3:10pm, Ray, Jessica, Chris, Viola, and Kristine were in the chatroom.
(Christine got permission for a sick leave.)

Ray said:
Hi, everyone, welcome.

Ray said:
Carol, Christine, George, and Celine are not here yet.

Ray said:
Have you guys had a chance to watch the interview with the composer about the music she wrote for MND?

Kristine said:
Yes!
I saw the production several years ago.

Ray said:
A one-hour video is online now.

Ray said:
Let me explain: I interviewed Huini Chang who is a composer here in Taiwan.  
She wrote incidental music for a production of the play in 1999 at National University of the Arts.
Right  now there are many new materials online about MND, including two videoclips from movies.

Carol joined the discussion.

Ray said:
I had planned to talk about the music in the play during this chat
but I don't think that will be possible now
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/iacd_2003S/shakespeare/lecture/plays/midsummer_night3/index.htm

Ray said:
Let's begin to talk about one of the songs
It's a song by the fairies in II.ii.9-23
Offer your comments and views on the fairies' song.

Kristine said:
The song in the animation is from Mendelssohn?

Ray said:
Jessica, what are your thoughts about this song?

Jessica said:
I am entering our EngSite to check the video. 

Ray said:
(No, Kristine, it's not; I will be putting Mendelssohn's version online soon, as well as a version by Benjamen Britten.)

Carol said:
snakes, hedge-hogs, worms, spiders....

Ray said:
You guys must look at the video, but if you haven't looked at it yet, you can view later.

Ray said:
now let's talk about the text of the song and generated your views of it
Chris and Viola, can you comment on the song?

Kristine said:
The song in the film version is quite exotic.

Jessica said:
the song implies a double image and a possible transformation.

Chris said:
I'm curious about the images of snake, spider . . . . . they are viewed as evil and it's alright (they are always evil in literature)
What impress me is their "double" tongue

Carol said:
and the spider is "weaving" intertangled lines....

Chris said:
and the image of dobuleness with snake also shows up to describe lysander in Hermia's dream

Ray said:
Why would the fairies be singing about snakes, hedgehogs, worms, etc?

Jessica said:
Is it an irony, Ray?

Chris said:
precisely, the transformations (either the fairy song, Hermia's dream or Bottom) happens in the characters' dreams (or they later interpret it as a dream)

Ray said:
no, I hope you will say more about the doubleness and transformation

Chris said:
and they deal with "doubleness", too

Jessica said:
The song celebrates a kind of " desire" , which should be liberated.

Ray said:
Chris and Jessica made great comments about the doubleness
Let's pick it up from there.

Jessica said:
I think the song is sung by fairies in the woods, a place of disorder, where identities can be temporarily lost.

Ray said:
You may now organize your thoughts and please say more about the song by the fairies in II.ii.9-23
it's probably on page 265

Jessica said:
For instance, according to the note on page 264, Philomele was transformed into a nightingale. This kind of transformation happens frequently in the woods.

Kristine said:
Does transformation mean disorder?

Carol said:
snakes will shed their skins, which is a kind of transformation...double tongue may imply the ambiguety of language in this play....thorny hedges can be thorn-less like a ball when it wants to disguise....blind worms can live in water and land...

Jessica said:
The animal images here provide some biblical images, for instance, the blind worms and the spiders are thought to be dangerous and poisonous.

Chris said:
not all of these transformations mentioned are positive and pleasant . . . . does it suggest that some transformation are good and some are not?

Jessica said:
"you spotted snakes with double tongue" , the image of snake is a kind of subversive power that can overthrow the order.

Chris said:
but the snake also can foreshadow the intrigue played by Oberon/Puck to trick Titania. Does it mean that Oberon (or what he did in the play) is "disorder"?

Carol said:
spider is weaving nets....a trap but a necessary means of survival...beetle and snail have shells...that can protect (active) and hide (passive)... 

Carol said:
certainly Oberon is disturbing the original order of people and things....

Jessica said:
Chris, I think Oberon and Theseus are the two orders of the two worlds but we can find that the order they try to maintain is a failure.

Chris said:
but he is also the one to make disorder into order....isn't it . . . .ambiguous?

Carol said:
and the way he does it is by natural/supernatural power (herbal juice) and by illuion (Puck's tricks)...

Ray said:
What is the purpose of this song? Why is it being sung?

Viola said:
But the fairies are singing to protect their queen from attack from a snake. The snake may not a knid of subversive power. and I agree with Chris. The snake is a symbol of Oberon

Carol said:
ha Chris I like the "disorder-order" maker idea...

Jessica said:
Yes, I agree with you, Chris. that's why the binary opposition is collapsed.

Carol said:
the purpose is to protect, to warn and to resist...

Ray said:
Good, Viola you answered the question.

Carol said:
the funny thing is that the song seems to achieve the opposite effect....the spell and charm do invade the woods...

Ray said:
I like the direction of our discussion.

You have been talking about the "doubleness" and now the binary oppositions in the play. Can you say more about this and afterward connect this with the song?

Chris said:
as what I mentioned, the image of snake shows up in Hermia's dream too

Jessica said:
I think it is interesting that the song is thought to be a " comfort song" to calm the queen down, but ironically, Oberon appears afterwards immediately.

Chris said:
this snake in Fairy song has double tongue and that snake in Hermia's dream stand for different two positions of Lysander 

Jessica said:
Binary opposition: the song creates a peaceful and dangerous atmosphere at the same time.

