Monday, November 5 2012

Another As You Like It week, with Bloom and other analyses, movies and wondering what in the world I’m going to write about. I have decided but I haven’t gotten so far so don’t expect a text for another couple of weeks.

From Gregory Doran's Shakespeare Almanac:

• Othello was performed at Whitehall on November 1, 1604 and on the same day in 1611 The Tempest was performed.
• On November 4, 1604 The Merry Wives of Windsor was performed for King James.

 Shakespeare sightings:

• In the novel The Picture Book by Jo Baker the character Will (a coincidence?) is accosted by a crazy old beggar who, he fears, sees right through him: “Lunatics and fools, they see the truth; at least, they always do in Shakespeare.”
• Again in Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth” he winds up his book with two gems.
•  “Is ‘the production of higher animals’ really ‘the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving’? Most exalted? Really? Are there not more exalted objects? Art? Spirituality? Romeo and Juliet? General Relativity? The Choral Symphony? The Sistine Chapel? Love?” His quote is from Darwin; he goes on to say that he doesn’t have to defend Darwin, but shows how evolution includes all of these exalted objects.
• In the second he discusses the evolution of cultural memory and lists Shakespeare as one of the legacies passed down non-genetically.
• In the novel The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, recommended by blog follower Anna, the Kirk Douglas role of Spartacus is called a “Shakespearean hero.”
• In Dagens Nyheter, November 2, the Italian actor Salvatore Striano is interviewed.  The article’s title is “Camorran exchanged for Shakespeare” and in the article we find the comparison of Shakespeare’s view of Brutus as a hero in contrast with Dante’s view of Brutus as the worst kind of murderer.
• Bill Bryson, writing about the history of houses and private life in At Home , has so far referred to Shakespeare twice:
• Wood or tile floors began to replace dirt floors around Shakespeare’s time.
• “’Bedroom’ was first used  by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in about 1590, though he meant it only in the sense of space within a bed. As a word to describe a dedicated sleeping chamber, it didn’t become common until the following century.”
• In the teacher’s union magazine there was an ad for www.shakespeare.nu . See you in London in June!

 Further, since the last report:

·         Read aloud with Hal: Harold Bloom’s analysis of As You Like It.

·         Watched two versions of same, the BBC version and the 1936 production with Lawrence Olivier. In last week’s report I forgot that we had it. Both versions messed with my head because they didn’t do it right! So I might have to wait for next Saturday when we are planning on watching Branagh’s version before I can get my thoughts in order. Still, I’m going to try to work a little on my text after lunch today.

·         Shakespeare Calling follower Harold Berglund’s art exhibit continues.  Have you spotted the Shakespeare connection? http://www.wiberg.com/haroldberglund/berglund2012/berglund2012.asp

Posted:

·         This Monday Report

·         Some of my earlier blog reviews of books on Shakespeare on http://www.librarything.com/