Mm.

Um, and so the whole story is kind of this, this icon, so to speak, this little- ...

this little microcosm of the entire human condition because I realized I have an older brother and a prodigal in me.

[laughs] And the older brother and the prodigal impulses within me are always mad at one another and in conflict, right? There's these things I should do, but I don't really want to do them.

I wanna do the self-indulgent kind of fleshly things, and it creates this division.

So I recognized myself in this story, and then I started looking around and was like, "Is this anywhere else? Is this pattern anywhere else?" And I started noticing it e- everywhere.

You know, I would...

Yeah

And so it feels like maybe a trickier one to do this with, though I'm sure it's possible and I'm sure you'll do it very well.

Yeah, I think that duty and desire, as you know, I think it's at the core problem, right, of every story, including our own, right, literature and life.

The conflict between what we ought to do versus what we want to do creates this kind of fundamental question of human will and how we orient the way that we think um that we make choices and what is a story whether literature or life if it's not about characters or people who make choices right um i really like what you just said wesley about how midsummer night's dream contemplates what happens when people's free will is taken away from them um in through magic um or uh or through coercion right which is what um hermia's father does at the beginning of the story It's actually a really dark comedy in some ways.

It's funny.

I feel like with Midsommar, one of the most interesting things about this play is that it feels so lighthearted.

And I think that the Pyramus and Thisbe play is Shakespeare's finest comedic moment.

It's hilarious.

Yeah.