9TIMEZONES.COM: AN EMAIL SCREENPLAY COLLABORATION BETWEEN HUNGARY AND
L.A.
by Alan C. Baird and Aniko J. Bartos
(Xlibris, 1999)
$18, 316pp, ISBN: 0738806137
"Remarks, Ernest,
are not literature," Gertrude Stein reportedly
told Hemingway. Casual writing
lacks the focus, dramatic structure and
intensity to rise to the level of literature, which engages the reader
on
a journey of emotional response, self-recognition and revelation.
But sometimes we are
attracted to casual writing. We go to
letters,
diaries and journals, especially when written by a celebrity or someone
known to us, in order to discover personal secrets. We become voyeurs
behind the scenes, loving each moment of it. But we still must be engaged,
either because we are curious about the personal life of the author or
because the author writes of events we care about.
This strange
concoction of a book fails to engage the reader at
either level. Presumably about
a screenplay collaboration conducted via
email, 9timezones.com never comes into focus because it makes the
fundamental error of presenting only one side of the
correspondence. We get
Baird's emails to Bartos but not her replies. As a result, everything
Baird writes about lacks sufficient context to make it engaging. There is
no drama here, no interesting dialogue, no mirror of the process of
collaboration. Whatever
collaborative experience was shared between these
two is not recorded here in a dramatic, interesting or even informative
way.
We meet Baird but not Bartos.
Moreover, the
narrative, as restrictive as it is, is constantly
being interrupted by the inclusion of Baird's short stories, poems, and
other diversions electronically sent to Bartos along the way. What do these
have to do with the collaboration?
Apparently Baird was trying to impress
Bartos and establish his credentials as a writer. Is he trying to do the
same thing with the reader? If
so, his lack of focus is not making his
case.
What results is
neither literature nor diary, neither engaging
communication nor interesting personal reflection, because no principle
of
order emerges from the mixture of email and reproduced prior work. This
book is the literary equivalent of Andy Warhol turning on a camera at a
street corner, filming everything that happens, and releasing it as a
movie.
What on earth did the
authors have in mind? What audience did
they
believe would be interested in this one-sided conversation? A strange hint
of purpose comes in an Epilogue:
"Yeah, I finally
'paid attention,' after it penetrated my thick
skull that I was in love with her..."
Is this, then, some
convoluted document of courtship?
Perhaps there
is a wonderful romantic tour de force here, hiding in the wings.
The tragedy of this
book -- and I consider it a tragedy because
screenwriting is the most collaborative of our narrative forms and this
process deserves more serious reflection in print than it has received
--
is made greater by an Appendix that presents the first draft of their
screenplay, THE FALL IN BUDAPEST.
Here is Baird's
synopsis of the story:
"Vitaly, a former
KGB agent, takes a nasty tumble in Budapest's
late autumn, and he's aided on his road back to health by the Hungarian
nurse Erzebet. The course of their blossoming romance is marred by ugly
memories of the past, involving their own personal experiences, as well
as
the violent intersection in the history of their two countries."
Although over-written
and suffering from problems of focus and
structure common to early screenplay drafts, this story has great
potential.
If we could have been witness to the process and dialogue that developed
it,
rather than getting it all one-sided, and with constant interruptions
at
that, then perhaps a book of interest to screenwriting students might
have
resulted. The backdrop of this screenplay is unusual and
the story as a
romantic thriller has tremendous possibilities, which make the failure
of
this book to realize the potential suggested by its subtitle, a book
about the process of collaboration, all the greater.
This book also is a
consequence of the digital revolution in
publishing which made it possible.
Print-on-demand publishers now will
publish anything at low cost -- in fact, a new partnership between
Xlibris
and Random House will publish a book at no charge! While certainly a number
of valuable non-commercial books will appear as a result, so will
anything
that anyone with delusions of grandeur, or more charitable motivations,
chooses to bring into print. An
avalanche of published remarks is sure to
result, although hopefully not everyone will decide to publish their
collected email. Lost in this
digital revolution are the standards and
competitive pressures supplied by editors, who understand the
difference
between something that is publishable and something that is merely
written.
Baird and Bartos do
not seem to understand this difference.
------
Charles Deemer is the author of SCREENWRIGHT: THE CRAFT OF
SCREENWRITING and
teaches screenwriting at Portland State University. Six of his screenplays
have been optioned.