Countdown

[deliasherman]

All kinds of things I want to blog:

1) Anthony and Cleopatra at Theatre for a New Audience. Despite the fact that Anthony mumbled rather, and we came in late (which ruined Cleopatra's jealous fit for me, since I hadn't got my ear adjusted to the poetry yet), a wonderful production. Octavian and Anthony were played as absolute opposites:

Comments

[scbutler]

"why would a grown-up make stuff up about fairies in New York."

Better to ask, why not. Sheesh. The inability of people, writers even, to even want to employ their imaginations.

That said, you're right about it being a good thing to get outside of the genre now and again.

[deliasherman]

OK, I need to blog about that, too. Because not everybody is wired for fantasy, just as not everybody is wired for mystery or horror or domestic realism, come to that. I loathe the writing of Ann Tyler, for instance, almost as much as she'd loathe my writing. And I can't read horror, even good horror.

The problem is in proclaiming something one has no taste for as "stupid" or "bad" or "worthless." It's human, but it's neither kind or (ultimately) useful.

As I said, that's a whole post there, all by itself.

Ah, well. I'll get around to it.

[scbutler]

You've put your finger on it precisely. If we want to encourage folks to read, why then this desire to tell them some books are better than others? As you say, it's all a matter of taste.

I love the fact that you loathe Ann Tyler's writing 'almost' as much as she'd loathe yours.

I look forward to that blog.

[lareinenoire]

I really need to see a production of Antony and Cleopatra sometime. Interestingly enough, the descriptions of Antony and Octavian sound a lot like the way the characters were portrayed in the HBO series Rome -- you got the impression that Antony couldn't sit still for more than few minutes at a time, and Simon Woods' Octavian was bloodchillingly methodical. I personally loved the dichotomy and it sounds like it would play beautifully onstage.

The subtext of many of the questions was "why would a grown-up make stuff up about fairies in New York."

Oh, now that's just silly. Why wouldn't people do that?

[deliasherman]

Oh, now I *really* have to see Rome.

Also re-read A & C. Because I suspect that the directors are responding to something in the text, if only that Anthony is a man who acts without always thinking things through and Octavian is a man who always thinks things through carefully before he acts. They also had both Cleopatra and Octavia heavily pregnant throughout half of the play, and toting swaddled babies around with them after enough time had passed. Even though the "babies" were all too clearly wrapped-up dolls, they did add a neat, dynastic footnote to the proceedings and a real dimension to all the speeches about A&C's offspring.

[lareinenoire]

I adore Rome. Despite its shortcomings -- and even though I'm not that familiar with the period, I know it has its fair share of them -- it's very well-plotted and often has these lovely Shakespearean echoes.

Because I suspect that the directors are responding to something in the text, if only that Anthony is a man who acts without always thinking things through and Octavian is a man who always thinks things through carefully before he acts.

That makes a lot of sense. And is also rather ironic, given how Antony in Julius Caesar only gives the impression of being a man who acts before thinking -- his funeral speech is so calculated in comparison to Brutus'.

And I like the idea of having Octavia and Cleopatra pregnant, since Shakespeare is telescoping so much time into that play and Antony ends up with three children at the end. It's nice to see where they're coming from, as it were.

[vschanoes]

Well, and beyond that, Shakespeare is working with Plutarch and the Octavian propaganda machine, both of which do tend to portray Antony as a man of action who doesn't think that clearly. I suspect a bit of a sloppy brush, because the man was Julius "I calculate everything" Caesar's right-hand man for quite a long time, and quite the military strategist

[handworn]

I think of E. Nesbitt writing at her kitchen table while her children played around her

How would that be possible?!

[deliasherman]

She must have had formidable powers of concentration. Either that, or she wore earmuffs.

Seriously, it's perfectly possible to write in the midst of chaos, if you happen to be neurologically wired in such a way that you concentrate better if you have to work at it. I myself prefer to write in cafes, the more crowded and noisy the better. I agree that one's own children have to be more distracting than strangers talking about their love lives, but the fact that she was writing to put food on the table probably helped her concentration.

[handworn]

I like writing in cafes too. The hubbub melts into entirely ignorable random noise which keeps the ears occupied, but when one surfaces the world is right there to entertain you.

[deliasherman]

That's it *exactly*.

The only time I had a problem was sitting next to a guy in the Village who was entertaining his friends with an account of his horrible ex-boyfriend. He had one of those piercing voices it's almost imporrible to ignore, and his stories. . . . Well, I'm just relieved the guy was his ex, that's all I have to say.