Episode 826: Really Knuckling Down...

So I ended up staying awake after watching the Doctor Who Christmas special to rewrite 'Abel'. I feel like I haven't nailed it yet, but I'm getting closer. Now working on rewriting 'Seth', before reading the last bit of The Two Gentlemen Of Verona. The whole thing with the rings reminds me of a similar episode in The Merchant Of Venice. I'm planning on reading through all the comedies by the time I fly back, which is entirely feasible, as long as I don't keep wandering away from the text to do other stuff. Like watching Cantonese dramas. I know, I know. It's not a scintillating revelation, but what can I do? My life while on vacation can be really...pedestrian. The Doctor Who special was really heartwarming, by the way. It was at best a very loose adaptation of Dickens's short story, but it worked and I think it's my favourite of the Christmas specials so far. Really enjoyed Katherine Jenkins's singing as well! File this one under the to-buy-one-day list. As for the poem, I think this one's going to work out. On the whole, having done some rewriting, I'm rather bothered that I honestly thought the originals were good enough. Normally, my opinion towards my own poetry tends not to flip so radically. I must have been completely blinded by self-satisfaction at having incorporated so much of the KJV's phraseology. Eugene remarked that the archaisms were part of the poems' charm, but what I'm aiming for is gravitas without being antiquated. I think it should be possible for a poem taking a Biblical narrative as its springboard to sound contemporary while not winding up being frivolously critical. I've put in a couple of lines in the rewrites that sound somewhat flippant in isolation, but I'm hoping that the context will anchor them so that the lines work as ironies rather than cheap throwaways. We'll see...