Goodbye Othello

Nuttall wrote that Othello is about a hero who went into a house. Anyone who goes out of their comfort zone, becomes vulnerable. Stripped off the trappings of war and leadership and the public life, Othello lost his north and eventually even his discourse.
I've spent a month with the hero and the angel and Satan and the feminist. I've thought about them and read what others, far smarter than me, thought and wrote.

On to Macbeth...

Proof

Yoshino points out something that I loved: the handkerchief, so maligned in this play as a poor substitute for the ocular proof of Desdemona's affair (although it nevertheless demolished Othello), ended up being a powerfull ocular proof. But it was for Emilia! The hankie made her realize of how everyone had been played by Iago, and this is the beginning of his demise. Go Emilia!

Fantastic Source for Othello

Reading Kenji Yoshino' book on Shakespeare and justice (christmas gift from Annabelle) I found the following 1600 text from John Leo's A Geographical Histoire of Africa (Leo was a Moor and is describing his countrymen):

"Most honest people they are, and destitute of all fraud and guile, very proud and high-minded, and wonderfully addicted unto wrath... Their wits are but meane, and there are so credulous, that they will beleeue matters impossible, which are told them... No nation in the world is so subject unto jealousie; for they will rather leese their lives than put up any disgrace in the behalfe of their women".

What likely picked Shakespeare's curiosity and attracted him to the book was the official visit of the King if Barbary to London in 1600. Leo writes about the ambassador in his book.

Fascinating to discover how authors construct their characters!

(Funny context for this entry... I was at the radiologist, getting a mammogram and took along Yoshino's book for the waiting room. I decided to copy this paragraph and ended up doing it on my phone (one finger) inside the tiny curtained changing room. I was interrupted in the middle and then had to finish when I was already dressed. Well, the radiologist came to ask me why I was still in the changing booth, dressed up, if she had told me to leave 10 minutes ago!)

Marjorie Garber is a Bright Light

I read Garber's chapter on Othello. I was enthralled, charmed, challenged and just all-around flabbergasted!

What Professor Garber did with this play is extraodinary. She went deeper than both Bloom and Nuttall. Color me happy!

Yesterday I watched a documentary about an elementary school teacher in a very poor part of Los Angeles, who miraculously opens his 10 year old pupils's minds using Shakespeare (among other authors and methods). Rafe Esquith is famous for doing this and in the documentary, both Ian McKellen and Michael York stop by the classroom to watch Hamlet rehearsals and chat with the mini bardologists. York said that back in Shakespeare's time, people said "Let's go hear a play" rather than see or watch as we would now say. Words matter and we have to focus on language rather than visuals or we will lose the ability to understand them!

Too much information?

I finished reading Harold Bloom's chapter on Othello. I even highlighted it (it pains me to deface books, I know, silly concern). Bloom stays within the issues that interest him, he really goes deeply into character analysis of Iago and Othello.

I also read the brief chapter in Nuttall, fascinating! And now (It is very late but I am afraid that the pot of tea I drank may have contained caffeine..) I started with Garber's chapter. I am trying to figure out how I will process all this information. What will stick and become part of my repertoire? We'll see...

Emilia RIP

I just finished reading Othello. In a parking lot, waiting to go yo battle (just slightly exaggerating here... Hearing to fight license suspension).

I am very intrigued about Emilia now: her feminism, her strength, her bravery.

Act Four

As promised, I read Act 4 tonight. I'm so excited to be about to finish reading the play and while it is fresh in my mind, I'll dive into the complementary readings, video and CD. Reading in the 21 century is a multimedia layer cake. In actuality, the play itself is just the melody, I feel that until I go deeper than the text, I have not really read.

I heard one thing on the Bloom lecture that seems very interesting: One learns a about the writing process and the author when reviewing the different versions of the play. Apparently, Shakespeare revised the other parts, but Iago is the same in every version of the play. When you crank the volume to 11, you can't do much with subtlety. Iago makes every move in a cruel chess game that he has invented pure evil. Once Iago and Othello start discussing murder, we've all gone too far. I am done with Othello, he is thick and cruel. 

Back on Track: Othello, Act 3

Yikes, I've been sick for a week. The infamous influenza plague of 2013. I felt like modern-day Lady Lavinia, but I did not die, and Matthew did not leave me for Lady Mary (oh, but  I AM Lady Mary...)
It is evident that the two first episodes of season three of Downton were the bookends to my flu.

