So. It's 4 in the morning. I've been up since 1. I've watched Finding Nemo. I've written a 500 word French composition. I'm considering moving on to some Lit homework, but I may try to go back to sleep.
Meanwhile, here's a video!
This is my absolute favorite Belle & Sebastian song. The album version (from If You're Feeling Sinister) is much more subdued, but I do like this raucous live version.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
Hamlet Musings - Gertrude
We were talking about Hamlet today in class and the topic of how we feel about Gertrude as a character came up, which got me thinking.
One of the essential questions I think we need to ask when judging a character like Gertrude is how much personal autonomy does a woman like her have in what is presumably medieval Denmark? Sure, the question gets thrown out the window if you set the play in a more modern time, but I think that the question is valid when contemplating the play in its original setting. How much power did she have in regards to her marriage? It seems highly doubtful that she would have had the freedom of choice to choose who she marries. While we have a romanticized view of marriage in our modern world, this was not so for the time period that Hamlet is set in. More likely, Gertrude was married to King Hamlet for dynastic reasons; maybe their two families formed some sort of alliance through the marriage, maybe she would inherit great wealth and land from her father or some other sort of similar scenario, but I find it highly unlikely that they married for love. Sure, Hamlet claims that his father cared for her dearly, but what child doesn’t romanticize their parents’ relationship? Additionally, he has been gone at school in Germany for presumably some time and thus his memory of his father’s relationship is obscured from lack of everyday contact. Stricken by grief and what he feels as the horror of reality, Hamlet venerates his father to make him out to be a glorious figure. It makes sense then for him to think of his father as this great devoted husband.
How then, can we judge Gertrude too harshly for her actions? It was very likely that she didn’t even love King Hamlet in the first place – but this begs the question why do we care if she loved him in the first place? Why does her being a good person revolve around her loving her husband? Because we have the expectation that a woman should be a good and loyal wife? True, if she was part of the plot to kill Hamlet then we should condemn her for that. But why should we judge her for trying to find happiness – through marrying Claudius – within the confines of the place of the woman in this society? Others cite her treatment of Hamlet as cold and distant, condemning her for that, but again, can we really blame her for feeling distant from a child that she was forced to have? In this society she would have essentially been forced to have children; though she obviously has a high political status it is still her role as a woman to do so. Is it any wonder that she might feel distant from a child that represents the fetters that society has forced upon women? This is a moot point though, because she obviously shows affection for Hamlet, even if she does act perhaps insensitively towards his father’s death. But why should she sacrifice her happiness for his comfort? As she wisely states, all people die. Hamlet will eventually get over his grief. But will if marrying again will bring her happiness, I think that it was prudent for her to jump on this chance.
I don’t necessarily think that Claudius loved Gertrude. If he had, I think he would have found some way to stop her from drinking that poisoned wine and afterwards he would have not claimed that she was just swooning from the sight of blood. He wanted her to wife and, as with her marriage to King Hamlet, did she really have the power to refuse his desire? He would have been the king regardless of whether he married her. If he found another wife, where would Gertrude be? Her husband can no longer protect her and her son is an adolescent studying in Germany. Marrying Claudius was safe. Yet there is evidence that Gertrude values romantic love. At Ophelia’s funeral she states that “I hoped thou shouldst be m y Hamlet’s wife. / I thought thy bridebed to have decked, sweet maid, / and not have strewed they grave” (Act V.1 line 233-236). Ophelia and Hamlet would never be married because of their disparate social statuses, but Gertrude wishes that they had been allowed to. Perhaps she even wishes this for herself.
All in all, I think that Gertrude is as trapped in this society as Ophelia is and that we judge her far too harshly.
