The boar is everywhere

As i Was walking down the street the other night in Del Mar, I passed a sign with a big boar's head on it, below it said...boar's head. I immediately thought about shakespeare and in particular our Henry iv part one skit with the boars head tavern. I was surprised, though I should not have been, when I saw the boar appear in Henry iv also because it is such a historical play. I will post a picture of it when i have my computer. So funny, love that everywhere i go, there the boar is too!

You don't have time?!?!?

I read blogs, sort through my thoughts, and listen to mindless people at bars saying they don't "have" time to read. It brings me back to every class I have had with Dr. Sexson..."What do you mean you don't have time? What better do you have to do?"

I found myself the last year acting as if i have no time, shutting people, family, and my passions out. I just couldn't seem to find the time. In actuality I had all the time in the world, but my prioritizing went to hell and I was being selfish. I have found that now I have broken out of that shell I MAKE time for the things that matter. I think to myself: "When the day comes that I can no longer enjoy these things, I will regret that I had not enjoyed them more, simply because I was stupid, selfish, and inconsiderate".

So to anyone that doesn't have time- Make time and you will realize that we are all in the same sinking boat called "life" and you have to do what you can with what you have before it is gone.

The fairy tale in shakespeare

I was assigned the task of looking at tragedy and the fairy tale happy ending as transcendence rather than contradiction. I began thinking about how twisted fairy tales really are (which enters my mind quite often) and then went through various Shakespeare plays to find parallels. I had a lot of fun with this task and will perhaps post the paper i wrote on it as well.

Looking at Prospero and his obsession with books immediately brought to mind the immense library in the beauty in the beast. Bell is so innocent, like Miranda and lives through the stories. The beast cherishes his library, it being the only thing he really has to love and that loves him back.

In pericles we have the pirates, evil stepmother, and jealousy of the step daughter's beauty. There is magic wrapped up in Pericles along with myth. The search for self is evident in this and ultimately reflects morals, soul searching, and magic- similar to fairy tales.

The winters tale also depicts the magic of snow white and sleeping beauty. Jealousy, beauty, and once again magic.

I could go on and on because i am a long time lover of fairytales. It is essential that kids grow up with these stories, tales, fabrications. It helps them to find a sense of stability and connection in a chaotic world. The fairy tale ultimately acknowledges their dreams and reality...i will say more late perhaps but it is time to enjoy the glorious sunshine and celebrate the completion of my second minor.


Le fin.

Joseph Campbell- myth

In Joseph campbell's "The power of myth", he talks about the hero and the hero adventure. One of my favorite passages posted below speaks of the hero and who he is, how he developed. It is not only about the hero himself, but the adventure that follows- i think many of us can make Various connections to shakespeare and the real which is why i am posting this.

“The usual hero adventure begins with someone from whom something has been taken, or who feels there’s something lacking in the normal experiences available or permitted to the members of his society. This person then takes off on a series of adventures beyond the ordinary, either to recover what has been lost or to discover some life-giving elixir. It’s usually a cycle, a going and a returning... There are both kinds of heroes, some that choose to undertake the journey and some that don’t... In one kind of adventure, the hero sets out responsibly and intentionally to perform the deed... Then there are adventures into which you are thrown... You didn’t intend it, but you’re in now.”

I enjoyed reading through Campbell's works because similar to keats, he talks about the different stages that the hero must venture through. I have always been a visual learner and find that staters, steps, chambers...whatever you choose makes it easier and extremely imaginative for learners.

I also found some fabulous quotes from Joseph Campbell that I could use when thinking about anything really all the way from myth to Shakespeare to our present lives.

"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." another process in soul making

"I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."

"It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure." stumbling...tragedies...therefore tragedy can become our treasure.

"myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths"

Keats and shakespeare

Vale: farewell (Latin); false (Estonian); lie/untruth/fabrication (Finnish)

I highly recommend that everyone looks at keats's "the vale of soul making" and his other letters such as "...the chambers of human life", "the authenticity of imagination". Keats captures beauty, darkness, and imagination beyond what I ever thought was possible in his most personal letters.

Keats said of Shakespeare in a letter to his brother:
"at once it struck me, what quality went to form a man of Achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously- I mean negative capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason."

Newell on Shakespeare:
When reading Shakespeare "the experience is sometimes laughter, sometimes tears, sometimes shame. Always it is the experience of looking into a mystery that i am part of"

I think that we can all relate to a lot of what Newell says about Shakespeare in regards to deeper human connections. We are brought into Shakespeare's works through his language and ability to express the human condition.

Keats admired Shakespeare's works for this but also for his ability to contemplate a world without desire and reconciling certain aspects. Shakespeare echos human life- we do not constantly suffer, we overcome, but always we are left with the remembrance and this in itself is a lack of conciliation.

When I read this I become nauseated with the fear and the knowledge that many things in life are left unfinished, unreconciled, and left to the tragic. It pains me to visualize this worked of human suffering that we all create for ourselves. We have to remember the suffering, the experience, and the chambers through which we travel to get to who we are so we can open up that experience to others through words. I write always whether i want to or not, remembering is one of my biggest fears. A shadow looming around me. I change and it follows. But it has led me to discover, recover and experience.

Become nothing so that you can become something.

Shakespeare's love, lust, and seduction

I was looking at the library yesterday procrastinating from my Professional Writing portfolio (thankfully it is now turned in) and found myself wandering around the stacks looking at all of the fascinating books that in a lifetime I could never finish. I found one about gender in Shakespeare. It was interesting, but not as fabulous as I was hoping. I flipped through though and found some interesting passages about masculinity and femininity (see blog: Conquering the Masculine). The way that Shakespeare intertwines these elements of love versus lust in his works was beautiful and tragic. Venus and Adonis still sticks out in my mind- the goddess of love, being denied! And the innocent, chaste female chasing the dumb ass, arrogant, self absorbed male just to be embarrassed or rejected. Love is a many splendoured thing, but it is also tragic. Hence why we are attracted to it. Do we love that high and then the fall? Do they love the high of winning and continue on that high through conquering in destructive ways? It is interesting to see how the female characters learn and try to meet expectations that society places on them just to have it end in tragedy. Love, lust, and tragedy- a vicious triangle.

Conquering the Masculine

I don't really remember exactly how it came about but something was mentioned in class about "conquering the feminine" and since we explore all sides of things, I thought it would be a fun challenge to (in such short time) explore briefly how in fact we could also say that in Shakespeare's works "the conquering of the masculine" was also apparent.

One interesting thing I found in my research was that while rivers are masculine in their personifications in latin, Shakespeare conforms to the customs of the English Poets and therefore feminizing them. For example, in Julius Caesar, "her concave shores".

