(no subject)

Because I really ought to be working on my Latin paper, let me instead explain to you the way in which the comedies of Plautus are like radio dramas.

...actually, I don't have a lot more to say than that. Because they are! So blatantly! Characters narrate their actions ("I'll back away and hide by this wall over here, to listen to what they're saying") and loudly announce entrances of other characters ("Here comes my neighbor Myrrhina, a good friend of mine!") at every opportunity. The one really big violent set piece in Casina occurs off-stage, and then is explained at length by two of the characters involved. ("I knelt down beside her, and she leapt up and kicked me in the chest.")

And it all starts with a long prologue explaining to the audience who wrote it, what it's called, and a little about the plot--with some topical jokes mixed in--so that the audience knows why they should bother sticking around. You could probably do most of his comedies as straight-up radio plays with a few sound effects and some very minor dialogue changes for clarity where you'd need footnotes for the jokes in a text version.

Someone should do that. Someone other than me.

Anyway. Back to paper writing.