In English we've been reading Hamlet, but we've also been analyzing scenes from different critical approaches. It's eye-opening. We see that certain lines can mean different things, or certain characters can serve entirely different purposes depending on what perspective you take when reading Hamlet. In a previous post, I wondered what makes Hamlet such an influential piece, and I think this is it. This play can be taken a thousand ways.
Rather than just assume you'll believe me saying "You can look at Hamlet from so many perspectives" over and over again, I'm gonna prove it to you. Here's the case of Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, from just a few approaches:
1. The Feminist Approach: Gertrude's okay! Feminists could argue that Gertrude is innocent because there is no concrete text that proves Gertrude knew that Claudius was her husband's killer. She may have married Claudius only as a way to keep herself close to power and able to continue to serve her kingdom.
2. The Mythical Approach: Gertrude is a bad mother. She betrayed her son, Hamlet, by marrying Claudius. She also represents an archetype of an evil woman: sensuous, eager to stay close to power, incestuous, and unfaithful.
3. The Psychoanalytic Approach: Ever heard of an Oedipus complex? Hamlet could have tamed his animosity toward his father for having Gertrude, but when his father dies and Claudius takes her hand, Hamlet gets all worked up again. His hatred for Claudius is fed by the fact that someone besides Hamlet Junior or Senior (in the prince's mind, the only two people he could accept being with Gertrude), married Gertrude.
Believe me now? Hamlet's mother could be an unfaithful and selfish mother, an innocent and responsible woman, or a character to show off Hamlet's psychological problems, all depending on what approach you take when reading Hamlet. What other approaches could you take when reading this play, and how would Gertrude's role in the story change?
SONG RECOMMENDATION: Hey There, Ophelia by MC Lars. Who needs SparkNotes when you can just listen to a 4-minute rap summary? (I wouldn't call it the finest piece of audial artwork, but it is entertaining.) Enjoy :)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
I got home an hour ago, and I'm still in Valentine overdrive. Things that have made me smile today:
1. Poems. Not just anyone can crank out a Shakespeare-caliber sonnet, but my friends in AP Statistics can really show their love in sweet couplets:
Snowflakes are white, but slush is just grey.
I hope that you'll be my Valentine today!
Roses are red. Violets are blue.
This class is so hard. I don't have a clue.
Sudafed, Claritin, Crack, Tylenol...
Your love is the drug that I need most of all.
Roses are red. Violets are purple.
Not blue...
Needless to say, this was a productive class today.
2. Food. Baking food. I bake ALL the time. I just made these for a party tomorrow. However, I'm quite partial to blondies, maybe because I'm, well, blonde, but also because they are so easy to make, and so easy that I can make any variations (banana blondies>banana bread). And yesterday I was baking for a while, too (but I can't say WHAT I was baking because that would spoil a surprise for someone who might read this post.)
3. Songs. In honor of it being Valentine's Day, here are some of my favorite LOVE songs:
•Make You Feel My Love. Yes, I know it was originally Bob Dylan's, but Adele sings it soOoOo beautifully
•Whistle for the Choir. It just makes me smile.
•This is what my choir does for Singing Valentines. I was serenaded with it my freshman year, and today I led my group around the school singing to other people :).
•I know the French Edith Piaf version is the classic, but you canNOT tell me this rendition isn't good.
4. My AP Psychology homework. I have to write something nice about each person in my class. Tomorrow everyone gives their compliments (typed on pieces of paper) anonymously.
5. Reading for fun. I'm in Group Interpretation again! This year we're doing Coraline, so I'm reading the book again, even though I know the story, even though I've seen the movie and received the script, because I want to!
6. Recommendations. PLEASE. Give me some poems, songs, recipes, or book titles that have made you smile. Happy Valentine's Day!
1. Poems. Not just anyone can crank out a Shakespeare-caliber sonnet, but my friends in AP Statistics can really show their love in sweet couplets:
Snowflakes are white, but slush is just grey.
I hope that you'll be my Valentine today!
Roses are red. Violets are blue.
This class is so hard. I don't have a clue.
Sudafed, Claritin, Crack, Tylenol...
Your love is the drug that I need most of all.
Roses are red. Violets are purple.
Not blue...
Needless to say, this was a productive class today.
