Romeo's Ex: Rosaline's Story, Fiedler

Knowing my new goals require a lot more dedicated reading time than before, I decided to start with something I could re-read in less than a week. It took me one day. It's a very fast-paced novel, which is appropriate considering the action of Romeo and Juliet happens in less than a week's worth of time.

One trick to keeping the pace going is that the POV switches from character to character. I'm not a fan of it in this book, mostly because sometimes it's clunky. It's like we, the audience, have to be present for every scene from the play, but there are certain characters who will never have the POV (Juliet), so we have to overhear them through another character - even if that character is already dead. Which is awkward. And some characters get only one shot at POV, then never return to the helm - which is also awkward.

HOWEVER, I love this novel. I love the way it moves, and I love the way Rosaline thinks. Sure, sometimes I wanted to shout "TROPE!" when she did things like study healing herbs or deny love then fall directly into it with the wrong man, but her mistakes in that department don't last long, satisfyingly. Because, really, what's an exploration of Romeo and Juliet without a real romance to parallel the impetuousness of the two leads? PLUS there are a few characters from other plays who show up occasionally on the streets of Verona, and not arbitrarily. I don't want to give that all away, but one of them is a dog.

Above all, I love that this novel is about consequences. Romeo and Juliet are the type of characters who do not think things all the way through, and their behavior is reckless and dangerous as a result. A lot of times they're looked to as romantic or heroic, but really they're cowardly. They marry in secret, rashly underestimating their parents' wrath and the dangers it creates for everyone else, then they commit the most selfish act of all: suicide.

And for all the romanticizing suicide gets in this play, Rosaline's reaction to Juliet's contemplation of it is great:

"'The only victory is summoning the audacity to stay. If you truly wish to exert power in the face of your father's cruelty, there is only one thing for you to do.'
'And what is that?' she asks.
'Live.'"

This is after delivering a ringing slap to the tweenage Juliet who has already received the Friar's potion. Is it comforting, though, to think that Juliet had someone who cared about her this much, who offered her better advice than anyone else, and that she still followed through on her impulses? Or more tragic?

This novel definitely doesn't shy from the dark stuff, but it's very mature and gentle in its presentation of young love, age-old hate, and untimely death.

Romeo's Ex

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); 1st edition (September 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805075003
• ISBN-13: 978-0805075007

Sunday Miscellany: My Soapbox

So, since that Twitter-sation last week, a lot of blogs, journals, even publications have been talking about - even defending - texts like SparkNotes "No Fear" Shakespeare and the Cliffs Notes cartoons (7min parodies that reduce R&J's wooing to "OMG, you are totes hot!").

[drags soapbox centerstage] Lights, please?

What is there to fear of Shakespeare in the first place?

Shakespeare isn't famous because of his plots or characters. He's famous because his words - his magical, poetic words - moved his audience. Not readers - an audience is a part of a present piece of theater, whether that's Kevin Spacey limping at BAM as Richard III, or Timmy Smith reading Hamlet's sixth soliloquy aloud in class. If you change the words, you are NOT doing Shakespeare. You can be "inspired by" Shakespeare, or "based on" Shakespeare, but you can't do NOTShakespeare instead of Shakespeare and call it "Shakespeare."

People argue that these materials are supplemental. I argue that they are detrimental. They define where they should explore. To say that "to be thus is nothing," means "To be king is nothing" you are taking away the power of that word and removing all manner of meaning from it. You are stating to your readers that this is the one meaning of that word, of that line, and removing any room for discussion or exploration.

By even translating it in the first place these "resources" are telling students AND teachers that they cannot understand the original words. "Shakespeare is hard," you say with a pouty face, "our resource makes it easy." You neglect to say 90% of Shakespeare's original text is modern English, the other 10% is easily figured out from context or even just playing around.

More people argue that anything that gets students interested in Shakespeare is a good thing. I was once among their ranks. But anything that bastardizes Shakespeare in order to appeal to a more mass audience is not helping anyone. It's sending the wrong message. It's insulting the intelligence of anyone who approaches the pedestal Shakespeare's been placed on and telling them in as few small words as possible, YOU WON'T GET IT. DO NOT TRY. Instead of creating more levels for that pedestal to sit higher on, remove it altogether - it isn't there. If you come to the text thinking there's something to fear, you will be afraid.

And BAD ENOUGH that the plays are mistreated like this, but I find out that the POEMS are getting "translated" as well! Seriously? WHY?!

If you're looking for resources with original language, THEY EXIST. FIND THEM. Here are just a few:

Want to show a short animation? BBC's Shakespeare the Animated Tales 

Want to read a brief novelization with lines from the play? Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield 

Want a play's summary with lines to read aloud? 15 min Plays from Folger (Pages 10-11 for OTHELLO). 

Want more? DO RESEARCH! Explore Folger Library, Royal Shakespeare Co, the Globe, your local Shakespeare Theatre's Education pages for resources, performances, recommendations, classes, professional development opportunities - GET OUT THERE and LEARN!

But, CGriff, I hear you crying, you read and watch and love adaptations of Shakespeare - how is that different? 

Here's how: Shakespeare's plays, when adapted for screen, stage, and page, take on a new life there. They grow by these adaptations. They're further explored, further depths of character and multiple meanings of words are plumbed. The books and films and miscellany I've read - thus far at least - respect the original plays, and it is out of love for those works that these new and vital pieces were born. Not out of any need to "update" or "modernize" or "translate" what is there to be learned or to discussed. These works actually do enhance the plays they were built on by continuing a 400 year old discussion of what they could mean. Not what they do mean. They do not seek to define, as these "no fear" editions do. They come at the play believing there's nothing to fear in the first place, and prove it.

