Monday 2 November 2009

She: A History of Adventure

i decided that to understand the exerpts more, i would research into what the story was about.

  • 'She' is considered to be one of the classics of imaginative literature and was one of the best-selling books of all-time

Where the idea came from

'She' is short for 'she who must not be named- apparently, H.Rider Haggard's nursemaid, used to toroment him with an ugly doll, which went by the name of 'she who must not be named.'

'Kor,' means 'disease' in Old Norse- in 'She' the main character, Ayesha, lives in a city named Kor, which had its original inhabitants decimated by a terrible 'plague.'

synopsis

Haggard tells the story of a Cambridge Professor, Horace Holly, and his companion, Leo Vincey, who travel to Africa. There, they ancounter Ayesha, who has made herself immortal by bathing in a pillar of fire, which is the source of life itself.

Ayesha is an all-powerrful female figure who is desired, but also feared- she is a beautiful 'being' but she will kill anyone who offends her or stands in her way. She has waited 2000 years for the rebirth of her former lover, Killakrates- incidently, she is the one who killed him. She beleieves that Leo Vincey is the reincarnation of Killikrates.

One of the chapters that i have been given, shows Ayesha taking Holly and Vincey to see the pillar of fire and wants Vincey to bathe in it so that he can also be immortal with her. He doubts his safety, so she bathes in it again to prove him wrong- she withers immediately, but before she 'dies,' she says, @I die no, I shall come again.'

In the book, Haggard explores the themes of : POWER, LIFE, DEATH, REINCARNATION, SEXUALITY AND FATE.

The film has been adapted many times throughout the years, likewise with the book, so i would like to see and compare the different versions. After reading the synopsis of the overall book, I am quite pleased with the folder i chose- ok, i have never heard of it before and so i thought that it would be very difficult with my drawing skills but it does allow me to explore my strengths and include my own perceptions, rather than being too influenced by the other versions that have already been made.

3 comments:

  1. Evening Jade - good to see you posting re. unit 2 - Elliot is also working from She, so you might want to go say ''hi" - get some visualisations posted asap - and be sure to attend your technical classes on friday...

    Okay - some important tips re. the essay. What I DON'T want is 1,500 words of general observations about the 'look' of a game or film; what I'm looking for is some genuine research into the creative team/rationale behind the creation of a particular world (for instance, for Superman Returns, there was a conscious effort on behalf of the production designers to create an amalgamation of time periods, so that the film had a retro/contemporary quality that referenced the forties as well as the present day); another way to discuss the 'look' of a film/game in a contextualised way is to gather together lots of film/reviews and cross-reference the similarities between observations, as reviewers identify 'trends' and 'meanings' in the production design. I want you to actually 'deconstruct' the look of something in intellectual terms, and not just bang on about the obvious stuff - this should be your mantra - AVOID GENERIC OBSERVATIONS! Find an angle, support it with external evidence and PROVE your analysis... Obviously then, I'd choose something about which you can dig up the relevant information...

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  2. Hi Jade
    I think I saw the film many years ago, but I am inspired to have another look at it now! Looking forward to seeing some of you images...

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  3. My ancient memory seems to remeber a version of She I vaguely remembrer the scene where Ayesha re-enters the flame of life.

    This story derives a lot of its heritage fromk ancient legends, and I can see the relevance of Lovecraft as a comparison. Visually I think I would skip Egypt as a reference and aim for something even more ancient such as Sumerian, although the line where you mention the Norse caught my eye as well.

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