Shakespeare, Harry Potter and Me, Gehayi
I looked over the Shakespeare meme that's going around, but the problem with that is that it presumes that you've seen the plays both on stage and in the movies. I have never seen a Shakespeare play on stage or in the movies. The only adaptation of a Shakespeare play that I know I've seen is West Side Story. I've only ever read two plays for school (Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth). That's right--no Lear, no Julius Caesar and no Othello. I have read them on my own, but that's not the same as studying them.
And my parents HATED Shakespeare. Hated hated hated hated him. I never heard my mother, my aunt or my grandfather say one good thing about the man or his writing. They considered him overrated and incomprehensible. They did buy me a number of prose adaptations of his works--they felt an educated person should be familiar with the stories that he wrote--but they loathed both his plays and his poetry and definitely didn't approve of me reading him. (They didn't really like ANY poetry. They bought me tons of second-hand books of poetry, but they regarded this more as liver for the mind--good for you, but not something you're expected to enjoy.)
If I hadn't found a Complete Works of Shakespeare lying out by a neighbor's curb one Sunday to be hauled away by the garbage men, I never would have gotten one. And I hid it for years because I was afraid they would make me throw the book out again.
I would have been about ten then. And the book was huge in tiny print and very definitely written for adults.
I read it anyway.
Shakespeare also made sneak border raids in other books, though. Roller Skates, a Newbery winner, dealt with The Tempest. I found the witches' recipe from Macbeth in a childrens' book of stories and poems about witches. Memorized it, too. That might have been why I picked up a book with the improbable title of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. Brave New World--which I read for the first time at twelve--quoted just about every play. Shakespeare even slipped into TV shows. I'm not sure where I saw my first version of the balcony scene, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was on Rocky and Bullwinkle. I do know that the first time that I saw any version of Hamlet was on Gilligan's Island. The castaways were putting on Hamlet as a musical. Ultra-ultra- condensed, but they got the basic storyline. I heard my first Shakespearean sonnet on a CBS show called Beauty and the Beast. Sonnet 29:
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
This was in a book sent to the heroine, Catherine Chandler, and was read in a voiceover by the eponymous beast, Vincent.
So over time I picked up bits about Shakespeare through what I read and what I watched, but--except for the aforementioned R & J (when I was fourteen, and which I loathed; I think the fact that my favorite character in the play never appears onstage at all says something) and Macbeth (when I was sixteen, and which I loved unequivocally)--not much through deliberate study. The high schools and college I attended were rather resolutely Irish, with a great deal of emphasis placed on Irish writers and very little on purely English ones. Though I do recall one story about Shakespeare having to go to Ireland to learn how to use the English language beautifully.
And up until recently, I thought I knew Shakespeare pretty well. It's only of late that I've started hanging around people on LJ who know Shakespeare inside out and upside down--and who act as if Shakespeare is not, perish the thought, serious business, but something that they can use to have fun.
Which is rather intoxicating, and which I never imagined was possible.
All of which is a very long explanation for why I'm not able to answer most of a meme. It's not that I don't know the plays--it's that my approach to them has been very different from the meme writer's--not at all visual (it's rather hard to have a favorite fight scene when your main exposure to Shakespeare's fight scenes has been through stage directions), not at all related to performance (I can't talk about the first Shakespeare play I saw, the first movie version of a play, about adaptations of plays, or about a role I've never played but would want to [I wouldn't WANT to be on stage, because no matter how good I was, people would focus on my weight and my swollen legs]). I certainly can't talk about an actor or actress I'd like to see in a particular role because I'm barely aware of actors or actresses; I can't identify most of them on a bet.
And that's only some of the things I can't answer. I feel outclassed by the meme.
What's irritating is that I find myself stumbling over the Harry Potter meme just as much, and that was a fandom I participated in. Shakespeare fandom is new for me, but I was in Potter fandom for years and yet I'm still having trouble with some things:
04. Your favorite movie. (Don't have one. I've seen two movies entirely and bits of two more. The first two were all right. The next two were a little less so.)
05. Wizard Rock: discuss. (What IS it?)
07. Drink that reminds you of HP. (Uh...aside from Butterbeer, which doesn't exist, nothing.)
11. Character you're crushing on. (I rarely crush on characters, and when I do, they're generally in a visual medium like film or TV. Book characters--I can't think of a single time I've done that. And since almost all of my exposure to the Potterverse has been through reading...)
12. Favorite movie scene. (Did you miss the bit about my not having a favorite movie?)
14. Moments in the books/movies that made you cry. (None. There were a few moments that I yelled in protest, one death that made me do the Numfar Dance of Joy, and two entire books that made me shriek in despair, but nothing made me cry. I can't think of anything particularly tear-inducing in the books, either.)
17. Your favorite celebs from the movies or fandom. (See above about not paying much mind to actors. And I once got chewed out by a Big Name Fan for not knowing who the hell she was.)
25. Song that reminds you of HP. (Why would a song remind me of the Potterverse?)
26. What aspect of the books has been best translated to film? (See above on "not going to the movies.")
27. What aspect of the books has been most poorly translated to film? (Ibid.)
That's ten questions out of thirty that I can't answer. You'd think I was never in the fandom at all.
None of which is even remotely important. But it bothers me that I can't answer questions about two topics I care about. It makes me feel stupid, and I don't like feeling stupid.
***
And my parents HATED Shakespeare. Hated hated hated hated him. I never heard my mother, my aunt or my grandfather say one good thing about the man or his writing. They considered him overrated and incomprehensible. They did buy me a number of prose adaptations of his works--they felt an educated person should be familiar with the stories that he wrote--but they loathed both his plays and his poetry and definitely didn't approve of me reading him. (They didn't really like ANY poetry. They bought me tons of second-hand books of poetry, but they regarded this more as liver for the mind--good for you, but not something you're expected to enjoy.)
If I hadn't found a Complete Works of Shakespeare lying out by a neighbor's curb one Sunday to be hauled away by the garbage men, I never would have gotten one. And I hid it for years because I was afraid they would make me throw the book out again.
I would have been about ten then. And the book was huge in tiny print and very definitely written for adults.
I read it anyway.
Shakespeare also made sneak border raids in other books, though. Roller Skates, a Newbery winner, dealt with The Tempest. I found the witches' recipe from Macbeth in a childrens' book of stories and poems about witches. Memorized it, too. That might have been why I picked up a book with the improbable title of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. Brave New World--which I read for the first time at twelve--quoted just about every play. Shakespeare even slipped into TV shows. I'm not sure where I saw my first version of the balcony scene, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was on Rocky and Bullwinkle. I do know that the first time that I saw any version of Hamlet was on Gilligan's Island. The castaways were putting on Hamlet as a musical. Ultra-ultra- condensed, but they got the basic storyline. I heard my first Shakespearean sonnet on a CBS show called Beauty and the Beast. Sonnet 29:
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
This was in a book sent to the heroine, Catherine Chandler, and was read in a voiceover by the eponymous beast, Vincent.
So over time I picked up bits about Shakespeare through what I read and what I watched, but--except for the aforementioned R & J (when I was fourteen, and which I loathed; I think the fact that my favorite character in the play never appears onstage at all says something) and Macbeth (when I was sixteen, and which I loved unequivocally)--not much through deliberate study. The high schools and college I attended were rather resolutely Irish, with a great deal of emphasis placed on Irish writers and very little on purely English ones. Though I do recall one story about Shakespeare having to go to Ireland to learn how to use the English language beautifully.
And up until recently, I thought I knew Shakespeare pretty well. It's only of late that I've started hanging around people on LJ who know Shakespeare inside out and upside down--and who act as if Shakespeare is not, perish the thought, serious business, but something that they can use to have fun.
Which is rather intoxicating, and which I never imagined was possible.
All of which is a very long explanation for why I'm not able to answer most of a meme. It's not that I don't know the plays--it's that my approach to them has been very different from the meme writer's--not at all visual (it's rather hard to have a favorite fight scene when your main exposure to Shakespeare's fight scenes has been through stage directions), not at all related to performance (I can't talk about the first Shakespeare play I saw, the first movie version of a play, about adaptations of plays, or about a role I've never played but would want to [I wouldn't WANT to be on stage, because no matter how good I was, people would focus on my weight and my swollen legs]). I certainly can't talk about an actor or actress I'd like to see in a particular role because I'm barely aware of actors or actresses; I can't identify most of them on a bet.
And that's only some of the things I can't answer. I feel outclassed by the meme.
What's irritating is that I find myself stumbling over the Harry Potter meme just as much, and that was a fandom I participated in. Shakespeare fandom is new for me, but I was in Potter fandom for years and yet I'm still having trouble with some things:
04. Your favorite movie. (Don't have one. I've seen two movies entirely and bits of two more. The first two were all right. The next two were a little less so.)
05. Wizard Rock: discuss. (What IS it?)
07. Drink that reminds you of HP. (Uh...aside from Butterbeer, which doesn't exist, nothing.)
11. Character you're crushing on. (I rarely crush on characters, and when I do, they're generally in a visual medium like film or TV. Book characters--I can't think of a single time I've done that. And since almost all of my exposure to the Potterverse has been through reading...)
12. Favorite movie scene. (Did you miss the bit about my not having a favorite movie?)
14. Moments in the books/movies that made you cry. (None. There were a few moments that I yelled in protest, one death that made me do the Numfar Dance of Joy, and two entire books that made me shriek in despair, but nothing made me cry. I can't think of anything particularly tear-inducing in the books, either.)
17. Your favorite celebs from the movies or fandom. (See above about not paying much mind to actors. And I once got chewed out by a Big Name Fan for not knowing who the hell she was.)
25. Song that reminds you of HP. (Why would a song remind me of the Potterverse?)
26. What aspect of the books has been best translated to film? (See above on "not going to the movies.")
27. What aspect of the books has been most poorly translated to film? (Ibid.)
That's ten questions out of thirty that I can't answer. You'd think I was never in the fandom at all.
None of which is even remotely important. But it bothers me that I can't answer questions about two topics I care about. It makes me feel stupid, and I don't like feeling stupid.
***