No-thing became the truth.

From the book ZEN FLESH, ZEN BONES
#17. Stinging is teaching
.....
"Kusuda continued in concentration for another year and a half. His mind became placid. Problems Dissolved. No-Thing became the truth. he served his patients well and . without even knowing it he was free from concern over life and death. The he visited Nan-in, his old teacher just smiled."

I have been having a harder time with memorizing my verses than I thought I would. To clear the mind long enough to focus on a physical object in front of you...... bam. 

I am not a literature major by trade. I love language and form and the ability to create something out of nothing. The presentations that have already been performed have shown me that even out of something comes something else, and most times it is remarkable. It is Sunday at 11;10, I have 3 papers due tomorrow that I am still working on and my mind cannot get itself to stay in the moment. Oh, dear Hamlet, you were not crazy but just a college student. 

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows....

And what a strange one at that. I happened to watch the cinematic version of the The Tempest. Helen Mirren stared as  Prosperia and Russell Brand as Trinculo. Having a woman play the "Prospero" role was diffidently  different and had a new "twist" to it. I am sure that it changed the ideal behind the parent figure. There was softer shape to the character that I didn't feel with it being played by a man. 

Points

The Tempest

Definition:  

• N.
• A violent windstorm, frequently accompanied by rain, snow, or hail.
• Furious agitation, commotion, or tumult; an uproar: "The tempest in my mind/Doth from my senses take all feeling"(Shakespeare).
• [Middle English, from Old French tempeste, from Vulgar Latin *tempesta, variant of Latin tempests, from tempus,time.]

The Books:

Definition:

• N.
• a handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.

These were two themes within the plays within the plays that I found were more important than most. The Tempest, being the name of the play, is also the storm that ensues the ship and also the "game" that Prospero plays with his brother and the others while using his daughter, Miranda, was a character but also a vessel for pay back and redemption. The Books were a symbol of knowledge and power but inevitably caused more harm then good.   

INSIGHT!!!

Ha! Finally. So you all have heard the phrase "necessity is the mother of invention". Well, from necessity of needing a topic for my capstone paper my mother helped me invent my forum for it. I had an idea and she helped to put it together. There are times when you just need to admit you need some help. And bouncing ideas off others is a great way to get that help. So, my capstone:

I am always drawn to the mystic and magic of stories and Shakespeare uses them so much in what he writes about, it is almost like a slap to the face when you figure out that it has been there all along.
Some have fairies, ghost, witches, magic or astrology. I believe this to be because  the Elizabethan Period was full of superstition that it was perpetuated by the churches. Remember the Crusades..... yeah. 
Shakespeare wrote his plays for the high and low alike as we have discussed in class, but most he wrote for the everyday man and what the common man believed in.  He gave them something they could relate to.
Whether it be real of fictional. 

There were all kinds of magical spells, by both fairies and witches.  Some with good intent or mischief, some were bad and meant to curse someone. These were meant to be part satire and part fantasy. 
The spells were quite interesting.  The senses were involved in creating the magic scenes of the stories.  I will be writing about the imagery in the magic and use of color, emotions and sounds within the text that created such an effect on the audience ( who actually participate because they were so pulled into and involved in what was happening on the stage.) 
Through personal experience and that of others, I will write about the effects these ideas have on the audience. 

Better late than never

So this is the first chance I've had to write a blog for Mr. Turner's lecture and poet reading. First of all: that was brilliant. What a mind!? But the real thing was the quote about Nothing. I should have written this write after was in class and after the reading but I'll do my best to remember what he said. Nothing is somewhere out of reach of the last circle that artists and poets get to. Its past the line of chemistry and physics, past that of biology and somewhere right before getting lost. ( taking some liberty here). And also that becoming aware of such nothing is the start of something. Have to work on this a bit but I love it.

Redo

Ok so this morning during our class discussion the topic of depressing Shakespeare plays came up. "The art is not depressing, it is only you or the art itself was made to be depressing. It's not the art". I think that it does show a lot about the way one thinks when reading a play or book and the emotion that comes from that experience. But I think that gets more into Freudian philosophy on the mind. Is the way that one preseeves a situation really they way that their mind works? If the happiest person in the world were to look upon a baby being born and find that it made them incredible sad, would that make them a sorrowful person?  I think Dillion (?) was saying in class about "Mashed potatoes and rocks in a garbage can" makes a bit of sense. Essentially we all turn back into little Carbon particles so why should such emotions effect us so wildly? It falls back into the Buddhist line of thinking would it not? Dharma. Period.

