The project takes shape

I'm zeroing in on what I'd like to do with my final project. I don't want to do a traditional paper because I think I may escape the semester without doing one of those, so why risk it now? Instead, I want to do a multi-genre research project about Shakespeare's views on war and relating them to Iraq and Afghanistan.

For those unfamiliar with mult-genre projects, a fairly good introduction can be found here. But, basically, you take a topic and you write about it in several different ways. It is a creative way to write a research paper. My plan so far:

~A bit of a traditional research paper. A short one, used sort of as an introduction to the ideas.
~Two sonnets: one on Shakespeare's view on wars (a little of "for" a little of "against") and mine ("against")
~A news report, noted English play-write William Shakespeare weighs in on the Iraq War.
~A short story: two soldiers discuss the way, with their speech mirroring Shakespeare's.
~A lesson plan about how I might teach this to high school students
~Ads for or against war, using Shakespeare quotes
~Letters to the editor, using Shakespeare to advocate for or against war
~Comparisons to current wars and wars in Shakespeare's time, including justifications, damages, and other items. May include other American Wars such as Vietnam and World War II as examples of wars we chose to get into and wars we had to get into.

One of the reasons why I want to do a project like this is because these are becoming more and more common and I feel that if I was to assign one, I should do one. So, in addition to relating Shakespeare to an issue I care deeply about, I can get in some practice for when I might give this project an assignment. Redeeming the time indeed.

Shakespeare and the Iraq war

It seems as if my post last time could lead to something after all. Shakespeare's views on war are plentiful, and I am thinking about doing a project where I would line up quotes from the Iraq War and its build-up with quotes from Shakespearean characters. (My teacher mind is practically screaming, "This is how you make Shakespeare relevant to your future high school students!")

I did a brief search for Shakespeare on Iraq, and lo and behold there is a comparison between Henry and President Bush, It is....less than flattering for Bush. As the central question surrounding Iraq is, was it a war of choice or a war of necessity, the page linked points out an illuminating passage from Henry V.

As Shakespeare has a commoner tell a disguised Henry on the night before the decisive battle at Agincourt: "If the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, 'We died at such a place.'

Another site, titled "Your Daily Shakespeare" re-posts a letter from an Iraqi War vet to Bush and Cheney. Again, this is very critical of the war. Your Daily Shakespeare brings it to Shakespeare with a quote from Hamlet: “Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural”.

It would seem as if Shakespeare has much to say on war, and I think this could be a fun and interesting project.I will admit, I have struggled in this course. But, I think that linking Shakespeare to something else, such as war, may help. What do you all say?

Some thoughts on war

(NOTE: I don't know what, if anything, this has to do with Shakespeare. But, it has been on my mind a lot in the past two days, so here it goes.)

I was a high school senior when the United States went to war with Iraq. I remember staying up late the first night of the invasion. I watched CNN, half expecting them to say at any moment that Saddam Hussein had been killed and it was over. It was naive, yes, but then again this country's leaders had made it seem like this would be an easy operation. I remember being a bit mad when Mom came downstairs to find me watching tv at midnight (on a school night!) and sent me to bed. I might miss history.

I've thought a lot about the rhetoric leading up to the war. The mentality of us vs them. I opposed the war and my pro-war classmates parroted the right wing talking point that if I didn't love America, I should leave it. I don't know why not fully buying into the reasoning President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Collin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice put forth meant I didn't love America. But, it was us vs them, and I guess I was seen on not being on board with us. This frame of mind still plagues this country.

Some of my classmates fully bought into the speeches of the times. They enlisted in the military, ready, perhaps eager, to go overseas, fight the Republican Guard, save democracy. I don't blame them. They are braver than I ever could be. I had two classmates die in Iraq. Dying in service to one's country should be a noble thing. The effort should be worthy of the sacrifice. Ten years after the start, I've grown increasingly frustrated with the effort, the reason behind it. Over the past few days, I've wondered a lot about if the sacrifices my classmates made were worth it. In my eyes, there are few things that are worth the price of the ultimate sacrifice. I don't know that we were fighting for them in Iraq.

I dreamt last night of a summer's night when I was going to college at Southern Illinois. I came back for the summer and was spending time with my friend Scott. He was in Navy ROTC. One of our classmates had been killed over there a short time earlier. We were sitting in a grocery store parking lot, talking about him. He was a popular guy, funny, smart. "It was needless," Scott said. Other than that quote and the setting, I don't remember anything else about that time. But, its stuck with me.

