I find it impossible to take seriously this article on Austen's modern appeal when the author has already used the words 'hysteria,' 'extravagance,' 'emotional,' and 'irrational.' (Apparently 'even levelheaded professionals get emotional and extravagant when writing about Austen.' OH NOES.)

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1. Dear Simon Russell Beale: ILU.

"You know, it's rather embarrassing to admit this, but I was watching a documentary about the effect of global warming and the imminent destruction of the planet, and my first thought was: 'What will happen to Shakespeare?'"from this review/article in the Guardian ( Read more... )

I seem not to be able to work the day after I've gotten some work done. It's like the book needs to settle or something.

I am an intellectual snake, digesting a book-elephant.

Plus there's the pleasure of having gotten work done, which lasts until the next day, when I am assailed by the "don't think that made any difference" thoughts.

*sigh*

So I have no idea what he did, but after two days of efforts by the electrician, I now have electricity in my little kitchen area again. And unlike the rather abrupt people from physical plant, the electrician was very nice; when he couldn't figure out what the problem was on the first day, he went back to his office to get me a long enough ( Read more... )

It was probably a sign that I needed to call it a day when, in the margins of an article on Much Ado About Nothing that was dismissive of "Petrarchan" figures and "effeminate" rhetoric (in contrast to the play's "manly prose"), my notes started devolving into sarcastic comments like, "o no! not the dreaded rhetoric! we can't be having that sort of ( Read more... )

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/shortstack/2008/12/refreshed_classics_abomination.html

(a blog post about No Fear Shakespeare, the new PL translation, and the new Canterbury Tales translation ( Read more... )

I'm currently reading an article from Shakespeare Quarterly 51:2 (2000), "Deaths in the Family: The Loss of a Son and the Rise of Shakespearean Comedy" by Richard P. Wheeler. As one could probably guess from the title, it's about how the death of Hamnet might have influenced Shakespeare's writing of the comedies, and arguing that the separation ( Read more... )