Homework, Shakespeare, and String Figures

"Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee;
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw."

--Macbeth, Act II, scene i

*String figure invented by Martin Probert 2002

We have to teach the class how to do something. I chose Cat's Cradle because I thought it was fun and quirky and an old game that kids play and grown-ups forget about.

That was where it all started. I began to learn about the history behind string figures. String figures were widely studied by anthropologists from the 1880s through around 1900, as they were used in attempts to trace the origin and developments of cultures. String figures, once thought to have proven monogenesis, appear to have arisen independently as an entertainment pastime in many societies. Many figures were collected and described from south-east Asia, Japan, South America, West Indies, Pacific Islanders, Inuit and other Native Americans. Figures have also been collected in Europe and Africa.

They were used to tell stories. They were used for math. They were used for giving directions. And then kids finally got a hold of one of the strings and turned it into creative fun. Gotta love kids, even prehistoric ones.

I realized as I began to know string figures better that teaching Cat's Cradle just wasn't giving it's history the honor and recognition it deserved. Then somehow Shakespeare fell into the mix and I began to find these wonderful string figures which had been modified to animate quotes from some of the best dialogue I have come to know. I think I have fallen in love with the Barrd of Avon after years of shaking my head and saying,

"Huh? What the fuck does that mean?"

I will let you know how it goes. I have decided to do Macbeth's Dagger because it was the easiest string figure to learn and teach. Although, I am having a hell of a time with memorizing the dialog. (which btw, I will not expect the class to memorize) I wanted to make my own animation of Act 3 of Henry V, but for the life of me I cannot learn how to do Jacob's Ladder, which would be the perfect place to "fill up the wall with our English dead". God I hate when that happens. So I will teach the class the dagger and the witches broom (which by the way would have also been perfect to use for "the blast of war which blows in our ears"). I then will finish with the childhood's Cat's Cradle. Most people in class have never done Cat's Cradle... read: I am the oldest person in the class... But all in all, I am having a blast, so much so, and to my other student's horror, I have invited the Dean of the college to come play Cat's Cradle with us. Heh. I sure have come a long way from preferring to endure dysentery rather than speak in front of a classroom. Life is weird like that.