1 comments about Le Tartuffe (Petits Classiques).

1. I often taught Moliere's "Tartuffe" as an example of the neoclassical form of comedy in contrast to the romantic comedy represented by Shakespeare. We would read "Twelfth Night," a play set in a faraway exotic land where the point was simply romance, and then turn to "Tartuffe," where the contemporary society becomes one of the primary concerns of the comic dramatist. During the neoclassical period society was concerned with norms of behavior, and in a Moliere play you usually find a eccentric individual, out of step with the rest of society, who is laughed back to the right position. Moliere was concerned with social problems, which was while this particular play, dealing with the issue of hypocrisy, was banned for years. Keep in mind that originally hypocrisy was specific to religion, although today it can be used with regards to politics, sex, or even uncontroversial subjects. Consequently, the idea of characterizing Tartuffe as an imposter, would miss the point; he might be misrepresenting himself, but he is, indeed, Tartuffe.
   
   The central character in "Tartuffe" is not the title character, but Orgon, a reasonably well to do man of Paris who is married to his second wife, Elmire, and has a song, Damis, and a daughter, Mariane, from his first marriage. He also has the misfortune of living with his mother, Madame Pernelle. Tartuffe is a religious hypocrite who worms his way into Orgon's confidence in order to take him for everything he is worth. Orgon is completely duped, and disinherits his son when Damis tries to prove Tartuffe is fraud. The other key character in the play is Dorine, who is Mariane's maid and the smartest person in the house, which allows her to both manipulate the action and comment on the play.
   
   There are three crucial scenes in the play that readers should appreciate, even if it will not be covered on a future exam. The first is the opening scene (in Moliere's comedies the scene changes every time a character enters or exits) where we are introduced to Madame Pernelle, who promptly proceeds to criticize everybody in Orgon's household while praising Tartuffe. The result is that because she is so obnoxious, we have a low opinion of Tartuffe before he ever appears on stage. So, in addition to being a funny scene, it serves an important function in terms of the play. The second key scene comes when Orgon realizes he has been duped, and instead of continuing to ridicule his central character, Moliere turns him into a sympathetic figure. We laugh at Orgon while he does not have a clue as to his culpability in his coming demise, but once he starts to lose everything we stop laughing.
   
   The final scene of interest, for mostly reasons external to the story, is the conclusion, where Moliere pulls what could only be called a "roi ex machina." This is because instead of dropping a god out of the sky in the manner of Euripides, Moliere has a representatative of the King arrive to set everything to rights. Tartuffe might pull the wool over the eyes of ordinary folk, but the King--in this case, King Louis XIV--is not fooled. The play "Tartuffe" was banned by the clergy after its first performance because it was seen as a thinly veiled attack against the Jansenists (a rather puritanical Catholic sect), and Moliere literally spent years rewriting it before the King gave his approval. It is not surprising that the playwright makes his patron the hero at the end of the play.
   
   If you are only going to read (or teach) one Moliere play, then my choice would be "Tartuffe," even over "The Misanthrope," "The Imaginary Invalid," or "The Bourgeois Gentleman." I would argue that "Tartuffe" is the paradigmatic Moliere play, which best represents his comic techniques while also having a historical context that speaks to the tenor of the times in which he wrote. I also think it is the funniest of his plays.

No comments about Theatre in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology.

3 comments about Petrushka in Full Score: Original Version.

1. Full Score is what it is. Well printed. I follow the score with the CD and it's right on.



2. To feel powerful type music of this type to go naked into wooded mountain slopes without any pudding. This is to run with the birds!! I feel this music rubs into the soul with woodchips and cedar branches. tenthousand times I listen to this while my sister howl out loud and the tenthousandth time I also howl. The spirit of spiders is in my palm and I run it through my hair and straighten my lapel while performing an awkward little dance step. If read music is music read then red music is music red but I see red when otto take away my music. You try listening to this music without no music! Not easy eh? sometime soul cry out for release and this is like that without any of the other or maybe a little bit but not a whole lot of the other and then you body go this is very good and you mind think this is very good and you soul know too that this is very good and you move your feet and walk to otto's house and go THIS IS VERY GOOD! again I say this is very good.i go now.



3. About this great composer of twenty century, and your magnificent work, only i can say thank you, Mr. Igor Stravinsky for you born; is your music an inspiration for all composers on the world.

4 comments about Personae: The Shorter Poems of Ezra Pound.

1. This collection of Pound's earlier poems is the necessary companion of any modern poet. Especially noteworthy, and on display here, is the Pound Rhythm. Pound wrote poetry that embodied its own music. There is much to learn from Pound and in this volume he can be approached without the annotated index that is needed to tackle The Cantos.



2. It is a sad fact, but all of the greatest poets of the 20th century, perhaps with the exception of Saint-John Perse and William Carlos Williams, felt the inexplicable urge to join the herd and camp out in highly dubious company. Mayakovsky, Ungaretti, Auden took at least temporary refuge in the revolution's dream of a world ruled by the proletarians of all nations - until the dream had turned into a nightmare. Gottfried Benn, not an anti-Semite by any means, became Nazi for the sake of their eugenic policies, Ezra Pound a card carrying fascist in MusoliniÕs operatic rule; and both converted with zest. T.S. Eliot didn't mind to show his antisemitic leopard spots.
   
