reading and related

[asakiyume]

The healing angel and I finished reading Hamlet aloud to each other today--we'd been working on it ever since I finished reading The Raven Tower and since I found out she never read it in high school. What a ripping good yarn, right? And so many good bits I'd forgotten, and over-the-top bits, and everything.

healing angel at the end: Wait, is Hamlet nominating Fortinbras to be the new king of Denmark?

me: Yup.

healing angel: What's wrong with Horatio?! How about a nice scholarly king... who's afraid of ghosts?

Other things that stuck out at me this time around: Shakespeare getting a dig in at classism by having the gravediggers observe that the only reason Ophelia is getting a Christian burial is because she's a noblewoman:
--Will you ha' the truth an't? If this had not been a
gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial.

--Why, there thou say'st! And the more pity that great folk
should have count'nance in this world to drown or hang themselves
more than their even-Christian.

That, and Gertrude describing Hamlet as fat and out of breath in the fight with Laertes!

And speaking of breathless, the short story "John Simnel's First Goshawk," by Tegan Moore, knocked the wind right out of me with its beauty of language and theme and the controlled, powerful, graceful way it unfolded.

This is how you break a hawk: wait him out ... If the falconer sleeps, he simply begins the excruciating wait again the next day. If the hawk sleeps, however, then the bird has lost forever ...

And this is how you break a boy: tell him he is king ... You must crown him and put him at the front of an army. If you fail, there is always another handsome hazel-eyed boy somewhere in the world. Anyone might do.

And

If escaped, or even freed, is something tamed and trained in this way ever its own sovereign?

I have a draft of my Inconvenient God sequel, but it's still in isolation while I decide how contagious it is and if radical surgery or chemotherapy will be necessary. As I said to Wakanomori, it's exactly the story you could expect from someone who spent six months working in a jail and the rest of the time editing papers on how the Chinese government incentivizes local officials to enact the policies it wants to carry out ... while living in T*rump's America.

Comments

[sovay]

What's wrong with Horatio?! How about a nice scholarly king... who's afraid of ghosts?

I second this AU.

"If escaped, or even freed, is something tamed and trained in this way ever its own sovereign?"

Last night I was reading Martha C. Nussbaum's "The Weakness of the Furies"; that turns out to be a question that goes back as far as Mary Wollstonecraft. Quoting Sandra Bartky: "One of the evils of a system of oppression is that it may damage people in ways that cannot always be undone."

it's exactly the story you could expect from someone who spent six months working in a jail and the rest of the time editing papers on how the Chinese government incentivizes local officials to enact the policies it wants to carry out ... while living in T*rump's America.

That doesn't make me not want to read it, you understand.

[asakiyume]

That doesn't make me not want to read it, you understand. LOL--phew.

"One of the evils of a system of oppression is that it may damage people in ways that cannot always be undone." --yeah, I feel like that's relevant for my story too, but I also fear I may be claiming things for the story that it doesn't deliver, that I'm so far gone in my own catharsis that I'm not realizing how little of it is accessible to anyone else.

[sovay]

LOL--phew.

Seriously, I look forward.

--yeah, I feel like that's relevant for my story too, but I also fear I may be claiming things for the story that it doesn't deliver, that I'm so far gone in my own catharsis that I'm not realizing how little of it is accessible to anyone else.

It is always true that you the writer will know exactly what went into the story and no one else will unless it is spelled out or you tell them extra-diegetically, but you would really have to disappear up your own self-involvement for it not to come through the text, and I don't really see that happening. Even if it does the ninety percent iceberg thing, the ten percent may really connect.

[asakiyume]

We'll see. That's why it's still in quarantine. That, and I keep on reading other people's brilliant writing and then having to turn on the Mother voice that says, Now now, different writing can all be good in its own way while meanwhile having doubts.

But Tiny Witt doesn't have me that hard. I'm pragmatic--I just want to make sure it's as good as I can make it.

