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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Dahlia Adler
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March 16 - April 19, 2021
SEVERE WEATHER WARNING Inspired by The Tempest Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick, Yet with my nobler reason ’gainst my fury Do I take part. The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance. —ACT 5, SCENE 1 O brave new world, That has such people in ’t! —ACT 5, SCENE 1
Title and inspiration for story #5
Sam lingers in the doorway. “Should I call you, or did you only kiss me ‘just because’?” He studies my expression. I roll my eyes. “Call me,” I say, “and we’ll find out.”
That is so cute.
SHIPWRECKED Inspired by Twelfth Night Mark Oshiro Oh, time, thou must untangle this, not I. It is too hard a knot for me to untie! —VIOLA, ACT 2, SCENE 2
Title and inspiration for #2
TAMING OF THE SOUL MATE Inspired by The Taming of the Shrew K. Ancrum No shame but mine. I must, forsooth, be forced To give my hand, opposed against my heart, Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen; Who wooed in haste and means to wed at leisure. I told you, I, he was a frantic fool, Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior, And to be noted for a merry man, He’ll woo a thousand, ’point the day of marriage, Make friends invite, and proclaim the banns; Yet never means to wed where he hath wooed. Now must the world point at poor Katherine … —KATHERINE, ACT 3, SCENE 2
Title and inspiration for story number 3.
“My name is Petrucio,” he said firmly. “And I’m your fucking soul mate.”
This is a bold statement dude.
“Maybe it’s someone out there in the hallway. Maybe it took a second for the colors to kick in and my soul mate is waiting for me outside.”
I really love this quote.
“We would be if you weren’t so self-centered,” Petrucio said. “Even if you don’t care about your sister’s feelings, I definitely care about Lucentio’s, and you’re not going to wreck this for him.”
I love Katherine as a character but this quote really sums her up perfectly.
“Why do you hate men, anyway? Bianca said you don’t date girls either, so what gives? Are you asexual? I have a cousin who’s asexual…”
I’m highlight this quote for the Kiss Me Kate reference!
“It’s not that,” she said finally.
“It’s not that I don’t … like … men. It’s more that I don’t have time for them right now. I wanted to focus on school then focus on my career. Most people don’t meet their soul mates until they’re in their late twenties or early thirties. I should have had more time. And I wanted to be the one to choose my partner. I wanted to be able to meet someone and work together to build a relationship. Not have instant love tell me what I was going to do and who I should trust. It doesn’t seem fair.”
This is such a valid reasoning and I’m glad to see it in this story.
“The entire concept of soul mates is gross, so I’m unsurprised.” Katherine snorted.
began to speak again, his voice didn’t have any tears in it. “You know, we can do this however we want. We can pretend we’re not soul mates until we can announce this at a better time. We’re basically strangers, Katherine. The only thing we owe each other, really, is consideration. I know you’ve got a lot of stuff going on and that this wasn’t a part of your plan, and I respect that.”
“You would let me go? Just … let me do what I want?” Katherine asked, leaning closer. It was an unusual offer. Not unheard of, but certainly not traditional. “Yes!” Petrucio cried. “I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me. We don’t have to … you know. Be a couple. We can just be partners or companions. Or not even that, if you don’t want. But whatever we pick, it’s ours to choose. Just because we … just because…”
Highlighting this because I think more people should think this way.
Katherine thought for a while. “I want … to be respected. To be loved by someone who won’t tie me down and force me to do things I don’t want to do. I want to be independent
but know that I have someone to come home to. I want to be myself and to not be mocked.”
Good for you Katherine
Well, come, my Kate. We will unto your father’s Even in these honest mean habiliments. Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich; And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, So honor peereth in the meanest habit. What, is the jay more precious than the lark Because his feathers are more beautiful? Or is the adder better than the eel Because his painted skin contents the eye? O no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse For this poor furniture and mean array. If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me. —PETRUCHIO, ACT 4, SCENE 3
I’m just highlighting all the original quotes.
KING OF THE FAIRIES Inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream Anna-Marie McLemore That very time I saw (but thou couldst not) Flying between the cold moon and the Earth, Cupid all armed. A certain aim he took At a fair vestal thronèd by the west, And loosed his love shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts. But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon, And the imperial votaress passèd on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell: It fell upon a little western flower, Before milk-white,
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Title and inspiration for Story #4
“King of the Fairies,” he orders, and the court raises its cheer, hailing the king and his choice of song. Titania gives him a fond smile. But I remember when they glared at each other so keenly, I thought their eyes would leave wounds. “Floria,” Titania calls to me, a laugh tinkling through her voice.
I think this is very much the vibes of Mid Summer and I’m glad it was included.
“Did they want you, too?” I ask. “To keep you.” “Hardly.” Narciso laughs. “I am the bastard son of a mortal father and a fairy from another wood. My mother feared the wrath of her own fairy king, little better than the one you know, and so I was raised by that mortal father and the mortal woman he later married. She loved me as her own when the mother who bore me could not.”
I love knowing more about this boy.
The king doth keep his revels here to-night: Take heed the queen come not within his sight; For Oberon is passing fell and wrath Because that she, as her attendant hath A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king; She never had so sweet a changeling; And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; But she perforce withholds the loved boy, Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy: And now they never meet in grove or green, By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen. —PUCK, ACT 2, SCENE 1
Source material.
