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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
a_t_rain's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, February 14th, 2013 | | 6:30 pm |
... well, damn...
The one year I decide to skip SAA, they decide very late in the game to have an advance screening of Joss Whedon's Much Ado about Nothing. One of you guys will go and post about it, I hope? | | Tuesday, January 15th, 2013 | | 8:56 pm |
| | Tuesday, November 27th, 2012 | | 8:01 pm |
Sixteenth-century angstfic
" The Miseries of Mavillia, set in 'the troublesome time of a king unnamed, in a countrie too well knowne,' is divided into five chapters, or 'miseries,' in which Mavillia describes her life from early childhood until her death. Having been orphaned by war, Mavillia experiences a series of adventures which include being cared for by a laundress who accompanies the invading army ... being sent with 'two or three gallant gentlemen' and a young page to her uncle's house 'in the countrey' and being besieged on this journey by highwaymen who murder all the travelers except Mavillia and her page. Very shortly after their rescue, the page dies. Mavillia's money is stolen by the couple who treat her as a servant, and she is eventually wronged by being accused of having stolen their money. Her innocence is at length revealed; she is restored to her socioeconomic position; and two suitors vie for her hand in marriage. Mavillia chooses the younger of the two men (their most distinguishing feature being their age), whereupon the older suitor revenges himself by biting off Mavillia's nose. Her husband remains true to her despite her disfigurement, and she spends 'a wearie life' with him. Years later, her husband slays the old suitor, but not before he is mortally wounded. Mavillia ends the tale by essentially narrating not only her husband's death but her own as well." I'm weirdly reminded of Anne of Green Gables and her Story Club. ETA: I also wonder if there might be some sort of syphilis-chic thing going on, what with the random noselessness and all. Did the advent of Angsty Noseless Heroines coincide with the fashion for velvet face-patches? | | Saturday, September 29th, 2012 | | 12:11 am |
WTF Hamlet
ACT ONE The Soldiers: Hey, did you hear about the ghost? Horatio: I am a university man. I don't believe in ghosts. Ghost appears.Horatio: WTF? Marcellus: Look, cannon! Horatio: I can tell you all about that. [Horatio explains for forty lines all about Fortinbras, who is obviously going to be a major character in this narrative.] Ghost reappearsHoratio: WTF? Marcellus: I hear ghosts don't walk at Advent. Just sayin'. ( Damn, this is a really weird playCollapse ) | | Thursday, June 28th, 2012 | | 10:45 pm |
In Sligo. Having a completely excellent time. (Also: traveling with a parent = awesome because you get to eat well. I think I will miss this part after I'm on my own.) | | Monday, June 18th, 2012 | | 9:19 pm |
Twelfth Night fic (very, VERY silly)
So, two chapters for edited collections: DONE, at least until I get the reviewers' reports. Which is excellent, as I leave for Europe in three days, and have been frantically trying to finish up all the writing-related odds and ends. Sadly, I think the Hamlet AU doesn't get finished until I get back, but this bit of silliness has been hanging out on my hard drive for ages (ever since I found out there was a seventeenth-century puppet show about "the siege of Babylon, with the humors of Sir Andrew Aguecheek") and I think it's high time I posted it. The story of Evilmerodoch comes from William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse. I haven't made any of it up at all, except for the name-changing part and, of course, involving Sir Andrew. ( Beau Jest; or, the Countess of BabylotionCollapse ) | | Monday, June 11th, 2012 | | 8:09 pm |
Pseudonymous, Part Five
In which some plot threads finally start to converge. Parts 1-4 are here. Author’s Notes: I have used names or spellings from the First Quarto of Hamlet or from Saxo Grammaticus for most of the characters in The Tragedy of Amleth as I wanted to differentiate them from the canonical Hamlet characters. (In any case, I suspect that even Hamlet would not be crazy enough to name his principal characters Claudius, Gertrude, and Polonius, nor would the players let him get away with it if he did!) The names of Horatio and a few minor characters have been left intact, as my sources did not offer other versions, and it seemed plausible enough that Hamlet might pay tribute to his friend by using his name in the play. The text itself is not meant to be FirstQuarto!Hamlet. In case anyone is curious, Judit's full cast list is under the cut. ( How to perform Hamlet with six men, two boys, and a bit of illicit helpCollapse )( Chapter Five: What, A Play Towards?Collapse ) | | Sunday, May 20th, 2012 | | 1:35 pm |
the English-speaking busboy left under a cloud...
So, I have been reading old travel journals, all in the name of research. Possibly not entirely relevant research, as I have never been to Greece or Turkey before; I have been to Bulgaria, where I was thinking of possibly spending a few days this summer, but it was for four days on a job interview* and anyway I can't find the notes I took at the time. That leaves Ireland, but I'll be with my dad for the Ireland part of the trip and he seems to have pretty definite ideas where he wants to go. So mainly, it's less research than idle retrospection. I may post some more substantial excerpts later if people are interested in reading them, but for now, have an entertaining English-language restaurant menu from Telc, Czech Republic, in the summer of 2001. ( MEALS TO BE FOUND HERECollapse )* I wonder what my life would look like now if I'd gotten the job. It was a three-year contract position, so it would have been over two years ago, and as 2010 was not a good year to look for academic jobs, that probably would have been the end of having a career in my chosen field. So it's just as well that I didn't; but it would have been incredibly cool while it lasted, and I would have been competent by now at travel in the southern Balkans, rather than utterly clueless. | | Saturday, May 19th, 2012 | | 11:01 pm |
a random and idle thought...
I wonder if it would be possible to visit all of the places where Shakespeare's plays are set (and if so, how long would it take?) Off the top of my head, I have certainly been to London, Windsor, Warwickshire, Paris, Florence, Venice, Verona, Rome, Vienna, Bohemia, and Illyria. (Also several islands, and since we're never given any specific setting for The Tempest, I guess any old island will do.) I have certainly not been to Athens, Cyprus, Ephesus, Elsinore, Tyre, Mytilene, Pentapolis, Rousillon, the Forest of Arden, Milford Haven, Dover, Padua, Messina (or Sicily in general), Antioch, Troy, Philippi, or Egypt, although I could potentially do something about some of those this summer. I don't think I have been to Navarre or or any of the places in Macbeth, although I might be wrong, since I've certainly been to some parts of northern Spain and some of Scotland. I also don't have any specific memories of having been to Gloucestershire, but it would not surprise me in the slightest if I had been. ( ETA: No, I have not been to Navarre; I have been to Pais Vasco, Asturias, and Cantabria. Gloucestershire, however, is a probable yes.) Pericles is the one that really makes things difficult, isn't it? ( ETA again: Pericles potentially makes things impossible in the current political climate, as it appears that Pentapolis is most probably in Libya. However, there are several other places called Pentapolis; one possible alternative suggestion is Knidos, which looks quite doable and rather nice.) | | Friday, April 13th, 2012 | | 9:59 pm |
Pseudonymous, Part Four
... Yeah. Sorry I've been so bad at updating the Hamlet-fic. I have been crazy busy, and I've been feeling pretty tapped out. However, one of my former students stopped me in the hall a few weeks ago to ask me if I had seen Anonymous and told me it was sooo good, and I thought, "DID I TEACH YOU NOTHING?" so that gave me a bit of a push. Parts 1-3 are here. If you're wondering what the heck the English players are talking about, see here for a brief account of Essex's rebellion. ( Chapter Four: The Actors Are Come HitherCollapse ) | | Friday, February 10th, 2012 | | 9:23 pm |
| | Friday, February 3rd, 2012 | | 7:52 pm |
| | Saturday, January 7th, 2012 | | 10:26 pm |
| | Thursday, December 8th, 2011 | | 8:07 pm |
Pseudonymous, Part Two
More off-the-wall Hamlet AU, in lieu of doing actual work. Part One is here. For the record, I would like to note that I started writing this before I saw Bill Cain's play Equivocation, which features Shakespeare's daughter Judith as a touchy and presumably unpaid laundress and assistant-of-all-work to the King's Men. That's about as far as the similarities go, and they are purely coincidental. However, DC-area people should totally see Equivocation, because it is excellent. ( One Man In His Time Plays Many PartsCollapse ) | | Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 | | 7:57 pm |
As promised, daft authorship theory fic
Title: Pseudonymous Fandom: HamletSummary: Clearly, only a Danish prince could write a play about a Danish prince. Notes: This is meant to be both a takedown of silly Shakespearean authorship theories and a semi-serious AU exploring the possible consequences if one character had made a different decision in Act 3 of Hamlet. (Which character, and what decision, will eventually become apparent; for now, I will just say that it is not Hamlet, who in this story is reacting to Circumstances Beyond His Control.) The Life of St. Crispin is based on Thomas Deloney's The Gentle Craft (c. 1597), which inspired at least two theatrical adaptations in real life. The History of Amleth, Prince of Denmark is inspired by Saxo Grammaticus. ( Pseudonymous, Part OneCollapse ) | | Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 | | 5:27 pm |
| | Sunday, November 6th, 2011 | | 11:18 pm |
a good thing about the movie Anonymous
The various discussions about it have led me to this completely awesome movie, in which Leslie Howard plays a mild-mannered archaeology professor who fights Nazis (with wit, style, and SHAKESPEAREAN AUTHORSHIP JOKES) in his spare time. (N.B., this film is occasionally cited as evidence that Leslie Howard actually believed that the Earl of Oxford wrote the works of Shakespeare, which rather suggests that Oxfordians have a hard time grasping the concept of a joke, of context, or even of fiction.) Also, I am writing daft-authorship-theory crackfic instead of grading papers, which may or may not be a good thing. | | Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 | | 8:37 pm |
| | Sunday, October 9th, 2011 | | 10:02 am |
| | Friday, October 7th, 2011 | | 7:51 pm |
Sometimes I forget to finish what I
What the hey, have a fic meme, courtesy of  angevin2 and  likeadeuce. I will post the names of all the files in my WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Choose one (or a few, I don't care), and I will post a random line or two.It should be noted that I don't actually have a WIP folder, because that would involve organization, which is a thing I never do. Nonetheless, here are the file names of various scattered and forgotten projects. Beau Jest breakingbread dantefic goldenageau hamletsnape3 hamletsnape4 llwfic poinsfic shaxkids shrewfic shxinlove snapeau |
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