Much Ado

As requested by Professor Burton, I will update everyone on my experience with The LDS Film Festival's "Much Ado About Nothing."


The Environment
Scera never ceases to confuse me. I mean, just what IS it? A water park? A movie theater with horrible parking? A good way to waste at least $7.00 on an out door theatrical performance? Ranting aside, I have got to say the place is under staffed. It took forever to clean the theater before Much Ado started, and I had to stand around looking awkward for fifteen minutes. There were only two ushers that came out of the theater after they opened the doors.

The Film
Brandon Arnold and Matt Thomas both had a hand in the writing, Brandon Arnold directed, and Matt Thomas produced this piece and casted students from East Hollywood High School as the main characters. The script followed the original mostly, with a few modernizations (for instance, Benedict wishes that his Jeep were as fast as Beatrice's mouth rather than his horse). The acting was decent, considering that teenagers were reciting Shakespeare. 


What I liked
The film was hilarious. It poked at the bureaucracy of high school cliques, mocked teenage drama, and showed that Shakespeare's love triangles and rectangles are still entertaining today. The music was well suited to the themes. The filming itself made me dizzy at times, but there were a few creative scenes. The opening credits, for example, were exceptional. It screamed "Napoleon Dynamite" fused with angst.


Why did I do This?
To be honest, I am not sure why I did this. I am not planning on reading "Much Ado About Nothing," nor did I arrange to meet anyone from class to make this a social experience. I was rather lonely, since my wife did not feel up to going. I did venture to find some new Shakespearean media. Maybe thats why.

Saturday's Sonnet

Sonnet 94

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
   For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
   Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds


Previous Knowledge
I thought it would be awesome to add this section to Saturday's Sonnet. Unfortunately I have no previous knowledge of sonnet 94, which is the reason I chose this sonnet today. Hopefully I can put this section to better use next week.


Cold Read
I understood the first line fairly well, which is why I chose the picture at the top. The line reminds me of my favorite scene from Schinlder's List. Schindler tells a Nazi general that true power is not defined by the potential to do harm, but is measured by the amount of control a person has. I like the picture because it reminds me of a grave. After defining power as the measure of control one has over rage and violence, I would want to be remembered as a person of power.
Shakespeare compares the person with power to a stone, moving others, but remaining still in their convictions. The stone is the first reference to nature Shakespeare makes, followed by "nature's riches," "the summer's flower," "lilies," and concluding with "weeds." It is remarkable that Shakespeare would use a simile of a stone and a metaphor of a flower to represent the same thing. Does a flower have the same amount of power as a stone? This might be overkill for the two visuals, because the stone is used to describe the face and conviction of the man with power, while the lily might just serve to show the beauty of such a person. Still, if each item has a power to them, then Shakespeare might be linking these metaphors with the context of the poem.


Acoustics
Since I made a big deal about paying attention to the acoustics in my last post, I dedicated an entire section of this post to checking the emphasized syllables within the iambic pentameter. The first line repeats the "huh" sound two times with the words "have" and "hurt", and the second line repeats "duh" when the word "do" is repeated three times. There are no repeated syllables until line 6 with the the word "husbands." The "huh" sound comes back into play. The world "flowers" is repeated a few times in the later part of the sonnet, emphasizing the "fuh" sound. These sounds might resemble the steady breathing of a powerful person, or perhaps gusts of wind attempting to move the powerful person but failing to do so. But then, every syllable I hear that is not a vowel sounds like a breath or a breeze to me.


Criticism
While searching for criticism, I really wanted to know a scholar's take on what the poem means. I was fortunate to find this article that attempts to do just that.


So what does Sonnet 94 mean? Empson offers an intimidating prospect. One may find somewhat puzzling the mathematics by which he arrives at "4096 possible movements of thought, with other possibilities" ¹⁴ to begin his reading, but his real point--that an indefinitely large number of meanings are conceivable for the whole poem, given the many ambiguities--is clear enough. ¹⁵ His solution is to find the most important meanings among the many options, which he proceeds to do with his usual brilliant ingenuity; but the whole approach takes for [End Page 286] granted that ideas are central, and so the key to understanding the poem is finding the best possible skeleton of ideas. The skeleton that Empson offers is a code of disillusioned realism: "Man is so placed that the sort of thing you [the fair youth] do is in degree all that anyone can do; success does not come from mere virtue, and without some external success a virtue is not real even to itself. One must not look elsewhere; success of the same nature as yours is all that the dignity, whether of life or poetry, can be based upon."


