I read this act much faster than the first one. Instead of the first act where I went slowly and wrote down notes, I read this section in one sitting. Reading it slowly was definitely much better because I caught more of the humor and the questions about life that Stoddard presents.
In the first act, Guildenstern was my favorite character due to his deep thoughts and good sense of humor, but in act two, Rosencrantz runs circles around Guildenstern.
* I thought the use of "delve" by ROS was very interesting - a very nice connection to Hamlet.
* The way he "demonstrates the misuse of free speech to prove that it exists" is absolutely hysterical
* And his existential angst as he thinks up the dead-in-a-box dilemma is fantastic
One more thing that I should mention is that I really don't like the player. I'm not sure what it is that makes me dislike him so much. Maybe it's his omniscience in a world that's not supposed to be knowable. Or maybe I just don't like his arrogant, 'I'm better than you' attitude toward R&G. Whatever the case may be, he just gives me the creeps!
A Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew walked into a bar...
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Michael Gerson: Obama's Speech...
Speaking of rhetoric, Gerson's response is not top quality either: "I found some of the phrasing odd when they tried to reach they did not reach effectively for memorable phrases." How about these couple of fragments: "He made one reference to his father, if he had been here 50 or 60 years ago he might have been denied service. Which I thought was fine, but it needed ambitious rhetorical summary and he purposely did not do it."
He keeps talking about how Obama's speech was not rhetorical, but I wonder if it really matters. Whether he uses perfect rhetoric or not, Barack Obama captures the attention of the people, inspiring hope across the nation. Because Obama wants to come across as a citizen on the same level as the public, colloquialisms are a choice. His colloquial language creates a authoritative yet friendly tone.
I must say that I did not understand the part about "parsing" Rick Warren's prayer and the fact that it was pluralism. Personally, I thought that it was great that Warren actually used the name of Jesus because most of the time he is so busy trying to make people happy that he doesn't preach Jesus. I'm glad that he used it, and I don't think that saying Jesus' name in multiple languages is religiously pluralistic.
He keeps talking about how Obama's speech was not rhetorical, but I wonder if it really matters. Whether he uses perfect rhetoric or not, Barack Obama captures the attention of the people, inspiring hope across the nation. Because Obama wants to come across as a citizen on the same level as the public, colloquialisms are a choice. His colloquial language creates a authoritative yet friendly tone.
I must say that I did not understand the part about "parsing" Rick Warren's prayer and the fact that it was pluralism. Personally, I thought that it was great that Warren actually used the name of Jesus because most of the time he is so busy trying to make people happy that he doesn't preach Jesus. I'm glad that he used it, and I don't think that saying Jesus' name in multiple languages is religiously pluralistic.
R & G R _____ - Day 2 -
Why didn't they call the book, "Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are Dead," or for that matter, it would be just as sufficient to call it "Guildenstern is Dead Twice!" Maybe it shouldn't have a title at all.
The banter in this play is funny (it's a good thing since it is a comedy, and banter is all there is). I take it that Guildenstern is in fact not gay because of his reaction to the player's advances on page 26: "GUIL smashes the PLAYER across the face." The gay jokes to provide laughs though. I noticed some Postmodern aspects. Specifically...
the player (28) - "We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else" - (multiple/alternate realities, transcience)
the player and guildenstern (33) - "G: aren't you going to change into your costume? P: I never change out of it, sir" - he never changes out of his costume because he is always a player, shakespeare never writes him differently; metafiction
guildenstern (40) - "it's all done for you" - more metafiction
(41) - "Words, words. They're all we have to go on" - not only does this quote Hamlet, it also expresses the postmodern technoculture. Words are our identity. However, an interesting side note is that because under postmodernism, words don't mean anything anyway, identity really isn't meaningful at all.
My favorite quote so far is on page 47 (from Guildenstern the Deep) - R: Who am I then? G: "You're yourself." hmmm... yes Guildy... you are a smart one.
The banter in this play is funny (it's a good thing since it is a comedy, and banter is all there is). I take it that Guildenstern is in fact not gay because of his reaction to the player's advances on page 26: "GUIL smashes the PLAYER across the face." The gay jokes to provide laughs though. I noticed some Postmodern aspects. Specifically...
the player (28) - "We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else" - (multiple/alternate realities, transcience)
the player and guildenstern (33) - "G: aren't you going to change into your costume? P: I never change out of it, sir" - he never changes out of his costume because he is always a player, shakespeare never writes him differently; metafiction
guildenstern (40) - "it's all done for you" - more metafiction
(41) - "Words, words. They're all we have to go on" - not only does this quote Hamlet, it also expresses the postmodern technoculture. Words are our identity. However, an interesting side note is that because under postmodernism, words don't mean anything anyway, identity really isn't meaningful at all.
My favorite quote so far is on page 47 (from Guildenstern the Deep) - R: Who am I then? G: "You're yourself." hmmm... yes Guildy... you are a smart one.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - day 1
This is one of the funniest plays I have ever read!
I flipped a penny today to see how many times it would come up heads or tails. I don't know why I did because I should have known it would come up as either heads or tails every time. My results: Heads heads tails heads heads tails tails heads heads tails. My conclusions: My results are inconclusive.
Stoppard plays around a lot with wordplay and ambiguity in Rosy and Guildy's comic banter.
[ex. "afraid" (p.15), "What's the first thing you remember?" (p.16), toenails and beard growth (p.18)] I think it's funny that two people who have never been born are contemplating birth. It is reflecting the postmodern characteristic: "Why?"
I am definately excited to keep reading this play!
I flipped a penny today to see how many times it would come up heads or tails. I don't know why I did because I should have known it would come up as either heads or tails every time. My results: Heads heads tails heads heads tails tails heads heads tails. My conclusions: My results are inconclusive.
Stoppard plays around a lot with wordplay and ambiguity in Rosy and Guildy's comic banter.
[ex. "afraid" (p.15), "What's the first thing you remember?" (p.16), toenails and beard growth (p.18)] I think it's funny that two people who have never been born are contemplating birth. It is reflecting the postmodern characteristic: "Why?"
I am definately excited to keep reading this play!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Hamlet's Character Progression
Throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet changes spiritually, philosophically, and psychologically. Hamlet goes to school at Wittenburg, the city in Germany where the protestant reformation started. He struggles with his protestant worldview when he first encounters his father's ghost saying, "be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned" (I.iv.40). According to protestants, ghosts do not exist aside from demons. Hamlet also wants to go against religious beliefs (this time catholic) when he monologues, "O, that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon against self-slaughter! O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!" (I.ii.132-4). Throughout the play Hamlet oscillates between being almost ready to murder himself and others to being an introverted and isolated madman. The spiritual and philosophical aspects of his life strongly affect the psychological. They are intertwined by the controversy between what Hamlet feels (revenge) and what he has learned is right (either by catholic or protestant standards).
This spiritual/philosophical conflict drives his psychological change. For example, Hamlet puts on an "antic disposition" feigning madness. He hides in his madness as he plots his revenge against King Claudius, but his spiritual convictions in the first half of the play keep him from carrying it out. While Shakespeare's audience wonders if Hamlet is truly mad or just feigning it, there are three events at the climax of the play that change Hamlet's philosophical worldview. Hamlet uses a group of traveling players to confirm Claudius' guilt, he tells Ophelia to "get the to a nunnery," and he accidentally kills Polonious "taking him for his better" (the King). From then on, Hamlet's approach to life is different - he is driven by his revenge. The only reason he does not kill the king in Act three is because Hamlet is afraid that Claudius would go to heaven, and Hamlet would not let that happen. He decides to kill King Claudius "when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in the' incestuous pleasure of his bed" (III.iii.89-90). In the end, Hamlet kills Claudius, Laertes, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
Hamlet's understanding of the spiritual world was challenged with the ghost, but his overall spiritual knowledge stayed the same throughout the play. What changed was the stance he took toward it (his philosophy). After Act three, Hamlet no longer valued life. He constantly repeats his thought that everyone returns to dirt sometime. One instance is when he is contemplating Yorick's skull; "To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till 'a find it stopping a bunghole" (V.i.162-64). Finally, throughout the play, changed psychologically from completely sane to feigning madness, to completely mad. At the end, his posed madness conquers him and Hamlet talks to the dead and thoughtlessly kills 4 people.
This spiritual/philosophical conflict drives his psychological change. For example, Hamlet puts on an "antic disposition" feigning madness. He hides in his madness as he plots his revenge against King Claudius, but his spiritual convictions in the first half of the play keep him from carrying it out. While Shakespeare's audience wonders if Hamlet is truly mad or just feigning it, there are three events at the climax of the play that change Hamlet's philosophical worldview. Hamlet uses a group of traveling players to confirm Claudius' guilt, he tells Ophelia to "get the to a nunnery," and he accidentally kills Polonious "taking him for his better" (the King). From then on, Hamlet's approach to life is different - he is driven by his revenge. The only reason he does not kill the king in Act three is because Hamlet is afraid that Claudius would go to heaven, and Hamlet would not let that happen. He decides to kill King Claudius "when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in the' incestuous pleasure of his bed" (III.iii.89-90). In the end, Hamlet kills Claudius, Laertes, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.
Hamlet's understanding of the spiritual world was challenged with the ghost, but his overall spiritual knowledge stayed the same throughout the play. What changed was the stance he took toward it (his philosophy). After Act three, Hamlet no longer valued life. He constantly repeats his thought that everyone returns to dirt sometime. One instance is when he is contemplating Yorick's skull; "To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till 'a find it stopping a bunghole" (V.i.162-64). Finally, throughout the play, changed psychologically from completely sane to feigning madness, to completely mad. At the end, his posed madness conquers him and Hamlet talks to the dead and thoughtlessly kills 4 people.
Friday, October 31, 2008
The Error of all Errors!
Haha. Ok. This is a sentence on the college-board site in the directions of the "Identifying Sentence Errors" section (it's not an example). Find the error!
"Ask yourself if any of the underlined words and phrases in the sentence contains a grammar or usage error."
Comment your answer!
"Ask yourself if any of the underlined words and phrases in the sentence contains a grammar or usage error."
Comment your answer!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Senior Quote
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."
~C. S. Lewis
~C. S. Lewis
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