When we're reading this play, Paul likes to use special voices for the characters. He prefers to play the males, of course, but does not care for Leontes. He would rather be Hermione. I think this is not because the king's words are mean but because his speeches are long, tiring, and confusing--just like Leontes. Paul rather likes Antigonus because he is bossy and decisive. It's interesting, listening to my son read these lines, how much the sound of a speech, even in the mouth of a 12-year-old, reflects the character who is speaking. Sentence length, syntactical confusions, fancy metaphors: all of them add up to a person. This sounds both obvious and incredible. However did Shakespeare manage to do this in play after play?
Dinner tonight: Believe it or not, I am going to a Superbowl party. I didn't even know it was Superbowl weekend until I was invited to this party. I sort of knew which teams were playing, in an unconscious-news-absorbing way. My friend Angela is making Cajun food, which indicates her team preference. But what would we eat if she had to make Indianapolis food?
5 comments:
Well, truthfully, I thought the Super Bowl was last weekend; however, my honorary niece is from New Orleans and assures me that it is this weekend. I have escaped the party, too late for me on a "school night" and I opine that I don't make them go to the opera with me and I request that I can decline sports gatherings. BUT, GO SAINTS! Indianapolis food? probably lots of meat.
Have Fun!!
Tom guesses chicken fingers.
I see you're reading The Winter's Tale. Thought you might be interested in my reading of Perdita's speech about art where I argue against the traditional interpretation that Polixenes 'wins' the argument. It's in my monograph Shakespeare's Theory of Drama, Pp68ff, Cambridge UP) If you are interested, the book is in most US libraries I think. Or I can send you a precis of the passage. I'm a Shakespeare scholar and author. By the way, I'm a She Writes member and just came across your blog. I'm intrigued by your Milton book as I'm writing a memoir about my life with a classic author, but also because Teaching PL to reluctant undergraduates was one of the most challenging and rewarding things I've done. By the way, again, re your frustration with that biography, my friend and former colleague, Lyndall Gordon has just published a brilliant book on Emily Dickinson. I'll enjoy following your blog from now on!
All good wishes,
Pauline Kiernan.
Also forgot to say, Shakespeare's characteristic acute psychological realism in his creation of Leontes was staggering even by his standards.
The tortured language of scattered hints and fragments is an atomic forcefield at an elemental level, so visceral it almost ceases to be language at all. It communicates thoughts moving tight within split-second feeling because there isn't space enough for all that Leontes is struggling to say.
It's the most incredible example of what researchers are now finding (and what I've intuitively known but had no scientific evidence for) that it's the linguistic equivalent of the structuring work of DNA. The shifts and movements of Shakespeare's language works on the physical brain behind the mind. His syntax not only locks into the existing pathways of the brain, it actually moves and changes them!
I could go on....!
Anyway, thought that might help Paul with Leontes!
Cheers
Pauline
Pauline, I just now came across your comments; I apologize for being so slow. Thanks for all your insights on "A Winter's Tale." Our group of readers is varied and includes 2 sixth-grade boys, several teachers, some adults who are coming to Shakespeare for the first time, and several people who haven't read a play for years. It's been wonderful to hear the conversations that arise so naturally from people who have, in the past, considered themselves to be ignorant and undereducated. In a way, that's what my Milton memoir dealt with: the conviction that literature is for everyone, not just for scholars--that we can all respond as committed individuals to the canon.
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