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Catherine Rose

CC 476

Final Project

Professor Buckley

4/25/11

The Travel Therapy Project

I have elected, for my final presentation text to draft a screenplay. The idea had

originated as the result of the television show,Being Erica, that I watch frequently. Being Erica

is a Canadian drama about 30-something Erica Strange, who has been working a series of dead

end jobs and cannot seem to keep a relationship going. She is seeing a therapist to help deal with

regrets in her life. However, she discovers that this therapist has the ability to send her back in

time to relive these events, or even change them (http://www.cbc.ca/beingerica/). This idea in and

of itself really got me thinking about liminality, and how I could incorporate this into my final

project. According to an article by Turner, liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are

betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention and

ceremonial (95). Through her time travel therapy, Erica is between stages in her life. She is in

the between stage in her current reality, as well as that of her past, and she has to grapple with

and learn to deal with her past and her past regrets before she can alter them. Much of the series

also focuses on Ericas transformation. Turner then goes on to say, liminality is frequently

likened to death, to being in the womb, to invisibility, to darkness, to bisexuality, to the

wilderness, and to an eclipse of the sun or moon (95). That being said, Erica Strange and the

television series Being Erica encompass both invisibility as well as darkness. Erica is feeling

invisible in her series of dead end jobs. And both interestingly and surprisingly, in the pilot

episode, she was fired from a customer service position for being too bright. And in terms of

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darkness, her life has just seemed to have been derailed, something that she attributes to bad

decisions. She is in a dark place in her life, and doesnt truly understand were it went wrong,

after all, she has her Masters degree. According to Erica, some people have a few regrets, I

have a long list of them (http://www.hulu.com/watch/114704/being-erica-dr-tom). Dr. Tom had

found Erica when she was in a major slump in her life and did not seem to be heading anywhere.

As said earlier, I choose to explore a similar theme in liminality, and explored this

through regrets. I wrote my own pilot episode for a similar series of Being Erica, only, I titled it

The Travel Therapy Project, with the main protagonist being Kat Ventura. I also used a different

cast and characters with the exception of Dr. Tom still making his appearance and importance

known. The concept of my pilot episode is still very much similar to Being Erica, however, I

explored one of my biggest regrets; perhaps the biggest regret that I will ever have. This is a

regret relating to liminality in what Turner refers to as to be in the womb (95). I explore a time

that I was pregnant while in college, and if I could go back in time, the three different options

that I had, as well as the different decisions that I could have made, and what their outcomes

would have been. Having an abortion can be viewed as negative, partly because there is some

debate as to whether what is inside the womb is either living or not living; its in this in between

state. This experience and the liminality with in can be looked at from course concepts this

semester, power and the body, as well as sex.

In Elaine Scarrys article, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World,

she explores the concept of physical pain, how it is hard to explain through language, and

difficult to deal with. However, from my perspective, and in the screenplay, physical pain is only

temporary, and emotional pain, the type of pain that is explored through The Travel Therapy

Projecthas more longevity and staying power. Many of the concepts that were explored in this

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article can be applied to The Travel Therapy Project. In terms ofThe Travel Therapy Project, it

is eminent that it is difficult for Kat to try and explain her emotional pain, the type of pain that

can stem from having an abortion. I try to delve into how it is challenging for anyone, her

friends, her family, her therapists to truly understand what she is going through and what she has

to deal with. It is hard for Kat to explain her emotional pain. She can say that she is sad, or

depressed, but what does that even mean? How exactly can you explain to someone just how

depressed you are. Even if you manage to find the words, other people can only sympathize with

you, but it will be hard for them to truly find empathy, unless they themselves have been in the

same situation. It is that, you never really understand a person until you consider things from

his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it (Sparknotes.com).

According to Elaine Scarry, to have pain is to have certainty; to hear about pain is to

have doubt (13). Kat expresses her certainty about pain to Dr. Tom multiple times throughout

the screenplay. For instance, when she says, Depressed, mostly. I try to keep busy, do what I

can to take my mind off of it. But I cant be in denial forever. Kat is certain about the level of

her pain, and working to come to terms with it. On the other hand, Dr. Tom is expressing doubt,

and that is the root of many of the questions that he asks. For example, when he says, the heart

does things for reason, that reason cannot understand. So tell me, how have you been feeling

since the procedure?

