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- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
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Category Archives: Shakespeare
SHAKESPEARE’S EDUCATION (COMMENT).
SHAKESPEARE’S EDUCATION (COMMENT). When I questioned the claim that a commoner could not have written Shakespeare’s plays in this post, Nick commented: “I wish I knew more about education that could be available at the time.” Simon Schama, in this … Continue reading
Posted in History, Literature, Shakespeare
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ANONYMOUS—ONLY ARISTOCRATS CAN CREATE LITERATURE.
ANONYMOUS—ONLY ARISTOCRATS CAN CREATE LITERATURE. We saw the new movie Anonymous at the New Yorker festival about a month ago. After the screening, there was a discussion with the scholar James Shapiro and the director of the movie. Shapiro’s criticism … Continue reading
Posted in History, Literature, Shakespeare
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ON COPIA—IS THIS HOW SHAKESPEARE, DONNE AND MILTON LEARNED TO WRITE?
ON COPIA—IS THIS HOW SHAKESPEARE, DONNE AND MILTON LEARNED TO WRITE? I posted here about Stanley Fish’s book HOW TO WRITE A SENTENCE which show students and others how to model good sentences on good sentences from great writers. Victoria … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Shakespeare
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IS SHAKESPEARE UNIVERSAL? —THE CASE OF FRANCE.
IS SHAKESPEARE UNIVERSAL?—THE CASE OF FRANCE. I think of Shakespeare as universal—admired in all cultures. Here is a review (by Lenard R. Berlanstein) of a book by John Pemble, SHAKESPEARE GOES TO PARIS: HOW THE BARD CONQUERED PARIS, which argues … Continue reading
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HOW WOULD SHAKESPEARE FEEL ABOUT CUTTING HIS PLAYS?
HOW WOULD SHAKESPEARE FEEL ABOUT CUTTING HIS PLAYS? How would Shakespeare feel about cutting his plays to please a modern audience? My friend Don Doub observed almost 50 years ago that Shakespeare sought a large audience and claimed that if … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Shakespeare
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HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT ABRIDGING SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS?
HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT ABRIDGING SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS? My feelings about abridging Shakespeare’s plays are the same as my feelings about translating Shakespeare into modern English. As I posted here, there are many people who like me are happy with … Continue reading
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DO CRITICS KNOW BETTER THAN PLAYWRIGHTS?
DO CRITICS KNOW BETTER THAN PLAYWRIGHTS? It’s tempting to make the argument that Tony Kushner and Shakespeare know what they’re doing more than critics do. Kushner seems to like “lengthy digressions and superfluous subplots.” Shakespeare’s subplots seem always to be … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Shakespeare, Theater
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IS WRITING A PLAY LIKE MAKING LASAGNA?
IS WRITING A PLAY LIKE MAKING LASAGNA? The Terry Teachout aside that most Shakespeare plays should be cut in performance was made in his review of Tony Kushner’s new play The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a … Continue reading
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SHOULD SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS BE CUT FOR MODERN AUDIENCES?
SHOULD SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS BE CUT FOR MODERN AUDIENCES? Terry Teachout begins this post by noting something that I posted on here in commenting on the great television series The Rockford Files. (“Those were simpler times. The show had charm, but … Continue reading
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IS 1700 THE CUTOFF DATE FOR UNDERSTANDING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE?
IS 1700 THE CUTOFF DATE FOR UNDERSTANDING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE? As a linguist, John McWhorter points out that language change is “a gradual process with no discrete boundaries.” Yet, he says, Congreve writing in 1700 is readily understandable by a … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Shakespeare, Theater
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