On Islamic Facial Covering

You know, it's strange. As supportive as I am of hijab, even to the degree to which it is usually taken in the Twin Cities Somali community, I have to admit that once a facial covering is added I start feeling some of the reactions I hear from many Westerners. It's like... Covering the body so modestly that no arms or legs or hair is showing is okay, even a bit enviable (except for maybe the hair bit). But it's like... Once you cover the face, that's when what you're hiding is their humanity. Their personality. Certainly, it's not like their personality goes away when you cover the face, but how do you have a conversation with someone you can't even see? Whose facial expressions you can't interpret? I guess the point is that if two women or a woman and a male family member want to talk face-to-face, they can do so when they get back home.
On the other end of the spectrum, I can't really see the point of wearing modest clothing and a scarf if you're going to wear make-up.

The Klingon Falstaff

Curious about how the "original Klingon" portrayed Falstaff, I did a google search, and found this interesting message in the archives of the Shakespeare Electronic Conference newsgroup:

From: Ellen Edgerton <ebedgert@suadmin.bitnet>
Date: Friday, 08 Jul 1994 10:35 ET
Subject: *The Tragedy of Iago*

A few days ago I posted about the "Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project" I discovered on Gopher. I've since been in contact with someone who is interested in translating more of the plays from a Klingon POV. It seems that *Othello* in particular might have a rather skewed reading by the typical Klingon critic or audience: it would only make dramatic sense to Klingons if it were called *The Tragedy of Iago*, about a noble warrior named Iago who must struggle to kill his captain, Othello, who has clearly shown himself too dishonorable for command.

Klingons (for those unfamiliar with Star Trek) are a warrior race who value honor, duty, single-mindedness, battle prowess, ambition, boasting, and rather disgusting food. The best thing that can happen to a Klingon is to die in battle against an enemy; the worst thing that can happen is to be taken alive by the enemy and not executed. In discussing the "Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project" we tried to fathom which of Shakespeare's plays would be most popular or interesting to this fictional Klingon audience -- sort of a hypothetical "Shakespeare in the Bush" exercise. *Othello* struck me as the one play which would mean something totally opposite to a Klingon audience than to a human (Western, Eurocentric) audience. Iago, to Klingon audiences and critics, would even have a tragic flaw -- his willingness to destroy Othello through clever schemes rather than outright force (Klingons value intelligence, but not when force is a viable alternative). He suffers what is to Klingons a terrible end -- he is captured at the end by his enemies and presumably not executed (at least not on stage). To Klingons, Iago might be as compelling and controversial a figure as Hamlet.

One could translate *Othello* (rather, *The Tragedy of Iago*) in a bowdlerized Klingon version (a few scenes cut, others a bit transposed etc.) to "restore" the play to a version that would be popular and interesting to a Klingon audience. Other possibilities include the uproarious comedy *King Lear*, the stirring conquest story *Henry V* (not much bowdlerization in store for THAT one), and the Henriad featuring that vilest of all Shakespearean villains, Jack Falstaff...

Not sure how close this comes to Disney and Shakespeare,

Ellen Edgerton
Syracuse University

The King Lear line really makes me want to hurry up and get to that play.

(And for those unfamiliar with the character, here's the quote that made me particularly curious:
Well, ’tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? How then? Can honour set-to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word “honour”? What is that “honour”? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. ’Tis insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.
(V.i.129–139))

Isn't it great to know we'll just be getting more and more of this?

I downloaded Innocence off of iPodTVNova.com (turned out to be the UK dub), and I have to say, beautiful music and detailed art aside, this movie has way too much obvious 3D CG. Jury's still out on how the plot compares to the first movie, esp. as I'm only half-way through it.

[EDIT: I've got one for you. Guess how 五右衛門 is read? ごえもん. I can't remember what you call that sort of reading, but they never cease to baffle me.
However, I finally realized why 井上 is read いのうえ after seeing someone's name listed as 井ノ上. I had always thought のうえ was just some obscure reading of 上.
Also, the AP recording is going... uniquely... today. Ichigo's computer seems to keep crapping out, but luckily no data is being lost. I swear, they've already had to re-record an entire show twice this month.]

[EDIT 2: I've been working on fixing my different stroke order/length on 左 and 右, and it's harder than I thought it would be. I should have been better about keeping good habits on those two.]

[EDIT 3: "Batou, always remember, whenever you access the net, I'll be there, by your side." Wow, it's just as corny as "Grandma will always be with us. Right here." *point to the person's chest* Only maybe a bit more real.
Ugh, Togusa's daughter is really... Ugly. Like, you know how many characters in Oshii films have this very characteristic... Oshii-ness to them? And then the other half are more normal? She's got the Oshii-characteristic ugly. Which I never would have expected out of Togusa's daughter, or really any young girl.]