Wherefore Did I Fail

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I’m a horrible father.

My oldest, as I may have mentioned, is studying Romeo and Juliet in school. Today while driving her to school we were discussing Shakespeare and I’d joked about the possibility of creating a “Name That Shakespeare” game along the lines of “Name That Tune.”  You know, “I can name that Shakespeare play in 3 words!” sort of thing.  (More on that in a future post!)

To which she responds, “That would be impossible.” Thinks about it and adds, “Well, I suppose some would be easy. Where art thou.”

Not taking my eyes off the road I ask, “What’s that one from?”

“Romeo and Juliet,” she replies.

I immediately begin hitting the child.  “That’s not even funny!” I yell in mock horror. Maybe it wasn’t so mock.

Defending herself she retorts, “Why? What’s wrong with that? Is that not the line?”

“It’s wherefore art thou,” I correct.

“Right,” she says, “It means where are you.”

I immediately begin hitting the child again.  “Where did I go wrong? When did I fail you? Of all the things I’ve taught you, how did you miss this?  This is like the line in the sand between people who understand Shakespeare and who don’t.  It’s the go-to inside joke among Shakespeare geeks.  If you google “Shakespeare knock knock jokes“, you get this joke. I literally have a t-shirt with this joke written on it.  Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“Wherefore.”

“Wherefore who?”

“NO, WHEREFORE WHY! WE’VE BEEN OVER THIS!”

“I don’t get it.”

I didn’t actually push her out of the car, or disown her.  I may have thought about one or the other. She goes on to tell me how she honestly thought (up to this point I’d hoped she was kidding) that Juliet was looking for Romeo in the bushes.  *sigh*  I had to explain how, from her point of view, she’s never going to see the guy again, it was just two ships passing in the night. It’s not like they said “Come out on your balcony, I’ll meet you outside.”

I just honestly don’t understand how that went past her.  If you’d asked me I would have thought it was one of my most overdone jokes.  Surely they’d heard it a hundred times.  Shows what I know.  What else do I assume they know that they have no clue about?

 

 

Weather As Plot Device

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Lear and his Fool on the heathI’m trying to think of plays where the weather plays an important role.  Sure there’s The Tempest, but we get the storm at the beginning and then…nothing.

Macbeth seems to be all about the weather.  So fair and foul a day I have not seen!

King Lear is probably the ultimate example.  If you haven’t seen Act 3 Scene 1 live yet, your Shakespeare life is not complete.  The wind is blowing, the rain is pouring down. Kent staggers in at one level, battling against the wind, hanging on to the scaffolding so he doesn’t blow away.  Enter a gentleman below, also buffeted by the wind.  “Where’s the king?”  first thing Kent asks, only to learn that he’s out in this storm.  “But who is with him?”  “None but the fool.”  Shivers.  Goosebumps. That’s one of my favorite moments in the play.

Hey, here’s a question — the stage direction I read for this scene says “Storm still.”  Does that mean the storm is still continuing, or that there is a lull in the storm, an actual still moment?

What else?  Any of the comedies do something similar to work weather into the plot?

 

Which Shakespeare Needs a Young Adult Adaptation?

~ duane ~ 3 Comments


It seems like there are young adult adaptations of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet coming out of the woodwork lately. Shonda Rimes got her Midas mitts on Still Star-Crossed and is making it a tv series.  Lisa Klein’s Ophelia is going to the big screen, starring Daisy Ridley.  And that’s just two easy ones that are getting all the press – I’ve seen lists lately of half a dozen YA versions at a time.

But it’s always those two, isn’t it? Note that I’m talking about books here, not movies, so I’m not really counting 10 Things I Hate About You, She’s The Man, O, or any of a bunch of high school comedies that as far as I know only live on the big screen.

Bardfilm pays closer attention to this area than I, so he might be able to tell me I’m completely wrong.

Which of Shakespeare’s plays would you like to read in a YA format?  I expect that The Tempest is an obvious choice. But about something harder. Could you do King Lear? Actually I’d be surprised if nobody’s tackled that one yet, I figure you tell it from Cordelia’s point of view you’re half way there.

 

For Then We Should Be Cockroaches

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Mind blowing moment at breakfast with the geeklets this morning, one of whom decided to treat a plastic kitchen ladle like a doll and name him Sampson, and the other who is reading Romeo and Juliet and says, “Gregory” every time her sister says “Sampson.”

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

If you never read it in high school, that is the famous opening line (albeit translated) from Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, where the lead character wakes up to discover he has been transformed into a cockroach.

The lead character’s name is Gregor Samsa.

Gregory.  Sampson.

There’s absolutely no connection, of course, but being geeks we research these things.  I consulted the BORED  (that’s Bardfilm’s Oxford Remote English Dictionary), just to rule it out (because how cool would it be!). Bardfilm, of course, can pull out a book called Kafka’s Names at the drop of a hat.  There we learned that Samsa, while no doubt intending to mirror Kafka’s own name, is also likely a reference to the Buddhist samsara, the repeating cycle of reincarnation before achieving Nirvana.  There’s other possibilities, but I like that one. There’s also no reference to any Romeo and Juliet connections, but did you really expect one?

This is how we spent breakfast in my house.

 

The Shakespeare Secret Society Game

~ duane ~ 4 Comments

And tho she be but little she is fierceI’m always mulling over different ways to explain “the mission”.  Why am I here, doing this? Part of it is because I think that Shakespeare makes life better, so when I can help somebody get some more Shakespeare in their life, I consider it a win because I added value to the universe. This goes exponentially so for my kids.

But it took a little while to get there. When I go back to why I actually started the blog? It’s because I wanted to connect with other Shakespeare geeks. I have (had!) no real world connection to Shakespeare, I’m not a theater geek or even an English major.  I simply don’t hang around in such circles.  So Shakespeare would never come up as a topic of conversation. I’d never find anybody wearing a t-shirt that says “Ophelia was pushed.”  So I claimed my space and said in my best Horton Hears A Who voice, “I am here! I am here! I am here!” And, if you’re reading this, you heard me. 🙂

It’s kind of like we have a secret society. Next time you walk somewhere in public, stop and ponder how many of the people you see might be secret Shakespeare geeks. Maybe somebody’s got “Though she be but little she is fierce” tattooed on her shoulder. Or maybe he’s got Harold Bloom’s Invention of the Human tucked into that stack of books he’s carrying. The person you’re sitting across from on the train could be reading the same blog post you are.

So my question to you is this.  Put the shoe on the other foot.  How does that person coming the other way know that you’re a Shakespeare geek? What signs are you giving off? How can someone, a friend, coworker, or even a stranger figure out that you’re both part of the same club?

For example, Shakespeare stickers adorn both of my computers. So if I take up a spot in the local coffee shop, everybody knows what’s up in my world. If you catch me at the pool or the beach where I’m less likely to have the computer, you’re probably going to find me reading something like “Miranda and Caliban” or something else that screams Shakespeare.  You may even find me wearing it on my sleeve :).  I make it easy.

How about you? We bump into each other at a cocktail party, what’s the secret handshake?