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The Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman 125CLEMENTINE’S VOICE. . . Ugh. I don’t want to think about allThe time I’ve wasted in this quote–unquote relationship. Isn’t it aboutfun? (pp. 121–2)Here, the cold, mechanical hissing time of projection is represented by thetwo-dimensional, chronological linearity of the audio-tape strip. WhenClementine and Joel begin to finally deal with the trauma this memoryerasing has caused, and to confront one another, the dialogue splits acrossthe page and becomes simultaneous and reversible. At the very end of thescript, however, and before they resume their relationship, Clementinereminds Joel that their future may be difficult – thus reinscribing time’sarrow, and with it the possibility for more pain as well as pleasure.Change is not a ChoiceTo discount the arrow’s existence, or to stymie it into retreat via technology,is to tread into territory previously only open to metaphysics. As SusanOrlean says in Adaptation:ORLEAN (VOICE OVER)What I came to understand is that changeis not a choice. Not for a species ofplant, and not for me. It happens, andyou are different. (p. 79)In my reading, Kaufman wants to “change” classical Hollywood storytellingand the way it is experienced to make it more complex, like flipping backand forth through a screenplay. Thus he even plays with the idea of evisceratingthe arrow altogether, to the great frustration of his characters.However, Kaufman realizes that “change” in a different sense (i.e., the changefrom frame to frame that creates movement; cause and effect; narrative progression)is also wholly unavoidable in the classical Hollywood cinema.To obliterate the arrow is to throw oneself into a place where narrativedoes not exist (to the timeless close-up shots of orchids in Adaptation, tostructural film, etc.). “Frustrated time” narratives use (relatively) complexnarrational strategies to try to make time compliant, but ultimately theriver always resists and breaks the dam, leaving the spectator frustratingly