Now there is no excuse, so I am back hitting the book. I finished Act 3 tonight and will read Act 4 tomorrow and Act 5 the following day. I need to start reading all my gurus: Harold, Garber, Nuttall, et al.

This evening, as I was driving to and from he TV station to tape my legal segment, I listened to Harold. What struck me again, as I have listened to this lecture several times now this month, is that Desdemona resembles Juliet: she is also a teenager, 14 or 15 years old, and independent thinker, an original soul and a good and loyal individual. I also enjoyed Harold's defense of Othello. Othello has gotten a lot of slack in the last century for being so easily manipulated by Iago. To some critics, that takes away from his character and therefore from his heroic stature. Harold asks us to evaluate him as a military hero, for his valor, his loyalty, his decisiveness, his strength. For me, the jury is still out on big O.

One last note: I was curious to find out how the famous handkerchief makes its appearance and was not disappointed: Desdemona wants to rap Othello's head with it to cure his headache. I had pictured it as a small hankie, but to wrap around someone's head, it is a pretty substancial chunk of fabric. I also liked that it has a berry design on it. Very feminine. I'll try to get one like that, even if it is just to keep it in my underwear drawer (and I'll make sure Iago does not get a hold of it).

Harold points out to Othello's rage, which he believes it has not been equalled in all of literature. Also, he opines that Shakespeare took sexual jealousy to it's epitome in literature, and not even Freud or Proust have conquered its dark corners like our boy William. I like to think my jealousy was also dried out by the suns of my childhood, but sometimes all of us let that monster take hold of us, like Emilia warns.

Othello, Day 5

Iago

Othello is Iago's Play. I am quoting Bloom here and will be paraphrasing him today. There is nothing dishonest in my appropriation of Bloom's ideas. I am (hopefully) a glass half full. I am trying to apprehend in what I believe it to be the tradition of Western Civilization, there, in capital letters. Ideas reverberating and boiling and echoing. Ideas being invented and borrowed and stolen. If not, what is the purpose of libraries and universities? Ok, that taken care of, let's go back to Iago.

VILLAIN

Iago is the prototype for all of literature's villains. As a matter of Bloom fact, Milton based his Satan on Iago. He brought this up as he was trying to explain the motivation for Iago's villainy: Bloom borrows Milton's "injured merit." Iago and Satan are both passed up for whom they perceive to be less worthy candidates. And they are irreparably hurt.


Actually, Iago's job fascinates me. He is the ancient, the flag bearer, sworn to die before he give up the flag. So he is the bravest of the bunch. Per Bloom, Othello admires this bravery, but knows that Iago would not make a good second in command because he is a scorch-the-earth-warrior, no political skills, not good for peace. So he chooses Cassio, who is an intellectual. That is apparently his only credential. I have not read far enough, but hopefully Cassio's character will justify Othello's decision. We'll see.

INTELLIGENCE

Bloom, in what made me gasp, compared Iago's intelligence with Hamlet's. I have been listening to Bloom harp about Hamlet not only being the brightest intelligence in literature but  more self-aware than any actual human being who ever lived and will ever live. So being put on the same sentence with Hamlet is high praise for our little ancient. I keep picturing him with Kenneth Brannagh's face, which is driving me nuts.

COLD

Iago has no feelings. He is incapable of feeling so he pretends he feels things. He is all head, no heart. I'll check on this, so far I have not read enough to verify such bold statement.

Bloom in the Car

Magnificent Extraordinary Harold

I told you. I knew it. Just 45 minutes of listening to Harold, in the car, radically enhanced the Othello experience for me.

A few years ago, I bought online a set of Bloom CDs from a collection called the Portable Professor. It is a Barnes & Noble production that is out of print (that is probably the wrong term for CDs). Actually, let me backtrack. A few years before that, my sister gave my husband a set of Portable Professor CDs by Professor Lependorf that taught you how to understand classical music. She could have given him lunar rocks, he could not figure out what to do with them, so I "inherited" them (ok, I took them without asking and kept them in my car ever since.) After that pleasant experience, I purchased Bloom's course. Aptly subtitled The Seven Great Tragedies. Because with Bloom, this is how it goes. He makes the most categoric statements and you have to accept them as holy communion. And everyone is happy. It just works.

Well The Seven Great Tragedies has long resided in my car next to Professor Lependorf's Masterpieces of Western Music. Except I was only able to listen, again and again, to the Bloom lectures on the few plays I had actually read. When the Shakespeare Now or Never project launched, I knew these CDs would come handy.

For Antony and Cleopatra and King Lear, Annabelle and I went on long drives just to listen to Professor Bloom, or Harold, as we like to call him. It is hard to explain how powerful his lectures are. There is something about the human voice that is fascinating and charming and soothing and stimulating. I have the Bloom book on Shakespeare, and this is a million times better. Unfortunately, it is only seven lectures, for the seven plays that he has decided are THE seven GREAT tragedies. There are lots of all caps in his speech. Lots of superlatives. Would love to have Bloom lecture me on every subject under the sun. In CD format only, please.

Sooooo.... On my way to meet clients this morning, I popped in the first lecture on Othello and now I feel as though I have to re-read the first act again, because I missed much of the magnificence I should have caught on to. It will take me many many listens to unpack most of the extraordinary insight I was made a party to. I'll go little by little and share it with you.

Othello, Day 4

January 4

False alarm regarding Rhodes. The darn turks were just doing a pit stop to get more boats for their side on their way to Cyprus.

Finished Act 1. Loved the sexual chemistry between Othello and Desdemona! Older black guy, young italian woman. Sparks, sparks, sparks! He's taking her to war, for goodness sake, because they can't stand being apart. Their passion reminded me of Antony and Cleopatra's, except Desdemona seems reasonable, unlike that crazy Egyptian. Othello has flawed-larger-than-life-tragic-hero written all over him.

What I was most moved about was Brabantio. He was deeply hurt by Desdemona absconding in the middle of the night to marry dad's friend, a man he trusted (he's also furious at him). Brabantio's combination of wrath and pain reminded me of family passions I have been witness to and part of.

Iago is still a smarty-pants in my estimation. Not feeling him yet. I will listen to my Bloom CD in the car tomorrow on my way to work and he will likely turn my opinion around on this issue in no time. Throw in some Bloom hyperbole and Iago will become literature's master schemer. I'll report back on this point...

I am one day behind on my reading. Will try, try, try, to read a bit more tonight in order to catch up. I turned and tossed all night, worried about my motions hearing today. Had to be in court by 7:30, so did not even get 5 hours of sleep. Motions were continued and I ended up waiting around in court. Should have sneaked the book in, but had to carry so many files, I would have had to carry it in my mouth!

Othello, Day 3

Falling Behind on my Reading

It is almost midnight and I will probably not read another line of Othello tonight, as I am preparing for a motions hearing tomorrow morning. This afternoon I did read a couple of pages while I was waiting in court for my case to be called. It is the first time I take Shakespeare to court and I felt a tinge of excitement: Yes, your Honor, guilty of reading non-legal materials in court! Well. I did not have to "cop a plea," but I left the court wondering why the Venetians were so far away from Venice, fighting the Turks either in Cyprus or Rhodes. I guess it was the route to the silk road, in the google maps of the renaissance: directions from Venice to China, sail south then make a left, refuel in Rhodes, hop to Cyprus and when you get to the mainland, continue east; destination will be to your left.

Anne's Revenge

I don't like musicals. Not at all. Well, except for my two childhood favorites: Fiddler on the Roof and The Sound of Music, but that is a nostalgia thing, not an informed option.

So Les Mis is utterly and completely out of the question. Except that I have a weak spot for Anne Hathaway. William Shakespeare's forgotten wife, the one he left behind, the older woman that seems he's almost embarrassed about, never mentioned, never celebrated. UNTIL 400 years later she is reincarnated in this exquisite, talented actress who can do no wrong! Way to go Anne! So I may, just may, subject myself to three hours of torture just to be a party to Anne's revenge.

Othello, Day 1

January 1

Read two scenes and had to stop because I had to be in Court at 8:45 and it was really really late. Grabbed Nuttall and read something that I've been kicking around all day: Othello is not a jealous man, Othello is insecure because he is an outsider, a moor (which I understand it is being used as a synonym of African). Had Othello been a venetian patrician, Iago would have been unable to capitalize on this weak spot. I know EXACTLY the type of insecurity Othello feels as an outsider. It is painful, paralyzing, a million times worse than jealousy. This type of insecurity makes you dread that you will lose everything, that you cannot control your destiny, that you are dammed. My preconception has always been that this is a play about sexual jealousy, but it may be something even deeper...

On the other hand, I am having a hard time picturing Iago looking anything but like Kenneth Brannagh. Has he played Iago? (I'm sure he has, but have I seen it on that part?) Or is it that I have a hard time extricating Brannagh from Shakespeare? Brannagh's Hamlet is the best one I have seen, so is Brannagh's Henry V, but this is too much!

