Thoughts
Here's the yarn I made last week, which was a lovely gift from a swap-mate on the Folklore & Fairy Tales group on Ravelry. I am currently working on this pullover, the color of which is actually considerably deeper and richer:
Those two photos were taken on the same mahogany table, so you can see that the color is a bit off.
I just spent far too much time when I have work to do reading a thought provoking post on Silver Goggles about Orientalism, which is to say, Western treatment of Eastern people via the lens of exoticism and stereotype. I think it's an interesting topic, and also falls into a greater discussion of the treatment of cultures and stereotypes that could just as easily apply to the Irish pub I went to for lunch today, or the Scottish Country Dance I will be doing this weekend.
I have also been thinking about some of the themes in King Lear that I discussed or started to discuss with my mother when we went to see it on Saturday at the Shakespeare Tavern. One thing we remarked on was the treatment of the bastard son of Gloucester, Edmund. At first, we felt sorry for him, because he was treated poorly for something he couldn't control - the condition of his birth. Then, he turned out to be morally base, and Shakespeare reconfirmed the idea of aristocracy and bloodlines being a valid judge of character and fitness to rule. We also considered the rather odd situation of his confession upon his deathbed, and what would have triggered such a thing. Another theme is of course that of the daughters' terrible treatment of their father, and the difference between flattery and true feeling, which is a difference very important to me, personally. Still, thinking about it, I could also see how the majority of the play could be slanted very differently, depending on the director, though Shakespeare himself clearly wanted the daughters to be in the wrong, or they wouldn't have fawned all over Edmund. Really, how many people do I know who have bad parents? If a parent of some of my friends disowned their favorite child over a few inelegant words, I would certainly advise my friends to band together for their own protection, because who knows what undeserved treatment they would get next. I would even advise them to work together if the parent were just pitting them against each other emotionally. I wouldn't necessarily think they should throw their father out in the storm once they had control over all of his lands, holdings, and power, but at the same time, it was also his obstinate pride that put him there. Furthermore, being married off to someone for political reasons doesn't exactly encourage marital fidelity in a woman. In fact, today we would see that sort of thing as culturally sanctioned rape. I also found it very interesting that the Duke of Albany, despite disagreeing with his wife's actions and being more inclined to support the king and despite receiving the information about his wife's treason before the battle, fought against France and Cordelia, rather than initiating a parlay and going up against Cornwall and Glouchester the bastard in support of Lear.