William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope

I've had William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope for a rather long time now on my Kindle. Life's been so busy though that I forgot it was there. I finally had some time to read it earlier today though; because it's written like a Shakespeare play I managed to get through it in a day.

So first, the good: this is Star Wars: a New Hope written in iambic pentameter. That's awesome!!! The dialogue was pretty amazing, and I loved a lot of the asides; the asides were super fitting and made what people said out loud much more interesting. Also, R2 D2 purposely pretending to only speak in beeps while being a Puck-style character was hilarious!

The bad: I did not like how Ian Doescher went out of his way to copy other Shakespearean plays. For example: at one point Luke starts talking to a Stormtrooper helmet like how Hamlet talks to Yorick's skull. I thought that was stupid and did not need to be there. Also, the Chorus was the most annoying thing ever. It made sense to be there at say the beginning when you would normally get the title scroll. But it would randomly show up in the middle of a scene, taking away from the hilarious dialogue. I hated that because it dropped you out of the action (even though it was often there to set the scene for the action). Also, in the majority of Shakespearean plays I've read, you get along quite well without the chorus - generally there's a few minor stage directions and otherwise characters tell you what's happening in dialogue.

So overall I'm glad I read William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, a New Hope, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I love Shakespeare and I love Star Wars. Unfortunately the two together weren't quite as awesome as I expected them to be. :(

The Merchant of Venice

So my brother and I decided back in June that we were going to read a Shakespearen play a month for the next year starting in August. Looking at it now, I probably shouldn't have agreed to it; I had a goal to read 50 books off the List this year and I'm already behind on it. But whatever, I like Shakespeare.

Both of us were running a bit behind with our reading; it's September 1st and I just finished reading the first play, The Merchant of Venice. I'll have to do better with September's King Lear.

The Merchant of Venice is Antonio. His best friend wants to borrow money to woo Portia, a beautiful heiress. Since he doesn't have the money on him, he borrows it from Shylock the Jew. But if he doesn't pay the money back in time, Shylock insists he will talk a pound of Antonio's flesh.

Portia herself has her own problems. To win her hand, her father decreed that a suitor will have to open one of three chests (a gold one, a silver one, and a lead one). If the suitor found her picture, they would be wed; if he failed, he was to leave and never speak to her again. Men were coming from all over to woo her, but few would brave the chests.

The Merchant of Venice reminded me of a comedic Timon of Athens. Both Antonio and Timon are very generous. But when Antonio runs out of money, his friends rally around him (as opposed to Timon, whose friends pretty much ignored him).

The Merchant of Venice was a fantastic comedy. It has the typical cross-dressing (remember, in Shakespeare's day these would be boys dressing up as girls who were disguising themselves as boys), star-crossed lovers, and a really interesting law debate where Shylock refused to be dissuaded from having his pound of flesh. The Merchant of Venice is one play I've never read before, but I really wanted to. So I'm glad I finally gave myself the chance to read it. I'm super excited for September's King Lear though - that's the one play I've wanted to read for forever (and I finally will be reading it!)

Library Book: Kill Shakespeare Volume 2: The Blast of War

So yes, I did immediately read Kill Shakespeare Volume 2 after finishing Volume 1. Volume 2 picks up literally right where Volume 1 left off. War is immanent between the forces of Richard the Third and Lady MacBeth, versus the rebellion led by Juliet and Othello. And between the two forces stands the Shadow King, Hamlet, who must make sense of the prophecy before his friends are killed in the coming war.

I really, really enjoyed both volumes of Kill Shakespeare. This is an interesting story, pitting heroes and villains from all of Shakespeare's plays against one another.

Library Book: Kill Shakespeare Volume 1: A Sea of Troubles

I've never heard of Kill Shakespeare before, but when I saw it at work, I knew I had to read it. This is a crazy mish-mash of Shakespearean characters. William Shakespeare is believed to be either a great wizard or a god; either way he is believed to wield great power with his magic quill. And Hamlet finds himself in the middle of a prophecy: he is believed to be the Shadow King, the one who will either return the Bard to his people, or kill the great wizard.

I really enjoyed this first volume. I can't wait to read the second!

