delivering Strategy System Balance and Strategy Delivery at...
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