Excuses, excuses

Eep! I haven't posted since the self-reflection last Monday, and I haven't posted anything substantial for two weeks. I don't have time to post at the moment, but I can report that I've finished The Tempest and a graphic novel version of that play, plus I'm halfway through Ariel by Tiffany Grace. In the next couple days, I will be posting a review of the YA books along with a big planning post that will define my research focus and explain how I intend to fulfill the learning requirements from now on.

Mid-semester Progress Report

Time for a little self-reflection.

Blog Review: Thine Own Adventure

This is a review of Chris W's blog, Thine Own Adventure.

Number of Posts: 11

Quality of Posts: The blog doesn't have quite two posts a week, but Chris's posts are well researched and detailed.

Strengths: Chris does a great job at looking at genre conventions, like in his posts about history and comedy. I like that he posts his questions as well as his thoughts after reading a play. His latest post does a great job of using Shakespeare to interpret modern events.

Suggestions for Improvement: Most posts could benefit from the use of paragraphs and careful proofreading. (Don't hate me, I'm an editor.)

The Tempest: Shakespeare and YA Literature

Because this is the last week of assigned genre reading, I'm going to take a bit longer for The Tempest. (Also, I have all my midterms this week. Whee!) I've decided that for this play I'm going to focus on how Shakespeare has been adapted for children and young adults. This week, I'll read the original play, and then next week I'll read adaptations and do reviews about each book's effectiveness and appeal.

Here's what I'm planning to read:

Ariel by Grace Tiffany. A novel about Ariel's side of the story.

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. An eighth-grade boy is forced to study Shakespeare with a teacher he hates but learns to appreciate the Bard in the context of his tumultuous friendships, his uneasy family life, and the Vietnam War. I read this book last semester, so I'll review just the parts about The Tempest.

Lizard by Dennis Covington. A young boy runs away from an institution for mentally handicapped boys and at some point is part of a production of The Tempest.









The Tempest (Graphic Shakespeare) by Daniel Connor and Cynthia Martin. A comic-book style version of The Tempest that uses the original words of the play.

I'll also read several picture books that the library has. Since I've been in several classes for children's and adolescent literature, I'm going to enjoy seeing how authors adapt the Bard's work to appeal to a younger audience and make them want to tackle the real deal.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Yay! I finished Macbeth on Wednesday but I haven't had time to post about it until now. The best part of the play for me is Macbeth's speech after his wife has died:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Macbeth doesn't have the sophistication of Hamlet, and it's hard to imagine the savage, rough Macbeth saying anything like Hamlet's To Be or Not To Be soliloquy, but this moment is just as tragic. Macbeth has lost his wife and the one person who understands him, who stood by him in all his scheming and aided him to the throne. As awful as his bloody ascent was, we have to feel sympathy for Macbeth as his world falls apart.

I remembered hearing an interview with Patrick Stewart about this speech, so I found it on Youtube. He tells some of the advice that he got from Ian McKellan as Stewart was beginning his run of Macbeth:

I watched both his and Ian McKellan's versions of the speech, and I can definitely see the influence there. However, I don't really like either version! Blasphemy, I know. But I think this speech is more beautiful on the page than read aloud. Aloud, it needs to be read with apathy or bitterness or desperation, and the shape of the words lose some of their beauty. What do you think--can you find a better version of the speech, or have I missed something of value in these two renditions?

30 Post Ideas

Most of my class notes are ideas for posts and approaches to the plays, so I thought I'd gather them all here for easy reference.

1. Post class notes and continue the class conversation.
2. Make connections between the text and my life.
3. Take photographs and add Shakespeare quotes in InDesign.
4. Watch Reduced Shakespeare and comment.
5. Write notes summarizing each scene.
6. Write from the perspective of an actor or director. 
7. Compare multiple cinematic versions.
8. Read children's adaptations or YA spinoff novels (A Loser's Guide to Love and Life, Lady Macbeth's Daughter, Romiette and Julio). 
9. Research historical and cultural contexts, especially censors, relations with France, and the monarchy.
10. Watch the BBC animated versions.
11. Look at interpretations in other cultures or time periods.
12. Write an adaptation or parody.
13. Read two editions that have different footnotes.
14. Write creatively from the perspective of a minor character.
15. Make an analytical argument.
16. Interview someone.
17. Compare the usefulness of different resources.
18. Discuss how reductions and parodies affect Shakespeare literacy.
19. Reply to classmates' blog posts.
20. Find and attend a local performance.
21. Reference the learning outcomes.
22. Post webcomics.
23. Search Twitter.
24. Copy the post formats of blogs I enjoy, like Hyperbole and a Half or Mark Reads/Mark Watches.
25. Compare two plays, like Macbeth to Hamlet.
26. Use literary theory! Campbell would be fun.
27. Look at maps.
28. Do a theoretical teaching plan.
29. Propose a production--"fantasy Shakespeare."
30. Compare Shakespeare to modern playwrights and examine how Shakespeare might treat their stories, or vice versa: How would Shakespeare stage Phantom of the Opera, and how would ALW do Othello?