   Of those who came clean through, Georg Trakl died too early to go wrong, though he had his own problems; Marianne Moor, I guess, can claim a gender privilege; Brodsky and Else Lasker-SchŸler had little choice anyway because they sat on the sharp end of the centuryÕs numerous persecutions. A sad sight indeed. Another rather strange aspect is to see the top aces Eliot and Auden crossing the Atlantic in opposite directions and swapp nationalities or even to emigrate out of their languages altogether, like Sengor and Brodsky, which especially for a poet should be tantamount to artistic suicide.
   
   (But it had been done before: the first rate Roman poet Claudianus was born Greek, the Archepoeta excelled in Latin when it had become the artificial Esperanto among medieval intellectuals, the French Chamisso naturalized himself in German (though I heard a Russian(!) friend of mine dismissing him as substandard,) the Polish born Conrad was awarded the Nobel-prize for his novels in English, Nabokov was a leading American writer. Being bilingual myself, I know the pains. Something is lost. No matter how attentive the authorÕs ear - he almost inevitably has more dictionaries than humans for company.)
   
   To be a poet in troubled times is never easy, and the 20th century was a watershed between the cultural paradigms. But I didnÕt see Pound writing a ÒVigil of Venus.Ó Poetry is a pagan instinct, and the last line of defence of the old idols - maybe it has really run its course. But then language still needs its shepherds to protect it from the stench and spill of modern journalese, and new poems, waiting to be discovered, are still floating in that haze of unborn dreams, that is shrouding our planet.
   
   It seems Pound, with all his considerable powers, spoke too loud, and with too booming a voice, to actually sense the arrival of a new poem from limbo. He was definitely a most able translator; he had the right instincts; he knew everything there is to know about literature. So when he ultimately failed in his original poetry, it must be a deficiency of temperament, and character, and perhaps even talent. But in ÒPersonaeÓ he gives us what he could do best - to create and impersonate a persona from the stockpile of dead poets.
   
   His impersonation of Propertius is superb, the translation of Cavalcanti and other residents from DanteÕs inferno is a labor of love. As for his ventures into Chinese I recommend caution. The Chinese I knew had a funny way to respond to his renditions. Alongside of Kipling, though not quite as talented, Pound is the best ventriloquist in the language. However he picked up a trifle too much from PropertiusÕ obscurity. The comparison to PoundÕs own ÒCantosÓ is revealing.



3. I don't know what the other reviewer is talking about, but the book is arranged just fine. In fact, one would think that with the addition of the Note on the Text it would be irrefutably clear how it was arranged & selected, but I guess at least one guy didn't think so. The majority of the book is roughly chronological in the way Ezra Pound chose. The poems are broken into groups: Poems of 1908-1911, Poems from Ripostes (1912), Poems from Blast (1914), Poems of Lustra (1913-1915), Cathay (1915), Poems of Lustra (1915-1916), & Poems of 1917-1920. There are then Appendixes added, the first consisting of Three Cantos (1917); the second, uncollected poems from 1912-1917; & the third, The Complete Poetical Works of T. E. Hulme, which was originally an appendix to the book Ripostes. & then there's the Note on the Text explaining this layout. They removed the post-1926 work, as this shall appear in a future revision of Pavannes and Divagations, and they left out a few previously appendixed poems since they are already printed in The Translations or in Collected Early Poems. & then they added a few extra poems in appendix, the two recently-published war poems of 1914-1915, the original version of "In a Station of the Metro," & the prose poem "Ikon." & that's all of it, as is clear from the table of contents & note on the text. Now then, all that aside, these are absolutely brilliant poems. They contain stunning beauty, humor, originality, depth, & unbelievable intelligence & imagination. Pound completely changed what poetry was capable of, paving the way for countless innovators since with his inimitable driving voice. It would be a terrible shame if folks passed over this book just because one guy gave it less than its deserved five stars. The editors certainly didn't lie about anything - just because Pound wrote three cantos in 1917 that weren't part of the famous Cantos doesn't mean you've been swindled. (If fact, the conclusion to the third early canto later became, with some modification, Canto I.) So, hopefully this clarifies things, so that more people will have the chance to read these terrific poems. I'd also suggest, if you like this book, getting the readings that Pound made of "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley," "Moeurs Contemporaines," & some other poems. The tape is still in print, & Ezra Pound is one of the best readers around, up there with John Cage, William Burroughs, James Joyce ... Enjoy.



4. Personae is a work that Pound originally created himself with the intent that it would contain what he believed to be a good representation of his earlier work. Among many other things this means that we are forced to work our way through the muck of his early poems, which are obviously little more than an exercises that helped Pound be the fantastic poet that he is.

