for posterity's sake. if you read this, please be sure to let me know.

[daedaluswings]

Where to get started. Assuming that there is actually anything worth writing down. It seems as though my writer's side has shut down to defcon four emergency levels, only the floodlights are on and business is being conducted in hushed tones, mindful of the Russkies lurking above and blowing the last vestiges of the free mind from my brain.

Comments

[ex_bitter_bu538]

i'm going to approach this stictly with references to king lear. do you remember in when edgar retreats into the woods and accepts the role of tom o' bedlam? or when lear tears off his clothing and renounces his societal obligations? or when he cries out, "o! reason not the need!" and goes on to tell us that without excess [which includes morals], man is no different than beast? all of them are fleeing into nature from persecution of society, becoming more and more animalistic in their appearances, but more human as they gain compassion and wisdom. i think shakespeare is suggesting that we aren't any different than animals when it comes to conscious thought or ethics, and that the human condition is simply characteristic of excess.

as for free will, shakespeare brings up a judeo-christian [and hopelessly existential] view of religion and fate by making his characters follow this great cycle, or the "wheel of fortune." the actions of the characters are all results of free will as they choose to do them, but the things that happen to them result from fate. bad things happen to good people, or whatever. i don't know how much you buy into lear, but hey.