Movie (Friday Mar. 12)

This section of the movie was even more interesting than the first section. One thing that I noticed immediately is that Mark seems to have been doing more chores around the house. So this means I have to take back what I said in the first blog. I like to see this and am glad that he is taking a more manly role. Such as cutting wood and removing leaves from the pond.

Back to his quest for Dow Mossman. Mark makes just about every attempt to find out more about this author and seems to be making very little progress. He knows that Mossman attended the Iowa’s Writers workshop in the 1970’s. So he began by talking with a student that was there during the same time that Mossman was. His name is Bruce. Bruce speaks highly of Mossman’s writing in the Stones of Summer. But again he had never heard of Mossman. Gives Mark some names of other students at that time who might be familiar with Mossman. One person that he talks about is William Cutter Murray, who the book is dedicated to. Murray was an instructor at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and was very instrumental in helping Bruce develop his work.

Next Mark flies to Florida to find the designer of the book cover. This man has no idea or recollection of Mossman or anything related to the book. This seems to be the answer that Mark is getting everywhere. At this point Mark is discouraged. He has spent the better part of a year working on this task and doesn’t think he is any closer. I can understand this. If my hard work doesn’t pay off like I want it to then I tend to want to move on to other things. But this shows a lack of perseverance on my part. I can learn from this movie to never give up. But Mark then finds that other people are buying the copies of the Stones of Summer very fast and wants to know why.

His next step is to go to Iowa to find Mossman. His first stop is the University of Iowa where he finds some manuscripts of Mossman’s. He learns very little from these manuscripts except that Mossman takes very good care of his work. After this he learns that William Murray is living close by. He then visits him and finds his first real clue. Murray mentions Mossman before Mark can. He talks about how Mossman was sent to an insane asylum after writing his book. This is because he put to much of himself into the book that it possessed him. Murray knows that Mossman in know living 30 miles away in Cedar Rapids.

There are a couple of things that I can identify with. One is how Mossman started to go crazy while writing his book. When I start working on something I tend to not be able to get it out of my mind until I complete it. Right now it is my senior design project that I can’t seems to get out. I can’t wait to the end of the movie when hopefully we get to meet Mossman.