posted
I am not growing them at all. I am writing a play for my highschool, and wanted to make sure that the reference to hibisci blooming in december was feasable. I seem to recall that they do in South Texas; in warm zones, such as South Texas or Hawaii, is this possible?
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posted
I know it sounds awful, but all the online dictionaries that I just checked that give a plural form list it as "hibiscuses."
However, I've never heard that. In normal usage the consensus seems to be (via my own experience and a quick Google) that hibiscus is used as the plural--so for your play I would say "the hibiscus are blooming" or something along those lines.
And I'm no expert, but December blooming in tropical climates sounds normal to me.
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My mom (in SoCal) has two hibiscus; they bloom from about late June until about late January. Then when they stop blooming she cuts them back for the year so they don't take over her window and driveway. My dad used to have some hibiscus before he moved (he lives here in SoCal, too); they were apparently a shorter-and earlier-blooming variety, and bloomed from about mid-May until mid-October. My dad's were white, my mom's are pink, if that helps.
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Also, from things my mom has said, apparently the reason hibiscus do so well here is our very alkaline soil. They like it. They also like the constant warm temperatures and the variety she has is surprisingly drought-resistant for a tropical plant, although they do need more water than, say, her succulents (but don't most plants.)
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posted
Anyway, here is the bit I needed the info for:
quote:Narrator: December the Sixth, 1941. The breezes of the Hawai’ian winter floated across the white beaches and the harbor. The Spanish bull had been slaughtered, but the Falangist matador had been pushed from the limelight as Europe became Gurneica. Here, the hibiscuses bloomed; in Poland Messrs Topf & Sons had already instaled, with great efficiany, their ovens at Auschwitz. Here, women baked cookies, grateful that the long-awaited end of the terrible depresion seemed near. The soldiers had not yet entered the village of Oradour-Sur-Glane, rounding the women and children into the Church, burning the temple of God down upon the people, but this too, in time, would come. Here, we shot pool in our messes and social clubs, in London, the poet had already noted that “After the first death, there is no other.”
posted
"efficiany" Is that a word? Did the Allies even know about Auschwitz in '41?
Anyway, to my ear, this is all too hard. Every sentence seems to be about something else, and maybe, in totality, the whole narative measures up to something beautiful, but I don't see it, and from a narrative, I want to know what's going on in simple sentences, not bad poety concerning WWII. The forced allusions turn me off and make me wonder if you have any story to tell or characters of interest.
You can say that I'll somehow care about the story after the next bit, but I'm bored right now, and I'm worried that if the whole story were told in this sideways style, I'd fall asleep no matter how good the plot.
posted
"Did the Allies even know about Auschwitz in '41?"
Quite possibly, but that is not the point. The narrator, like so many in his position has the gift of hindsight.
"The forced allusions turn me off and make me wonder if you have any story to tell or characters of interest."
The two allusions are both highly topical, but you are free to dislike them. The characters, however, are not mine but real people borrowed from history. They too, you are free to dislike, but it would not be my fault, as I intended to use only their words to record the story, as an experiment in the playwright as editor.
"I want to know what's going on in simple sentences"
The Japanese will attack us! No! A very bad thing has happened. We are at war. [sobs]
"not bad poety concerning WWII."
The only line of poetry in there is from Dylan Thomas, who was not a bad poet, and does not specifically concern W.W.II
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posted
Ah, sorry, Hatrack is adding posts in a stange and random manner, either that or just delaying everything for some time!
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I would like to correct some a false. assumption: these lines do not begin a play, but only a scene within a play.
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posted
Question: Does the scene following take place in 1941? If so, you might want to put the whole introduction into the present tense or the "have" rather than "had" tense, whatever that is:
quote:The Spanish bull have been slaughtered
As it is, it reads like a present day narrator. If that's your intention, well, good. But be aware that that's what it sounds like.
It's okay to list historical things like that, to set the scene; however, I'd be wary of doing too much historical listing in a narrative form. People come to see a play, not a speech.
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