*dusts off lj*
So I have not posted in for-fucking-ever, and I want to kind of get back into that, but I have nothing to talk about except for being depressed/whiny/clingy/whatever, not even my dissertation, because it is finished.
Fortunately, just today roguebelle came to my rescue with a 30 Days meme that I actually want to do because it is about Shakespeare, and while I don't watch enough TV or have strong enough opinions about Doctor Who (much as I enjoy it) to do those, I can talk about Shakespeare until my face turns blue. So it is just the thing to get my journal moving again.
Day #1: Your favorite play
Probably anyone who has a) read the play and b) looked at my lj for about a second or c) ever talked to me for more than about five minutes knows that it is Richard II.
In the interests of making this post mildly interesting, perhaps, I suppose I had better talk a little bit about why! Occasionally I get asked this question by people I don't know very well, because it is kind of a weird play to have as one's favorite, and I have learned to say that it's because the language is so beautiful and the politics are so fascinating and complex, which is all absolutely true, but I say it because when I have tried to explain that I identify with Richard's self-destructive tendencies and absolute inability to shut up and the fact that he ends up completely alone in his own head, people look at me like I am crazy (and probably like I am reading the play on a sort of high-school level, like when they teach Romeo and Juliet because it's about teenagers so they assume The Kids Can Relate). Not that they are exactly wrong, at least about the crazy (I wrote a dissertation in which the play is central, so I think I can safely claim to be reading it above a high-school level).
Anyway, the other thing that I have probably explained many times, but is probably illustrative of my approach to things, is that what really hooked me on the play in the first place was that it was really quite puzzling and not at all what I expected. What I knew about it going in was that it was about a Tragic Poet-King who Gains Wisdom Through Suffering -- the Romantic reading, basically -- which I thought sounded like the sort of thing that would appeal to 20-year-old me, and then I actually read the play and did not get that at all, and did not really have much of an emotional reaction. Naturally this meant it was perfectly suitable as a topic for the BA thesis I was going to have to write the following year, as it was both puzzling and completely ruinable, since I didn't think I would be sad if I came out of the thesis hating it.
That was ten years ago and recently a well-known scholar asked me why I haven't buried Richard II yet. But no, I am not Henry the Fifth, nor was meant to be (and thank God for that, because he is awful).
Day #1: Your favorite play
Day #2: Your favorite character
Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line
Fortunately, just today roguebelle came to my rescue with a 30 Days meme that I actually want to do because it is about Shakespeare, and while I don't watch enough TV or have strong enough opinions about Doctor Who (much as I enjoy it) to do those, I can talk about Shakespeare until my face turns blue. So it is just the thing to get my journal moving again.
Day #1: Your favorite play
Probably anyone who has a) read the play and b) looked at my lj for about a second or c) ever talked to me for more than about five minutes knows that it is Richard II.
In the interests of making this post mildly interesting, perhaps, I suppose I had better talk a little bit about why! Occasionally I get asked this question by people I don't know very well, because it is kind of a weird play to have as one's favorite, and I have learned to say that it's because the language is so beautiful and the politics are so fascinating and complex, which is all absolutely true, but I say it because when I have tried to explain that I identify with Richard's self-destructive tendencies and absolute inability to shut up and the fact that he ends up completely alone in his own head, people look at me like I am crazy (and probably like I am reading the play on a sort of high-school level, like when they teach Romeo and Juliet because it's about teenagers so they assume The Kids Can Relate). Not that they are exactly wrong, at least about the crazy (I wrote a dissertation in which the play is central, so I think I can safely claim to be reading it above a high-school level).
Anyway, the other thing that I have probably explained many times, but is probably illustrative of my approach to things, is that what really hooked me on the play in the first place was that it was really quite puzzling and not at all what I expected. What I knew about it going in was that it was about a Tragic Poet-King who Gains Wisdom Through Suffering -- the Romantic reading, basically -- which I thought sounded like the sort of thing that would appeal to 20-year-old me, and then I actually read the play and did not get that at all, and did not really have much of an emotional reaction. Naturally this meant it was perfectly suitable as a topic for the BA thesis I was going to have to write the following year, as it was both puzzling and completely ruinable, since I didn't think I would be sad if I came out of the thesis hating it.
That was ten years ago and recently a well-known scholar asked me why I haven't buried Richard II yet. But no, I am not Henry the Fifth, nor was meant to be (and thank God for that, because he is awful).
Day #1: Your favorite play
Day #2: Your favorite character
Day #3: Your favorite hero
Day #4: Your favorite heroine
Day #5: Your favorite villain
Day #6: Your favorite villainess
Day #7: Your favorite clown
Day #8: Your favorite comedy
Day #9: Your favorite tragedy
Day #10: Your favorite history
Day #11: Your least favorite play
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line