The V&A has combined its medieval and Renaissance galleries:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article6941409.ece

I really hope "medaissance" doesn't catch on, though.

A search for possible PBS air dates for David Tennant's Hamlet pulled up the following press release, about a film version of the recent production of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/macbeth/production-announcement/883/

(Also, the press release suggests an April 2010 date for Hamlet.)

Well, really, just a random observation or two about Bob Fraser:

( spoilers for 'Call of the Wild' )

Some of the other stuff (especially in the second part)? eeeeeeh, what.

Also, dear Benton: you are not allowed to use that vulnerable little boy face anymore, okay? It makes me sadder than sad, and then I have to think about you trying to tell ghost stories to Ray K., and how that makes me want to hug you for days and days.

Re: "Mountie Sings the Blues": I find it completely adorable that Fraser will apparently sing at the drop of his pressed-brim hat if it's as a distraction, or under orders, or even just as part of that super-polite, mustn't-refuse-anything-to-anyone protective coloration he adopts. But ask him to sing as himself, as Benton Fraser, and he stutters and goes all shy and self-conscious.

Also, the man dances like a metronome. *hearts*

And one of the (many) things that I love about Constable Benton Fraser, RCMP, is that he is truly and genuinely good, and that seems so rare as the focus of a show. ( I'm sorry, I would feel honor-bound )

also: some stuff about resentment, Ray Kowalski, and "Mountie on the Bounty"

( There's something I'd like to get off of my chest )

Well, oh snap, Laurie Kaplan.
"Adapting Emma for the Twenty-first Century: An Emma No One Will Like"
http://jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol30no1/kaplan.html

*giggle*

(Incidentally, I decided that if I were going to name a book of excerpts of Austen criticism, I would probably call it Pleasure in a Good Novel. Because...yeah. Me + HT 4-ever.)

It is Jane Austen's birthday today. So--in keeping with the theme already established--here is the text of the last chapter of Northanger Abbey, which is utterly delightful in the way it plays around with novelistic convention and even the materiality of the book:

( Northanger Abbey, chapter 31, from pemberley.com )

This book looks interesting (especially the more personal essays about Austen, including one by Amy Heckerling on why she turned Emma into Clueless), and I even put it on the Christmas list my mother asked me to make. But the title continues to be like nails on a blackboard:

A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen, by Susannah Carson, ed.

(The book has its own website: http://whyjaneausten.com/book.html )

It's just so...obvious. And I was already complaining about this three years ago. I bet you all could come up with better, less cliched Austen titles without even thinking about it very hard.

(Besides which, if why we read Austen *were* already a truth universally acknowledged, then we wouldn't need the book, now would we?)

(It is possible that some of my annoyance is graduate student jealousy, since the editor is a doctoral candidate, and not even in English. I won't say it isn't. Why did no one call me for this job? It would have been awesome. *pout*)

It would be nice if I could redirect my thoughts to things I should be thinking about, but I don't seem to be able to do that. I keep telling myself that this is the weekend in which I am going to write something, but that never seems to happen. I suspect it's all psychological and I have some kind of severe block on attempting to actually write a chapter, but whatever. I don't really care, and I don't really know how to motivate myself without caring about the end product.

Instead I continue to watch due South. (This is more a symptom than a cause.) I think I have finished what should actually be called season 3, even if seasons 3 and 4 are all lumped together on the US DVDs. Things:

--I am actually not sure whether it's character or tone that I continue to balk at slightly.

--But I still love it when Fraser puts up the polite, rule-bound Mountie wall, and then is totally devious behind it, as in "Asylum."

--While it is going to be very, very hard to top my sheer devotion to "Red, White, or Blue," "Mountie on the Bounty" was deeply pleasing in its red-serge silliness.

--I continue to miss the brown uniform. (It did make a brief appearance in one of the episodes--I forget which, now--but it was not enough.)

Also, it was Emily Dickinson's birthday yesterday. And given that today is one of those cold, clear, sharp winter days:

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the Seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –
(#258)

And one that I kept meaning to post, last month:

How happy I was if I could forget
To remember how sad I am
Would be an easy adversity
But the recollecting of Bloom

Keeps making November difficult
Till I who was almost bold
Lose my way like a little Child
And perish of the cold.
(#898)

So I finally finished The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Changed the World by Paul Collins, and learned that I still get tears in my eyes when someone mentions how many of Shakespeare's plays we wouldn't have had if not for the Folio.
http://www.bloomsburyusa.com/books/catalog/book_of_william_hc_956

(I'd been carrying it around in my purse for the last few months, which meant that even though whenever I actually managed to read some of it, I enjoyed it, I only seemed to read it during down time, and when I happened to be carrying that particular bag.)

I'd read the author's previous book, Sixpence House (about living in Hay-on-Wye for a year), and spent a pretty delightful couple of evenings doing so, so I bought The Book of William on a whim. Paul Collins takes delight in bookish coincidences and happenstance, which is a lot of fun. If you actually do know a fair amount about the early printing of the Folio, or about eighteenth-century editing of Shakespeare (which I don't), then you might find the beginning a rehash of things you already know, but in later chapters he follows several individual Folios and visits the locations that have them (in part of the book, he visits the Folger Shakespeare Library), and he's an entertaining narrator throughout.

