Shakespeare in the modern age

[peggie]

Shakespeare in the modern age So one of my is in a production of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and dinner conversation has been lively. We're discussing Shrews, shrewishness, and the concept of taming. What do you all think of the play from a modern perspective? On the one hand, manners are increasingly lost in modern America where daytime TV shows normalize behavior I think is atrocious. Katherine, the 'shrew,' was a rude hair-puller. On the other hand, she was rightfully angry about being married against her will and that gives her a free pass in my book to be as distraught as she wants to be. Should the play be retired as 'encouraging spousal abuse by framing it as behavior management?' or, like my mother, do you think Katherine wanted to be married, but her overbearingness prevented her from achieving her womanly dreams...?

[lavers]

10 things i hate about you :) Fun movie, but I've never read Shrew, so I'm not offended by it.

[petey]

I tend to see it in the "encouraging spousal abuse" category. (I think it also can be viewed as a BDSM fable, like the movie Secretary with its happy cheery ending when she finds someone who can dominate her in the way she wants.) But yeah, in the context when it was written, she wouldn't get a choice about it, which is something it can be easy to lose sight of from a modern point o' view.

[lemire]

It is of note that when Taming was written there was much discussion about marriage because of HenryVIII's separation from the Catholic Church so he could divorce his wife. Ordinary citizens didn't have that luxury, so there was concern by many people about how to handle a marriage that was unsuitable to both parties. Generally marriages were arranged to gain money, land, or power and for those poor sods, that had unhappy marriages, there were few options for dissolution. Evidently, it was a popular theme in literature at the time.

[cahan]

I'm surprised the school's putting on that play! I agree with you - she had so little control over her life, she had the right to be as shrewish as she needed to be. The "taming" is just sad. I think the play should be retired, along with all TV shows and movies that normalize violence as entertainment. But hey, what right do I have to censor art? If you start taking CSI SVU off the air, where does it stop? I like Nushka's take on it. Don't retire it, make a "nine weeks" type adaptation of it.

[Misti]

so should we retire.... the honeymooners? or i love lucy? all in the family? i happen to like these shows, and all three contain threats of violence from the husband to the wife. Ralph Cramden was always saying "One of these days Alice, POW, right in the kisser." and Ricky used to threaten to spank Lucy. and Archie, forget it, Archie was not only abusive but racist.... HOWEVER i enjoy these shows when i catch them on tv. i don't want them retired at all.

[dann]

well rather than expect the world to conform to me, I simply don't watch and do not pay for things I don't want to see. I think your classic shows do not have the influence over raunch-humour shows like family guy. They make satiric references to "all in the family" and then peter turns around and clocks lois later in the episode and it's supposed to be funny. then she beats the hell out of him and that's supposed to be funny. Which isn't to say that violence can't be entertaining - the stewie/brian "where's my money" series of fights was so exaggerated but I thought it was funny. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying what i think. :)

[marlena]

i feel you 100% and.... you made me laugh, seriously, out loud. i have seen almost every family guy and that "where's my money" episode killed me!!!

[Agnola]

it was a comment on gratuitous violence... it's weird and I can't define where the line for me is. I'm a fan of dark humour too - I picked that up while working in the animal hospital. Things that you're not *supposed* to laugh at tickle me, but things that are old jokes that have the effect of normalizing things that are a big problem and damn well should be offensive, piss me off.

[sturgill]

Yeah, but hospital humor has to stay amongst hospital people. Otherwise the whole world will know that our humor combines the best of bodily functions with a grim, cynical, sleep-deprived view of humanity.

[creager]

did I tell you about one of the nursing students who didn't notice her patient had died??? I had to excuse myself because I couldn't restrain my giggles. I mean, a nursing student has only ONE PATIENT to deal with at first. When you don't notice your only patient has DIED, that's some friggin' awful nursing! She was really upset about it, but I lost it when the nursing staff said they were trying to pin down when he died, and they weren't sure if it was between 3 am and 6 am, or after 6 am when she came on shift - she hadn't taken his vitals that morning because she thought he was sleeping and didn't want to distrub him.

[farina]

Confession-I had this happen once I was not a student. But we had a respirator patient on a standard floor. She was a "failed" suicide-no hope of recovery (flat line) but hospital could not risk being sued by taking her off vent (circa 1979). I had never cared for a vent patient before. Other nurses assisted me on the first round of care. later in the shift I positioned and did other vent related care myself. I checked vitals, could not clearly hear the heart due to the equipment. Asked another nurse to double check about 5/6 AM I cant remember if she verified/or just said she did (I was not in room at the time. Day shift could not find cardiac sounds on first rounds. Whatever. I don't know if I did something wrong, or if the vent was just not enough at that point. Sometimes it is hard to tell what alive is. That woman had essentially been dead for 6 months.

[Arliene]

That's terrible.

[Karlon]

so horrible. so, so awful.

[kalka]

All in the Family amazes me. I saw clips on 54276 the other day and I remember it from childhood and I think it couldn't be made, couldn't even be conceived now. Interesting how the roles of women and the expectations of marriage and marital behavior have changed.

[wooten]

It's true but now there aren't ANY depictions at all of poor white people ( all in the Family) or poor black people ( Good Times) or class conflict, racism etc. There are neither positive or negative depictions because they aren't present at all. I think I said before that I used to like the program "Girlfriends" because some of the characters were realistic people with student loans and credit card debt. I'd say that how is an exception to the general rule. I'd also rather see overt conflict in the media than things that are subtly racist or people not being depicted at all. I'd rather see Archie and George Jefferson arguing it out than shows where everybody is white except the maid. The whole concept of censorship and brushing things under the rug is problematic because then everything gets brushed under the rug.

[kash]

I think All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Alice and Maud (shows when I was growing up) were groundbreaking for their time. They challenged the status quo and showed differing opinions and ways to think, which I am grateful for, coming from a highly conservative, repressive LDS background growing up in the media censored Utah. Those shows taught me to question authority and the reasoning behind mandates that were not open to discussion.

[haueter]

Maybe keep the play but allow the kids to mess with it and put their own spin on it. I'd like to see "Madea's Taming of the Shrew" or "Madea's Medea"

[slane]

I'd pay good money to see tyler perry take on either of those!