Results of Ruminations

In my Shakespeare class, I asked the students to pitch their dream version of the play we had just finished studying ( Macbeth ) as if they had all the resources and connections to make it happen. They selected their favorite actors, researched costume ideas, and digitally developed the way the stage would look. There were lots of different variations on Macbeth , including Breaking Bad meets Macbeth , French Revolution Macbeth , and a couple of Victorian London concepts as the setting for the Scottish play.* It was really cool, and the students did a fantastic job. But the one that really got me thinking was one in which a student framed the story of Scottish dynasties as actually one of the antebellum South. Instead of it being North versus South, however, it was the concept of a plantation owner (Duncan) whose favorite slave (Macbeth) helps quell an uprising on the plantation (the beginning of the play). Since the student was only sketching out the concept, there wasn't time ...

I love a well-told tale. One of the reason that I still unabashedly recommend Patrick Rothfuss  and his two novels to people is because Rothfuss knows how to tell a good story. Not only that, but he loves  to tell stories. Almost every question he answers in interviews comes in the form of a story. He's supped full of the bardic tradition and it exudes from him like an odoriferous wave of narrative--I would imagine. I haven't met him in person, so I can't say for certain. As an addendum, I would like to point out that the particulars of an odoriferous wave of narrative  and what that would smell like are beyond my experience, though I imagine it would entail nutmeg somehow. That just seems how it ought to be. Anyway, this essay isn't about Rothfuss. It's about how he got so good at stories: It was by watching Joss Whedon. You can learn all about Rothfuss' conversion story , but what he doesn't really go into detail with that post is why  Whedon is so gorra...

My buddy (and frequent inspiration for these essays), Dustin Simmons , told me about a new book that he's reading. It's called Great Books  and it has an interesting premise: A mid-career film critic returns to his freshman humanities courses to reread with a new generation the bulwarks of the Western canon. I've looked over the introduction, and it looks like a great read. (It was published in 1997, so I wonder if some of the triteness that he looks at with a nostalgic "Ahh, so naive" expression doesn't permeate a lot of what comes after--the internet was nascent at the time, and the explosion of voices that the internet has allowed hadn't become the cacophony that it is now.) What I wanted to focus on, however, was this moment, taken from page 12: Such complaints [about Eurocentric canon], which issued generally from the academic left, especially from a variety of feminist, Marxist, and African-American scholars, were answered in turn by conservative...

Supposedly, the story goes that the original quote of doomed people and the repetition of history was "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." While both versions of George Santayana make a lot of sense, the application of it seems illusive. The article I linked above pointed out that people knowing the past didn't prevent them from making more stupid mistakes, and in light of everything that has happened in the post 8 November world, Clairmont's analysis seems to be coming to a sad fruition. Part of the difficulty of applying historical lessons is that things are different (and very much the same) in our world now, so which pieces of history are the ones that are most instructive at any given point? For example, there are lots of lessons to be learned from Alexander Hamilton's life, but which one is the one that matters? Immigrants can make a difference? Adultery ought to scuttle a political career? Abrasive people get jobs done? Gover...

The concept of "good writing" has been knocking around my sconce for the last little bit. It grows out of pedagogy issues (how do I teach "good writing" if I can't pin down what I even think it is) as well as the other end of the writing process: reading. What makes for a good book? And if I can point to objective things about good books, surely I could emulate that idea for good writing, right? Nope. Here's the thing: I'm a pretty okay guitarist. I can play a lot of songs (sloppily) that I like and I can sometimes impress a gym full of teenagers with what I know. I've even taken the time to learn some technically intricate or interesting pieces by highly talented musicians. Learning to play these songs does require a particular skill set, but just because I can play the lead guitar parts to "Pal Treaux" doesn't mean I could ever write  any aspect of this song. (This song, btw, is from my favorite band, the Rx Bandits and it sings t...

Harold Bloom made a whole book out of the idea of the "anxiety of influence" , which is that those who come after greatness always look back at that which inspired them and it causes an anxiety, a worry about how the forerunners are forming the present work. I haven't read the book, but I've read enough of Bloom to know that there's probably a lot more to unpack in such a complex idea. It's similar to what my friend, Dustin Simmons , studies in his conceits of the "reception" of ancient literature. While Simmons' ideas are often more of "What are the modern expressions and allusions to the classical past?" than "How did the classical past cause anxiety for the creator of new work?", the two branches of reflecting on the past are interesting avenues to wander down, and I encourage you to give it a go whenever you've the time. What I wanted to talk about is an inversion of Bloom's anxiety, using the term "enthusia...

I have finished, in one form or another, 62 novels and podcasts this year. I think I may end up at about 65 when it's all said and done (since there are some weeks remaining, plus the holiday break from school). For me, this is a great accomplishment--more than one piece a week--though I haven't documented my attempts before, so I don't know if this is more, less, or about normal. There are a couple of reasons that I've started the reading list--which I attempted on the blog one time and it was rarely updated. One, I felt that I, as an English teacher and self-professed bibliophile, wasn't doing enough to back up the titles. Two, I got my new office halfway through the year, so having a quiet(ish) place to sit and read, even if that does lead to impromptu naps, has given me a place to focus on the words on the page. Three, I've been inspired by my friend, Dustin Simmons, who reads so prolifically that I'd almost qualify it as violent--I've never met s...