Chanin Hale

            On Saturday after midnight I did my usual search for bedbugs and found none. That makes it two days since I saw the last one, which was hopefully the last one. 

            I still did not have wifi directly from Shankar's network this morning. It's been more than a day and a half and I think it's the longest his network has been off for my computer. I can still pick it up on my phone and so I was able to tether. But tethering tends to time out and needs to be reset and so if this persists until Monday I'm going to be screwed for hearing all of the next Shakespeare lecture. I wonder if it's just that Shankar has used up his gigs for this month and it's slowed down until the next. The slowing down may limit the network. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg and struggled again with figuring out what is the last word of the first line of the second verse. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I went out to pay for my November phone plan. Freedom Mobile has stopped giving paper receipts and just send them as texts now.

            After that I went to No Frills. As I was locking my bike outside the supermarket a short, skinny guy with a white beard came walking by. He gave me the thumbs up as part of a question, “Are you okay?” I nodded. He asked if I liked the weather. It was raining a bit. I shrugged and then he answered for me, “You don't care. You're on a bike.” I could figure out how riding a bike made one indifferent to the weather. 

            A woman outside the door asked if I would buy her some muffins, but I said “Sorry.” 

            Inside I bought four bags of green grapes, a half pint of raspberries, lemonade, orange juice and kettle chips. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before lunch. 

            I worked on editing and organizing information on Autolycus from the scenes I copied and pasted from The Winter's Tale. He's a thief because it is a family tradition but he's chosen petty thievery over highway robbery because there is less chance of being hanged. We learn more about him when he lays down as a potential pick-pocketing victim approaches and he pretends to have been beaten and robbed by a man named Autolycus. He says he knows Autolycus and tells something of his life. It's interesting that the fictional Autolycus is more violent than the real Autolycus. 

            When I got up from my siesta and posted my blog I wasn't sure if I was going to take a bike ride or not. It looked like it might be raining but when I opened the back door the puddles on the roof were not being disturbed by raindrops. So I got ready and left, but I found that it was steadily drizzling enough that if I went all the way downtown I might get wet and so I only rode as far as Bloor and Dovercourt. I weighed 88.9 kilos when I got home. 

            I finished making notes on the first appearance of Autolycus in The Winter's Tale. He has already picked Clown's pocket but now he promises to be in the next scene to begin fleecing the shepherds at the sheep sheering festival. If he does not do so he will have a bad reputation among thieves. He then sings part of the ballad ‘Jog on, jog on, the footpath way’ with a tune by Haskin’. 

 Jog on, jog on, the footpath way, 

And merrily hent (grasp to vault over) the stile-a. 

A merry heart goes all the day, 

Your sad tires in a mile-a. 

(If one does not have fun being a thief or doing anything else it will be a tiring activity). 

            I read chapter three of Daisy Miller by Henry James. Winterbourne comes to Rome to visit his aunt but at the forefront of his mind is that Daisy Miller is spending the winter there. He goes to visit a lady named Mrs Walker, who is also from the United States but is of a higher social strata than the Miller family. Daisy happens to be visiting Mrs Walker when Winterbourne arrives. Daisy intends to go to a certain high part of Rome that has a grand view of the rest and she is meeting an Italian gentleman there. Mrs Walker does not think she should go at that hour to meet a man, even though Winterbourne offers to accompany her. They go there and Daisy walks happily with both men but then Mrs Walker comes along in her carriage. She tries to impress upon Daisy that what she is doing is inappropriate but Daisy does not care. She also mentions other improper things that Daisy does, such as going to balls where she and dances with only one man. 

            I started making notes on the second appearance of Autolycus in The Winter's Tale, when he arrives at the sheep sheering festival in disguise. He arrives singing better than any instrument and the servant announces him excitedly as someone amazing for the songs and for the fabrics he is selling. Autolycus seems to be very much modelled upon the Greek god of the same name who was the son of of Mercury and the grandfather of Odysseus. The mythical Autolycus was also a master of transformation. But Shakespeare's Autolycus seems to have also some of the qualities and talents of that other son of Mercury, Pan. 

            I made pizza on naan with Roman red pepper sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this story Gomer, Sergeant Carter and their fellow platoon members who are in Hollywood to shoot the movie “Leathernecks of the Air” are about to do their big scene in the film. All Gomer and the others have to do is sing but Carter has one line, “Okay, let's hear it for Henshaw!” At that point a scantily clad woman is supposed to pop out of a cake and then Gomer is required to sing. But Carter gets the line or his timing wrong in every take so that after thirty two tries the director, Mr Miles calls it a day because the prop department has run out of balloons to drop. At the end of the day Miles tells his assistant not to call Carter the next day. When Gomer arrives the next day he is told that he will speak Carter's line but when he does so he looks so depressed that the director realizes he has to bring Carter back in. But when Carter arrives Miles tells him he's being given the most important part in the picture, the part of the man whose life Henshaw saved. In the scene Carter comes out covered in bandages and with one of them over his mouth. Gomer shouts the line, the girl jumps from the cake and Gomer sings “For He's a Jolly Good Fellow” followed by “Viva La Company.” 

            Norman Miles was played by the producer of "Gomer Pyle", Sheldon Leonard. He was the inspiration for the names of the two lead characters in “The Big Bang Theory”, Sheldon and Leonard.

            The special effects man was played by Jamie Farr, who would later star in “M.A.S.H.” as Corporal Klinger. 

            Gloria, the woman in the cake was played by Chanin Hale, who started out performing in theatrical touring companies out of New York. In 1963, because of her pantomime skills she got hired to work on The Red Skelton Show and was a regular for seven years. Her first movie role was as Arline in “Synanon.” She became a popular performer in USO shows in Vietnam after soldiers saw a picture of her posing as Eve in a home made costume. Thousands of copies were printed and sent to soldiers. In 1986 she married Richard Bradshaw and they did nothing but travel together to the exotic places of the world for the next 35 years. They died within two weeks of one another.

October 31, 1991: No one knocked on my door for Halloween. I looked forward to taking my daughter out next year

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday morning I waited half an hour for Paul Hansen and Gary at Yonge and Bloor. It was a two-flight walk-up to a two-bedroom apartment but most of the furniture had already gone and all that was left was mostly boxes and books. We were done unloading at Yonge and Finch by 14:00. 

            No children knocked on my door on Halloween night. I was looking forward to taking my daughter out next year. Mike Copping called me from some bar and I was surprised because he'd planned on going home to take his kids out trick or treating. But his wife Cathy had told him not to burn himself out driving all the way down there when he had to be back at work in Toronto the next morning. We talked again about my custody situation. He was very sympathetic to Nancy's side.

Daisy Miller

            On Friday after midnight I did my tedious usual search for bedbugs and found none. The one that I found the day before was the first in five days, so I'm resetting the count. 

            The wifi was still off in the morning and so I couldn't work on memorizing “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg because I needed the YouTube video to sing along with. Instead I jumped ahead to the 1981 Gainsbourg album “Mauvaises nouvelles des étoiles” (Bad News From The Stars) because I have that on file. I memorized the first verse of his reggae song “Overseas Telegram” and adjusted my translation a bit. 

            After song practice the wifi was still off but I figured it was still too early to knock on Shankar's door and ask him to try restarting his router. 

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I knocked on Shankar's door and asked him to reset his router. He said it was on but I suggested that it might not be working at full capacity and maybe if it was restarted it would include the other devices in the network. He grunted something non verbal that might have meant something affirmative but nothing happened. I was able to get online briefly by tethering my computer to my phone but not long enough to post anything. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos before lunch. 

            I copied all of the parts of The Winter's Tale in which Augtolycus appears, including the ends of the scenes beforehand and the beginnings of the scenes afterwards, and pasted them for reference into the document in which I'll be writing my essay. 