I have no idea how Empson came up with 4096 possible meanings, but his theory of accepting a skeleton of ideas presented by the sonnet makes sense. He brings it back to an idealistic look at the fair youth, pointing out that his success is beyond recognition. In other words, I hope to be the fair youth when I grow up.


Conclusions
1. With all of the ambiguities in this poem, it is a miracle that Empson was only able to find 4090 possible meanings.
2. I need to research who this fair youth is and what he did to make him so successful in the eyes of Shakespeare other than beautify the sage to death.


Bibliography
Philosophy and literature [0190-0013] Pierce yr:2000 vol:24 iss:2 pg:280 -293

Richard III Preparation and First Two Scenes

I turned to Appendix 4, A-54 to find a good film adaptation of Richard III. I went for the safe road and chose the film made in 1955. I was able to watch half of the movie tonight and plan to watch the rest tomorrow if I have time. It was mostly true to the script, but there was a long coronation scene in the beginning that bored more than informed the audience. I was taken by Laurence Olivier, the actor who played Richard. Acting is hard enough, but acting the part of a brilliant, manipulative actor takes true skill. One problem I found with Richard was the dramatic deformity the movie gave him. Not only is he a hunchback, but he has a bad leg and a right hand that is nearly useless. There are a few scenes that suggest he is a formidable fighter, therefore the limp and hand make it harder to believe Richard is much of a threat with a sword.

I found this funny randition, a typical shortened parody, but it had some bad words, therefore I only included the funny picture above that I found on Google Images.

       I listened to Professor Burton and read Bevington's Essential Shakespeare, pp. xviii-xxv. I was familiar with the history of the War of the Roses, but I appreciated seeing all of the events in chronological order. I also did not know that there were attempts on Elizabeth's life because she was deemed a heretic by the Pope. I also read the sources Shakespeare used for Richard III. I finished the preparation part by reading the preface in our textbook. It was a lengthy and difficult read, but I got through most of it. I plan on completing it tomorrow and posting a bullet point list of the highlights.
     The first two scenes were confusing. How does Richard get away with murder, with witnesses and a confession? Jennifer asked this on her blog as well. Pity my only response is mutual confusion. Despite the confusing justice system for British royalty, I enjoyed these scenes. I loved the characterization of Richard: born a freak due to the whims of nature, and turned to destroy the good things nature provided England. The line "drunken prophecies" made my night.

     I tried to get social and read aloud with my wife, but she couldn't make it past the first scene. Also, I found myself getting into the character of Richard III to the point that my method acting stretched into an argument with my wife. It is scary getting into that character's Psyche. Looks like I am back to my cat, for now, but I will start reading earlier next time in order to get some human interaction. Maybe I will progress to my four year old half-sister. However, that might be risky, considering Richard locked the two children characters in a tower.

Saturday's Sonnet: Seriously Sifting Through Sonnet Sixty

Sonnet 60

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end; 
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend. 
Nativity, once in the main of light, 
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked elipses 'gainst his glory fight, 
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth 
And delves the parallels in beauty's brow, 
Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, 
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
   And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
   Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

Cold Read

Before I consider another's criticism, I just wanted to make a few points. There are many violent words used, including "contend" in line 4, "fight" in line 8, "confound" in line 9, and the phrase "his scythe to mow" in line 12. This suggests that mankind is fighting a losing battle with time, with time placed in a far superior realm. By using the metaphor that depicts time as a farmer mowing his harvest, Shakespeare compares man to static crop that will be eaten by time. This shows that time might be a beast sustained by the birth, growth, and death of man. Time is therefore not a part of nature in the narrator's eyes, but a separate entity that mercilessly attacks it. This division allows Shakespeare to praise the nature that created the beauty he praises and attack the time that swallows it whole without contradicting himself. Time therefore can be denied by using one of nature's finest creations: the human mind. Shakespeare uses his mind to create a beautiful ode that will amaze the minds of others, forcing them to carry the spirit of his muse (yes, the young pretty boy he may or may not have had platonic feelings for) within their mind. Nature therefore finds a way to overcome time. Verse allows the universe's laws to be suspended. The good news: Shakespeare just made a young boy immortal with my mind's help. The bad news: Shakespeare just made a young boy immortal with MY MIND'S HELP! Perhaps I am too homophobic and paranoid.

