I bite my nails to the quick

Ah, the bard. If there's one writer I'm not looking forward to reading, it's him. I get paranoid, antsy, and disoriented, knowing that I'll get my hands close to any of his works. Ye olde English? I don't get ye, not very much. Now I understand this expression because I'm close to doing it: I bite my nails to the point of thumbtacks.

But there's no escaping him. He is everywhere. He still influences TV, movies, and, of course, theater. He has been redone, rewritten, repackaged, updated, made more palatable. I think he just may be alive. For all we know, Shakespeare is the original Elvis, and he has not yet left the building.

As I said, I can't escape him, even if I cross dress, pretend I died, tell everyone I'm busy avenging a relative's death because his ghost told me so, marry a shrew or become a shrew myself, or just basically be one in a pair of star-crossed lovers. Have I just listed some elements of his plays? As I said, very influential indeed. Effortless.

This month, the book club will be discussing one of his plays, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I've found out that it's a comedy. Hmmmm... So no one dies? No one becomes a crazed woman and drowns herself? But wasn't AMND the play featured in the movie Dead Poets' Society? I recall that, during curtain, the prep school boys loved it. All those cheers, whistles, and yawps. So I know that AMND doesn't suck vacuum cleaners.

My first non-academic experience with Shakespeare was just last year. Wasn't that bad, not bad at all. Read about it here. This time around, I come better prepared. Graphic novel? Check. A Shakespeare handbook? Have it. The Royal Shakespeare Company edition of the play? Beside my bed. The collecting part is easy; the bard can even take pointers from me in that aspect. Now for the challenge—reading.

I've never really liked manga. I find it weird and artificial. (Manga, one more WTF shit coming from Japan. Solar-powered flashlights? I die. But: toilet seat warmers—crazy brilliant.) But I'll take all the help I can get. Besides, the colored panels are beautiful, in a weird and artificial way.

And The Essential Shakespeare Handbook published by DK is just a beautiful book. It has more information on Shakespeare than you actually need. It's like a calculus textbook, but with full color images of people in costume. Because we know, really, that calculus is highly relevant in our everyday life. You need Shakespeare and calculus to buy stuff from iTunes, or to take the train, or to have sushi. Really.

And yet another book that I find quite interesting is The Graphic Canon series. Such an ambitious project, a 3-volume set aiming to interpret important literary works in comics and visual form. Volume 1 includes very early works such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad, Tao Te Ching, The Tale of Genji, and, what do you know, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"! AMND just runs for 5 pages though. Better than nothing. Shakespeare ignoramuses (ignorami?) can't be choosy.

I'm no English major, so wish me luck on the book discussion. I majored in science actually, but I do believe in pretty things like fairies. And, from what I Googled, AMND has a few characters who are fairies. Because we love fairies, especially fairy royalty, and the sprites who attend to them.

Friday night with the Bard

Early this month, I got invited to a book club hosted by my friend, Orly. I'm no stranger to book clubs, having been a member of Flips Flipping Pages for 3 years now, but somehow I'm intrigued with this one as the members would be discussing one of Shakespeare's works: "The Taming of the Shrew."

I have never read any of Shakespeare's works outside the classroom. I'm just not comfortable with the genre and the language, which I thought would be daunting. But surprisingly, I had fun reading "The Taming of the Shrew." To be honest, I didn't think I got all of it during the first reading, so I did another. (One can't have too many rereadings for a book club in my experience. Hehehe.)

So Friday came and, for some reason, I felt ambiguous about attending. For one, I don't know any of the other members except for Orly. Another, the 2-hour commute to the venue on a Friday night with the terrible Manila traffic is enough to make anyone discouraged.

Good thing I did find the energy and the enthusiasm to go though. Discussing "The Taming of the Shrew" proved to be really fun and insightful, with a lot of the members relating particular themes to their personal lives. And because it was an intimate group, there was plenty of time for all members to share their thoughts.

I really must find a copy of the movie of "The Taming of the Shrew" or at least a video recording of the play. As it was pointed out during the discussion, Shakespeare is truly meant to be seen on stage. I agree. Don't you, dear reader?

All in all, it was a very enjoyable and insightful night. The members were very friendly and so fashionable, especially the ladies. And I'm just so glad that I attended, despite the hellish traffic.

Here are some pics of the discussion, dear reader.

Orly, during one of the discussion's light-hearted moments

I believe we were talking about fashion here, 

as one of the devices used by Shakespeare in the play was costumes.

Lei, the moderator, who prepared the discussion questions

and who gave a very detailed synopsis of the play 

Jary, reading one of the questions

She's a lit major! It pays to sit next to her.

Emcie, listening critically to a member response

Her biting smile is so charming, no?

Amabelle, who was a first-timer to the group like me, joined us

after her MBA night class. Talk about busy!

Cupcakes! My gift to Orly who celebrated his birthday recently

Finally, Shakespeare

Oh dear. I can't even remember the last time I read the bard's work. It must've been years ago back in high school. All the plays we discussed in high school are a blur to me. I recall reading "Medea" and "The Glass Menagerie." I'm sure there were others, and I'm very much positive that we read "Hamlet."

Next week, I've been casually invited to join a book group that would hold its last Shakespeare discussion, and the members have picked "The Taming of the Shrew." Aieeeee! All I know about it is that the movie "Ten Things I Hate about You" is based on this play.

One enjoyable thing about these events is that they give you an excuse to head to the bookstore and do some retail therapy. I have none of Shakespeare's works in my shelves (the horror of it!), so I was determined to get an edition with, shall we say, more pedigree than the norm. Luckily, I found one published by Modern Library in collaboration with The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) no less.

But, dear reader, at another bookstore, I saw the edition that could probably save my big fat ass during the discussion. Ta-dah!

I would still try to read the RSC edition though, and perhaps consult the No Fear edition every now and then. If I still can't make heads nor tails of what's going on, I'd just watch again the movie, which features the fabulous Heath Ledger.

Wish me luck on my first Shakespeare discussion, dear readers!