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April 9, 2007
The Tempest of Stephen Miko, Thursdays at 7 on FX.
"I propose, then, to look at the play as if it is, in a stronger sense than is usually conceded, experimental. Shakespeare may be experimenting with the very assumptions that lead us to expect poetic justice, symbolic neatness, and 'resolved' endings for plays. I think, in fact, that he is demonstrating the limits of all three sets of expectations."
I think I'm starting to get the whole post-structuralist movement and post-modernism. Specifically for Miko, though, I think something clicked. Post-modernism is all about never really having a concrete, finite answer to questions of metaphor and symbols and other "why, how?" type questions. Miko, it seems has started addressing this in showing point-by-point, how Willy Shakes plays with the reader's assumptions and perceptions - build them to believe one thing that has been constant or at least somewhat common, and then switch things on them. Hell, he even said one couldn't read it as "just a play" and that it was experimental. That is what is moving/molding/shaping boundaries.
Miko has also embraced the post-structuralist theory by applying the ideas to the text without regard for outside sources, less what the reader brings to the proverbial table.
Posted by KevinMcGinnis at April 9, 2007 11:13 PM