Thanks everyone

Again, there are so many great minds in this class. The only thing I ask is, respect eachother... not one of us has the answers to everything... just our observations and thoughts. Thats exactly what Shakespeare would have wanted, or at least I think. We are simply the worlds players. It still astounds me how vibrant Shakespeare is still around us. I read Amanda's most recent blog and watching The Kings Speech I literally cried with all the Shakespeare references.

 Also, I caught a bunch of quotes after recently watching Interview with the Vampire.  "Good night sweet prince..." being one of them Amanda.

Othello is also quoted "Put out the light, then put out the light." before Lestat has taken a girls life. Doing some research on the quote brought me to a lot of interesting observations. Othello says this to himself whilst Desdemona is sleeping. I believe he is saying, he's going to put out the candle and then put out her light. Its interesting because in Interview with the Vampire Lestat puts out the candle and then brings the girl to near death and gives Louis the choice to make her one of them. I see this as a metaphor for "putting out the light" by having light stolen from you. Desdemona is said to have very light sking. Almost like a Vampire. Perphaps thats what the writers were going for by putting that quote in there.

Thanks Amanda for getting my brain rolling. Thats what I like out of many of my fellow classmates, fueling interesting thoughts in my imagination as opposed to judgements and presumptions. I appreciate that, thank you.

Thanks everyone... great semester.

Individual presentations... part 3

*Check out Amanda's blog to see how you did*

Brian- no guitar. boo. lol. All of Shakespeare is related. Hamlet & Henry IV part 1. Comparisons Iago and Caliban. Same character, different play.

Rachel- Shakespeare as a myth maker. Creates myth from stories. The Tempest, Shakespeare as Prospero.

Lauren Schull- Caliban like Poseidon. Andromeda & Perseus. Cedus & Caliban. The Tempest translated from Andromeda & Perseus.

Shelby- Asthetic Dignity. Theory of negative capability. Beauty & the sublime. Extends asthetic quality.

Spencer- Final scene of Cymbeline. Characters don't know who they are until the end. "Swapping Hats"

Joe- Nothing in Shakespeare. Nothing in a secondary sense. Realm of actual compared to possible. Shakespeare addressing basic myth. How can something come out of nothing?

Laure part deux- Language. Memorial. very beautiful. Othello. Spoken word being most important. Iago works with words not actions.

Jennifer- symbolism of the pearl. sang a county song.

"Funny when your dead, people start listening"

Riley- Iago. Prometheous located myth. Burns down the town with his words.

Craig- screenplay adaptation of last act of Cymbeline. Last 4 scenes have most imagery. *posted on blog

Again, really nice work everyone. Not too much, not too little. I was very impressed with everyone. One more class and then... off we go. To do... well... nothing. which is to say, everything.

Individual presentations... part deux

Finish blogs up by 5pm Thurs.

Morgan-Rape of Lucrece. Marina & Lucrece

Matt- Nothing, fools, and nature compared and contrasted

Cameron- connections between plays

Lisa- negative capability & remembrance. Focus on the word Vail. False

The Painted Vail

Alex- recurring event of divine visitation

Melissa- Nature in King Lear.
          "The worst returns to laughter"

Karinne- Device of disquise

Nathan- The Tempest. Very Depthful.

Becky- Poem about Cleopatra & Shakespeare. They're the same.

Jon- Hamlet. What it means to be a mythic figure.

James- Echoes... really heartfelt.. its nice to see such emotion... makes me have hope in the world again! :)

seven sins

Mything Shakespeare

            Several things can be said about Shakespeare being mythological. Clearly, he refers to Ovid’s Metamorphoses in several shows. My mission through this paper is to explore the prominence of the seven deadly sins in Shakespeare and in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

            The first sin I explored was gluttony, which can be translated as overindulgence. King Lear at the beginning of the show perfectly describes an overindulgent person. He has to have the most of everything to be happy. Lear claims 50 knights is better than 25 and is asked by Goneril why he even needs one and he snaps at her. A character from mythology that clearly rings in my head is Actaeon, a boastful hunter who happens to stumble across Artemis bathing. He doesn’t look away but overindulges and watches for a bit, she then notices him and turns him into a stag and he is then eaten by his own hounds.

