Local Theater: Two Reviews Sunday, May 18 2008 

theater thisgaudygildedstage 4:19 pm

This week, PJ and I saw two productions at Ohio University, Knock Me a Kiss and The Compleat Female Stage Beauty. Knock Me a Kiss was written by Charles Smith, a professor of playwriting here in the School of Theater, and tells the fictionalized story of W.E.B. DuBois‘s daughter, Yolande, and her short-lived marriage to poet Countee Cullen. It was part of the School of Theater’s regular season. The Compleat Female Stage Beauty, by Jeffrey Hatcher, is about Edward Kynaston, the last actor famous for playing female roles in the Restoration. It was made into a feature film in 2004. I really enjoyed both productions.

Knock Me a Kiss is a really complex examination of race, gender, and sexuality during the Harlem Renaissance. The play revolves around Yolande’s struggling to decide whether she should marry for love or duty. She is in love with musician Jimmy Lunceford, but her father wants her to marry Cullen, a poet frequently featured in DuBois’s magazine, The Crisis. According to DuBois, his daughter’s marriage to Cullen will usher in a new age of racial equality, helping to liberate African Americans from discrimination. Once Yolande has married Cullen, however, she learns that he is more interested in “spending time with” his “friend,” Harold Jackman, than in being with her. Cullen ultimately confesses his homosexual leanings to his wife, causing her to divorce him.

I knew nothing about these figures before seeing the play. A little internet research and conversations with PJ have suggested that Smith has taken license with some of the historical details, but historical accuracy isn’t really the point of this play, it seems to me. Instead, I thought that the play used these events to explore issues of patriarchal power, masculine privilege, and double standards based on gender. Yolande is forced into making a decision she later regrets because her father is able to dominate her and convince her that marrying Cullen is for the greater good. Indeed, according to this play, women pay the greater price for men’s efforts at political change.

One of the things I liked most about the play was its depiction of Cullen’s sexuality. It would have been easy to make this character the villain, to portray him as malevolently using Yolande to hide his sexual orientation. I thought the production did a good job of showing Cullen’s own victimization. In order to receive a fellowship to write in Europe, he needs DuBois’s recommendation. DuBois makes this recommendation contingent on Cullen marrying well. Kevin Vaught does an excellent job of showing his character’s humanity — he’s a complicated character that is both likable and despicable.

(more…)

 

Teaching Tristram Shandy (Again) Tuesday, May 13 2008 

books and teaching thisgaudygildedstage 8:49 pm

For the past two weeks, I’ve been teaching Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy in my eighteenth-century Honors Tutorial class. This is the second time I’ve taught this novel; I also taught it last year in this class.

I’ve been very honest with my students. I taught Tristram last year just to make myself read it finally. I had twice been assigned to read it in graduate classes but had never been able to finish it.I decided to teach it this year so that I could see if I wanted to write about it in my current book project. I think it’s good to be upfront with them about my choices in the class.

I enjoyed reading and teaching it last year, but I’ve loved it this time through. Reading it a second time has opened it up in whole new ways. Now that I’m not reading just to get any handle on it, I can enjoy it and try to get into it as a scholar and critic.

My students have done a great job with this novel so far. We watched Michael Winterbottom’s 2005 adaptation of the novel yesterday, so some of them are writing reviews of it for this essays this week. To do so, they have to think about what they think the novel is really all about, what it’s doing. Then they can evaluate whether the movie captures that. So far, they’ve done a great job on both counts. I’ve been really impressed with their ability to analyze this incredibly difficult work. They’ve been game for it, which I guess is one of the perks of teaching in the HTC program.

(more…)

 

Boys Briefs 3: A Review Sunday, May 4 2008 

movies thisgaudygildedstage 9:44 pm

Before PJ got home this weekend, I watched Boys Briefs 3, an anthology of gay short films about guys getting together. Some of the shorts are fairly brief; others are a little longer. Some show a lot of skin; others don’t. Overall, I thought it was a rather weak collection of eight movies, but I did really enjoy two of them.

