Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Highly recommend for the Shakespeare lovers in your life or that friend who always brings up The Bechdel Test (I would know, as I am that friend). The audio is fantastic, though I think I'm going to need to revisit the text version of this sooner rather than later.
Shakespeare's tragic heroines reimagining their own stories? I knew I wanted to experience this the very first time I read about it. There's a common trope that gets played out in literature that's referred to as "women in refrigerators". While it was initially identified specific to comics, where female characters quite literally end up in refrigerators, instances can be broadly identified across many genres and mediums. One relatively recent example that comes to mind is the Amazon Prime Video adaptation of the Wheel of Time series, in which Perrin Aybara, a character who is not, in fact, married at the start of the books, accidentally kills his wife [oops, spoilers] while defending their village from trollocs, and then spends the rest of the season mourning her and having devastating flashbacks. Generally speaking, when we talk about women being "fridged," this is exactly what we're talking about: the (often underdeveloped) female character ends up dead in order to spur the emotional growth/maturation of a male character as he deals with his grief/guilt over her death, whether because he caused it, he couldn't stop it, he loved her... you get the idea. Entirely aside from the literal stuffing of murder victims into refrigerators, I think the term "fridging" is a particularly apt metaphor because it's reminiscent of a sort of pause or stasis--we put things in a cold environment in order to preserve them as they are, to stop or slow their progress (I'm an amateur baker, so bread rising comes to mind). That's exactly what's happening to female characters who end up getting the axe for the sake of the storyline or their male counterpart's character development--their own development as a character is cut short, frozen precisely in that moment.
Rather than "the fridge," in Enter the Body, McCullough puts some of the most famous tragic heroines in English literature into a liminal space: the trap room underneath the stage of a theater, where people and props can be moved on and off stage through the trap door. Each ill-fated woman appears through the trap door as her death is finalized onstage, and finally, one night, they decide (some more reluctantly than others) they've had enough. They spin their own versions of their stories, versions where they get a fairer shake at happiness, the chance to make their own choices, or even just the support of a loved one they didn't have in the bard's version of the tale. Given the opportunity to write their own narratives, Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia might not all choose to retell the stories as happily as we would expect, but that's the point--the choice is (finally) theirs to make.
Shakespeare's tragic heroines reimagining their own stories? I knew I wanted to experience this the very first time I read about it. There's a common trope that gets played out in literature that's referred to as "women in refrigerators". While it was initially identified specific to comics, where female characters quite literally end up in refrigerators, instances can be broadly identified across many genres and mediums. One relatively recent example that comes to mind is the Amazon Prime Video adaptation of the Wheel of Time series, in which Perrin Aybara, a character who is not, in fact, married at the start of the books, accidentally kills his wife [oops, spoilers] while defending their village from trollocs, and then spends the rest of the season mourning her and having devastating flashbacks. Generally speaking, when we talk about women being "fridged," this is exactly what we're talking about: the (often underdeveloped) female character ends up dead in order to spur the emotional growth/maturation of a male character as he deals with his grief/guilt over her death, whether because he caused it, he couldn't stop it, he loved her... you get the idea. Entirely aside from the literal stuffing of murder victims into refrigerators, I think the term "fridging" is a particularly apt metaphor because it's reminiscent of a sort of pause or stasis--we put things in a cold environment in order to preserve them as they are, to stop or slow their progress (I'm an amateur baker, so bread rising comes to mind). That's exactly what's happening to female characters who end up getting the axe for the sake of the storyline or their male counterpart's character development--their own development as a character is cut short, frozen precisely in that moment.
Rather than "the fridge," in Enter the Body, McCullough puts some of the most famous tragic heroines in English literature into a liminal space: the trap room underneath the stage of a theater, where people and props can be moved on and off stage through the trap door. Each ill-fated woman appears through the trap door as her death is finalized onstage, and finally, one night, they decide (some more reluctantly than others) they've had enough. They spin their own versions of their stories, versions where they get a fairer shake at happiness, the chance to make their own choices, or even just the support of a loved one they didn't have in the bard's version of the tale. Given the opportunity to write their own narratives, Juliet, Ophelia, and Cordelia might not all choose to retell the stories as happily as we would expect, but that's the point--the choice is (finally) theirs to make.
emotional
hopeful
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Rereading this after I’ve actually read a single thing by Shakespeare
It’s good with or without context though
It’s good with or without context though
It was interesting but read like a masters thesis written by English major who wears black and smokes clove cigarettes. A bit pretentious.
Btw, I was an English Major who sometimes wore black. Never smoked clove cigarettes, though.
Btw, I was an English Major who sometimes wore black. Never smoked clove cigarettes, though.
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 but rounding up because I thought this was really fun, even if I couldn't stand the mostly cringe-y dialogue between the women. They are literally girls, so I'll give them that, but I guess it would have been nicer if they didn't speak so...modern.
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes