Response to "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" Text to Film

“Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada.”

I feel like this line means a lot to the overall tone and voice of this story. Exactly translated, this quote means: Therefore nothing and nothing, nothing and nothing. Our nothing who art in nothing as nothing, be thy name thy kingdom nothing thy will be nothing in nothing as it is in anything. Give us this nothing our daily nothing and nothing us our nothing as we nothing our nothings and nothing us not into nothing but deliver us from nothing; because nothing. Looking at the structure of this quote, I think that it is paralleling the “Our Father” from Christianity. By substituting key religious and meaningful words with “nothing” or “nada” I think that the author is portraying that he believes in nothing, and that nothing is the central focus of his life.

However, I thought that this line in the film adaptation was incredibly mashed together and confusing. After the camera roles down the line of “nothing” people in the bar, the nada speech starts, where I think it should have started as the camera showed the people with a life of misery. I, in addition, did not like the 7 (about) voices saying this line at once… I felt like it took away from the meaning of the text. The director/actors should have said little bits, as they go down the line, so that one person would say a few words, the next person would say a few words, and so forth. This would create a whole different effect in the film. By having many people murmur the lines at once, the audience is being shown that these people live in a web of nothingness, when really, nothing is nothing so why complicate it? By having people go bit by bit, the audience is exposed to a whole different meaning of this scene. Rather than complication of nothingness, it would just state their lives of nothing, their lives of nothing that they are all bonded with.