[sovay]

That, and I keep on reading other people's brilliant writing and then having to turn on the Mother voice that says, Now now, different writing can all be good in its own way while meanwhile having doubts.

There's also the thing where it's impossible to know what will resonate with different readers, so you may feel you've been totally obscure and other people may just not care.

But Tiny Witt doesn't have me that hard. I'm pragmatic--I just want to make sure it's as good as I can make it.

Good!

[kore]

Wow, that essay is great.

[sovay]

Wow, that essay is great.

I found it by random advertisement, which is not usually how the internet works. I'll put it in a links post the next time I get around to one of those.

[asakiyume]

Just took a glimpse now, and YEAH. Gotta read the whole thing.

[athenais]

Oh wow, that short story. I have to read it now.

[asakiyume]

You'll be rewarded. It's like that the whole way through. I just keep meditating on it.

[sartorias]

Oh, yes on Hamlet. So much to discover on every single reading.

The short story sounds exquisite. And sharp.

And your story sounds very, very intriguing!

[asakiyume]

The short story is gorgeous. There's a narration, so if your eyes aren't up to reading you can listen to it instead.

And thank you! I hope my story will [one day] please.

[aamcnamara]

Congrats on the draft! I look forward to it.

[asakiyume]

Thank you!

[queenoftheskies]

I love your story.

I can't wait to see the final version.

[asakiyume]

((hugs))

[minoanmiss]

healing angel: What's wrong with Horatio?! How about a nice scholarly king... who's afraid of ghosts?


Hamlet just talked Horatio out of suicide, even *he* has more sense than to stick a crown on his poor traumatized boyfriend's head.

[asakiyume]

Okay, but counterpoint--poor traumatized boyfriend doesn't get the reward of kingship for all his devotion?

[minoanmiss]

is being a king really a reward, though? It's a hard job when done properly, and Horatio would try his heart out to do it properly. I hope Fortinbras installs Horatio in a cushy government job and lets him heal.

maakes notes in my fanfic ideas book

[asakiyume]

I hope Fortinbras installs Horatio in a cushy government job and lets him heal. --I can go for this! With good medical benefits and a month of vacation--at least--each year.

[cmcmck]

Fortinbras is the warrior.

'Twas ever thus as the military historians (like me) know. The Richard II's and Edward II's meet with no good end generally.

Maybe the Prince of Denmark simply valued Horatio more than that?

[asakiyume]

That seems to be the consensus feedback I'm receiving--that it's out of love that Hamlet wants to spare him that.

[mrissa]

Kingship is no reward, and also all over the north there's a lot of "well that fellow already knows how to be king, he'll do it here for awhile" in the premodern era, various kingdoms joining up and splitting apart again around who's got a person of age who's half-assing it instead of quarter-ass or less. The Kalmar Union, oof.

I mean, mostly this play is not at all specifically Scandinavian, it's just when you need an ending for Denmark, well, they're always trading kings in the north.

[asakiyume]

Fair enough about kingship being no reward (... although I'll observe that that sure doesn't stop people from seeking it? So **some** people must want it). But yeah, neither of us has any knowledge at all about Scandinavian history, so this is enlightening! Now that you've piqued my curiosity, I'll have to go look up the Kalmar Union.

PS Oh and by "us" I meant me and the healing angel! Obviously you **do** have knowledge ;-)

[amaebi]

That story sounds staggering.

And why shouldn't you be a Kafka?

As I slowly make my way through It Happened At the Ball I have sometimes struggled (unsuccessfully) to remember why I bought it, sometimes been delighted. But then I got to where your story starts, and now I know. :D

[asakiyume]

Oh I hope you like that story! I've got a cover for it--one day (one day...) I'll release it as a stand-alone, now that the exclusivity period is over.

And regarding this current story... I just hope I've been able to make all my feelings show up on the page, or at least a significant percentage.