WRITER
Textual Poaching
Once, I went to dinner with some family that I hadn’t seen in awhile. My aunt, who knows that I am studying film, asked about how I think I am doing as a screenwriter. I responded, “Well, I write, but I don’t know if I’m exactly a writer.” I barely finished the sentence before she interrupted me, “No, Carson, you’re a writer. You need to embrace that about yourself.” I have always loved film, and have wanted to be a screenwriter since I was 14, but the act of identifying myself as such was terrifying. Quite frankly, it still is. Regardless, from the moment that my aunt called me out on it, I started to think about my drive to write screenplays as a part of my identity.
This screenplay is one of my favorite films: Stalker (1979). It is a story about two men, a Writer and a Professor, that are led by a Stalker into the Zone, which contains a room that is rumored to grant you any wish you desire. I chose to remix the screenplay, because (1) it is the creative medium that I specialize in, and (2) I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to remix a script that was directed by one of the people that inspired me to pursue a career in film.
I remixed the screenplay by taking a deeper dive into the character of Writer, and making his personality fit mine a bit more -- with a loose story woven into it. In the original screenplay, Writer is pessimistic, and as much as he voiced many things that I have thought before, I don’t think they really describe my personality. In the script, you’ll find aspects voiced by Writer that I have grappled with in my identity as a Writer, such as, finding purpose in art, struggling with self-worth, fearing loneliness, and coming to terms with hardships through the art I love.
Identity
As life continues to move more and more online, the ability for younger generations to develop an identity without the internet and social media seems to get more and more difficult. As Dannah Boyd puts it in her article, It’s Complicated, “Teens are struggling to make sense of who they are and how they fit into society in an environment in which contexts are networked and collapsed, audiences are invisible, and anything they say or do can easily be taken out of context.” As important as it is to develop your personality and discover your identity in a genuine way, social networks seem to provide huge obstacles for everyone, and especially teenagers in doing so.
Even though it can be in this day and age, it does pay to have some form of self-discover, or self-identity; what makes us unique, but what connects us with others. Maybe we all need someone like my aunt to tell us to embrace some aspect of our identity.