The Rape of Lucrece is a lustful piece by Shakespeare. Tarquin reminds me clearly of Jove, who is obviously the most lustful character in mythology. Jove has lusted after Io, Callisto, Europa, and Semele as well as many others. Due to Jove’s lust each of these women suffered a fate. Io was turned into a cow then became a goddess. Callisto was turned into a bear and killed now she has a home in the stars. Europa was tricked by Jove, he turned himself into a beautiful white bull and she got onto his back where he disappeared into the sea. Semele was conned by Hera to ask Jove to show himself in all his splendour resulting in her untimely death. Yes, Jove is a picture perfect example of lust.

            Pride is the next sin I researched. Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra defines pride clearly. I see Cleopatra as a bit of an actress she is described as a woman of “infinite variety”. Every actor or actress I have ever met has had a large element of pride about them which is why I chose this show to describe pride. Cleopatra is so full of pride she doesn’t want to kill herself in a way that she would be made an ugly corpse. Among the most obvious of prideful characters in mythology would be Narcissus. A man who loved himself so much he died looking at his own reflection. Another prideful mythological character would be Phaethon. He takes his father’s chariot convinced he would be able to ride through the heavens gracefully. “Too late: with his young body, Phaethon has leaped into the chariot: he takes his place with pride. Rejoicing, he holds fast the reins-and thanks his hesitating father” (Mandelbaum 42). Unfortunately Phaethon’s pride gets the better of him, and he killed is by his impulsive actions.

            Greed is abundant in many of Shakespeare’s works. The character that I have found most greedy would be Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet. He wants his cousin to himself so much that he becomes responsible for Mercutio’s death which leads to his own death by Romeo’s hand. Another way to look at greed from the mythological stand point is the story of Mars, Venus, Vulcan, and the Sun. The adultery committed by Mars and Venus can be defined as greed. Their husbands and wives are not good enough; they need more to fulfill their desires by their own greed.

            I found while working with Othello that the most abundant sin in the play is envy. Iago is the poster child of this sin. He is so envious of Othello that he will stop at nothing until he is ruined. As far as mythology goes, characters that I find quite envious are The Pierides who are quite envious of the Muses. Now anyone knows that you can’t ever be as good as a Muse and The Pierides challenge them to a singing competition. They do not win and envy gets the best of them.

            Wrath I honestly can say is abundant in each work of Shakespeare; anger is a natural emotion that happens every day in each of us. Since we are Shakespeare’s mind babies, it’s too hard to narrow wrath down to just a work or two. In mythology the most obvious wrathful character to me is Juno. Every poor girl that gets involved with Jove has Juno’s wrath upon them shortly after.

            The last sin I encountered was sloth. I had a very hard time determining which of Shakespeare’s works defined this best. I came down to the conclusion that most of the characters in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream are quite lazy, minus Puck. This is stretching sloth a bit, but when I think of the characters I think of spoiled, rich people who have nothing better to do with their time than whine, or play tricks on each other. In mythology, the most slothful character I can think of is Argus. He is a big, fat lazy giant who falls asleep to a story told by Mercury to get Io away from his watchful eyes. Sloth gets the better of him.

            The abundance of sin is without question abundant in mythology and Shakespeare. In truth, it is all just mythology. The farther back you go, whether it’s to the seven deadly sins, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or Shakespeare’s era, the more mythological you are. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Shakespeare’s works are just stories but they are “sacred stories” hence, “true stories”. We emulate these two creators every day, as to say, nothing ever dies… it only changes.

           

Works Cited

Mandelbaum, A. (1993). The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc

Cotterell, A., Storm R., (1999). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Mythology. New York, NY: Metro Books

Individual presentations... part I

Upon finishing the first day of presentations I'm relieved and yet, I wish I had put more thought into my paper... I enjoyed my idea but wish I had delved deeper into the connection between my Ovidian tales and Shakespeare's works. Jennie, after reading your blog, Flagstaff did cross my mind for SLOTH but he just didn't seem to have enough of something for me to base that paragraph on... I guess you could say he was too boring and lazy... get it? Sloth... boring and lazy?... ahhhh

However, I was very impressed with each presentation and hope that the second round will be just as exciting... who knows? Maybe someone will write a full fledged musical and then all who went on Thursday will be shit outta luck...

Roberto- The Tempest

Jackie- Nice powerpoint, really nice comparison with jealousy and infatuation in the modern world.

Kinsey- Venus & Adonis

Ashley- Cordelia, slight physical presence but still very present.

Nick- Identity broken down through Shakespeare's plays. Discover the role you are playing, and play it well.

Jennifer Cooley- The Tempest. Caliban is Poseidon & Demeter.

