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.