Hamlet or The Last Game Without MMORPG Features, Shaders and Product Placement

Yes, that is the name of an indie video game created by mif2000, if you are familiarized with video games, you will understand that this one is a "point and click" adventure, if you don't understand what this means, it refers to a puzzle game in which you have to progress and discover things by clicking on elements presented on the scenery.

The important thing about the game is that you have the chance to play as Hamlet in his revenge story passing the stages of the game which are actually the acts of the play. However the game differs from the story as it is the story about travelling back in time to save Ophelia, so if you were not pleased with Ophelia’s fate on Shakespeare’s play, this may be your chance to change the story.  

If you want to play the game you can buy it here: 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/222160/?l=spanish

or maybe you can "try" it for "free" in your favorite torrent site. 

Strange Magic

        Some days ago, I was watching some movie trailers when I found one called Strange Magic, Another CGI generic movie... I tought, but it called my attention that the movie is being made by Lucasfilm, a company that I tought it was dead. The second and third things that called my attention were that the movie is a musical and it's director is Gary Rydstrom, a sound designer that won some Oscars with Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, Jurasic Park and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I was ok with that information, I don't really like musicals (Yes, I have not seen Frozen yet) but then I read that it is inspired by William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This is the official description from Disney:

“Strange Magic” is a madcap fairy tale musical inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Popular songs from the past six decades help tell the tale of a colorful cast of goblins, elves, fairies and imps, and their hilarious misadventures sparked by the battle over a powerful potion."


 ...and this is the trailer: 

    Personally,  I think is MEH... It reminded me to the trailer from the movie Epic, and I think that the inspiration from A midsumer Night's Dream will be really vague. I was specting something different but it is ok, I haven't seen the movie yet so my opinion comes from a 3 minutes video. 
ah... and I think I could recognize Puck, maybe it's him, maybe not. 

Do what you want to do!

Why do we always have to follow certain rules in order to fit in ?

Since the day that we born, we were taught that there are some social rules that we have to follow because that makes us part of a "normal" society, but the question is.. What is to be normal?. it is to be part of a society by having a proper behavior?
As we can see in Cordelia's character in King Lear, she was exiled due to the unnaceptable response that she gave to his father when he asked to his daughter to flatter him.  She did't answer what her father expected unlike her sister who gave to their father what he wanted to hear. Is that wrong?
In the context of the play it was unnaceptable to act like Cordelia did, but What about nowadays?
Do you remember " Revolucion Pinguina"? Well, during those years we could see a similar behavior in comparison to Cordelia. Students from all over the country left aside their regular, normal behavior that they were used to have due to the rules that schools have, and started with a smooth grievance but then, they revealed themself showing their disagreement with the goverment and the way in which the educational system had been working.
There were actually some students who were "exiled" from their schools due to their participation with the movement.  The goverment and educational authorities didn't see that comming, it took them for surprise.
Now, what about Cordelia and his father? King Lear didn't expect that his favorite daughter didin't give him the answer or the behavior that he wanted, so what?...  Do you thinkg that nowadays we should not show our disagreements, our real intentions, our real thoughts?
Feel free to do whatever you want !!!! Communication is crucial in a society like our, we need to comunicate and manifest
our thoughts, just... be respectful.

Mirroring in Shakespeare

There are some Shakespeare's works in which we can see different characters sharing life experiences, This generates characters mirroring other characters. Two cases that we have seen during the semester are Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Hamlet and Ophelia in Hamlet. 

In the first place, Viola and Olivia share similar characteristics: they both lost their fathers and a brother, and keep themselves apart from men by covering their beauty with a kind of disguise, but end up falling in love with someone that apparently will never correspond to their love. Even their names are anagrammatic. 

In the second place, Hamlet and Ophelia. They both suffered the murder of their fathers, became mad and finally died. Even we know very little about Ophelia apart from the relationship she has with Hamlet, as if her identity was only based on him and, once Hamlet leaves her by telling her that he doesn't love her anymore, the mirror gets empty and Ophelia has to disappear.

References: 

Takiguchi, S.; The Identities of characters and Mirror Imagery in Twelfth Night. Retrieved from  http://journal.seijo.ac.jp/gslit/student/english/pdf/eng-035-03.pdf

Showalter, E.; Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness and the Responsibilities of Feminists Criticism. (1985) 

https://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/?parent=2514&detail=2679&content=2680

Multiple identities inside King Lear

We have discussed in classes the big problem of identity inside King Lear. The protagonist, Lear’s identity is lost because he decides to disrupt the natural order of life inside of a kingdom. He divides his kingdom between his three daughters, leaving himself without land. In this way it is impossible for him to be a king without land, but why does he acts always as a king, even though he has lost everything?

