Othello - Even back then you had to be wary of people with funny names...

If having the main 'bad guy' be named Iago wasn't funny enough, you must also endure what seems like PAGES of 'strumpet', 'villian', and 'fool!' (Evil laughter included). Aside from that, as you can almost expect it from Shakespeare, I found this story to be surprisingly twisted for its 'back-in-the-dayness'. But hey, people were evil then too.

Ok. *deep breath, this will take a little bit to get down* Iago and Roderigo (I know! Poor people, I would be desperate for success too after failing so epically in the name department) break the news to Desdemona's dad about her marrying Othello -the one *African American/Moor* dude working for the government, at two in the morning. Not a happy meeting, but I don't blame him, rage is a common emotion when woken from sound sleep by hoodlems in your street. Iago gets his friend (who wants to marry Desdemona) to bring the father around to Othello's place while he goes to warn Othello. Meanwhile, Turks are planning to attack some city and Othello is about to get orders to leave for a semi-secluded islandy place.

The call to duty overrides crazy dad who thinks Othello bedazzled his daughter with 'Moor Magic' (Tm) and married her before it wore off. Desdemona tells father she isn't retarded or incapacitated, just in love. *cue happy music...or not* So, with love-struck people all around, DD (as we'll call her) simply must go with Othello to this island. Everybody packs up and moves temporarily to the place where, incidentally, they all will die. Iago's wife works for DD as a maid, and despite marrying the devil incarnate, is a fairly nice person. Introduce Cassio: player extrordiaire, expert at kissing his own fingertips (a polite gesture apparently), and a collector of women's hankerchiefs. Cassio got the job Iago wanted, which supposedly sets off this whole plot.

Iago's mastermind plan - 1)Get Cassio in trouble/fired. 2)Tell Othello that DD is sleeping around, particularly with Cassio. 3)Get Cassio to ask DD for help in getting his job back. 4)Get DD's hanky and let Cassio find it. 5)Make Othello think Cassio laughs at both him and DD in his spare time. 6)Get Othello to kill off Cassio and promote Iago. 7)Get rid of Roderigo sometime during or after step 6. 8)Enjoy new job and get rid of everybody nonessential.
Pretty simple actually. Wait, that's a lot of planning for a 'spur of the moment' thing? You didn't think of handkerchiefs either? You don't see the connection between telling Othello to kill DD and yet never wanting to kill her earlier? Well, neither do I. But it's still awesome.

Iago gets Rodrigo to make Cassio attack him, blah blah, riots, fatal injuries, villages in uproar = Cassio fired. Cassio is friends with basically everybody, so he talks to DD and Iago about what to do. Iago hints that DD could help, Cassio asks her, DD declares something along the lines of 'Othello shall never get a moments rest till this conflict is resolved!'. Iago then tells Othello, with fake modesty of course, that he thinks DD and Cassio are secret lovers, and tells him to watch how much DD pleads with him about it. After a scene or two DD drops her hankerchief (apparently its a special gift from Othello) while running after him, trying to fix some problem or another. Emilia (Iago's wife/DD's maid) finds it and, remembering how often her husband had asked her to steal it, decides to give it to Iago. Smart women, eh? I didn't think so.

Upon getting the hanky, Cassio's fate is sealed. Othello threatens to kill Iago if he doesn't give proof, enter Bianca. Bianca is a 'prostitute' who basically stalks Cassio. He makes fun of her all the time though, but still accepts her dinner invite. Iago gets Othello to hide while he talks to Cassio about Bianca -Othello thinks this is about DD. Othello gets all riled up and declares to Iago later that he just wants to kill them all. Bingo! (and all the seniors groaned while muttering about young luck, but still ate their lemon pie...)