            I read chapter 2 of Daisy Miller by Henry James. Winterbourne pursues Daisy, much to his Aunt's disapproval. Daisy is referred to as common several times and also uncultivated. Also ways one would describe an actual daisy. She is wild. His aunt admits that Daisy has good taste in clothing but is incredulous as to where someone of her class could have gotten it. The suggestion seems to be that her taste had to have come from outside and not been innate. Daisy wants to enter European society as she already has entered New York society but cannot find a way in. She seems to have hoped Winterbourne's aunt might have been a doorway but when she finds she doesn't want to know her she laughs it off. She looks everyone in the eye in a manner that ladies are not supposed to do. They go on a date to a famous castle but Daisy is more interested in Winterbourne's interest in her. She pretends she is angry when he says he is going away but they arrange to meet later in Rome. Daisy is hard to read and could go either way like the game one plays with daisies, “She loves me, she loves me not.” Daisies are common among daisies but a human daisy is very unique. 

            I started trying to organize Autolycus's parts from The Winter's Tale and made notes on his first appearance. He enters alone and undisguised, singing to welcome the flowers of spring and against the red blood of and white sheets of death of winter. Although he is a master of disguise he is himself when he enters while at the end of the previous scene and at the beginning of the next there are other characters in disguise. 

            The wifi was still off when I got up from my siesta and so for the second day in a row I couldn't post my blog. 

            I left a little early for my bike ride, intending on going to Yonge and Bloor as usual, but it started splattering rain at Ossington and so I headed south and home. It didn't rain very hard and I might have made it downtown and back without getting wet, but that wasn't a certainty. I got some exercise anyway. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos at 17:00. 

            The wifi was still off well over 24 hours since I could get online and do anything. If I tethered my phone it only worked for a few minutes but not long enough to get very far. I made it onto Facebook once for a minute or so. 

            Later on I tried tethering again and it lasted long enough to post something. The connection usually held on for about five or ten minutes at a time and after continuously re-tethering over the next couple of hours I managed to get caught up on my posts. 

            I had a potato with gravy and the last two pieces of the whole chicken I'd roasted a few days ago. I ate while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            This story begins with foreign movie star Pola Prevost needing to get married in order to stay in the US. She just needs a temporary husband and so he has to be naive enough to fall for it. Just then Gomer comes up and asks her for an autograph. He shows himself to be such a huge fan that she starts to think she's found what she's looking for. Later Sergeant Carter is trying to get a chance to stand outside of a Hollywood premier so he can watch the stars. Meanwhile Gomer gets a call from Pola Prevost asking him to escort her to a Hollywood premier. Carter learns that he has to be outside the premier three hours ahead of time and so he leaves before Gomer can tell him about Pola. Carter is very surprised when he sees Gomer walking down the red carpet with Pola Prevost. When they leave Carter follows their limousine in a cab to a fancy restaurant. Before he gets there Pola proposes to Gomer. He's surprised and flattered but tells her he already has a girlfriend. Then Gomer sees Carter and calls him over. When Pola learns what a fan Carter is she focuses her attention on him. Carter comes back to the hotel room telling Gomer that he's engaged to Pola. Gomer asks, “What about Bunny?” But Carter just shrugs it off. When Duke hears that Paula proposed to Gomer first he tells Gomer that Pola must be looking for a temporary marriage for some reason. Gomer decides to have a talk with Pola and to tell her that Sergeant Carter is a “till death do we part” type person. Pola doesn't like that idea and instead elopes with her interior decorator. Gomer makes sure Carter connects with Bunny to remind him of his real relationship, but it's pretty creepy how he was willing to blow Bunny off for Pola and then just continue with Bunny as if nothing had happened. 

            Paula was played by the great Nita Talbot, who I've featured in my blog before. She played Marya the Russian spy on seven episodes of Hogan's heroes, a role for which she won an Emmy. She played a love starved switchboard operator in “A Very Special Favour”, Madame Esther in “Buck and the Preacher”, and she also co-starred in “Who's Got The Action.”

October 30, 1991: I felt very alone, with no one on my side on the issue of joint custody

Thirty years ago today 

            On Wednesday morning I met Bill and Bill near Victoria Park and Sheppard where we'd loaded the trailer on Friday to take to Guelph. Bill McLaughlin's cousin was also there so I was pissed off about him draining my hours. The guy was working for free for fuck sake! After work I got a ride to Victoria Park and Lawrence. 

            When I got home I called Mike Copping and he told me he'd tried to reach me all the day before because that would have been the best time to get together and go to a movie. He said he'd called Nancy and arranged for us all to meet at 19:00 next Wednesday. Mike didn't seem to agree with joint custody either. I felt very alone, with no one on my side. Mike had a tendency to bend his mind to defend a woman's side of things no matter what the situation.

October 29, 1991: I got to hold my daughter all the way downtown

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I met Nancy at Warden Station and held my daughter all the way downtown. When we got to Chi-Chi's there was a sign announcing that they were bankrupt. We walked to Fisherman's Wharf but it was closed until the dinner hour and so we settled for The Olive Garden across the street. Nancy paid and then we went to see “Frankie and Johnny.” I missed the ending because the baby had been making a lot of noise and so I had to take her out of the theatre. But it was not a sensational film. It seemed contrived as if someone had sat down to try to think up a love story rather than being inspired to write one. 

            I saw them back to the bus at Warden Station and kissed my daughter goodbye.

Judith Brown

            On Thursday after midnight I did my usual search for bedbugs and found a baby on the top right edge of the old exit door that's at the head of my bed. It had fresh blood inside when I killed it and it was the first one I'd seen in five days. Pest control is coming a week from Friday so hopefully I can put an end to these little vampire visitations. 

            I memorized the third verse of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg and changed the last word again on the first line of the second verse. I decided to go with the French word “cure” instead of “toure” because it sounds closer to what the singer is pronouncing. So now the translation is “The last tango is my cure / I'm greasing up with butter.” 

            I weighed 89.6 kilos before breakfast. I had time for a bowl of grapes and a few sips of coffee before leaving for tutorial. 

            I chatted with Nabia and Paco before class. “Nabia” means “Intelligent” and “Paco” means “A Good Friend.” Even though Paco is from Hong Kong and his parents are Chinese they picked a Spanish name. Paco told Nabia she is intelligent. She often does have good observations. 

            I always try to guess what the attendance question will be and this time I thought it would be Halloween related. I was right. She asked what we were planning to do for Halloween. I said I haven't gotten into Halloween since my daughter grew up but twenty years ago I went out as a shrink wrap mummy and I was naked underneath. Sarah asked if I lost weight. She said she's going out as Pregnant Kylie Jenner. 

            We looked at the three short stories. “Circumstance” is antebellum. I pointed out that it's publication could be seen as antebellum but I think it's set before the Revolutionary War. “The Sheriff's Children” is postbellum. It is important for us to know for our exam if the literature was published before, after, or during the Civil War. The Civil War changed everything. 

            “Circumstance” is melodramatic. There is a question of whether there is wild animal-indigenous conflation. There is also the idea of voice. “Chickamauga” is more naturalist and not sentimental. The horror of war is a literary device. 

            Sarah mentioned that I had said in lecture that the little boy in "Chickamauga" could be a metaphor for the public reaction to the war. I said I'd been thinking that it could also be a metaphor about the military command. 

            Power allows the white subject to shape reality but war is the limit of power. “The Sheriff's Children” is after the war. Later we will see the south left behind in the historic literature we read.

            Charles Chesnutt was white passing. Sarah tells us if we are reading aloud and see the N word, don't say it, but say “the N word.” 

            When writing about more than one text at a time use comparison for analysis. She asked us to list elements that two or more of the stories have in common. We came up with the child figure, nature, solitude, destruction of home, racialization, death, weapons, and abrupt endings. The cat is racialized in “Circumstance” and the townsfolk in “The Sheriff's Children” assume Tom is the murderer because he is a Negro. “The Sheriff's Children” could also be a captivity narrative observed by the objective narrator. 