Alongside trans fairy prince Narciso, a character of my own making, I wanted as many pairings from the original text as I could manage. What if Helena and Hermia wanted each other far more than they wanted Demetrius and Lysander and the whole pining affair was just for show? What if Bottom enjoyed Quince bossing him around? What if Puck’s devotion stemmed more from being Oberon’s lover than his subject? And what if Titania’s and Oberon’s marriage is far more political than personal?
I love this section of the author’s note.
If these pages have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here While this retelling did appear.
And this brown and queerest theme, No more yielding but a dream.
I love this so much.
WE HAVE SEEN BETTER DAYS Inspired by As You Like It Lily Anderson Oliver: Can you tell if Rosalind, the duke’s daughter, be banished with her father? Charles: O no; for the duke’s daughter, her cousin, so loves her, being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her. She is at the court, and no less beloved of her uncle than his own daughter, and never two ladies loved as they do. Oliver: Where will the old duke live? Charles: They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like
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Story 5 Title and quote of inspiration.
“Percy Jackson lied to us,” I told Cece the year the ceramics hut burned down. “Maybe camp is only good if your parents are gods,” she said.
I loved at the Percy Jackson reference
SOME OTHER METAL Inspired by Much Ado About Nothing A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy Leonato: Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. Beatrice: Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. —ACT 2, SCENE 1
Story 6 name and inspiration
Taron flipped twin middle fingers. “Yes, do torture the demisexual mouse with your sex kitten persona. This game never gets old.”
I love to see all sorts f representation in these adaptations.
“You misunderstand me. They set us up … to live out the story of Benedick and Beatrice. To fall for one another or some such nonsense. Hazem admitted it moments ago.”
Tegan stood, now as tall as Taron, and got very close to his nose. “They were playing matchmaker with our roles? That’s too meta, even for them. Besides, they failed spectacularly. I loathe you more now than when I played Horatio to your whiny-ass Hamlet.”
I find the banter between these two characters so funny and very Shakespeare.
“I would what?” Tegan was sort of smiling at him. “I could swear you off in the name of all the fools I’ve kissed in the past. I could ignore these feelings now and bring them out onstage, when it’s safe and convenient. Or I could tally up all the moments that have fashioned the seemingly inextinguishable truth that we are incompatible … and toss them out. I could kiss you right now. Not the way we’ve kissed a thousand times before, but a real kiss.”
I wish we could get a longer story so we could explore these characters and their romance more.
Taron leaned down and kissed them. And the sky rained diamonds in applause.
This is so sweet.
So many things in this story actually happened. But we can’t tell you which ones.
I love this.
I BLEED Inspired by The Merchant of Venice Dahlia Adler To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies—and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a
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Title, author, and source of inspiration. I have read another short story by this author that I loved.
The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ’Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; And that same prayer doth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much To mitigate the justice of thy plea; Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant there. —PORTIA, ACT 4, SCENE 1
HIS INVENTION Inspired by Sonnet 147 Brittany Cavallaro My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desperate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except. Past cure I am, now reason is past care, And frantic-mad with evermore unrest; My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are, At random from the truth vainly express’d; For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee
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Title, Author, and inspiration.
PARTYING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW Inspired by Romeo and Juliet Kiersten White Why, such is love’s transgression. Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. —ROMEO, ACT 1, SCENE 1
Title, Author and Inspiration for story 7.
DREAMING OF THE DARK Inspired by Julius Caesar Lindsay Smith O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. —I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank. If I myself, there is no hour so fit As Caesar’s death’s hour, nor no instrument Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich With the most noble blood of all this world. I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard, Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke, Fulfill your pleasure. Live a thousand years, I
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Title, author, and inspiration
THE TRAGEDY OF CORY LANEZ: AN ORAL HISTORY Inspired by Coriolanus Tochi Onyebuchi Volumnia: O, he is wounded; I thank the gods for’t. Menenius: So do I too, if it be not too much. Brings a’ victory in his pocket? The wounds become him. —ACT 2, SCENE 1 The Tragedy of Cory Lanez: An Oral History
Title, Author and inspiration
OUT OF THE STORM Inspired by King Lear Joy McCullough Shut up your doors, my lord; ’tis a wild night. My Regan counsels well. Come out o’ the storm. —ACT 2, SCENE 4
ELSINORE Inspired by Hamlet Patrice Caldwell First Clown: Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she willfully seeks her own salvation? Second Clown: I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial. First Clown: How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defense? Second Clown: Why, ’tis found so. First Clown: It must be se offendendo. It cannot be else. For here lies the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act. And an act hath three branches—it is to act, to do, and to perform. Argal, she drowned
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He that hath killed my king, and whored my mother, Popped in between th’ election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life, (And with such cozenage!)—is ’t not perfect conscience To quit him with this arm? And is ’t not to be damned To let this canker of our nature come In further evil? —HAMLET, ACT 5,
SCENE 2
WE FAIL Inspired by Macbeth Samantha Mabry Unnatural deeds Do breed unnatural troubles. —ACT 5, SCENE 1
Title, Author, and inspiration.
LOST GIRL Inspired by The Winter’s Tale Melissa Bashardoust A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one Of sprites and goblins. —ACT 2, SCENE 1
Title, inspiration, and inspiration
What you do Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I’d have you do it ever. When you sing, I’d have you buy and sell so, so give alms, Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs,
To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you A wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, And own no other function. Each your doing, So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens. —FLORIZEL,
ACT 4, S...
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