Oh Poor Fool

Well I have to say I think King Lear is about 10x as dramatic and depressing  as Hamlet. At least in Hamlet there was some vengeance for all that accrued. King Lear, like in any good Shakespeare play, had everything in the beginning and was left with nothing in the end. I may find this one more emotional because it is based more on the father- daughter relationship and what happens when the father gets older and how he is treated and regarded. People have choices in life and  since I have a great relationship with my dad, I would have to say that I would never make him go mad(although I'm sure he'd say otherwise).   I know King Lears madness is what makes him King Lear, just like Hamlets madness makes him Hamlet, but I can not see why he would not have just taken up his knights and gone to find Cordelia after his other daughters had been so terrible to him. Would that not make more sense? And yet that would have made for a terrible play.

I think there is something to be said about the suffering of others that makes us understand our selves better. Not so much that we would act according to our thoughts but that it brings awareness to the actions that may be brought up at a different time.

death becomes you....

"Geniuses don't make errors- it is just a portal to another discovery"

And we shouldn't live with shame. 

Ides of March.....

Well, almost getting hit by a speeding car and being inches near death put Hamlet into a whole new perspective.

Do we play to play?

Now for reals. So this is not the play but an interview done with Jude Law. He recently performed Hamlet on stage in London, about a year or so ago. The way he describes what he went through while playing Hamlet was very much like what Mr. Sexson was saying in class about how Hamlet was ( bad way of re-saying this) " he new the meanings behind everything." Jude says that he " somewhat became Hamlet while playing him", being able to see what it took to become "the madness with in the man". I believe that we all, in turn, play Hamlet at one time or another. Maybe not questioning whether or not we should live or die but questioning the cosmos and the way in which we live. Is it not true?

Monsterpeice Theater

Just like Hamlet, Cookie Monster is no more. On the lighter side of things I guess. :)

Karma's a com'n!

So we all know the the famous line "To be or not to be". And as Professor Sexson was saying in class this morning, we've heard about every rendition that anyone could come up with. The line that I find interesting how ever is the line right before that where Claudius's conscience is getting the better of him.

"How smart a last that speech doth give m conscience! 
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art, 
is not more ugly to the thing that helps it
Than is my deed to my most painted word.
O heavy burden!"

With in this, the audience is given a tempted treat. It could go two ways: 1.) It is possible that what Scott was saying that Hamlet is just a raving lunatic (taking freedom with that one) and that he  is over exaggerating the death of his father and that Claudius is just feeling guilty for the pain that the quick marriage to Hamlets mother is putting onto Hamlet. Or 2.) is that it is possible that Claudius really did kill his own brother  and marrying his sister - in- law and becoming king to Denmark, and is living out a plot to take over the throne and create the diversion that Hamlet is the crazy one so that he would be put away and then he (Claudius) wouldn't have to deal with him again.

Either way the fact that Claudius feels guilty for something shows that he knows what he did, by marrying his brothers wife was probably not the smartest thing to have done so quickly.

Paper Airplane Love

High over head, the moon, she waits
The ground underneath, lit like a lamp.
The distance between us, one we both hate.
A seal that marks us both like a stamp.

Afternoon coffee with a sweet little smile,
After dinner dishes that you asked to do
No one had been that kind in a while
Now I couldn't imagine anyone but you.

The mornings come, as does the new day.
Little trinkets and flowers that we send
until we see the other on the fifth of May
the bonds of love will never bend.

Paper air planes fly through trees and lines,
Mostly Blue Spruce, Western White, and Ponderosa Pine

This is my sonnet for my significant otter. It's being sent out tomorrow via United States Post :).  It's a little loaded but that's the way I write my pieces. I feel like our generation is coming dangerously close to loosing the art of writing. Emails and text messages don't count or cut it. People took time out of their day to write each other beautifully crafted letters, announcements,  and  thank yous.

Marion...." The girl with clay on her hands and green eyes"

So I have been thinking a lot about our discussion that we had about Hamlet being Hamlet. The book title above shows an example of certain people get out of what they read. "Ghost Dad" is an interesting title because although the story is about Hamlet revenging his fathers death, I feel that it is more about Hamlet and they way he handles his life. It's the same as if everyone were "normal". (What is normal anyway?) There wouldn't be anybody to make us think about why we are the way we are. We have people in the world that are straight edge, a little loopy, conservative, eccentric, and just plain orbital because that is their normal. I'm not trying to play "devils advocate" even though it may sound like it, but although it is clinical proven that Hamlet is mentally unhealthy, we wouldn't have HAMLET with out that mental disease. 

Hamlet comes in many forms...

It is just a Thursday night, nothing too special. My roommates and I went and had dinner with friends at The Garage. Such a great place to just relax and hang out. Get a beer and some good food with great company, what's not to like?On our way back home, one of my roommates started to tell me things about herself that I hadn't realized before. Things that I had lived with for months and hadn't noticed because I thought that she had been upset with me....slap to the face.
We started talking and got into a pretty deep discussion: mostly about life and the worries we both have, the future and the way our society is going, and how we are to change such things. And then she said this amazing bit (paraphrasing here and not as wonderful as how she said it), " We are all so small and insignificant and the things we do are so small but the way we are taught to think about everything is so big! We're ignorant for thinking such things matter, even though such things matter so much to us." Like I said, I can't remember how she said it exactly but I think this is the gist of it. Here we are having this deep conversation and all I can think as I sit there is "Wow, that was the best piece of Hamlet I've ever heard!" I think I ruined the moment by saying that out loud but it was true and I think that it is something that Hamlet has to deal with as well. I think it is something that all young people have to deal with; having to see the future in a bigger picture and then realizing that much of it really doesn't matter in the end..
Interesting thought.

