Apr. 13, Gaiman's MSDMD

I struggled extraordinarily with this reading. I found it to be the most challenging graphic text that I've read thus far. Ironic, it is, all-in-all that I've read to different adaptations and this is a short story. The story was challenging for me because it appeared to pick up right in the middle of Midsum's and then spin things in its own direction. I was most likely trying to draw the lines to thick between the different modalities that we've seen thus far in our readings of the play. 

I was also confused by some of the character parameters. The dark character gave me great trouble. I couldn't figure out his role in the reading. I see that he works between both dream and fantasy worlds. He's dark because you never see his face, and his word bubbles are always dark. My confusion came in that for a long time I thought he was a dark adaptation of Shakespeare. I couldn't figure it out, until I eventually went back and saw that he referred to his bargaining partner as "Will Shakespeare." Clearly THAT was the character of Shakespeare.

Despite the challenge I found with the plot, Gaiman's adaptation did help me to understand certain portions of the text from a different viewpoint. As I was reading the panels I did understand that the emphasis was more so on the shifting of audience members. I understood more clearly that each character, or set of characters was an audience to a different performance. This may be because of the different adaptation, or it could just be that I understand better after my third time having gone through it. 

A quote from page 71 summarizes this point well. As Hyppolita and "Tommy" are having a heated discussion. An anxious Hyppolita tells Tommy that their audience consists of "things of every manner and kind." Tommy responds, "Aye, and they are also our audience. Calm yourself."

Apr 6; Staging of a Romance; Lysander and Hermia

Manga did a wonderful job of graphically illustrating Lysander and Hermia's love, their plot for self-exile, and Helena's role in their relationship. This was drawn out at its best between pages 29 and 37.The setting makes good use of the more modern Athens scene, however it's simple enough as not to distract the reader from the all-important dialogue. The diagonal cutting of the panels serves to take the reader away from the setting and more into the abstract emotions felt by the two lover-characters. It creates a line that looks similar to the passing of an arrow through a heart from above.

Also, on page 32 the isolation of Lysander at the fulcrum of a quarter-sphere of panels showing him and Hermia conveys his vulnerablity. It shows that Hermia is the one with the power to choose who she loves at this point in the story. She is the daughter of a higher regarded family, and she also has the heart of Demetrius chasing her along as well.

This is a very accurate emotional portrayal of what is happening at this point in the actual play of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Apr. 6; Demetrius and Helena

Demetrius and Helena have the most intriguing build-up to their relationship. They simultaneous have feelings of affection and spite between each other. I've often heard the remark made that in any blossoming relationship, there is always one party chasing the other, and the will two switch sides between chaser and chasee many times.

That's what happens between our little couple hear. While Demetrius initially despises Helena and her obsessive pursuit of him, a little bit of Cupid's potion manages to reverse the roles. Demetrius chases her, but in his new submissive character and vulnerability, Helena no longer feels the same attraction. She senses that something has changed in his character and feels discomforted alienation in their new "relationship" dynamic.

Eventually, the two are only able to enjoy each other when they come to a co-equal understanding of their love and desire for each other. Such is the real nature of everlasting love.

Apr. 6; Forever Shakespeare

The work of Shakespeare is meant to entertain. But just as the audience shall surely find amusement, the work of William Shakespeare is meant to conjure thought to those who experience it.

For its sophisticated craft and careful wording, it is shameful that Shakespeare's words should be twisted from their own original construction to satisfy a less thoughtful contemporary demographic. The readers of Shakespeare were made to think. The compromise infused by a bastardized contemporary edition limits the pentameter and underlying themes used to promote the broader themes of Shakespeare's works.

Apr. 6; Shakespeare by Any Display; MultiModal Midsummer

I'm not sure of the year or the production company that put it together, but this clip from a movie starring Judi Dench as Titania I think is a unique take on Shakespeare's work. I think that in this clip (I'm guessing it to be around the 1950s or 60s) does a nice job of showing the humor of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The humor is less subtle and more drawn out with the quick camera cuts, a humorous looking donkey, and the dramatic acting of Dench.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSDQjEJTPzg&feature=related

I also was inspired by this opening sequence from the 1935 film. As one views, I suggest listening to the strong musical score. It suggests humor and with its high strings and quick changes of tempo. Yet, it also manages to maintain a noble grandiose tone you expect to have associated with royalty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8HOgsZrjl4

Apr 1; Love Knows Not the Rules of Man; Shake's Soliquoy

HELENA

Your virtue is my privilege: for that
It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world:
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?

...

The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

...

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wood and were not made to woo.

'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

------------

Shakespeare often shows his obsession with the stage in his works (I.E.: "All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players.") We see that in Helena's chosen description of her love for Demetrius. Part of Helena's comfort is that she never feels alone in his presence, but that in Demetrius she feels a greater understanding and accompaniment with the world around her. As such, Shakespeare is describing the eyes of her beloved as her stage - the place where her character best comes to life.

The next stanza (the replies of Demitrius cut out) is Shakespeare's way of demonstrating the irrational nature with which one loves. Helena shows the audience her manic state of love by describing her grandiose confidence. Making reference to the tragedy of Apollo, the myth of the griffin, she lets the audience know that she truly believes that she can be the exception to these rules. Another way of showing that love need not require ration.

Finally Helena touches on what is a big theme at the core of this play, the debate over which love is a blessing (or curse) or something to be achieved through the efforts of the spirit. Clearly Shakespeare has put Helena on the side of the prior at this point in time. The strength of her confidence in the love she feels for Demetrius is not something that she can sell him on, rather it's something that he will eventually realize himself.