I have been struggling all morning with Adam’s desire. Desire is what Adam wants in the story. His specific goal. As Mamet might say; what does he want? The hypothesis I have been working with to date has been; Adam wants to save his sister. But this raises the question; how do we know when he has saved her? Does he get a prize? To simply “save” Christine is not concrete enough of a desire to carry the audience through the various twists and turns of the story to the end. I have thought of linking it to a location. If he gets her to a specific location has he saved her? Perhaps. But it still seems a little nebulous. His desire simply isn’t primal enough. It’s not a matter of life and death. This prompts the question; what is he saving her from? He is saving her from prohibition. Actually he is saving her from the physical manifestation of prohibition; drug eating insects. The logical conclusion to this line of thinking is that we will know Adam has saved Christine if she is alive or dead at the end of the story. So Adam’s desire is to save Christine from becoming carrion.