The first of the two that I really liked is called “Cabalerno,” which also happens to be the first film on the dvd. I found a clip of it on Youtube.

I like that this short has no dialog and yet we totally get what’s going on between the two boys. I also like that these guys aren’t totally buff or obviously hot. Instead, they’re attractively normal. Overall, I think this is a really sweet look at a young guy’s crush that turns out not to be totally unwelcome. It’s a great short film.

The other film that I really liked is called “Portmortem.” It stars Murray Bartlett (the guy on the right) and Daniel Dugan (the guy on the left) as two gay men who reunite to talk about their relationship, which ended a few years before.

I liked several things about this movie.

First off, the two guys are not only hot, but they’re also really cute. Both actors are perfect in their roles. Dugan plays the guy who was dumped years before by Thomas. He’s still smarting from the pain, but he’s also moved on with his life, living with his partner, Raul. Bartlett is the butch guy who dumped his boyfriend as he moved to a new city. Now he’s back and he wants to see how Thomas is doing without him.

Second, I love the music in this film. It’s by Harel Shachal, and I think it should be described as Middle Eastern jazz. It suits the short perfectly. In fact, the director, Eldar Rapaport, started writing the film after hearing some of Shachal’s music. The music and the plot seamlessly tell the story.

And finally, I like that the end of the film leaves what happens next up to the viewer’s imagination. The film’s final scene is somewhat ambiguous, so we have to decide how to interpret it. We can imagine the two former lovers reconcile, or we can imagine that Thomas goes back to his current lover.

The other films in the collection are all fine, but I didn’t really like them as much as I did these two. Some of them were rather disappointing. But I certainly recommend these two films. They’re both excellent.

 

Academic Homophobia? Friday, May 2 2008 

academia and queer culture thisgaudygildedstage 3:51 pm

I should be cleaning up the house in anticipation of PJ’s arrival back home tomorrow, but I just came from a department meeting that’s left me really depressed. While writing about it on my blog is probably not the best idea, I need an outlet for what I’m feeling and thinking; otherwise, I’m just going to sit here and stew until I make myself a martini.

Here’s the thing: I actually don’t think my colleagues are homophobic in any sort of intentional or active way, but I think they might very well be intellectually homophobic, by which I mean prejudiced against queer work and teaching.

English departments are supposed to be so progressive and liberal. At least that’s what we’re told all the time. Right? We’re a bunch of lefties. In my experience here this is only true in the sense that my department and university doesn’t actively discriminate against GLBT people. But they don’t acknowledge our importance or value our presence either. Too often “liberal” just means ignoring difference, whether it be sexual, gender, racial, religious, etc. And ignoring difference causes problems.

First off, this meeting convinces me that my colleagues are simply blind to the relatively large number of GLBT students we have in our undergraduate major and graduate programs. It really makes me wonder how our students experience our classes. No wonder they’re so hungry for my Lesbian & Gay Lit course — it might very well be the only time they have a class that acknowledges sexual difference in any meaningful way. I often hear that it’s definitely one of the very few classes that actually values sexual difference (which is why I feel so guilty about taking a break from teaching it next year).

Second, while my department at least pays real lip service to racial difference, we’re terrible when it comes to GLBT issues. For example, as we discussed hiring priorities today, it seemed perfectly acceptable to everyone that we could combine a position in 20th-Century British Literature with Post-Colonial Theory, since, and I’m almost quoting here, almost anyone working the 20thC could be assumed to also work in Post-Colonial Theory and Literatures. My colleagues can’t image a good candidate in 20thC British Lit who didn’t also work, to some degree, in P-C Theory.

(more…)

 

Worcester Art Museum: A Visit Sunday, Apr 27 2008 

museums thisgaudygildedstage 2:30 pm

Last weekend, when I visited PJ in Worcester, I stopped in at the Worcester Art Museum while he was working at the American Antiquarian Society. I had no particular expectations of what I would find there — I was just killing time while PJ worked. So, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found there. The Worcester Art Museum has a strong collection of American and European art. I especially enjoyed the amount of information the museum provides for each of the works on display — every description contained a wealth of information; indeed, this may be the most informative museum I’ve ever visited without the aid of an audio guide. I highly recommend a visit to the Worcester Art Museum.