One of the essential questions I think we need to ask when judging a character like Gertrude is how much personal autonomy does a woman like her have in what is presumably medieval Denmark? Sure, the question gets thrown out the window if you set the play in a more modern time, but I think that the question is valid when contemplating the play in its original setting. How much power did she have in regards to her marriage? It seems highly doubtful that she would have had the freedom of choice to choose who she marries. While we have a romanticized view of marriage in our modern world, this was not so for the time period that Hamlet is set in. More likely, Gertrude was married to King Hamlet for dynastic reasons; maybe their two families formed some sort of alliance through the marriage, maybe she would inherit great wealth and land from her father or some other sort of similar scenario, but I find it highly unlikely that they married for love. Sure, Hamlet claims that his father cared for her dearly, but what child doesn’t romanticize their parents’ relationship? Additionally, he has been gone at school in Germany for presumably some time and thus his memory of his father’s relationship is obscured from lack of everyday contact. Stricken by grief and what he feels as the horror of reality, Hamlet venerates his father to make him out to be a glorious figure. It makes sense then for him to think of his father as this great devoted husband.
How then, can we judge Gertrude too harshly for her actions? It was very likely that she didn’t even love King Hamlet in the first place – but this begs the question why do we care if she loved him in the first place? Why does her being a good person revolve around her loving her husband? Because we have the expectation that a woman should be a good and loyal wife? True, if she was part of the plot to kill Hamlet then we should condemn her for that. But why should we judge her for trying to find happiness – through marrying Claudius – within the confines of the place of the woman in this society? Others cite her treatment of Hamlet as cold and distant, condemning her for that, but again, can we really blame her for feeling distant from a child that she was forced to have? In this society she would have essentially been forced to have children; though she obviously has a high political status it is still her role as a woman to do so. Is it any wonder that she might feel distant from a child that represents the fetters that society has forced upon women? This is a moot point though, because she obviously shows affection for Hamlet, even if she does act perhaps insensitively towards his father’s death. But why should she sacrifice her happiness for his comfort? As she wisely states, all people die. Hamlet will eventually get over his grief. But will if marrying again will bring her happiness, I think that it was prudent for her to jump on this chance.
I don’t necessarily think that Claudius loved Gertrude. If he had, I think he would have found some way to stop her from drinking that poisoned wine and afterwards he would have not claimed that she was just swooning from the sight of blood. He wanted her to wife and, as with her marriage to King Hamlet, did she really have the power to refuse his desire? He would have been the king regardless of whether he married her. If he found another wife, where would Gertrude be? Her husband can no longer protect her and her son is an adolescent studying in Germany. Marrying Claudius was safe. Yet there is evidence that Gertrude values romantic love. At Ophelia’s funeral she states that “I hoped thou shouldst be m y Hamlet’s wife. / I thought thy bridebed to have decked, sweet maid, / and not have strewed they grave” (Act V.1 line 233-236). Ophelia and Hamlet would never be married because of their disparate social statuses, but Gertrude wishes that they had been allowed to. Perhaps she even wishes this for herself.
All in all, I think that Gertrude is as trapped in this society as Ophelia is and that we judge her far too harshly.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Music Tuesday - "The Final Countdown"
Europe - The Final Countdown
SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!!!! I'm super excited.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Music Monday - Back to School!
Pete Seeger - What Did You Learn in School Today?
Yikes! School starts in two days!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Book Review - The Wasp Factory
The Wasp Factory: A Novel by Iain M. BanksMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have really conflicted feelings about this book. I honestly cannot say if I enjoyed reading it at all. I suppose that enjoy is really not the right word; The Wasp Factory portrayed a great deal of violence against both animals and humans that I found difficult to stomach. The pivotal scene that explained Eric's mental illness made me dry heave for an entire afternoon.
Basically, The Wasp Factory tells the story of a Scottish boy named Frank. As Frank has no birth certificate and does not officially exist, he lives in seclusion with his controlling father Angus. Frank narrates the book and tells us of his childhood, the rituals of his daily life, the atrocities that he has committed, etc etc. A great deal of his psychological issues seem to be a result of a terrible accident that he has as a child (the family dog attacks and castrates him). The plot set in the present revolves around Frank's brother Eric who has escaped from a hospital for the mentally ill and is making his way back home. As Eric nearly reaches the house - lighting an entire flock of sheep on fire on the way - Frank discovers that he was actually born and girl and just raised by his father as a boy after his accident.
