Flashback on March – Hello April

Tags

Africa Reading Challenge, Ama Ata Aidoo, Back to the Classics Challenge 2012, Doctor Faustus (play), Flashback, Poetry, The Classic Club

Flashback on March

One too soon, March has sailed by, and April has landed. Hmm. Looking back I didn’t do too badly for March at all, oh yes. For starters, I got my blog in good shape, thanks to Nana Awere Damoah, switching from blog.com to WordPress. (Kinna was so busy) And then the poet in me reared its beautiful head and there I was, playing at poetry. Long ago in Aburi Girls Secondary School (now it is Senior High) I used to write poems for my avid followers of a classmate, which they devoured voraciously. And then, for some reason after we left school, all that vim fizzled out and other not so savory pursuits took over. But never say never! And so, here I am, playing poetry which some people think they like well enough to keep the encouraging words flowing and for me to keep playing at poetry.

And the book reviews? Though I promised in February to pay more attention to reading and reviewing especially for the challenges I had entered, hmm, don’t go there. I could review only Changes, by Ama Ata Aidoo for the Africa Reading Challenge hosted by Kinna Reads, The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe, for the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much and Excursions in my Mind from my TBR pile. Frankly, I admire fellow bloggers like Geosi and ImageNations who just seem to churn out review after review. I wonder at their reading rate and pace! When I read their reviews, which I do often, then I am like Celestine, are you serious? Ha ha ha! But this is no race. It’s all fun and learning, right?

Even, though I could not do lots of reviews, I blogged avidly, visiting other blogs and commenting here and there. Maybe I should do less of that, so I can get down to the business of reading and reviewing.

Sunshine Blogger Award

On a good note, I was the recipient of the Sunshine Blogger Award, having been nominated by Nicole of bareyournakedtruth.

The Classics Club

In March, I became a member of The Classics Club, hosted by Jillian of A Room of One’s Own, where I have pledged to read 50+ plus Classics for the next five years. Pretty steep? This brings to three the number of Challenges I’ve joined.

My statistics for the Challenges are a downer, though:

Africa Reading Challenge            1/5

Back to the Classics Challenge   1/9

The Classics Club:                      0/51

2012 Reading Challenge            0/50  (This is something I’m doing for myself, to read as many books as I can for 2012, outside, the three challenges I’ve signd up for.)

 

Hello April

So, Welcome April and do promise me that you will be a more productive and inspiring month, will you?

April will be dedicated to playing more at poetry (April being the month of poetry I read somewhere) and catching up on my reading and reviewing for the challenges. I will also start to read more African authors on my own, (outside of the challenges) at least the modern ones I’m not familiar with (Not to sound boastful I’ve read quite a huge number of African authors both classic and contemporary in the recent and not so recent past when I hadn’t started blogging and I find it a bit lazy to go back and re-read them for reviewing this time.) I may end up posting on these if I find time.

I won’t say much, for fear I’m not able to deliver, though, because I want my blog to do the talking for me so my dear friends out there do visit more than you have done for your reading pleasure. Ciao!

Review –Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Tags

Aristotle, Back to the Classics Challenge 2012, Christopher Marlowe, Elizabethan era, Morality plays, Plays, Shakespeare, tragedy

This is a review of Doctor Faustus, a Classic play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is also in response to the Back to the Classics Challenge 2012 hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much.

Doctor Faustus,  the protagonist in the play was born in the town of Rhodes in Germany. He grew up in Wittenberg and attended the best schools including the university where he excelled in scholarly achievements and obtained his doctor of letters degree in divinity and matters of theology. He studied the bible and other religious books and could quote the Bible with an ease that surpassed that of a Priest. He was also well versed in the Humanities, Sciences and Philosophy and was familiar with the works of Aristotle, the Greek Philosopher and his contemporaries. Doctor Faustus was so brilliant and famous over Germany and much respected for his exceptional acumen.

However, Doctor Faustus grew pompous as his fame spread. This in itself was not unusual. Great scholars the world over who have attained the heights of their scholarship, are noted for what is termed academic ego and so being egoistic and ambitious was expected of him. In Faustus case what made his ego so mind-numbing was that he was guilty of the sin of hubris, pride against the gods.

Doctor Faustus, in his arrogance, equated himself with God, if not above Him,  and for one who was conversant with the tenets of the Bible started to dabble in necromancy. Through a blood pact with Lucifer himself, he sold his soul to him in order to again more wealth, power and control of the universe. Christopher Marlowe depicts Faustus as a foolish man whose thirst for knowledge bordered on the insane; for with the power granted him by Lucifer, he was not able to do much except to indulge in debauchery and foolishness.

