Praise for Presentations 4/21

Great work everyone on your paper presentations! I thought it was interesting how many people talked about love in their papers. I was expecting something more dry, like how myth plays a role in _______ pick a play. But because everyone added some personality and passion to their papers they all sound extraordinary.

I especially enjoyed Roberto's piece on Caliban and Smerdyakov. He did a great job comparing the two characters, that at first do not seem to go together. But when you add myth and creativity, the connection is obvious. Great work!

Amanda's paper I have already given praise to in another post, but I need to do it again. You did such a great job making your argument clear, and using plenty of examples. It was great to hear, and I hope you post your paper in its entirety.

For both rappers: I commend you. There is no way in hell I could do that. Never. But you both pulled it off excellently. I would love to see the actual rap, if either of you have it. Jamie, I loved how you related it to teaching. I always wonder how to make Shakespeare exciting for students and I think you accomplished that in your presentation. It was epic.

Everyone did an outstanding job! I am excited to hear more!

King Lear: To watch, or not?

It was while reading King Lear that I discovered something odd about myself. I hate watching tragedy on TV, but I love to read it. My favorite Shakespeare plays are Macbeth and King Lear. Both are terribly tragic, and one is tragically sad. My heart aches for Lear throughout this play. And Macbeth's demise to insanity keeps me interested the whole time. The images that Shakespeare evokes throughout his plays, and especially his tragedies are amazing. Although we only read the dialogue and monologues, we can feel the pain of these characters.

King Lear has some of the most well-rounded characters. I love Kent and his loyalty, and I despise Reagan and Goneril. I want to see their demise, because all of the events are so full of emotion. This whole play is filled with tragic lines, that are spoken with true beauty. I have never seen King Lear performed, and I'm not sure if I would want to. I have my own image of the characters. What they look like, how they act. And I want to keep it that way. But I am interested to see if I still loved the play if I actually had to see Glouscter's eyes getting plucked out. That is the part in movies I hate. All the gory-grossness. But I love the passion that can only exist when life has taken a turn for the very worst, and characters must depend on each other in ways they never thought they would.

I guess that is one part of tragedy that is enjoyable. You see the true character of people. Kent is a true and good man through and through. After Lear banishes him, he disguises himself and stays with him throughout it all. Many people say that Cordelia is the essence of good, but I cannot agree to that, when we do not get to see her throughout most of the play. She is loyal and honest, and she must sacrifice her home, but she is not seen doing what Kent must do to prove his loyalty. Even when Lear has died, he goes to join his master in the after life. It gives me chills just thinking about it.

I love this play and I need to read it over and over again to fully understand it all, but I'm willing to take on the challenge. It may take me some time to watch the movie version... I just do not want it ruined for me.

Myth and the world around us

For one of my education classes, I had to develop my dream course. Something that I could teach, if there was no such thing as a set curriculum. Many of my ideas for this assignment came from this class. One of the major points, came from Amanda's presentation on Thursday. This class showed me how much certain myths are repeated, even in the case of one author. We read many plays that mention greek and roman mythology. And at the base of everything seemed to be Ovid's Metamorphoses. Mostly I realized how much I still need to read. And I figure if I can introduce this same idea to my students at a young age, they may develop the same love for literature that I do. Or I might just scare them off completely...

The course surrounds myth and how it is transformed throughout time, but mostly it would be looking at how many myths stay the same. I was looking at creation stories, the myth of the hero and other prominent archetypes, fairy tales, and as Amanda pointed out, forbidden love. I had not thought about the abundance of forbidden love throughout literature before she said that. I need to read her paper to come up with more examples of this. She had a great argument about Shakespeare's obsession with this overall theme, not just the form of Venus and Adonis.

This makes me want to discover more examples of consuming myths, themes, and stories and discover why they capture our minds entirely. And why, even four hundred years later, authors are rewriting the story of the hero, Venus and Adonis, and forbidden love, but with new characters and settings.

Sonnet

I had to write a sonnet for my Advanced Composition class, and I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. I thought that writing a sonnet would be extremely challenging, but I found that the restrictive form of the sonnet actually helped me to write it. I am not good at expressing feelings in verse, mostly because I feel silly doing it. But somehow the strict limitations of the sonnet helped me to go deeper. After hearing some of the sonnets my classmates wrote, I felt even more silly. Sonnets do not have to be about your soul, or undying love. In fact, they could be about coffee, skiing, or three-legged dogs. No matter what the content is, I find that they are a joy to read. I may not be writing another any time soon, but here is what I came up with.

A lullaby is sung for you to sleep

The darkness comes to carry you away

The night is long and full of drifting sheep

May stars arise to watch you till the day

Awakens with the bluebirds to greet you.

A springtime day and carefree play await.

Picnics, swing-sets, are fun, and running too.

Love the small things before it is too late.

Cause time will pass and innocence will go

Time diminishes for playing dress-up,

As the world keeps turning around, you grow.

Experience will give you a leg up.

So take life by the horns and hold on tight

For you don’t want to miss the morning light.

Flyting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PaOjCq44po&feature=related

This is the clip from Hook that is a prime example of flyting. One of the best scenes in a movie of all time. I hope you enjoy it. The fun does not start until about 3 and a half minutes in... but worth the wait!

Not going to lie. I love this shirt. Probably because I am a little nerdy in the Shakespeare world. I must admit, my experience with Shakespeare is lacking. I have always loved his plays (Macbeth being my favorite) and his sonnets are enjoyable to read as well. Mostly I love the challenge of Shakespeare. Even though the writing is still in the same language, it is more difficult for me to understand and when I can sit down and enjoy it, I feel great.

Most of my relationship with good ol' Will has occurred around the duck pond with a pitcher of my mother's famous sangria, eating a Pickle Barrel sandwich.

Needless to say, I'm super excited for this class.