Sunday, November 23, 2008
Best of the Week: Revolutions and King Lear
One of the concepts introduced and explored this week by Mr.Allen are "revolutions" within King Lear. This concept of bottom to top, and top to bottom can signify a shift in the order of the world and add a different level of interest to the novel Shakespeare would not have been able to achieve elsewhere. The Powerful King Lear revolves from king, to a second child as his sanity starts to depleat. Another revoltion which worked coincedingly was as King Lear got older, Goneral and Regan went from the children to the caretakers and the followers to ones in power. These revolutions are helping add to an already ironic play. I would like to apply this to my short stories, as irony is a depth that makes the reader think deeply and profundly about certain circumstances. I believe the readers should be engaged in the novels they are reading as opposed to an 'easy read'; "revolutions" have the reader evaluate where a character begins, ends, and the means and methods that get them there. It gets one to delv much deeper into the thoughts and process of actions. As I personally read, I started to think about revolutions in life. Specifically in our class, there was a voluntary devoltion from teacher to student and student to teacher as we were allowed to choose our Essay test date in English, and in spanish as Mitch was told to try to teach one of the new grammar rules. It made me wonder if a sense of order was relient on a balance system, acheived through revolutions. The more I think about it, the more examples emerge. As you continue with the week, be reflective of what revolutions occur which may be sustaining your life.
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2 comments:
Well, i've seen people write about this using this prompt about 4 times now, so I guess i'll respond to the idea here.
Revolution. Do I know it's going to be alright? (ha, ha, ha, ha, ha... not so funny). I guess this is my conservative blood boiling out of nowhere, but part of me wonders how revolution can be good in most instances. Communist revolution =/= happiness. It = hell on earth for a lot of people. Russian revolution caused West Europe to become afraid. Chinese revolution tore the country apart, forced people into exile, and starved many more. Communism split korea in half, etc, etc.
in a different realm of thinking - Revolution away from biopolitcs. Yeah.. so about that. i think you get the picture. Biopower is definitely good, and definitely key to thinks like hard power and military domination.
Revolution away from technology and adopting deep ecological world views. 6 million people foraging and hunting... doesn't work.
I get that idea that revolution can be good, and it creates balance. But in this instance, is it good? When the revolution occurs in Britain in King Lear, we are left without a king, or the rest of the royal family. Some poor duke has to run the whole show, and this all happens in a relatively short time. So many nobles are dead, and there was a war between France and England. This doesn't seem like the honeymoon is should have been.
Choi, out.
Hi Alyssa,
First off, let me say that I agree with your post. Second, though I agree with what choi said above, I don't think he's responsive to exactly what you were getting at.
The way I interpretted the post wasn't so much that revolutions themselves were good or bad, but the use of revolutions in fiction and thinking are good to inform us of trends and plot in terms of the human experience.
I especially like how you argued that revolution-based plots are more interesting than "easy read" books. I agree that revolutions in books force us to think about how the character evolves and how this applies to humanity in general.
It's true that we should be reflective of revolutions that occur within our lives, whether the revolutions are good or bad.(as choi points out they sometimes are) But then again, if any particular revolution is best left at the back of your mind, then maybe ignorance can be bliss, in comparison.
-Mitchell B.
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