Girdling the earth …

1595_vera_totius_hondius.jpg
A 1595 worldview, post Drake’s circumnavigation.

‘Most students away from these UK shores adore Shakespeare.

In his homeland, unless you catch them young, a dislike gets deep under the skin and stays engrained, enduring wind and weather.’ Ben Crystal [a]

Welcome to my world …

Claiming some kind of unanswerable ownership of Shakespeare based on his nationality is the last thing on my mind, akin to the idiocy of him being some kind of class signifier (or adopting the Turkish hero, St George, as England’s patron).  There’s a frustrating, illogical irony to these bigoted attitudes which I have blogged before about.  And, bear in mind, I was not born in England.

Continue reading “Girdling the earth …”

Crimes Against Shakespeare 010: On ‘Dumbing Down’

This has been on my mind for a while …

BH dumbing down

This is a long read – I say that on a blog where posts often hit 1,300 words, against ‘accepted wisdom’ – so apologies in advance.  YOUR blog is your blog; my blog is MY blog, and I write for catharsis and as a kind of journal, not ‘popularity’, ‘followers’, or ‘influence’.  I was tempted to temper my words with a gallery of pictures, but that didn’t feel right, either.  This post feels a little more personal than most.

In spite of, or maybe because of, constant trawling for Shakespeare-related content, I have only just found this.  Last April, Peter Marks wrote a piece for The Washington Post  (link below) suggesting that Americans are too ‘intellectually lazy’ to appreciate Shakespeare, and fearing for the future popularity of the plays.  My immediate response was ‘you think it’s bad in the US?  Try over here, where Shakespeare was born!’

Continue reading “Crimes Against Shakespeare 010: On ‘Dumbing Down’”

The needs of the many …

bh-star-trek-wrath-of-khan

Happy Lupercalia, everyone.

A cheeky way of muscling in some commentary on one of my favourite plays, way ahead of SCHEDULE?  Perhaps.  I shouldn’t be discussing Julius Caesar (let alone Star Trek) until September 2018 …

Continue reading “The needs of the many …”

BBC Shakespeare Collection digital download on sale

bh-bbc-shakespeare
Hard to resist the fun of seeing some of our favourite actors looking very, very young!

As I’ve said elsewhere, I have a soft spot for the BBC Shakespeare Collection.

Continue reading “BBC Shakespeare Collection digital download on sale”

%d bloggers like this: