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Middelboe Chronicles, Part 61: Abraham

By on September 9, 2019 0

Continuing the Biblical theme from yesterday, this time we have The Handmaid’s Tale: The Prequel; or, Some More Times Jehovah Was a Dick.

Or, sorry, Abraham (“Testament: The Bible in Animation,” 1996):

The story of God demanding the sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac, but then relenting at the last minute and substituting an animal, has a parallel in some (though not all) versions of the Greek myth of Iphigeneia. (Aeschylus tells one version, Euripides another.)

Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen have both written songs commenting on the story of Abraham and Isaac. (This Cohen performance is different from the one I posted for Leonard Cohen month.)

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 60: Ruth

By on September 8, 2019 0

Yesterday’s shepherdess said she’d follow her chimney sweep anywhere, but it turned out that she didn’t quite mean it. We’ll see whether Ruth (“Testament: The Bible in Animation,” 1996) is more reliable in her similar promise to Naomi:

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 58: Romeo and Juliet

By on September 6, 2019 0

Stat rosa pristina nomine; nomina nuda tenemus.

From The Taming of the Shrew to a very different Shakespearean romance: Romeo and Juliet (“Shakespeare: The Animated Tales,” 1992):

(They’re nice enough, but they’re still no Beatrice and Benedick.)

And here’s a song (lyrics not by Shakespeare) from the 1968 movie version:

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 57: The Taming of the Shrew

By on September 5, 2019 0

The Taming of the Shrew (“Shakespeare: The Animated Tales,” 1994) is an ugly portrait of courtship and marriage – but an insightful study of brainwashing.

Interestingly, the ending of this animated version, where the opening framing device is returned to at the end, seems to be borrowed from The Taming of A Shrew, a variant play of unknown authorship whose relation to Shakespeare’s The Taming of THE Shrew (where the opening frame is simply abandoned before the end) is a matter of scholarly debate.

And to get the taste of all that out of your mouth, I recommend a few scenes of my favourite Shakespeare couple, Beatrice and Benedick, in my favourite version thereof (and one of my favourite Shakespeare movies) – a mutual taming, without violence, domination, or dehumanisation:

There’s long been dispute as to whether Taming represents Shakespeare’s own views of women and marriage or not. But in my judgment, if those were his own views he could not have created the Beatrice/Benedick romance – as well as such other compelling, independent-minded female characters as Portia, Olivia, Cordelia, Rosalind, etc.

Middelboe Chronicles, Part 56: Turandot

By on September 4, 2019 0

An Italian opera about a Chinese princess, based on a Persian story about a Russian princess (whose name nevertheless means “daughter of Central Asia” in Persian), where the central moral seems to be the importance of having a strong password: Puccini’s Turandot (Operavox, 1995), presented in the style of Chinese art.

The title character beheads suitors and tortures slave girls, but – as in yesterday’s Winter’s Tale – the ruler’s horrific misbehaviour is all forgiven at the end, because Love.

Note the copyright reference at the beginning; Turandot premiered in 1926, making it the only work adapted for the Middelboeverse that is recent enough to be still under copyright.

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