Stitch & Twist

I had such a strange dream last night. It was strange in itself, but that’s not important because they’re all a bit weird. The strange thing is that in my dream, in which I was jogging for some reason, I stopped to take a break. And while we took a break there was suddenly a laptop that belonged to some girl who lived where we were. And then the rest of the room sort of filled itself in.

And then, here’s the weird part, I took a nap! And had a little dream! And woke up! In the middle of my dream. Woah!

I don’t understand “Buckle Up” advertising.

I know exactly 0 people under the age of 65 who don’t wear their seat belt. You’re not going to change the old ones’ behavior. I can’t even imagine what would go through the mind of a young person not wearing their seat belt. 

Like, do they think it’s cool? Is it their way of rebelling? That is the most depressing thing! Do some drugs for god’s sake.

I have a lot of trouble with major-movie-level popularity of comics-Norse-gods because I go into movies and conversations about it thinking I know what to expect and finding out these guys are nothing like the gods you find in the Eddas or the guys you find in Sagas. My gut instinct is to just be like, that is stupid bullshit! 

Some things are promising, though, in a weird way. Like my dashboard has this gifset of Tom Hiddleston talking about how he gets into Loki’s mind and how the source of his megalomaniac chaotic craziness is how he is insecure. That is NOT the Loki I know. The first part yeah, but it comes from the fact that he is, you know, a heavenly personification of chaos.

However, no matter how much modern humanist bullshit that “he has low self esteem” interpretation is, it’s better than what I’m aware of from the MIGHTY THOR cartoon from the 60’s when Loki was “the god of evil” which is almost so stupid it comes back around and gets its ass kicked by itself. Oversimplification then, overcomplexity now, both based on cultural norms that have NOTHING to do with the society that invented Loki and Thor. But there’s value in adapting things for a modern audience.

When’s the last time you watched Clerks?

Romeo & Juliet is so culturally entrenched as “the greatest love story of all time” that no one really pays attention to what it is saying, even in the classroom.

Since R&J in the original language is presented to us when we are about 12 and we certainly absorb the story by cultural osmosis before then, I was surprised to learn that it is filthy beyond measure. Particularly in the first two acts, every other line is an innuendo, a sexual pun, or flat-out dick joke. You know that line in Hamlet where he says “nothing” is a fair thought to lie between a maid’s legs? It’s all like that, but no one talks about that. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on R&J in middle school, but I remember reading Shakespeare back then. I could probably recreate my comprehension by skimming through the play in ten minutes now, or maybe even just skimming the Wikipedia synopsis. 

And that is the problem with this play, as I see it. Its reputation is like a big sheet of lead between our eyes and the book or the stage. We get so swept up in what we think we are reading that we fail to recognize that what’s actually there is way more interesting than a simple love story. It’s really more like an attempt at examining interpersonal interactions in general, and not just love relationships. It portrays different sorts and levels of commitment and loyalty - within families, between friends, within the city, through the church, between the sexes… It’s all there.

And we focus on how it’s a story about two stupid kids who kill themselves. And think that is romantic. We are a ridiculous people.

Coming up next: Taming of the Shrew I think, which will probably bring a discussion of the Katherine Trope, and of how wordplay is sexy and if you don’t get that you don’t get Shakespeare.

The Arkangel Shakespeare collection is the kind of completely insane thing they do in Britain - all of Shakespeare’s plays in one audio collection performed by hundreds of famous British actors. You can buy it on CDs for like $400 and every Amazon review suggests that it’s worth it. I’m getting my copies from the library of course.

The standout performances in Romeo and Juliet are Friar Laurence, played by Clive Swift of Keeping Up Appearances fame, and the Nurse, played by Elizabeth Spriggs (who is one of those character actors you go OH, it’s that lady, of course!). I liked them for opposite reasons. Swift reads the Friar just as I picture the character sounding, and Spriggs brings a lot to her role that really fleshed the character out for me.

There are a lot of things I liked about this audio book, but a few that made me wince. The acting was great of course, and that is the biggest battle in this medium, so overall it’s a winner. I thought it was a little slow, which may not be the fault of the recording but the play itself, and that the sound effects and intro/outro music were pretty corny, particularly the decision to make kissy sounds during the “two blushing pilgrims” speech. Muah! Corny.

A related discovery:

As I’m sure I mentioned before, I discovered this series by looking for audio books with David Tennant, and I believe my familiarity with that particular voice made me pick up on a connection I’ve never noticed. Tennant plays Mercutio, which I think is excellent casting simply because a character that crude should have a Scottish accent. It’s a great accent for extremes. Tennant also steps in later as Friar John, who is the messenger that never gets to Romeo.

There are several connections here - notably they are both side characters (though Mercutio is something of a scene-stealer) who have immense effect on the plot - but the one that tickles my fancy is plague. In his death speech, Mercutio repeatedly curses Romeo and Tybalt with “a plague on both your houses.”  Friar John, meanwhile, is refused passage through a town suffering a plague. I read a short article by Matthew J. Bolton that discusses this idea; he suggests that  perhaps Friar John’s plague and its effect on the title characters is caused by Mercutio’s curse. An interesting thought.