Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Cymbeline and other Thoughts
What I find striking, or let me say that better, one of the things I find striking about Garber's analysis of Cymbeline is her accounting of Guiderus and Arviragus's pathologies. On page 811 of "Skakes...after all" she brings two contrasting personalities into the light, the Active and the Contemplative. I suppose what I found striking is after reflecting on this I realized that my brother and I are very similar to these dyadic qualities. My brother, the great outdoorsman, fisher, hunter, all around gatherer, and carpenter. Myself, well, I too love the outdoors, but I tend to philosophize about it more than I actually participate in it. I can hold a conversation with a fly-fisher, but I've only been once in my life. I can wax poetic with deer and elk hunters, but I've never been hunting. I'm not sure this is at all relevent, but I thought I'd add it to the discussion I'm having here in cyber-space, all by myself. Oh, wait a minute, I've just been struck with yet another Garber analyzation. Mirrors and mirroring what I want to see, I see myself in nature and it's the nature I've created for myself. See, "Duke Senior--and his books in brooks." Ok, back to Cymbeline.
Dr. Sexson brought up at the end of class today, after the Cymbeline presentation, the notion of "looking". Well, I think he and Jud talked about voyeurism, but I see it as "looking". Iachimo scanning and commiting Imogen's room to memory for sinister accounts to come later. But what does it mean to look. The act of looking. The act of seeing. Do we "see" what we want to, like Duke Senior, or like Sartre would say, "the constant state of becoming". What we see, or look for is personal, serving our own interests and agendas. This has always been intriguing to me, how I can see a sacred sunset from atop Pete's Hill and others can run by without ever looking. Is it about time? Is it about state of mind? The willing suspension of disbelief, natural abstraction of the mind? What does it mean to see?
Oh yes, yet another tangent--According to Garber, there is 24 reversals in Cymbeline. What is Will getting at here? Is he proving his power over character, redefining the outward appearance within type. He's not just playing with gender, but with psychological recognition, perception. All for now. Must go.
Dr. Sexson brought up at the end of class today, after the Cymbeline presentation, the notion of "looking". Well, I think he and Jud talked about voyeurism, but I see it as "looking". Iachimo scanning and commiting Imogen's room to memory for sinister accounts to come later. But what does it mean to look. The act of looking. The act of seeing. Do we "see" what we want to, like Duke Senior, or like Sartre would say, "the constant state of becoming". What we see, or look for is personal, serving our own interests and agendas. This has always been intriguing to me, how I can see a sacred sunset from atop Pete's Hill and others can run by without ever looking. Is it about time? Is it about state of mind? The willing suspension of disbelief, natural abstraction of the mind? What does it mean to see?
Oh yes, yet another tangent--According to Garber, there is 24 reversals in Cymbeline. What is Will getting at here? Is he proving his power over character, redefining the outward appearance within type. He's not just playing with gender, but with psychological recognition, perception. All for now. Must go.
# posted by Collin @ 4:51 PM 
