Liam+McCormick

**Kitten videos set to Inception theme music? Can life get better? I submit that it cannot.**
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**Hamlet: Post #4, Jan. 19, 2012**
Well Hamlet you've really gotten yourself into a pickle. All that indecisiveness and now look what it got you....death. You really dodged a bullet with the whole situation with Rosencrantsz and Guildenstern and showed surprising cunning in sending them off to their own deaths rather than yours. It's a bit mean and a bit of a back stab on your part but hey, they were going to get you killed so what's fair is fair right? Then you get home to find your girlfriend dead? That must suck. After he finds out he gets a bit angry and a bit hasty and gets all rough and ready to fight Laertes in a duel. I'm not entirely sure that there's really any need for this duel, after all they were arguing who loves Ophelia more, Hamlet or Laertes. In my opinion you can't compare the love of family to that of a lover, they're sort of on different planes. But that's the argument Hamlet and Laertes decided to have. It's a bit childish to be honest and certainly not worth a duel. But it does give Hamlet the opportunity to avoid killing the king some more and try and act as manly as possible and it gives Laertes the opportunity to kill Hamlet, everybody wins. So they get to fighting. That's always fun to watch right? Who doesn't like 16th century UFC? And here I notice a bit of indecisiveness in someone other than Hamlet. The king decides on two different methods of killing Hamlet. Poised cup of wine and poisoned tip of fencing sword. He's unwilling to put all his eggs in one basket so like Hamlet he gets to learn the price of being indecisive! Hooray, everyone gets to learn life lessons the hard way in this book! So he poisons his new wife whose husband he poisoned to get her in the first place while he was trying to poison her son. Hmmmm. Oh and conveniently Laertes and Hamlet slash each other so everyone is poisoned now. If I were Laertes I'd have hung onto that poisoned sword a little tighter, might have saved me the trouble of dying. And to top it all off, Hamlet finally gets around to killing the king, something that has taken him about 4 scenes too many. If someone, anyone could have been a little more direct and to the point with their decision making they wouldn't have had so many bodies on their hands. Of course then it wouldn't be much of a tragedy but the problems they face would have a much less painful resolution. I look at the passage where Laertes dies and think how if he's so willing to forgive Hamlet as he is dying maybe there wasn't as much animosity there as we think, maybe it was a bit influenced by the king. It's too bad the story ended that way, but hey, at least Fortinbras wins everything and can return Denmark to its once noble state. I think the play should be re-titled though, just to update it to our modern understanding of it. I think "Hamlet: or the story of what ifs" would be a pretty fitting title don't you? What if Claudius and Gertrude had waited a little more to get married. What if Hamlet had never seen the ghost? What if Hamlet didn't get so obsessive about everything? What if Hamlet wasn't so mean to Ophelia? What if Ophelia didn't drown herself? What if Hamlet had just manned up and killed the king in a timely fashion? What if the king had just manned up and killed Hamlet in a timely fashion? What if Laertes had just manned up and killed Hamlet in a timely fashion? What if Fortinbras had just manned up and killed everyone in a timely fashion? I think you get the picture.

LAERTES He is justly served; It is a poison temper'd by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet: Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me.

**Hamlet: Post #3, Jan. 11, 2012**
Alright Hamlet, I know you're under a lot of stress and are having some emotional issues with the death of your dad and your mom remarrying so soon after. But I think you need to relax, you lead the best life you could ever possible hope for. You're something of a god, you've got all the money and power you could want, you're next in line for the throne, and women throw themselves on your feet. So stop complaining. Yes your dad is dead, you're not the only one that has ever happened to. Some people who's parents die have to support themselves after, you don't have to do diddly squat. What I don't understand is if he's suffering so much, debating the value of his life and why all these terrible things are happening to him, why doesn't he just take the step that would relieve that and make him happy again? He is reasonably assured his uncle killed his father to begin with, then the ghost tells him, then he uses his play scheme to assure himself once and for all. That's three things telling him who's guilty. He kills his uncle and he becomes king, gets revenge for his father, is free to marry Ophelia, and gets basically anything else that he wants, yet he's hesitant. What more can you ask for?! A guilt free opportunity to kill your uncle and get all of those great things, and he can't pull the trigger (no pun intended). I don't think he's even that crazy, I think he's just unsure and ends up getting wrapped up in everything. In our viewing of the Kenneth Branagh version of the scene about the Mousetrap he doesn't appear really crazy, just excited and angry. He's quite a ways from some babbling maniac in a straight jacket. And lets look at the fact that he IS stressed and having some conflict about his father and all the craziness that is his mother and uncle's relationship. In the end though I think he just needs to take the initiative and get the job done. It would save him a whole lot of trouble in the long run to be honest. I have one thing to say Hamlet: media type="youtube" key="dEtm_Q2LK9g" height="315" width="420"



**Hamlet: Post #2, Jan. 5, 2012**
This is getting real. Once your personal ghost adventure starts there's no turning back. Horatio sees the ghost and obviously has to tell Hamlet, I mean who doesn't want to agitate your already extremely distressed friend even further? The news that Hamlet senior is back and running amok as a spirit crossing back from the land of the dead can't be a good thing so they all have to go check it out. Though he's urged to use better judgement Hamlet runs after the ghost of his dead father to have a quick heart to heart. Hamlet learns of the treachery of his uncle and gets all hasty making plans for revenge. Yet somehow even the news from his father that should get him all angry and bothered he still finds time to mope. He is filled with indecision about how to go about revenge and showing everyone else about what has happened to their former king. Here we see the internal conflict in Hamlet developing. He's unsure what the right thing is to do, should he obey the wishes of his father's apparition or should he just learn to live with his uncle? One thing I've noticed from all the film versions we've watched is that the King is not a ghost in the typical sense that we think of. He's solid and can touch hamlet and the world around him. I've been wondering why directors have been taking this liberty with their adaptations because it raises the issue that if Hamlet's father is a solid being when he returns, why can't he kill the Uncle himself? Is there something more righteous about a son avenging his father? Because isn't revenge the same either way?

To help you visualize what's been going on:



**Hamlet: Post #1, Jan. 29, 2012**
We're only through a very small part of Hamlet and it already feels like an episode of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel. I feel like Hamlet is about ready to set up his infrared cameras and start snooping. Need a quick run down of what's gone on so far? I'll sum it up for you. Hamlet is sulking, a lot, Claudius is sitting pretty on the throne giving speeches and generally disliking Fortinbras and Norway, Hamlet's mom Gertrude is getting freaky with Claudius so things are pretty weird already, and Hamlet's friends are seeing ghosts. The most significant event is when the guards Marcellus and Bernardo see the ghost hanging out on top of the castle and show him to Hamlet's good friend Horatio. The ghost blows them off (he doesn't need to talk to some low lifes, his beef is with the King), but since he's a ghost he can't exactly hold anything like a sword (opposable thumbs aren't much use when you're made of ectoplasm) so he needs Hamlet's help getting revenge. Shakespeare starts setting up contrasts between characters right away and other little elements make some things quite obvious. The King's speech and joviality with his subjects coupled with Gertrude's flip flop between sorrow and ecstasy develops a bit of suspicion that maybe some murdering went on here. Though both scholars and supposedly strong level headed people, Horatio seems to calmer and more controlled than Hamlet who is rash and quick to act, like many of Shakespeare's characters who end up dying or suffering great tragedies. In Shakespeare's work Hamlet doesn't seem to be so off his rocker, considering the ghost has been seen by several people and he has a reasonable amount of suspicion about the murder. The 2000 film version, however, is not so charitable. media type="youtube" key="gjgm_vcJf2g" height="315" width="420" I mean, what is he even doing?!

Our essential question was "To be or not to be? Is a life ever not worth living? Who decides when someone has the right to live or die?" This isn't entirely applicable to the first scene but can be associated with the King's speech. Because of our suspicion developing about the King and Gertrude his speech seems to lack genuineness. He isn't really sorry his brother is dead because now he gets to be king and he gets his brothers' wife. He also makes accusations against Fortinbras and vows to take back the land that is rightfully theirs. In this case Fortinbras is really innocent because he just took back land that Hamlet's father took from his father, so it actually belonged to him to begin with. Hamlet's decisions throughout the play and the influence of the ghost will determine more of who lives and who dies, both directly and indirectly. But for now we can sit back and enjoy Hamlet re-enacting Ghost Busters for us while the drama gets sorted out.

Hello everyone. How are you this fine day?