The Tempest

For my Identity in Contemporary British Fiction class, my seminar is going to be on John Fowles' The Collector. A lot of the criticism on the book mentions how it is similar to Shakespeare's The Tempest, so I decided to read the play so I knew exactly how The Collector is like it. Right off the bat, with the dramatis persona, I found that some of the characters from The Collector are named after characters from The Tempest. The overall plot was rather different, but I enjoyed reading it.
The Tempest opens with a storm shipwrecking the King of Naples’ ship. Everyone is scattered across an island, believing that everyone else has died in the storm. The storm was summoned by Prospero, the ex-duke of Milan; he has brought them here to teach them all a lesson and win back his dukedom.
While I wasn’t too fond of the scenes dealing with the King and his lords, I did enjoy the play as a whole. It was a magical, fun story that reminded me of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in some ways. I definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Shakespeare and wants a quick, easy read.

School Book: Antony and Cleopatra

I just finished reading the last play for my Shakespeare: Blood, Betrayal and Bewilderment class! Overall, I've had a lot of fun reading all of these plays. Yes, I didn't like them all, but it was great to be looking at different plays (not the normal ones like Hamlet, which I have read three times to date for a class).

Unfortunately, Antony and Cleopatra falls into the category of plays I didn't really like. It reminded me of Coriolanus in that it was very confusing. But the confusion mainly stemmed from the disjointed time - one minute Antony is in Egypt, the next he's married, and then his wife wanders back to Rome while he runs back to Egypt. And for a tragedy with lots of big battles, it sure takes a loooong time for people to start dying!

Antony was also a rather strange character. He was very attached to Cleopatra, but then he went off and married another woman when his first wife died. I understand he was marrying for political reasons, but I expected him to put up some kind of fuss; instead he calmly married the other woman and then ran off to Cleopatra again.

Overall, I wasn't really impressed with this play. Like Coriolanus, maybe I'll change my opinion after tomorrow's class, but somehow I doubt it.

School Book: Cymbeline

We're almost at the end of the term, and Cymbeline is the second-last play I have to read for my Shakespeare course.

Cymbeline is the king of Briton during the reign of Augustus in Rome. He has refused to pay the tribute to Rome, and so Rome declares war on Briton. This, however, is the background story to the play. It is part of the main plot, but only moves to the foreground about half-way through the story. The real tale is about Princess Imogen and her husband, Posthumus Leonatus. Posthumus is exiled from Briton and Imogen, and so he goes to Rome. While there, a Roman, Iachimo, bets that Imogen will no be true. Cheating to win the bet, Iachimo convinces Posthumus that Imogen has been unfaithful, and so Posthumus sends word to one of his servants to kill Imogen.

The servant knows that Imogen has been true to Posthumus, so he devises a plan: she is to disguise herself as a man and flee to Italy. Hilarious hijinks occur in the woods, some of which reminded me of As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet, although the latter with a happier ending. I was never sure how Cymbeline would end, which kept me entertained through the whole play. From kings, knaves and Jupiter himself showing up, Cymbeline is a highly entertaining read!

School Book: Timon of Athens

A few days ago, I finished reading Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. Timon was a lot of fun to read! While it was a bit crazy, I thought it was still relevant to today.

Timon is a nobleman who loves people. He throws huge parties and gives extravagant gifts to all of his friends. But when he goes bankerupt, none of his friends will help him get back on his feet. So Timon goes from loving everyone to hating everyone.

Timon of Athens is a strange play, but highly entertaining. I really recommend reading it!

Reread: Romeo and Juliet

Before I say anything else, I need to share what Dr. Richardson said about this particular edition of Rome and Juliet. He held it up to the class and said "I'm not quite sure whether that's Juliet or Romeo on the cover. It looks young enough to be Juliet." This made me chuckle. Arden really should have gotten a better picture for the cover of this!

The class I am a TA for has to read Romeo and Juliet, so I reread it as well. I haven't read it since high school, and I really enjoyed rereading it! I had forgotten how much fun the first three acts are. And Mercutio's speeches are fantastic!!!! Definitely worth rereading!

School Book: Troilus and Cressida

I just finished reading Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, and I found it a lot better than Coriolanus. It was more entertaining, and wasn't confusing like Coriolanus was.

Troilus and Cressida was described to me as Romeo and Juliet but with a pimp. While this is essentially true, it doesn't capture the full scope of the play. Troilus and Cressida is set during the Trojan Wars, and so a lot of the play involves the heroic characters of the war. The love story between Troilus and Cressida often seems to take second place to events of the war.

Troilus and Cressida is the play I will be doing a seminar on, so I am glad I enjoyed it. I'll have to do a lot more work on it in the coming month!