2. Food. Baking food. I bake ALL the time. I just made these for a party tomorrow. However, I'm quite partial to blondies, maybe because I'm, well, blonde, but also because they are so easy to make, and so easy that I can make any variations (banana blondies>banana bread). And yesterday I was baking for a while, too (but I can't say WHAT I was baking because that would spoil a surprise for someone who might read this post.)
3. Songs. In honor of it being Valentine's Day, here are some of my favorite LOVE songs:
•Make You Feel My Love. Yes, I know it was originally Bob Dylan's, but Adele sings it soOoOo beautifully
•Whistle for the Choir. It just makes me smile.
•This is what my choir does for Singing Valentines. I was serenaded with it my freshman year, and today I led my group around the school singing to other people :).
•I know the French Edith Piaf version is the classic, but you canNOT tell me this rendition isn't good.
4. My AP Psychology homework. I have to write something nice about each person in my class. Tomorrow everyone gives their compliments (typed on pieces of paper) anonymously.
5. Reading for fun. I'm in Group Interpretation again! This year we're doing Coraline, so I'm reading the book again, even though I know the story, even though I've seen the movie and received the script, because I want to!
6. Recommendations. PLEASE. Give me some poems, songs, recipes, or book titles that have made you smile. Happy Valentine's Day!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Hamlet in Disguise
I really like writing these list-format posts... Anyway, I'm reading Shakespeare's Hamlet for English right now. On Day 1 of this unit, my teacher informed the class of a few instances where this plot has inspired other works of art, so instead of talk about a play you might not have read, I thought it would be fun (yeah, this is what I consider "fun") to find popular movies, songs, or just anything you've probably encountered that are actually based on the famous tragedy.
1. Tchaikovsky wrote an Overture in F minor, called (drumroll, please) Hamlet Fantasy Overture. If you're not a classical music buff, you may have still heard this song if you've ever seen A Christmas Story.
2. More in the vein of classical music... Hamlet is an opera!!! Actually, Wikipedia told me there are seven operas based on Hamlet. In Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, all of Act 4 is Ophelia's "Mad Scene," and Maria Callas, the queen of opera, sings it incredibly.
3. If you're a Disney fan, or have experienced any sort of childhood at all, you've probably seen The Lion King. Guess what. It's Hamlet! Simba is Hamlet, sans insanity. Scar is Claudius, the evil uncle who kills his brother to take the throne, and then grossly abuses his power and tries to take the queen's hand. Timon and Pumba? They could be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, encouraging a responsibility-free lifestyle.
4. Then there's Sons of Anarchy, yes, a whole television series based on Hamlet. Clay is Claudius, Gemma is Gertrude, and Jax, who communicates with his dead father, is (you guessed it) Hamlet. This is not speculation... The show's creator, Kurt Sutter, has admitted that there is Shakespearean inspiration at work, and the storyline will probably follow Hamlet until the end of the series. (Oh, spoiler alert... oops...)
5. The Second City explores the possibility that Ophelia's suicide could have been avoided in this short scene.
6. Now for (not even close to) everything that's not based on Hamlet, but just couldn't keep its hands off the play:
• Calvin of the Calvin and Hobbes recites the "to Be or not to Be" soliloquy to a bowl of green mush. Then the mush starts singing and Calvin eats it...
• Legally Blonde the Musical quotes "This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans't not be false to any man" in its finale (1:30).
• Find the Hamlet quote or reference in these 2 T.S. Eliot poems! "Wasteland" "The Lovesong of Mr. J. Alfred Prufrock"
• An episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus is called "Hamlet."
• Okay I'm getting kinda sick of looking for all these... Last one! Lines from the play are quoted in movies: (500) Days of Summer, Clueless, and Shakespeare in Love, to name a few.
So, what does this mean? Hamlet is everywhere now, even though it's 400 years old. So far I've only read Act I, but this piece is just so influential. I want to do a good job reading it. Have you read Hamlet? Do you have any tips for me that could help me get the most out of reading? Finally, have you found any Hamlets in disguise that I haven't mentioned?
1. Tchaikovsky wrote an Overture in F minor, called (drumroll, please) Hamlet Fantasy Overture. If you're not a classical music buff, you may have still heard this song if you've ever seen A Christmas Story.
2. More in the vein of classical music... Hamlet is an opera!!! Actually, Wikipedia told me there are seven operas based on Hamlet. In Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, all of Act 4 is Ophelia's "Mad Scene," and Maria Callas, the queen of opera, sings it incredibly.