Macbeth Act I

A place map for "the Scottish play."

Diving into Macbeth! I've never read this play before, although I did see it over the summer in Cedar City. I didn't like it at all. It dragged and didn't make much sense. So I decided, heck, I should read it!

It is possible that I'm a masochist.

Just kidding. Actually, I'm reading because it occurred to me as I was watching the production in Cedar City that the set, which was minimal, was not carrying the weight that it should be. There are lots of lines in Macbeth that help the audience see the setting, especially of the house where the murders take place, but the set didn't look at all like what I imagined the setting should be.

Now, I'm in my English capstone class right now, and we're discussing the Gothic in literature and film. Much of the Gothic is connected with setting, especially of "haunted" houses. Therefore, I want to direct my reading of Macbeth by looking at what elements could contribute to a Gothic adaptation of the play.

All I've read so far is Act I, but there are already things that a director could use to make Macbeth into a Gothic story.

• The witches in the beginning. I can picture them appearing slowly in a dying field, saying their crazy lines, and then fading away into the swirling fog. 
• Scene two doesn't have anything particularly Gothic in it, but setting makes all the difference. If it takes place outside, fog would work well, or it could take place inside a creepy, dark room. The wounds of the Captain and Ross would provide the brightest color.
• Macbeth and Banquo are trying to get back but are lost and meet the witches--this would work well in a foggy field or a "dead marshes" kind of setting. The witches are supposed to be supernatural, "So withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like th' inhabitants o' th' Earth, And yet are on ’t?" (I.iii.40-42) and I can picture them dressed in wispy clothes, appearing neither male nor female, with eyes that faintly glow. 
• Is Macbeth already a little off his rocker? As soon as he hears that he will be king, he immediately starts thinking about murdering King Duncan. A Gothic portrayal of Macbeth might have him be crazy from the beginning. 
• Scene 4 would probably be staged inside. It can't be too far from the battlefield, though. Where was the battle? Is it close to where all the characters live? Maybe the king has a tent set up. This scene is probably warmer than the others, but there could still be something in the setting and the music that foreshadows Duncan's murder. 
• Unlike most Gothic films, a Gothic Macbeth would not deal with repressed females. Lady Macbeth is far from repressed--in fact, it would have done everyone good if Macbeth had reined her in. However, the "unsex me" speech is about Lady Macbeth repressing her own femininity, so that could fit with the Gothic conventions. 
• Macbeth's home at Inverness would definitely be one of those huge, drafty, stereotypical Gothic castles. The first lines of scene 6, remarking on the warmth of Macbeth's house, could be played ironically, or in an awkward attempt to be polite. Birds are nesting in Macbeth's castle, which could point to neglect, draftiness, and disrepair. 

This is probably coming through a lot better in my head than it is in this post, but it's a lot of fun! I'm not a visual reader, so it takes some slowing down to imagine a detailed setting, but it adds a new dimension to the text.

Macbeth: Planning

Schedule for next week:

M: Act 1
T: Act 2 and 3
Th: Act 4 and 5
F: Look at criticism

Posts:
Thought posts for each day/act
Explore the possibilities of a Gothic production of Macbeth (I'm in a Gothic lit&film class)
Review a critical article

Taming Things I Hate About Shrew

Yeah, so, I'm alternating reading the text of Taming and watching 10 Things. They have almost nothing in common besides basic plot...ish. Certainly the frame story is left out. I think I like the frame. It doesn't make much sense as a practical joke, but it does put up red flags about the meaning of the play. If it's framed as a trick, does that mean the story of the shrew is a trick?

I'm already appreciating how different the comedies are from the tragedies, in that they are funny. Hamlet has some funny bits, but Polonius is no Grumio. It's too bad Whitney's doing As You Like It--I'd love to hear what she has to say about the humor in Taming.

It's interesting how the characters use the words "shrewd" to mean "shrewish." Today, "shrewd" means "clever, cunning, mischievous, savvy." Indeed, according to the OED the word has had many meanings: it can be used as a simple intensifier or to mean "harsh," "unsatisfactory," "irksome," or "piercing." Lots of versatility there! Most of these meanings were around in Shakespeare's time--I wonder if he played around with the meaning at all. (Psh, of course he did. It's Shakey.)

Finally, I think I'll use the line "Tis a very excellent piece of work. Would 'twere done." in my everyday life now. Brilliance.

Tropes

I could spend (and have spent) hours and hours on TV Tropes reading about all the different plot and character devices that my favorite television shows use. So I thought, Why not Shakespeare? I looked around, and there are several pages about Shakespeare that are worth looking at. Each play has its own tropes page, and several adaptations do as well. Old Shakey has his own place of honor in trope history: The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples. If you follow through to different trope links, you can find other works that use the same devices as Shakespeare, which would be a good way to start a critical comparison.