Tagged: fighting fire with fire, greatest sin of the playwright, Strinberg, The Red Room, the well-made play
This topic has 1 reply, 1 voice, and was last updated 6 years, 8 months ago by Argentrose.
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March 1, 2018 at 10:52 am #29129ArgentroseParticipant
“…if they would but yield….”
KTISAll right…so, from what I can gather, these are both of religious significance–ostensibly the Christian religion. One is a phrase from a book entitled Abandonment. It’s weird how little that phrase appears elsewhere. Or at least that Google’s first choices without the quotes is all about economics–and that phrase in its entirety is not ever found. So…quoted then, and this weird book comes up from the two images that its found to coincide with those five little words. (They could be the start of a haiku–something I noticed but bears no relevance to anything, save that I am currently doing a project where I write haiku every day.)
KTIS is a Christian radio station in Minnesota.
I don’t know what any of this means; they’re just a whisper of a fleeting thought before I tried to get back to sleep after waking up at 4-something this morning. I didn’t want to forget them; so, I guess when I woke up later, I didn’t forget them.
They’re not a message to me. I’m an atheist. Maybe they’re a message to someone else? Anyway, I’d been wrestling with the big picture of the ARG before these two little gems decided to make themselves known to me. I keep thinking that maybe my Catholic roots are trying to poke me here and there. “Come back! Come back!” And I’ll admit I love the music. I even sang the psalm for one Sunday when I was back home in Texas, ’cause my Mom asked, and you can’t say no to a favor when your Mom asks for it.
If I were a believer, I’d see this as a sign; I’d attribute some significance to it–likely after the fact. But even being an atheist, I won’t deny that sometimes a whisper in the night is worth a listen. Maybe it’s the ancestors trying to reach us, or a supernatural link to a greater consciousness trying to reach us–to send us a message. Maybe it’s all just nonsense–a pattern for a pattern-seeker hoping for something greater than herself to exist in the world. Maybe it’s just weird coincidence that both things are Christian in nature. Maybe that’s just Google’s algorithms being fancy-shmancy and reading into things I’ve googled and offering me the best match it knows how. Anyway, …it’s there now.
If it means something to you, great. If not, …also great.
And if I get any more weird words in the night, I’ll be sure to let you know.LINKS:
KTIS FM
“…if they would but yield….” Google Image Search
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abandonment, by J. P. de Caussade -
March 1, 2018 at 11:35 pm #29142ArgentroseParticipant
I looked up “the greatest sin of the playwright”–thinking about how to defeat the writing of another writer might play out. Instead of getting the answer to my question, I found this:
August Strindberg — He is considered the “father” of modern Swedish literature and his The Red Room (1879) has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel.[8][9]
So, of course, I had to look up “The Red Room”: A young idealistic civil servant, Arvid Falk, leaves the drudgery of bureaucracy to become a journalist and author. As he explores various social activities—politics, publishing, theatre, philanthropy, and business—he finds more hypocrisy and political corruption than he thought possible. He takes refuge with a group of “bohemians”, who meet in a red dining room in Berns Salonger to discuss these matters.
And here is one last thing that I hit upon while looking into all of this: Well-made Play
The well-made play (French: la pièce bien faite, pronounced [pjɛs bjɛ̃ fɛt]) is a dramatic genre from nineteenth-century theatre first codified by French dramatist Eugène Scribe. Dramatists Victorien Sardou, Alexandre Dumas, fils, and Emile Augier wrote within the genre, each putting a distinct spin on the style. The well-made play was a popular form of entertainment. By the mid-19th century, however, it had already entered into common use as a derogatory term.[1] Henrik Ibsen and the other realistic dramatists of the later 19th century (August Strindberg, Gerhart Hauptmann, Émile Zola, Anton Chekhov) built upon its technique of careful construction and preparation of effects in the genre problem play. “Through their example”, Marvin Carlson explains, “the well-made play became and still remains the traditional model of play construction.”[2]
I found this particularly amusing:
The well-made play can be broken down into a specific set of criteria.[7] First, the story depends upon a key piece of information kept from some characters, but known to others (and to the audience). Most of the story takes place before the action of the play begins, making the beginning of the play a late point of attack. Exposition during act one explains actions that precede the opening scene, and generates the audience’s sympathy for the hero (or heroes) over their rival (or rivals). The plot moves forward in a chain of actions that use minor reversals of fortune to create suspense. The pace builds towards a climactic obligatory scene, in which the hero triumphs. This scene contains a climactic reversal of fortune, or peripeteia.[8] A dénouement follows, in which all remaining plot points are unraveled and resolved.[7]
A recurrent device that the well-made play employs is the use of letters or papers falling into unintended hands, in order to bring about plot twists and climaxes.[7] The letters bring about an unexpected and climactic reversal of fortune, in which it is often revealed that someone is not who they pretend to be. Mistaken or mysterious identity as a basis for plot complications is referred to as quid pro quo.[9][10]
For your further reading and enjoyment:
August Strindberg
The Red Room (Strindberg novel)
Well-made play- This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Argentrose. Reason: because formatting
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