To be or not to be Dr Bishop A father’s daughter? Your husband’s wife? Isn’t that the question. me lov’?.
II
Living with her sin, the death of her younger brother with a 12 gauge shotgun in their Braintree, Massachusetts home “while fooling around” some 23 years ago, she being a year or two older, the Hedda Gabler in her soul took out the younger lad,..a violinist no less and a promising nerd engineering student...
The police and the District Attorney now a congressman characterized the crime as an “accident”,little knowing the sister would reinvent her Electra complex two decades later as Dr. Bishop a bio neurologist Harvard educated PHD,,mother of four a startup “into millions”....,
Freud’s repetitive compulsion playing out without her alias knowing it.
Was she too busy carpeting not to recognize the irony? That her aggressions for a title from her womb were preordained (blood on her hands) a title seeking teen wife mother professor. Tenure track Ahhh that’s the calibration,,,, the rub, ain’t it!. ....Dr .Jekyl Mr Hyde a split personality?
Caught up between Spencer Tracy and Frederic March. .
Miss Esther Adler? Calamity Jane , you dysfunctional hussy.”
Hedda Gabler her narcissism stone deaf to Mendelsohn ‘s natural music .A mentor to the Marquis de Sade...., she taught him all he knows.
“30 lashes with a wet noodle” screamed Ma Barker (Shelly Winters as a high expectations inmate into hysteria)
III
Yer friggen sensibility..... taken yer Valentine juices as a laxative,, yer fraud. Putting you in a classroom lab, sharing space with dreams hopes and ideals.,
Not putting Dostoevski’s “Crime and punishment” on yer reading list, what are ye trying to prove Doctor Bishop? , the reality scene for ice skating skullduggery. Yes, me ‘luv .It’s true. Going for the gold at those winter Olympics... remember a split personality.in disguise..”
Reading from the primary sources in lieu of dazzling them with original thinking from yer Braintree lesson plans...... .
IV
But the chairman of the neuro biology department was able to see thru your game face, Hedda. An Indian from India.... the Delphi Oracle ......like so many in Nasa’s Huntsville scene. Start ups and your friggen track tenure. Or is it tenure track, my lov’.
Gads, Hedda plsying out a double feature. “Prime of miss Jean Brody” and. “Dead poets society” .Here’s yer ticket stub, mum I mean mam.”.”.
How come ye never learned to love anybody but yerself? Not memorizing Mozart’s credo.
“You gotta lose yerself to find yerself, kiddo.”
There must have been some champions...role models you could identify with .Were they all stiffs like yer sensitive kid brother?. .chilling out... No mediocrity puttin’ in his time.... ass kissing sissies.;.....
V
An authority figure in search of herself. Yeh finally found yer tenure track to the big house Dr Bishop...I mean Hedda. Yer Braintree of pathological intimidation....no more humans to spank or waste. Retribution abounding......
Hedda getting rid of yer husband’s academic rival.... Lovborg a rehabed alcoholic inspired by a frau who left her H for a genius’s sobriety challenge.....
Hedda’s poison ...seducing Lovbourg into a drunken stupor, his sequel of a second start ip (Dr. Bishop’s petri dish for stem cell swaps ir Lou Gherig’s disease? Alzheumers?
Is she identifying with Jonah Salk.... his polio vaccine and those tedious boring hours on the post office rack, sorting mail.. ..
VI
Where is the zip code of courtly love ? A mere allegory on Valentine’s Day? The renaissance tension of the 15th century? The medieval sounds from the castles of three or four floors...thirty in a bed among the couriers on a below freezing 22 degree melt down, Hedda. .....,
Can y’imagine putting yerself in another’s boots, identifying with that part of yerself which is cursed with doubts and misguided fears. ....
Is it all status seeking, Hedda ? Demeaning the odyssey in yer own self serving complex?.... never coming to grips with yer disguise Who would wanna be a support system for one Hedda Gabler?
