Response to Course Materials: Ressurection

Wow, it's been a while since we've had one of these, eh? We've finished Hamlet, done our finals, dealt with some multiple choice craziness, and started a new play.

I still feel like Hamlet and I have unfinished business. As I was writing my summary and analysis, I felt kind of incomplete. With the other two texts, we had enough discussion time to flesh out a group wide vision of the play, and especially with The American Dream, I felt very sure with my comments on the work. As we've gone on, I've been working off of speculation more and more. Even though I know that in lit, nothing is ever 'wrong' ect., it's still a little worrying to have to make a blind conjecture about the theme or meaning of a work and then support it. Overall, though, I enjoyed Hamlet. I didn't feel the same disdain for him that some people seemed to-- all of his reactions and his waiting felt natural to me. Of course, this is the same girl who is 100% convinced she is Nick Carraway, so keep in mind I'm actually just boring and wishy washy to begin with. I remember at the beginning of our study of Hamlet, we were asked to decide if this was Shakespeare's version of 'Saw 13' or an actual dramatic triumph. Now, this is another thing we let fall by the wayside with our discussion, but in general I'd say that while Hamlet borrows a lot from Shakespeare's other plays, it still offers such a wide range of guessing games that it has literary merit.

Our finals were just stupidly fun. I can understand and sympathise with kids who maybe didn't like acting, but trust me, if you get into it? It's great. Erin and I acted as Hamlet and Gertrude respectively, in their confrontation, and maybe I'm biased because I read her part in class, but it is way, way easier to play her as sympathetic towards Hamlet. Plus, I got to throw myself on the floor and fake cry.

And we had costumes.

I don't have a whole lot to say about the multiple choice? I knocked them out of the park, generally, and I'm really not worried about that portion of the test. What I am worried about, though, and I'd say I'm not alone in this, are the essays. Especially the closed prompt. I recall a lot of confused questioning, a lot of double meaning in prompts, and getting graded as a 5 on the sample essay I wrote. And that was what, 3 months ago? If I had to pick an area that I felt unsure in, those essays would definitely be it. Even the open prompt practice we're getting here feels a little like hollering into the void and only getting a couple of halfhearted affirmations back.

Finally, we started Rozencrantz and Guildenstern and I will spare you the long winded rant about how much I love that play. What is kind of interesting, I have found, is how freakin' difficult it is to analyze a piece as you are reading it. I love being able to participate that way, but the things you notice as you try to scan for your own lines are few and far between. You also tend to develop a bias towards your own character (this is less of a problem since we switched halfway through, heh) and it's hard to step outside those shoes and look at the work as a whole.

Still, though, I love this play. I love how it has inside jokes with those who read the script, I love how even our own commentary when some of the stage directions are weird add a dimension to the play that still suits it, I love how it plays tricks on the audience, I love the wordplay, I love Rozencrantz and Guildenstern's absolute and heartrending codependency and their singleminded devotion to their only goal in the world and I just. Agh. Every time we stop reading, I don't want it to be over. I'm honestly eager to annotate this so I can start forming my own opinions of the work and pulling things out for myself, rather than frantically circling things as I speak.

So I suppose everything's coming up roses. I wonder if there are any decent recordings of performances of this? It probably loses something outside of a theater setting.