            We broke into three groups. There were four in ours: Hannah, Amy and another young woman who didn't say anything. Each group picked a topic for comparison and I suggested we look at death. The others agreed so we went with that. I started the ball rolling by saying that although there are deaths at the ends of all three stories only two of them are tragedies. In those cases the death is of a human individual family member. The death of the predator in “Circumstance” is not something we feel bad about. Hannah found a great quote from the end of “Circumstance” when the woman and her family see their cabin and those of their neighbours destroyed that illustrates that it is not a tragedy: “Desolation and death were indeed there and beneficence and life in the forest.” The balancing of life with death as a conclusion shows that it is not tragic. It almost suggests that the death of the other settlers was a community event. In “The Sheriff's Children” the lynch mob wants the death of Tom to pay for the death of Captain Walker. Amy came up with a great quote from the end of the story: “An unnatural rigidity about his attitude.” This is the first indication for the reader that Tom is dead but the line “unnatural rigidity about his attitude” could be applied to the sheriff and the lynch mob in the story. I don't always like breaking off into groups because quite often it's awkward and nothing is communicated but in this case, for three of us I think it worked out well. I enjoyed the exchange of ideas. 

            I rode to Yonge and Bloor and then on the way home I stopped at Freshco. I first went to the ATM but it initially rejected my card. This has happened before and seems to be some kind of computer glitch. When I tried a second time I had no problem getting my money. I bought five bags of red grapes, a bag of kettle chips, two cans of peaches, Roman spicy red pepper pasta sauce, shaving gel and a pack of paper towels. 

            One of our Shakespeare essay options is to follow a minor character through the play they are in and write about what they inform us about the plot and how they affect the action. Professor Lopez gave a list of characters to choose from but there was the option of choosing our own with his approval. So yesterday I sent him an email asking for permission to follow the thief, trickster, disguise artist and song salesman Autolycus around The Winter's Tale. He got back to me today and told me it was a good idea, so that's a relief since I'd already made three pages of handwritten notes in stream of consciousness with that idea in mind. 

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon Shankar's wifi network disappeared from my list and there was no Internet. I knocked on his door and I think I woke him up. He said he'd look into the connection but I suspect he went back to sleep. 

            I prepared my blog for posting and typed my tutorial notes. I was caught up at 17:45 but the wifi was still down and so I couldn't post my blog or my daily Twitter tweet. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos at 18:00. 

            I read “Desirée's Baby” by Kate Chopin. Desirée is a southern, Cajun belle whose husband is rich and owns many slaves. Desirée gives birth to a baby and somehow doesn't notice right away that the baby is black. She asks her husband and he says the baby is black because she is black. She writes her mother about it and her mother says to come home and bring the baby. Her husband has rejected Desirée now that he knows she is part black. She wanders off with the baby in her bedclothes and is never heard from again. Her husband has his slaves burn all of the rich clothing and furniture that he had bought for Desirée and their baby. We learn at the end that the husband is also part black. 

            I typed my handwritten notes on Autolycus. 

            I started reading “Daisy Miller” by Henry James. So far there isn't much of a story. It starts out in Geneva, Switzerland. A young man from the US meets a precocious little boy from the US and then meets the boy's sister with whom he falls in love like a shot, which is his habit. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two pieces of chicken while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle.

            In the previous episode, a choir formed from within Carter's platoon wins a role in a film about Marines. In this story, they arrive in Hollywood at the studio where the movie is being shot. They go for lunch at the studio commissary where Carter keeps trying to find a table that has a beautiful actress to sit down with. He keeps trying and failing to meet someone. While Gomer is just looking for a place to sit an attractive young woman invites him to sit with her. Her name is Linda Farrell and she is a stunt woman but is also an aspiring actor looking for her big break. She offers to show Gomer the sights when she finishes work that day. When Carter sees Gomer with an attractive woman he joins them and keeps trying to take over. He joins them on their sight seeing date and constantly tries to get Gomer out of the way. That night Carter pulls Gomer aside and tells him to leave so he can walk Linda home, but while they are talking two guys come up and try to harass Linda. She uses judo to subdue them both and Gomer and Carter run to pick the guys off the ground and hold them just when the cops arrive. The next day in the paper is an article about Gomer and Carter having protected a helpless woman from a couple of bad guys. They are invited to appear on a popular talk show where Carter tries to monopolize all the conversation, even answering questions directed at Gomer. When asked about the incident Gomer finally talks about Linda and her judo. He surprises Carter by saying that he invited Linda to come and she's back stage. Linda comes out and the host wants a demonstration of her judo. Gomer volunteers Carter and he gets flipped. But to save Carter embarrassment Linda says that Carter taught her the self defence moves that she'd used. In the end Linda gets an acting role in a movie by a producer who'd seen her on the show. 

            Linda was played by Judith Brown, who co-starred in The Big Doll House, Women In Cages, Babes Behind Bars, A Woman For All Men, and a Danish soft porn film called Threesome. She now runs a bed and breakfast in Mexico. 

            Other women who appeared were Michele Cochrane, Sandy Freeman, and Sharon Hillyer.

            The wifi was still off. 

            I finished reading the first chapter of Daisy Miller. The young man, Winterbourne is very charmed by Daisy and finds her to be a coquette but a less dangerous kind of coquette than the European type he's experienced. They may go to visit a castle together. A daisy is a common flower and Miller is a common name. Daisies have white petals and yellow tops. Daisy Miller wears a very frilly white dress and she has blonde hair. She speaks in a very common manner and does not seem educated. She admits that her bratty little brother is smarter than she is but that does not bother her. Winterbourne is not a common name. He is presented as the opposite of Daisy and daisies do not grow in winter.

Tragicomedy

            On Wednesday after midnight, I did my usual search for bedbugs and found none. That makes it four days. If none turn up by the end of the weekend I'll stop looking for them. In nine days pest control is coming again. 

            When I went to bed the heat was blasting and so I went out and turned it off. When I got up it was still comfortably warm and didn't cool down past that. 

            I memorized the second verse of "Arthur, où t'as mis le corps" (Arthur, Where'd You Put The Corpse?) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the second verse of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg and changed the last word of the first line. The lyrics on gainsbourg.net have a question mark in the middle of that word but they think it starts with a “c” and ends with “ure” to say something about the last tango. The last tango I assume relates more to getting old than the movie starring Marlon Brando but references the film as well when it mentions butter in the second line. I settled for now on “le dernier tango me toure” (the last tango turns me around) that way the butter reference makes sense but I'll think about it some more tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before breakfast. Before 9:00 I logged onto Zoom for the Shakespeare lecture. 

           Professor Lopez said for us to finish All's Well That Ends Well for Monday and as we read the end think of what he would say about it. Not that he wants us to think like him but to try to see if we have internalized the model of reading that he's presented. 

           The lecture was on 4.4 of The Winter's Tale and the quest of genre. 

           Polixenes and Camello talk of how Florizel is not around lately. He disappears into the country and they suspect he is pursuing a woman there. So they disguise themselves as country people and go there to spy on him. Florizel is in love with Perdita who has been raised by a shepherd. She is noble we find out later. The actions of the king and his counsellor disguised as common people and the prince in love with a princess who is living as a commoner, are old comic forms. They were conventional by 1610 but that is not important right now. In many plays, these gestures were typically comic because they led to certain fantastic resolutions. By descending from aristocracy to the common people the king has access to truths about his family and subjects. The truth he finds is socially subversive. 

            Shakespeare already told us Perdita is a princess. The typical outcome of this kind of plot is for the king to perceive the same noble thing his son perceives in the shepherd girl. Whether that nobility is sufficient or not it paves the way for revelations. The fantasy that class status is visible on the body and person is old and pervasive in literature and in Shakespeare. The play follows this track. 

