Sharing from Relief Society to Oprah

Well, I did it, I shared Shakespeare to the world! Like the assignment was I did this both locally and globally but both were actually different subjects! Here's what I did...

Locally

Not gonna lie, this one had me stumped for a few days. I couldn't decide who I wanted to share with and what about because I didn't want it to be too easy. In fact it was almost an impromptu sharing but it was interesting, and I admit I went on a few tangents.

It all started when a fellow member of the Relief Society

First I told her how it was a Shakespearean play based off of actual historical events. She was amazed. I told her the real life history of Antony and Cleopatra and then discussed with her how accurately Shakespeare drew upon these. We talked about the absence of her previous affair with Julius Cesear and their love child. It was decided this was probably done to make the play more romantic and less political than it seemed to be.Presidency came to deliver some notes, and well she saw me doing homework on my bed and asked what I was working on. (I was looking for global sharing experiences but was struggling...) I told her how I read Antony and Cleopatra and BAM she was hooked. See, she didn't know what Antony and Cleopatra was, or even who they were, and so naturally I had to explain.

Then I naturally diverged into a conversation about reality in Antony and Cleopatra and I guess in Shakespeare in general. We talked how his characters also try to shape their reality so they can justify their actions, either past or present. Which led me to a tangent about Hamlet and a clip I saw on YouTube my freshman year. (Its pretty funny, and shows how Ophelia's fate could have been different.) There's actually a few on other Shakespeare plays as well but sadly not one on Antony and Cleopatra. I was actually going to request they do one on it for part of my global outreach, but I admit I forgot....

Globally

I struggled for a long time to find something to connect with people about Antony and Cleopatra.

I looked at productions (none were current), Flickr photos (same problem, most were over two years old), and for blogs and tweets...nothing.

I was feeling rather frustrated and discouraged and then I learned we could expand outside of our play and share other Shakespeare things. So I naturally turned to my good friend Edgar...okay the book...about Edgar...that's fictional....you know the The Story of Edgar

Sawtelle by David Wroblewski , which I've had such a fervor for recently.

I started going crazy! I looked for blogs, photos, videos, reviews and even found David Wroblewski's site dedicated totally to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (they're making a movie!! I really want to see it whenever it come out). I wanted to try to contact him personally but wasn't able to get an in. I just found contact information

for his people, and decided instead to see what people were saying.

I went once again to Flickr, but there aren't really any good photos about this book, because well, its a book! But I pressed forward to YouTube. Nothing of interest there, just a few lame videos that didn't seem worth my time to watch.

So onto a different approach! I remembered that The Story of Edgar Sawtelle had been an Oprah's Book Club book. So I thought I check out what was happening there. On his biography page there were a few comments but I thought I would try to stimulate some more comments about the book and Shakespeare. So I related to a lady who was from Wisconsin and I also left my own review of the book relating it to Shakespeare. (click here to see them)

But I didn't feel like this was enough. More people needed to know about my passion, so I joined Goodreads. (I'm actually really glad I signed up for the membership because now I'll get great recommendations.) The first thing I did was write a review of the novel, and I of course tied it into Shakespeare, I mean it is a retelling of Hamlet! I was actually shocked to see so many comments from people who did not like the book at all! A lot of it was because it had such a tragic ending, but come'on people, it's a Shakespearean tragedy! So I left a few comments here on there on people's discussions but nothing has turned up.....

Actually one thing did but this was actually one of my shorter comments and this lady was quick and short in her reply...but maybe I'll try to stimulate more in depth thought about Shakespeare....

Once again I still wanted to do more! The world needed to be educated and get an appreciation for this version of Hamlet! So I searched blogs and lo and behold, a man wrote a whole blog post just about this novel! The thing about his post is that he praised the book, but he said he didn't know the plot of Hamlet so he couldn't compare it in that way. So I educated him in a comment describing the plot and how knowing Shakespeare's tale enriches the novel. I even suggested that he read Hamlet with The Story of Edgar Sawtelle next time. (By the way that's a picture of the blogger)

So I have sown my seeds and I hope that even though the assignment is technically due today, that I will get replies and good feedback. I mean look at all the people in my post alone that have been influenced by Shakespeare. And hopefully I've influenced a few people to reconsider their views on the Shakespearean plot and maybe they'll even read Hamlet now! I hope they do because as I said in many of my comments, knowing the story of Hamlet really enriches The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.