3. If you're a Disney fan, or have experienced any sort of childhood at all, you've probably seen The Lion King. Guess what. It's Hamlet! Simba is Hamlet, sans insanity. Scar is Claudius, the evil uncle who kills his brother to take the throne, and then grossly abuses his power and tries to take the queen's hand. Timon and Pumba? They could be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, encouraging a responsibility-free lifestyle.
4. Then there's Sons of Anarchy, yes, a whole television series based on Hamlet. Clay is Claudius, Gemma is Gertrude, and Jax, who communicates with his dead father, is (you guessed it) Hamlet. This is not speculation... The show's creator, Kurt Sutter, has admitted that there is Shakespearean inspiration at work, and the storyline will probably follow Hamlet until the end of the series. (Oh, spoiler alert... oops...)
5. The Second City explores the possibility that Ophelia's suicide could have been avoided in this short scene.
6. Now for (not even close to) everything that's not based on Hamlet, but just couldn't keep its hands off the play:
• Calvin of the Calvin and Hobbes recites the "to Be or not to Be" soliloquy to a bowl of green mush. Then the mush starts singing and Calvin eats it...
• Legally Blonde the Musical quotes "This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans't not be false to any man" in its finale (1:30).
• Find the Hamlet quote or reference in these 2 T.S. Eliot poems! "Wasteland" "The Lovesong of Mr. J. Alfred Prufrock"
• An episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus is called "Hamlet."
• Okay I'm getting kinda sick of looking for all these... Last one! Lines from the play are quoted in movies: (500) Days of Summer, Clueless, and Shakespeare in Love, to name a few.
So, what does this mean? Hamlet is everywhere now, even though it's 400 years old. So far I've only read Act I, but this piece is just so influential. I want to do a good job reading it. Have you read Hamlet? Do you have any tips for me that could help me get the most out of reading? Finally, have you found any Hamlets in disguise that I haven't mentioned?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
I Like Lists. I Like POV. I Love Music.
Five Different Ways to Look at MUSIC:
1. In Deric Bownd's MindBlog, he discusses the chemical processes that give music the ability to elicit reactions from us.
2. Seth Rudetsky is a Broadway accompanist, performer, and "music deconstructor." He will focus in on the most minute details of someone's performance, analyzing sometimes half a second of a note. I've seen him conducting deconstructions live, and he's both hilarious and very knowledgible. Here's one of my favorites.
3. Music (spoecifically musicals here) is a way to interpret other media. Books, movies, historical events, and even people have served as the inspiration for a full-on stage spectacular. Some stories fit seamlessly into musical format... But then there's Jekyll and Hyde (the ROCK musical), Spiderman: Turn off the Dark ($60 million budget WHAT?), Moby Dick, and soon, an adaptation of American Psycho.
4. Ever heard of aromatherapy? Like, lavender makes you sleepy, grapefruit perks you up, etc... Well there's music therapy, too! I discovered this when I was searching for college majors to pursue. Involvement in music actually can benefit patients! In a sense, music can be considered medicine!
5. How YOU see music. What purpose does music serve to you? Has it helped you?
1. In Deric Bownd's MindBlog, he discusses the chemical processes that give music the ability to elicit reactions from us.
2. Seth Rudetsky is a Broadway accompanist, performer, and "music deconstructor." He will focus in on the most minute details of someone's performance, analyzing sometimes half a second of a note. I've seen him conducting deconstructions live, and he's both hilarious and very knowledgible. Here's one of my favorites.
3. Music (spoecifically musicals here) is a way to interpret other media. Books, movies, historical events, and even people have served as the inspiration for a full-on stage spectacular. Some stories fit seamlessly into musical format... But then there's Jekyll and Hyde (the ROCK musical), Spiderman: Turn off the Dark ($60 million budget WHAT?), Moby Dick, and soon, an adaptation of American Psycho.
4. Ever heard of aromatherapy? Like, lavender makes you sleepy, grapefruit perks you up, etc... Well there's music therapy, too! I discovered this when I was searching for college majors to pursue. Involvement in music actually can benefit patients! In a sense, music can be considered medicine!
5. How YOU see music. What purpose does music serve to you? Has it helped you?
Monday, January 3, 2011
Buzzing About...
Over winter break I started cleaning my room by taking all the old books out. I came across my dogeared copy of The Secret Life of Bees and realized that I had never finished it. That's my "reading for fun" style: Starting a book, getting through as much as I can in one sitting, and then losing interest. Admirable, right? Well I finally finished this one, and I caught on to so much more literary brilliance than I had when I was reading it sophomore year, such as the narrative style Sue Monk Kidd uses.