A Brief Explanation

While I was browsing for an article of criticism that interested me, I found one that meticulously examined the trochees and the words emphasized by the iambic pentameter in order to prove a point of meaning the author believed Shakespeare wanted to make. I might try to make this the standard theme of my research from now on because I have a hard time putting meaning to rhythm.

Robert Arbour's Position

Arbour found key signatures of a battle in the sonnet as well, he just did it much better than I did:

Although Helen Vendler remarks that the trochaic feet at the beginnings of 

some lines of the sonnet “draw attention to the hastening of the waves, the 

attacks by eclipses and by Time, and the countervailing praising by verse” 

(286), the meter accomplishes still more than this. The sonnet’s first two lines 

begin with the trochees “Like as” (line 1) and “So do” (2), and the metrical 

similarity of the lines connects them, enhancing the comparison of minutes 

and waves. While the trochees do convey the haste that Vendler observes, they 

also connote the crashing of waves against the shore (1). Shakespeare follows 

the initial trochee of line 1 with a calm, iambic meter, then starts line 2 with 

another trochee, suggesting the forceful impact of the waves. The second line 

then returns to iambic meter, and the spondee in “Each changing” that starts 

line 3 represents the climax of the strength of the waves.  

I had no idea a spondee and a few trochee could convey that much meaning! It is no longer just the context of the poem that expresses the battle with mortality, but the rhythm and acoustics as well.

Conclusions

1. I need to be more aware of how acoustics come into play with future poems I dissect. I never would have pictured a wave crashing onto the shore without Arbour's help. 

2. I need to be less homophobic.

3. It is VERY late.


Bibliography
The Explicator [0014-4940] Arbour yr:2009 vol:67 iss:3 pg:157 -160.

"Good" Manga

Yes, Astro Boy was originally a manga in the 1960's. Manga unofficially began in the 17th century as a satire rich commentary on Japanese Buddhist priests, similar to contemporary Western political cartoons. It is now a Japanese favorite for all kinds of storytelling. There are the most famous mangas about martial arts and super powered, ki wielding warriors, but there are also works on European fairy tales, and I have found many based on Shakespeare's plays. Besides using the typical tools to judge whether any other piece of literature is good, I decided to include personal points that I have found make manga worth reading. Please note that not all genre's of manga fit each of the items on my list.

(I was going to put a very violent scene from a 1960's comic of a samurai successfully decapitating a foe, but I remembered where I go to school)
1. Productive Violence
Japan as a nation is famous (and infamous) for the value it's citizens place on honor, especially on the battlefield. Violence started appearing in mangas in the 60's. This insertion proved popular among the buyers, therefore most of the key figures of manga's development jumped on board. However, this aspect of manga, in my opinion, has overtaken the art. Much of the violence does not help with the story telling and feels forced in many works. Therefore, PRODUCTIVE violence is key. Pointless violence just serves as visual candy with a poisonous after taste, especially splatter scenes.


2. Lifts the Spirit of Children
I mention children in particular because of an important piece in Japanese history. The developing manga franchise written post World War II was specifically aimed at helping Japanese children cope with their new world. One year, their leaders insist that the Japanese are going to take over the world. The next year, there is little of Japan left. The writers' intended to write comic strips that would offer a break from this world of desolation. I believe this has much to do with the modern day success manga has achieved. So, if the manga is appropriate for a twelve year old and helps the said twelve year old forget about his or her dreary and teenage angst-filled life for at least half an hour, I'd say you have a winner.


3. Educates
By "educates" I am not saying that good manga is sickeningly didactic or preachy, nor does it need to be a text book (although there are some mangas that teach physics and chemistry). Codes of honor and proper family relationships are often explored in modern day mangas. This is an obvious selling point for Japanese writers, because the culture is so concerned with these topics. A main character need not make a right choice, nor should he be punished for a wrong choice regarding honor and family. Just having the situation arise helps educate readers a bit by forcing them to think what they would do in the main character's position. Also, many have seen what the powerful images manga creates can do to a child's attention span. One of the websites I constantly suggest  has lesson plans that include teaching the classic plays using the animations to help keep the kids focused. Therefore, there is no official "right" way to educate, but there are a bunch of wrong ones.


