Yesterday, Johnny and his mom (who's in town from Boulder for the weekend) picked up a house vacuum for us. This was promptly used, an effort which called for the bag to be emptied three times before it was completed - and that only included the spaces between my room and the bathroom.
I get tired of people creating political statements with everything they can find. Last night Lin and I went to see a school production of Iphigenia, which is about how a Greek general, Agamemnon, sacrificed his own daughter in order to garantee success in the war against Troy. In both the Dramaturg and the Directors notes on the play, they talked about the questions that this play poses to us: Is war justifiable? What sacrifices are worth making in the name of war? Is it not hypocritical to make such sacrifices in the name of 'freedom'?
In the end, the play had elements of these questions, but mostly I would say that it focused on the familial relationships. In fact, the internal debate that Agamemnon went through in deciding whether or not to commit the sacrifice dealt more with the reaction his army would have against him rather than his own patriotism.
But oh well, some people will find a way to connect any two things together if they think it's somehow revealing. I just want to see a good story.
Hmm....I hear what you're saying Andy. But I think in the case of "Iphigenia" it was and always will be a political/philosophical play. Euripides is telling a story, but the political aspects of it are pretty obvious and intentional... I think the problems with the Director/Dramaturg notes is that they're putting their own political agenda into the production, where you should be free to take from it what you want, not take someone's specific political stance on Iraq or whatever when watching a Greek tragedy. Yep!
Posted by: jackattack at October 26, 2003 5:55 PM