Rio- Venus & Adonis echoed with modern society

Jamie- Kids intimidated by Shakespeare. The Mechanicals rapped... As you Like It

Tristan- Rapped. Calibans speech... DROP A BEAT!!

Anne- purpose for sexual references

Amanda- forbidden love, love labors lost

Fletcher- critique of love. Suffering is caused by love. love is a drug.

Lisette- Antony & Cleopatra compared and contrasted with Romeo and Juliet. Antony is Romeo... Cleopatra is Juliet.

*Love is what most papers were written about*

Again, really intellectual nicely rounded out presentations. Tristan, I do think you should post your rap on your blog because as Jenny said, it was hard to hear and understand your words. I still cannot believe the smarts that are sitting in that classroom evert Tuesday and Thursday with me. Ashley, the depths that your brain delves astounds me...

I will post the second round of presentations after class on Tuesday. Nice job everyone, on your group and individual presentations.

late notes 4/7

The Tempest

Prospero's project
       3 hours: exact amount of time to do the Tempest

memory

*Echos*

Act IV scene1

Happy & Healthy= meaning of life
                  You cannot demote to just this

puts on a play with character from mythology

Venus & Cupid are not invited

echo

anamnesis: absolute memory

remember who you were before you were born

enter certain reapers
                    confused to a strange and hollow noise

worst crime of a memory magician: to forget

tempest: time

sublime moment in Shakespeare
               "Its all a dream"

Act V

Ovid Metamorpheses

Prospero drowns his books

Antonio: to call you brother infects my mouth

play within a play
banquet, masque, the whole thing

Prospero turns to the audience to release him with applause

thesis'

I have a few ideas for my thesis. I'm thinking about writing a paper about Shakespeare and the 7 sins. Which shows are prominent in which sins. Another idea I had was analyzing the prominence of  jealousy and rumors, picking apart a show or two. Still brainstorming but I like these two the most so far.

nothing is ever nothing

I can't help but think the two recent shows that we have read were extremely similar. Perphaps echoing eachother if you may. The fairytale that seems to linger its dark head around is Snow White. Just bits and pieces, obviously not the whole story. When Marina is rescued by pirates and then sold to the brothel I immediately thought about being outside of the Molly Brown or the Scoop on a Friday night...

"Dude, I was talking to her first brah!"
-" No man, she was totally into me first"

(Punch punch, kick kick, curse word curse word curse word)

A contemperary brothel is a scary place.

I do have to say, chorus' are my favorite part of most shows. The people who get to see the whole show but aren't really paid much attention to, however, if they weren't there a key part of the show would be missing. I was part of the chorus of Rocky Horror and had more fun than the leading cast.

Left: me and the other phantoms or "chorus" of Rocky Horror










So I was interested in the definition of Marina and I found that Marina's in this day and age are a lot like Marina the character in Pericles. Obviously the element of water is there. Marina's original rescuers were pirates. Also, a Marina keeps things safe, refuels and repairs boats. I can't help but think that Marina is so pure she refuels and repairs people. She got to the Governer and her father. The two gentleman came out as new men after she was done with them... hm.. just some connection that I thought was interesting.

notes 3/31

A Winter's Tale

Blogs: Roberto, Jennifer, Ashley, Amanda

Shakespeare has withdrawn in this show

In the beginning everything is whole

paradise lost, paradise regained

crone: A wise woman

Mother and maiden reunited at the end of the play

Act I scene2
something happens

"The great nothing speech"

echoing

Delphos @ Apollo

Issue: the most used word in AWT

Ceres: goddess of the Earth

pg. 709
"Exit pursued by a bear"
                 most famous stage direction

4 little girls
        1 Imogen
           2 Marina
              3 Perdita
                4 Miranda

Live on the threshold

Act IV scene 4
"for I have heard it said there is an art...."

"No worse there is none"

MSU's motto comes from this poem

We skip the recognitions, why? someone else tells us about it

The story of Pygmalion

The statue is brought to life by Claudia

The Tempest
 Shines light on all other plays

notes 3/24 and 3/29

Translate your secondary reading in your blog

Moonwalking with Einstein

Cymbeline
servant must sent bloody hankerchief

Imogen's male name Idelle: Faithful



3/29

blog your thesis for your term paper

Pericles

Shakespeare is exploiting genre's

Romance: cheap, taudry book about love

Shakespeares Romance: babies seperated at birth, captured by pirates

*Pericles was not all written by Shakespeare

Comedy of Errors

We're not covering the first two acts- why? because they're not very good

answer to the riddle: incest

Act III
        Start sounding more like Shakespeare

Pericles & Titus were the shows that were the most flocked to...
 wrap up of Acts I and II: Dumb show

storm: tempest

A Chorus

They throw the dead queen overboard

Psyche & Cupid

-Evil stepmother who watns to kill baby

She is rescued by pirates, they $$$ so they sell her to Brothel peeps

Pericles= Dudley do-right

Pericles vows not to cut hair and not talk

Cerimon finds real queen and brings her back to life by music and massage

Great Healer=music

Myth with person in basket = Moses, Superman

Pay attention to flowers

"Pirate Talk": Arghh

"Virgin Knot"

Persephoney & Demeter
               Romances myth

Colin Still- myth of the mother and the daughter

Governer wants some and Marina coverts him... so he gives her a bag of gold.

Marina & Pericles scene: Very devastating

Pericles: "Thou that beget'st him that did thee beget;"

                          "the person who begot you, begot me"

Diana @ ephesus

I am so an Egyptian

Not literally I mean. Actually I'm half German and half Irish. Whodda thunk it?

So, many things have been scrambling my brain since the past two classes. First of all, I recently watched The Virgin Suicides and I thought to myself, "gosh, Shakespeare would have had an orgasm watching this movie." Young girls in torrid love affairs, kept from social interaction and eventually killing themselves all together in horrid ways. He would have been quite pleased.

Its funny that they talk about Cleopatra being of "infintite variety", makes me think about what my thought process is when I hear the name Cleopatra. It has jogged my memory about my cat, whose name was Cleo. Short for Cleopatra but obviously doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

I got Cleo at the animal shelter umpteen years ago. However, when it came to telling my friends about her I came up with a more "colorful" story, I had her imported from Egypt where she was born. I emphasized that she was really from Egypt and I sometimes even exaggerated the story to the point that she was owned by a princess there. Hence, why I named this blog I am so an Egyptian. I made up shit like that all the time.

Once, I was dating this boy freshman year of High School and I was at my friends birthday party. So I was on the phone with my boyfriend and my friend and I were pretending so play psycho killer. I was the victim and she was the killer. So she pretended to kill me while he was on the phone and he totally thought she really killed me. He freaked out and like screamed into the phone, "TAYLOR!!!! GOD NO!! YOU KILLED HER!!!" Oh it was so dramatic, I loved it. Just so you all don't think I'm a heartless bitch I got back on the phone and calmed his panicked attacked ass down... But I still got a kick out of it.... tee hee

 So, I was also thinking about Romans and they way we discussed them. Immediately I thought of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a show recently aired on Starz.

Before, I thought the show was quite unrealistic, the women weigh about 90 pounds and are drop dead gorgeous. Now, I realize that may be how women in Rome were. Studying the show deeper, I realize these women are very muscular and strong. Obviously there are still some levels of unrealisticness. (I don't think they all had chiseled 6 packs and were able to fornicate without pregnancy) but, I do think they nailed the hardness in Romans.

To end, I thought I would share my hypothesis on why clouds form images. Again, not something I really believe but something I made up some years ago while writing a screenplay. I thought the clouds were drawings deceased children threw from the heavens down into the sky. The clouds then formed their drawing. Thats why we see what we see in the sky.

class notes 3/7 and 3/10

guest: Gretchen Menten

handout: history Antony & Cleopatra continuance of Julius Ceaser
44- Assasination of Ceaser

*Pay attention to place names and maps while reading

Antony & Cleopatra
High School, sexual references, a lot of characters

Scene 1
Nay is the first word spoken
                    presence of rumor or report
                             "The common liar"-Antony
Antony and Cleopatra are never alone together onstage and there are no monologues in the show

Act II scene 2
       Speech on when A&C 1st meet
rumors, rumors, rumors- think about this and their perspective

Rome- order, masculine, cold-hard stuff
Egypt- passion, feminine, soft stuff

"Upon a tawny front" - Description of Cleopatra- she is dark

Mars &Venus- adultery
Mars is Antony- god of war
                      "Love and War"

Natural world is constantly at risk of dissolving

Act I scene 3
"Sir, you and I must part..."
              poetry through love
                       identity- who am I? who are these people?

Act II scene 7
It is what it is

Montane- french philosopher and essayist
-no such thing as a fixed identity

Antony- identity being questioned

Act I scene 4
demasculization of Antony
                     he used to be one way, now he is a different way
                                          whipped

Act II scene 5
he is two-faced

Act I scene 2
"no he, the queen" 

A&C are not young
                identity changes through the years

"infinite variety"- describing Cleopatra
                    The more you have of her, the more you want of her.

