Work stuff mostly

[altivo]

Wednesday AND the first day back at work after a long weekend. Ugh.

Interesting things, more or less: The golden chalice is still here but no one remembered to put it out in the display case so it spent the whole day locked up. No one asked where it was either, so the novelty has worn off and it should go home to Wisconsin I think. More promising bits of information about the potential split in the library system. The key library that we need on our side is indeed on our side, or at least the director and staff are. They still need board approval though. Word has been passed to the system HQ that we are seriously considering dropping out. Supposedly the big pointy haired boss responded that he "Just couldn't understand why anyone would do that," which fits and in fact explains exactly why we would do it. He's been about as aware, understanding, and awake as a two ton boulder. Oh, and my Wednesday night work colleague of the past 4+ years has changed her schedule and will no longer be working with me. For the forseeable future the library director is taking her place, which might not sound good, but actually it is fine with me.

Put up a 2001 calendar at work (Mark Barrett's Horse calendar) since the one I wanted is back ordered from Amazon and may never show up.

Listening to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on my drive to and from work. I had forgotten that there's a male-male love expression in Act 2. Yay, Will, for letting Antonio declare his love for Sebastian in no uncertain terms. Unlike the confusion involving Sebastian's sister Viola (who is impersonating a male eunuch but falls in love with her master, Orsino, who believes she is male, and endures in turn being loved by Orsino's love object, Olivia, who also believes she is male) there can be no question but what Antonio is perfectly aware of Sebastian's gender and yet expresses his obvious ardor openly.

Now, I think, to bed with me.

Comments

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Supposedly the big pointy haired boss responded that he "Just couldn't understand why anyone would do that"...
Someone needs to be struck with a really big clue-bat, I think.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

This guy's head is filled with solid concrete. It would take an eight ton wrecking ball to get his attention. Of course, I noted that within a month of his takeover, but had to put up with a year's worth of "Give him a chance" and "Let's wait and see what happens" before finally getting people to agree with my assessment. As usual, alas, I was right.

[dongstyle-ltd.livejournal.com]

Haha, Scott Adams would be proud. Well, maybe not proud...

It seems there is fairly vivid discussion over the nature of the relationship between playboy Bassiano and ill-fated (and unrequited?) merchant Antonio in The Merchant of Venice. What think you?

Now we gotta see if one can work in a gender reading on the powerplay in Antony and Cleopatra...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's been, ummm, 40 years since I read either of those plays, so I don't have a quick answer. In general, though, Shakespeare was well aware of gay attractions and sexuality and both took them seriously in his work and sometimes made fun of both those who felt them and those who feared them. We got some new recordings of Shakespeare at the library with modern commentaries and the commentators pull no punches about the sexual innuendo and puns that often escape modern readers. I thought I was pretty much aware of that stuff, but this edition of Twelfth Night points out a lot that I had missed or forgotten. Of course, these love triangles and subtleties are additionally compounded by the fact that all the women characters were played onstage by young men in Shakespeare's time, so there are many layers of complexity and double entendre possible.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

QUITE appropriate comic strip:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v711/wngo87/dilbert20366522070102.gif

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That whole series about the diet has been pretty funny. In fact, lately, nearly everything he does has been relevant. ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Even a two tonne boulders get broken up in a quarry and shipped off to be used as solid foundations somewhere XD

Well Shakespeare did get about a bit ;) Being an actor/writer type its just about guaranteed ;) *giggles*

To bed with you, I've put some fresh straw in there.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yay! Fresh straw and no boulders.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzz

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Rest your paffers, *falls into giggles just saying that word* That's just so cute, I always have this idea you're a very intellectual serious type :) And just associating a super cute word like paffers with you always gives me the giggles.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you see, through cuteness I win entrance to your mind where I plant my intellectual seeds to someday grow to full formed trees of thought. ;p The paffers may yet trick you into looking at Shakespeare once more when you thought you were done with him...

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Hardly :D

Bloody actor writers, all have been leading to the downfall of public morals.
All this death and sex even amongst relatives...I don't hold with all that :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Nah. Don't blame the actors and writers. It's we librarians who've been destroying the moral fabric of society by putting filthy books on the shelves and letting children read them. You know, things like Darwin, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and all those other sinful, wicked, non-Christian authors.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Actually I read some pretty risque stuff when I was little by accident in the public libraries XD I'm glad of that.

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

While there is, yes, a whole -pile- of sexual innuendo in Shakespeare that a lot of people really don't get, I don't particularly see any blatant romantic love expressed between Antonio and Sebastian in Twelfth Night.

In Act Two, Sebastian says: It were a bad recompense for your love, to lay any of them on you.

Because he is planning to leave Antonio's company and go looking for his sister, after Antonio saved him. He then apologizes to Antonio for being a burden.

Seb: O good Antonio! forgive me your trouble

to which Antonio says

Ant: If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant.

They part ways. Antonio says

I have many enemies in Orsino's court,
Else would I very shortly see thee there;
But, come what may, I do adore thee so,
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

That's not, to my reading, an expression of romantic love. It's definitely an expression of loyalty, companionship, deep friendship, but I don't see the romantic.

I have not looked at The Merchant of Venice for a while, so I can't immediately comment to Bassanio and Antonio.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

All is subject to interpretation, of course. But I read in that particular line, "If you will not murder me for my love," exactly the trepidation of a man who fears rebuttal for his unnatural attraction. Sebastian, of course, doesn't even get it, but there are many such instances in the play where one of the jokes is the innocent unawareness of one party.

Again, when Antonio says (to himself) "But, come what may, I do adore thee so, that danger shall seem sport," I hear an adoration that is more than platonic. The commentary included in the audio edition I'm listening to also agrees with my reading, but as I said, yours is probably just as valid for all we can say with any certainty.

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

It's very much open to interpretation, yep.

I think, if that's the interpretation, that the stronger proof is in act five when Sebastian and Antonio are reunited and Sebastian says

Antonio? O my dear Antonio!
How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me,
Since I have lost thee!

I still read that as loyalty/friendship/brotherhood, especially given their very brief acquaintance, BUT, if the argument is romantic love, I think this is stronger.

Also makes Sebastian look less oblivious. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

But is their acquaintance that brief? After all, Antonio found Sebastian cast away from a shipwreck and nursed him back to health with his own hands. Now I can't remember whether an exact length of time is stated, but I'm sure it is more than a month of daily contact, some of it quite intimate. I want to say it was three months, but that may just be my imagination.

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

I don't remember anything about three months and can't seem to find it. It's obvious that some time has passed, yes, because Viola's had time to be instated in Orsino's court in disguise.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

A month will do in any case. :)

Now I have a question for you, which is not to be construed as hostile because it is merely curiosity. It's very rare for me to have strangers pop in with comments like this. I don't object, of course, or the journal would not be public. Your comments are welcome, and interesting. But to what do I owe the pleasure of your arrival here? How did you find me?

Pure curiosity. But I'm wondering if I can find more people of similar perception and clarity where you came from... ^_^

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

Ah, Twelfth Night, I remember reading that for a literature class not too long ago. My professor pointed out the homosexual relationship and I think she said that it is speculated that Shakespeare was bisexual. I don't know if that has ever been confirmed or not.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Some people insist that it's confirmed easily, but the truth is we know almost nothing about Shakespeare's personal life. That in turn has led to all the speculation that this or that other person was the real author of his work and that William Shakespeare was merely a pseudonym.

I think cabcat has it right. We don't know, we never will know, but given that Shakespeare was an actor and a writer it doesn't matter what his personal orientation was. He knew plenty of gay people, more than enough of them to be able to write about it. ;p