            Polixenes has a discussion with Perdita about flowers. She gives herbs and flowers to welcome Polixenes and Camillo to the festival. They say, “We are old so you give us flowers of winter” but she says no. Perdita talks of flowers streaked with two colours that look like a combination of two flowers. I'm giving winter flowers because I don't grow summer flowers in my garden. We don't have flowers in season. Why not? She says there is an art to piedness that is shared with nature. Gardeners make them multi coloured but she doesn't like artificially bred flowers. But carnations are not really artificially grown. It's a natural process to be multi-coloured. She is alluding to the general folk idea about these flowers that they are bastards and illegitimate. It's odd. Polixenes says let's say they are gardener-made flowers. We can improve on nature. Human nature makes art that improves on nature. We gardeners take a wild plant and graft on it a cultivated plant to make a hybrid that makes something new that is the best of both worlds. Gardeners do that all the time so what is the problem? The language he uses is of social biology: marry, scion, base, noble. This language suggests he perceives something potentially noble about Perdita. If I graft my son on a shepherdess they will flourish as a noble race. The language of botany and gardening underscore the social machinery of comedy. Polixenese's indulgence means it's funny. 

            Perdita is a purist who wants everything in its natural place, with no crossing nobility with base. But he says base can be noble. This is a strong signifier about a kind of comic resolution. But before that resolution we go through Polixenese's vicious rebuke for believing they could graft one class on another. He shows violent prejudice against the unworthiness of the shepherdess. That is a surprise swing away from the implied disguise, plot, and language. But it is characteristic of how Shakespeare handles signals. He changes direction drastically. 

            In the intro we have the late-stage pregnancy of Hermione but they say nothing about it. It is avoided. We plunge instead into jealousy that turns into the political action that King Leontes wants to kill his royal friend. Camello helps the king flee. He doesn't stay to help Hermione but instead runs away with Polixenes. Antigonus is sent to leave Hermione's baby in a foreign land. We think Antigonus will rescue the baby or run into Camillo but instead, he is eaten. The baby is picked up by a shepherd. We think Polixenes will affirm the match of Florizel and Perdita but he denies it. Florizel must now disguise himself to leave and solve things in Sicily. This is not expected. 

            At the beginning of Act 5, we wonder whether Leontes might get married to Paulina. Everyone thinks Leontes should get married and have an heir. In 5.1 we still think Hermione is dead. We think maybe Paulina will become his new wife. She says you can't marry until I tell you to marry. His whole future is in Paulina's hands. Paulina could be elevated but at the end of 5.1 when we hear Florizel and Perdita come in, in 5.1.215 there is a creepy moment. Florizel asks Leontes to speak to his father. Leontes says if he would he do so maybe he would give me Perdita. Paulina steps in to remind him that Hermione was more beautiful. We understand that there is a leaning towards possible incest. What if that happens? How would things unfold if that were the way it goes? He is attracted to Perdita because she looks like her mom. The specter of incest dissolves but it is always hovering on the edge. Perdita has potentially been Polixenese's child. But if she was his child she would marry her brother. It is impossible given the evidence against it but is still hovering.

            At every moment The Winter's Tale is full of stuff. In 5.1.35-45 Paulina says Leontes must stay unmarried because the oracle must be fulfilled and the baby must be found. Paulina imagines that Leontes will be heirless and so there will be a new line. She says it is important that the child be found. Antigonus is dead but the child is alive. Does that mean Antigonus will come back? It is not impossible. The play presents other comic resolutions. But the play takes that one away. 

           This is a long way to say that Shakespeare creates expectations that he thwarts. He creates the expectation that this will end tragically but then turns it into a comedy. He surprises. The Winter's Tale is extravagant in creation and frustration of expectations. He telegraphs outcomes that are replaced by others. It is a very extravagant play, different from other plays in degree but not kind. It is similar to other English Renaissance dramas. 

            When his plays were collected in 1723 they were categorized as either comedy, tragedy or history. The Winter's Tale and All's Well That Ends Well were comedies; Cymbeline was categorized as a tragedy; the histories were the plays about English kings, but Julius Caesar was a tragedy. But genre categories start to merge. Henry V ends comically; Richard II and III are tragedies with the title figure killed after he did something large. Part 1 Henry IV doesn't fit. It is a history play but ends at the chronological midpoint. There were definite generic classifications that Shakespeare's contemporaries followed. Tragedy ends with death. Classification of plays follows taxonomic conventions. It arises from the theory of the action of the end. 

            Genre classification is not a rule. It is not determinative of experience on a moment-to-moment level. Generic mixing is implied through carefully created expectations disguised as relationships between people. Mixing modes tragedy turns into comedy. This was also a convention. It is more rule than exception to mix tragedy and comedy. More than that the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries wants to keep the audience uncertain what kind of play it is and how we will think of the characters when it is done. The Comedy of Errors demands that you think all will be reunited. Why would Aegeon make his speech at the beginning otherwise? In generic form, something is implied about the end. If Othello or Macbeth would be advertized as a tragedy, expect the main character to die in the end. That however does not determine how we feel during the play because if it did drama would be boring. 

            Ethical ideas depend on things characters do or say rather than being determined by generic form. It is better to have a happy marriage than not. We should expect unhappy married people to become happy but Antipholus and Adriana in The Comedy of Errors are not going to be any better. We may wish the action of plays makes our wishes come true but the genre of comedy doesn't determine a play's contents but only how it ends. It is terrible when Othello dies. Even though he was Other he had respect. Desdemona is dead from strangulation. Not only do Othello and Desdemona die. Iago kills his wife and Rodrigo may also die. We are supposed to regret it when Othello is tricked and dies. But in the tragedy of Desdemona's death, Othello is complicit. Maybe Iago did not want her to die. No dead women were expected. At the end of Henry IV we get what we expect and more than we bargained for.

            The Winter's Tale does that in every act. Every act is its own play and each one revises how we feel about the one before. The Winter's Tale is a vivid epitome of what he does in his career. Is this play supposed to be a tragedy or comedy? We are looking for a rule but there is no rule. Comedy and tragedy are forms that determine the conclusion but don't tell us how to feel or about the relationships between characters. What is interesting about the play is the way he pursues relationships between characters and takes them to unexpected places. 

            I weighed 89.8 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with cream cheese and paprika and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. It seemed warm outside so I didn't wear my leather jacket. I put my hoody in my backpack and just wore an open button shirt over my undershirt. But after a block, I stopped to button the shirt and put the hoody on. I could have also stood to have my jacket on but it was okay while I was in motion to go without. I weighed 89 kilos when I got home. 

            I went out and bought a six-pack of Creemore. 

            I made pizza on naan with the last of my Toscanese sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this story a Hollywood producer wants to do a musical movie about the marines and he wants real marines to sing in it. There will be a competition of singing platoons to determine which group gets in. Carter selects a choir from his platoon, including of course Gomer, but he also puts himself in. Carter is a horrible singer and he notices that someone is off key but he doesn't realize it's him. The choir begins to stage rehearsals in hidden places at odd times to avoid Carter but he keeps finding them. Finally they decide someone has to tell Carter that he can't sing but nobody has the guts to face him besides Gomer. When Gomer suggests singing is not one of his strong points Carter begins to yell until he loses his voice. So now he can't sing anyway but they decide to let him join in the concert after all and he lip syncs while Gomer sings. They win and will be going to Hollywood. The regular familiar faces in the platoon were missing in this episode because they needed guys who could sing. I finished editing my lecture notes at around 22:30.

October 28, 1991: Central Guaranty offered me $2500 to move out

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday morning I called the city again about there being no heat and no hot water. They called Central Guaranty and then Michael Quinlan called me back. He offered me $2500 to move out. I told him I'd think about it but he asked how much it would cost them for me to decide right away. I answered that I would think about it and call him back in the afternoon. 

            I called Mike Copping long-distance and got his advice on their offer. 

            I had an appointment with a legal clinic where I was advised that since I hadn't even gotten an eviction notice yet I shouldn't sweat it. 

            When I got home I called Quinlan but he didn't repeat the offer. He just said they'd be fixing the furnace and my plumbing right away. 

            I got in touch with Nancy and we made an arrangement to meet for dinner on Tuesday.

Freaking Out

            On Tuesday after midnight I did my usual search for bedbugs and found none. That makes it three days since I saw the last one. 

