“Certainly the main through-line of the Shakespeare deniers, like other issues of plagiarism, centers on class. The thinking goes, how could Shakespeare not be learned in the most conventional sense? I reckon our Will must’ve been an Oxford man. All these debates about Shakespearean authorship, Shakespeare scholar and Harvard professor Marjorie Garber notes, are in many ways about ownership. Anxieties about Shakespeare’s identity always reflect larger questions of who we are. It is not so much that scholars find ciphers in the plays and poems; rather Shakespeare proves a cipher for those people, and eras, who question him. Garber takes particular glee in noting how many of these earlier suppositions about Shakespeare come from scholars from Harvard.”
I thought this was a particularly good one, maybe because I am at that age where my contemporaries seem to be dropping like flies, but my self-image is of someone who is fine with my own mortality--Denial anyone? Anyway, as usual thanks for putting a smile on my face, and looking forward to the new Wit Lists!!!
I voted for depression next, as world news, national politics, late Autumn weather and personal biochemistry have led me into a spiraling funk. But reading your acknowledgment of my humble comment last week cheered me up tremendously!
Oh, okay, that's a much deeper explanation. And very interesting. I took it to mean more like denial=cancelling Shakespeare.
Who is denying Shakespeare? What is wrong with people....
From Kevin Young’s book Bunk:
“Certainly the main through-line of the Shakespeare deniers, like other issues of plagiarism, centers on class. The thinking goes, how could Shakespeare not be learned in the most conventional sense? I reckon our Will must’ve been an Oxford man. All these debates about Shakespearean authorship, Shakespeare scholar and Harvard professor Marjorie Garber notes, are in many ways about ownership. Anxieties about Shakespeare’s identity always reflect larger questions of who we are. It is not so much that scholars find ciphers in the plays and poems; rather Shakespeare proves a cipher for those people, and eras, who question him. Garber takes particular glee in noting how many of these earlier suppositions about Shakespeare come from scholars from Harvard.”
I thought this was a particularly good one, maybe because I am at that age where my contemporaries seem to be dropping like flies, but my self-image is of someone who is fine with my own mortality--Denial anyone? Anyway, as usual thanks for putting a smile on my face, and looking forward to the new Wit Lists!!!
Thank you Louisa! And if it’s any consolation, the fruit flies in my kitchen seem to be immortal!
I voted for depression next, as world news, national politics, late Autumn weather and personal biochemistry have led me into a spiraling funk. But reading your acknowledgment of my humble comment last week cheered me up tremendously!
Oh boy, don’t I know it. We’ll keep it light! As always!