I’ll start with an example of what I mean about the informative nature of the museum’s comments about the works of art. In a really small way, I’ve started to collect images of the Hindu god Ganesha (maybe I’ll explain why in another post someday). I also like to see if each museum I visit has any statues of Ganesha. The Worcester Art Museum does, a little sandstone sculpture from the 7th or 8th century. As the commentary states, Ganesha is the “remover of obstacles” and the “bearer of good fortune and prosperity.” So far, that’s what just about every museum says about this god. But the Worcester Art Museum goes further: “His large elephant’s head and plump body is a visual metaphor for the unity of metaphysical and worldly experiences.” The description goes on, but this is the bit that I wrote down in my notebook. I liked that this commentary moved beyond mere description to analysis. I found that this move was typical throughout the museum.

After you see the museum’s small collection of ancient and Asian art, you can go into the Medieval art rooms. I really liked a wooden crucifixion group. If you click on the link, it will take you to the museum’s image and description of this work. In the room, you could see the French influence on this Spanish work, since it hangs next to contemporaneous images from France. The next room is an example of Medieval architecture. The museum reassembled a room from a Chapter House, pictured here, which you can walk through and admire.

Usually, I’m a little ambivalent about museums taking a room from someplace else and reassembling them, but this one just amazed me. I was especially impressed by the level of detail in this room’s brick work. I can’t even imagine how much work it took to disassemble and reassemble.

(more…)

 

The Jane Austen Book Club: A Review Wednesday, Apr 23 2008 

books and movies thisgaudygildedstage 9:16 pm

Recently, Pj and I watched The Jane Austen Book Club, a film about a group of readers — five women and one guy — who meet once a month to discuss one of Jane Austen’s books. One month it’s Sense and Sensibility; the next it’s Persuasion and so on. The movie was directed by Robin Swicord, who also wrote the screenplay, and stars Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, and Hugh Dancy. Here’s the trailer:

I don’t think the movie was a huge success or critically acclaimed, but I really liked it. I thought all of the actors were good and that the plot was endearing.

So, I asked a friend of mine to lend me her copy of the novel by Karen Joy Fowler so I could read it. I had started it a week or so ago, and I took it with me to visit PJ and finished it on my first night in Worcester. To state it bluntly, I loved the novel. It’s now one of my favorite novels, I think.

What I liked most about it is that the narrative is actually much more complicated than one might think a novel about people reading Jane Austen novels would be. It’s actually rather postmodern in its narrative form. The novel has a narrator, who appears to be one of the book club members, but we never know which one. One portion of the novel is told through a series of emails exchanged by a group of peripheral characters. And finally, the questions for book clubs at the end of the book are “written” by the characters themselves — they’re hilarious!

(more…)

 

Newport Mansions: A Visit Tuesday, Apr 22 2008 

travel thisgaudygildedstage 9:05 pm

While PJ and I were in Newport, RI this past weekend, we visited five of the local mansions preserved by the Preservation Society of Newport County. I had seen a documentary on TV about the Breakers (and maybe some of the other mansions) and really wanted to see them in person. I had been to Newport for a conference years ago, but the conference was in March so the weather wasn’t really right for sightseeing. When PJ mentioned a trip to Newport while I visited him in Massachusetts, I jumped at the chance.

The weather this weekend was perfect. We stayed in the Hotel Viking, which is in walking distance to some of the houses (though it’s a bit more of a trek than we had initially thought it was). We decided at the start of the day that we would purchase the five house deal — tours of five of the mansions for $31. We knew that it would be exhausting, but we only had one full day in Newport, so we figured we might as well fit in as much as possible.

After breakfast, we walked to the Cliff Walk. Here’s a picture I took along the walk.

