you brought it on yourself miss twiddle

So I realized that it's pretty stupid not to have a vaguely Richard III/Yorkist icon, and I wanted to waste more time this afternoon, so here I am.

Per the recommendations on shaksper_random, I read Perkin Warbeck this afternoon. I have to say that it was a kind of odd experience because I found myself not really caring about any of the characters. I don't have any real opinion (or knowledge) about Warbeck, except as he fits into some of the wilder Ricardian conspiracy theories (and of course, my own Harry Potter-Ricardian theory which is, at least, unpretendingly fantasy), but, in principle, I'm all for him.
( further thoughts cut for the purposes of not spamming )

Leave it to the Victorians to produce Measure for Measure without once mentioning sex.


It's… hilarious. The Pompey and Overdone subplot has been completely cut, of course, but so has the Juliet one. Yes, Claudio is now condemned "for an act of rash selfishness which nowadays would only be punished by severe reproof."

( Read on: Marriage as a dishonorable act )

In other news: OMG! My dad is rated on ratemyprofessor.com! They seem to like him, though they say his classes are hard. And should I be relieved or disappointed that he has no "hotness" rating?

EDIT: I am even more amused: he is listed twice; once with last name spelled correctly, and once with the infamous ie-ei switch. The one really negative rating comes under the mispelled name.

In still other news, ( The Harry Potter Love Match Meme )

Makes everything better. Really, it does.

I remember last year in Humanities, when we did our nano-unit on Much Ado, Mrs. Burger posed the discussion question of "How can Claudio get away with his treatment of Hero?" As we had about three minutes of discussion, in which about two people participated, we didn't get an answer. I volunteered that maybe a woman's virtue was such a concern that maybe a contemporary audience would be understanding to such a reaction. Not a very good answer I know.

But it strikes me now: so many Shakespeare plays do revolve around female "virtue" and the dangers of its loss.

The possibility that Hero might be unfaithful in Much Ado nearly destroys her marriage. A "reputation disvalued by levity" was enough to do in Mariana's in Measure for Measure. Not to mention that the entire plot of the play revolves around the dangers of sex before marriage and the ensuing shame.

In Othello, Desdemona is murdered, Hermione in A Winter's Tale is charged with treason, Imogen's husband in Cymbeline tries to get her killed, all on the same worry.

Hamlet freaks out about his mother's infidelity in remarrying so soon after his father's death, and he projects his disgust with her onto Ophelia and all women (get thee to a nunnery).

On a slightly different note, we have Marina's struggle to keep her virginity intact in Pericles and Diane's in All's Well that End's Well.

Obviously, this was a really worrisome situation.

( Banned Books Meme )