I'm still not really sure what to make of this book. Frank has some serious issues with women and his masculinity in the book, yet once he realizes that he's actually a girl he comes to terms with it remarkably quickly. That really doesn't make sense to me. Eric's mental illness also seems a bit iffy. The books seems to suggest that his violence and psychosis stems primarily from this one afternoon in the hospital when he discovered an infant with it's brain eaten out by maggots; it's a horrific image, but does mental illness actually work like that? I admittedly don't know enough to be a good judge, but Eric's actually are so terrible that I don't think they can be a result of the trauma alone.
Despite my objections, The Wasp Factory was a compelling read.
View all my reviews >>
Music Wednesday - Bumbershoot Edition
This is super late, since Bumbershoot was this past Sunday, but I figured I'd post it anyway. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs live are fantastic. Karen O has such an exuberance that it was just a joy to watch her on stage doin' her thing.
Maps by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Maps by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Thursday, August 20, 2009
History Musings
The one thing that is always disappointing when you actually study history is that all those glorified heroic figures are never as cool as you want them to be.
I absolutely love the Robin Hood myths. I watched the Errol Flynn version at a very impressionable age and the Disney Robin Hood was probably my favorite Disney movie. So while I was reading Alison Weir's biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine it was a huge blow to learn about the true character of Richard Coeur de Lion. According to the Robin Hood myths that I've encountered, Richard is supposedly a great and honorable king who champions the cause of the Saxon peasantry and fights courageously in the Holy Land. Once he returns to England, he saves the nation from the clutches of the evil Prince John who has attempted to usurp the throne.
For one thing, it is completely unlikely that Robin Hood would have lived during Richard I's reign; most sources place him in the 13th or 14th century, at least 100 years after Richard was king. But to make things even worse, Richard was a horrible king! He had a reputation of excessive cruelty, to the point that the character of Malik-Ric (evil Richard) was used for centuries by mothers in the Middle East to make their children behave; while on crusade, Richard had nearly 3,000 Turkish men, women and children beheaded because Saladin wouldn't surrender to him. His sexual appetite was so voracious that he abducted and raped the wives and daughters of his vassals and fathered numerous bastards. The man didn't even speak a word of English! (While the monarchs of England were still Normans, they usually had lived in the country long enough to speak some of their subjects' language. They'd be just beginning with Middle English I think.) Raised in Aquitaine with his mother, he understood only the culture and lange d'oc of Southern France. Richard I spent less than a year out of his 10 year reign actually in England; the rest of the time he spent in France or crusading in the Holy Land (the expense of which sucked the country dry). King John's early reign actually proved that he was a better king than Richard and was morally neither better or worse than his brother. (From what I've read, King John became much worse later in his reign - which is why his barons forced him to sign the Magne Carta - but the book ended with Eleanor's death, not with John's).
Robin Hood was probably just a bandit who stole for his own gain too. Phaugh. I'll take Errol Flynn any day.
I absolutely love the Robin Hood myths. I watched the Errol Flynn version at a very impressionable age and the Disney Robin Hood was probably my favorite Disney movie. So while I was reading Alison Weir's biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine it was a huge blow to learn about the true character of Richard Coeur de Lion. According to the Robin Hood myths that I've encountered, Richard is supposedly a great and honorable king who champions the cause of the Saxon peasantry and fights courageously in the Holy Land. Once he returns to England, he saves the nation from the clutches of the evil Prince John who has attempted to usurp the throne.
For one thing, it is completely unlikely that Robin Hood would have lived during Richard I's reign; most sources place him in the 13th or 14th century, at least 100 years after Richard was king. But to make things even worse, Richard was a horrible king! He had a reputation of excessive cruelty, to the point that the character of Malik-Ric (evil Richard) was used for centuries by mothers in the Middle East to make their children behave; while on crusade, Richard had nearly 3,000 Turkish men, women and children beheaded because Saladin wouldn't surrender to him. His sexual appetite was so voracious that he abducted and raped the wives and daughters of his vassals and fathered numerous bastards. The man didn't even speak a word of English! (While the monarchs of England were still Normans, they usually had lived in the country long enough to speak some of their subjects' language. They'd be just beginning with Middle English I think.) Raised in Aquitaine with his mother, he understood only the culture and lange d'oc of Southern France. Richard I spent less than a year out of his 10 year reign actually in England; the rest of the time he spent in France or crusading in the Holy Land (the expense of which sucked the country dry). King John's early reign actually proved that he was a better king than Richard and was morally neither better or worse than his brother. (From what I've read, King John became much worse later in his reign - which is why his barons forced him to sign the Magne Carta - but the book ended with Eleanor's death, not with John's).