Bathos- climaxes and anticlimaxes

Plenty of fish in the sea

History
       Everybody already knows the story

Act III scene 13
           how are they going to be remembered











3/10/11
Revisiting King Lear

Book Worms

Shakespeare helps us to endure the unendurable

Antony & Cleopatra
Cleopatra always needs an audience
                     -she wants to be a beautiful corpse

Egypt and Rome are metaphorical for place of mind

Gypsy- from Egypt

A&C plan to be gods, heres what they do
1. say 2. see 3. do

Isis- goddesss of fertility
apotheosis- to make devine

Antony=Hercules
"The shirt of Nessus is upon me"

Antony's cloud speech

flyting

I was thinking about some flyting incidents that may have happened between my sister and I, the only thing I can think of that I might have said was "stupid face" or "poo head." My sister is an extremely intense person so getting into fights with her was something I avoided because she loves to fight, she gets some sort of weird pleasure out of it. Not I, being the pretty laid back person I am I avoid confrontation unless it is absolutely necessary.
  However, I do remember a time I was in 6th grade and I went to Wendy's (the cool thing to do after school in 6th grade) with some friends and I winded up in a flyting of words with a fellow patron who attacked me out of nowhere. You see, I was at a rebellious time in my life and had decided to dye my hair green. I wanted blue but didn't take into account my hair was red and when you don't bleach the hair first it will turn green. Anyways, this girl thought it necessary to say a rude comment to me.

"Where did you get your hair dye... Wal Mart?"
-her friends around her giggled and laughed. Mind you, these girls were probably sophomores or juniors in high school. After she said that comment, something inside of me snapped... normally I would brush it off and be the bigger person... not this time, oh no, this time I was gonna kill with words.

"Yes, in fact, I think it was right next to 'slut brown' the color you have right?"
-she then proceeded to get very angry and call me a little bitch and I just interrupted her,
"I find it sad that a girl of your age needs to come to Wendy's after school and pick on young girls to make yourself feel better about yourself. Wow, I feel sorry for you."

I then left the restaurant as she was trying to continue the argument. I still feel like I won...

Lear

Upon our discussion in class about King Lear. The more things you have, the more things you want. My boyfriend would be the perfect example of this. He buys some big fancy thing and then need every bell and whistle to go with the damn thing. Take his Xbox for instance.
"But you have an Xbox already John"
"No I need to buy an external hard drive for it"
"Doesn't it come with a hard drive?"
"Yes but only 4 gilgabites" (or whatever they are)
"Ah"

Nothing is ever good enough unless you can have more. This is why I live an extremely strict lifestyle of not falling into the common habit of buying a bunch of (excuse my french) shit. All I really need is myself and my brain and I think I can get by.

notes 3/1 and 3/3

King Lear - read the conflated text

mythology and Shakespeare
                                        We're demytholigizing through the works

"The Ailing King"

Frazer- conflicts of kings in The Golden Bough

Lear- restricting consciousness of world
                        egoist- Jennies blog

Cordelia= Heart

realistic and mythological levels

King has beautiful daughters, he marries them all off. He loves himself the most.

Gloucester is involved in subplot which is the same as the main plot.

Lear banishes Cordelia
(Lear= Cinderella)

Edmund is a villain because he has been demytholigized

Nothing & Nature are two words used often in Lear

"It is never the worst, unless you can say it is the worst"

"We are to the gods flies to the wanton boys, they kill us for they're sport"

Oswald= dumb villain

Albany- marries horrible bitch- Goneril

* Blog about flyting- exchange of terms of abuse back and forth between two people.

Tom of Bedlam who Edgar disquises himself as.

* What do you need?
find youtube clip of King Lear




Notes 3/3

Tuesday- required attendance- guest speaker

Read first two acts of Antony & Cleopatra--come with a question

John Orsi- Remainder - Tom McCarthy

King Lear- Who are you?
-Shakespeare manipulates


What do we really need?

Lear
Daughters say too many knights... well 50 knights is better than 25.... why do you need one? Something snaps in Lear
pg. 1592

most people are distracted by their possesions

Lear turns to compassion and sympathy... he has lost the mind that he had which was not a mind worth having at all

"Thou art the thing itself;"

pg.1600 Edgars speech
                  "The worst returns to laughter"
"The worst is not so long as we can say this is the worst"

*Nathans blog

Lear- "If thou wilt weep my fortunes; take mine eyes"

Alchemy- a person must empty themselves out to truly find themselves

really?

