Mike Dressel

I think I’m ready to address that TCG article by John McWhorter on adapting of Shakespeare for...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:23:00 -0500

I think I’m ready to address that TCG article by John McWhorter on adapting of Shakespeare for modern audiences. So, TL;DR/scroll-by caveats are in effect, otherwise here we go. I guess the easiest answer to “It’s been 400-plus years. Is it time to translate the Bard into understandable English?” is “We haven’t thus far, so why start now?” But that is glib. And as much as I wanted to dismiss the article outright, it is too well-reasoned to do so. (Which does not mean that it is entirely correct.) Perhaps the initial distaste is a matter of tone. Starting out with the hypothetical production of King Lear does the reader no favors. It is shoddy point of entry to speculate that some imagined audience members might *gasp* be bored, or “wishing they had brought a magazine” to this imaginary production. Guess what? I get bored at Shakespeare, and I, contrary to the author’s assertion, am one of the people who “digs him.” It takes about ten or so minutes for the ear to get comfortable with the rhythms of speech.

“The problem with Shakespeare for modern audiences is that English since Shakespeare’s time has changed not only in terms of a few exotic vocabulary items, but in the very meaning of thousands of basic words and in scores of fundamental sentence structures.” Yes, and? Plays written in the last century sometimes have inscrutable phrases and passages. Granted they are mostly colloquialisms. Still! We still use many of the words Shakespeare coined to this day, and in the meaning he ascribed to them. For the thousands that may have changed, there are arguably more that have not. As for “fundamental sentence structure,” the article already acknowledged the fact that the majority of the text is written in iambic pentameter.

“No one today would assign their students Beowulf in Old English—it is hopelessly obvious that Old English is a different language to us.” Would they not, now? I will point you to some teachers who just might.

“How realistic or even charitable is it to expect that anyone but specialists, theatre folk and buffs will have the patience to read more than a prescribed dose of Shakespeare under these conditions? And ultimately a play is written to be performed, not read, and certainly not deciphered. A play that cannot communicate effectively to the listener in spoken form is no longer a play, and thus no longer lives.” Yes, I agree in that these are fundamentally written to be heard and seen, but isn’t there an old saw that says that back in “ye olden days” of this country even the poorest of folk always had at least two books on hand: a Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare? (Intern! Please research and clarify!)

“Shakespeare is not a drag because we are lazy, because we are poorly educated, or because he wrote in poetic language. Shakespeare is a drag because he wrote in a language which, as a natural consequence of the mighty eternal process of language change, 500 years later we effectively no longer speak. I submit that here as we enter the Shakespearean canon’s sixth century in existence, Shakespeare begin to be performed in translations into modern English readily comprehensible to the modern spectator.” I submit that it is precisely that! Laziness, short attention spans, constant distractions, etc. & so forth. We are not accustomed to giving over five hours of our mental energy to one product, as spectators in Shakespeare’s day did at his plays, BECAUSE THAT WAS THEIR ONLY FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT (aside from a good cockfight or some bear-baiting). Attending theater is an effort, it is a communal experience between actor and audience, the participation of both parties are necessary for a successful evening.

I do agree with McWhorter that tricked up “interpretations,” done to seem “relevant,” are so often terrible. (Titus Andronicus on Mars! Julius Caesar set in a women’s prison!) But that is a failing of not trusting audiences to “get it,” it is an artistic, an interpretive failure.

“However, especially if [new translations] were included in season ticket packages, audiences would begin to attend performances of Shakespeare…Pretty soon the almighty dollar would determine the flow of events—Shakespeare in the original would play to critical huzzahs but half-empty houses, while people would be lining up around the block to see Shakespeare in English the way Russians do to see an Uncle Vanya.” Uh, in what dream world would that be? With the cups of non-profit theaters overflowing with the “almighty dollar”? Theaters are in dire straits, and a kicky adaptation of “Two Gentlemen of Verona” versus a “traditional” one will not and cannot change that, not when audiences can see a movie for ten bucks.