What Does This Have to do With Shakespeare or my Learning Plan?
Well, I'll tell you exactly what this has to do with Shakespeare and my learning plan. First, one of my goals for this blog is to see where Shakespeare fits into modern day society, and manga is a modern art form that he seems to fit into. I also want to include many of the manga interpretations of the plays in my media prep and having a knowledge of the basics will help me understand where the writers are coming from. Finally, since I could not find a good resource to judge the quality of the mangas or anime I find, I wanted to learn enough about the craft to be my own judge. So there. Now I get to prepare for Saturday's Sonnet and King Richard III.

Bibliography
Japanese Visual Culture : Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime [0-7656-1601-7] Macwilliams yr:2008.

The Manga Question

I am having a hard time finding valid sources to judge the Shakespearean mangas I have found. I think I might have to study up on the history and criticism of manga itself in order to be a good judge of the material. I have found a source for manga: Japanese Visual Culture : Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime [0-7656-1601-7] Macwilliams yr:2008. I will read a few chapters of this today and post a list of the characteristics of exceptional manga either tomorrow or on Friday. I will also start reading King Richard III tonight, if I have time.

Saturday's Sonnet

SONNET 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

The Research

I decided to use our library's database to find something scandalous about the sonnets in the spirit of striping history of its clothes of lies. The naked truth is not pretty, but one cannot tear his eyes from it. I have heard that at least a portion of the sonnets were made to a man, but according to Robert Matz the rest might have been written for an African American woman. I do not find interracial relationships to be scandalous, just the lies that other writers have handed down. In the spirit of open mindedness, I decided to read Sonnet 18 as if it were intended for a man. Matz helps pose the sonnet in this position:


"In their own time all the sonnets were potentially scandalous. First, the sonnets to the young man did not simply reproduce the dominant social order. De Grazia emphasizes that the sonnets promote this status quo order by celebrating the fair—that is, aristocratic—young man. But this literary reproduction of the young man's beauty usurps the biological reproduction that the initial sonnets of the sequence contemplate—a point that de Grazia observes in a footnote, but does not pursue.⁹ In sonnet 18, the "eternal lines" that will preserve the young man past death are those of Shakespeare's sonnets. They recall—only to replace—the family line, the inheritance from father to son that Shakespeare has been celebrating in most of the previous sonnets. By making reproduction a matter of poetry rather than sex, Shakespeare takes the place of two members of the young man's future family: the son who will reproduce the young man and the wife who will be responsible for that reproduction" (Matz 480).

My Reaction

Time and the passing of the seasons (simulated in the sonnet) would seem terrifying to a being who will not have the opportunity to procreate. Shakespeare comforts his male "friend with benefits" by pointing out other things that will last in the place of a family line. That is a nice thought, but in reality, who will enjoy, or keep the sonnet in circulation, if there are none of the offspring the narrator seems to cast aside as a "lesser work." Art needs an audience to exist, after all. I would argue that raising children is an art unto itself.

Bibliography

Robert Matz. "The Scandals of Shakespeare's Sonnets." ELH77.2 (2010): 477-508. Project MUSE. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 16 Jan. 2011 <http://muse.jhu.edu.erl.lib.byu.edu/>.

Act 5 Scene 2, Sort of

For all of you who requested a video of me reading to my cat, here is the next best thing: me acting as a ventriloquist for two dogs who change the history of Hamlet! I did not want to do much editing, so the picture is turned a quarter clockwise.

Anyway, I will have "Saturday's Sonnet" up soon!

Learning Plan

I am going to make a better plan now. I included some questions on a few, so any input would be appreciated.

Learning Outcomes
1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
       a. Breadth: The four plays I am going to focus on this semester are Romeo and Juliet, Measure for Measure, The Tragedy of King Richard the Third, and The Winter's Tale.
       b. Depth: I am going to go all out on Romeo and Juliet by collecting criticism, finding various art, etc
       c. Performance: I plan on watching different interpretations on Romeo and Juliet, and other plays.
       d. Legacy: to satisfy the history demand, I plan on going over criticism from the 1970's, 80's, 90's, and     0's to understand how criticism on Romeo and Juliet has developed in the last few decades. This might cover the scholarship portion of this demand, but I also want to research the psychological side of Juliet and Romeo, and perhaps dab a bit into gender. As far as popular culture goes, I am still out to expose the modern takes on Shakespeare.