I find it humurous that there was a grand ol' happy ending when As You Like It ended. No one is mad at Rosalind for pretending to be a man. While discussing the play in class I could not help but think of movies where men dress as women or vice versa. In Tootsie Dustin Hoffman is shunned by the woman he fell in love with. Mrs. Doubtfire the same. Although there is a happy ending everyone is still fairly pissed off at them for lying. The worst one I can think of however is Boys Don't Cry I have a feeling in that day and age, Rosalind would have been in the same situation as the Hillary Swank. Raped and beaten... hey raped... that fits real well with mythology.

class notes 2/15/11

"As You Like it"
     Laurence Olivia


"These are counslers that feelingly pursuade me of what I am"

*Jamies Blog

Orlanda shows hero symptoms
which are
     *Strange birth, tried to be killed but spirited away
      *Foster child, usually male
        *battles monster
          * marries princess
            *goes into kingdom, gets in bad with gods comes into death at the top of hill
1) Seperation
2) Preperation
3) Return

Buddhas do not meet 1.old 2. young 3. dead

Nature pokes you so you are alive
    pg. 414 Dukes speech

What happens when you remove all mythological people from the wood?

Seven ages of man are planets... each speaks differently

1- mewling infant
2- whining school boy
3- sighing lover
4- oaths soldier
        *Miles Gloriosus-- the braggart soldier
5- Justice
6-pantaloon
7-second childishnish


"Of the feast of the ass"
           From Ritual to Romance -the holy grail

3 levels of time
      1 objective
           2 subjective
               3 natural



4 lovers AYLI
Sylvius & Phebe, Orlanda & Rosalind, Audrey & Touchstone, Oliver & Celia

ATTN: GROUP 3

Hey guys I am currently in group one and can join your group 3 if you would like.... if you all could email me with your contact info that would be greatly appreciated

Taylor Jensen aka Hermia


mycatcleo@hotmail.com

class notes 2/8/11

Talk to Rio if you want any of the films we talk about in class.

See Rio's blog for Frye's article on comedy

3 main things about Act V from MSND

#1. Sammy's musical
                    Discord and Harmony and concord

pg. 277 Hippolyta's speech line 171 "I was with Hercules and Cadmus once"

#2. Notion about play within a play
                            The machinery about creation of illusion
"Pay no attention to the amn behind the curtain."

#3. The walls
             The boundaries between the social levels



Netflix
Playing Shakespeare 1 of 4 discs
MSND- Mickey Rooney playing Puck, Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer

some of my random thoughts

I don't much like to write blogs considering the majority of students in Dr. Sexson's class are nevertheless brilliant writers. I myself am not one. Business is usually the form of writing I use due to long papers with lots of thought being critisized as "too lengthy". Cut out anything that isn't absolutely necessary... ah me. But I thought I would share some interesting thoughts that have crossed my mind over the past few weeks.

I find it interesting that Matt Groening (the creator of The Simpsons and Futurama) has named two of his characters after Homer and Frye. We've been talking a great deal about Frye lately and obviously Homer is a pretty big mythological character in himself. It makes me wonder if this was on purpose. Homer is above all the most fictional character in The Simpsons. A man by all means should have died numerous times throughout the series. But yet he ends up plugging through a story line each and every week but somehow always ends up back where he started. At home, working at the nuclear power plant with 2.5 children. But every episode has a allegory.

Fry on the other hand, seems to be opposite of the Frye we speak of. Being zapped into the future leaves him dumbfounded and needs many things explained to him. The only thing Fry is interested in is doing the right thing and getting the woman of his dreams to love him back. I do not watch Futurama as much so thats about the gist of that. I just found it interesting,

In response to us all following in our ancestors times... I can completely relate! Being trained in improv to the point of VOMITING I completely understand. Even something that is supposed to be fun and spontanious is overtaken by rules. I can't tell you how many time I was told "improv has no rules, but you did that wrong" What is new anymore? I wish we all weren't repeating the past but talking about just doing everything over again is so true.

Talking about Persephone and the underworld got me thinking about watching my boyfriend play the game "Dante's Inferno" I don't play Xbox games mind you, I find myself hitting one of the swirly stick things and the screen just goes in circles while some sort of villain is slaying me all the while my boyfriend is screamin
 "pull out your dragon forcefield sword!"
"My what?!"
"Press A then the trigger on the right, then X then double back to your left trigger!"