            I memorized the first verse of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            The heat was blasting when I got up at 5:00. I switched it off at 6:00 but those old radiators hold heat for a long time and it was 8:30 by the time the place cooled down to a comfortable level. 

            I weighed 89.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had time for a few grapes and a few sips of coffee before leaving for class. It was raining and I was sure I would be soaked by the time I got there but I was only a little damp. Not enough to feel miserable while sitting two hours in a lecture hall. 

            Three stories: “Circumstance” published at the dawn of the Civil War; “Chickamauga” after the war but a Civil War story; “The Sheriff's Children” after the Civil War. This last one calls attention to what Harriet Jacobs called the tangled skeins of genealogy. Destruction of home in one case a sign of salvation and the other similar. 

            Of Harriet Spofford's 1860 story “Circumstance” Emily Dickinson wrote that the story itself becomes a predator for her. Emerson in self reliance talks of self alienation in a way that can be applied to Dickinson's statement. The story is based on an event in her great grandmother's life. 

           Spofford was popular in her life and wrote prolifically but wrote to support her family. Her writing fell out of fashion. But came back in the 1980s. She fell out of favour because the arbiters of taste didn't like melodramatic Gothic stories and so realism became the norm. 

           Questions about “Circumstance”: Is it a theological story, a story about a spiritual test in a Puritan mode? What is its relationship to the captivity narrative? And might we call this Settler Colonial Gothic? Is it a story about sexual violence? And if so in what sense? And even weirder--Is it a story about maternity and childbirth? 

            Genre. Captivity narrative. Accounts of it start with Mary Rowlanson's “The Sovereignty and Goodness of God.” About the “cruel and inhumane usage she underwent among the heathens for eleven weeks time and her deliverance from them.” A sermon by her husband is annexed to the story. The established genre involves an ordeal usually of a colonial American woman captured by savages. Abducted, escaped, to some degree sometimes assimilated. It is a popular enduring form. The type of story is retold in fiction and films such as John Wayne. This is the genre that Spofford is drawing on.

             Also there is the context of the theological significance of the wilderness in relation to Puritanism. Recall that nature took on a different significance later like a dangerous ungodly space with savages going to write their name in Satan's book. For some Christian settlers separation from god defined the natives. Later the transcendentalists celebrated the wilderness. In The Scarlet Letter Hester and Dimmesdale find love in the woods. 

            When a wilderness encounter is represented ask who the wilderness is for. Naming from a European perspective. Note the perilous state of her home, barely separate from the wilderness. Protected but vulnerable. Her use of the word “domain” is interesting. “Domain” means held by occupation as opposed to by a legal owner. The system of legal ownership sometimes obscures. The reunion of her family defies the representative powers of the author because it is too sacred. Ownership in force. 

            Equation of panther and native. That conflation could switch adjectives and nouns as she says “panther tribe.” My research finds there would really be no such thing as a grouping of adult panthers or cougars in the wild, but there's a name for it anyway: “A claw of panthers.” Later the cougar is referred to as “The Indian Devil.” 

            The protagonist is separated from her family while performing care work. She has a vision but she is not much phased by it. Professor Morgenstern reads the first paragraph and comments that it is more melodramatic when read out loud. 

            The cougar is coded as a demonic beast, as Satan, a tempter and a seducer. The intimacy is eroticized violence. It may be a sexual, racial predator. She is more disgusted than anything. We are told that it's called “The Indian Devil.” 

            I said “Devil” may have actually been what the Indians called it. She said that was interesting but generous. I found out later that actually the eastern nations tended to see the cougar as noble and as having good hunting medicine. Some of the western nations associated the cougar with evil and witchcraft. If she had been reading stories from the west maybe she came across that reference. 

            The protagonist's husband and baby are everything. The echo of her scream casts a musical spell on the cat. She becomes like Scheherazade with singing replacing story telling. When thinking of home she stops singing. When singing a lullaby the cat is figured as an infant. 

            A turn in the story comes when she thinks she is in god's hands. The cat as god. She is in divine rapture and spiritual ecstasy. Once in that state we leave her consciousness and move to her husband's. Her ecstasy is disrupted with his arrival and she loses her voice. In the story she only had a voice while in danger and alone. The theological and domestic readings are resolved because it is god's plan. 

            The result of her captivity is the family survives. They become Adam and Eve. Paradise lost quote: “The World was all before them where to choose / Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: / They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow, / Through Eden took their solitary way.” -John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667) 

            We are reminded of the Indigenous presence in the Freneau poem when he refers to the “unsocial Indian.” This is an Odd story. When one fits the pieces together one can't not be ambivalent. We don't read for greatness. 

            “Chickamauga” by Ambrose Pierce. He fought in the Civil War. He was an abolitionist. He sustained a head injury but he was military for the rest of his life and then when there were no US wars to fight he went to Mexico. 

            Chickamauga in 1863 was a significant union defeat with high casualties from the battle followed by more from disease. There was no thought of post traumatic stress at the time. Why does he represent this through the experience of a deaf child? This is seen as unsympathetic and removed from the character. His writing is seen as naturalistic. An unsympathetic object. 

            He begins with inflated language, talking of the ancestry of the child. The child begins to lead the wounded, deflating grandiosity. There is an odd mini frontier narrative with the six year old child in the woods. Part nature and nurture. General events are that the boy is playing at war but scared by a rabbit. His toy sword is his companion. He sobs himself to sleep and the battle takes place while he is sleeping. Reading the story gives alienation and defamilarization because it is from the eyes of a child.

            The story provides an answer to how to represent war. The paradoxical idea before time that to represent war one must fail to represent it. Failure to represent war takes the form of the event missed while sleeping. The child is immersed and estranged at the same time. He is a child and he is deaf. 

            I say that the child is a metaphor for the distant public reading and hearing about the war. The public is deaf to the war and mute about it. They have an immature response to the conflict and see it as exciting and fun to hear and read about. 

            Of the idea that the child is in a spell of child's play, what is a spell? A fantasy space. There is a switch in register. What does the boy not have access to in relation to his father's Negroes. Analogy from the boy's inability to read enslavement and his inability to read war. Being a white subject is to expect to shape reality according to fantasy. Maybe the war represents a limit to fantasy. 

           His home is destroyed and his mom dead but there is no sense of redemptive destruction. The professor compares this to the response to suffering and loss during covid. What kinds of strategy bring pain home to those removed? 

           The child is rendered grotesque at the end. Like a political reading of Emerson's child but enclosed in fantasy and indifferent to suffering. Animality degraded. But what is an animal? Humans are animals. Racialization from animalization. 

           Charles Chesnutt was a free African American. His parents were from North Carolina. He was a lawyer and could pass for white but chose not to do so. He wrote in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries during the Jim Crow period and the lynchings. 

           William Dean Howells, the most celebrated writer of his day said of Chesnutt: “The volumes of fiction are remarkable above many, above most short stories of people entirely white, and would be worthy of unusual notice if they were not the work of a man not entirely white.” -William Dean Howells “The Dean of American Letters” 

            The story “The Sheriff's Children” foregrounds a commitment to realism. There is a significant amount of detail at the beginning about the town being outside history and having been left behind. That is a frequent motif in writing of the US south. 

            Captain Walker the murdered man was a Confederate veteran who lost his left arm. Pay attention to the racially charged language and who uses it. The sheriff is the most educated person in town. He had been sympathetic with the union but joined the Confederate army. He had owned slaves. Think of voice. 

            The narrator is external to the world of the story. He is an extradiegetic narrator or one who narrates a story from outside the fictional universe of the text. The word “Negro” is not the sheriff's word. Race trumps the US political system's majestic ideals that all is well and good. We will follow the law as long as there is no disruption of the racial hierarchy. 

