2010-03-30

a heaven wish is mixed in with the breath-death wish

About 5 years ago I gave my opinion on whether the West has a death-wish. I had been spurred on by a Frank Rich column.
About the coverage of the then-recent death of the Pope, Rich said:
"What's unsettling is the nastier agenda that lies far less than six feet under the surface. Once the culture of death at its most virulent intersects with politicians in power, it starts to inflict damage on the living."
Rich went on to reference CSI, the Passion of the Christ, and the Terri Schiavo controversy. He finished his column with:
"...the reality show we've made of death has jumped the shark, turning from a soporific television diversion into the cultural embodiment of the apocalyptic right's growing theocratic crusade"
Forget the ideology for a second, this is about anthropology.
In my post I spacily argued that what Rich was calling a 'cultural embodiment" was more accurately a "breath-death wish". I then launched into a deconstruction of the birthday party ritual. But I managed to miss something important. Namely, the Western desire for non-existent existence, eg for some form of heaven.
I mean, you all aren't just mourning the early murder of your own enlightment (which you did yourself!), or just trying to be Settlers 'n Warriors at the same time. At some level you find existence to be humiliating and ugly.

30th Birthday Party #4Image by cutestkidever via Flickr


To summarize, I now think there are TWO collective "cultural" strategies happening:

--a wishing of a specific breath-death on others (a willing that others not breath to produce their own enlightenment)

and also

--a desire for a heaven

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2010-03-11

a movie about DeVere as Shakes-speare! Yippee!

In just a week or so, principal photography will begin on the first movie ever made about the actual author of Hamlet (& all that other stuff). It will no doubt show up in a few theaters in a few years + quickly end up on high-brow cable.

The working title of the movie is Anonymous (a good title for the story, and it might even resonate now, in the internet age).

The director is Roland Emmerich, an A-lister who most famous movie is Independence Day.
I imagine he got the money by agreeing to do the Isaac Asimov Foundation movie too.

William Shaksper could hardly sign his own name

The filming of the movie is historic, IMO. Considering how many movies have been made from "Bard" plays, and how much influence they have had.

Btw, the case for DeVere has gotten even stronger in the last 15 years or so.


a couple of starter links
'byanothername' blog
'Shakepeare fellowship'


As it happens, I never liked reading Shakespeare. I have followed this story simply because I hate bullshit. and the story of the Stratford man ("Shakespeare" without the hyphen) is grade A crapola.

from


And the timing gives me a buzz, too. A few years ago I happened to surf on TV into Shakespeare in Love, to me a mind-boggling work of unintentional disinformation (and it actually had won Best Picture!). It pissed me off so much I went to the trouble of writing the outline for a screenplay of DeVere's life. Not that I was (or am) much of a scholar.

I had planned a close-to-factual scene where a teen "noble" Edward DeVere was making out with a good-looking maid in the garden of his estate (not clear how seriously), and a "lowly" gardener who had eyes for the young woman, went up to them and said to the girl "Why are you making out with that queer?" and then DeVere gets up, fences with the gardener, and stabs him to death. Trained in fencing. was young Ed. And of course, he gets off, because he was aristocracy.

Then later (in my outline) DeVere is at Oxford and pens a juvenile play where a lover stabs an imagined rival. The ur-Hamlet. Again - this actually happened.

The Oxfordians know all about this link, and about many others. The life of the Oxford man and the words of the bard match just as you would expect if he was the author.
Which he was.

DeVere, btw, signed his name like this

Anyway, I am thrilled someone took up the task of writing of a bio (that matches the life the signature and the works) at the same time I did my halfass bit, and I am thrilled that someone finished that task.
No doubt that they did a way, way better job than I could have done.

But will the world learn something? I guess I have to quote Shakes-speare

"Well, if Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear."