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.