            The secret in the story is set up by the title. It is not a secret to Tom in jail. It is an open secret that Tom looks like the sheriff. A voice to deafness and blindness. The sheriff is above the lynchers but the story is about his limits. Tom surprises the sheriff and keeps surprising him. The sheriff relied on negro cowardice. Tom is different from the wretch the sheriff perceived him to be. There can be under-reading. Tom transforms. Learning more about the sheriff's perception. Whole lives are in his blind spot. He forgets the slave mother he'd had sex with and then sold. Blindness and education. Both are educated but the sheriff's not enlightened and the fruit of Tom's education is bleak. 

            The story ends juxtaposing the sheriff's sleepless night and a new thought process that confronts himself and his past actions. What can he do for Tom? 

            I said that first of all he left his wounded son alone in a jail cell while there is a lynch mob that has given no indication that they have given up on hanging him. The sheriff went off by himself to think it out, rather than stay there and communicate with his son and probably save him. 

            The ending is resonant with the end of “Bartleby the Scrivener.” 

            After class I asked Professor Morgenstern if Chesnutt created the trope of the sheriff versus the town. She didn't know but we both concluded that he probably didn't. I said this trope of the democratically elected sheriff standing off against the town that has reverted to pre-democratic mob rule against an outsider has been played out hundreds of times in literature, film and television. I said I think it's very effective for the author to use it to draw the reader in and then hit them with a surprise revelation. 

            It was still raining a bit when I left and so I just headed straight home. Just past Bathurst my left boot lace got caught in my pedal arm and I coasted to the curb to free it. But getting off my bike I lost my balance and fell on my left side with the bike on top of me. But unlike my accident a couple of months ago it was just a straight fall with no force added by the motion of the bike and so I didn't really hurt myself. I laced up and rode home. 

            I weighed 88.7 kilos before lunch. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos at 18:15. 

            After posting my blogs, at about two hours before dinner I worked on editing my lecture notes. I was still working when I started dinner. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this story Lou Ann's former fiance is out in California for a convention and looks up Lou Ann. Since once again Gomer puts up no resistance to the idea of Lou Ann dating other guys, Lou Ann is upset and so she goes out with Monroe. Monroe comes to Gomer and tells him he is engaged to Lou Ann. Of course Carter says the best thing for Gomer to do is go out on a date with another woman. He sets him up with his old girlfriend Natalie. Lou Ann is looking gorgeous and all ready for a date with Gomer when Monroe shows up at the door. She calls for Gomer at the base but Carter tells her he's gone to the Paradise Club with Natalie. Lou Ann asks Monroe to take her to the Paradise Club. When she sees Natalie go to the ladies room she follows her and questions her about her date. Natalie tells her Carter set her up and all this guy does is mope over the woman that dumped him. Lou Ann is happy and goes to talk to Gomer. When Gomer learns that Monroe lied about being engaged to Lou Ann he asks Monroe to step outside. They go into an alley and Monroe thinks they are going to fight but of course Gomer starts to give him a good talking to and tells him he should be ashamed of himself. Lou Ann is listening when he tells Monroe that he and Lou Ann are now engaged and he should stay out of it. 

            The club is done up in a late sixties style with a very colourful hippy clientele and a band called “The Freakouts and Helen.” There doesn't seem to have been a real band by that name but to Freak Out meant to break free of societal conditioning and those who did so were called “Freaks.” I know because I was one.

October 27, 1991: Nancy was in bed when I called but rushed out of the house so she wouldn't be there when I called again

Thirty years ago today 

            I tried to reach Nancy all day Sunday. When I first called at around 10:30 she was in bed but when I phoned half an hour later she was gone. Apparently, she heard that I'd called and rushed out of the house so she wouldn't be there when I called again. Later in the evening I got through to her sister Susan and had a conversation with Nancy through her. She said I couldn't see my child until we met with Mike Copping serving as a moderator. I finally got Susan to convince Nancy to talk with me directly. After a short conversation in which she told me that I could not have joint custody, she hung up. 

            I'd been doing a lot of collages, working on projects, cleaning, and doing my laundry in the ever-running tub. But the newspapers kept piling up.

Comedy Needs Tragedy

            On Monday after midnight, I did my usual search for bedbugs and found none. It's now two days since the last one. Maybe the tape I put over the electrical outlet is helping. 

            I memorized the first verse of "Arthur, où t'as mis le corps" (Arthur, Where'd You Put The Corpse?) by Boris Vian. About nine more to go, plus I have to have the whole song in my head before I'm done. 

            I translated “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I'll start to memorized it. 

            I weighed 90.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I turned the heat back on. 

            Before 9:00 I logged onto Zoom for my Shakespeare lecture. We would cover the rest of The Winter's Tale today and on Wednesday have a discussion about genre. Next week All's Well That Ends Well and then a break, after which our essays will be due. 

             All's Well That Ends Well is easier than the other plays we've read so far. It has a silly plot that's weird and interesting. Have it finished by next week. 

            In The Winter's Tale Antigonus drops the baby on Bohemia's shore then runs from a bear. Perdita is rescued by a shepherd while Antigonus is eaten and his ship sinks. 3.3 is a turning point. A shift in location. Antigonus mistakes the meaning of his dream about Apollo. The bear eats him and not the baby. His last words are “gone forever” and they are the truest words in the play. It is a fitting end of the tragic life of Antigonus, the weak-willed, good-intentioned, put upon, cowardly middle man cursed by an oath. Antigonus is the servant of Loentes and the husband of Paulina, two strong people. Antigonus has to do what Leontes says. He misinterprets his dream but that is understandable. He can't see a way out even though he is far away from court and no one could possibly know. 

            The baby is alone on stage. It is unlikely a real baby in the theatre but a bundle. Antigonus leaves it and this is its second time left alone on stage. Each time to be endangered by monsters, first Leontes and the bear. How long does it sit in silence? What is the bear's relation to this? What happened in Shakespeare's time? Was it a real bear or a man in costume? There were bears around for entertainment but it was probably not a real bear. It is a surprise in any case. 

            This is a tonal and generic turning point. The relationship between the bear and the baby. A silent human and non-human spectacle are only interpreted visually to project meaning. The bear ignores the baby. The potential danger of the play pivots in tone. Maybe the bear is realistic and scary or maybe it looks comic. 

            The old shepherd enters and believes what Antigonus did about infidelity but with no moral panic. He knows there is premarital sex. He is complaining about teenagers when he enters and it is all part of life. He takes it for granted there is moral expediency in the world. He takes the baby in pity rather than expose her to maybe dying. 

            The play shifts here in class and tone. The claustrophobic aristocratic world with its rules about sex gives way to the free and easy outdoor lower-class world. It also happens that there is a quick and complete tonal shift over the death of Antigonus, which becomes not a tragedy but a comic story. The shepherd's son Clown, which means “comic performer” but also “rustic character” is comic because he is lower class. Death becomes a spectacle and entertainment. Look what happened! Look, the bear is tearing the arm from his shoulder! The distancing from Antigonus becomes an objective comic meditation. The shepherd's last words in the scene are the inverse of those of Antigonus. “It is a lucky day. We'll do good deeds.” 

            Shakespeare is careful about construct the scene almost exact in two halves. Antigonus begins in line 56 and ends in line 131, 75 lines later. The two parts of the scene are the same length. “Gone” versus “Lucky.” 

            We meet Time. He says we are skipping ahead sixteen years. His speech is 32 lines and at line 16 he says “I turn the glass”, exactly halfway. We move from the past to the future. Shakespeare builds this change into the physical matter of play with this architecture transition. The main thing is that tragedy turns to comedy. The fulcrum is in this scene. Time has some of the character of the bear in that he is an unexpected theatrical presence, only slightly less ostentatious than a man in a bear suit. 

            We are catapulted to Bohemia in summer when all is growing when it was winter before. In Sicily, the unpredictable figure of Leontes moves from friend to enemy and then to mourner. A whole life of experience takes place in three acts. In Bohemia the unpredictable figure of Autolycus, seller of ballads that tell wild improbable tales, serves as the principle of disorder. He is a symbol of potential loss because he is a thief. He separates people from their money but presents no danger. He picks Clown's pocket as he shops for the feast but the feast happens anyway. Autolycus's unpredictability is benign in contrast to that of Leontes. 