The Plan

The Plan

This study plan is designed to complete 35 plays (37?) and the Sonnets in time for Shakespeare's 400 anniversary of his passing, which will be remembered April 23, 2016.

PACE: One play per month, Sonnets in two months

ASSIGNMENTS: Read the play, then read the chapters in Bloom, Garber, Nuttall. Read pertinent part in recommended biographies.Watch movie if available. Discussion with other course participants.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Shakespeare the Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom

Shakespeare After All, by Marjorie Garber

What a Piece of Work is Man, audio recording by Harold Bloom

OPTIONAL: 

Shakespeare the Thinker, by A.D. Nuttall

RECOMMENDED BIOGRAPHIES:

Soul of the Age, by Jonathan Bate

Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt

Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson

DISCUSSION: Will take place either in person, via gmail chat, via phone, via email, via video conference or any other technology that may develop between 2012 and 2016.

READING:

Spring-Summer 2012: Informal reading of Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Tempest

October 2012: Antony and Cleopatra

November 2012: King Lear

December 2012: Richard III

January 2013: Othello

February 2013: Macbeth

March 2012: Julius Caesar

April-May 2013: Review of Spring 2012 reading: Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, the Tempest

June 2013: 77 Sonnets

July 2013: 77 Sonnets

August 2013: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

September 2013: Titus Andronicus

October 2013:  Henry VI part 1

November 2013: Henry VI part 2

December 2013:Henry VI part 3

January 2014: The Comedy of Errors

February 2014: Love's Labour's Lost

March 2014: A Midsummer Night's Dream

April 2014: Richard II

May 2014: King John

June 2014: The Merchant of Venice

July 2014: Henry IV part 1

August 2014: Henry IV part 2

September 2014: The Merry Wives of Windsor

October 2014: Much Ado About Nothing

November 2014: Henry V

December 2014: As you Like It

January 2015: Twelfth Night

February 2015: Troilus and Cressida

March 2015: Measure for Measure

April 2015: All Well That Ends Well

May 2015: Timon of Athens

June 2015: Pericles

July 2015: Coriolanus

August 2015: Cymbeline

September 2015: The Winter's Tale

October 2015: Henry VIII

November 2015: The Two Noble Kinsmen

December 2015: 

January 2016:

February 2016:

March 2016:

April 2016: parties and celebrations!

Maria and Annabelle's Excellent Adventure

An Introduction

Early in 2012, Annabelle gave herself an ultimatum: Shakespeare: Now or Never!
She tried to embark her friends back home in this project, and they did not have the heart to turn her down, but the plan fizzled out to watching a movie based on a Shakespeare play about once a month, whenever a few of them could get together. Some tried to juggle reading Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and The Taming of the Shrew with their very complicated lives, but it was just too much to ask of them just to humor Annabelle's whim.

Annabelle and I live about 2,800 miles apart. We live close-by only three months a year, but I was eager to jump on the Shakespeare bandwagon with her regardless of the distance. I followed her plan loosely, reading the plays assigned and doing some additional reading, but I was unable to find a way to contribute to any discussion on the subject, and apparently, the discussions did not blossom. 

When she came to the States in October, I immediately pushed a Shakespeare plan: Let's read a play a month, with the additional materials and discuss them when we got together on Saturdays. How about a book club for two? Or three or four, if we include Harold Bloom and Marjorie Garber, our Shakespeare gurus, or six, if we add Bill Bryson and Stephen Greenblatt, whose William Shakespeare biographies we have handy, or seven, if we count A.D. Nuttall, or even eight with Jonathan Bate.... See? Our book club was quickly getting populated, although our fellow members were not present in the flesh!

We started with Antony and Cleopatra, and gave ourselves plenty of reading time, basically an act a week. We ended up devouring the play and the chapters in Bloom, Garber and Nuttall. Our discussions were lively and interesting. It was working!

In November we read King Lear. Another resounding success! 

December was for Richard III, and the evil kingdom enthralled us! (even though Bloom does not like it that much and dismissed it in a very flimsy chapter).

Now, Annabelle is back home. Again thousands of miles separate us. Our plan is to read the 35 (37?) plays plus the sonnets in time for the 400 anniversary of Shakespeare's death. in April of 2016. Annabelle has confided that she hopes she is still alive by then, and I'll drink to that!

This simple blog is my attempt to memorialize this excellent adventure, which has already been delightful and I am thinking will change us forever. I am grateful to Annabelle for this gift of Shakespeare, which will keep me very busy for the next 40 months.

Maria