As I said, I don't know how this ties into Shakespeare. Its quite possible it doesn't. I won't even try to make a half-hearted attempt to do it. But, this has been on my mind a lot recently. Thank you for being an audience, and if you can tie this into class, I'd appreciate it.

Now the sun's gone to hell 
And the moon's riding high 
Let me bid you farewell 
Every man has to die 
But it's written in the starlight 
And every line on your palm 
We're fools to make war 
On our brothers in arms

-Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms

Alan

A Sonnet

Finally! I finished my sonnet! It took me quite awhile to get it done. This sonnet reflects on how I met my wife and our time together before getting married. I hope you like it.

Across the Northern plain, I yearned for thee
Did I not ache for your warming embrace?
That would with gentle whispers set me free
The path to our future, your fingers trae
Out paths become entwined because of fate
By lucky chance that we should ever meet
And have this hopeful time that we create
For now that I;'m with you I feel complete
An August photograph recalls the day
When playful love becomes a strong romance
And builds through winter storms to spring's bouquet
On bended knee, I take my biggest chance
Your heart a quilt that warms against the cold
Our love forever cast, emblazzed in gold.

My Hamletian Day

While I've never had anything as bad as my uncle murdering my dad and then marrying my mom, I've had my fair share of bad days. These repeated bad days have resulted in my staunch pessimism. My general world view is summed up nicely by Rat from the comic strip, Pearls Before Swine.

I love Rat.

So, anyway, reflecting back on my bad days, I settled on one story in particular. It isn't a bad day, as much as it is a series of unfortunate events.

A few years ago, I worked at a radio station in southern Illinois. I did some news reporting. One of the beats I ended up doing was the city council for Alma. Now, there are less than 400 people in Alma. The big news around Alma when I left was that they were going to get a convenience store. Not a gas station, mind you. But a convenience store. Small town. So few people lived in this town and so few went to their city council (technically village trustees) meetings that at the end the trustees would ask the people in the crowd if they had anything to bring to the council. I think barking dogs was a primary concern.

However, barking dogs was not why I was sent to this town. No, no. There was a village trustee that believed that the mayor and possibly other trustees were stealing money from the village. Juicy stuff! Of course, this was denied, but the story was there. Alma-ites were excited. Seriously, 20 people showed up to their trustee meetings while this was going on.

Now, the mayor of Alma (who would resign at the end of this by writing "I resign" on a sheet of yellow legal paper) did not take kindly to these accusations and he didn't really like answering questions about them. I understand that, but man, he got angry about answering these questions. I got to ask him questions. He and I did not really like one another. (I should note that I don't know if the accusations were true. Nothing ever happened with it, but the guy was just unpleasant.)

While this is going on, I was doing some home renovation. I owned a home and would do some projects now and again. Not often, because I'm not a big tool person. So, it was of little surprise that when I bought a ceiling fan that I could not figure out how to install it. So, I called Lowe's and asked them to send someone to install it.

That weekend, I went to St. Louis with some friends. We were going to take in a Cardinals game and partake in some drunken revelry. I was in the middle of doing just that when my phone rang. And to my utter disbelief, it was the mayor of Alma. Only, he was not the Mayor of Alma in this capacity. No, no, he was an electrician. I didn't know that the mayor of Alma was an electrician, but he was and he would be coming on Wednesday to install my ceiling fan.

I was a bit nervous about this installation for a few days. I mean, this guy didn't like me. How would it go over with him in my house? I had basically been paid to piss this guy off (well, not really, it just ended up that way).

It turned out to be not all that bad. He came, installed the fan, and bitched about the people who made the accusations. I had to endure a bit of criticism, but hey, I was getting a ceiling fan out of the deal. And the fan never fell down on me, despite me being paranoid about that for a few days.

It was a strange series of coincidences that led to this. I'd call it serendipitous, but that seems cheerful. But, I endured through it. And really, just to tie it into the course, I endured by doing nothing. He came to the house, I stood there, listened to his rant, and occasionally turned on the light switch to test if things were working. 

That didn't mean that doing nothing wasn't excruciating. But sometimes, it is all we can do.

Its been a bad day
Please don't take a picture,

Alan