"When that poem would be coming like a freight train..."

The dreams that occure in between alarms

"Sleep is the best meditation."- The Dalai Lama

We've been talking a lot the dreams that we have and also the ones that the characters have. I think it's interesting that there are two sides of the perception of dreaming: Do we look deeper into our dreams and find the meaning, or do we simple see them as a portal into our imaginations? The mind is vast isn't it?

Recently I've been noticing my own dreams. Maybe because I see faces a little more clearly and remember them or maybe it's because the colors are a little less vivid and some of the dreams are black and white. I noticed with one in particular that I seem to have it more in between when my first alarm goes off and when the second alarm goes off for me to get up in the morning. These dreams tend to be more abstract than regular REM sleep dreams but this one is nicer. I see faces of friends and family that I haven't seen in a while. they tend to usually be pretty happy and I think I'm usually some where that is familiar to me, or at least I have the feeling that it is. Somewhere like my parents house or my middle school. For what ever reason these are the dreams I tend to hold on to. Even though many of them are disturbing or just plain strange.  

Language

So, while walking in Walmart this afternoon, I tried the insult from Shakespeare Insult Kit. It was just to my boyfriend but it did the job non the less. Stunned and baffled that I would even use such words but it was hilarious. Thou goated, hedge-born, harpy. I think he thought I may have been cussing him out. I had to explain that I wasn't.

I think when something is said that someone doesn't understand or they can't hear, it puts them on a defensive mind set. Just the way Clayton thought that I was cussing him. Language is funny in that we all speak it but we never seem to speak the SAME language.

Here are two video that I high recommend you watch. And if you have seen them, watch them again and think about it this time.

PBS is a great spot for understanding a little bit more of the ideas that are sometimes a little coded in their meaning.

As much as I would like to say I'm an auditory learner, there are the times I need the diagram to see how things are going even if it is out in the open. I have been having the same issue as Austin, I feel that my posts are at the bottom rather than the top with the rest of the class. Something that I have realized in class is how connected most literature is. I am currently in the Southern Literature class and constantly get see the lines from Shakespeare. I am going to rework this post but wanted to at least get something down. I'll come back and revisit. Soon. 

"And when love speaks"

This post is very much over due, "slacker" should be my middle name.

But this post is really about language. My roommate and I are sitting in a downtown coffee shop working on piles of homework. The interesting thing about being here is not so much the steady stream of people coming in and out getting their daily dose of legal stimulant, but what I truly find intriguing is how they interact and speak with one another. I recently watched the video that Eutrepe Brooks posted on her blog, and heard the line " Shakespeare used over 50,000 words, were as the modern American only uses around 3,000".  I'm sure that many of you have done the whole "people watching" thing: Sitting in a public area watching others walk by performing daily tasks, going to lunch or dinner, holding hands and just enjoying the simple pleasure of being in the presence of a loved one. The sun is shining or the clouds are passing, you get a tune stuck in your head that seems to put your experience into a serendipitous scene out of a movie.   

Next time you get to experience this cosmic moment, listen to what the passerby's are saying. Not just the words they are saying but how they are saying them. Listen instead to the tones and the melodies in the voice. This is what being in this coffee shop on Martin Luther King Monday is like. There is a woman and her friend sitting behind us. The woman directly behind me has a voice that is low pitched, very serious, and very musical. Her friend: a mild and dry voice. There is a little girl sitting with her loving mother. Her voice mirrors that of a spring song bird: high pitched but full of beautiful tones. "Hi, and My colors" seem to be her favorite phrases. 

I believe that Shakespeare new that such tones and rhythms were important to the language that he was "creating". Ted Hughes says Shakespeare, along with creating his own language also created his own "translation machine". I believe that this was something extremely important because it put a melody and rhythmic patterns into a system of language brand new to the time that was going through a cultural change. 

"The complexity of knotted metaphor melts, that is into a musical complexity , a sinuous, melodious orchestration of tones where words have resumed their simple directness with out losing their amplitude" . Next time someone speaks, count out the timing of a sentence, or find the melody in their voice. 

Onto the next big adventure! 

to start off

                           

               Hello all! Or who ever happens to find this while surfing through the internet. I am excited to be in this course and look forward to all that is to come. I, like some others, only know a little about Shakespeare and there for can only say that I'll do my best to keep up. I am thrilled  to have gotten in this class.