No one ever does it

Hello world, it has been a long time between drinks, hasn't it? So much has changed over the last how ever many month it has been. The big change, though, is that I no longer have the website Planet Art.

I am embarking on a new adventure and I do not have enough energy to pay enough attention to both, so the website had to go.  Why such a big decision? Well, it is because I am finally about to commence the Masters in Writing for Performance!  We are in orientation week right now, and as of Monday the real journey will begin.

I have been chaffing with a desperate urge to get started, but today I realised I don't have to wait for classes to begin in order to begin my studies.  Yesterday we got our course outlines and it occurred to me this afternoon that I actually needed to start doing the reading to be prepared for classes! Kind of obvious I know, but it really hadn't pierced by brain until now.

Luckily the Uni Melb library is phenomenal and you don't even have to borrow a hard copy book, you can read an e-version on line!  So much easier.

So today I read Hedda Gabler which will be one of the reference texts for a unit called Dramaturgy, Text, and Performance.  Hamlet is also on the list, but I have read and seen that play quite a few times so I am not going to bother refreshing.

I was surprised to realise I hadn't read Hedda Gabler before, but it's true.  Overall it is a good play. Not Ibsen's best, but some really fascinating characters and ideas in it.  I have heard it referred to as a play about the repression of women, and to a certain degree that is true, but for me it is more about people not doing what they say they are going to do. There is something of that in Tesman's book which has not yet been written. It is in the threat of him not getting the appointment he had been promised. It is in Loevborg's lack of ability to maintain sobriety, or even to commit suicide. It is even in Hedda's marriage.  For me, the telling moment is the final statement in the play when Judge Bracks says something along the lined of 'noone ever really does it'.

The next time you find yourself saying "if this happens, I will......" ask yourself if you really mean it.  The answer is most likely no.