“You have my whole heart. You always did.” – Cormac McCarthy, The Road

I personally feel that dystopian novels are great at evoking my emotions because their detailed observation of societal problems truly inspires me. Reading a dystopian novel, I can imagine myself caged in cold society in which characters are. Propaganda, authoritarianism, societal norms, and oppression created by utterly degraded society would suppress freedom, social justice, and happiness. Nevertheless, in spite of this harshness, there are always people who rely on each other to survive, like Kathy H. in <Never Let Me Go> and her friends.

The movie <The Road> movie poster

Cormac McCarthy’s dystopian and inspirational novel <The Road>  is not an exception; reading this novel, I was touched by the strong bond between the father and the son. Despite a harsh environment, these two characters would rely on each other and reach the definition of being “good,” or humane and kind. In order to make a video in response to this novel, I decided to create a video using a love and survival theme. Interestingly enough, I was expected to record my own voice, so I recorded my own voice acting as the son, and asked my friend Conrad to act as the father. Here is the script of the video. Italicized sentences are the father’s part, and the bold sentences are said together:

I was told, that my mom has taken a shot.

Since that time...

Dad has become everything in my life.

Don’t be sad, son. Mommy would want us to save the bullets.

I know that we only have two left.

And we only have each other, on the road.

It’s endless Lifeless

We are threatened, tortured, and eventually will die.

But we walk Walk and walk

Barren Hopeless

Life is dead

But we push and pull

We should take a shot

(Whispering) Take a
shot* 3

(Do we must die?)

Use all the bullets

(Whispering) 2, 1, Bang!

Take a shot* 3

(It’s over, lifeless,
hopeless)

(But I wanna live)

(2, 1, Bang!)

(Whispering ends) But we still walk endlessly (Lifelessly)

Because we are still breathing.

And only have each other.

In the script, I referenced a few phrases in the story. First, the part when the father and son count the number of bullets left (so they can eventually die when they are fed up with living). The repetition of “take a shot” is intentional because it can have multiple meanings in this case; even though “take a shot” generally means to go for something one wants to achieve, it can mean literally shooting somebody for the father and son. “Bang” is the onomatopoeia of shooting sounds. The line “we only have each other” puts an emphasis on the love of these two people. I added a few visual and aural elements to make the video compelling; the main visual aids are part of the advertisement that features a young boy and his father from Thailand, and the beginning of the film version of <The Road>. I also added a few video clips from another dystopian movie and a Chinese advertisement which portrays a father with dementia and his son. Aural effect-wise, I included a well-known classical song Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 and reused Portman’s <Never Let Me Go> soundtrack “We All Complete.” Sound effects of breathing and sighing were important as well, because the father would often listen to his son breathing  in the novel, and in doing so, breathing becomes a symbol of living.

This is the draft of my road video.

I had done little bit of revision, such as deleting poofy sounds from the voice recording, deleting/ adding video clips to add details on the main canvas. I also rearranged the recorded voices slightly and added few more lines on the script:

People are born, and then they eventually die at a certain point; this seems like a repeated life cycle. However, the tight relationship between the father and the son in <The Road> shows that each person is truly valued by another, so people shouldn't underestimate the power of love. Not only does this response video to <The Road> but also the rest of the works featured in this portfolio, the Soundlist about Kathy H., the audio essay about eating fried chicken in Korea, the e-poem performances about famine and Hachiko, shed a light on the value of human beings, encompassing cultural issues and emotions. The Soundlist project explored the complexity and the definition of being a human. The audio essay and live e-poem performances covered few global issues, examining possible emotions caused by these issues. The staged e-poem performance delved into feelings such as sympathy and warmth by seeing Hachiko's endless loyalty. Creating these projects has been possible thanks to the incorporation of writing and technology and public thinking. Writing has allowed us to share pathos with others; and the use of technology made this writing even more compelling, as visual and sonic elements combined together. In doing so, the audience is able to read and visualize the text simultaneously, which wasn't able in the pre-technology era.
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And this is the end of my portfolio! Thank you so much for reading this far! Before you move forward to the next portfolio (which won't happen because this is the last one), I would like to add few photos of my dogs in Korea to brighten your day even more.

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