Robin Hood was probably just a bandit who stole for his own gain too. Phaugh. I'll take Errol Flynn any day.
Book Review - Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison WeirMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really like Alison Weir's biographies. She writes in a very accessible tone so that her books are neither too stuffy nor too dumbed down to read. Weir's biography follows Eleanor of Aquitaine's life from her childhood in Aquitaine through her marriages to Louis VII of France and Henry II of England, her reigns as queen in both countries and on through her old age as she championed the causes of her remaining children. This book portrays a fascinating picture of the politics of Medieval Europe in the 12th and very beginning of the 13th century. As it is a biography of the queen of France and England, it focuses mainly on those two countries, but also deals with the Middle East as both Louis VII and Richard I go on crusade (the 2nd and 3rd respectively).
The only real problem that I have with this books is that it focuses so much on the people and events that surround Eleanor of Aquitaine rather than Eleanor herself. I understand that this is due simply to a lack of primary sources that deal with Eleanor, but I feel after reading this that I know much more about her husbands and sons than I do about her. Despite this, the book was an enjoyable read as this was a very interesting period of European history.
View all my reviews >>
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Food Update!
I've cooked a whole bunch of stuff lately, so here are some pictures!
I was really surprised that this cobbler turned out to be so delicious. Well, it's a Cook's Illustrated recipe, so I shouldn't be too surprised, but I so love Mom mountain pie style cobbler that I was a little wary of the biscuity topping. The biscuits tasted really good though - they were moist and just barely sweet...really tasty with the peaches.
I can't take full credit for this pie. It was totally Eddy's mom Vickie's idea to bake it, she made the crust and I just assembled it. It's a banoffee pie, which is toffee topped with bananas and then covered with whipped cream. The banoffee pie is pretty much the most ridiculous pie I've ever seen, but it was definitely good. I'm not a huge toffee/caramel fan, so I though the toffee layer was a little overpowering, but it went really well with the bananas and whipped cream.
This was a big fussy pistachio cake that I was honestly disappointed with overall. It has layers of marzipan, apricot jam and chocolate ganache between the layers of cake and all those flavors way overpowered the pistachio. I absolutely loved the way the plain cake tasted, but the dominating flavor of the put together cake was just dull chocolate. I think the cake would be really good maybe baked in a bundt with a lemony glaze. The marzipan was a pain too - mostly because I bought chocolate covered marzipan by mistake, but the rolling out and cutting process was just way to fussy for my taste.
I also made Pasta Carbonara, Chicken Marsala, Lemon Cream Scones and Zucchini Bread, but I don't have pictures of any of those.
I was really surprised that this cobbler turned out to be so delicious. Well, it's a Cook's Illustrated recipe, so I shouldn't be too surprised, but I so love Mom mountain pie style cobbler that I was a little wary of the biscuity topping. The biscuits tasted really good though - they were moist and just barely sweet...really tasty with the peaches.
I can't take full credit for this pie. It was totally Eddy's mom Vickie's idea to bake it, she made the crust and I just assembled it. It's a banoffee pie, which is toffee topped with bananas and then covered with whipped cream. The banoffee pie is pretty much the most ridiculous pie I've ever seen, but it was definitely good. I'm not a huge toffee/caramel fan, so I though the toffee layer was a little overpowering, but it went really well with the bananas and whipped cream.
This was a big fussy pistachio cake that I was honestly disappointed with overall. It has layers of marzipan, apricot jam and chocolate ganache between the layers of cake and all those flavors way overpowered the pistachio. I absolutely loved the way the plain cake tasted, but the dominating flavor of the put together cake was just dull chocolate. I think the cake would be really good maybe baked in a bundt with a lemony glaze. The marzipan was a pain too - mostly because I bought chocolate covered marzipan by mistake, but the rolling out and cutting process was just way to fussy for my taste.
I also made Pasta Carbonara, Chicken Marsala, Lemon Cream Scones and Zucchini Bread, but I don't have pictures of any of those.
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