… hing, hang, hog…(Merry Wives of Windsor, act 4, sc.1)
To the articulate speculations of many analysts on the failed coup in Turkey I will not add the vanity of my conjectures – for, clearly, everything and its opposite seem equally possible. I cannot guess the past, nor sound the bottom of the aftertimes (1) – hence just a few serendipitous observations. Continue reading
“I do condemn mine ears that have so long attended thee”(Cymbeline, act 1, sc. 6)
This is an unpleasant blog to write and I apologize in advance for the language, to my twenty-five readers.
As a mitigating factor, the unpleasant language is extracted verbatim from Roger Stone’s book titled “The Clinton’s War on Women.” Nevertheless, sometimes a rough truth is better than circumvoluted euphemisms. Continue reading
The championship of exaggerations is over and the first dust of time is settling on the Brexit referendum.
In the circumstances, it may be somewhat amusing to evaluate the reactions rather than the results. Considering that opinions are formed in abysses of approximation, prejudgment and passion. Eventually a new fact is evaluated less for its accuracy than for its possibility to serve or disserve a system of interpretations, a feeling of emotional comfort or, as with the Brexit case, a network of alliances. But all this you know. Continue reading
Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak; for I must talk of murders… Titus Andronicus, act 5, sc. 1
I will not repeat comments and reflections on the Orlando massacre. Rather, I will follow an imaginary trail from the denouement to the origins of the horror – or I should say horrors, for the Orlando mass-killing was spectacular in size, but replicated in occurrence. Continue reading
“…a man’s life’s no more than to say ‘One.’ ”Hamlet, act V, sc. 1
During the recent Memorial Day week-end in Chicago, eight people were killed, and at least 57 more wounded.
For somewhat folkloristically funereal reasons, it is a tradition to count the murdered, the shot and the wounded during this quintessential American holiday. Which may lead the uninformed to think that crime increases during this special week-end, while abating afterwards. Continue reading
“Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest.”
(Merchant of Venice, act 3, sc. 2)
When I sat down in the coffee-shop, the conversation between the two clients at the next table was ongoing. I did not want to intrude and ask their names. I will call them A and B.
A. Surely by now, you must have a preference among the candidates for the next presidential elections? Continue reading
…memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume…Macbeth, act 1, sc. 7
Seventy-one years ago, May 9, 1945, was Victory Day. Nazi Germany officially signed the unconditional surrender to the Soviet Union. For Russia, WWII became the “great patriotic war”, celebrated each year, as you know, in Moscow’s Red Square.
“Nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence,” (1) but in Russia the years did not quench the enthusiasm, and memories have not sunk into “the swallowing gulf of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion.”(2) Continue reading
No prophet will I trust, if she prove false.(King Henry VI, part 1, act 1, sc. 2)
It’s not even a question of reading “the book of fate and seeing the revolutions of the times…” (1), or of having “a thousand eyes to be filled with prophetic tears”(2). The audacious eloquence of Bernie Sanders has predictably evaporated into air, into thin air, along with the charms of his (presumably) leftist message. Continue reading
What seest thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?The Tempest, act 1.
During this April 2016, an anniversary escaped the notice of most – 55 years have run their course since the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
All events gradually sink under the accumulating dust of antique time (1), and are eventually lost in the swallowing gulf of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion (2). Still, the Bay of Pigs is worthy of historical memory and retention. Continue reading
Good my Lord, be cured
The recent video production in the series “Historical Sketches” had to do with five episodes covering the life of Stalin. The very popular blog/website thesaker.is has published the links to the various episodes. (those interested can also find them here, by following the link “Historical Sketches” in the menu – http://yourdailyshakespeare.com/historical-video-sketches). Continue reading