2. Read "Watching the Dance" p. 745 and be ready for a fishbowl discussion about it.
T-F Quiz: remember, don't just repeat what someone else has said. The same piece of evidence can be used for more than one argument.
A. T or F: Moon, the theater critic, is an insecure person.
B. T or F: Birdboot, the theater critic, is an insecure person.
C. T or F: Moon is not intelligent.
D. T or F: Birdboot is genial but self-centered.
E. T or F: There are some odd things about this play so far.
I think that statement D is true. There is no textual evidence that shows that Birdboot does not have a genial disposition however, there is evidence in the stage directions that he is self-centered: "Birdboot: [he has not been paying attention, looking around vaguely, now catches up] Where's Higgs?" He seems to think that Moon's ideas are insignificant and is only focused on his own thoughts. He also laughs at his own jokes and appears to think that his opinion is the only one that matters: "You can't start with a pause! If you want my opinion there's total panic back there. [Laughs and subsides.] Where's Higgs tonight, then?"
ReplyDeleteKatie Taylor
Katie Burch
ReplyDeleteStatement E is true. When the character Moon is talking about his dreams he says, "Sometimes I dream of revolution, a bloody coup d'etat by the second rank-troupes of actors slaughtered by their understudies, magicians sawn in half by indefatigably smiling glamour girls, cricket teams wiped out by marauding bands of twelfth men-..." He continues more of the strange dreams he has. It seems strange to share these dreams outloud. These lines that he says add to the already apparent strangeness of the play.
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ReplyDeleteDain Jung.
ReplyDeletestatement E is true. unlike other plays, 'the real inspector Hound' has unique setting. from the first few lines, we can imagine its setting; 'the first thing is that the audience appear to be confronted by their own reflection in a huge mirror.Impossible', 'Between MOON and the auditorium.' specially, MOON and BIRDBOOT are watching a play with 'real' audience, although they are actors of the play. this kind of setting not only makes audience funny and interested, but also makes us imagine what its hidden meaning is.
I agree with Statement A. This is because Moon continually feels sorry for himself and keeps making it known to Birdboot. When Birdboot first sees Moon there he asks where Higgs is. Moon replys by stating that 'My presence defines his absence, his absence confirms my presence.' This showing that someone else defines Moon, which is showing signs of a person who is insecure. Later on Moon makes the statement 'Here lies Moon the seconde string: Where's Higgs?...Sometimes I dream of a revolution, a bloody coup d'etat by the second rank...' This shows that Moon clearly thinks that he is below Higgs rank which means that he is insecure about himself, escpeically because he continues to compare himself to another person. That is why Statement A is true, and Moon is insecure.
ReplyDeleteStatement E is true. This play contains a lot of absurdist characteristics, such as most the dialogue, at least so far, is told in whispers that would only be appropriate for the setting, which is automatically strange. Birdboot chews a chocolate into the mike, and that's probably not going to be a pleasant sound, and certainly not one you'd imagine hearing at a proper play.
ReplyDeleteStatement E is true because these men are having a conversation, yet they aren't getting anywhere. There discussion is scattered, and seems to have no meaning. "Perhaps he's dead at last, or trapped, or trapped in a lift somewhere, or succumbed to amnesia, wandering the land with his turn-ups stuffed with ticket-stubs"..."Yes...Yes, well I didn't bring Myrtle tonight-not exactly her cup of tea, I thought, tonight." Both Moon and Birdboot are speaking, but it seems that they are having completely different conversations, a little odd if you ask me!
ReplyDeleteStatement E is true. Little things such as "Have a chocolate!" make me believe this story is very odd. Moon did not accept the chocolates called Black Magic. I find this very odd. The talk of magic had appeared throughout the text. For example when Moon described his dream of a revolution. "Magicians sawn in half by indefatigably smiling glamour girls". I believe that Moon is afraid of magic and I do not know why. Also most of the things Moon says are scary for me.