One peculiarity of the book--for me, at least--is that it takes "Shakespeare" as a given. That is, we follow Collins as he examines these Folios and discusses their worth to us, but there's no sense of why we should care about what's in those pages. But I suppose it's the same with lots of things, from Shakespeare biographies to newly discovered portraits that might be him, to the latest supposition about who he "really" was: we're told that we should care, that Shakespeare is a treasure, but that seems divorced from the thing that should matter most, the actual words. This isn't really a fault of the book, though; it's just something I think about and am frequently frustrated by. Because I really don't think that this is a given, not for lots of people, and I feel like that's the problem I want to be addressing: how the same people who will say "This above all, to thine own self be true" when you mention Shakespeare will then turn around, with no sense of the disconnect, and tell you that they don't read or see Shakespeare, because Shakespeare is too hard, or boring, or not relevant to their lives.

In my life, I generally feel disorganized and distracted and unfocused: like the thoughts I want to be having never arrive, and I'm left with their pallid imitations. So it's always a shock to have a cold, and realize that there is another whole level to this feeling. Aside from the sniffles, I feel more or less okay (and I had oatmeal again this morning, for the first time in a few days--for whatever reason, oatmeal tastes odd to me when I'm sick, but cream of wheat tastes fine), but I still can't seem to concentrate on anything that would require me to respond.

With that in mind, things I'd probably want to write about, regarding due South, but can't pull my thoughts together in order to do so:

( not quite meta, although it is Monday )

Four episodes into season 3.

I am not at all sure how I feel about this new Ray person.

Once again, Mondays are for meta. All of S2, but mostly the second half.

( Fraser's uniform (again) )

( Parallels, oppositions, deflections )

( what happens when a revenger won't revenge; logic and feeling )

OMG he put his hands in his pockets!

(just finished S2. That was my Thanksgiving; I consider it very well-spent.)

I'm not posting all of the previous stuff I wrote, but the Hamlet stuff may be something I want to keep, so:

(11 November 2009)

"Heaven and earth, must I remember?": boys and their fathers in Due South S1 (and occasionally Hamlet)

( because Hamlet is everywhere, apparently )

I can't decide what to eat for dinner. (Yes, it is rather late, but I got really hungry after the movie and ate a giant slice of pizza--seriously, I had to cut it in half just to eat it, and it was easily two slices' worth--so I'm only just up for dinner now.

I could have scrambled eggs with cheddar and chives, and a salad, or I could have French toast and an apple. I had the former for dinner last night (yes, I was inspired by watching "We Are the Eggmen" the day before), and it was really, really good, plus I have all these chives to use up from when I made potato soup last Sunday. (Can one freeze chives? I wouldn't think so, but you never know.) On the other hand, I also have a few slices of sourdough that are beyond anything but the French toast/bread pudding stage, and sourdough French toast is yummy, even if the cap to my vanilla extract is tragically bashed in so that it's impossible to open.

...I think all the dishes I need for French toast are already clean, though, and I was too tired to wash dishes after dinner (also quite late) last night. That might have settled it.

Things I should possibly stop doing:

1. Watching movies that make me all misty-eyed about school and education and teaching and whatnot.

2. Watching things that make me want to run away to Oxford.

Which is to say that I finally got around to seeing An Education this afternoon. I really liked it, and Carey Mulligan was rather lovely: she manages to play Jenny as young without making her naive, and as clever and clear-headed without being overly sophisticated or too worldly-wise to believe that she'd be swept off her feet. And there's always much more going on in her face than one would expect, which is one of the reasons I like her so much, and have done since Ada Clare. Also, Olivia Williams rocks, and so does Emma Thompson, even if their parts are sadly brief. Rosamund Pike is quite good, playing the ditzy girlfriend without stumbling into caricature, and I liked Dominic Cooper. (I don't usually, though this has to do far more with the parts he's played--I never go for the "bad boy" type--than with anything about him. He's still sort of playing a bad boy here, and I can't say that I liked the character, but I liked how he played him. If that makes sense). As a demonstration of the sort of guy I do go for, I thought the hapless boy who had a crush on Jenny was adorable. I go for dorks, what can I say?

Also, now I kind of want to see Me and Orson Welles from the trailer, even if it does have Zac Efron in it. (Which is unfair. He could be a decent actor, for all I know. I just hope it's not stunt casting.) Oh! And I saw the trailer for Young Victoria! I hope it's as good as it looks from the trailer, because it is pretty clear that I will wind up seeing it. I wonder if it'll be playing when I'm home...

Doctor Who alums: 1, Carey Mulligan, obviously. History Boys: 1, Dominic Cooper, also obviously.

Apparently meta Mondays are now extending to Fridays as well. Oh, dear, as Fraser would say.

( in which I fixate on Fraser's body, mostly. No, not like THAT. Through 'Some Like It Red.' )

Or maybe the word I want is "ridiculous." Or possibly "girly." And I know this because last night I was watching more of due South S2, and I was actually happy when Fraser started quoting from Paradise Lost. Yeah, that's right. Me. Happy. About Milton. Can I help it if Fraser makes stuff adorable?

I texted my mother about this, because I had to squee at someone, apparently, and she texted me back: "You just can't get away--hee hee. love mom"

Apparently Mondays are now "write random 'analysis' about Due South instead of rereading Milton and prepping for class" days.

Today it was all about "North," the first episode of the second season. I really wanted to think about "Bird in the Hand" (eee more Hamlet-themes!), but this already took long enough (and I do actually have to get ready for class at some point!), so maybe later.

( Now what you're saying is, we're supposed to pursue people to the ends of the earth for a motto that isn't even our motto! )