She shows how events in the story are all connected by having Lily tell sequences of events the way she sees one happen immediately after the next. For instance, June's stormy relationship with Neil permeates everyone's life at the hot pink Boatwright house. Lily tells us about how she creeps downstairs and hears Neil leave angrily and June begin to sob. In another scene, Lily sees a June-Neil argument take place while she's working outside. The way we see subplots progress through Lily's eyes (rather than receiving the narrative from one of those "invisible" speakers uninvolved in the action) gives us Lily's perspective (rather than letting us see the events as outsiders).
I also liked the sense of closure we got at the end about Lily's feelings toward her mother. When August and Lily first discuss Deborah, Lily suddenly feels unloved and abandoned, but she eventually decides to believe her mother did love her. It's so optimistic! Why choose to remember her mother as unloving when she could just as easily decide to believe her mother did love her very much, that leaving her behind during one visit was not an indication of hate or disaffection? Lily discovers she has grown just fine without her mother, for she had Rosaleen to care for her, and she even cared for herself to an extent. Finally, the community of caring women Lily finds confirms that she can find people who care for her and love her even if her biological mother is gone.
I heard there's a movie version of this novel. I don't have time to watch it now because I'm in tech week for a show now (I feel like I'm always busy with a show...), but I am curious to see how the narrative style translates to film.
Are you familiar with the S.L.o.B? What other examples of these intertwined narratives (such as the June-Neil observations) do you see in the story? Do you see similar narrative styles in other authors?
She shows how events in the story are all connected by having Lily tell sequences of events the way she sees one happen immediately after the next. For instance, June's stormy relationship with Neil permeates everyone's life at the hot pink Boatwright house. Lily tells us about how she creeps downstairs and hears Neil leave angrily and June begin to sob. In another scene, Lily sees a June-Neil argument take place while she's working outside. The way we see subplots progress through Lily's eyes (rather than receiving the narrative from one of those "invisible" speakers uninvolved in the action) gives us Lily's perspective (rather than letting us see the events as outsiders).
I also liked the sense of closure we got at the end about Lily's feelings toward her mother. When August and Lily first discuss Deborah, Lily suddenly feels unloved and abandoned, but she eventually decides to believe her mother did love her. It's so optimistic! Why choose to remember her mother as unloving when she could just as easily decide to believe her mother did love her very much, that leaving her behind during one visit was not an indication of hate or disaffection? Lily discovers she has grown just fine without her mother, for she had Rosaleen to care for her, and she even cared for herself to an extent. Finally, the community of caring women Lily finds confirms that she can find people who care for her and love her even if her biological mother is gone.
I heard there's a movie version of this novel. I don't have time to watch it now because I'm in tech week for a show now (I feel like I'm always busy with a show...), but I am curious to see how the narrative style translates to film.
Are you familiar with the S.L.o.B? What other examples of these intertwined narratives (such as the June-Neil observations) do you see in the story? Do you see similar narrative styles in other authors?
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Strata
I just changed the name of my blog.
I hope that it doesn't confuse my few readers to the point of losing them.
I hope that it does put my blog on an earlier page when I search it on Google.
Yes, I search my blog on Google. Don't make fun. You know it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened.
A silver lining is a nice image, but it wasn't exactly the most original title, and it's not totally accurate to my blog. My posts aren't daily reports of how I look on the bright side. "Today, Melanie tripped over her feet and fell on her face. Then she smiled because she could see the flowers better from the ground." No.
Without completely changing little bloggy's identity, I tried to think of something that could have silver linings. Clouds have silver linings, and stratus is a type of cloud, and "Silver-Lined Stratus" does not sound terrible. But why stop there? Stratum sounds like stratus, and that basically means "layers." In ecology, strata are layers of vegetation. In society, they're layers or levels of social class. Geology - layers of rock. Biology - layers of tissue. You understand? "Strata" can be used in so many different contexts.
One thing I've found most interesting to blog about is different perspectives. When I read The Poisonwood Bible, I always kept in mind which of the narrators was speaking and how her perspective affected the readers' perception of the discussed event. Now, I'm in the midst of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and I'm always thinking of how the students Nafisi teaches see this literature differently than I, an American student. For instance, Nafisi's students connected with Lolita. They knew she was a prisoner and victim of Humbert, but they also understood that she could not leave him. After her mother's death, Humbert was the only person Lolita could associate as any sort of family. The revolution in Iran was oppressive, the students' Humbert, but Iran was their home, where their families and culture were rooted.