ReplyDeleteStatement B is true because for the duration of what I have read Moon seems to be keeping his head on straight, and not wanting to deal with Birdboot. Birdboot on the other hand, seems insecure. He can never keep his attention set to what Moon says. And when Moon seems to give just the littlest implication of him cheating, by saying, “I suppose you’ve made dozens of them, like that.” Birdboot replies with, “I’ll have you know I’m a family man devoted to my homely but good-natured wife, and if you’re suggesting-”
ReplyDelete-Katherine Nemetz
Statement C: False
ReplyDeleteI find Moon to be very intelligent. At first moon seems to be very reserved, maybe even a bit pompous with the way he coldly treats BirdBoot. But his reserved nature I later realized was not that, but the fact that he was lost in contemplation, he seems to be questioning the normalcy of society. Shown in the passage where he "dreams of a revolution." He begins verbalizing how great it would be for the world to become topsy turvy, he craves a change, something real. His pensive nature to me appears very intelligent.
Statement D is not true. There is no sentence that is showing us that Birdboot is genial. I would say he's almost opposite of genial. On p.1059, birthhood keeps asking a same question to Moon.Because he was not listening to Moon. It said, (he has not been paying attention, looking around vaguely, now catches up). This sentence is describing his behavior while Moon is talking. I would say he is a kind of rude and impolite character. But, I agree with part of the statement which is saying that he is self centered. According to the sentence, he is definitely a self centered character.
ReplyDeleteStatement E is true. The play is definitely odd so far, but the 3/4 of a page stage direction that starts the show starts the trend. For example, the statement "he turns over the page and reads" is repeated 3 times. Why not just say it happens three times? Also there is Moon's monologue with one line being: "Sometimes I dream of revolution, a bloody coup d'etat by the second rank-troupes of actors slaughtered by their understudies, magicians sawn in half by indefatigably smiling glamour girls, cricket teams wiped out by marauding bands of twelfth men-" To continue this strange pattern, Birdboot responds to the monologue with "have a chocolate!"
ReplyDeleteSo far I think there is sufficient evidence to say this play is odd. I don't even understand the whole first stage direction.
Statement E is true. I agree with Angie about the 3/4 page long stage directions in the begining, but I also think that it is weird that there is a body laying on the floor, and it is unclear why it is there and neither character has fully acknowledged it more than in a stage direction, "they look at it. the room. the body. silence". It is odd that we as the reader dont know if they actually see the body. If they do see the body, it is weird that they don't immediately talk about it. If I walked into a room and there was a body on the floor, i would want to talk about it. I would be very worried and ask a zillion questions. Do they know about the body? Is the body dead? If the body is dead and they arent talking about it, do they know why the body is dead?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Angie's statement. Statement D is very true. I have never seen stage directions written the way it is in "The Real Inspector Hound". The first stage directions are: "The first thing is that the audience appear to be confronted by their own reflection in a huge mirror. Impossible." ...what? The purpose of a stage direction is to guide the director to create what the author has envisioned, so it makes no sense that the author would give an impossible stage direction and write so casually. If that isn't odd, I don't know what is!
ReplyDeleteE is true because the conversation Moon and Birdboot have are very queer. Everytime BirdBoot asks, "where's Higgs," Moon completely ignores him. It's as if they're face to face but not talking to each other. Birdboot doesn't even care when Moon completely ignores him. He doesn't seem mad at the fact that Moon isn't answering him so it's really weird.
ReplyDeleteI think statement B is true. Birdboot seems like an insecure person to me.Atleast he is the more insecure of the two of them. He needs to follow moon's lead and seems very jittery and uneasy, 'Behind him is a crackle of a chocolate-box, absurdly loud'. He is unsure about the situation around him and turns to Moon for the answers 'Has it started yet?', 'Are you sure?'.
ReplyDeleteMoon is not intelligent.
ReplyDeleteIt is kind of obvious that moon isn’t that intelligent due to the way he jumps topics very abruptly or in his manner of saying stuff. “Here lies moon the second string: where’s Higgs?...sometimes I dream of revolution, a bloody coup d’ etat.” these very quick changes in topic shows that he doesn’t have a very big attention span. And that he doesn’t have much intelagence.
E. True.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand anything that's going on.
(Trevor)
Statement C is false.
ReplyDeleteMoon is very intelligent. He comes across as a sarcastic smart ass. He rambles on too much and likes to hear himself speak, but he does come out with some particularly good points. He speaks about how he "dreams of a revolution", "troupes of actors getting slaughtered by their understudies". I found this quite hilarious. Its shows that he has the intellectuality to ponder over things, however random they are.