Wit and Truth?
Through Vivian’s fourth-wall breaks, Nicholas’ Wit constantly draws audience attention to the narrative discourse, the sjuzhet, of an otherwise simple story: her battle with cancer and death. This technique creates an intimacy with the character. But it also helps reveal the contrast between reality and representation which Vivian herself struggles with. After deciding on the DNR, she remarks how “corny” her death has become but that the emotions of the moment allowed no time for “verbal swordplay.” Here, lyric or narrative representation seems incapable of conveying reality. The intellectual artifice, wit, of Donne’s poetry which deals with death in the “abstract” becomes cold comfort as she lies in the hospital bed. Does that render her academic pursuits meaningless if she never gained greater insight into the human condition? Was she simply consumed with a verbal “puzzle,” as the Doctor Posner suggests? Her inability to present herself to the audience soon after, as she enters the coma, seems suggests so. Scenes with the greatest pathos come after embellishments like directly speaking to the audience or flashbacks end. The narrative discourse becomes less noticeable, blurring the line between representation and reality to powerful effect. She admits she cannot convey or explain the pain she feels. And when Professor Ashford arrives, Vivian rejects the nuanced Donne for the simple truth of a children’s story. The appearance of her mentor, however, reminds the audience that the most meaningful interpersonal relationships she ever developed occurred through texts. Her academic pursuits did not come at the expense of a more fulfilling life outside the library. They ultimately made her life more meaningful, though she could not answer how “simple human truth [and] uncompromising scholarly standards” were connected till the very end. The narrative discourse of the film functions the same way Donne’s poetry does for Vivian. Methods of representation allow the audience to become more involved in her story – a story where her reality would otherwise be prosaic melodrama unworthy of her (and us).
Film Talk 7 years ago 
Wit and Truth?
Through Vivian’s fourth-wall breaks, Nicholas’ Wit constantly draws audience attention to the narrative discourse, the sjuzhet, of an otherwise simple story: her battle with cancer and death. This technique creates an intimacy with the character. But it also helps reveal the contrast between reality and representation which Vivian herself struggles with. After deciding on the DNR, she remarks how “corny” her death has become but that the emotions of the moment allowed no time for “verbal swordplay.” Here, lyric or narrative representation seems incapable of conveying reality. The intellectual artifice, wit, of Donne’s poetry which deals with death in the “abstract” becomes cold comfort as she lies in the hospital bed. Does that render her academic pursuits meaningless if she never gained greater insight into the human condition? Was she simply consumed with a verbal “puzzle,” as the Doctor Posner suggests? Her inability to present herself to the audience soon after, as she enters the coma, seems suggests so. Scenes with the greatest pathos come after embellishments like directly speaking to the audience or flashbacks end. The narrative discourse becomes less noticeable, blurring the line between representation and reality to powerful effect. She admits she cannot convey or explain the pain she feels. And when Professor Ashford arrives, Vivian rejects the nuanced Donne for the simple truth of a children’s story. The appearance of her mentor, however, reminds the audience that the most meaningful interpersonal relationships she ever developed occurred through texts. Her academic pursuits did not come at the expense of a more fulfilling life outside the library. They ultimately made her life more meaningful, though she could not answer how “simple human truth [and] uncompromising scholarly standards” were connected till the very end. The narrative discourse of the film functions the same way Donne’s poetry does for Vivian. Methods of representation allow the audience to become more involved in her story – a story where her reality would otherwise be prosaic melodrama unworthy of her (and us).