The power of females is truly admirable, humorous, and at times bittersweet in Shakespeare's works. We see Venus, the Goddess of Love. In Venus and Adonis, seduction is a large factor in her power and in the end it is in fact Adonis that dies after rejecting her love.

Cleopatra so has Antony whipped. Ferdinand is possessed by Miranda's beauty. In A Winter's Tale, we see Hermione's power through death

In Shakespeare's plays we also have the bed trick arranged by women. Come. On. Cunning, huh?

In All's Well that Ends Well, Helena is granted the option to choose her husband (in which case she then takes on this masculine sort of role). Because Helena takes on both a masculinity and femininity, she reflects the pressure on women to conform to these standards imposed on the feminine. Helena also reflects the ability of women to remain chaste but still carry with them the power of sexuality. Wearing many faces. Bertram, the weak male, caught between boy and man finds himself in this world of powerful women and absent men (his father). By being surrounded by women, Bertram fears his masculinity is in danger, but does he dare not have these powerful women surround him?

Troilus is yet another male character that portrays less masculinity in the beginning of the play through his desires for Cressida. He blames Cressida for his femininity (a bit grotesque but we all know how the play goes). Cressida is more of a maternal image to Troilus (oedipal desires).

The feminine identity is so complex that Shakespeare's women must explore through many guises to make it.

This blog was just a creative challenge for me, I do not consider myself a feminist or mull over whether one sex reigns over another, but I do find it interesting how Shakespeare possesses the power to make both men and women powerful images in his woks.

"Me, I do not look like myself, I am lonesome"

So often we are clouded by others' judgements, expectations and desires that we forget ourselves. We forget WHO we are, where we came from. I have come to a very complex understanding or at least realization that we transform into many things and that those things may only be part of us, not our whole. I have been contemplating this idea that we can wear many "hats" or faces to become many people. I have practiced this for months and sometimes I realize I fall in love with it- but it has transformed into more of a phrase: "fake it to make it". I notice this in Shakespeare's characters (Prospero) and myself. Guilty Or successful? Those hats- these faces, can be poisonous to us, but if anything we have the experience of being what we want, think we need to be, or really are. I think about this everyday. Who do I want to be? Who SHOULD I be? I had a conversation with someone recently and ironically enough, it was the person who really taught me that we need to wear many faces just to get by (though they probably don't know that). Sometimes it is just plain necessary. We may be wearing a different face, like Hermione, but the face we really have continues to stay with us, age, we are old and new all at once. I pulled some quotes from Shakespeare that portrayed this idea of confusion within ourselves about who we are and how we get to the place of understanding and becoming. I truly think that for any of us though, it takes us meeting our end to get back to our beginning, to us. I am leaving it to you to define "end".



Who are you?

"art ignorant of what thou art" (The Tempest I:2:18)

"Sometimes we are devils to ourselves" (Troilus and Cressida IV:4:94)

"I am not what I am" (Hamlet I:1:66)

"He who flatters you makes war upon your life" (Pericles I:2:45)

"More than I seem, and less than I was born to" (Henry IV pt.3 III:1:56)

"Who is it that can tell me who I am?" (King Lear)

"...no life
...no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more;
Never, never, never, never, never." (King Lear V:3:303-306)

"I am bound upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears do scald like molten lead" (King Lear IV:7:46-48)


Who am I? what deceives me into becoming something else? "If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me..." (King Lear IV:7:71-72).

These adjectives cluttering my mind just won't do...

The final day of presentations. I have to start with saying, I thought I knew what I was in for. I had lunch with Jenny and knew she would be singing, and of course it was going to be an amazing presentation (that goes without saying) but I didn't realize what chord it would strike. Again, I will do a brief overview of the presentations and what I took from it, but it will not reflect the actual experience well enough.

Brian: Worte a song, but have to check his blog for the video he was going to upload.

Rachel: Primary and secondary imagination (Coleridge); Prospero as Shakespeare himself; The play within the play; Shakespeare as myth maker

Lauren Scull: Has images on her blog; Andromeda and Perseus; The Tempest; Parents and originals

Shelby: Aesthetic Dignity; Eternal; Negative Capability; Beauty and the Sublime (greater, more complex, limitless compared to beauty); KEATS!; Reunion and recognition; Bloom on Cymbeline; Caliban's speech (III:II); Shakespeare's plays extend into the sublime

Spencer: Final scene and final act of Cymbeline; "Hats"; Not only mything the point, but missing the point; End of the play, the characters realize who they are.

Joe- "Nothing" in Shakespeare; pronunciation of nothing; power of imagination; "To be or not to be"

Lauren: Othello; Iago- the ultimate Tarquin (evil villain); Self- destruction; Richard White- Iago as a character we love to hate

Jenny: "If I die Young"; image of the pearl; Absolutely amazing, I really had to pull myself together to make it through this presentation.

Riley: Iago- burns down the town with his words; Bloom on Othello; Muse of fire (Henry V); Zeus: Pandora (women plague the men)


Shakespeare: remembrance, tragedy, loss, redemption, bitterness, and love.

Heartbreaking and Memorable

There are no words to describe how extraordinary the individual presentations were. As Dr. Sexson said in class, I described them as "heartbreaking and memorable" during a conversation with him. I missed day 1 of the presentations since I was in Minnesota for a much needed break from here, but heard they were spectacular, I missed out. Day 2 of presentations was the day that I would say was especially memorable for many reasons. James, the most courageous and raw of the presentations was inspiring and saddening. I am at a loss as to how to describe his presentation, it was a moment you had to be there for, it can't be captured through my blog. I realize I don't even have notes on his presentation because I was too wrapped up in his presenting. As for the other presenters who also did a wonderful job, here is a brief overview from my notes:

Alex: Manipulating events: alls wells that ends well; fortune/ nature/ gods

Jon: Hamlet & Remembrance; prodigal son. Hamlet: Who am I? Immortality through art

Melissa: Nature; levels of the christian world; "Hell"- Lear's madness; love made of purer substance; Shakespeare captures the emotional tragedy AND the physical

Craig: How do we escape our roles? It is so easy to be somebody else. Human Identity.

Karinne: Higher truth/ transformation/ disguises: What you learn about yourself through deception

Nathan: We should be conscious of what role we play in history and analyzing/ questioning history; Redemption? Kott's faith of humanity is shaken; New historicism; Prospero is tinged with bitterness. Leonardo DaVinci- history repeating itself and a struggle for power. Everything can change and nothing can change; Bitterness; Soliloquy- act V- prospero has to give up existence. What part of the past are you anchored in?


I thoroughly enjoyed all of these presentations! I am in awe of how unique each person is in their topics that they choose. It reflects who they are as people, what interests them and as a class we are so lucky to have the chance to listen to such intelligent and passionate speakers!