   To further pain the reader, the editors of this edition of Personae have completely botched their job. One would think that being an editor of a book already set out by one of the greatest teachers of the 20th century (and one of the best ears for poetry) would be an easy enough job...they aparently worked at failing. I can't really say how well Pound did at putting this book together because the editors have admittedly added, removed and otherwise distorted the book out of Pound's original vision. To prove how horribly they did, there is a section of the book toward the end called "Three Cantos." Any reader familiar with Pound would expect it to be the Cantos he spent the later portion of his life writing: they're not. I have no idea what they are but the editors lied to the reader.

   That said, the book also contains some of Pounds best works. Unfortunately I am forced to give this 5 star poet 3 stars, due to the harm done to me by the editors of Personae.

4 comments about Ask an Agent: Everything Actors Need to Know about Agents.

1. "I need an agent!" A thought that every actor thinks to himself in frustration after a tough audition. Yet we as actors don't really fully understand what an agent does. Even those with an agent don't really grasp what work goes into into their career. Ms. Emory answers the questions that every actor asks themselves...How do I get an agent? What does an agent do? What happens when I get an agent?....She answers those and more.
   
   As I've actually met this wonderful lady, her confidence in her job should be what every actor has as an agent works for them.
   
   After reading this book, I feel extremely confident I can find and maintain an agent. If you want one here's the place to start



2. If you're an aspiring actor who's looking for an agent, don't go on the hunt until you've absorbed the tips in ASK AN AGENT; EVERYTHING ACTORS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AGENTS. It's tough love in a book: a candid discussion of the world of agents, what they can do, what they can't do, and the pitfalls and successes of dealing with one. Chapters discuss how agents 'sell' actors under their charge, what doors are open to them which are closed to the individual actor - and what happens when things go wrong in the relationship. A 'must' for any aspiring actor.



3. I would suggest reading this book from cover to cover. Questons you've always had will be answered and some you didn't know you had, or should have, will too. Tabbing sections of interest for future reference would be a good idea as well.
   Step into an agent's office on realistic footing, then deal with your agents through the years professionally and as a team member working toward the same goals.
   Margaret Emory has done both actors and agents a service with this book.



4. If you have about 1,000 questions about the business of acting, then get ready to have 999 of them answered in this book. It's so well-written that it is easy to read, humorous and very informative. You get to find out how agents can get you jobs, what it takes for you to work with an agent, what agents need from you and what you need from agents. Oh, and so much more.
   
   An understanding of the acting business is crucial if you want to be a success. How can you play a game and expect to win if you don't know the rules? This book tells you the rules and it is up to you, the actor to play the game and win!
   
   This is a good book for someone who wants to get into the business and become an agent as well.
   
   Margaret doesn't miss the opportunity to be optimistic and fun, two traits very much needed if you want to be alive and well in this business. :)

1 comments about Movement : From Person to Actor to Character.

1. I have been teaching Movement for Actors for over 20 years and am a Certified Laban Movement Analysis. This workbook for training actors, especially those just beginning to get in touch with the expressivity of their bodies and the essential connections of body and voice, is an incredibly useful tool. Logical in its development (it follows Laban Movement Analysis more than it acknowledges) and clearly presented, it is practical for classwork or work alone at home or in a studio. My only reservation may be in the way some of the Laban material is presented, but this presentation does not stop it from being a user friendly sourcebook.

No comments about Great Scenes for Young Actors (Young Actors Series).

2 comments about Mathematics, Magic and Mystery (Cards, Coins, and Other Magic).

1. The reason why we use the phrases "magic trick" and "card trick" is because we know that there is no such thing as magic. The magician is executing a very specific algorithm that leads from the starting point to the desired conclusion. In this book, Gardner explains some of the algorithms in areas such as card tricks, mental magic and other common feats of legerdemain.
   The titles of the chapters are:
   
   *) Tricks with cards part I
   *) Tricks with cards part II
   *) From Gergonne to Gargantua - more tricks with cards
   *) Magic with common objects - the objects are items such as dice and dominoes
   *) Topological tomfoolery - tricks with items such as ropes, handkerchiefs and vests
   *) Tricks with special equipment
   *) Geometrical vanishes part I
   *) Geometrical vanishes part II
   *) Magic with pure numbers - rapid computation or number guessing tricks
   
   Some people don't want to know how things are done because it spoils the fun for them. Since Gardner explains all of the tricks in complete detail, if you read this book then you will know how to do them yourself. Therefore, you should only pick it up if you can handle the knowledge of how these tricks are performed.



2. This book is very nice. It teaches you how to do magic with any houshold items. There are 2 chapters with cards too. NONE of the tricks described here use any sort of slight of hand. It is 100% mathematical tricks than ANYONE can do. And they are all nice cloe-up tricks which are the type of tricks which are most baffling. Martin Garder, the author of this book is a very talented writer. He wrote many books on mathematics and science. This is a great book and I recomend EVERYONE should get it even if they are not into magic that much.

No comments about Michelangelo Antonioni: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series).

No comments about The Anthropology of Performance (PAJ Books).