Book-ing and Movie-ing and Think-ing

As I've mentioned before, I'm searching into sounds in Shakespeare's texts. I don't know which aspect to take, really, so I've just been exploring these past few days. How narrow should I be getting, anyway?

So in my adventures, I found some fun toys to play with.

The Sound of Shakespeare, Wes Folkerth. This book talks about "listening as Shakespeare listened," which is something that fascinates me. Shakespeare, according to Folkerth, listened to sounds uncommon, common, and everything in between, and then used his knowledge of people's expectations in his plays to work on people's emotions. I want to get more into this book for sure.

Author's Pen and Actor's Voice: Playing and Writing in Shakespeare's Theater, Robert Weimann. "This study redefines relations between writing and playing... as marked by difference as well as integration in... the production of early modern stages." That's what the back of the book says. I'm trying to see how sound focuses the text, and how it can help interpret the play. There is a section on "Pen and Voice" and the difference between the visual and the auditory. I wish to investigate that aspect.

Shakespeare's Use of Song, Richmond Noble. What is more sound-y than music? What got me started on this focus was reading The Tempest, and seeing all of Ariel's songs. This book has a section that is all about Ariel's songs in that play. Good find? I think so. 

I haven't read all of these texts yet, but I'm getting started on them. All three of these books were written by intelligent people at universities like Oxford and Stanford. AND I found all of them in our library. Did you know that there are tons of books on Shakespeare up there? I got distracted with all of the topics, and actually took note of a few because I knew some of my classmates had related topics.

Anyway, those are some texts that I'm diving into to get some grasp on where to go from here. Also, this weekend, I plan to be watching some adaptations of either Taming of the Shrew (ie, 10 Things I Hate About You, Kiss Me, Kate), or Twelfth Night (ie, She's the Man). If anyone wants to have a party, or owns one of those movies, let me know.