“But leaving this, let me have a wife, the fairest maid in Germany, for I am wanton and lascivious and cannot live without a wife” Act one Scene Five Lines 144-145

Faustus also used the power to conjure up spirits who were at his beck and call to supply him with women and good food and wine. He overreached himself in his pomposity, arrogance and hubris, so much that the heavens themselves or fate or destiny brought down his fall.

“swollen with self conceit of a self-conceit, His waxen wings did mount above his reach, And melting, heavens conspired his overthrow. For falling to a devilish exercise, And glutted now with learning golden gifts, He surfeits upon cursed necromancy (Chorus: Lines 20-26)

By curtain call, Faustus had gone stark raving mad and the devils tore him up from limb to limb, scattering his remains for all to see.

Doctor Faustus, as already said is a Five-Act morality play that teaches Christian virtues as against vices; thus in the play we have characters with names like Good Angel and Evil Angel who acts as Faustus’ conscience. We also have the vices, Pride, Envy, Covetousness, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth and Lechery who parade their trades before Faustus to feed his soul. Mephistopheles, the right hand man of Lucifer is always on hand to ensure that Faustus does not stray from his chosen path of destruction.

I think the message of Christopher Marlowe who was considered a great playwright in the class of Shakespeare, is the essence of man in the light of his gaining all but losing his soul to the devil.  At the end of the day, all is vanity. The fallibility or infallibility of man depends on the one flaw in his character that is likely to be a causative factor.

The language of the play is old English, but easy to understand and one cannot fail to wonder at the arrogance of Faustus whose speeches refer to himself in the first person singular narrative and in his own name.. The themes explored in the play are done in a humorous manner that belies the absurdities of Faustus.

Doctor Faustus is classified as a tragedy. Set in the 18^th Century Elizabethan era, the play is an example of the definition of tragedy as outlined by Aristotle. According to the definition, tragedy or tragic situations can only occur to a man born of high repute, rise so high up, attain so high up, and achieve so high up to become master over all he surveys. Such a man must have a basic flaw in his nature or character that will make him fall from that pinnacle. And in most cases, that flaw must be of hubristic proportions, pride against the gods.

The Greek playwright, Sophocles explored this basic theme in his Oedipus where the fallibility of the protagonist was attributed to his harsh and rash temper.

Shakespeare also explores this basic theme in his tragedies, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth Coriolanus, etc.

Arthur Miller, the 20th Century American playwright contrasted Aristotle’s definition of tragedy in his classic play Death of a Salesman when he opines the tragedy of the Common Man as opposed to tragedy relating to a man of high of birth..

I will recommend Doctor Faustus to anybody who loves Elizabethan drama/literature.

Wonderful Wednesday

Tags

Africa Reading Challenge, Back to the Classics Challenge 2012, IPS., Kinna Reads, Lists

Hello, I just had an interesting visit from Kinna of Kinna Reads, right in my office at IPS. She is a very good friend and we go back a long way. She is helping to welcome me into the world of book bloggers. Yeah, I’m still learning and it’s been an interesting hour and a half. I know what you’re thinking, yes, that long. We were so engrossed, I mean I was so keen on all the good bits she had to offer that we lost track of the time. Thanks, Kinna for the gems. Old friends are the best.

I am tidying up my list for the Back to the Classics Challenge 2012 and Africa Reading Challenge, hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much and Kinna Reads respectively. You won’t believe it, I had to scout through an old chop box from secondary school days, rummaging for precious books for both challenges. Below are my two lists for the Challenges. Mind you , these are provisional:

Back to the Classics Challenge 2012

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus  by Christopher Marlowe    –  Classic Play

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy   –  19th Century Classic/Classic Romance

Dracula by Bram Stoker  –  Classic Horror/Mystery/Crime Fiction

Enemy Within  by Steve Jacobs  –  20th Century Classic

Nicholas II, The Last of the Tsars by Marc Ferro – (Non-Fiction) – Classic set somewhere you are unlikely to visit (That’s it for now. More will be added later)

Africa Reading Challenge

Chaka by Thomas Mofolo (translated by Daniel P Kunene) – South Africa-Non Fiction

Distant View of a Minaret by Alisa Riffat – North Africa – Fiction

Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo – West Africa – Fiction

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Amos Tutuola – West Africa-Fiction

Weep Not Child  by Ngugi Wa’ Thiong’o- East Africa – Fiction

Currently I’m reading Tales from Different Tails by Nana Awere Damoah, for review. The book has been on my TBR list since I was given a complimentary copy for review by the author. So, dear friends, look out for the review of this book very soon. Ciao!