Rodrigo is set to kill Cassio on his way to the brothel/Bianca, while Othello is going to kill DD. It's all symbolic and creepy, 'I'll kill her in the same bed she defiled. I'll save her from herself.'. No good. Rodrigo fails...badly...so Iago cuts off one of Cassio's legs from behind. (ooowww!?!?!) Othello sneaks into DD's room and has a little maniac speech before smothering her. He is interrupted by Emilia, who tells him that Rodrigo is dead, and that Cassio isn't much better himself. DD chooses this moment to not be dead and mutter something about being murdered. Emilia calls the others in to keep Othello from escaping. Iago and Cassio comes in (The latter on a stretcher...probably bleeding profusely the whole time) where the plot begins to unravel. Emilia outs Iago, Iago stabs/kills Emilia, Othello eventually stabs/kills himself, and the visitors are pretty confused. I can only imagine -got here three hours ago and already theres a room full of dead people. Questions anyone?

Between all this masterful evilness and the first page are, as I said before, a lot of pages where Othello calls Desdemona a 'strumpet' (basically a whore...nice husband huh?). There is also lots of stabbing, bleeding, yelling, betrayal, drama, confusing meanness, confrontations, and death. Good stuff from my point of view! I never really watched Soap Operas, but I think I got a decade's worth in a few hours with that book. Good Lord, I had to blink a couple times after putting this one down. Just sitting a few seconds to digest all of it.

ENDING POINTS:
+ Iago is one crazy dude, it was also hilarious to hear the people talking about torturing him on the last couple of pages. Like someone as resourceful as Iago wouldn't escape and try this again in Brazil with a fake mustache and a sombrero?
+/- Desdemona is completely clueless this whole time...even after a scene's worth of accusations in the middle of the play between her and Othello. (My husband calling me a prostitute would *kind of* tell me somethings off)
+ Everyone suspects Iago is doing something, but never figures it out, and usually ends up helping in some way.
+ By the end there are three dead people piled up on DD's bed. Just a comical mental picture.
- You never get a clear reason for Iago to ruin all these people's lives.
- If Othello hadn't been so easily swayed, this whole thing would never have happened. One of those 'stories with a moral' things...

Rosemary's Baby - Not what I expected...

After being told by many (three) people that 'Rosemary's Baby' was a good/scary book I decided to raid my local library to see for myself. I've never seen the movie, but books are usually better anyway, unfortunately at this point it may have actually been worth watching instead. I was looking forward to creepy happenings, think 'Poltergeist', and maybe a few demonic possession scenes, but no. Nothing. The only weird thing that happens is when Rosemary gets pregnant in the nightmare/ceremony/whatever where the stalker old people stand around naked holding black candles...which, while worthy of nightmares in itself, is *not* cool for a scary book. Or any book for that matter. Other than the weird nightmare scene its just a whole bunch of old people convincing a gullible pregnant person not to ask questions. She innocently agrees and endure about seven months of non-stop pain. Sadly, she basically believes everything anyone tells her till the last month or so of her pregnancy, which is when she finds out how many people are in the cult. No witch coven extends *that* far. How could ONE coven (cult) take over an entire city of people? Hutch (Rosemary's outside father-figure who is suspicious of the cult people) dies, which is practically the high point of the book, but even that is glossed over and ignored for the most part. You would think someone would notice random people who say there's a cult dying off. You would also assume that would make someone wonder, 'Hmmmm maybe they were right and this really *is* some coven of witch people'. At the end, when you finally get the promise of action and conflict, Rosemary gets sucked into the cult-people's group and everything ends very anticlimactically. The author builds up this whole ending sequence by having her sneak through a secret passage holding a butcher knife ready to kill A) the demon spawn and B) the nutjobs who got her pregnant with the aforementioned evil child, but then she sees the baby and drinks some tea (which is implied to be cursed or something) and decides to just be the baby's mother. She sits there and rocks the baby in it's emo basket and the book ends. Nobody dies, nobody does anything. *sigh*

Ending points:
+ Creepy Idea
+ Semi-good last chapter
+ Good plot twists/Character Reveals
- No actually scary scenes
- Lack of Action
- You may be endlessly frustrated with the level of gullibility Rosemary shows throughout the book