What's Up With Fade

[fadeaccompli]

Yeah I'm bad about writing updates. But anyway!

This autumn, I'm teaching two classes at Macalester College, which is very exciting. One assigned, one of my own design, but I get to come up with all the details for both myself. Exciting aaaand a bit intimidating, but I'm really looking forward to it. So:

Greek Myth! I decided to do excerpts from easily available translations for most stuff, but assign good recent Iliad & Odyssey translations from two different authors (Alexander & Wilson respectively) because I think it's useful to keep the focus off text for things not meant to be, well, text-primary. But the Iliad/Odyssey are so foundational as verbal stuff--compared to all the material culture aspects so often forgotten when teaching other myths--that it seemed like a decent breakdown.

There'll definitely be a project involving comparison between modern & ancient versions of mythology: stories, characters, symbolism, etc. Feel free to suggest any that are 1) easily available online, 2) not terribly long. (Much as I love, say, Hades-the-video-game, it's not practical for a student to play it through just for one class project.)

Ancient Comedy! This is the class I designed. We're gonna go through the four Greek & Latin comedy playwrights we have reasonably complete plays from--Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence--plus fragments of other playwrights, and bits of other types of comedy--satyr plays, mime, even some non-dramatic funny stuff like satire & invective & epigram & priapic & joke books--and talk about the shift and continuity in what's fun, what the genre expects, etc. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

There'll definitely be an assignment where students compare a staged/filmed comedy, ideally musical, to ancient ones. My current list of possibilities: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (of course), The Court Jester, any episode of Galavant (with a few specific ones suggested), any staging of Comedy Of Errors, any staging/film of The Pirates Of Penzance. (And again, suggestions welcome.)

I am also a grader for one class at UMN! Which makes for a busy schedule indeed, and was a last minute addition, but is a very welcome bit of additional work/stress, because it means I get health insurance coverage on the excellent grad student plan for one semester more. (The department's sudden TA need is my win, eh?) That's for a new faculty addition's version of Sexuality & Gender In The Ancient World, and I'm very excited about this. He's happy to have me just grade, but I intend to come to class when possible as well, and of course do all the readings.

...and on top of all that I am still editing this damn dissertation, because I can't send out a strong application to any of the next round of academic jobs (some of which have deadlines in September that I will not be able to hit, but October is still doable) until I've at least done my defense. But, you know. I'm making progress!

Anyway. Very busy. Terrible job market. The usual. Hope you're all doing well.

Comments

[madgastronomer]

Oh! I wish I could take the Comedies class!

[fadeaccompli]

I really want to post regularly about the classes--these are the readings, the assignments, the discussion prompts, that kind of thing--so that other people can follow along, and I was originally planning on putting together a basic website for exactly that, but honestly I'm not sure if I'll have the time/energy. Still. I'd like to!

[madgastronomer]

Google Classroom, much as I dislike Google, actually does a decent job, you can upload everything at once but then release on a schedule, has discussion space, stuff like that. And is free.

[fadeaccompli]

Huuuh. I may need to look into that, though I don't want to give myself too much additional work; like, I'm not up to moderating randos doing discussion, and I'm definitely not gonna record video. Still, it might work for my purposes with just a few of its features!

[madgastronomer]

I admit, the few times I've used it, I've just uploaded files and left them and not bothered with anything else.

[incandescens]

H.M.S. Pinafore, for babies swapped, or is that not a trope in these comedies?

[fadeaccompli]

No baby-swaps in the comedies I'm assigning, but it is very palliata-esque! I'm trying to get a range, which is why I only picked one Gilbert & Sullivan, though their /style/ seems very apropos.

Hm. I wonder if there are any really on-point romcoms. I'm tempted by "My Best Friend's Wedding" as an example of playing with the tropes of the genre, the way Plautus likes to do, but I think that's only a useful example for people who are already really familiar with romcom tropes anyway.

[lizvogel]

Grand to see your phosphors again. The Comedy class sounds awesome!

I just happen to have been doing a G&S binge recently (and brainwashing my housemate into a proper appreciation of them). For Pirates Of Penzance, I recommend the 1980 Broadway Theatre Archive version, produced by Joseph Papp. Kevin Kline's excellent as the Pirate King, and Patricia Routledge absolutely rocks as Ruth.

I'll also put in a plug for the 2011 Opera Australia version of The Mikado. The costuming and production design makes excellent hay with the fact that this was a fictional interpretation of a then-popular English idea of Japanese culture and never meant to be an accurate representation at all. The performances are excellent, and some of the songs were given modern updates that I found hysterical.

[fadeaccompli]

Oh, those both sound great! Thanks for the details.

[madgastronomer]

Separately, I don't know that it would be any use for the class, but let me recommend the completely ludicrous lesbian superspy/supervillain romcom DEBS. There are plots against Australia, plaid forcefields, giant moneybags, a sassy straight friend, and an Erasure montage. It's one of my top two favorite lesbian movies of all time.

The other is Nina's Heavenly Delights. Indian-Glaswegian family loses father, may lose restaurant, everybody's keeping secrets, very sexy cooking scene (seriously, the first time I watched it, Kate tried to talk to me in the middle of that one, and I said, "SHH! PORN!" even though it's food porn not porn porn). It's adorable.

But more useful suggestions, um. I feel like there's something to be said for Commedia dell'arte as a comparison to stuff like Aristophanes, but of course that's obscure too. Let's see. Mamma Mia! which even takes place in Greece and has an Aphrodite reference. Blue Brothers. Robin Hood Men In Tights. Oh gods, even RHPS.

Random side note, the Alphabelt came up not too long ago, and I was wondering if you still have it and how it's held up.

[fadeaccompli]

Mamma Mia, as having implausible but possible convoluted 'hidden parentage' backstory and musical numbers, sounds absolutely in line with the list.

The alphabelt has, unfortunately, vanished into my clothing sets in Austin somewhere... But I'm keeping an eye out for it in hopes of it turning up again, since I wear belts regularly these days.

[madgastronomer]

Ah, well. That happens. One thing I made for a friend vanished for two years, and turned up in the pocket of a bathrobe at another friend's house. If it turns back up, I'd love to hear if it's still working well.

Good, at least one of my suggestions is useful. But now I've thought of it, I kind of want to evaluate RHPS in the light of satyr plays. Which I should really read up on more.

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I am doing well, thanks!

Do the ancient comedies manage to be funny, or is it more like "Wow, this is a two-thousand-year-old joke and it shows"?

[fadeaccompli]

Varies wildly! Like, puns don't translate well (though sometimes a translator can come up with a good equivalent), and a lot of humorous misogyny or jokes about torture do not do well with a modern audience, especially in text. (Though the right production could make them work as dark humor in some cases.) Other stuff remains very funny, though of course tastes vary; certain types of comedy of trickery and mistaken identities, the right kinds of slapstick, mockery of people in power trying to pull one over their social subordinates and being tricked themselves instead... and frankly some of the sexual innuendo in bits of Aristophanes can remain hilarious.