            The events of three weeks in Sicily happen fast but in Bohemia events are sprawling at a leisurely pace, with songs, dances, jokes, stories, and comic side plots. Two women are rivals for Clown's affections. There are a lot of different conversations, and speech is aimlessly not plotty in Act 4. It gets plotty again as we move back to Sicily. 

            4.4 may be Shakespeare's longest scene in any play. The realistic presentation of a country festival presents an extended tonal contrast. Other vocabulary and relationships are meant to serve as foil to the violent first three acts. In the festivity of Act 4, we don't know where we are going. We are immersed. Is Perdita's afterlife a country paradise? It coalesces into a plot with the generic markers of comedy. 

            Florizel is to get on the ship with Perdita. He switches clothes with Autolycus, following the comic convention of disguise descending in class. He attempts to thwart his dad. These are all conventions of comic machinery. The tone is treating everything with a light touch and there is an unfolding rather than a movement to catastrophe. We are sent back to Sicily by the machine of comedy with revelations on the horizon. All the comic energy carries us to Sicily. 

            In 5.2 three gentlemen talk of the reunion that is not shown. How improbable it all is they say. You can't believe how the princess was rescued. You can't believe the reunion. Antigonus's death is like an old tale with a crazy story about a bear but there is proof.

            Autolycus sells improbable stories in Act 4, resonating with the interest in winter's tales. This is funnelled into Act 5 as a way of seeing a resolution of the play from the perspective of the pastoral world. Everything is improbably enabled by the comedy machine. Also in comedy we get social elevation, in this case of the shepherd and clown as a reward. Comedy allows Florizel to be with that lower-class woman he loves who turns out to be of his class. 

           

            At this point, my connection failed and I missed a few minutes of the lecture while trying to reconnect. 

            Naked aggression and domestic tragedy is an exaggeration of all too real human violence. Shakespeare converts these violent feelings to fantasy in human terms. Leontes comes face to face with the passage of time to reckon with age and healing. The theatre as a purveyor of fantasy communicates this. The art of theatre is necessary to allow us to confront these feelings. 

            So far it is pretty redemptive by most explicit cues. Metamorphosis and tone shift of a real movement from tragedy to comedy is the powerful experience of this play. This is a great play to see live. There is lots of colour and flowers in Act 4 and then a mix in Act 5. The festival has melted the ice of Acts 1-3. It is summer in Sicily and Bohemia. 

            But it would not be Shakespeare if it was that simple. There is not merely a transition from one to the other. There has got to be density and complexity. There has got to be undertow and pull back against what seems to be true. There are echoes in Act 4 of the old violent world of Acts 1-3. The nature of progression in 4.2 shows Polixenes and Camello. It has been 15 years since Camello saw home and the reformed Leontes has sent for him. Camillo wanting to leave while Polixenes doesn't want him to is similar to 1.2 when Polixenes wanted to go but Leontes did not want him to. The situations are not identical but they are echoes. The sentiment that it would be the worst thing in the world for you to leave is the same in both parts. This is characteristic of Shakespeare. A new world with a new mood but the same situation. 

            In 4.4.54-77 the Shepherd takes Perdita to task for not taking on her role as host at the feast. He points out that she is not like his late wife. It is a strong little blip. A moment of tension in a peaceful world over womanly duties of hospitality parallel to 1.2 when Leontes interrogates Hermione for her hosting style. It is the same problem in different registers. 

            We are moving away from the black hole but circling the edge with still the gravitational pull of Acts 1-3 bending the material that is trying to escape from it. Shakespeare is then explicit that there are still some kind feelings in Act 4. Acts 1-3 are still present. The festival may look like an Elizabethan version of “Hee Haw”. 

            When Florizel says he wants to marry the shepherdess the disguised father asks “What about your dad?” Florizel says he won't tell him. That prompts Polixenes to reveal himself. 

            At this point my Open Office froze for a few minutes, so I had to write in my notebook. 

           There is a violent speech from Polixenes. He threatens to deface Perdita in response to this potential destruction of the royal line. If his son marries Perdita he would be without a royal heir. The collateral damage is that the shepherd fears he will hang. A potentially bleak end of everything if he marries a shepherdess it will mean the end of Polixenes's line. Polixenes is misogynistically violent in his speech to Perdita. The same forces are at play as in Acts 1-3. Simply because we are in a comical part does not mean it is not real. This is the generic genius of Shakespeare. Keeping comedy but keeping conflict within it. There is a strong sense of continuity between Acts 3 and 4. Things can be resolved but there is still violent emotion. 

            Professor Lopez says “This is cool.” The gravitational pull of Acts 1-3 on Act 4. When Polixenes blows up the work of comedy is undone. In 4.4. Camillo wants to go home but he's going to help Florizel leave for Sicily and to ask for Leontes. In 4.4.546 he says you can solve everything if go to Sicily. Camillo was not right the last time he made a decision like this. He says nothing else can be done but obviously other things can be done because there are other choices. In the play Camillo's plan has no guarantee of working but it fits the logic of comedy. Then afterwards sneaky Camillo rats on Florizel to get Polixenes to chase him and use Polixenes as a vehicle to get to Sicily. No one knows what will happen. Camillo bets on the generic comic machinery to satisfy his desires. This is similar to how he acted before. The play says it is moving you out but looks at characters in the same terms. 

            We took a break. 

            I noticed there were 92 students in class. That seems quite a drop from the first class, but this is essay season and so a lot of students are probably skipping class to work on assignments. 

            Presenting as negative possibility the persistence of of the dynamics of Acts 1-3 to 4-5. The idea that as much as the play tries to be a comedy and about festivity and renewal, it also represents the persistence of problems and undermines the comedy. But also there is a positive look at transformation. The sophisticated comic idea of that resolution has all the more meaning because the violence is not erased but rather acknowledges it and bears its marks. 

            In 5.3 Paulina shows the statue of Hermione. In line 27. Leontes says the statue is wrinkled. Here is a potential resolution as he gets the love-honoured image of his wife back. But the idea that Hermione is an art object does not make it ideal for Leontes to dream of the past. She registers the passage of time and so he must look at his violence measured in years as they can be reckoned on the body. This play is unbelievable. From pregnant body to aging body. Comedy is only meaningful if it acknowledges time. Maybe it is revising the earlier idea of comedy but maybe not. 

            The lacunae at the end of The Comedy of Errors showing the inability to comprehend the magnitude and how to talk about it. The Winter's Tale shows a way to talk about it and that one can have consequences and resolution. Leontes gets his daughter back but not his son, thus making the comic resolution more meaningful. Bringing Mamillius back would be too much. That would be mere theatre. One must acknowledge death even in comedy. That is the positive reading of persistence. The Winter's Tale is a meditation on what dramatic art can accomplish in representing the complexity of experience over time while meeting formal demands of generic comedy that dictate that everyone needs to be together at the end. The aging statue allows this. 

            The negative idea of incomplete transformation and making positive now will make us think it is positive and negative at the same time. Paulina's resolution. How to think of the end from our point and theirs. At the ends of his plays characters get what they want and more. 

            When the professor first read this as an undergrad he had no idea what was happening and he was confused. He thought this statue came to life but then learned it is not a statue because Hermione is pretending. In 5.2 the third gentleman says it is a statue but he also says Paulina privately and regularly visited the house where the statue was. That is because Hermione was hiding there. Paulina said if you don't believe she's dead come and look, but she fakes Hermione's death. This does not make any more sense than her coming back to life by magic. You have a choice between two unbelievables: magic or hiding for 16 years. Magic is important for us because we are in Leontes's position. It is more bearable to think the statue comes to life after 16 years of getting old in a bubble life similar to our life in the pandemic. 