The Vale of Soul Making in Keats and Shakespeare

The Vale of Soul-making in Keats and Shakespeare

“I am not what I am”
(Othello I:I:66)

I wake from my dreams in a sweat, tears streaming down my cheeks. It all seems so real, built off remembrances of yesterdays. Dreams of people I loved, they reach deeper, to a world that I have not yet been to. I want to believe that Keats’ negative capability can exist, but I doubt myself so often and wait. It has taken me years to realize that while I adore and perhaps obsess over Keats’s words; I will never fully understand them.

Keats and Shakespeare, two of literary history’s greatest figures, use words and images throughout their works that allow us to connect to remembrance and kenosis on a deeper level. Words thread the soul together creating a bond between the reader and the work that is unique to each individual. Shakespeare does this through his sonnets, plays, and most memorable to me, his poetry. Keats’s remembrance is most evident in his poems and letters, specifically to Fanny Brawne. These connections that are formed create a bridge from the real to the mythological. Venturing through these worlds, the real (the social world) to the mythological (a world of insight and ecstasy), helps us to better understand Keats’s idea of negative capability and how important the act of remembrance is. Shakespeare’s characters specifically, reflect an understanding of human nature and the psyche that somehow impacts each and every one of us.

From the moment that Keats receives a collection of Shakespeare’s works, he is struck by Shakespeare’s ability to portray human suffering, love, deceit, and history within his writings yet is able to leave things as they are. Keats once wrote that Shakespeare was “capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason”. Keats looked to Shakespeare and was inspired by his writings enough to conform to the idea of negative capability himself as well. Negative capability means that we are able to examine the world without desire or reconciliation of certain things.

Being given the power to explore within our imagination, we are allowed to set ourselves aside in order to understand others and the worlds we are a part of. I emphasize “worlds” because we move so often from the mythological to the real, sometimes so much that we are unable to distinguish them. I strongly believe that this is why Shakespeare is such a powerful writer because his characters help us to make this connection. Connecting on a deeper level, through what is most original in us, the soul reflects who we truly are while also making us aware of who we have become or think we have become. If anything is true it is that in fact “sometimes we are all devils to ourselves” when we fail to remember who we are.

I used to look at the “vales” in Keats’ “The Vale of Soul Making” as a representation of an unveiling of sorts. It was as if they were the next stone in the pond as we leap across. But now, as I have been studying Shakespeare and his characters within his plays and poems, I realize that those vales could actually serve as distortions. They cloud the soul, and it seems that they represent the deceptions, lies, and untrue things in life. We are able to hide behind or within these vales, deep in the soul where we are kept from who we really are. Shakespeare mentions the idea of “powerful graces” and shows how they are so easily able to be twisted (Richard III). When we allow power, love and hate, or desires to enter into our soul they can distort the real. Phillip Newell in Shakespeare and the Human Mystery emphasizes, “the journey towards wholeness involves a confronting of the shadow and a turning from the false self” (Newell 3). It also involves clearing out cobwebs and finally finding the strength and courage to accept what is really there.

What we so often fail to realize is that we are all very much the same. We all share a beginning that originated from something much deeper than we can understand. Perhaps our beginning is incomprehensible until we have reached our end. Looking at Shakespeare’s characters, we can move closer to this understanding by finding something in them that is also within ourselves. I believe that while we connect with Shakespeare’s characters, we have to be careful to not allow them to create us, but rather awaken within us what we have forgotten. Reading Shakespeare’s works, it is impossible not to notice how they rise and fall simply to rise again, or sometimes they just fall. They always reflect the process of going through tragedy and being reduced to nothing though with such beauty. The process of unveiling becomes a process of recovery and discovery for both Shakespeare’s characters and us.

What do we remember most as we enter this process? It seems we always remember what we wish we could forget. The pain of betrayal, and that, which inspires, hurts and makes us. The act of remembrance is sometimes clouded though by what we think we remember, which in fact is not at all what we remember. In regards to Shakespeare, King Lear and Miranda present themselves most clearly in my mind. King Lear looks to Cordelia to remember who he was and realizes that he does not even know himself. Lear becomes almost desperate in his attempt to remember asking, “who is it that can tell me who I am?” (I:IV). I think we can all think of a time when we have asked ourselves this. We forget so easily who we are because we are caught up in the social world where chaos and vocation take over us. King Lear does not realize that he has no idea who he really is though until he loses everything, which is then when he is able to see everything.

Miranda traces back through the mythological in order to reach her beginning. She is so childlike and innocent in the way that her beginning is told to her, recounted through storytelling. For many of us, this is how we come to understand where we came from. In the social world, the idea of beginnings seems to be irrelevant to us, but as we venture through the mythological we begin to understand more. Mythology brings us to the core of remembrance and origin into that "dark and backward abysm of time" (The Tempest I:II).

I have become lost in Shakespeare’s works in a way that only I could understand and even I do not fully understand. I am attracted to his tragedies, as are all of us as humans. Connecting through the loss of love that lives solely through my remembrances. I am constantly held down by who I want to be and who I am. Remembrances sometimes carry a weight with them, but it is impossible to rid ourselves of them. I am realizing as I am writing this paper that we should remember and be honored that we do. If we can remember, then we can know that we have lived, loved, and maybe lost but most importantly we experienced. We live. Immortality is achieved through our words and remembrances. They thread not only our soul, but our world.

The worst has not yet come. I am not laughing. I am not crying. So the worst is not upon me. I know this because I still remember, love and breathe new life each day. Even death will not make me forget, but I fear that forgetting may be my death. My final vale.

I'm "happy". "Really happy"...

Putting together my paper, I was looking at an interview with James Hillman- an interesting man to say the least. At the end of the interview, I took a second to stop thinking so deeply and just smile. I hate how much this poem related to my day- perhaps I ran into it for a reason. A poem by a Japanese Monk, Ikkyu-

"You do this, you do that
You argue left, you argue right
you come down, you go up
This person says no, you say yes
Back and forth
you are happy
you are really happy"

Hillman:
"What he is saying: stop all that nonsense. You're really happy. Just stop for a minute and you'll realize you're happy just being. I think it's the pursuit that screws up happiness. If we drop the pursuit, it's right here."

Thanks a lot Will Smith for perceiving happiness as a pursuit.

Cheers to...Nothing.

my mind- my own tempest

The only magic there? A cape of snow covering the road and hiding the mountains. I tried to slow but it wasn't fast enough...my mind wandered too far from me. my thoughts were lost in an earlier conversation which, like the snow, never should have occurred. Tears blurred that curve ahead and curses shot through me. Sliding into a darker abyss, that guard rail stopped more than just my thoughts, calming the tempest in my head and making me aware of the storm that truly existed. The only thing between us, cracked glass.

What more could you ask for in a moment of regret, fear, and desire for redemption than the words of Shakespeare.

Red Wine, Mistakes, Mythology

The muses are simply one way in which Mythology ties in with The Tempest, easily overlooked, but very important. Through storytelling, dreams, history, belief, and magic- mythology circles around becoming so real and creating imagination within the characters and the readers. The Tempest reminds me of so many fairytales, all intertwined. Elements of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and The Wizard of Oz, are all apparent. The potions, dreamlike states, and remembrances that take place in these fairytales and The Tempest create illusions that confuse what really happened or why. Miranda becomes exhausted by the telling of Prospero’s story that she falls asleep. This reminded me of a dream I once had a few months back (still seems like yesterday). I dreamt, woke up and was shaken by this horrible event that occurred in my mind, only to find out a few hours later that in fact it was my own reality. I had simply dreamt of the future. I always laugh at palm readers, magic 8 balls, and horoscopes. But this time, there was no laughing, instead there were tears and I cried like never before. I was in disbelief, overcome by something so powerful, something I hope to never feel again. Just as Prospero’s story exhausted Miranda, my dreams exhaust me. I am awake, but I long to sleep again because the dreams I am caught in are more exhausting than reality itself.

All we ever want is to be “free”. I put that in quotations because what is freedom really, and what is it that any of us want to be free from? Everything and nothing. Freedom is liberating, but frightening. Prospero tells Ariel that soon he will be free as a bird, if he obeys his orders. The exchange of these words brought to mind a quote I read saying that even birds are not free, for they are chained to the sky. So what is freedom? When we are living our realities, we are not free. We dare to dream, but even there, we are not free.

The red wine aids in my poor decision making, and I wish it was in fact it was mythology that I was recalling rather than my reality.

But how is it that this lives in thy mind

Two themes that stick in my mind when reading the tempest are unveiling and remembrance. The unveiling centers around Prospero and his cape….but this is not just any cape, t’is a magical cape! Remembrance encompasses each and every one of the characters (Miranda sticks out for me though).

In these next lines, Prospero is recalling the past, Miranda’s history, to help her remember but also to see how much of it she still remembers.
MIRANDA
“You have often
Begun to tell me what I am, but stopped
And left me to a bootless inquisition,
Concluding, ‘Stay. Not yet.’”
PROSPERO
“The hour’s now come.
The very minute bids thee ope thine ear.
Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?
I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not
Out three years old.”
MIRANDA
“Certainly, sir, I can.”
PROSPERO
“By what? By any other house or person?
Of anything the image tell me that
Hath kept with thy remembrance.”

As Miranda recalls her takers, the muses, and a few other things, Prospero replies:
“But how is it
That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou rememberest aught ere thou camest here,
How thou camest here thou mayst.”

The power of remembrance is so strong but it is interesting how we think that things happened though they really may not have. Remembrance and imagination can be tied together so tightly, also becoming dangerous for a person. The passage that I quoted above from The Tempest sent shivers through me. My memory is so great and so horrible. I can never remember what I should, but always remember what I wish I could rid from my mind. “In the dark backward and abysm of time”, I find myself constantly looking at the past, recalling memories stored in the darkness. It is as if they lurk behind this veil that one could label with many words: sorrow, love, pain, and misery. I long to unveil them and hopefully be free of them, but there is always another “vale” for them to hide behind. They transform rapidly. Remembrance. The past. I carry it with me, allowing it to weigh me down.

What Dreams May Come

This next blog is written with a compilation of notes that sit in front of me. My note cards are like a jigsaw puzzle, I can’t quite get them to all fit together though so I might just have to post many blogs in order to “organize” my thoughts.


I will start with the line:
“Good wombs have borne bad sons”
Initially I laughed when I read this line, but it was only because I didn’t want to cry.
I then came upon lines from Miranda:
“But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in ’t which good natures
Could not abide to be with.”

And that is when I allowed myself to shed a few tears. I know, but can’t verbalize why these lines spoke to me, probably because I could associate them with people that I love so dearly. Miranda was so good to Caliban, teaching him, but he let his evil ways get in the way of it. No matter how hard she tried to overlook or help him, he continued to treat her poorly. How could anyone read over this passage without some sort of feeling whether it be remorse, sadness, or disbelief at the least.

When Caliban is first introduced to the play, I felt a sort of sympathy for him. I have a soft spot in my heart for horrible people I think because so much of me feels hope that people change or are they way they are because of some horrible experience. I want to help the “bad” so that they can feel love and see the “good” in the world. Caliban was one of those men for me, but that died quickly. He in fact reminded me of a movie that I have called “What Dreams May Come”. The scenes that take place in hell are absolutely terrifying in this film! Even in the beginning of the play, when the ship is ablaze, I picture “hell” as this movie portrayed it. I can’t read the tempest without these horrifying images drifting in and out of my mind, the actors replaced by Shakespeare’s characters. The images in this movie take your breath away, there is so much imagination and many illusions in this play that take place through both dreams and reality. The trouble comes in deciphering which is which. I posted 2 clips from the film, one representing hell- a place of fury, fire, darkness and chills, while the other is representing heaven- a place of beauty, imagination...PAINT! I had a hard time tracking down great clips though, and most had songs accompany them, so try to just take in the imagery!

Music as therapy and Re-birth

I posted a video in one of my last blogs that featured Sigur Ros. Listening to that song got me thinking about music and therapy. I know that Jon Orsi also touched on music and the effects that it has on a person and it reminded me of a conversation that I had last week with my therapist. Whether it is the music itself or the lyrics, music can have such a profound effect on people.

Ferdinand reflects this most beautifully when he hears Ariel’s song:
ARIEL
“Come unto these yellow sands,
And then take hands.
Curtsied when you have, and kissed
The wild waves whist.
Foot it featly here and there,
And, sweet sprites, bear
The burden. Hark, hark!”

FERDINAND: “I heard the music creep over the wild waves, calming their fury and soothing my own grief with its sweet melodies. I followed it here, or I should say it dragged me here. But now it’s stopped. No, there it is again.”

Music can be therapeutic but it can also be thought of as a remembrance. Music can bring a person to an entirely different place in their mind, creating images that were once behind those dusty, wrinkled veils. A name, a word, a tune- a remembrance.
I know that Jon was talking about a “re-birth” in his blog, which I thought was an interesting point, especially in music. I have always been a lover of music, but now I am constantly listening to sad songs that don’t allow me to grow, but to be stuck in the past. Music is a strong remembrance, memories I want so badly to let go of, but so badly want to hang onto. “Re-birth” is so cyclical. We are constantly being re-born by the things we hear, say, do, or see. Maybe I am the only one, but I have reached a point where I really thought that I had come full circle, a point where my own “re-birth” had taken place, but I find as time passes that the re-birth passed much too quickly and here I was again searching, waiting to be re-born. It also reminds me of the introduction to a CD by Alicia Keys, the element of freedom:

“And the day came when the strength it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the strength it took to bloom”.

This for me depicts “re-birth” through beautiful imagery. Even those flowers have to die, to make way for new life…and so the process continues. Cheers to continuous re-birth.

Love or Magic?

I can’t help but wonder if the love felt in Act II between Miranda and Ferdinand is real. Prospero wants them to realize the value of their love, but is it love or was it just that Miranda so “magically” appeared when Ferdinand was in need of companionship and love? Ferdinand seems to throw his words around so freely on this subject. I can’t quite grasp how much magic on Prospero’s part is involved.

PROSPERO
“Soft, sir! One word more.
(aside)
They are both in either’s powers, but this swift business
I must uneasy make lest too light winning
Make the prize light.
(to FERDINAND)
One word more. I charge thee
That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp
The name thou owest not, and hast put thyself
Upon this island as a spy to win it
From me, the lord on ’t.”

Beauty and fear

Once again, I have started reading The Tempest, a play that seems to be assigned each and every semester to me. I can honestly say though, that until tonight The Tempest never spoke to me in the way that it does now. I never appreciated this piece of work to this extent.

The first thing that got me was the representation of the sea- this vast unknown place. It got me thinking about not only the amazingly dark, yet beautiful imagery in The Tempest, but the music that surrounds the island. I found a song, used in the movie of The Tempest, Sigur Ros "Sæglópur" (meaning: lost at sea) the song is sung in Icelandic (and also mixed with "hopelandic"- talk about imagination), from what I have gathered through translations, it is about a seafarer, lost and returning home.



Similar to Shakespeare, this music video leaves the viewer hanging on, wondering if the child was actually saved- it reflects the imagination and desire for resolution.

The sea and the storm in The Tempest depicts fear and chaos in a more imaginative way than anything else I have come across.
GONZALO:
"Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground: long heath, brown furze, anything. The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death."

The sea is an enormous creature with more life in it than we could ever fathom. The enormity of its waves and its ability to completely engulf us in one sweep overwhelms my mind. Miranda provides for me (at least within the first 2 acts) the most beautiful, frightening image of the sea when she says:

"If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to th' welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out. Oh, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer. A brave vessel
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her
Dashed all to pieces. Oh, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her."

Souls, lives, evils, dreams- all captured in this one body of water. I find the sea to be extremely terrifying, yet stunning all at once. It draws me to its waters, though I am hesitant. I remember this feeling when I was whale watching (I will not capture this well enough through words), the day was cloudy, the temperature within the 60's. As we went further out to sea, the wind picked up, the sky grew darker- I was so excited to be on this boat, viewing the most spectacular life that we could ever catch a glimpse of. These enormous creatures, in those vast, dark waters, deeper than I could ever imagine. Leaning over the boat and trying not to blink so as not to miss one moment, a humpback whale approached the boat within feet (I was amazed and had never even see a humpback whale up close!!!!!). Here I was looking so hard to spot a whale and he was there right in front of me. Anyways, the whale was so close, the boat so small- I thought to myself, "dear god, this whale, or these waves could swallow me up in a second". I was ok with dying in that moment if that is what it came to be. My fear became excitement and anxiety all in one. I always have said to myself that if I die, it will be doing something I love- I would have died enchanted, loving, breathless.

When I spent a month in Carmel, CA, the ocean became an escape for me. I wandered down to the beach so often to think, journal, and just be. The sound of the waves crashing were soothing. The sea doesn't speak, it just sings. A constant rhythm- back and forth. I wrote in the sand, one single word knowing that within mere seconds, it would be erased, washed into the sea- no longer with me but somewhere deeper, hidden. This became a habit for me, a therapy of sorts. There was always anxiety though watching those waves wash away a part of me, those grains of sand that my fingers ran through, creating something larger, never to be touched or seen by me again.

The personification of nature (specifically the sea and sky) never ceases to amaze me in The Tempest. There are elements of fear and pity reflected through the sea and sky and this next excerpt created an image that I wish I could draw out. It is so clear in my head and I am going to try to illustrate it this week!! The sea screams, but the sky sighs. BRILLIANT! I don't know if anyone could do imagery of the sky and sea as well as Shakespeare does in this play! I am speechless.
"There they hoist us
To cry to th' sea that roared to us, to sigh
To th' winds whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong."

The next lines that I really, so badly want to capture through my own, very personal illustrations are these:
"Salt of the sea and salt of tears.
When I have decked the sea with drops full salt,
Under my burthen groaned;"
We have the sea, a single tear drop. This quote speaks to me on a much deeper level than I realized until I started blogging. I want more time to really think and write about this though. I am feeling fatigued, overwhelmed with emotion and weighted down by more than I can handle at the moment. I have more to say about tears, the sea- and those two things becoming one.

The Statue

I was reading Jenny's post about the statue and the question as to whether the statue was real or not. It got me thinking about the fact that "we see what we want to see"...usually- or sometimes we see exactly what we DON'T want to see. Either way, the mind and the imagination are so complex that what we think we are seeing as real are really just figments of our imagination. Jenny also asked why Shakespeare would create such a statue with wrinkles, etc. with age comes beauty and wisdom (or so I like to believe) For me the statue represented not a perfect image but an image of flaws and imperfections (mirroring Leontes' own qualities.

I can't help but think though that Hermione and Paulina were staging some sort of clever plan to get Leontes to want Hermione. It reminds me of a really depressing country song my sister told me to listen to ("If I die young")...part of the song goes:

"A penny for my thoughts, oh no I’ll sell them for a dollar,
They're worth so much more after I’m a goner
And maybe then you’ll hear the words I've been singin’
Funny when you're dead how people start listenin’"

It's just like real life! Leontes doesn't realize her worth until she is gone (or so he thinks) and then when he sees that she is resurrected he wants her back. Does love have no worth until it is lost? That is what it seems to be, tragedy or comedy. Love has to become nothing before it really becomes something.

Tying back to my previous post, I am thinking about how much a statue stands for remembrance. We have a statue to remember a person by, yet we also have this disconnectedness through the aging process- she is both known and unknown. This helped me to create my own vision of the statue and allowing room for imagination to flow. Is it real or not? Why is she imperfect? Let's see how far our imaginations can go...

Another part I loved, that could have blown right past me:
"she thrice bowed before me,
And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes
Became two spouts"

There is such a fine line between dreams and reality. Dreams foster imagination, they show us what is both real and not, creating these false emotions in what I like to call "the other life". To me, my dreams are my other life. I am there in them, I especially felt this in the summer when I dreamt of something absolutely horrible, something I had never experienced and wish I hadn't. Just 2 hours after I woke, this horrible "dream" was a reality. To feel such emotion and disturbance through dreams is something I will never truly be able to explain.

So, I continue to ask, what in Shakespeare is real and what is not?! I can never quite tell. Thankfully, shakespeare is a supporter of dreaming and imagination so I will continue to wonder and create while reading his works.

Remembrance and distance

"You have issues, don't you Lisa?" I don't think that anyone has really ever come right out and said that to me. So, thanks Dr. Sexson for at least giving me a good laugh. My "issues" brought me to the act of remembrance because I think that is really all they are. Remembrance has become my issue. In discussing remembrance in "A Winter's Tale", Dr. Sexson points out that Shakespeare distances us from the recognitions so that we do not see them. I have been pondering why Shakespeare would distance us from this remembrance when usually it is directly in front of us. I would like to think that Shakespeare is doing this to not avoid the remembrance but show us that though it may go unseen or unsaid, it is still unavoidable. No matter how much we attempt to avoid remembrances, we really can't.

Another thing that caught my attention during class was this mention of art and "piedness". While this is an extremely distant connection, it sparked some interest in me- "pied" in french, means foot. Then I started thinking about art, feet, french- nada. The connection was brief. As I wandered lost in thought later that night though, I began thinking about art and feet...the DANCE. So many of Shakespeare's plays contain the act of dancing (well, the ones that I have read) and this circled me around to T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets:

"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where."

The dance is remembrance itself. That is what my mind was connecting. Dance. Remembrance. Distance. Time past and time present.

The Vale of Soul Making in Keats and Shakespeare

I have been throwing around a lot of ideas for my term paper which is of course involves John Keats. Because Shakespeare is about showing and not telling as we have discussed much in class, I thought that Keats would be a great tie in. Much of my focus though will be on remembrance and negative capability. Remembrance is greatly driven by images in Shakespeare, for example through stars and flowers (especially the cowslip). Tracing back through the real (the social world) into the mythological (where we have ecstasy, insight...rhapsodic). I am considering looking at negative capability mostly in response to Shakespeare's sonnets and letters, in which words are used to thread the soul together. This circles back around to remembrance as well, of course! I have a lot more to say about Keats and Shakespeare but at least wanted to post my "small" ideas thus far! I am excited to once again focus on Keats' amazingly intricate ideas and tie them into Shakespeare. Two men with amazing talent and a way with words like none other, with this I begin (or am i ending?)

Sonnet

I decided that my spring cleaning must also consist of "cleaning" my to do list....a long, long list of assignments. Blogging- I need to get going...so here is my sonnet that should have been written long ago. My creative writing class inspired me. I know the rhyme scheme is correct in regards to a traditional sonnet, it's almost an ode to a traditional sonnet, But the rhythm is a bit off. It was easier for me to write a sonnet than i thought, it really takes a different sort of focus to write a sonnet- it's amazing! I was skeptical when Dr. Sexton said writing sonnets when you can't sleep is soothing, but its true, it helps for the time being, it inspires. For me an ode to the past. I am inspired not only by Shakespeare and his sonnets, but by T.S. Eliot (of course) and the four quartets. This is obvious though, i didn't even need to mention it,


Tear drops fall like rain
Letting go, I take a deep breath
This is the paper where words reflect pain
No longer "us", memories treated like death
Do I cry and run or dance and sing?
No- I'll turn and sigh a breath of relief
Like a bird in the sky, my freedom rings
What we had was love though it was but brief
I could feel it burning like a fire
Your love, my wings. I could fly.
Singing loudly, our love ringing out, it was it's own choir
Why then? Why now? All it comes to is goodbye.
You were the fire. I was the rose.
Or so I guess, that's how the story goes.

It's all out of love...

Growing up with an older brother and 4 older sisters there was a lot of flyting going on in the household. Survival of the fittest. I had to laugh when Dr. Sexson asked who the favorite in the family was...I don't think my parents had a favorite, honestly we all drove them nuts! I have to give my sister brianna (the middle child) the most credit for her witty flyting. I think she gets worse as she gets older. When i was little though, if my sisters were teasing me I would respond with a question, "are you deaf or dumb?" they were usually so dumbfounded that they left me alone, Brianna would try to ponder the question seriously....that's how I came to the conclusion she was simply dumb. She can come up with some very creative insults...colorful to say the least though extraordinarily vulgar and inappropriate.



Sadly, my four year old nephew also is into flyting now. Poor addy, his sister, just 4 months old and he will insult her constantly telling her:
"no one wants to talk to you stupid baby" and "addy, keep your noises to your own self"...she never responds obviously but he sure is pro at flyting even with me!

I hate to say that as we grow older, the flyting only gets more cruel, but absolutely humorous. We get "catty" and we get even, but we also get over it. It's all out of love.

What do any of us really need?

When Dr. Sexson asked us to answer the question, "What do you really need?" I immediately whispered "nothing" to myself. But now that I sit here with my coffee (which I am delighted to say the barista has named "alice in wonderland" for me) I wonder..What do I need FOR WHAT? To live? to die? To breathe? to be delighted? Well....that one's answered, a special mocha with a fabulous name!

But really, this question could not have come at a better time for me. I journal every day, multiple times a day, convey thoughts and emotion through letters, create pieces of art every week expressing something. I think I "need" all of these things to stay whole, "get it out" and live more fully. But do I? Do I need counseling at $45 a session?! Goodness, I am rethinking everything here and I want to scream in answering this question. This is normally something I would reflect on in my personal blog but I suppose I will make an attempt to answer or explain and connect it to Shakespeare...?

I would usually come up with some artificial answer that satisfies my lifestyle. But right now I am going to go for the raw answer that no one wants to face. Call me a cynic if you will but here it is:

Do we need Love? No.
Friends? No.
Family? The die off.
Fun? Optional.


What do I need? Really need?
A little water, maybe some food every now and again. That's what I would need to just stay alive.

I am getting more frustrated by the minute thinking about this question. I can't really explain why but all I have to say is- I don't need anything. Nothing. No one.

Maybe I will carry on as I ponder this but really...

By having nothing I have everything right?

Frye-myth of deliverance

A brief overview of northrop Frye's myth of deliverance

I made it through a majority of Frye's myth of deliverance before i decided that it would probably take me another month to honestly sit down and focus on it (just being realistic). Northrop frye begins with the assumption of meaning and helps us to realize what the play really means, defining different types of comedies, etc. frye gives fairly general descriptions first of "problem plays" (realistic plays more concerned with serious social problems). These plays also illustrate the myth of deliverance that "it's all going to be ok, after all" as do typical comedies in which energies are released by forgiveness and reconciliation.

He also seems enthused with shakespeare's magical device, the bed trick (confusion of lovers in the dark...discussed a lot in class). Many pf Shakespeare's plays are retellings of folk tales, frye notes, taking on complex plots such as aristotles poetics, and the reversal and recognition (peripeteia and anagnorisis/discovery).

I took a lot of notes when reading this, but not having the boo in front of me (since i had to return it) makes it difficult for me to remember why i noted certain things. I am at a loss for words in a way, as i always am with frye, but will do my best to relay the rest.

Frye talks about the two poles of the arts and sciences: the social pole of origin and the opposite pole. Within the social pole the artist does things because society thinks it is important for them to do it. Tis reminds me of Shakespeare's problem plays because we are dealing with real life situations that are either mythologized or exaggerated to add to the comedy. For example, AMSND the lovers are loving and leaving. Granted the play becomes a fairy world and comedic, but yes, this does happen in real life. You love, you leave, and somehow everything connects. Th opposite pole was more difficult for me to come up with an example for, or honestly to understand. It desks with the inner laws of structure and making technical discoveries within it. I will have to look into this more.

Comedy has structure and like literature is a reflection or a mirror of social and historical concerns from which they arise. It does not necessarily reflect time, but the event or idea itself. With the mirror image comes illusions (Henry iv) in which only a "slice of real" is shown through illusions "inspired by fortune and victory".

I was disappointed that the idea of "the green world" was not explained further in this piece. There was a separation of the objective world and the subjective though. Ordinary experience and what we think is "the real" is associated with the objective, whereas illusion, love, hatred, emotions and dream correspond with the subjective. These two are connected through our "distortion" through emotion in which our perspective of "the real" changes. In Shakespeare, the real world contains the conventional ideas of reality, courts, order and justice while his fairytale world reflects magic, enchantment, unreasonable law and comic resolution.

Lastly, i loved that frye chose cressida's words to reflect the Way problem comedies work, it shows how human beings get into a mess requiring green world to intervene in order for resolution to be possible. Troillus and Cressida is also about the wooing of women largely apparent...

Cressida says-
"men concentrate on women only as long as they are out of reach; once the women are possessed, the men revert to their former interests." and it is a viscous cycle, i believe. Bitterness, hatred, love, the cyclical nature of relationships. It's all right their and it doesn't really take much to see it.

Rejection. Tragedy. The dream.

I was reading some blogs this morning and a few made me think about simple, every day life things. First, Anne takes a very interesting view on Venus and Adonis and she was so bothered by this play. I loved the play so to listen to her reasonings why was interesting and kind of fun to look at from her point of view. She talks about the denial of love in her blog and then centers her sonnet around this idea. But Anne, I question why you use the word denial when it actually seems more of a rejection of love in Venus and Adonis. Similar, yes...but denial is just the act of not admitting love whereas rejection is literally throwing that love away (a total slap in the face). Do you get what I am saying? I am not saying that denial was not present perhaps I just looked at it differently but just something to think about.

Lisette talks about her hatred for the ending as "it was all a dream". I agree, this can be extraordinarily frustrating but i think so often i have a hard time deciphering my own dream and reality that I have simply come to "not care" if i can say that. It makes me think that so much of our lives is dreamlike and the dream is so much more like reality than we realize. Whether dreaming or not, we constantly are left wanting more, wanting answers, or simply wanting an END, even in real life situations.

Like the dream, the play within the play can become so frustrating. As I was getting ready this morning, I was thinking about this concept some more. In my presentation i briefly touched on how the comedy of the play within the play overtakes the tragedy in the play, making it comedic. I find myself doing this a lot. In my own little life I so often attempt to make comedy of the tragedy, cover it with something to make it hurt a little less. It is so much easier to say "dance" than to accept and acknowledge that rejection and tragedy. I am not saying that Shakespeare writes this way to get us to think about things like this (it just happens) because we all know he wrote to entertain. That is what i am loving about this class. We get the entertainment but minds can also take these play, poems, and sonnets somewhere else completely.

Remembrance...

Misunderstandings

The group presentations went rather well i thought considering that none of us really knew where to start with that question, or so it seemed. I presented on a few ideas revolving around dream/illusion and why i thought act 5 truly expressed the comedic aspects of the play, reflecting that while there was tragedy, it was after all a comedy for entertainment.

One thing i can't stop saying to myself but did not even bother mentioning in my presentation was the play within the play....to me it represents the play (as a dream) within a play (as the reality). Even explaining this idea to my group they looked at me a bit quizzically because i can't seem to explain this the way i want, even now. Our whole life is a play within a play- going back to the concept if all the world's a stage.

For me act 5 reflected the comedy through this idea, but it also opened way to even more confusion creating a more "dreamlike" state for audience or reader. As if we are thinking as we so often do upon waking, "did this really happen?"

i have also been reading Frye's "Myth of Deliverance" which i am so selfishly keeping for quite awhile from the library! Frye says that comedy is a mix of festive and ironic. That is exactly what we have in act5. It is accurately shown in the last part of the play within the play through the desire for dance rather than epilogue. Since i am not horribly deep into this book yet because of my own distractions, the last thing i will mention is the dream vs. Reality. It is really about the dream and the illusion, the imagination that comes with both rather than the reality. I then ask myself why focus on the dream though? Which one is more important? What really happened or what could have or what we think/ want to happen? The latter. Both can be harsh to face so why not add some myth and illusion to our thoughts.

Shakespeare's sonnets

Last night while i was working i was able to read the shakespeare sonnets that we were assigned. Surprisingly, i was able to focus on the sonnets and really understand what Shakespeare was getting at with each one, or i think i did. Though i enjoyed venus and Adonis, the sonnets were thus far my favorite to read. I loved the imagery within them and the many ways that he describes the passage of time and lovers. Wile the imagery of nature among the romantic poets is widely used, i can't help but be drawn to it. With Keats and Shakespeare especially, the naturalistic images are so descriptive and real. Yu can. Actually see "thy eternal summer sun" (sonnet 18), men as plants (sonnet 15), and death creeping up (sonnet 73).

The memory has never ceased to fascinate me and i have had many conversations about this with various people. What makes us remember some things so clearly while other things can drift away more quickly than they happened? Don't give me the simple answer of "well, some things just stick or must have been that important". No, it has to be something more, something we just haven't figured out yet. His sonnets are a reflection of life, things past and lost, the sorrows of what had been. These sonnets remind me so much of 2 of my favorite poets, Keats and Eliot. Most of the time i am simply speechless i can't even seem to get out a coherent blog. It's like my breath is stopped momentarily and all my thoughts run together....so much to say yet i am silent. Perhaps, they are that powerful and whatever it is making me think of is possibly better kept to myself. Sonnets 55 and 129 are what i had in mind as i was trying to get this out.

Sonnet 130 makes me laugh every time. It reminds me of that saying "a face only a mother could love" How horrible! But then again he does describe it as a rare love. As i neared the end of the sonnets, I had to pause. Sonnet 129 confused me a little. He talks of this murderous lust, like a sort of rage. I wondered if this is more like venus and Adonis or if it is talking about fighting for a lover, was there a love affair going on that created these feelings? The reason i thought of lovers cheating was because of the lines "on purpose laid to make the taker mad". I could be completely off track....but i think either way i like my interpretation until things are made clear.