“Indeed, the irony today is that the Russians, the French and other people in foreign countries possess Shakespeare to a much greater extent than we do, for the simple reason that unlike us, they get to enjoy Shakespeare in the language they speak. Shakespeare is translated into rich, poetic varieties of these languages, to be sure, but since it is the rich, poetic modern varieties of the languages…” Might that be because, well, those audiences would like to enjoy the works in their native tongue? I certainly would, as a one-off, see Moliere performed in the original French, but to truly understand it I would rely on an effective translation into English, the language in which, we’ve established, Shakespeare wrote his plays. Any theater company that is producing Shakespeare is effectively “translating” the text, in that the director will often cut swaths of text, re-arrange scenes, and instill to the best of their abilities a concise through-line.

“We must reject the polite relationship the English-speaking public now has with Shakespeare in favor of more intimate, charged one which both the public and the plays deserve. To ask a population to rise to the challenge of taking literature to heart in a language they do not speak is as unreasonable as it is futile. The challenge we must rise to is to shed our fear of language change and give Shakespeare his due—restoration to the English-speaking world.” And…STFU! Forget what I said earlier, I’m going back to my original rebuttal: We haven’t thus far so why start now. (Which, I’m lying, it has been done and the results were decidedly mixed.) I have seen, in classrooms back when I was doing outreach/education work, fourth graders heartbreakingly convey the meaning and intention of scenes from Shakespeare’s canon. Why? Because language, however changing, is still the tool we use to transmit feeling and emotion, and speaking words, onstage in plays, is a form of action, one utilized to communicate human truth. What works, in Shakespeare, is that there is none of that tricky, modern subtext. Characters say what they mean/feel. Sometimes directly to the audience! (Yes, there is clever wordplay, double entendres, but not to mask meaning, rather to enhance it.) It is in that way more clear than some of the plays written today.

The author’s bio states he “is a linguist” — and that is precisely the problem. As much lip service as McWhorter pays to the craft of acting, to the production of plays, he is still approaching the question as an academic. He established that the plays were written to be heard, to be performed. So, let the theater artists charged with doing their craft solve the issue of conveying understanding, and charge the audience to do their part, engage them in actively listening to the story. No matter how McWhorter tries to frame it, this is not an academic problem.

Couldn’t wait for Caturday! Photos of stray cats in Tokyo...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:49:59 -0500

Couldn’t wait for Caturday! Photos of stray cats in Tokyo (via MeFi)

Depending on where your tolerance for the antics of Zooey...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:10:08 -0500

Depending on where your tolerance for the antics of Zooey Deschanel lies, you will either love or not love the video for “In the Sun,” off the new She & Him record. Me, I think it has its charms, even if, as others have noted, it does have a bit of a Gap Ad feel to it. Let’s file this under “Grad School Musical” maybe?

This seems, contrary to its description, neither safe nor...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:53:47 -0500

This seems, contrary to its description, neither safe nor affordable. (via)

Amy Sedaris is following up her successful and cheeky hospitality guide with a book of crafts for...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:50:00 -0500

Amy Sedaris is following up her successful and cheeky hospitality guide with a book of crafts for poor people. According to the Amazon description: “You will discover how to make popular crafts, such as: crab-claw roach clips, tinfoil balls, and crepe-paper moccasins…create your own craft room and avoid the most common crafting accidents (sawdust fires, feather asphyxia, pine cone lodged in throat); and cook your own edible crafts, from a Crafty Candle Salad to Sugar Skulls.”

Brilliant! (via)

Here is a fun new game to play on the internet, via The Rumpus. ...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:12:00 -0500

Here is a fun new game to play on the internet, via The Rumpus. As every issue of Popular Science is now online, for free and searchable, go ahead and plug any old query into the search box and see what treasures can be unearthed. Like, for example, the article on monkeys from 1931 (pictured above). Be creative! (And be careful!)