Another important point that Scarry makes is when she quotes, God spare me physical

pain, and Ill take care of the moral pain myself (33). This is reflected when Kat is grappling

with whether or not she made the right decision to proceed with the abortion, or whether or not

she could have made different choices, and the outcome of those choices.

Next, this screenplay is important to sex, and in Foccaults description of sex. I choose to

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put sex here, because it creates a good medium between the body, and power, which will be

discussed in the following section. Foccault discusses how sex is hidden from us. He gets at

trying to uncover the truth from sex. He asks, why then is sex so secret? What is this force that

is so long reduced it to silence and has only recently relaxed its hold somewhat? (78). He also

wonders, why this great chase after the truth of sex, the truth in sex? (79). Perhaps if sex was

more openly discussed, and it wasnt viewed as something to hide, or something to be ashamed

of, Kat Ventura would have not found herself in this mess, let alone a mess that she would later

have to hide from her parents. There are some principle features that Foccault mentions and

discusses in his article. One of these is the cycle of prohibition. In this cycle it is deemed

that, thou shalt not go near, thou shalt not touch, thou shalt not consume, thou shalt not

experience pleasure, thou shalt not speak, thou shalt not show thyself; ultimately thou shalt not

exist, except in darkness and secrecy (84). This is why it was so hard for Kat to find someone

to talk to about sex, coming from a conventional family, its hard to deal with the fact that

someone committed a sin.

Foccault also discusses the logic of censorship. This is thought to take three forms:

affirming that such a thing is not permitted, preventing it from being said and denying that it

exists (84). This is also shown when Kat mentions her being in denial. She is in a sense denying

that she engaged in risky sexual behavior.

Within Foccaults article, he also talks a lot about power. First and foremost, there is a

section in which he says, it is a power that only has the force of the negative on its side, a power

to say no (85). This power can be expressed on multiple levels. Kat had the power to get the

abortion or not get the abortion. However, in getting the abortion, she had the power over this

innocent child that couldnt do or say anything. The child was so helpless. Kat also had the

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opportunity before engaging in any dangerous activity to say no. She was presented with that

power, that chance, and that opportunity, yet ignored all the warning signs. Foccault

says, power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from

everywhere (93). Power was also seen in Kats decision to see the therapist. There is no

escaping power, power surrounded Kat everywhere that she went, and in all the decisions that

she had to make. Power equals resistance, and with Kats power to decide, there was resistance.

There was resistance in proceeding with the procedure, and torturing herself in that process.

In discussing sex and power, Foccault mentions that there is no relation between power

and sex that is not negative. In this instance, one of the relations between power and sex is that

when Kat decides to go in for the procedure, and outside, rallying around are anti-abortionists

members. Kat says, When I went in to have everything taken care of, people, anti-abortionists

were rallying outside of planned parenthood. That was quite irritating and quite difficult.

Negative relations can consist of rejection, exclusion and concealment. Kat is feeling rejected by

her friends and family, and in return rejecting them. Kat is feeling excluded from the only life

she has ever known, and has nobody close to her that she feels can relate. Kat is also concealing

herself from the world.

In conclusion, the screenplay, The Travel Therapy Projectseeks to get at the liminality

that can be found through the explanation of the body and how the body is womanized,

sexualized, and represented in society, as well as how power and sex are interrelated. You

cannot have one without the other, and strong power breeds resistance. To reiterate,Just Like

Katexplores liminality through two phases. One is through Kat not being in the present and not

being in the past. Kat needs to find her own reality. The other explores liminality through the

womb and abortion; how the baby is both living and not living.

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Citations

Being Erica." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. N.p., n.d.

Web. 25 Apr. 2011. .

Foucault, Michel. The history of sexuality . New York: Pantheon Books, 19781986. Print.

Hulu - Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free.."Hulu - Watch your favorites. Anytime. For

free.. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. .

Scarry, Elaine. The body in pain: the making and unmaking of the world. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1985. Print.

"SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study

Guides. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.

Turner, Victor. "Liminality and Communitas."A reader in the anthropology of religion .

Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. 94-130. Print.