I'm oddly drained-- doing some research right now and using Google satellite pictures of Havana. I'm seeing the neighborhoods where my family used to live and there are photographs of some of the houses and they look so... lonely and desolate.

I mean, I don't romanticize the life the way it was back then-- it was incredibly racist and class structured. But I still feel sad that so many exquisite houses and clubs have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent.

No one else being there would get me paranoid that they told everyone but me.

Yep, that was what I thought. Did wonders for the paranoia and self-esteem.

Gambit...oh how I love Gambit. He's always been my favorite X-men.

Shakespeare throw down=fun!!!

Good thing Jen's in the house. And Juliana and Fay. This could be a battle royale.

Guess I done said my piece, then. I'll wait for the experts to weigh in.

But - what if she did? What if she put Claudius up to it? How does that change the portrayal of the closet scene and the rest of the play?

I always assumed that she put Claudius up to it. But -- not an expert.

I always assumed that she put Claudius up to it.

See, most of the readings/interpretations I've seen was that she didn't. She didn't know the extent of Claudius' ambition, which is why she's so horror-struck when forced to compare Old Hamlet and Claudius and so willing to comply with Hamlet's demands in the closet scene.

But -- not an expert.

Pfft. You, too, have the spicy Shakespeare brains.

You, too, have the spicy Shakespeare brains.

Like, habañero spicy.

Pfft. You, too, have the spicy Shakespeare brains.

I only throw out suppositions and wait for Those More Learned Than I to come along and knock 'em down or wave them high.

Or -- it could have been a lucky guess on my part, w/r/t Elizabethan slang and the close textual reading of Hamlet. Wev.

See, most of the readings/interpretations I've seen was that she didn't. She didn't know the extent of Claudius' ambition, which is why she's so horror-struck when forced to compare Old Hamlet and Claudius and so willing to comply with Hamlet's demands in the closet scene.

This is along the lines to what I have always thought.

Wev.

Heh.

This is along the lines to what I have always thought.

Me, too, but what if she actually is more conniving than thou? And what does that mean for her taking the drink at the end? Is she being oblivious, or is she shielding her son? And if the latter, why now? Why didn't she put him on the throne in the first place? We're not looking at a Henry VI thing where Hamlet's too young to take the throne, and he's clearly not incompetent, so if Gertrude was complicit, what are her motives?

These are things I like to think about. And then put on stage, if I had the actors and the space and the money.

Great thoughts, juliana. I think I need to reread the play thinking about these things.

And then put on stage, if I had the actors and the space and the money.

this is always the case.

I think I need to reread the play thinking about these things.

I just got done reading the Arden of the 2nd Quarto, and then Sons Of Anarchy made me thought about this, and I'm thinking ".... I need to re-read. Shit." I think I need to pick up a non-annotated script, just for the re-read.