2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically
       a. Textual analysis: I believe that my sonnet a week will cover this demand.
       b. Contextual Analysis: I want to understand the geography of the setting of each play, and I want to do research on Verona's culture to see if the youth of the time might actually forget family feuds in the name of love.
       c. Application of literary theories: I am not sure about this one. Any advice?
       d. Analysis of digital mediations: What do digital mediations include other than youtube videos and ebooks?

3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
       a. Performance: I will either participate with the class on this project, or I will recite something, more than likely duel with my cat, and post this video on my blog.
       b. Literary imitation: Will writing a sonnet fulfill this requirement?
4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully.
       a. Formal Writing: I plan on reporting my research on the psychology of the youth of Shakespeare's Verona on my blog, along with comments on the criticism I find.
       b. Informal Writing: I plan on either updating my blog or commenting on other blogs daily.
       c. Connecting: I think the blog takes care of sharing my work with the class, and I plan on possibly performing a little production with some old roommates.

New Apps and Old Conspiracies

Tonight was truly an adventure. I began my prep by searching for a Hamlet app. There are currently two free ones. Now I can enjoy Hamlet where ever I go! I looked into the film "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead" and found it was not appropriate to display at all. But, there is a blog dedicated to one aspect of the film: the ancient conspiracy that Hamlet is a vampire. I know there is another blog specifically speaking on conspiracies, but this one is so bad and comical that I had to expose it.

I am not going to dwell on all the imperfections of this conspiracy, but I want to focus on what this latest trend of turning classic tales into horror flicks proves about society. Honestly, I appreciate the effort of using ancient texts and modernizing them to a degree. At the very least, people who would normally never touch the classics become familiar with the stories. However, the hook for modern audiences is violence. That is what newly christens these works, and what makes them popular today. Sadly, I must admit I enjoy a bit of violence in my literature as well. I am more likely to watch an action film than an adaptation of a classic. Am I addicted to the killing and gore? No. I believe it has more to do with the dance of the fight, which includes more than just the choreography. It is how evenly matched the opponents are, and pinpointing where the loser made the small mistake that costs him the match. A good fight is a puzzle to the audience, and finding the solution makes the audience feel smarter. This is what keeps an audience. The puzzle must be difficult enough for the audience to feel accomplished after the solution is found, yet simple enough that they can solve it without exhausting their mental resources. This idea is similar to the scene in Inception where Dicaprio has the new architect spend only two minutes creating a puzzle that takes one minute to solve.

Now that I have given my rant on violence and contradicted myself with a justification and an explanation of a good fight, I will tell you what I did with Hamlet tonight: I read it out loud on my phone, to myself. I would have read it with my wife, but I started reading too late in the night, and she was long asleep. Singing Ophelia's lines in Act 4 Scene 5 freaked me out. I do not suggest singing those lines alone in a poorly lit room after researching vampire conspiracies.

A Slightly New direction

I have realized that I have been focusing too much on the negative. I need to make sure that I say something positive for every negative thing I say about a piece. Also, I am going to look into this "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Un-dead" production as suggested on a comment for the last post.

Sleep is a Dream

This is my third late night in a row, and the exhaustion is taking its tole. I fell asleep at work for the first time, and I think my brain is working at half its normal speed. Regardless, I shall report on my preparation/research for the remaining acts of Hamlet, and expose some foreign treatment of this classic.

While attempting to get a visual of Denmark in Hamlet's time, I realized I could not point Denmark out on a map, and I knew next to nothing about the origin of Hamlet's abode. I set out to rectify this using Denmark's official website. Since the nation is a giant pan handle right next to Sweden and Norway, it took did not surprise me that Vikings were the key players in Denmark's genesis. One thing that did surprise me was the Christian conversion of the Vikings as early as the mid 800's. After watching "How to Train Your Dragon" and the latest version of King Arthur, I did not suspect any Christian vikings until at least the 1500's. Funny enough, a missionary named Poppo converted the famous Viking Harold Bluetooth around the thirteenth century.

Feeling a tad over prepared, I began to read the last two Acts out loud to my cat. She seemed intrigued, especially when I acted out the duel with her (given that a few thrusts and parries were replaced with pats and belly scratches... shut-up, its late). I am used to delivering Old English to people who have no idea what I am saying, so reading to the cat actually felt familiar.

Now, onto the fun part. I am a fan of some manga and anime series (Japanese comic books and cartoons for you noobs), so I began looking for any Shakespeare mangas or animes. Though I did not intend to find anything worthy of exploitation, worthiness abounded EVERYWHERE. When I get to Romeo and Juliet, there will be even more of a treat.