Carol said:
so the doubleness, the existences of the opposites are fundamentl...so is the transformation...no one can escape from the possibilities of a new, strange identities, no matter how it is different from your original self....Titania wishes to remain in her fairy world but in fact the opposite power is on the way to change her "nature"..

Kristine said:
Yes, can that be seen the initiation of blurring the binary opposition, and after it the process of transformation begins

Chris said:
before the sleep, Lysander wants to stay close to Hermia and he seems to be a quite sexual being that might invade her virginity, that is, the snake-like invader

Ray said:
In his report about the play, Marc talked about the binary opposition in the play. He talked about the man/woman code being unstable.

Ray said:
Yes, Jessica, this song is both a "comfort song" (a lullaby) and a foreshadowing of future conflicts

Viola said:
There is an irony in the scene. The fairies sing that "Nor spell, nor charm, / Come our lovely lady nigh." But Oberon squeezes flower on Titania's eyelids. And the ambiguity here is disorder can also be regarded as order. From Titania and her fairies, the song is a "comfort song" (as Jessica says). 

Viola said:
And Oberon's performance is an interference. But, from Oberon's side, his doing is to make all things in order. 

Ray said:
Good, Viola, the play has much to say about discord and concord, about disorder and order. This song connects to other important themes in the play. 

Kristine said:
But even himself is limited. He is not the ultimate one who maintains the order.

Jessica said:
I would focus on the binary opposition in this play, not only in this song, hope you won't get confused.

Chris said:
Oberon's motif to trick Titania is to get that boy back, prevent him from involving in women (the queen)'s world

Chris said:
can I say that Oberon is trying to restore the proper position of that boy, putting him into male society, preventing him from being the female society?

Kristine said:
To fit him into the patriarchal order?

Chris said:
if so, Oberon actually try to maintain the order (the order of male society) that he must restore the male member (the boy) from the fist of female

Jessica said:
I think the binary opposition shows in the settings, Athen a place of law and order vs. the Woods a place of disorder. However, it is quite interesting that the power of the order does not work at all because the power of disorder has destroyed its rule.

Ray said:
Chris also wrote about this in his report. Good

Chris said:
well, I may suggest that even in the wood there is similar order like Athens . . . that is, the order of male bound (or say, patriarchy) 

Carol said:
well that will be reasonable in this male-dominant play....each male character is trying to take control and claim their power...

Ray said:
Viola, can you say more about based on your journal about order and disorder?

Chris said:
both Theseus and Oberon in some drgrees are the same about the idea of their control

Viola said:
I'm not sure Oberon's motif is to make the boy to live in a male-order society. I think the reason why Oberon wants to have the boy is that he is jealous.

Jessica said:
Or, another binary opposition collapsed I found in this play is the role Puck plays. He is a character without particular shape or existence, he is everywhere but nowhere, furthermore, his gender is unidentified.

Kristine said:
Cause the boy represent the connection between Titania, the female bond. It is the threat to Oberon's male dominance.

Kristine said:
Yes, he seems to the outsider who promotes the action but does not involve in. 

Chris said:
the motif is debatable (yet, I still suggest that Oberon wants the boy because of patriarchy so that Oberon doesn't want to risk of giving up the boy into the women's control) The action of Oberon "symbolically" (it;s this word proper?) declare the male bond and patriarchic society

Kristine said:
The boy becomes the battlefield of their power struggle?

Ray said:
(Just an advertisement: in the video for June 2, the second guest speaker Doris Chang will talk about her production. Very interestingly, in her play, she has "twin Pucks" which are played by two actors.)

Carol said:
sure, Theseus is claiming a position as a conqueror/husband and a law keeper; Egeus obviously wants his absolute father figure; Oberon also desires to rule over Titania and be the king of the woods... 

Ray said:
You were talking earlier about the binary oppositions in the play. The play never fully resolves them. When Hippolyta, Thesius, and Egeus are out hunting, with their hunting dogs, they meet the lovers at the edge of the woods. While the dogs are barking and their baying is echoing from the mountains, Thesius talks about "the musical confusion / Of hounds and echo in conjunction" (IV.i.105-6). 

Viola said:
In my journal, I think there is a counterbalance between Theseus and Hippolyta. And I think maybe there is also a similar counterbalance between Oberon and Titania. In the beginning of the play, we can see that Titania has her own fairies while Oberon has his. Order or disorder depends who wins in game of power struggles.

Ray said:
Hippolyta responds by saying "I never heard / So musical a discord, such sweet thunder." She points out the discord amid concord. Also Thesius after watching the mechanicals' performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe" asks, "How shall we find the concord of this discord? (v.1.60)

Ray said:
This song that we were talking about earlier is thematically important in the play. Doris Chang, our next guest speaker, has written a paper about this lullaby. Her paper is available already on our site, and tonight the interview with her will be posted here:

http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/iacd_2003S/shakespeare/lecture/plays/midsummer_night4/index.htm

Let's meet here in the chatroom again on Monday. Come prepared to talk about Doris's paper, her director's notes, and her interview "From Page to Stage." 
We should also discuss more about Huini Chang and you should also watch the video of my interview with her.
Also, post another online journal about either the interview with Huini or the interview with Doris.

End of Discussion. May 30, 2003