View from the Cliff Walk

For a larger version of the picture, just click on it. I hope you can see here just how nice a day it was. It started off a little cool, but it soon got into the upper 60s. The water is gorgeous — I could see why millionaires would want to build summer homes here!

(more…)

 

Worcester and Newport: Brief Update Saturday, Apr 19 2008 

travel thisgaudygildedstage 6:25 am

I’m visiting PJ this weekend. On Thursday, I flew to Boston, where he picked me up to take me to Worcester. Worcester is kind of cute. Nothing terribly special, but it looks like a pretty nice place to live–especially in its proximity to so many other locations in New England. While he worked in the library yesterday morning, I walked around downtown Worcester and visited the Worcester Art Museum. PJ left work a little after noon, and, after eating lunch, we drove to Newport, RI, where we are now.

Today, we’re planning on seeing some of the Newport Mansions, the grotesquely-decadent summer homes of rich industrialists from the nineteenth century. We’ll stick around Newport tomorrow morning, seeing a few more sites (like the Tennis Hall of Fame), and then we’ll drive back to Worcester. I fly home on Monday morning.

So far, it’s been a lot of fun. I’ll have lots to blog about when I get home.

 

Guest Blog: PJ’s Notes from New England Monday, Apr 14 2008 

travel thisgaudygildedstage 8:47 pm

As you probably know, I’m away from Athens for a month doing a research fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. I’m having a lot of fun with my research, getting to know the other fellows and the staff of the library, and staying in this big house across the street where some of the fellows live. Here’s a link to some pictures of the library, especially the pretty amazing reading room. Anyway, at the end of this month, I should have the raw material for a pretty good chapter for my book in progress. But enough about work!

One of the things I have been most looking forward to about this month in New England was being able to travel around the area seeing the literary sites that I’d read lots about but had never had the opportunity to see before. This past weekend I began that process on Saturday with a drive to Amherst, the college town where Emily Dickinson spent most of her life. It’s just a little over an hour away from Worcester. I began the pilgrimage at West Cemetery, where she is buried. In the picture of the grave here, you’ll see that Dickinson didn’t die, she was only “called back.” (Just click on the picture to enlarge it.) The rest of her family, buried in the same plot, merely “died.”

After, paying my respects, I drove around the block to the site of her house (where she was born and where she died–or got called back) and the house next door where her brother Austin and his family lived. It was wonderful to get some sense of Dickinson’s daily life (everything from the view from her window to the kind of plants in her garden). I especially liked the image the tour guide kept giving us of this little red-headed woman, walking her huge dog Carlo, a Newfoundland, around Amherst. It was a nice departure from the silly image of the house-bound recluse wearing a white dress that’s so often presented to students.

(more…)

 

A Room with a View: A Review Sunday, Apr 13 2008 

books and movies thisgaudygildedstage 10:12 pm

I just finished watching ITV’s new adaptation of E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View in PBS’s Masterpiece Classics. Here’s the trailer:

In the interest of full disclosure, let me start with a couple of confessions. First, E. M. Forster is one of my favorite writers. I haven’t reread his novels as recently as I have Jane Austen’s, but I’ve loved them for almost 20 years now. Second, the Merchant Ivory film adaptations of A Room with a View, Maurice, and Howards End are all among my favorite movies. I’ve loved each one ever since I saw them. In sum, I love E. M. Forster.

Given that love, I suppose I could predictably have had one of two reactions to this new adaptation — either I would dislike it for not living up to the novel or the earlier adaptation or I would love it despite any reservations about it not living up to the novel or the earlier adaptation. So, I’m a little surprised to report that I loved this version on its own terms.

ITV adaptations are (in)famous for always coming in under 90 minutes, which means that they cut the heck out of a novel in order to make this time limit. In this case, the cutting didn’t bother me as much as some of the excisions in the recent Jane Austen adaptations. Likewise, these productions tend to rewrite portions of the plot. I think these changes seem to be part of an effort to make them more appealing to modern audiences. Again, the changes in A Room with a View worked for me.

(more…)

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »