Hopefully everything’s settling in nicely to our home on WordPress. I’ve spent most of my time making sure that 11 years worth of links aren’t 90% broken!
One of the main reasons to move off of Blogger was to take advantage of those features that are expectations of a modern blog, and one of them is better control over the appearance. Right now we’re using a theme called Penscratch which I was using on my other sites Shakespeare Answers and Not By Shakespeare (both of which now redirect here, by the way). I chose it because it reminded me of the written word, crisp type on a white background.
Shakespeare Answers with the header image.
Now that I’m in it 100% of the time, I’m wondering if it needs something. I’d like to see some more color and images as part of the main browsing experience. This theme does have the option of a “header” graphic – which appears in a horizontal bar under the title, and I wasn’t thrilled with it. There’s also a “background” graphic which I couldn’t figure out how to work because every time I tried to set it, it hid everything else.
What do you think? Are there readers out there more familiar with the “standard” in WordPress theming that could offer some suggestions about ways to decorate? I’m open to ideas!
Is Caliban human? The question comes through on my logs every now and then so we must have touched on the subject at some point. I think that perhaps students are looking for help with their homework and just want a yes or no answer and maybe a citation, but I think it’s more complicated than that.
Then was this island–
Save for the son that she did litter here,
A freckled whelp hag-born–not honour’d with
A human shape.
The very first description we have for Caliban is “not honored with a human shape.” Does that mean not human?
EDIT: November 1, 2017. As the commenter rightly points out, that’s a misinterpretation of the passage. It is the island that would be “without human shape” if it were not for Caliban, i.e. he was alone on the island.
The word “whelp” would normally apply to animals, but Prospero’s not saying that Caliban is closer to a dog than a person. (When I drive to work each morning and inevitably call someone a jackass I don’t literally mean he’s a donkey. How can you give someone the finger if you have hooves?)
Normally we would say, “Is Caliban human? Of course Caliban is human. He’s got a mind and free will of his own and can communicate. He loves his mother Sycorax and worships her god, Setebos.” By our modern biological standards, it’s a no-brainer. There’s no creature other than humans that can do any of that.
But this is also a play with magic and fairies, witches and devils. So maybe our modern definitions don’t apply?
We’re told that Sycorax is a witch, and that she was banished here. Prospero goes one step more, telling Caliban that he is the offspring of his mother mating with the devil himself.
By modern standards, and by that I mean post Salem witch trials, we could interpret this to mean “Single woman gets pregnant, gets on the wrong side of a conservative society’s rules, and gets kicked out.” By that logic Caliban is human. A little wild, maybe, from growing up outside civilization (and civilized medicine), but basically human. Personally I like this interpretation because it keeps the play universal. Tell me what Caliban is like as a character because he’s human, and therefore at some level he is like all of us. If he’s not human, I can’t really learn anything from his plight because everything’s different. If he is, I can feel sympathy for him.
Did Shakespeare believe in witches? It’s not known for certain, but it was certainly typical of the time. Whether the audience believes in witches or not, however, we have to suspend that belief because this play takes place in a universe where magic exists. Prospero rescued Ariel from a tree, after he was imprisoned there Sycorax. So Sycorax did have powers (like Prospero), and therefore was an actual witch, so is it really that far fetched that she was impregnated by a devil? And if that is the case in this universe, what exactly does that make Caliban? Because “appearing human” would probably be closer than “actually human”. If that’s the case then the play isn’t nearly the same to me. I have no sympathy for Caliban if he’s just a walking, talking animal.
So, is Caliban human? I prefer to see it that way, but I think that Shakespeare probably didn’t. What does everybody else think?
I haven’t done one of these in a while. Screen Rant offers us 15 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Based On Shakespeare. But really, if you’re at all a regular follower of what we do here, yes you did. Their header graphic is the Lion King, for goodness sake. Is there anybody out there today that doesn’t think Lion King is based on Hamlet?
The only reason I bother linking the list is that it’s got a good cross section of the different types of movies that Shakespeare’s original material can produce:
Animated (see above)
Teen comedies (10 Things I Hate About You, She’s The Man)
Drama (My Own Private Idaho, A Thousand Acres)
Musicals (West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate)
Foreign language (Throne of Blood, Ran)
Science-fiction (Forbidden Planet)
In case you’re looking for movie recommendations for the weekend, this is a great place to start. While we’ve no doubt mentioned all these movies many times over the years, you probably haven’t actually seen all of them yet.
Today I learned, via @Reddit, that Barbara Feldon won the $64,000 Question in the Shakespeare category.
Ok, that is a very dated sentence, so let me break it down for everybody who is closer to my kids’ age than my own:
Barbara Feldon played Agent 99 on a television show called Get Smart in the 1960s, which my generation would have been watching in re-runs.
The $64,000 Question was a game-show that’s probably best compared to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. The big difference, however, is that you had to answer questions all from a specific category. To give an idea of just how notoriously difficult the game was? Bobby Fischer, generally considered one of the greatest chess players of all time, did not get past the audition round in the chess category.
This clip of Barbara Feldon explaining how she got on the show is wonderful on a number of levels:
“I’m not an expert on anything.”
“You know, on my dressing table was a copy of King Lear, because I’d been re-reading the plays…”
Not just reading, re-reading.
Not just any play, King Lear.
Not just that play, “the plays”.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks!
The actual $64,000 question she “won” on is forgotten – but she tells the story of the $128,000 question that eventually sent her home. Do you think you could answer it, if you hadn’t known it was coming?
I’m kind of digging this trend of bringing live stage performance Shakespeare to the big screen. I can’t possibly get to all the live show I’d like to, so it’s nice to have the option.
This is particularly true of RSC’s recent “digital” version of The Tempest that got all the great writeups for its use of special effects and virtual reality. (Actually I heard that the performance gets lost in the glitz, but I’d like to see for myself!)
So when I heard that they’re taking the show on the road I was prepared to get in line for my tickets (like I did with Benedick Cumberbatch’s Hamlet). But … there are no Massachusetts show times listed. I would understand, if only other big cities like NY, DC, Chicago, etc.. were on the list. Fine. But the closest city to me with a screening is Jaffrey, New Hampshire? I’ve lived in Massachusetts all my life, raised three children who have all had to do social studies / geography presentations on the New England states, and nobody’s ever so much as mentioned Jaffrey.
Seriously though, I suspect that the calendar is just not updated. When you select Jaffrey it actually says “Here are other cities with showtimes” and lists several Massachusetts cities including Chestnut Hill and Revere (neither of which I am likely to get to), but when you click on them it goes back to the main list of theatres as if you experienced an error. I’m hoping to see either Cambridge / Kendall Square on there (which would be walking distance for me), or Burlington, where I saw Benebatch Hamlet.