And the whole time I just thought Humbert was a slimy creep and that was it! I was baffled by the amount of time Lolita stuck around that guy. See how eye-opening it can be to explore others' perspectives?
So that's why I like "strata." I love to explore other people's perspectives, especially when they contrast with my own. I love observing that different individuals feel differently about things like a piece of literature, a story that everyone reads in the same words the same way (with the exception of translations). Then, identifying what factors have influenced these people's varying perspectives is rewarding, for it allows me to better understand their views. "Strata" is an applicable term in linguistics, biology, geology, sociology, and ecology, so why not make it applicable to my blog, too? Instead of looking at layers of rocks or social classes, I'm looking at strata of outlooks.
I hope that it doesn't confuse my few readers to the point of losing them.
I hope that it does put my blog on an earlier page when I search it on Google.
Yes, I search my blog on Google. Don't make fun. You know it's not the weirdest thing that's ever happened.
A silver lining is a nice image, but it wasn't exactly the most original title, and it's not totally accurate to my blog. My posts aren't daily reports of how I look on the bright side. "Today, Melanie tripped over her feet and fell on her face. Then she smiled because she could see the flowers better from the ground." No.
Without completely changing little bloggy's identity, I tried to think of something that could have silver linings. Clouds have silver linings, and stratus is a type of cloud, and "Silver-Lined Stratus" does not sound terrible. But why stop there? Stratum sounds like stratus, and that basically means "layers." In ecology, strata are layers of vegetation. In society, they're layers or levels of social class. Geology - layers of rock. Biology - layers of tissue. You understand? "Strata" can be used in so many different contexts.
One thing I've found most interesting to blog about is different perspectives. When I read The Poisonwood Bible, I always kept in mind which of the narrators was speaking and how her perspective affected the readers' perception of the discussed event. Now, I'm in the midst of Reading Lolita in Tehran, and I'm always thinking of how the students Nafisi teaches see this literature differently than I, an American student. For instance, Nafisi's students connected with Lolita. They knew she was a prisoner and victim of Humbert, but they also understood that she could not leave him. After her mother's death, Humbert was the only person Lolita could associate as any sort of family. The revolution in Iran was oppressive, the students' Humbert, but Iran was their home, where their families and culture were rooted.
And the whole time I just thought Humbert was a slimy creep and that was it! I was baffled by the amount of time Lolita stuck around that guy. See how eye-opening it can be to explore others' perspectives?
So that's why I like "strata." I love to explore other people's perspectives, especially when they contrast with my own. I love observing that different individuals feel differently about things like a piece of literature, a story that everyone reads in the same words the same way (with the exception of translations). Then, identifying what factors have influenced these people's varying perspectives is rewarding, for it allows me to better understand their views. "Strata" is an applicable term in linguistics, biology, geology, sociology, and ecology, so why not make it applicable to my blog, too? Instead of looking at layers of rocks or social classes, I'm looking at strata of outlooks.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I'm reading some great literature in English, but that is something I can usually count on having around. Instead, I'd like to take a festive break.
So I've been listening to a whole lot of Christmas music lately. No, I'm not one of those people who prepares for Christmas the second Halloween ends... I'm worse. I was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Halloween. I'm not sorry.
Annually, I'm faced with a very serious problem. Because I listen to Christmas music nonstop for two months straight each year, I'm always desperate for something new. I can only tolerate hearing Jingle Bell Rock so many times before, well, I start doubting it's really such a swell time to go riding in a one-horse sleigh.
Anyway, I went on a hunt. First I felt disappointed in Bob Dylan. Then I studied for AP Psych (which helped me get a 95% on that chapter test!). Then I turned off the iPod and did some homework...
I've begun to pay much more attention to perspective lately. In class today, we touched on Otherism. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, there's a scene where a stereotypical Muslim girl is compared to a stereotypical Christian girl. The professor says that one of these girls is a virgin, and the other is not. You might ask, "Which girl is which?" or you might say, "Huh, why would he point out that girls of his own religion are not virgins?" (like I'll admit I did. I went to Catholic school for nine years. According to all the teachers, nuns, priests, and fellow parishioners, a Christian woman better be a virgin, unless, of course, she's married.) According to Yassi's professor, because the Muslim girl is a virgin and the Christian girl was the "other," then the Christian girl must not be a virgin. I made the same mistake, but reversed the roles. Unsurprisingly, we each named the girl who is "one of us" as the virgin.
