Book 19: Shakespeare and Harry.

As I have been flying through The Winter's Tale (I am currently in Act 4, Scene 4), I have been noting the similarities between this play and one of the Harry Potter books. In my post from yesterday, I mentioned how when I read this for my college Shakespeare class we had a long discussion about some similarities. It all came flooding back to me as I started to read.

Now, if you don't want to know the ending of the play, it might be best to stop reading now, because I am certainly going to go there.

You have been warned.

Okay then. The Winter's Tale is essentially about King Leontes of Sicilia. At the beginning of the play, King Polixenes of Bohemia is visiting. Leontes thinks that his wife, Hermione is cheating on him with Polixenes. He creates a scene and accuses her of being a whore, then banishes Polixenes from Sicilia.

Obviously, the name Hermione rings a bell for anyone who has read Harry Potter. The relationship between these three monarchs is a lot like the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. At times in that relationship, we do see betrayal where one individual is banished or left out. Feelings and miscommunication play a large role in that separation, as it does here.

Moving on in the play, Hermione gives birth to a child, Perdita, who is sent away by Leontes because he thinks it isn't his. Queen Hermione soon "dies" after and Leontes is left grieving for what he did.

While there aren't as many similarities here, there are later in the play.

The fourth and fifth acts resolve the conflict. Sixteen years later (time turner anyone?), Perdita returns with Florizell (Polixenes' son) to Sicilia, as Florizell is banished by his father for wanting to marry a mere shepherd's daughter. No one at the time of this banishment knows that Perdita is actually Leontes' daughter. Once reunited, the group go to pay respects to a lifelike statue of Hermione. Upon seeing it, they are told it is made of stone. Hermione soon comes back to life and everything is solved.

In that class, we talked a lot about how Hermione in stone reminded us of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione spends a good chunk of the novel petrified from the basilisk. She is essentially frozen in time, and time also plays a large part in the play. The manipulation of time in some of Shakespeare's plays is a big deal, and time takes on the role of a character. The same is true for some of the Harry Potter novels. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione can control time with her time turner to correct wrongs in a single night. While Shakespeare didn't utilize time in quite the same manner, he came close with time fast-forwarding often through his plays.

One last connection is the mention of the basilisk. Yep, the mythical snake is mentioned in the same play where the character Hermione is "Cast in stone." Here are the direct lines:

"How caught of me?
Make me not sighted like the basilisk.
I have looked on thousands who have sped the better
By my regard, but none killed so," (I.ii. 465-469).

Leontes is actually speaking in this piece to Camillo (a courtier) as well as Polixenes. I find it interesting to draw the comparison here. Shakespeare also explains that the basilisk was known for killing with its sight, but hasn't yet (in this context). If you recall from Chamber of Secrets), the basilisk doesn't kill anyone, but merely petrifies them until they can be revived. In the play, Leontes petrifies his own wife until she is eventually revived by his acknowledgment of wrong doing.

I have to wonder whether this is all merely a coincidence and I am pulling too much from both texts, or if J.K. Rowling really drew inspiration from the play. It would be an interesting question to ask and from all my reading, I haven't found an answer.

I am hoping that all made sense. In any case, I only have a small portion to go before I finish.

Happy Reading!

Book 19: The Winter's Tale.

I figure it is time to get another Shakespeare play off of my list. Since I am not brave enough to venture into reading a play that I haven't already previously read, I decided to go with a lesser known play this time around (the last Shakespeare play I read was Much Ado About Nothing).

The Winter's Tale is another comedy, although it doesn't seem so at first. I have read it once before, during my college Shakespeare class. At the time, I remember thinking that it was alright. It didn't match up to some of the other plays we read in that class, but I still enjoyed it (unlike The Two Gentlemen of Verona which just annoyed me. Thankfully, I am not reading one for this challenge).

Anyway, even though I enjoyed it, I barely remember the plot line. I know some of the characters names; namely, Perdita, Leontes, and Hermione. I also recall that there are some small similarities between the play and Harry Potter. We discussed this in that class, which is why I remember, so as I read I'll try and pull those details out. I like finding inspiration for modern novels within Shakespeare.

Perhaps after giving another old friend a try I'll summon the courage to tackle a new Shakespeare play. I have reservations about it. It is really easy to re-read a play once you are familiar with the storyline because you know essentially what is going to happen and if some language escapes you, it still makes sense. I'm just a little worried about my abilities to decipher something new and unfamiliar on my own.

Off to Shakespeare land!

Musing Monday: February 8, 2010.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a random book.

I’ve seen several bloggers mention reading multiple books this week. Do you frequently read more than one book at a time? Do you try to limit this to a certain number? Do you have different books for different purposes/topics?

I very rarely read more than one book at a time. For me, I get too sucked into a setting and characters to switch back and forth easily. I get plots complicated and I get angry when I have no idea where I left off when I go back to a book.

On the rare occasions I do read more than one book at a time, it is usually because one book is a really heavy book that needs a little more time to get through. Then I may read a quick book as a break. Or, I might read short stories along side of a novel, since they can be finished rather quickly. But I never, EVER read more than 2 at a time. That just makes me too confused and that is too much that can be mixed up.

To sum it up, I would rather give my devoted attention to one book at a time.

You can find Musing Mondays at Just One More Page.

Challenges: Chunkster and LOST.

Since I am rather new to book blogging, I didn't sign up for many challenges in December when it seemed like Challenge mania on most books blogs. Part of that is that since I am reading a particular list of books, I couldn't sign up for many that I was interested in. Since then, I have found a couple that interest me and fit the needs of my blog.

So, I am signing up to join two book challenges. Let's start with the LOST challenge, shall we?


The LOST Books Challenge is obviously inspired by the TV show, which I am still making my way through (I am still in Season 2). Throughout the show, many books are seen either being read by the characters, in the background of scenes, or talked about. Books are a large part of life on the island.

For me to win this challenge, I have to read 5 books seen on LOST. These are the five I have chosen:

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell
2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
3. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
5. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

I have also chosen 2 alternates in case I simply can't get one of those novels complete in time:

1. O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
2. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

One catch to this challenge is that I must complete my five novels by the time the series ends (sometime this spring). Wish me luck!



The second challenge I am joining is the Chunkster Challenge.


A "Chunkster" is a a piece of ADULT LITERATURE over 450 pages. You can imagine that with a list full of classics there are quite a few "Chunksters" on the list.

There are three levels to this challenge:

1. The Chubby Chunkster - this option is for the reader who has a couple of large tomes on their TBR list, but really doesn't want to commit to much more than that. 3 books is all you need to finish this challenge.
2. Do These Books Make my Butt Look Big? - this option is for the slightly heavier reader who wants to commit to 4 Chunksters over the next twelve months.
3. Mor-book-ly Obese - This is for the truly out of control chunkster. For this level of challenge you must commit to 6 or more chunksters OR three tomes of 750 pages or more. You know you want to.....go on and give in to your cravings.

I am choosing to complete the "Mor-book-ly Obese" level and get through 6 of the big books on my TBR list.

In choosing my titles, I made sure to double check all of my books to make sure they hit the requirement. I have also added page numbers to the titles so you can verify (these page numbers are according to my editions of the books).

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (547 pages)
2. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (608 pages)
3. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (506 pages)
4. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (982 pages)
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (489 pages)
6. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (859 pages)

Like the LOST challenge, I have also chosen two alternates:

1. Emma by Jane Austen (453 pages)
2. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (838 pages)

I have a quite a bit of heavy reading on my hands, but I have until January 31, 2011 to finish these 6 novels. I am sure I can do it.

Sunday Salon: February 7, 2010.

While Matt is in the other room cuddling with the cats and watching the Super Bowl, I decided to sneak into the second bedroom, aka our "den," to write this quick little post of the week. It's how we do things. :)

I am not a big professional football fan. I mainly watch for the commercials. My two favorites this year were the Doritos commercial with the little boy teaching his mom's date a lesson, and the Dodge Charger commercial. Both were winners in my book. But I still don't like Doritos (I actually don't like any kind of chip), and I can't afford a Charger. So I guess those ads didn't fulfill their purpose, huh?

This has been a relatively decent week in reading. I am still behind in reviews (about a week or so), but I am slowly catching up. I don't like to post more than once a day, so I am trying to space out the posts I already have written. Hopefully it all evens out soon. I don't like being so far ahead. The pressure of not having a post written makes me read faster. Er. Not really. I just pretend it does.

Anyway, I managed to finish The Winter's Tale last Sunday night like I knew I would. I picked up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain shortly after and managed to fly through it. I finished it Friday night. It was still just as good as I remembered. I started Washington Square by Henry James yesterday and I only have about 30 pages left, so it should get finished tonight.

I'm not really sure what I should read next. I've been more or less just staring at my shelves until a title pops out at me, but nothing is popping. I'm thinking I should read a romance (maybe Wuthering Heights?) seeing as it is February and all, but I don't know if I want to tackle that.

Well, I best go join the husband.

Happy reading everyone!