Sunday, October 4, 2020

October 2020

 'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind.

Consider these words of Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt: In ordinary times, when a public figure is caught in a lie or simply reveals blatant ignorance of the truth, his standing is diminished. But these are not ordinary times. If a dispassionate bystander were to point out all of Cade’s grotesque distortions, mistakes, and downright lies, the crowd’s anger would light on the skeptic and not on Cade.” (Cade is the leader of a rebellion against Henry VI, a vicious, violent man, a buffoon not unlike Trump.)
― 
Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

 

But don’t lose hope. It’s possible to oust Trump.

Consider further these words: “Shakespeare believed that . . . tyrants and their minions would ultimately fail, brought down by their own viciousness and by a popular spirit of humanity that could be suppressed but never completely extinguished. The best chance for the recovery of collective decency lay, he thought, in the political action of ordinary citizens. He never lost sight of . . . the hungry citizen who demanded economic justice. 'What is the city but the people?”
― Stephen Greenblatt, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics

 

Stay safe, dear friends, and those of you who can vote in the US – please vote out the madman who currently occupies the White House.

 

And now, a promo for the book Shakespeare calling – the book. Indie authors like myself need support more than ever when we cannot arrange book signings and lectures. Therefore, sales are down drastically. I do so hope you will help me by ordering the book online. Thank you.

The book is available for those of you in Great Britain and parts of Europe on this site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/9163782626/ref=tmm_hrd_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=1514378301&sr=8-1

 

Also available on http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Calling-book-Ruby-Jand/dp/9163782626/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436073737&sr=1-1&keywords=Ruby+Jand+shakespeare+calling

Or in Sweden

http://www.bokus.com/bok/9789163782626/shakespeare-calling-the-book/

or Adlibris. Or contact the publisher info@vulkan.se

 

Shakespeare sightings:

  • In The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne young Cyril’s adoptive father becomes so angry about being threatened with imprisonment and bankruptcy that he rages like King Lear in the storm.
  • In the wonderful novel Rules for Visiting by Jessica Frances Kane the narrator May reveals on nearly the last page that her mother’s name was Miranda, ‘invented by Shakespeare, derived from the Latin mirandus, meaning “worthy of admiration wonderful”.’
  • In the introduction to Aphra Behn’s The Rover her plays are (of course) compared to Shakespeare.

 Films with a Shakespeare connection seen this month - see reviews on https://rubyjandsfilmblog.blogspot.com/

  • Get on Up - Octavia Spencer is in Being John Malkovich which has a Richard III theme.
  • Sleuth 1972 Mankiewicz directed Julius Caesar. Olivier, too many to count. We’ve seen him in King Lear, Richard III, Hamlet, Henry V, As You Like It.
  • Sleuth 2007 - Branagh – director and/or actor - As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, In the Bleak Midwinter, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V.
  • Gosford Park - Maggie Smith plays the mother of Ian McKellen’s Richard III. Michael Gambon is in The Hollow Crown. Kristin Scott Thomas is in IMcKs Richard III. Stephen Fry is in Twelfth Night. Helen Mirren is in The Tempest, The Prince of Jutland, Cymbeline, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet. Eileen Atkins is in Titus Andronicus. Alan Bates is in Hamlet. Derek Jacobi is in Hamlet, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II. Richard E Grant is in Twelfth Night, Withnail and I
  • Django Unchained – Leonardo Di Caprio is in Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet.
  • Inglourious Basterds: Michael Fassbender is in Macbeth.
  • Fences: Denzel Washington is in Much Ado about Nothing.  

Further since last time:

  • Started reading (to myself, alas, Hal is no longer up to listening to Shakespeare): The Merchant of Venice.
  • Started watching with Hal: the comedy series Upstart Crow.
  • Stopped watching after the first episode: the comedy series Upstart Crow. Just too shallow and inane.

 Posted this month

  • This report

 Shakespeare Calling – the book is promoted by

 Read more about my alter ego’s books, in one of which Shakespeare appears live and in person, on:

 

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