I'm sure I put a more interesting post down here somewhere...

[thisbluespirit]

I'd like to write an interesting post, but I can't think of anything interesting to write about, which does scupper that plan somewhat.

So:

I started watching the BBC Shakespeare Coriolanus and it had Joss Ackland in and naturally instead I thought about the episode with the two generals in from Enemy at the Door and writing fic and then thought, how dodgy will they be? (very), but then that it would fit the hc_bingo square "atonement" giving me a bingo! (I mean, it is too late for it to count, but it's still silly to have four in a row and then never do the fifth, even in amnesty.) So obviously bingo squares win out over sense and things.

I was going to ask for sensible suggestions for what to call a WWII German aristocratic general (he doesn't have a first name, and I can't get through the fic without giving him one), but if you Google top German names for the 1890s, the internet will provide. (This is why authors have no excuse for the whole Carolyn business. Srsly. GOOGLE before you casually Carolyn your Regency romance.)

I can't do polls over here, but in Random Name Choices, for [Blank] von Wittke, I am considering:

*Paul
*Emil
*Erich
*Bernhard
*Bruno

(I think in the usual way EatD is so layered and details can be teased out on rewatching, so it almost feels as if I ought to be able to find his real name, but other than by somehow obtaining a script, this is not true. But it still feels wrong, so help me with random selection! /totally logical)

(hyarrowen, if you see this, there is no infidelity I promise, but yet some very slight shippage! At least in my notebook, that is, or actually, that bit might not even be in the notebook. So, actually, there is no shippage as usual... I should go type my dodgy WWII fic about DOOMED generals who understand they kind of deserve to be DOOMED, instead of waffling.)


I haven't watched enough of Coriolanus yet to comment on that although it seems at this stage to be a very strong entry (but I won't commit to anything until I'm at least halfway through). It stars Alan Howard, Irene Worth, Joss Ackland and Mike Gwilym. So far Joss Ackland wants Alan Howard to take up public life, but Alan Howard would so much rather be having semi-naked bloody wrestling matches with Mike Gwilym. A valid life choice, I suppose, although Mike Gwilym seems less keen.

Comments

[executrix]

There was an anthology of essays called Bad Shakespeare which I read once but couldn't find again and would love to add to my collection!

M4M is a hugely popular play that gets produced all the time, so I think we *are* supposed to like it. But nowadays we're not supposed to think the Duke is a godlike figure.

[thisbluespirit]

But he moves in mysterious ways!

[rydra_wong]

There was an anthology of essays called Bad Shakespeare which I read once but couldn't find again and would love to add to my collection!

Cheapest copy I've found so far:

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22689429716

[executrix]

Thank you! $25 is beyond my open-to-buy right now. If only it were on the Better World Books 20% off $25 sale!

[rydra_wong]

M4M is a hugely popular play that gets produced all the time

But it used not to be! Wasn't staged at all for ages, didn't get rediscovered until the mid-20th C. Now I think it benefits from being conspicuously Ambiguous and thus useful for curriculums.

[executrix]

Robertson Davies said that the Victorians liked their Shakespeare sweet and hot and we like ours sour and cold, hence frequent stagings of problem plays.