I am. I've been wanting to write this ever since the movie came out, at which point there was a lot of wonderful Narnia RPF coming out, that really explored what it would be like for these children actors to inhabit in a certain way a magical land, all in the context of teen relationships (young love is one of my kinks) that were forbidden and quasi-incestuous. The fandom has since been overridden by Mary Sue fantasies, but that's the position from which I still imagine this story coming. I have my movie companion and my special edition DVD and I will finish that story. Eventually.
I considered offering to write Wesley/Anna Popplewell for the crossover ficathon but decided that was a bit too squicky.
1) I really enjoyed Cymbeline. It stirred up some strong feelings; I was really teared up at the end as I read. (I think it hit an emotional kink or two, which admittedly does not require a lot of skill to do--I was balling at the end of Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights.) I didn't find myself all that intellectually stimulated by it, but it didn't create any false expectations, wheareas for me AYLI made promises and failed to deliver--e.g. the metatheatricality which is ultimately used as a cheap joke. (There are plenty of Shakespeare's comedies which I like perfectly well; I despise AYLI not because it is frivolous, but because it could have done so much more.) Whereas in my actual favorite Shakespeare play, the metatheatricality is used to actually probe humanity's existential condition of living a tale told by an idiot. Not to mention including a meaty look at the nature of evil.
I've never seen AYLI or Cymbeline performed; the Scottish play I've seen performed only by the Royal Shakespeare Company, plus the Roman Polanski movie and the hilariously-low-budget Nichol Williams BBC production.
2) Pygmalion is probably Shaw's least didactic play (at least that I've read) which is why it has so much popular appeal, probably. I do love it for how emotionallly real it is (an emotional realism completely wrecked by the nonsensical My Fair Lady ending--luckily when I listen to the soundtrack to the musical I can just imagine the original Shavian ending), but for me it sort of lacks the je ne sais quoi which is quintessentially Shavian; its intense focus on characters makes its ideas move into the background a little (although he seemed to think it was a play about phonetics and of course there are a lot of good class issues going on). I've never seen my favorite play performed, but then the only Shaw play I've ever seen performed (not counting My Fair Lady which I saw as a high school production) was Androcles and the Lion. Plus the movie versions of The Devil's Disciple and Caesar and Cleopatra. It's amazing how well things in Shaw that shouldn't transfer well from the page to the stage/screen, do.
3) But of course.
4) What was the question? *goes to look* But of course.
5) Nineteen Eighty-Four was my favorite novel all through junior high. I've sort of come back to it a bit lately, of course, and there are facets to it that I see now that I didn't see then. But the "official" answer is still no. (I should reread my offically favorite book and see if my reaction to it has changed--I've done a lot of changing since high school, after all. Not to mention I have no doubts I will enjoy it.)
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Date: 2006-08-17 09:35 pm (UTC)I am. I've been wanting to write this ever since the movie came out, at which point there was a lot of wonderful Narnia RPF coming out, that really explored what it would be like for these children actors to inhabit in a certain way a magical land, all in the context of teen relationships (young love is one of my kinks) that were forbidden and quasi-incestuous. The fandom has since been overridden by Mary Sue fantasies, but that's the position from which I still imagine this story coming. I have my movie companion and my special edition DVD and I will finish that story. Eventually.
I considered offering to write Wesley/Anna Popplewell for the crossover ficathon but decided that was a bit too squicky.
1) I really enjoyed Cymbeline. It stirred up some strong feelings; I was really teared up at the end as I read. (I think it hit an emotional kink or two, which admittedly does not require a lot of skill to do--I was balling at the end of Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights.) I didn't find myself all that intellectually stimulated by it, but it didn't create any false expectations, wheareas for me AYLI made promises and failed to deliver--e.g. the metatheatricality which is ultimately used as a cheap joke. (There are plenty of Shakespeare's comedies which I like perfectly well; I despise AYLI not because it is frivolous, but because it could have done so much more.) Whereas in my actual favorite Shakespeare play, the metatheatricality is used to actually probe humanity's existential condition of living a tale told by an idiot. Not to mention including a meaty look at the nature of evil.
I've never seen AYLI or Cymbeline performed; the Scottish play I've seen performed only by the Royal Shakespeare Company, plus the Roman Polanski movie and the hilariously-low-budget Nichol Williams BBC production.
2) Pygmalion is probably Shaw's least didactic play (at least that I've read) which is why it has so much popular appeal, probably. I do love it for how emotionallly real it is (an emotional realism completely wrecked by the nonsensical My Fair Lady ending--luckily when I listen to the soundtrack to the musical I can just imagine the original Shavian ending), but for me it sort of lacks the je ne sais quoi which is quintessentially Shavian; its intense focus on characters makes its ideas move into the background a little (although he seemed to think it was a play about phonetics and of course there are a lot of good class issues going on). I've never seen my favorite play performed, but then the only Shaw play I've ever seen performed (not counting My Fair Lady which I saw as a high school production) was Androcles and the Lion. Plus the movie versions of The Devil's Disciple and Caesar and Cleopatra. It's amazing how well things in Shaw that shouldn't transfer well from the page to the stage/screen, do.
3) But of course.
4) What was the question? *goes to look* But of course.
5) Nineteen Eighty-Four was my favorite novel all through junior high. I've sort of come back to it a bit lately, of course, and there are facets to it that I see now that I didn't see then. But the "official" answer is still no. (I should reread my offically favorite book and see if my reaction to it has changed--I've done a lot of changing since high school, after all. Not to mention I have no doubts I will enjoy it.)