Royal Diaries: Elizabeth I

I have always been a reader even when I was a tiny human. So, imagine my surprise when I read Queen E's letters and I'm flash-backing hardcore to my childhood. "Why?" you ask? Because Elizabeth's letters remind me of the greatest books of my youth. The Royal Diaries series. And isn't it just a pretty damn good coincidence that I thought of that because guess who is one of the royals that starred in this series?

That's right, ladies and gents! Childhood meet Real Life. 

Now, it's been YEARS since I've read the Royal Diaries but I still was feeling some pretty strong nostalgia. 

The Royal Diaries are complete tonypandy. Sure, it's historical fiction so there's obviously some things that have been moved around a bit to fit the mold. But it's also historical fiction catered to children and young adults. That series laid a foundation for my reading habits and interests as I became older. I wouldn't have developed a love for Cleopatra if I hadn't read her Royal Diary. Same for Anastasia, Marie Antoinette, Mary Queen of Scots, etc. etc. etc.

There is no way to know what these young women thought when they were in their tweens but they plant a seed for kids to find out more.

So Queen E's letters were like candy for my inner child. But instead of complete tonypandy, these letters are R.E.A.L REAL!! Like, actual facts from the woman herself. Actual words! HNNNGHHGH I LOVE IT!

But what makes these letters even more awesome than they already are to me, is that we finally get a "voice" to this historical figure. We can listen to her talking when she's young, old, being a bad-ass, or trying to save her ass. We get a sense that she is a human being that we can tangibly see actually existing.

Obviously, Richard III existed. And obviously so did Caesar, but to see real paintings of Elizabeth and also read her speeches and private letters add a more colorful dynamic to her character that makes her more real. yes Yes YES! And now for my favorite E meme:

Mostly what I expected...

There were not many things that surprised me while reading Julius Caesar.  We already had previous experience with the stories from Plutarch and HBO’s Rome, but I was a little surprised that the play wasn’t really about Caesar at all.  I did not expect him to be killed in the third act while there was still two more left in the play.  What would the rest of the book be about?

While I was reading the last two acts, it made sense to me why they were important (even though they were not very exciting or interesting.)  Brutus and Antony constructed their own armies and went to battle against each other.  Antony was fighting to avenge Caesar’s death and Brutus was just trying to put an end to the tyranny and power struggle once and for all.  But this war just seemed completely childish to me.  It didn’t seem like there was real reason to have a war. 

 

 Cassius even commanded someone to kill him for no real reason.  He was mistaken that his friend was captured by the enemy and couldn’t bear to live anymore; however, that was not true.  Once Brutus found out the Cassius was dead, he wanted to kill himself too.  This is a whole lot of drama for no reason.  I think Shakespeare could have done better here. 

Also, like CJ and Kayla both said, the details and plot of this entire play is very typical of Shakespeare.  There were murders, battles, suicides, and even ghosts.  We have seen it all several times before, but it is interesting to see how Shakespeare slightly changes it up with each play he writes.  

What is Going on with Caesar?

First of all, I would like to say that it is very obvious that this show has a large budget.  Based on the costuming, the sets, the extras, and the large cast of main actors; this show needed and used a lot of money.  But did all of this extravagance help with the plot of the show? In a way, yes, it did. It allowed the show to set up multiple plot points for each character, which will carry out through the season and keep people's interest.  But for our sake, it didn't. I don't know about you but I watched this thinking that the main focus would be on Caesar, with maybe a side focus on Brutus and Antony. But I was wrong, which left me very confused.

If any of you were like me and only watched the two episodes we were assigned, Caesar really is not mentioned.  We see him get elected, give a speech, be crowned, and then stabbed to death. The focus of both episodes were more on Brutus and his mother, with the occasional side plot of Titus and the Caesar siblings (Octavian and Octavia). But just with our knowledge of Caesar's life and how he is portrayed in the show, I really do not see why they were so threatened by him.  These people just elected him into power, and then they realized they goofed and changed their minds, resulting in Caesar's impalement.

Brutus's character is also all over the place. Plutarch made Brutus seem brave and noble, whereas Rome made Brutus seem indecisive and dependent on other people to make decisions for him. Brutus went from being enemies with Caesar, to wanting to be his best friend, to wanting to stay his friend but still run against him, deciding to kill him, second guessing killing him as Caesar is waiting to be stabbed, choosing to kill him, and then felling horrible about it. This guy cannot make up his mind!

I guess if I watched from the beginning, these plot points might make more sense, but a lot of it seems extra to me. And props to whoever can give a summary of the entire season justice.

Caesar: The Man.... And Other Things

As I was reading the texts for this class, I took some notes on my thoughts and, since this is a blog post, thought I would share them.

Before reading the PDF and Plutarch, I had already known a lil' somethin' somethin' about our guy, Caesar. Cleopatra holds a huge place in my heart and her interactions with both Caesar and Antony made me develop an interest in them, as well. I have also watched HBO's Rome a million times and have a ton of non fiction on Ancient Rome (Read SPQR by Mary Beard. It's amazing!)

One thing I kept thinking of while reading about him for this class is that everyone knows this guy's name. Throughout these past couple of thousand years, we have made him immortal. Sure, he's a brilliant man and an excellent politician. But what I think gets lost in translation along the way, is that Caesar was just a man. He was a father, a husband (a couple of times), a womanizer, and a fierce friend. He was extremely ambitious and made it to the top and stayed there for quite some time. He made mistakes but also did great things. Now, I'm not saying everything he did was admirable but as someone who is human, I can see some areas where he made decisions for survival and some for politics.

Another thing that blows me away every time I think about it is that only a small percentage of ancient texts have survived. We may think we know everything about the ancient world, but the fact is that we don't. So much gets lost through years and years of war, fires, weather issues, etc. Every television show and movie portraying ancient Athens or ancient Rome may only be getting a small idea of what really went on. Could you imagine what the world would be like if we didn't have to study just the couple of ancient texts we have? What if we had a plethora of works that were still available to pour over instead of just guessing over ancient life like we do when read Homer? It seriously blows me away how much we don't have and what pieces of history we are missing as we move forward with our own history.

Lastly, since I'm a huge speculator on back stories (Come on guys, I mention this like every blog post), I can't help but think that either Caesar has got shitty friends or he was clueless about the people he surrounded himself with. I know he's not perfect and that there were some huge disagreements between him and Pompey even after Caesar gave him his daughter to marry. I mean, these best buddies went to war! Like, whaaat? And let's not even get me started about Brutus. Anyone else feel not a twinge of sadness when Brutus off'd himself after battle? No? Just me then? But I wish I could get a glimpse at Caesar's, the man not the ruler, mind as all this was going on. Did he feel betrayal? Or did he have a growing sense of impending doom? Or was he just "la-dee-da"-ing all over the place and was just focusing on the next best thing?

We'll never know but it's fun to speculate about!