School Book: Coriolanus

Shakespeare's Coriolanus is the second play we're covering in my Shakespeare course. It was mentioned a lot in the introduction to Titus Andronicus, so I was excited to read it. Like Titus, Coriolanus takes place in ancient Rome. But unlike Titus, Coriolanus was a lot harder to follow.

The play opened, and it seemed like Caius Martius (who later gains the surname Coriolanus) is returning to Rome. But then he is back in battle almost immediately without returning home. After that battle, the nobles want to name him consul, but the tribunes disagree, claiming that he is too prideful. What made this strange was that he left the room when people were speaking of his great deeds; hearing of them shamed him! The play continued in this fashion, and so I remained quite thoroughly confused through the whole thing, never really sure what was going on.

I'm going to have to mull Coriolanus over a bit, and see what is said in class, but so far, this is not one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. I'm going to write a follow up in a few days though, once I've had some time (and we talk about it in class).

School Book: Titus Andronicus

I have seen the Julie Taymor film version of Titus starring Anthony Hopkins, so I vaguely remembered some of the more gruesome parts of the story. But right from the get-go Titus Andronicus managed to amaze me. From Saturninus's strange paranoia (he was most paranoid that Titus was against him even though it was Titus who made him emperor) to Titus killing one of his four remaining sons, Act 1 was one of the wildest rides I've ever been on. This is probably the most senslessly violent play I've read of Shakespeare's work. While Hamlet has a giantic body count, almost all of the killing happens near the end. Titus Andronicus is a crazy blood bath that never wants to stop.

School Book: King Richard II

King Richard II was an extremely strange and hard to follow play. In my opinion, it is not one of Shakespeare's best. Richard II is one of Shakespeare's historical plays, following the last few years of King Richard II's life. (I believe it leads into King Henry IV parts 1 and 2).

Unlike Edward II by Christopher Marlowe, Richard II didn't seem to flow as well. There were many instances where things happened that didn't really seem to make sense (maybe this is in part due to the historical facts around Richard II - I don't really know his history).

There was one spot in particular that I found especially confusing: Act IV. Act IV is where Bolingbroke gets Richard's crown. Well, the beginning of the act has so many people come out of nowhere and challenge one another, it's extremely difficult to follow. The fact that they're calling one another liars the whole time didn't help either. Again, this may come more from historical fact, but again, I do not know the history of Richard II.

Characters coming out of nowhere made this play really tough to follow. I had to flipback to the List of Roles all the time in an attempt to figure out who everyone was. Other than the few main characters, there seemed to be a lot of minor ones who would randomly show up for a scene, then disappear (again, look back at Act IV when everyone is challenging one another).

Maybe reading it through a second time will help straighten things out. But as of this moment, I can say I was not impressed with this play. Definitely not one of my favourites.

School Book: Hamlet

Well, this is the third time I've had to read Shakespeare's Hamlet. And although I would have preferred my professor choosing something else, I have to admit I really like this play. The first time I read it, back in grade 12, I didn't really care for it. But when I reread it for class last year, I thought it was great. The plot is well written, the characters are all distinct, and it is fun (even for a tragedy).

I did notice a bit of a difference between this edition (The Arden Edition) and the one I read last year (The W.W. Norton Edition). Specifically, my favourite soliloquy seemed different ("To be, or not to be..."). But all in all, I enjoyed rereading this. It is a wonderful tale, and definitely worth rereading time and time again!

School Books: Romantic Comedies (First Impressions)

I have decided to review the first couple of school readings together: dramatic romantic comedies. For my 16th Century Drama class, we are reading John Lyly's "Gallathea" and William Shakespeare's "As You Like It." I am going to call these "first impressions" because this is the first time I have read the two of them. (I will be rereading them for this class at least once more).

I found "Gallathea" extremely strange. It was rather hard to follow, with scenes and characters seeming to come randomly. The main plot, of Gallathea and Phillida having to disguise themselves as boys to avoid being sacrificed and falling in love with one another was rather funny. But I didn't like the happenings of the Dryads and Cupid. It seemed unnecessary filler. And the brothers who were looking to find someone to apprentice them, that also seemed like unnecessary filler.

On the other hand, I thought "As You Like It" was great! The play was well written (of course! It's Shakespeare!) and the plot was extremely entertaining. Everything seemed to have a purpose - nothing came across as unnecessary filler. The whole story came together beautifully in the end.

That was what I thought of the two romantic comedies. If the professor gives me any neat tidbits, I will post about them later on here. I will also be watching a few film versions of "As You Like It" by the professor's suggestion. I will probably be reviewing them on Shauna's World once I do.