Context

so i have been going to the Met Museum to see the Salzburg Marionettes. http://www.marionetten.at/index_e.html thursday i saw 'Don Giovanni,' and last night i saw 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.' both were amazing, but 'AMND' was definitely better. i met a friend who was commenting about another audience member who laughed at practically anything the puppet did. while i agree that maybe it wasn't always appropriate, i am glad that at least SOMEONE was laughing. it was funny! they're puppets! jeez! in the book 'brimstone,' my favorite character is the Holmesian detective Aloysius Pendergast. in repartee with the antagonist, Pendergast espouses his distate for opera, calling it 'the television of its day.' if this is true, then puppet opera must have been the cartoons of its day. the novelty factor is the same. maybe that's why i like puppets, cuz i sure do like cartoons. another thing; reading this book, 'The Power of Babel,' jonathan mcwhorter makes an interesting point. reading shakespeare, english speaking students find the language recognizable, but difficult in its antiquity. but imagine we were italian speaking students. now imagine we were reading a translation of shakespeare. the translater would not utilize early modern italian; they would use modern italian. so we as modern italians would probably have an easier time understanding what the hell was going on. i wish i spoke italian.

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