Stop believing that these plays require these translations in order to be understood. Stop assigning them in class, or telling students they're a good resource if they're having trouble. Take them to see a play, watch a film version with clear acting choices, talk them through it if they have questions, read scenes aloud together, discuss!

A great man once said, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself," and, Twitterverse, it wasn't Shakespeare. Take away the pedestal, take away the fear, and read the plays as they were meant to be read: ALOUD, as PERFORMANCE, as PLAYS. We're not studying his work because we should, we're studying his works because the words endure. They will outlive us all, and deserve to be discussed intelligently.

Thank you. [drags soapbox off stage left. Exeunt]

Twelfth Night (1996), Nunn

In my disappointment in not seeing Coriolanus as planned on January 20th (for it only opened in NYC for some reason...) I consoled myself with one of my absolute favorite Shakes on Film ever. Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night. If you are following me on twitter by now, you would have seen exclamatory tweet after exclamatory tweet heaping praise and love on this movie. And for good reason(s)!

But where to start!?

First of all, this is one of those movies where every actor knows exactly what's happening and why they're saying or doing what they are. A couple of times I wondered if it was overbearingly rigid on Nunn's part with such a strictly cut screenplay, interposing conversations between three settings, or creating action to force beautiful mise en scene, but this is such a talented and knowledgable cast that I can only assume that this film had at least two weeks of full time table work. If that's not the case, then everyone in this movie has ESP and they all agree on everything in each scene - that's just impressive.

I really do love this ENTIRE ensemble. They're all perfectly cast in their roles and bring such warmth and inflection to their lines and actions that within the space of a minute of meeting each character you can see who they are. And again with the screenplay's storytelling, I love the wordless scenes which (usually) Feste witnesses. Lastly for the screenplay, the text was altered a bit in the beginning (Messaline and Illyria are not at war in Shakespeare's play), but it made the stakes for Antonio and Sebastian so much higher! Good choice! Not a ProsperA!

Note to any philanthropists out there who specialize in making dreams come true: Please send me to Cornwall to explore these manses and gardens and landscapes! It's just about the most romantic setting I've ever seen, and the scenery is doing all the work! Kidding! Toby Stephens (Orsino) and Imogen Stubbs (Viola/Cesario) do a LOT of the romantic work in this one. Goodness, when Feste sings them a sad song in the barn and they lean to each other and their eyes are closed and Feste's confused but watching carefully and the song ends and they shake it off... AAAUGH, Romantic tingles.

And, OH!, the music. It does so much for this movie - which has a very coastal England setting (though originally set in Italy) - to have a Celtic-ish set list. The instrumental stuff sounds a bit Victorian, but whenever the vagabond Feste sings it's very homey and warming.

For a romantic comedy this play is so sad for so many people, and Nunn does not shy away from showing us the bad with the good. We can be happy for Viola and Sebastian and probably Olivia, but Antonio, Malvolio, and Andrew Aguecheek get totally shafted. Their individual departures from Olivia's court were just as heart-wrenching as the twins' reunion is heart-warming.

But this movie has the weirdest trailer I've ever seen:

TWELFTH NIGHT: Movie Trailer. Watch more top selected videos about: Twelfth Night, Trevor Nunn

Kill Shakespeare Volume 2: The Blast of War, McCreery, Del Col, Belanger

Occasionally, ever so occassionally, there is an extra perk to my job. One that could make me the envy of a handful of nerds. Occassionally. Before this graphic novel's final issues dropped last year, myself and a couple of other staffers were treated to a first look at the completed Volume 2. I read it in an afternoon and promptly forgot to write about it. No more!

Volume 1 introduced us to our protagonists: Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, and Falstaff; as well as the antagonists: Richard III, Lady Macbeth, and Iago, among others. Central to the plot is the preservation (or destruction) of The Creator - Will Shakespeare. Hamlet is on the Quest of the Chosen One (caps for tropes), while waffling on just which side he falls upon. Richard III has promised to raise Hamlet's dead father if he kills Will, but Will's supporters believe that his existence is key to their own - that killing him could destroy the world.

On with the show!

Besides some text, there are a lot of throwbacks in this volume. The protagonists attend a play called What you Will, which embroils Hamlet into reenacting his father's murder After Hamlet and Juliet share an emotionally harrowing experience reliving their pasts in a hall of Mirrors there is a balcony scene, only it's a little different this time.Will Shakespeare does appear in this volume, but he's not the Will Shakespeare we know and love... or is he?

Something I will always enjoy in any story is the feeling that no one is safe - you can pick your favorites and root for them, but it's up to the storyteller for who comes out alive and well. Some live, some die, some come out well, others are destroyed forever. Even though we know the characters, their fates are not determined by what we already know. PLUS each new episode holds the possibility of introducing new characters to the plot that we totally weren't expecting! In novels, this can be annoying. In this it's like the cameo effect in a nerdy movie.

And, again, the art is really cool. Not being an avid GN reader, sometimes the floating boxes of text and speech bubbles were hard to follow in order as they wove around the stunning pictures, but it is a really engaging story with a lot of fun thrown in for fans of the Bard. Not so much for Tarantino, I think, but feel free to correct me on that.

Kill Shakespeare Volume 2 Paperback: 148 pages Publisher: IDW Publishing (November 22, 2011) Language: English ISBN-10: 1613770251 ISBN-13: 978-1613770252