Book she gave Daniel
Do we know what book Chloe left for Daniel to read?
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MovieChat Forums > Rectify (2013) Discussion > Book she gave Daniel
I can't make out the title, but it's not really important. What matters is what it means to them as a personal symbol.
It's the book Chloe was reading in Ep. 407 to delay packing and distract herself from the upset of leaving. The "1000 page book," Daniel called it. She said it was funny and sad and right up his alley. She was going to read him a passage he'd really like, but stopped short realizing she was once again using it to delay. This was just before their dance.
Since the book was a means of coping with the pain of separation, of loss, it's a fitting one for her to give Daniel. She knows he's going to be pained to lose her. A shared journey: he can, in this way, stay connected with her, reading what she read. And he can finish what she could not. So the gift actually expands the book's original meaning.
Stories - the power of the imagination - as a means of coping with the slings and arrows. Like Daniel's books helped him in solitary confinement on death row, the most isolating and dispiriting place imaginable. And like his sharing of imagined stories helped both him and Kerwin survive pain together.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
For some reason I suspect is was David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
Someone please assemble the reading list from this series.
You know, that's what I thought it was, too, but I don't know why. Interesting.
shareI wouldn't be surprised to find it's a product of the art department.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
the book was in the briefcase in 1994 in LA, it contains evidence that will exonerate daniel and implicate marcellus wallus, which is why he got vincent vega, and samuel jackson to retreive it,
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Yep cuz that is what bibles look like.
in the credits, he last name is gideon,
so its her who has been leaving all those bibles in hotel rooms, that i use as rolling papers for my mushrooms....
It looked like a one-word title that began with an M, so I was thinking "Middlemarch" by George Eliot. It's over 700 pages. It may have been an exaggeration when it was referred to as a "thousand page book." I've never read it, but if you look over the Wikipedia entry, you can see how some of its themes might relate to Rectify.
Some excerpts from Wikipedia about "Middlemarch":
It "...examines the deeply reactionary mindset found within a settled community facing the prospect of unwelcome change."
"The disgraced and reviled Bulstrode's only consolation is that his wife stands by him as he too faces exile."
"Significant themes include the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism, self-interest, religion, hypocrisy, political reform, and education."
I googled "Rectify" and "Middlemarch" together to see what came up, and I found this: http://www.sundance.tv/series/rectify/blog/2015/08/rectify-reading-list-janet-talbots-10-favorite-books. One of the writers and J. Smith-Cameron (the actress who plays Janet) created a list of what Janet's 10 favorite books might be. Guess what was number 10?
So maybe I'm onto something. But I'm not that confident in my guess.
A very clever and educated and accurate guess, in my opinion.
You've got evidence (the M title), you've done the research (excerpts), and you've got corroborating information.
I think you've solved it!
The drawing on the cover, front and back, looks like a grand avenue in an urban center -- not representative of Middlemarch, which is about life in a provincial town.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
What I could see of the cover in the final episode looked very close to this: https://doradueck.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/sc0014f93d.jpg. I could detect some differences, but I thought it might just be an earlier edition by the same publisher.
I already deleted the second-to-last episode. Did we get a better look at the cover in that episode?
only problem is we knew janet sent daniel alot of books, if it is in her top 10 Daniel would have read it already.
Thank you for providing a list to Janet's reading list!
shareI am here to admit my mistake. Full stop! It is indeed Middlemarch.
Well done, iNeedABetterName. Perhaps you should consider the name Sharpie, or something like that.
I've been over and over the images, every whichaway, and I was finally able to isolate a very clear image -- it lasts only a few frames at most - when Chloe is lying on the couch and Daniel is holding her feet in his lap. She lifts the book and if you freeze at the right spot (a frame or two at roughly 41:11 on the Netflix reverse-counter) you can clearly read the title on the spine, either by zooming the view on your computer, or by applying a magnifying glass. Don't try both at once if you want to drive a car within the next two hours.
So: iNeedABetterName & Cliff_Worley, I stand corrected. My mistake, my bad.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
It seemed more symbolic to me, especially after I tried blowing it up to no avail. Knowing how we obsess over these things I think they went out of their way to obscure any title.
Rectify - new parody pix
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-TLG67x/
what is this? you tried blowing up a book, is this Fahrenheit 451,
or are you just a nazi...
The interviewer should have asked McKinnon for the title.
But maybe he didn't know, since he didn't seem to know the final version of the finale.
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Been there, done that. The title is obscured, and even appears to be several words.
My jury's still out. I guess that makes me Henry Fonda, the dirty rotten holdout.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
Nice to know! Thanks!
share[deleted]
I think there's a good chance the art department made a mock book cover. I've looked, with magnifier, at the same image. And at others. The title is obscured. And the image on the jacket is of a grand avenue in a city, not a provincial town in the midlands. It maketh no sense.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
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Actually these kind of things aren't uncommon.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
But why would they? When they could get a book out of props or go to the nearest used bookstore?
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Talking about tipping points in a general way is meaningless.
Doing a mock-up of a book cover isn't a labour or time intensive thing. I've seen an art director mock up several for selection by a director in less than an hour. Wonders of the digital world.
Why do you suppose they would have done so in this case?
I suppose because they don't want people to get hung up on a literal, specific narrative. Becauase they want people to concentrate on the why, not the what. The quality of the tale, and why that would appeal to the character, not so much the specific tale itself.
And because it's fun to toss in something so people can guess and debate about the literal, specific narrative. ;)
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson
I agree; it doesn't matter a lot. I think it was a self-indulgence of the writer, and I understand that fully. A kind of signature.
Also, it fits with elements of Rectify, as has been pointed out.
And it's still nice to have answered!
His answers were rather vague from what I've read. I wonder just how much input he had in the finale.
shareHow would he know; he just wrote and directed it....or got the credit, anyway. But maybe he has no editing control. TV is weird these days.
shareShowrunners do not have final cut. That's standard. The broadcaster always does.
"You must not judge what I know by what I find words for." - Marilynne Robinson