Lastly, i want to put a word in about sonnet 60. I had responded to some blogs, one of them speaking about time as lunar not linear, and this sonnet reflected that. There is the image of the sea and its constant rolling action. The sea has always been a powerful image for me; it creates an interesting uneasiness and meditation for me. Of course the moon and stars Coincide wonderfully with each other, feeding off one another like animals.

Turner's School of Night

I keep looking over Turner's school of night but don't really know what to think. While i am fascinated by it all, I can't help but get sidetracked from all the science, etc intertwined. I must get used to it though since it is "the school of night".

I was one sentence through Turner's blog when I immediately thought of Beckett. I have read Beckett's plays , but recently began reading his three stories. "They come, they go" (Florio's translation), is definitely a central theme of Beckett's in his writings. The simple, yet important idea of coming and going plays a role in not only Beckett, but Shakespeare. It connects to the central theme of love and destruction in Shakespeare's works. I am constantly pondering over this idea of love and its complexities. It never ceases to amaze me. Everything in life seems to come and go: people, love, stories- all of these revolving around one another. Wow- no pun on Turner's name here.

Aside from that, Turner touches on so many topics as we have discussed in class that it becomes difficult to follow. There was no way that I could possibly read his blog in one sitting. Having read the book "The Plague" in high school I
was very interested to see how he spoke about that. Torments, rage, despair- this accurately describes not only the plague but Shakespeare's poems and plays. How can love and hate, loneliness and boredom, torment and joy go hand in hand?

The mind and the soul fascinate me. When Turner touched on these subjects I was anxious to see how he was going to incorporate them into the School of Night blog. "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n." The mind is a very powerful thing and something we often do not give enough attention to. The way that the mind can create a place in itself, and abstract other places or thoughts is absolutely terrifying.

TO be honest, I am touching so vaguely on all these points (suffering from pure exhaustion) and I cannot seem to grasp all these thoughts in the article at once. While I found this article to be absolutely intriguing, I find it to be complex and confusing. I feel like it is going to be something I continue to re-read until I have my light bulb moment and clarification from class discussion before I can really post a worthwhile blog.

Then, I will touch on the soul in Shakespeare and The School of Night.

In response to a few other blogs...

I have been trying to keep up with all the blogs and read through some that I really took something from. First, I must say...discussing the school of Night requirements, I was brought back to Dr. Sexson's literary criticism class from many years ago in which I actually did rock a mustache..for one afternoon...because I was forced to. In fact, I think a majority of the ladies in our group rocked the facial hair that day. Unforgettable.

As I read Jon Orsi's blog, I was drawn to his reference to Siddhartha. I was assigned this book in High School and recently picked up another Herman Hesse novel. Thinking about Siddhartha always brings me to the question of "what would we be, or rather who would we be if we took time to live that solitary life as he did? What would we then see or learn about not only life, but ourselves? Getting at this idea of life as "lunar, not linear", is something that we see every day. Again, cycling me back to T.S. Eliot's thoughts on time...is it cyclical or linear? I agree, life and stories are cyclical, everything is connected in some way. We sometimes don't figure this out until we have taken numerous classes from Dr. Sexson...they all connect, the chances are great that we will continuously cycle through the same things over and over but in a much different way, a way that will connect forwards and backwards.

I have already lost my train of thought and cannot seem to explain what I am thinking very clearly, so I will have to come back to this blog later...perhaps in the morning.

Editing: I looked over Geoffrey rice's blog this morning and found that while i am not familiar with Titus and am not required to read it, i couldn't help but keep reading his blog. I think what drew me in was his reference to the darkness. As he is, i am optimistic and most days quite excited about life, but at the same time i am mesmerized by the idea of darkness, longing, and failure. Is this strange? A girl with nothing to lose, but drawn to only the worst of things. I don't get it and don't really like admitting it....so let's just leave it at that. I won't yet attempt to respond to the aspect of faith.

Venus and Adonis

I have thoroughly been enjoying reading Venus and Adonis. I was at first a bit reluctant because as with many I have trouble getting through Shakespeare. I read the introduction as well and I think that this is why I was able to really engage in the poem, it helped a lot to clarify not only the works of Shakespeare but this poem specifically. The introduction sparked many questions for me and I found myself deep in thought before I had even gotten to the poem.

I love the imagery in Shakespeare's poem, perhaps because I can actually understand it. My favorite image though is one pointed out in the introduction:
"Whereat her tears began to turn their tide, being prisoned in her eye like pearls in glass." Lines 979- 980
These lines portray a sort of innocence in Venus, which is ironic because she is everything but that. The image of the pearls makes me think of purity, simplicity, and solitariness. Again, ironic because the poem is filled with neither simplicity or purity, but it is with solitariness. When I imagined the pearl and what it meant to me, I was reminded of what we think love should be...simple, pure- it is everything except those things.

The introduction talks about Venus and her maternal reflection. The image of the stallion seems significant here because it's reflecting a want to tame the stallion. The representation of the stallion is a strong image by itself, pairing a powerful, controlling, older female with this image is a clear representation of Venus and Adonis' relationship.

In the middle of the introduction it is said, "In a sense, everyone loses." Yes, in those tormenting love affairs everyone does lose, but I can't help but point out that even in the most tragic or tormenting of situations there is a growth of some sort.

Starting the poem (lines 43-54), I couldn't help but ask myself a lot of questions/ present myself with many different thoughts to which I seemed to have absolutely no answers. Thoughts and questions...answerless. In these lines though, I couldn't help but see only the sadness in Venus. Here she is, this powerful female, controlling the younger male she is infatuated with, yet still there is sadness. Of course there is sadness, how horrible to be THE goddess of love...any goddess...any lover...and know that the one you want so badly, love so much is not in love with you.

I guess in the end, everyone really does lose.

My limited Shakespeare knowledge

I hate to admit as a "super senior" in the Enlgish department, I know less about Shakespeare than I should. I never took the time to understand and develop a liking for Shaklespeare's work until recently because of a high school teacher I once had. He not only ruined Shakespeare's works for me for years to come after that class, but ruined the entire English curriculum- thank goodness it only lasted 2 years or so. I know that Shakespeare did not limit his works to one specific audience but to many, which was in a way frowned upon at that time. His plays are brilliant and I must say I am still in love with Romeo and Juliet as cliche as the story has become, that tragic romance (fatal love...) wins me over every time. I am so excited to get through Venus and Adonis to see how Shakespeare uses his brilliant ways to intertwine love, violence and sexuality within this poem. The way he plays with gender and age difference, and the roles that they take is stunning I think.

Yes, love is tormenting and who better to reflect that than Shakespeare.