Empathy, Defined

I am often fascinated by my children’s interest in the stories of Shakespeare.  I can typically answer all of their questions off the top of my head, since they are really just variations on the classic “Why” game (i.e. “Why did the bad men put Miranda and her Daddy on the ship” and so on).  But sometimes one comes out of left field that is truly a surprise. “Daddy,” my 5yr old recently asked, “If Miranda and her Daddy and Caliban and Ariel were the only people on the island, and Miranda and Ariel did not like to play with Caliban because he was mean to them, then does that mean Caliban did not have anybody to play with when he was growing up?” Ok, so, wait.  Even though he is the acknowledged bad guy sea monster who is mean to everybody and wants to take over the island, my daughter is concerned that he not be lonely.  I think that makes me kind of proud. “I don’t really know,” I tell her.  I try very hard not to lie to my kids.  If you stall, sometimes they answer their own question. “Maybe he played with the animals?” she asked.  That’s certainly a common theme in the kinds of movies she’s seen. Seeing my opportunity, I embellish.  “You know, I think that’s exactly what he did.  I bet he played with all of the animals that Miranda and Ariel didn’t like to play with, like the snakes and the spiders and scorpions and the other scary creatures.  Because he wouldn’t be scared of them, they would be each other’s friends.” “Yes,” she concurred, “I think that’s how it happened.”

Daddy, Can I Read Your Book?

That’s what my 3yr old asked me this morning while I was getting ready to go to work.

“Sure,” I told her.

The thing is, the book was King Lear. More specifically, it was one of the comic versions of Shakespeare that I have.  I also have The Tempest as I’ve mentioned, Taming of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet. In general I have refused to actually read them the story of King Lear, as we don’t do that degree of violence in my house (hence my emphasis on the non-violent Tempest).

But she does like to look at the pictures.  So there she sat, doing her morning business, flipping through the pages.  Like any 3yr old she was also carrying around what if she were a boy I would call “action figures” – small statues of her favorite Disney princesses, including Belle and Ariel.

“Her name is Cordelia,” my daughter tells me, pointing at the Belle figure.    Then she points to the cover of the book and asks, “Is that Cordelia with the red hair?”

I look at the cover and sure enough, Cordelia is in fact the one with the red hair.  “That is Cordelia,” I tell her.  “And those are her sisters, Regan and Goneril.”

I think I reached her limit, though, as I never heard the names of the evil sisters mentioned.  She did go off playing, speaking of Cordelia’s friends Jossa, Brak and Ryda, which I thought was rather unusual.  At first I thought she was getting in to the imaginary friends stage (her older sister’s imaginary friends were named Cartlyn, Neejin and Lonoze).  But then I wondered if maybe hearing all the weird names in Shakespeare that she hears nowhere else, she’s tuned to thinking that names can in fact be any stream of sound, and not just repetition of the same names she’s heard over and over again.

 

Arden Project "Taking A Break"

About a year ago I blogged excitedly about a virtual Shakespeare world by Edward Castronova.  Who am I kidding, I immediately wrote to them and begged to be a beta tester.  I couldn’t get in :(. I see an update on the blog, but alas it’s not great news:  they’re out of funding.  So he has no idea when there will be any new milestones to report.  Which means I shouldn’t hold my breath for a public beta?    Oh well.  I would love to see this project reach completion.  Even though he manages expectations by saying to “expect small Dungeons and Dragons world with a Shakespeare layer” rather than “World of Warcraft with Hamlet”, I say, “Who cares, I’ll take it!”  If it’s an academic project and he’s out of funding, I wonder if he has any open source options?  He could put key portions up in Creative Commons license, I’m sure that there’s more than one Shakespeare geek out there that would love to dig in and help generate some content.  

Technorati tags: Shakespeare, Arden, MMORPG, Castronova