macbeth. william shakespeare.

(this play is in complication so that is where there is no book cover.)

since next weekend i will be seeing the play "sleep no more" in nyc, i decided i should probably read the shakespeare play that it is based on, so i can know what is going on.  i should add "sleep no more" has no dialogue and the audience wears masks (yes if you saw that "law and order" episode, it's like that, well minus the rape) do that was part of the reason as well.

before i go on i have to admit what a horrible drama student i was.  the drama teacher at delano high school was obsessed with shakespeare and that was all he ever directed.  due to thid, i was in a production of "macbeth", as a chorus member.  it was for a festival at chapman, which i did just to go on a field trip.  and though i was in it, all i remember was the witches' "double double" and lady macbeth's (played by my friend kaley) "out damn spot" and "unsex me now" lines.  and even though i sat through a handful of practice and performances, i had no idea what the play was about until i read it.  and even than i needed sparknotes.com to help me understand it completely.

i consider myself an intelligent person but shakespeare is so beyond me!  i would read a couple of acts then consult sparknotes.com to make sure i understood what was going on.  most of the time i did but i did miss that whole forest moving prediction and then it's actual happening.

but back to the play, it was really dark.  so much death!  and lady macbeth!  talk about malicious!!! though in the end she did commit suicide due to the guilt so she wasn't a complete sociopath, demonstrating she was capable of remorse. but she was quite frightening at the beginning with her murder plots and talk of dashing the brains of a suckling infant.  that part was manically cruel, who has thoughts like that?!?!  even her talk of killing duncan herself was insane.  and she did have the best lines "unsex me now" a demand to lose her femininity so she can destroy life.  though since shakespearen time, women have proven that they are just as capable of murder as men.

i also enjoyed the plot twist at the end when macduff revealed that he was not born but take from the womb early.  interesting! what a surprise! and then macduff presented macbeth's head at the end.  there was a lot of gory scenes in this and then add in the witches and banquo's ghost roaming around, though i haven't read anything else, it's pretty dark for shakespeare right?  and seriously what a bad move on macbeth's end for killing the chamberlains, it was really odd when he announced that.

oh and way to go shakespeare for his grand tradition of perverted scenes, so random to have the porter talking about whiskey dick.  but i guess something to keep the mood light.

and of course so many great lines that influenced others:

"by the prickling of my thumb,

something wicked this way come":  ray bradbury

"life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

and then is heard no more.  it is a tale

told by an idiot, full of sound and fury , 

signifying nothing.":  faulkner

"weird sisters.":  j.k. rowlings

"methought i heard a voice cry 'sleep no more! macbeth does murther sleep.'":  the play i am going to see.

so excited for the play and glad i will have a better understanding of it.  oh and i will make sure not to say "macbeth" in the theater as warned by friend ferlay.  i will use "the scottish play" to avoid dying or having an accident.

the casual vacancy. j.k. rowling (96)

i should have wrote that letter to j.k. rowling suggesting her next book be the story of harry potter but from the prospective of professor snape! it would give snape a chance to be the hero in his own words instead of via flashbacks. give him a chance to tell his side! but alas i never wrote that letter and even if i did and j.k. somehow read it, it would have never convinced her, because she was determined to write the anti-potter.

if you are a potterhead and looking to get a fix, look elsewhere. if you are a heroin addict, looking to get a fix, you should actually read this book because it will show you how heroin will ruin your life.

at first, i was hesitant to read "the casual vacancy" because i am not interested in politics. i am ignorant of what goes on in washington and the world because let's face it even if you are informed on the political affairs of the world, you are still ignorant. i believe the government only lets us know what it wants us to know. also i am one of those skeptics that believe that the masses can vote but it doesn't really count for anything. i vote for the sticker. so when i read the premise, i was certain that 500 pages of small town politics would bore me to death.

but guess what, it didn't. but also because it wasn't a political novel. well it was but in the sense that it is a novel about the class divide which is ultimately political. this novel actually reminded me of zadie smith's "nw" (amazon should consider doing a deal where you get both books for at a discount prices), both focus on the slums of england. oddly enough, i didn't like any of rowling's characters just like i didn't care for anyone in "nw". interestingly enough it was for the same reason, they were all horrible people who were selfish and only out for themselves. the only character i cared about was krystal weedon because she was dealt a bum hand by life. and yes there were some life choices she made that i didn't agree with but she dealt with her problems the only way she knew how.

quick digression. so the book is about the town of pagford and the divide within their middle due to the slums aka "the fields". interesting those those affected by the issue aka the lower class did not strive to keep their homes. this could a) be an analogy about how in politics the upper classes rule the lives of the lower without their knowing or b) the lower classes do not care about their own well being (which makes me question, why do the upper classes care than?)

this divide actually kept me interested in the book. my personal opinion on government assistance and welfare programs are that they have gone to shit. people abuse them. (see me on unemployment for 3 years). and there's no checks and balances on any of these programs. most people on assistance to not use the money properly. they buy iphones or ipads instead of what that money is allotted. plus a lot of time and energy is spent on people who would never spend the same amount of time and energy on themselves because let's be honest their lack of motivation in life is the reason why they need the assistance in the first place.

however, once i saw the story of krystal and how she could have a better life if she had the resources, i realized that life and assistance isn't so black and white. these welfare programs were put in place to help those in need. but sadly instead of doing that it has created a culture of dependence in which people abuse the aid. i have no real solution to this problem other than bitch about it. but i if i ruled the world, i would reform the programs to give assistance to those who truly needed it instead of junkies and teens that use their bastard children (sounds harsh but i am a bastard so it is kosher) as their meal ticket (krystal weedon planned on doing this).

at first glance, krystal seemed like the anti-potter. she was a girl born to a junkie mother who grew up in the slums. she skipped school, smoked, cussed, and had unprotected sex. but though rowling was trying to get away from her wholesome teen heros from hogsworth, krystal and harry both share a heart of gold. well krystal's was probably tainted a little, but she did try to sacrifice herself (via the attempt at pregnancy) to keep her family together. kinda like harry sacrificed himself for the world. also they are both searching for love due to lack of a home; krystal's single mom is a junkie and we all know what happened to harry's parents. both are also outsiders whose reputations proceed them, krystal is known as a hoodlum but she is actually a good kid. and well harry was a super star than a liar in the press about the return of he-would-at-that-time-couldn't-be-named and he really was the savior (not like blasphemous savior but he did save the world from evil.) so those rowling may have wanted her characters to be edgier, she still created a character you could care about.

however, her supporting characters were the opposite of the b-list characters in potter. whereas i loved ron, hermione, sirius black, remus, snape, and dobbie, i could have lived without all the other characters in "the casual vacancy". i absolutely hated simon and kept on wishing someone called the police about his abuse. he was such an asshole, i would have been okay with him dying. fats was another character i could not stand with his smugness and abuse of sukhvinder. (oh i forgot , i did like sukhvinder, she was a hero and had a heart of gold too.). i also couldn't handle gavin the coward. but everyone else were just sad.

also there were so many characters, it was overwhelming. like it was cool to see how they were all interconnected because that is how life is. but after a while, there were too many people. i could have done without knowing every detail of everyone's life.

overall, it was a good book but it wasn't great. i will not walk around singing its praise like i did once i gave harry potter a chance. i definitely would not recommend it to kids that read the series. this book talks about sex, drugs, affairs, and abuse, just to name a few. there is no denying that rowling is a good storyteller, she kept me interested with her plot twists. i was also shocked by her endings but without a person to truly care about or a cause to support, i did not get completely lost in the book. if you miss harry and the gang and looking for something to fill the void, just reread the series.