The essay More nature needs: the disruptive identity superflux in King Lear postulates that the real problem in King Lear is not really the loss of identity of Lear, but the multiple identities of him that clashes through the play.

Lear is a father, and because of that he cannot be an infant. During the play Lear becomes an infant because he gets mad. He cannot think rationally, so he is more like an infant than like a father.  In the same way he wants to be a king, and he never left aside his kingly attitude, and this can be demonstrated in the storm scene, because he maintains his attitude as a king.

This bunch of contraditions is what makes Lear get mad according to this essay.

References: 

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007.

Liao, Tiffany. "More than Nature Needs": The Disruptive Identity Superflux in King Lear. 2010

Morality.

We all act according to what we think is right or wrong -according to our different set of values-. For that reason, most of the times we do something we know might not be completely correct, and then we find ourselves feeling bad afterwards. We blame ourselves for doing something morally wrong, but then again, we do them anyway. This doesn't make us bad people, neither does it mean that we are like this in all aspects of our lives.

If there's only one way to define morality is unquestionably one of the topics people have been debating for many years. Perhaps, we could say that the moral sense constrains our every action, and that it gives us the capacity, the mental ability, to separate or distinguish between good and evil. On the other hand, this is also a sign that there are people who cannot do that, or that maybe have their own concept of righteousness and sinfulness. Not all people act according to our beliefs.

 Now, in Hamlet, we come across Claudios. He is, we might say, our villain. He disguises his evilness by using clever words and false emotions; he hides his sins because he knows he's done something terrible, but is incapable of regret. 

In act III, sc. III, we see the King confessing his crime for the first time. He does have a conscience. He knows what is going on, what he has gained. He is able to reflect on what he's done, he looks into his soul and kneels to pray just for the guilt to go away, but in the end understands that whatever happens, even if his sins are forgiven, his absolution will not be genuine. He accepts that even if he is forgiven he will still have all the things he got out of committing murder. And he is proud of that.

However Claudios is not a bad king. In fact, according to Machiavelli's theory, you don't have to be beautiful to turn me on... ok sorry. (I was doing so good, such serious work) According to this theory you don't have to be a nice person, or do the right thing in roder to become an oustanding, successful king, which might sound weird and wrong to you, but sounded pretty okey in Shakespeare's times. Claudios just doesn't allow his conscience get in the way between him and what he wants. And it seems that what he wants, he has.

At any point of our lives we might be a little bit like Claudios, -let's hope not completely like him, and if you're feeling like you might kill anybody you need to speak to somone right away- repetitively doing something we know it's wrong but getting something good out of it and then feeling bad again. But we're like that.

Having a conscience doesn't turn you into anything, it just means that you are just as prone to committing a sin as I am.


Shakespeare,W. Hamlet.
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html
 

Hamlet: a timeless play that needs to be represented

One of the main problems that literature teachers have to face is how to make Shakespeare plays relevant for students' lives .If we think of Hamlet, it is important to have in mind that representation of plays can serve as a great tool for students to understand  the importance of tackling life struggles and reflect on them, especially in an era when we know so much about everything that it gets really hard to be aware that there is truth in many positions, and that this path towards the truth, with intended and not intended consequences can make people find themselves in the same situations as Hamlet.

Hamlet's soliloquies  are a clear example of a man trying to determine what his place in the world is. He, at the same time, goes through a process of modernization to a perpetual renewal: by uncovering the truth he became someone unfamiliar to everybody. This helps to see how children who are part of a family with a step father might feel, because they can experience great sense of resentment and unless this topics are addressed in school life perhaps they will not  be able to handle these situations.

Not only Hamlet's desperate reactions are useful to help children overcome life struggles. For instance, Laertes, who take actions based on biased information, help students not to rush on making decision but to get to the roots of a problem.

This implies two things: as long as human nature doesn't change Hamlet will be useful for students, and that teachers should cope with the design of different classroom activities to encourage kids to see or read Shakespeare plays.

For more information, guidelines and classroom activities ideas, have a look at:

http://courses.u3anet.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Language%20and%20Literature/Shakespeare%20and%20the%20Modern%20World.pdf

References:

De Gracia, Margaretta. «When did Hamlet become modern?» Textual Practice (2010): 485-503.