India's Author's Corner - Ophelia's Soundlist

Like most people in the world, any of the literature and media that I consume is not "high culture," the traditional fodder for English classes. Still, culture consumers for both low and high often create transformative and explorative works about pieces. This usually has a fringe feel--think Trekkies--but think about it, and you'll realize you've seen a lot of transformative works in your time, from Wicked (musical of a book about a movie about a book) to every new adaptation of Grimm's Fairy Tales or Batman.



I deal with those and speculations about the world of Game of Thrones, political analyses of superheroes and mutants, and 8track playlists based on fictional characters with an even hand. Because it's all fascinating!

Crafting a narrative and psychological exploration of a character  like Ophelia through audio was something no English class has asked me  to do before. This projects asked me to

1) Essentialize: Boil down the character to their core psyche and their relationships to pure motivation. Remove the context and find where it relates to other media.

-This was difficult for Ophelia, lover, daughter, sister, pawn. She had no soliloquys, and play interpretations range far and wide. I tried to look to what she said to whom, and when she was silent, to sense emotions within. In the end I took her many relationships in a way to explore her sense of responsibility and powerlessness.

2) Narrate: Within seven or more sounds, trace a journey of that character*.

-Going too literal would render my project irrelevant against the play. No one needed a "woman crying" or "footsteps down castle hallway" sound effect. The only one I went with was the final river sound, and that was in purposeful contrast to the rest, showing her final hopeless end and wish for what peace she could find. So I tried to show her journey from her thoughts and emotions.
(*It didn't have to be journey, but I took it that way.)

3) Collect: Express your feelings about one piece of work using songs, poems, noises, or sound effects already provided.

-It is very hard to collage originals to a new purpose. You have to kill the authors a bit--though in the case of the Game of Thrones soundtrack, the context helps.
On principle, I didn't want to tap into material other than the source for inspiration. Ophelia has
inspired many people and things throughout the years; she is
associated with suicide, collateral damage, and hysteria. There are songs, poems, and even other playlists about her. Which I steadfastly avoided, wanting to create my own interpretation.
Then after selecting adequate things, I had to narrow down! That was tough. What Adele said fit the heart, what a folk song said fit the foreshadowing... And so on.
I even have a bonus Dickinson poem if you think Ophelia would be banned from heaven for suicide.

 This project allowed me to test my knowledge of Hamlet, one of my favorite
plays, a classic that I've read six times. Being able to amplify and explore the parts of Ophelia and the play that I'm interested in was an honor, but also taught me more about multi-genre projects.

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