VII
But we digress boys and girls. Forgive us but didn’t the name detective pay his dues with 36 years of solitary confinement at Judge Wingate’s Surrogates Court at Court and Montague Street, the home of the Dodgers....Ucla’s Jackie Robinson’s emancipating Abe Lincoln’s color line..
Our mother scribbling a letter to the Judge for some approbation, a response never coming forth. “Dear Judge, a plea for a raise. A dollar or two. 2000 buckeroos a year.....out of Dickens “Bleak Street”.
When this Judge Brack realized Hedda’s pulling the rug of sobriety underneath Lovbourg..her husband’s rival for recognition at the University skinny dipping honors... her jealousy getting him off the wagon...., back to his roguish brain washing,, and able to get his “sequel”....the million and half stock start up at Prodigy..by burning it but telling him he lost it.
A break thru of a primary thrust..original thinking at an Oslo University
No love potion here..., Judge Brack finding the suicidal boozed Ejlert Lovborg in a house of ill repute like the half moon hotel on Avenue H.. The Judge confronting Hedda with her infamy...a psychopathy morphing into an vindictive evil.
Hedda defiantly refuses the Judge’s secret system of values ... his libido, .sharing her sheets.
Indeed!.....raising the 9 millimeter pistol to her temple.... her index finger grips the trigger... ...
Hari kari,.... biting the dust.
VIII
Revisiting our own Braintree secondary experience....... naah a December 20 1991 letter for those hidden lesson plans where the tenure trip entitlement is archaic at Boys and Girls High School in the inner city of Bedford Stuyvesant’s Brooklyn.
Dear Mr. Adler,
In this time when there is so much dissatisfaction with the educational system, it is with pleasure and gratitude that I write this letter to you, expressing the feelings of my husband, son, and myself.
As an educator, I am all too aware of the crisis in education, especially at the high school level.
When students are queried as to why they do not do well, many respond that school is just not relevant to their world.
Others state that teachers do not care about them; it’s just a job.
Parents are frustrated by a curriculum that does not have positive cultural relevance for a changing ethnic student populace When family members and friends were told that my son, John Jason Reilly, would attend Boys&Girls H.S., few gave us encouragement.
Jason had the option of attending other schools, including private ones.
My son was an unmotivated student. Even after coming out of schools for the gifted and talented, the truth of it all, was that this young man had been thoroughly turned off to learning.
I am a believer of community schools for community children. But the schools of this community did not offer the type of programs to fit the needs of my children.
*********
When I heard of the turnabout and the excellent progress Mr. Mickens and his staff had made at B&G H.S., we prayed and sent our son there.
We were most pleased with the school.. As for my son he still was not sparked. There was a definite change this year..
Every teacher affects a student by leaving a mark or dent in their life. But Mr. Adler, you have been the catalyst to spark and motivate my son. John, is having a banner year in academics and attitude.
He appreciates all of his teachers. And their efforts, but there are two who are on his hit parade.
Mr. Adler you are at the top.
I am aware that English is one of those subjects that does not go down easily. But the wisdom of your methods have made this subject more palatable for my son, He is gobbling up the entire meal.
John is so turned on by the subject matter, the discussions and themotivational techniques that are used. This year I learned about “Golden fleece” awards, Michael Jordan being in the classroom (smile) and an Astronaut from the space shuttle helping spark your students..
My son has even shared insights into the life and writings of James Baldwin that I did not know.
It is so vital that our children be empowered with the “ I can do too” attitude. Society ha written them off because of their ethnicity.
You Mr. Adler have motivated and challenged these students to achieve the highest standards. You are one of the reasons B&G HS is succeeding at this time of crisis.
In conclusion I will again express our gratitude and appreciation for your commitment and dedication to your students .You honor the profession.
We extend to you our heartfelt thanks for giving us the gift of a motivated student.
May God continue to guide and bless you.
Sincerely yours Mrs. Donna D Reilly.
The Big Apple of Braintree.... February 15, 2010