Though there are some fine interpretations of Shakespeare's work into graphic novels, this piece did not bring home the bacon for me.

The authors followed the script for the most part. This summary explains that the time for this abomination is set in the future, 2017, not after an apocalyptic, world shattering event or anything exciting like that, but after the world has been severely damaged from the... weather. A cyber world has replaced the old one. I assume this is the justification for Hamlet's blue, pasty skin and white hair. I think he might be a vampire, but I am not positive.

So, what does this addition to the Shakespeare collection give away about society? To be nice, I will give the Japanese credit for attempting to educate their youth on a European master. The fact that a foreign nation can take Hamlet and translate it into something their youth would enjoy with few changes shows that the story is universal, and the subjects of revenge and hesitation are always enjoyable.

However, I feel the time is a bit forced. I could understand changing the accepted look of Hamlet by giving him the huge anime eyes and such, but placing the story in a "cyber world" in order to give everyone creepy costumes does not cut it for me. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? On top of that, the free sample of the final duel showed actual rapiers. REALLY!? What is the point of ruining the setting if the swords don't become lightsabers? On top of that, Hamlet looks like an even bigger idiot when he rejects the first opportunity he has to kill Claudius without an official explanation! They took lines 73 to 88 in Act 3 Scene 3 out! Though the culture might not grasp the European concepts of sin and hell, they could have at least had Claudius meditating and Hamlet hesitant because he did not want to help him on his way to enlightenment. Even this offensive translation would have been better than manga Hamlet saying, "no" and stalking out of the room. This just infuriates me. Hamlet does not need to look even more indecisive than Shakespeare meant him to.

Well, that is enough for one night. I am not sure if this counts as a substantial post, or if my trivia on Denmark counts as research, but I could currently care less because I am REALLY tired.

My Intentions

My plans for this semester in Shakespeare class include: reading four comedies, three tragedies (including Hamlet), two histories, and one Romance. This brings the total amount of plays to ten. I also intend to honor my original goal to find modern equivalents to these plays and give my interpretation on what the changes say about modern society. This might stray from the goal of learning and commenting about Shakespeare, but I believe a large part of understanding where Shakespeare fits in this modern era is gaining a grasp of modern values. I also will read at least a sonnet a week and post my reading experience the day of. Also, I want to get on the class production that seems to be forming.

First Act of Hamlet, Then and Now

I found a disturbing contemporary version of Hamlet that I posted late at night without considering the graphic nature of the movie. I will be more careful in the future, but I did want to explore a few different routes this version took. I did enjoy one part of this piece because it brought to home Marcellus Quote in Act 1, Scene 4: "Something is rotten in Denmark" (and no, I did not steal this idea from Sarah Brown, though she has good taste and used this quote in her last blog update). Though murder is a timeless crime, especially the murder of a brother, the disgust of a woman marrying her brother-in-law is not seen as incestuous today, just a bit strange. This act defined Gertrude's character to the Elizabethan audience, tainting her further than a modern audience would. The feel of this modern Gertrude, marrying a man whom she suspects will not be faithful, gives a bit more for the audience to accuse her of, therefore a bit more justification for her fate (that for some reason is not shown in this movie, unless I missed a part 2 notification).


Other than this little help, I found the entire surrealistic take a waste of time. The Asian boy horrified me, and Horatio should NOT have been changed to a female character. This is one modern illusion I believe the movie exploits: there are no more straight Horatios.  A friend that close to Hamlet, who stands by his side despite his supposed madness, would have to have a dominantly feminine demeanor. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are both still men, Hamlet's less faithful friends, of course. I believe that the differences between the original productions and the modern ones speak volumes about our society. Honor among brothers is weakening, and the importance of human relationships is forgotten.

My Approach to this Shakespeare Project

Hello fellow Shakespeare enthusiasts! Today I wanted to shoot out the thesis for the research project this blog is going to cover. I have seen many contemporary interpretations of Shakespeare's plays (the most recent a manga of "Hamlet"), and I wanted to: first, bring to light both the blasphemous creations and the inspirational works modern society has produced in the name of Shakespeare; and second, explain what the interpretation proves about society (particularly American society, since this is my specialty) and the work itself. I am not sure if this subject is too broad, so I would love some feedback. Keep it shaking fellow Shakespeareians.