The End!? (Tempest)

Well the last two acts were in interesting read. To me it kind of seemed to end on a simple happy note. The supposed bad guy turned a new leaf. All was forgiven. Love flourished. Everything tied in a nice little bow. It doesn't seem like a typical Shakespearean ending, with death and dramatic twists etc.
So you have Prospero win. He gathers everyone. All truth is revealed. He renounces his powers and gets his dukedom reestablished. You find that the Boatswains are all alright and the ship is ready to go (pg. 161). Prospero deems everything that occurred as "happened accidents." (pg. 163) I feel that he sugar coated that. I mean he caused a tempest that threw everyone on a island. I think it was more than a little incident/coincidence.
What I really want to talk about is the magic in the story, or should I say "art". If you notice no one really gets hurt from the magic happening in the pages. You have a storm. Everyone gets on the island. Clothes dry. Some are asleep. Nothing really dangerous happens. I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was expecting a death or sacrifice. At least that is what I pair magic with now after reading Kors/Peters. But this magic was very indirect and sneaky. It was demonic magic or blood sacrifices. It was elemental. The water and air. It is curious to note that Prospero calls his art "rough magic." (pg. 149, line 59)

 His perception is that this was really powerful and scary stuff that he was doing. In reality, if you take what read in other readings, magic can get a whole lot darker and scarier. It is interesting to see his perception of his magic. I like how he coins it "art". If you think of art you think visuals, feelings, interpretation, eccentricities, colors etc. It kind of seems parallel to how is magic works. The entire time Prospero is guiding everyone in places or positions he needs them to be in. He uses the senses as a way to manipulate others. Such as seeing shapes. He also plays on emotions like love (or lust), anger, greed, fear, kind of how art plays with our emotions based on how we look and interpret them.


Overall, I thought this was a odd way to end a story like this. It seemed so simple and to neat. If someone threw me over a boat, had me seeing shapes, chased by dogs (spirits), etc, I wouldn't be so keen to just chalk it up to a sorry.

Merlin, Fiction verses well Fiction

This post may contain spoilers for anyone who has not yet viewed the first episode of Merlin

Sorry for the late post. The other day, I watched the first episode of BBC's Merlin. As I watched the first episode I found myself comparing the characters to how they are portrayed in the literature.

Uther Pendragon, I had hope for the show when they introduced the King as Uther Pendragon, a name I immediately recognized from the Prose Merlin. I'm not sure what to make of King Uther. I thought he was kind of an idiot  in the Prose Merlin and the show reinforced these beliefs. He just can't take a hint. Really, I could go on talking about Uther for the rest of this post but then we'd never get to Prince Arthur or even Merlin (who is pretty important to the show).

Merlin: In the Prose, Merlin we read for class on Monday, Merlin was old. When I hear the word Merlin I often think of that old guy from Disney's Sword and the Stone, you know, the one with the really long white beard, who speaks in riddles.  However, I was surprised to find that in the show Merlin is young and fairly sane. I found Merlin a lot more likeable in the show than in the Prose, Merlin. Maybe, it's because in Monday's literature Merlin was a creepy old guy trying to as Dr. MB put it deflower a fifteen year old girl. Yeah Merlin has some issues in the show like fighting Prince Arthur (or trying to at least, Merlin was totally cheating not that I felt bad for the prince). Speaking of the Prince...

Prince Arthur: As soon as this jerk entered the scene throwing knives and all in all being a jackass, I found myself silently hoping that it wasn't the King Arthur of legend. Of course, BBC immediately responded by introducing the character as Prince Arthur. I might be a little rusty on my Arthurian stories but isn't King Arthur supposed to be a great guy who is dealt a really bad hand when his wife Guinevere, cheats on his with his best friend Sir Lancelot? Because,  in the show, I'm feeling more bad for Guinevere for eventually having to be married to this jerk. Arthur seems to be this larger than life character who is really just... as Merlin so rightly put it (multiple times)... a prat.

Guinevere: I do not know much about Queen Guinevere as according to legend. However, the show kept implying that she had a thing for Merlin which really confused me. Also, Guinevere more or less came from lower means than what I'd expected of the future Queen of Camelot. It seems to me that the show further implied for Lady Morgana to serve as Prince Arthur's love interest in the show. This whole Guinevere part of the show just has me baffled but she's a likeable enough character.

Lastly, the random witch: At the very being of the episode I felt really bad for the witch, she had just seen her son beheaded. I didn't realize the role she would play in the episode until she vanished in a pile of leaves (?) and then all I could think was shit, she's a witch. Well damn. I still felt bad for her, as creepy as she was. Then she killed that singer and I started getting really really bad vibes from her. At this point I wondered why the show would portray witches in the light that they did. I mean lets face it, Arthur may be the most hated character in the episode but she takes second place pretty easily on creepiness alone. I have spent the whole semester feeling sorry for witches or those accused at least and here is a perfect example of what everyone is so afraid of.

Also, there is a dragon... a talking dragon (wtf?) I felt the dragon kind of came out of no where.

No shit, you're a freaking talking dragon, how could anyone forget you?

Merlin the interesting life story.

Sorryfor the late post, didn't understand the switch. Now I am not to familiar wi the history of Merlin, but I did enjoy the readings. There is so much going on here I just want to touch on a few things.

First off, talking baby. I never pictured Merlin young. I just had this image of him as old and powerful. So when the story highlights his youth and his flaunting demeanor it struck me. Another element of Merlin's humanity is that he ages.

I found it also quite interesting that God gives Merlin these powers because as the it says in the text "he gave this ability to the child, whose need was greater." Merlin was influenced by demonic powers. So the best way to cancel that while still givin Merlin free will is giving him good powers and letting him choose. I want to highlight the part about Merlin's need is greater. He obviously needed to be blessed by God and given such holy powers or else we might have had an antichrist roaming around. The thing that I find so interesting, is all the Mystics we have read that received their visions; they were in great need too. And so God gave them visions. Maybe Merlin was one of the first Mystics in a way

Lastly, I want to talk about how religious or how much Merlin refers to God, Jesus and the last supper. I never thought of merlin this way. He is a magician, a sorcerer, a master of the magical arts. He poofed the stone heads to where they are now (just one of many origin stories about this lol). But a man of God. Never would have pictured that. Even from the beginning my thoughts don't jump to the conclusion that God gave Merlin these powers. I just thought he was magic, one of the first know beings of magic. This is what I think anyway.

Now there is his death which I won't get into since it frustrated me. But he died in a very human way which was sad, but he was powerful so as Merlin says man should not fear death and nothing does not come that does not end,