Then I began to think about other layers of otherism... What about people you categorize as "us," who don't actually fit every characteristic on the checklist of "us"-ness? This is how my post is all related to Christmas. From the point of view of us Christmas-celebrators who have heard the story time and time again, the "joy to the world," "glory to the newborn king," and "tidings of comfort and joy," make us believe that everyone's happy with Jesus arriving. The lyrics from this song, from Joseph's perspective, offer the possibility that someone wasn't overjoyed by this situation, or rather, that this poor guy felt pretty insecure about it all. Joseph's wife-to-be was expecting a baby, and all he knew for sure was that it wasn't because of him. Rather than assume that Joseph believed Mary easily and "heaven and nature sang" and "all was calm and all was bright," "Joseph, Who Understood" made me stop and think that it might be more difficult to believe that the son of God is being born when, from your point of view, it just looks like your girlfriend is unfaithful. Just like it's hard to believe that a girl of a different religion, whether it's Islam of Christianity, values abstinence as much as you do, because she's "the other."
So I'm ready for the holidays. I found new music, I analyzed it more than any normal listener should, and then I made these and brought them to my Express concert last night! I replaced all the butter with applesauce, poured the batter in a brownie pan instead of formed cookies, and baked for 20 min instead. Yummy and fat-free cookie bars! I hope you've all had or are having great holidays!
So I've been listening to a whole lot of Christmas music lately. No, I'm not one of those people who prepares for Christmas the second Halloween ends... I'm worse. I was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Halloween. I'm not sorry.
Annually, I'm faced with a very serious problem. Because I listen to Christmas music nonstop for two months straight each year, I'm always desperate for something new. I can only tolerate hearing Jingle Bell Rock so many times before, well, I start doubting it's really such a swell time to go riding in a one-horse sleigh.
Anyway, I went on a hunt. First I felt disappointed in Bob Dylan. Then I studied for AP Psych (which helped me get a 95% on that chapter test!). Then I turned off the iPod and did some homework...
I've begun to pay much more attention to perspective lately. In class today, we touched on Otherism. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, there's a scene where a stereotypical Muslim girl is compared to a stereotypical Christian girl. The professor says that one of these girls is a virgin, and the other is not. You might ask, "Which girl is which?" or you might say, "Huh, why would he point out that girls of his own religion are not virgins?" (like I'll admit I did. I went to Catholic school for nine years. According to all the teachers, nuns, priests, and fellow parishioners, a Christian woman better be a virgin, unless, of course, she's married.) According to Yassi's professor, because the Muslim girl is a virgin and the Christian girl was the "other," then the Christian girl must not be a virgin. I made the same mistake, but reversed the roles. Unsurprisingly, we each named the girl who is "one of us" as the virgin.
Then I began to think about other layers of otherism... What about people you categorize as "us," who don't actually fit every characteristic on the checklist of "us"-ness? This is how my post is all related to Christmas. From the point of view of us Christmas-celebrators who have heard the story time and time again, the "joy to the world," "glory to the newborn king," and "tidings of comfort and joy," make us believe that everyone's happy with Jesus arriving. The lyrics from this song, from Joseph's perspective, offer the possibility that someone wasn't overjoyed by this situation, or rather, that this poor guy felt pretty insecure about it all. Joseph's wife-to-be was expecting a baby, and all he knew for sure was that it wasn't because of him. Rather than assume that Joseph believed Mary easily and "heaven and nature sang" and "all was calm and all was bright," "Joseph, Who Understood" made me stop and think that it might be more difficult to believe that the son of God is being born when, from your point of view, it just looks like your girlfriend is unfaithful. Just like it's hard to believe that a girl of a different religion, whether it's Islam of Christianity, values abstinence as much as you do, because she's "the other."
So I'm ready for the holidays. I found new music, I analyzed it more than any normal listener should, and then I made these and brought them to my Express concert last night! I replaced all the butter with applesauce, poured the batter in a brownie pan instead of formed cookies, and baked for 20 min instead. Yummy and fat-free cookie bars! I hope you've all had or are having great holidays!
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