Like its that simple. He may as well just tell me to spin around with my feet in mashed potatoes doing the can can... actually I could probably do that better. Anyway, watching the game was infactuating. Before writing this blog I did some research on it and came to find

"At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost" (opening line of The Divine Comedy).

This is representing a part of the game when Dante first is introduced to hell. All he wants is his darling Beatrice back. Hmmm love is a great part of why we do what we do. I take this quote with me and think he has gone into the woo'd. He's going where Theseus does not want us to go. And as the game continues, I wouldn't want to go there either. I believe he even encounters Persephone in the underworld. But then again, sometimes I lost interest because my silly boyfriend kept dying and the level would start over. The point being, this strange connection to everything is starting to freak me out. I would have never guessed researching a video game would bring me to so many literary works, Comedy which relates back to A Midsummers Nights Dream. Which we've been talking about about the wood around the story... the myth of it all. Creepy isn't it? How it is all connected. Now that I officially have the goosebumps... I'll try and sleep now... hopefully I don't offend any shadows...

notes 2/1/11

Thursday 2/3 Groups will perform their presentations on Act V of MSND

The Argument of Comedy Northrop Frye online on googlebooks: What is comedy?
Green World: Frye is saying dramatists use the woods where they are either consumed or renewed.


pg. 710 A Winter's Tale
"Exit pursued by a bear" stage direction

Shakespeare loved myths "The Brother Battle"=Cain and Abel and "Venus and Adonis"

MSND
Hippolyta was a trophy wife
           Theseus mentions at the start of the show to leave all trajedy "In the woo'd"

end of comedy- a coming together

*Ashleys blog* pg 260 Lysander: Love looks with the mind...

The mechanicals= Snug, Bottom, Quincy etc

The order of characters changed with their languages

Realms
Gods to Heroes to People to Chaos

Titania accuses Oberon of cheating with Hippolyta and vice versa

Titania: These are the forgeries of jealousy we are their parents and originals

Amend: Fix it. Stitch together what has been torn to pieces (sparagmos)?

*Nathans blog*

pg 278 Act VI scene 2 Bottoms speech see footnote

"The bottom of secrets"

notes 1/27

Pg 845

line 69- CADE

Butcher 81: The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers

*Shakespeare did not say this. Butcher does

Patron- "Sugar Daddies"

The Sonnets

"The Breeding Sonnets"- encourage men to have children

You need to make a copy of yourself to be immortal.

GO HAVE SOME MIND BABIES

"My teacher you taught me to be eternal"

MSND is Romeo and Juliet= everybody was an anagram of everone else

Myth is the darkness outside of Shakespeare's puzzle... or the wood....

There was more in class but I got distracted once we started reading MSND b/c I love it a lot...

some thoughts

Lisette's recent blog made me chuckle almose every other sentence. Your questions on Bill are ones that I have never thought about but needless to say, you have a point. Shakespeare write about some pretty F up'd things. Just take mythology asnd see what you find out..

So much of what we've covered so far has been very related to Ovid's Metamorpheses. From boars to rape. Ohhh so much rape!! There are several stories in Ovid that involve rape as well.... upon reading the RAPE of Lucrece I was reminded of a couple of these stories and thought I would share one with you. Just know all of these rapes are incurred by Jove or Zeus as some of you may know him as...

Io & Jove- Basically Jove wants Io and well...

                                       "Then with a veil of heavy fog, the god concealed a vast expanse of land; Jove stopped her flight; he raped chaste Io." (Ovid 26)

Then when he gets caught like the scum that he is... what does he do? He doesn't want his wife to find out and so he turns poor Io into a cow...

class notes 1/25/11

*Pick your secondary reading*

neoplatonism- is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, founded by Plotinus and based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists. Neoplatonists would have considered themselves simply Platonists, and the modern distinction is due to the perception that their philosophy contained sufficiently unique interpretations of Plato to make it substantially different from what Plato wrote and believed.^{[citation needed]} Neoplatonism attempted to reconcile Christian doctrine with the classical philosophies of Greek and Roman society.

metempsychosis- no such thing as death, only change

Stop saying "Shakespeare says" -He is all of them and none of them.

*Sexson has forwarded a class schedule to the class*

-Feb 3rd- 10 min group presentation of Act V of A Midsummers Nights Dream on why it is important

Masque:

 My personal Masque costume from this most recent Halloween

From the mind of Ted Hughes:
                            Venus has a twin names Persephoney in the underworld. They share Adonis. Venus drives Persephoney mad thus turning into a boar killing Adonis.

*Read Nick's blog*: From the ancient text The Epic of Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh would be tames if mate was found. To show he didn't want her he cut the hind parts of a bull and threw them at her.
        Thus "Rejection of the Goddess"

*Jamies Blog*
        Rent: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are undead

*Matt's Blog*  Tarquins "Rape of Lucrece"

 The realistic version of THE BOAR!!!

Thrown of Blood - Japanese version of Macbeth

*Ashley's blog* - "The guy is wrong in both poems"

                                               - any act of sex is rape

"She has offered me unconditional love"

Actaeon & Diana- Ovidian myth CHASTITY

class note 1/20/11

Groups for School of Night

#1- Taylor Jensen, Jodi Wilson, Walter Glover, Alex Miller, Anne Heetderks, Craig West, James the Rat, Jon Orsi

#2- Lauren Thigpen, Lisette Langdorf, Morgan Bidlake, Nathan Phillips

#3- Abbie Bandstra, Lauren Skull, Matt Helm, Kris Drummond, Riley Thuleen

#4- Jennifer Thornburg, Lisa Meyer, Jennifer Cooley, Sammy McDowall, Spencer Stilwell, Cameron Meek

#5-Becky Pilgeram, Roberto etc. etc., Jamie Garrison, Amanda Jones, Jacky Allen

#6- Karinne Noah, Rachel Kester, Melissa Newman, Nick Axline, Shelby Soule, Tristan Head

*Read everyone elses blogs, Write a Sonnet in the next 10 days on your blog, Shelby and Roberto's blog

*The secret teachings of all ages

Loves Labors Lost pg.233 act IV scene 3

rhapsody- man speaking with intensity about something he has discovered.

Berowne's rhapsodic speech goes in turn witht the School of Night

Hermetic Philosophy- divine lover conquers

Bruno- Italian philosopher, was burned at the stake. Was found guilty of heresy. Wrote many works on memory... if interested Chapter 7 of Myth and Reality is a great reference!

Michaelangelo's Pieta...                  

Ted Hughes- Married to Sylvia Plath. Poet. Phaethon was his wives myth... the fall of Ichoris

Saint Sebastion- tied to a post and shot by arrows

Above: Mishima obsessed by the sacrificed god.

What myth posseses you?

"The farther back you go, the more mythological you are."

Borge's on Shakespeare- "everything and nothing"

Next time we meet we will be discussing Macbeth Act I scene 7

"Pity like a newborn babe."

Who was Shakespeare?-Nobody as in Everybody

"A great wreckoning in a little room"- As you like it... we're reading it!!

Venus & Adonis my book of choice

I've recently finished reading Venus and Adonis. Unfortunately I found Venus to be very desperate throughout the whole thing. It sadly reminded me of my youth, desperately having a crush on a boy in the sixth grade and seeming well, pathetic. Venus even plays dead to get Adonis to feel bad for rejecting her. Completely reminds me of my youth crushes and the feeble attempts I made to get the "man of my dreams" to notice me. Somewhat makes me chuckle now. Guess it goes to show people want what they can't have.

As far as a book I hold dear to my heart, I think it would be One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Something about turning a morbid depressing psyche ward into a fun environment due to one individual is empowering to me. The other side of the story however is the fact that a human being needs to have so much control over everything around them that they will kill someone else. I just love the book. I'm also more of a movie buff however, so the subject of books is a little unknown to me.

Shakespeare experiences and class notes

My experience with Shakespeare has been purely from the acting spectrum. Being cast as Hermia (as you all know) in the fifth grade. I still remember the show quite vividly. Hermia is the "catch" of the land. Lysander and Demetrius both love her. However, she only loves Demetrius. Helena loves Lysander. There is then a huge debockle in the forest with the fairy king and queen whom are feuding... etc. I am also very familiar with Romeo and Juliet. But then again, who isn't? I was also cast in Macbeth as a senior in High School. I played Malcolm. I have been taught things about William Shakespeares life throughout High School. Also studying a number of his sonnets. That is it however, so I am excited to mesh mythology with Shakespeare. Here we go.

Class notes 1/13/11
Read Venus & Adonis as well as The Rape of Lucrece
print out the School of Night

*renaissance man- a man who can do everything

You will be assigned a group to become members of the night which will entail creating another version of the School of Night.

1st blog: what do I know about Shakespeare?

Hey everyone! Excited to start a new experience with Shakespeare. Looking forward to class on Thursday!