“Backwoods Discotheque” — Scissor Sisters

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:38:00 -0500

“Backwoods Discotheque” — Scissor Sisters

Miscellaneous Quotage

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:25:00 -0500

On discussing a lady acquaintance, whose relationship with her long term, live-in boyfriend could be construed from the outside as vaguely Stockholm Syndrome-y: “She’s like Patty Hearst in a two-bedroom closet.”

SOS/Animals screenshot — Big Art Group

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:22:30 -0500

SOS/Animals screenshot — Big Art Group

Florida is like a twenty-four hour hidden camera show, and the joke is on the rest of the country. ...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:43:11 -0500

Florida is like a twenty-four hour hidden camera show, and the joke is on the rest of the country. “As authorities nationwide warn motorists of the dangers of driving while texting, Florida Keys law enforcement officers add a new caution: Don’t try to shave your privates, either.”

(via marklisanti)

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:14:17 -0500

(via marklisanti)

GPOY after too many sliders and chardonnays at Alice Tully Hall

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:14:27 -0500

GPOY after too many sliders and chardonnays at Alice Tully Hall

'It's been 400-plus years. Is it time to translate the Bard into understandable English?'

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:05:00 -0500

'It's been 400-plus years. Is it time to translate the Bard into understandable English?':

You should believe I have some thoughts on this! (Scroll-by, TL;DR forewarning.) However, I will resist the urge let loose a torrent of words until I’ve read it a few more times.

Update: Here are those thoughts. The torrent has been unleashed.

Paul Bowles—An American in Tangier

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:44:36 -0500

Paul Bowles—An American in Tangier

Dirt tub

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:07:07 -0500

Dirt tub

FourFour is the place to go to service all your kooky Kate Bush gif needs.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:21:57 -0500

FourFour is the place to go to service all your kooky Kate Bush gif needs.

Oh, eesh. I did not even know that there had been plans afoot...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:13:00 -0500

Oh, eesh. I did not even know that there had been plans afoot to make American version of the cult British comedy Spaced, which, if you are not acquainted, you can view in its entirety on Hulu.

It is a typical showbiz tale: Young upstart series creators Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, so eager to get their labor of love made, signed away the future rights to their product. Cut to 2K8 or thereabouts and Warner Bros. is going ahead with their version of Spaced, even citing Pegg and series director Edgar Wright (and not even mentioning Hynes) in their press materials to drum up interest, though none of the original team were involved. This version was to be produced by McG, which seems about wrong.

Pegg found a link to some of the footage on YouTube and tweeted it. It is, by any comedy standards, fairly awful. But if you were a fan of the original, it is beyond bad. It is only palatable by imagining that it is a dream sequence of the characters in the original Spaced, wherein they imagine their lives as a sub-par American sitcom. Even then, they’d probably not dream up something this hacky. (via)

Oh, for puppies and kitties? Never mind. Phew.

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:53:49 -0500

Oh, for puppies and kitties? Never mind. Phew.

Maybe the most unpleasant aspect of the durian is what the flesh looks like once the hard outer...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:42:57 -0500

Maybe the most unpleasant aspect of the durian is what the flesh looks like once the hard outer shell is cracked open. “Flesh” has never been a more accurate descriptor: The plump, oddly shaped, grayish pods have an unsettling sheen and malleability that seems natural yet extraterrestrial at the same time. Think of it this way: Durian flesh would make an excellent stand-in for an alien fetus in a low-budget science-fiction thriller. Even if the durian smelled like some otherworldly combination of puppy’s breath and unicorn farts, putting it in your mouth would be an unpleasant proposition.

— The intrepid eaters at the A.V. Club sample a durian, the rotting diaper of the fruit world.

Clem Snide — “Walmart Parking Lot” The above...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:28:00 -0500

Clem Snide — “Walmart Parking Lot”

The above thing is thankfully not this thing of the same name.