The Philadelphia and The Janitor

I read "The Philadelphia" first, and was quite entertained. It reminded me of a sort of Ray Bradbury-esque scenario but played off with humor rather than fear, or whatever it is he uses. I liked it because it was such a real-life kind of scenario - just a bad day - that turns into a science-fictiony sort of Twilight Zone episode. I also really liked Al, just for his one-liners. When he said, "You are a temptress," I laughed out loud. I thought she was just annoyed with him for hitting on her and was trying to get him to leave the restaurant, and he was handling it beautifully. I didn't realize until later it was because he was in a Los Angeles.

Then as I tried to get into "The Janitor," it was really difficult for me. I think because it was just one huge paragraph of text, I lost interest relatively quickly. It took a few reads for me to get the whole way through without spacing out. Which, as it turns out, I'm glad I did because I actually thought it was really heartbreaking and beautiful and inspiring at the same time. I love that he's obviously had a hard time with life in general but he's still able to give this speech to the youth that things are going to be, at the very least, okay.

"We are all victims of the sweetness of youth and the time of its flight," is a line I loved. It's so eloquent even though in the directions it says, "His speech is delivered with the literacy of a janitor."

I guess reading them side by side made me think of how best to present whatever it is I'm going to say with my play. A silly conversation didn't give the same impact as someone reflecting over life in general, but at the same time, I almost missed the best parts because it just seemed like a block of text. It would probably have had more impact on me had it been read aloud, which is another thing to think about.