            Why do we want Leontes rewarded? It's because of me says Polixenes, let me bear some of Leontes's grief. We are together. The image could be of healing. Art is too powerful says Paulina. Leontes thinks it is so real that it is alive. Shakespeare is playing games with the audience like when we don't know if Falstaff is dead or alive. A live body is a source of evidence. Pain and pleasure. We are mocked with art as it is tricking us. Paulina is stoking his desire, teasing, making him demand satisfaction. Leontes is focused on the positive feeling of the play, preserving, reflecting the whole experience of desire before he destroyed it. 

            The value of a suffering statue and Perdita, two images of Hermione past, present, and future simultaneously. Art can do this. It makes one feel in command of time and space. We see the relationships between parts and we are in control plus we are exceeded by it. I want to look forever. He wants to kiss the statue. He's an audience member caught up and crossing into art. In this intense experience he's manic in life through art. 

            Paulina says it is not magic because there is something irreligious about magic. Leontes wants magic. Let me feel art is life. Paulina lets Leontes be convinced for a while longer that this is a moving statue. Paulina is a showman in control. He says if this is magic make it lawful. The magic of art and theatre are redemptive but also more than he wants. 

            Things change direction. Paulina talks to the statue like it knows her. We move back to society from art. Now one can not just look but also interact. In knowing by Paulina that the oracle gave hope I preserved myself. I am not a statue. I waited for you. She was not waiting to forgive her husband but waiting for Perdita. She says “thy father” but she says nothing to Leontes after hanging on his neck. She characterizes the nature of 16 years. Lets tell the story later. 

            Paulina is in a hurry here. “You winners.” Everybody got something but me. She is a masterful manipulator. There is more time in the future. Now Leontes must deal with his wife in time. She is back for reasons that have little to do with him. She collaborated with his enemy Paulina. Paulina now has to walk a fine line. Leontes says Paulina should get a husband in generic sanctimony. But tone is demanded by context. A violent tone. Now I give. He talks about how he suffered, saw Hermione's dead body and went every day to her grave in vain. He wasted his time because she was not dead. He was yelled at by Paulina and made to feel guilty. Fiction that's a work of art. After manipulation by Paulina he now says Camillo will be her husband. They never spoke in the play and so it is an extraordinarily audacious match. Camillo doesn't say he wants to come back to Paulina. They are not a match in the play but it serves the coupling required at the end of a comedy. Leontes is coercing marriage as punishment. He is putting Paulina in his situation. Lets get out of here. The professor imagines him as Jack Nicholson. Leontes introduces Florizel. Conspiracy of women. Leontes's worst nightmare is true, that a child of Polixenes will be the heir to Sicily. What turns out is what he was afraid of. The future extinguishes Leontes's legacy. Polixenes's line will be in control. The happiest ending possible. 

            I weighed 89 kilos before lunch. 

            It was raining in the afternoon and so I didn't take a bike ride. Instead I did some exercises while watching the first few scenes from The Winter's Tale played by a theatre company in California. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos at 17:00. 

            I finished editing my lecture notes just before dinner. I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching Gomer Pyle. 

            This story was extremely predictable. It looks like all of the files in this fifth season download has video and audio out of sync. It comes from the same uploader as the other four seasons but those seem to be ripped from perhaps a box set while this last season seems to have been copied from TV Land or some similar cable channel. It didn't go out of sync until two thirds of the way through this time and not as much as last time so I just tolerated it, since I could already tell what was going to happen anyway. 

            There is apparently a real prize called the Booty Prize that is awarded every six months to the worst platoon on any given Marine base. It consists of a life-size lead boot and Carter's platoon has broken a record by winning it twice in a row. Carter blames Gomer for causing the platoon to come up short and so he makes Gomer shine it. But Gomer is having difficulty shining it and so he decides that if he puts it on his foot it will be easier. But then he can't get it off. At first only Duke knows about it band tries to get it off but then Carter finds out. After several attempts, finally, the whole platoon does a tug of war with Gomer and the boot in between and it comes off. But then Carter wonders why it didn't come off easily since he reasons that if it could get on then it should come off. Carter tries on the boot and it gets stuck. Since Carter doesn't want the platoon to know about it only Gomer and Duke can help him. Finally, they sneak into the refrigerator room at the mess kitchen and Carter sits in the cold room until his foot shrinks enough to get the boot off. But just then they are caught there by Sergeant Hacker. Hacker says he is going to keep the boot to show to the colonel but then he gets curious too. When the colonel finds out both sergeants were dumb enough to put the boot on he declares the Booty Prize award to be a tie this time.

October 26, 1991: Ross Virgin's In Search of Justice seemed a bit Neo-Fascist, but they had some useful information about child custody

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday I was at my place until 16:00. I tried to get in touch with Nancy about seeing my daughter but she either wouldn't come to the phone, wasn't home or her mother was lying. 

            I headed up to an Esso station at Islington and Steeles for 18:30 where I'd arranged beforehand to get a ride to the In Search of Justice meeting. The guy behind the desk seemed a bit Neo-fascist to me and I thought I could smell swastika grease coming from somewhere behind the walls. I argued with the leader Ross Virgin right from the start because I didn't want to give my last name. He used intimidation tactics on everybody. Despite my distaste for Virgin's organization, they had some useful information. There was no law in Ontario that honoured joint custody. That had to be agreed upon by the mother. I had a better albeit slim chance at getting full custody.

All's Well That Ends Well

            On Sunday after midnight, I did my usual search for bedbugs and found none. I suspect that when I see one every few days it's coming from the electrical outlet near my bed and so I put duct tape over the plug holes yesterday. Hopefully that will help. 

            I translated the first two and a half verses of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg. It's a first-person lament about the changing times and their effect on the old music the speaker loves. 

            The landlord didn't come to turn the furnace on last night and it was four degrees outside.

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with cream cheese, paprika, and a glass of limeade. 

            I read the first two scenes of Act 2 of All's Well That Ends Well. Helen offers to cure the king of his illness on the condition that she can pick a husband from the pool of nobles in his court. He agrees and she cures him. She picks Bertram to be her husband but Bertram protests because she is far below him in social rank. The king forces Bertram to agree and the wedding takes place but he swears privately he will never have sex with her and is considering running off to fight in the war. 

            Benji knocked on my door to tell me the landlord actually did come to turn the furnace on last night but apparently the furnace was already on and he accidentally turned it off. Benji went down and switched it on, so now we have heat when we want it. 

            They've taken down the A+ Sushi and Bibim across the street. On the right window it says “Daol coming soon.” I assume “Daol” will go up above where the old sign was. It looks like there will be new owners because last week a truck took away a lot of the old equipment. So I assume covid put them out of business. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I weighed 88.6 kilos when I got home. 

            I read some more of All's Well That Ends Well. Bertram has escaped his marriage to go to war but Helen goes after him disguised as a pilgrim. She is staying in the very place where he is pursuing another woman. 

            I made pizza on naan with Toscanese sauce, some pieces of chicken breast, and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this fifth season file the video was so out of sync with the audio that I had to find it on YouTube to watch it. 

            In this story, Carter has to go away for four days and a new corporal is coming in who will have to take command of the platoon while he's gone. It turns out to be former private Duke Slater. Carter remembers Slater to be a goof-off and does not think he can handle the command but Duke assures him he's a new man. So Carter leaves but when Duke meets the platoon he does so as their old buddy and yet still plans on taking charge. The situation is awkward because his old friends don't think they have to take his new stripe seriously. Duke comes down extra hard on the men and works them until some of them start dreaming of catching him out of uniform. An officer observes this and tells him he has to find a balance. Duke is discouraged about his leadership ability but Gomer reminds him that when he was a private everybody followed him, proving he's a natural-born leader. Gomer says he's got to stop trying to be Sergeant Carter and be the kind of leader that Duke Slater is. But by the time Duke realizes this to be true, it is the night before Carter is to return. That night the men hear Duke outside washing the windows of the barracks by himself. First Gomer goes out to help and then all the men join in. The next day Carter finds everything in tip-top shape. All day I'd felt a cold coming on and my being stuffed up and sneezing was coincidental with the heat coming on. The heat was really blasting so I turned it off before bedtime.